Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL stock news items for Tuesday:
iPad Goes to the Polls: An AP report (via All Things Digital) said on Tuesday that the state of Oregon has some fancy new voting machines. The state currently is testing Apple’s iPad as a voting machine for disabled citizens. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) donated five tablets to the state after Orgeon decided its aging technology needed to be replaced. The iPad also represents a relatively low-cost alternative to building specialized electronic voting booths. The tablet doesn’t actually record the votes, but prints out a voter’s selections and includes them with the rest of the state’s predominantly paper ballots.
Zuckerberg Talks Steve Jobs and Apple Acquisition: Facebook’s famous CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared on the Charlie Rose talk show and discussed a number of topics, including his conversations with Apple’s late CEO and the relationship between their companies. According to a Venture Beat transcript of the interview, Zuckerberg said Steve Jobs discussed how to build a focused organization rather than be one of the large companies who “fray and go into all these different areas.” Zuckerberg also almost confirmed that Apple almost acquired Facebook. When asked if Apple tried to buy the social network, Zuckerberg said, “No. I don’t think it ever really got there. I mean, nor would I have wanted to sell it.” Later in the interview, however, he reportedly hinted that acquisition talks happened — but Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who also was present for the interview, interjected.
Consumer Reports Gives iPhone 4S a Pass: Consumer Reports had a contentious relationship with the iPhone 4 when it released in 2010. The magazine published two articles about the smartphone in quick succession. The first, published just eight days after the phone first released, was a glowing review. The second, published a few days later, said consumers shouldn’t buy the phone because of its notorious faulty antenna. All’s well that ends well, though, as Consumer Reports gave the new iPhone 4S a glowing recommendation on Tuesday, saying the device addresses the antenna issue from the previous model and doesn’t suffer from battery life problems as many customers have reported.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
