Wal-Mart to sell Blackberry Curve 8520 for $48.88
BlackBerry’s new Curve 8520 will be available at Wal-Mart stores in early August for the iPhone-undermining price of $48.88 with a two-year T-Mobile service contract. (T-Mobile stores will sell the phone for $129.99.) The phone, aimed at young social networkers rather than business people, trades off 3G speed for Wi-Fi and digital media support.
The 8520 comes with two gimmicks. One is an optical trackpad in place of the BlackBerry trackball found on the Curve 8300… Continue Reading
Roundup: Cuts at One Laptop Per Child, Yahoo takeover plans and more
Here’s the latest action:
One Laptop Per Child cuts 50 percent of staff — The group says it is refocusing its efforts and that the remaining 32 team members are facing salary cuts.
Investment group eyes Yahoo takeover — Silicon Valley executives and investment bankers are putting together a takeover deal that would be largely financed by debt from Microsoft, according to TechCrunch.
Google’s Eric Schmidt wishes he could save newspapers — But he says there’s no clear solution yet, and… Continue Reading
Online holiday shopping drops 3 percent
Surprising no one, online shoppers cut back on their gift-buying this year. Web sales during the holiday season dropped three percent compared to the same period last year, according to data from comScore. This is the first time online holiday sales have dropped since comScore started collecting e-commerce data in 2001.
The numbers are barely above those included in the report on last-minute shopping that comScore released a week ago, and for good reason — that… Continue Reading
The iPhone is coming to Wal-Mart and will be cheaper — by $2
The current hottest iPhone rumor is that it will be available in Wal-Mart stores this month at a discounted price. New information suggests both of those may be true — sort of.
While various blogs have been reporting for weeks that Apple’s hot device would make its way to Wal-Mart in December, several larger mainstream media publications, including The San Jose Mercury News and Bloomberg, have confirmed it. But with those confirmations, the price point at… Continue Reading
Wal-Mart iPhone to hit the magic price point: $99?
$99 is a magic price point. It’s basically $100 but it doesn’t look like $100 thanks to that one less digit. That comforts a lot of consumers, and they’re more likely to buy when they’re comfortable with the price. So it’s potentially huge news that perhaps the hottest consumer item out there right now, the iPhone, could hit this magic $99 when it goes on sale at Wal-Mart soon, a tipster tells the blog Boy Genius… Continue Reading
Roundup: Yahoo developer platform launches, Wal-Mart sells G1, and more
Here’s the latest action:
So many games, so little time — The typical household video game collection boasts 48 titles, but 11 percent of gamers say they own unopened games. That’s according to a new survey by analyst firm the NPD Group.
Desktop software still relevant, Microsoft chief executive Ballmer maintains — His email to customers, here.
Yahoo launches developer platform — See our preview from last week.
Discounted G1 phones go on sale at Wal-Mart today — The Android-powered phone is available… Continue Reading
iTunes still king of music sales, but Amazon rises and MySpace Music is coming
When’s the last time you bought an actual CD? For me, it’s been almost a year which is crazy considering that between the mid 1990s and mid 2000s I bought hundreds of them. Have I stopped liking music? No, I’ve just gone digital, and apparently so has much of the rest of the United States.
Apple’s iTunes digital music store cemented itself as the leader among all U.S. music retailers during the first half of 2008,… Continue Reading
Wal-Mart wises up, ditches Windows-based DRM
Wal-Mart’s digital music download store is, quite-frankly, awful. That could soon change however with a shift in policy.
Wal-Mart is ditching the DRM it had been using to protect songs sold though its online store and will instead focus on DRM-free music, Wired reports. Because it had been a Windows-based DRM, no songs sold through the store worked on the most popular digital music player, Apple’s iPod, and its music suite software, iTunes. Not only that,… Continue Reading
Amid the coronation of iTunes as digital music king, the sound of war
The trend has been clear for a while: Digital music is the future of the industry. Now we have the data to prove it. Apple’s iTunes music store has surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number 1 retailer of music in the United States.
Okay, so a digital store is the top seller of music in the United States, now what? War.
As was reported yesterday, MySpace is entering the fray with MySpace Music (our coverage). Amazon, already… Continue Reading
Roundup: The growing internet ad market, San Francisco’s carbon tax, Google Maps and more
Here’s the latest action:
1) US internet ad market is big, getting bigger
2) San Francisco, home of the carbon tax?
3) Google Maps adds user ratings to local search
4) Wal-Mart launches cleantech accelerator
5) Visits to Facebook appear to drop
6) Proofpoint raises $28 million for email security
7) Piczo suffers from walled garden approach
Covad could save Silicon Valley municipal wireless
9) Fundability funded for entrepreneur/investor network
10) Google joins group to build transpacific optic cable
US internet ad market is big, getting… Continue Reading
Roundup: Amazon S3, VentureBeat go down, Montalvo’s mobile chip and more
1. Amazon S3, VentureBeat go down
2. Montalvo Systems vs. Intel, with chip for handheld devices
3. Fox Interactive to introduce “music Hulu for MySpace”
4. Yahoo’s board moving against Yang
5. Google searchers are wealthier, buy more online
6. Xobni hires Jeff Bonforte away from Yahoo, to be its new CEO
7. Stormfisher raises $350 million for biofuel project
8. Cable veteran Philip Balboni moving to online news site
9. Nielsen buys Audience Analytics
10. Air commuter conference coming up this spring
11. Report:… Continue Reading
PayPerPost tests your ethics, & Edelman’s fake blog for Wal-Mart
PayPerPost is a Florida start-up that lets bloggers get paid for writing about products and other companies.
It has just got $3 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture firm Draper Fisher Jurveston and others.
People have said this is a controversial company, because regular readers can get duped if bloggers don’t disclose they are getting paid.
Others have said that the real intent of the service is to help the advertisers paying for the blog posts… Continue Reading