Category: Business

Business Retail Sales SmartPhone

Moto G for Verizon now on sale at Best Buy for $100 contract-free

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS When Motorola said that a CDMA version of the Moto G would reach the US in January, it was being overly cautious. Best Buy has confirmed that it’s already selling the Verizon edition of the budget smartphone in its retail stores; as soon as a store has inventory, you can pick one up. And it’s cheap, too. At $100 off-contract, Verizon’s Moto G is less expensive than both its GSM equivalent and many slower, smallerdevices. You…

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Business Environmental

Power play: why your electric bill may be changing soon

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As reported on The Verge. By Adrianne Jeffries In the near future, power companies may have to decouple electricity use from prices Americans are buying bigger homes, using more appliances, and firing up more data centers than ever before. You’d expect electricity demand to skyrocket accordingly, but the trend is actually the opposite. Total electricity use in the US has actually declined in the past four out of five years, according to a new government study, and…

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Business

HP woes continue as 5,000 more employees face the axe

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As reported on Engadget. BY MARIELLA MOON It certainly won’t be a happy new year for thousands of HP employees — not when the company has increased its layoff numbers yet again. Hewlett-Packard alreadyadjusted the number of people it needed to let go from 27,000 to 29,000 a year ago, but it’s now added another 5,000 to the total. According to HP’s new SEC 10-K filing, cutting off 34,000 positions will save the ailing firm $4.1 billion per fiscal year.…

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Business

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Selling Anything

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As reported on TechCrunch. by James Altucher I’ve never read a book on sales. They seemed corny. Like many people, I always looked down on the concept of “selling.” It seemed like something lower than me. To some extent, selling appears manipulative. You have a product where you give the perception it has more value than it has in reality. So you need to manipulate people to buy it. This seems sad, as in “Death of a…

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Business Hardware Dev

ASUS teases new dual-boot hybrid device with its CES teaser (video)

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As reported on Engadget. BY DANIEL COOPER Just before a big tech show, ASUS likes to wheel out a baffling teaser to get us all in the mood. Normally, the clips involve panning over some brushed metal, promising that the new gear will transform your life. But every now and again, ASUS decides it’s time to travel to a world heritage site for a spot of vandalism. The latest victim is theStatue of Liberty, which throws a peace “V” to…

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Business Microsoft

Microsoft Exec Charged With Insider Trading, SEC Alleges 400K In Illegal Gains

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Alex Wilhelm Reality is always better than fiction. Today the Securities and Exchange Commission chargeda — now former — Microsoft “senior manager” with insider trading. The employee, Brian Jorgenson, is accused of working with a friend to trade Microsoft stock and shares of its partners ahead of news such as earnings, generating almost $400,000 in profits over the course of the partnership that began in April of 2012. The pair had intended…

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Business

Uber surge pricing: sound economic theory, bad business practice

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As reported on The Verge. By Ben Popper Adjusting for supply and demand makes sense on paper, but fails to understand basic consumer psychology When the snow started falling in New York City this past weekend, the prices for a ride in an Uber car began rising. It’s part of the company’s long-standing policy of “surge pricing”: using an algorithm that raises prices to adjust for demand. Uber says the higher prices motivate more drivers to…

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Business

WSJ: Facebook’s autoplaying video ads launch this week

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As reported on Engadget. BY RICHARD LAWLER  After months of rumors, the Wall Street Journal claims Facebook will finally include video ads in user’s feeds on the web and mobile devices later this week — a move we figured would happen soon now that it’s splashed other autoplaying videos all over the place. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the Journal claims Facebook will announce the change later today, with the first ads rolling out on Thursday. Previous rumors have put the run…

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Business Cloud Culture

Bill Gates supports Amazon drone delivery, but says Jeff Bezos may be ‘overly optimistic’

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As reported on The Verge. By Chris Welch Jeff Bezos faces many challenges in making Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery a reality, but he’s got one notable supporter: Bill Gates. Speaking on CNN’s The Lead, Gates voiced strong support for using drones as a means of delivery. But he’s not quite as confident it will come as quickly as Bezos and Amazon would like. “Physical products delivered by drone, I’d say he’s probably on the optimistic or perhaps…

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Business Cloud Google

Google’s Compute Engine Hits General Availability, Drops Instance Prices 10%, Adds 16-Core Instances & Docker Support

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As reported on TechCrunch. by Alex Williams Google today announced the general availability of the Google Compute Engine, the cloud computing platform it launched in the summer of 2012. As part of the GA launch, Google also announced expanded support for new operating systems, a 10 percent drop in pricing for standard instances, new 16-core instances for applications that need a lot of computation power and a new logo to update its branding. Compute Engine is the cloud platform Google…

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