12 posts and columns on cities

Amazon’s Key to Beating Groupon in the Daily Deals Space Is Its 164 Million Paying Customers

in Commerce on March 19 at 11:30 pm PT

Amazon’s online catalog offers millions of everyday items for sale, but how many consumers think of visiting Amazon to buy a meal in a restaurant or a haircut at the local salon?
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Where Calls Are Dropping, Towerstream Sees a Business Opportunity

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

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?

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.

News Byte

InStyle Pairs With Groupon on Beauty Bargains

in News on October 15, 2010 at 12:13 pm PT

In its latest alliance with a major media property, deal-a-day service Groupon is partnering with Time Inc.’s InStyle fashion franchise on a three-day promotion offering half-price or better deals at editor-selected salons in six U.S. cities (brow tweezing in Boston, fake tans in L.A., etc.). Groupon has already run promotions with McClatchy in many of the newspaper chain’s local markets, and it announced a similar deal with Media General this week.

Using the Web-based Microsoft Office on the iPad

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.

Sprint 4G Phone Hits New Speeds, but Battery Lags

in Personal Technology on May 19, 2010 at 5:37 pm PT

The EVO 4G has a front-facing camera for video chatting, can serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot and offers the highest consistent downstream data speeds around—until the battery runs out.
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Let's Make a Deal! Groupon Nabs $30 Million in Funding

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.”
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AT&T Dead Last in Consumer Reports Survey

in Social on December 1, 2009 at 11:00 am PT

Second Chances: T-Mobile Tries Again

in The Mossberg Solution on July 21, 2009 at 5:08 pm PT

A review of T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google, the second “Google phone” to be released.
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