cities

Where Calls Are Dropping, Towerstream Sees a Business Opportunity

Ina Fried in Mobile on January 4, 2011 at 5:00 am PT

The business Internet service provider aims to build wireless “Hot Zones” in places like San Francisco and New York where cellphone networks are congested. The company hopes to sell access to its networks to overloaded carriers as a way to ease their traffic jams.

Help! I'm Addicted to CityVille

Liz Gannes in Social on December 22, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

Among the early adopter types I know in the tech industry, there’s a sense that casual gaming on Facebook serves an entirely different demographic from their own. The thinking is that games from Zynga and the like replace relatively mindless activities like soap opera watching. But as someone who has just reorganized her virtual retail shops to be surrounded by virtual trees so as to accumulate more virtual bonus points, I see how social gaming–especially as it gets more social–might appeal to the desire for mindless diversions in all of us.

U.S. Tech Job Growth Was Strongest in…Oklahoma City?

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on December 9, 2010 at 7:00 am PT

The TechAmerica Foundation’s annual Cybercities report covering the state of America’s local technology job markets for 2009 (the most recent data available) paints–as you might expect–a depressing picture in all but a few of the markets surveyed.

Using the Web-based Microsoft Office on the iPad

Walt Mossberg in Mossberg’s Mailbox on June 22, 2010 at 2:54 pm PT

Walt answers readers’ questions about using the new Web-based version of Microsoft Office on the iPad, the HTC Evo 4G and online backup services.

Let's Make a Deal! Groupon Nabs $30 Million in Funding

Kara Swisher in News on December 2, 2009 at 12:00 am PT

Groupon, a group-based social e-commerce buying service, has nabbed $30 million in its second round of funding, led by Accel Partners. The innovative Chicago-based service, which launched only a year ago, had previously received $4.8 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates, as well as $1 million from an angel investor. NEA participated in this round too. Groupon features a daily deal at a deep discount on a wide range of things–from spas to skydiving–in 26 U.S. cities for large groups of potential buyers on the Web, through email and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Think of it as social networking lead-generation or, perhaps, the “Social Shopping Network.”