Tech news from around the web:
Baidu, owner of China’s most popular internet-search engine, has ended a six-year dispute over piracy and has agreed to pay record labels to offer songs, Bloomberg reports. Sony, Universal Music and Warner Music will receive undisclosed fees for allowing their content to be downloaded for free to users of Baidu’s Ting and MP3 services, the Chinese company said in a statement.
American Express is striking a shopping deal with Facebook, Techcrunch reports. The tie-up, similar to the one the card company already has with FourSquare, involves a Facebook app called “Link, Like, Love,” from which cardholders can link their cards to their Facebook accounts. Once they do so they will get a dashboard of deals from brands such as Whole Foods, Dunkin’ Donuts, Virgin America, and Sports Authority.
The launch of Apple’s highly anticipated products – Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and the new Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Airs – is scheduled for this Wednesday, according to AppleInsider. One person told the site that products would be released at 8:30 a.m. EST.
Google has joined the likes of Twitter, Overstock and Amazon in buying a single-letter domain name - G.Co – in order to build an official URL shortcut for Google products like GMail, Documents and Photos, Techcrunch says. While representatives from the .Co registry wouldn’t comment on the specific pricing of the deal, co-founder Juan Diego Calle had recently told Reuters that in general single letter domains costs more than $1.5m.
From the FT:
Facebook ad prices soar more than 74%
SMIC’s future unclear after Wang’s resignation
IBM lifts profit forecast after sales jump
Cisco loses 6,500 jobs in drive to cut costs
