Apple may be considering a move to purchase book retailer giant Barnes & Noble,according to an “unproven” BGR tipster. The alleged discussions are purely internal and speculative at this time. Incorporating Barnes & Nobles massive library of digital books into the iBooks store would make a huge different to the quality of Apple’s offering, which has been somewhat weak in comparison. Apple would also be able to take theNOOKout of play....

Apple iPad manufacturer Foxconn has been negotiating a deal to produce $12 billion worth of Apple’s tablets in its new facility in Brazil, but now that deal is in doubt,reports Reuters. The proposal was originally announced in April by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and was taken a great sign for the economic ties that Brazil has been nurturing with Asia. Now the deal is reportedly in doubt because negotiations over tax breaks and Brazil’s infrastructure issues, including its lack of skilled labor to produce the devices....

Apple COO Tim Cook reportedly visited China Mobile yesterday, causing speculation that the Cupertino company is in negotiations with China’s largest telecommunications operator about the release of the next generation iPhone or a prospective TD-LTE iPhone on the network. China Mobile has long been rumored to be in talks with Apple about an iPhone partnership; however, currently only rival China Unicom sells the device. According to theTechNodereport, neither Apple nor China Mobile disclosed the reason behind Tim Cook’s visit, but China Mobile has always been transparent in their interest in the iPhone....

Apple’s introduction ofApp Tracking Transparencyhasn’t proven popular with social media platforms. The privacy shift has vaporizedan estimated$9.85 billionof revenues forFacebook, Twitter, YouTube,and Snap, according toThe Financial Times. The new policy, which launched in April, requires the social media platforms to gain permission from iPhone users before tracking them across other apps. Unsurprisingly, many of them have opted out, which has made ad targetting on social media less effective. As a result, advertisers have shifted their budgets to other sources — includingApple’sown expanding ads business....

Asymco’s Horace Dediu has done somenumber crunching, comparing the current enterprise value of Apple’s major mobile competitors against the liquid assets that it has on hand. The results illustrate how dominant of a profit force that Apple’s mobile business has become in just 4 years. Dediu has compared the four main standalone competitors to Apple but has also made some educated estimations of the mobile divisions of larger companies like Samsung and Sony....