Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer are in Washington D.C. this morning to talk to a Senate subcommittee about Apple’s off-shore cash hoard. The Apple execs are expected to face a lot of heat surrounding Apple’s Irish subsidiary, through which Apple has funneled 64% of its earnings without paying any tax, yet has zero employees.

Before the hearing got underway though, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, issued a public statement which claimed Ireland isn’t to blame for Apple’s low tax bill, even though the country has become a tax haven for multinationals since the 1960s.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has just started his testimony in front of the Senate Sub-Committee Hearing to Examine Offshore Profit Shifting and Tax Avoidance by Apple Inc. in Washington, D.C.

“I am proud to represent Apple here. With Apple’s international revenues twice as large as domestic revenues, we are often asked ‘Does Apple still consider itself an American company? To that, I answer an emphatic yes. We are proud to be an
American company.”

Despite increasing competition from the likes of Samsung and Google, Apple continues to be the world’s most valuable brand, according to the latest annual BrandZ report from Millward Brown.

The Cupertino company was one of three technology firms in the top five, with Google and IBM placed in second and third respectively.

Tim doesn’t look too happy, does he? And no wonder: the Senate Sub-Committee Hearing to Examine Offshore Profit Shifting and Tax Avoidance by Apple Inc. is a hostile room, and the experts are being very clear about the why and how Apple is dodging its U.S. tax burden. And so far, the only person defending Apple in the room is Rand Paul.

Tim Cook is expected to testify before the Senate Sub-Committee sometime this morning. We’ll be covering it live.

Google Chrome’s app launcher, which lets Chrome users quickly find and launch their favorite web-based applications, is coming to Google Chrome for Mac OS X. Google has already begun work on porting the feature to Windows, but it’s also been found in the latest Chromium build for OS X.

As part of expert testimony at today’s Senate Sub-Committee Hearing to Examine Offshore Profit Shifting and Tax Avoidance by Apple Inc., Professor J. Richard Harvey has made a compelling case that the tax system Apple is taking advantage of needs to have its loopholes closed.

Harvey — a distinguished Professor of Practice at Villanova University’s School of Law — says that while what Apple has done is acceptable under current International tax law, it still widely uses tax tricks and gimmicks to avoid paying what it fully owes.

Apple executives are testifying before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee today on tax evasion practices, specifically on routing funds offshore to avoid the U.S. government’s 35% corporate tax rate. This is the highest single tax rate in the world, and Apple has avoided paying billions in U.S. taxes by storing more than two thirds of its $100+ billion cash hoard in countries like Ireland.

At the hearing, there are basically two camps: those attacking Apple for using “gimmicks” or loopholes that other multinational corporations take advantage of, and those defending Apple while pointing out the obvious need for reform in the corporate tax code.

While Michigan Senator Carl Levin and Arizona Senator John McCain fall in the first camp, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is clearly in the second. He said that the Senate should be apologizing to Apple during the hearing today, noting that “the committee needs to look in the mirror and see who created this mess.”

Senator John McCain just laid out his case against Apple in Washington D.C. in a Senate hearing about Apple’s tax rates, and he’s out for blood.

According to McCain, although 95% of Apple’s research and development happens in the USA, they funnel most of their profits through overseas entities that are not tax residents in any country in the world.

Ireland is a big target for McCain here. Ireland has long had liberal tax policies in an attempt to attract foreign companies, but McCain says that Apple paid less than $10 million in taxes on $22 billion in earnings in Ireland, a tax rate of less than 1.20th of 1%.

Given that Google shows a lot of support for iOS with a number of popular apps, it’s quite a surprise that its new All Access music streaming service is only available on Android. That may change in the future, but for now, there is a third-party app that’ll let you use your All Access subscription on your iPhone.

It’s called gMusic, and it’s actually been around for just under 18 months. Until now, the app allowed users to access all the music they had uploaded to Google Music on their iPhone, but the app’s developer just submitted an update that’ll let you enjoy All Access, too.

Scanner Pro from Readdle is a super useful app which allows you to scan documents, receipts, and more and then store them digitally on your iOS devices. With its latest update, Scanner Pro got even easier with real-time border detection technology, which automatically finds page borders for you.

What’s more satisfying than screaming through the air, blasting enemies coming around you in a full 360 degree radius, firing all your weapons and avoiding enemy flack and planes?

Doing that with your buddies, of course! Namco’s Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy is a gorgeous, fast-paced dogfighting air combat game for your Mac at an inexpensive five bucks. Using Apple’s Game Center system, you can join up to three other buddies to play in cooperative and competitive modes, like Survival, Free For All, Capture The Flag, and more. Even better? You can invite your buddies who may not have a Mac but who do have an iPhone or iPad for some real-time multiplayer dogfighting action. Here’s how.

You can turn your old Power Mac G5 into a grill for the geekiest BBQ ever. Pull out its insides and set it alight and you have a gorgeous aluminum BBQ grill.

I’m strictly a cash-only kind of guy. I like my purchases to be anonymous, I like to deprive the credit-card companies their slice of the transaction, and above all I like the feel of the greasy, germ-laden slips of paper in my fingers. ¹

However, I recognize that sometimes you just don’t have any cash. Like when you’re supposed to be splitting the dinner bill and your friend ends up paying yet again because you “don’t want to split this fifty.” Well now your sorry payment-dodging days are coming to an end, my friend. Why? Square Cash.

Before you say anything: Yes, I know this is a case for the Kindle and not for an iPad or other Apple device. But I don’t care because a) it’s super cool and should be made for the iPad mini and b) you probably own a Kindle anyway.

It’s called the Wingo, and it adds a pair of pop-out wings to your e-reader.

Good news, iOS power-nerds! TextExpander Touch 2.0 has just been released into the wilds of the App Store and is available for your keystroke-saving delectation.

The big news? Fill-In snippets finally come to iOS. But that’s not all…

After testing AirPlay speakers against Bluetooth speakers, one thing has jumped out at me: AirPlay is way, way better. In terms of sound at least. Which is why I’m interested in the Wren v5 wireless speaker, an AirPlay speaker from an ex-president at Harman International.

Known for its collectible card and board game business, Cryptozoic Entertainment put its latest creation, a free-to-play digital collectible card game named HEX, up on Kickstarter with an initial goal of $300,000.

As of today, with 17 days left to go in the full fund raising time period, the project has garnered over $970,000. That’s a pretty good pledge amount right there.

HEX is being billed as an massively multiplayer online (MMO) trading card game for Mac and PC, with the deep strategic game play of a collectible card game mashed up with the social and roleplaying aspects of an MMO, all on your Mac, with dungeons, quests, story lines, advanced AI, and–of course–beautifully illustrated card decks to collect, purchase, and use to claim dominion over your opponents.

Google announced the end of Google Checkout today, slated to go the way of Google Reader and the dinosaurs as of November 20, 2013.

Today, we’re letting web merchants know that in six months, Google Checkout will be retired as we transition to Google Wallet — a platform that enables merchants to meet the demands of a multi-screen world where consumers shop in-stores, at their desks and on their mobile devices.

It seems as this will mostly affect merchants who use Google’s Checkout system, as consumers will really only see a change in the name of the service. With Google Wallet API enhancements announced last week, like the Instant Buy API and the Wallet Objects API, the transition should be smooth for consumers who use Android to purchase goods and services.

It will mean something different to Google Checkout merchants and Android developers, however.

Yahoo just unveiled a completely redesigned website for Flickr, and it looks great. What makes it even better is that each user now gets 1 TB of free storage and 3 minutes of 1080p video.

The new look is very image-centric, as it should be. Profiles are collages of photos in a scrollable list with a Facebook-like cover photo. You can check it out now at Flickr.com.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to appear before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee tomorrow as part of a probe into tax evasion strategies among American corporations. Apple released its official testimony for the hearing earlier today, noting that is is one of the biggest taxpayers in the country.

Among the witnesses tomorrow will be Apple executives, Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, and members of the Treasury Department. “The subcommittee will spotlight Apple’s extensive tax-avoidance strategies,” according to Levin.

How loyal are you to Apple? New research shows that Apple has the most loyal and devoted customer base in the computer business.

Forrester recently conducted a survey to determine how loyal the average computer owner is to a given company. While 85% of worldwide customers don’t claim loyalty to a certain brand (defined in the above chart as “Free Radicals”), the remaining 15% have a strong allegiance to Apple.

Since it was revealed that FaceTime over Cellular was coming to iOS 6 last summer, AT&T has been gradually rolling out the feature to different segments of its subscriber base.

At first, you had to be on a “Mobile Share” plan, and then it was opened up to LTE iOS devices on a traditional tiered plan. Back in January, AT&T gave everyone access except subscribers with grandfathered unlimited plans.

Now FaceTime over Cellular on AT&T will be available to all iOS device owners, including those with unlimited data, by next month.

Alongside Yahoo’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr today, the social network also released a big update to its iOS app.

External battery packs are one of the least sexy aspects of the mobile age. They’re the equivalent of the plastic gas can in the back of your trunk: stinky, unsexy, and probably empty when you need it.

Lenmar’s Helix battery pack isn’t particularly sexy, but it doesn’t smell (despite the “Undead Power” branding, which implies putrifying flesh) and it’s unlikely to be empty when you need it: it has a massive 11,000mAh battery inside, capable in theory of charging a third- or fourth-gen iPad from 0% to full. All in a battery pack not much bigger than a deck of playing cards.

When I opened iBooks on my iPad mini the other day, I tapped the Collections button, and selected “Purchased Books” as my filter option, to see what I had in my account that I wanted to read. Oddly, I saw a ton of the same book, over and over, sitting on the shelves.

For some reason, this only happens on my iPad mini. My iPhone only shows one copy of each book, even when I select the same Purchased Books option. Same with my iPad 3. But, it’s still annoying on the mini, so I went online to try and figure out what was going on.

There is a bug here that other users are seeing, as well, and there’s really only one way to “fix it.”