The Travis County Commissioners Court has just given official approval for a package of tax incentives designed to secure Apple's commitment to expand its Austin, Texas campus and add over 3,600 new jobs at the site. The approval comes after development officials expressed concern last week that the deal was "in peril" as concerns over loopholes in the contract delayed approval by the county.

Beginning in 2015, all new cars in the United States will likely need to be fitted with data-recording “black boxes” very similar to the devices currently used in aircraft. The U.S

In a new interview with Bloomberg Businessweek , Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page claims that Steve Jobs' war on Android was "for show", a move that served as a rallying point for Apple and its employees. I think the Android differences were actually for show

Network World reports on a keynote speech given in Chicago yesterday by Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus in which he described some of the early developments that ultimately led to Apple acquiring the company and folding the technology into the iPhone 4S. According to Kittlaus, Steve Jobs personally contacted him just three weeks after Siri launched its iPhone app back in 2010 to set up a meeting that started their relationship. And he wanted me to come over to his house the next day, and I did, and I spent 3 hours with him in front of his fireplace having this surreal conversation about the future

Apple patent applications tend to cover a broad set of topics, including many research items that never make their way out of the labs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sharp Corporation is still trying to ramp up production of displays for Apple's new iPad and expects to start shipments "as soon as possible".

Following the release of the third-generation Apple TV late last week, one forum member at XBMC.org has performed a teardown of the device, revealing a number of details about its internals. As Apple notes on the tech specs page for the new Apple TV, the device utilizes a unique single-core A5 system-on-a-chip, an upgrade from the A4 package found in the previous generation but lacking the dual-core processor found in the A5 chip used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. The Apple TV teardown reveals a typical-looking A5 chip at first glance, carrying date codes suggesting it was manufactured during the seventh week of 2012, or mid-February

Digitimes has been one of the biggest sources of rumors regarding a potential "iPad mini" carrying a 7.85-inch screen that the publication says Apple is targeting for release later this year. Digitimes now points to a new report [ Google translation ] from Taiwanese newspaper United Evening News making similar claims and outlining a number of companies making up Apple's supply chain for the device.

Clkoerner (via OSXDaily ) put together this graphic showing the relative number of pixels offered by various devices, including the rumored iPad 3.

Apple today is holding its education-focused media event where it is widely expected to introduce a new push into digital textbooks. The event is scheduled to kick off at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City at 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 Pacific.