Apple is set to increase staff levels in Ireland by more than 10% after it signed a property deal which will see it establish an office in the city centre of Cork, providing up to 350 jobs, theIrish Examiner reveals. The Cupertino-based company already employs more than 3,000 people in the country, having established a presence in Cork over twenty years ago at Hollyhill, located on the city’s northside. The deal will see Apple occupy the top two floors of a €75 million building located on Half Moon Street, near the €500m Opera Lane shops and apartment development....

According to music industry sources Apple has just reached an agreement with Warner Music Group to offer its tracks up on a new cloud based music service. The sources spoke toCnetwho has attempted to get confirmation from either Apple or Warner Brothers but so far has been unsuccessful. All Things Dreportedjust this Thursday that Apple had already signed ‘two of the top four’ record companies and that Apple content chief Eddy Cue was going to attempt to finalize deals with the other two over the weekend....

Opera Software finds itself in a funny positionhaving launchedits popular Opera 11 browser on Apple’s Mac App Store on Tuesday. Despite the fact that the software merely allows access to websites, Apple has placed a restriction on the browser, meaning that only users over seventeen years of age are able to download it. Judging by the company’sblog post, Opera isn’t too worried. Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software appears “concerned” but mocks the classification, stating:...

Hardware production’s most notorious enemy,chip shortage,has struck again. This time Apple has suffered from it, and as a result, it’s set tocut this year’s production targets for the iPhone. According to a report fromBloomberg, the company is set to slash the target by a whopping10 million— readjusting the initial target from 90 million units down to 80 million. Apple’s chip suppliers like Texas Instruments and Broadcomm haven’t been able to produce and supply enough units....

Today is the day that Apple can finally sit upon its gilded throne, stare down at the mobile world and chuckle: It now ships more smartphones than any other company in the world. This informationcomes via IDC, a trusted source. According to the company: “The smartphone market crowned a new leader in 2Q11, and its name is Apple.” Apple’s rise from mobile outsider to mobile titan is no mistake. IDC views the following reasons as the core progenitors of the company’s success: “Apple has made market-setting strides in hardware, software, and channel development to grab mindshare and market share....