ie8 fix

billion

The 404 1,030: Where bubble is a bad word (podcast)

Aunt Jill Schlesinger of CBS Moneywatch and Jill on Money is back in the studio today answering all your financial questions and helping us make sense of Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram.

She also gets heated with another social network -- LinkedIn. We'll collectively discover the perils of stalking your ex-coworkers on the site and why an active profile on LinkedIn is kind of like cheating on your current employer.… Read more

Is Best Buy following CompUSA, Circuit City to certain doom?

Best Buy is on the same track that two former train wrecks were on, CompUSA and Circuit City.

Today, Best Buy reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of $1.7 billion and announced it is closing 50 stores.

The basic pattern that CompUSA (closed brick-and-mortar stores in 2007) and Circuit City (closed stores in 2008) followed was: first select stores were closed, then more were closed, then all stores were shuttered or sold off.

Is this Best Buy's fate? And why? Below I try to offer some reasons for Best Buy's troubles based on my own experience and … Read more

10 other ways Apple could have spent its $100 billion

Apple's decision to buy back stock and pay a dividend seems very unApple-like. It was almost predictable in its narrow scope.

It was something an accountant might have suggested. Where else might have the company committed its money? Here are ten suggestions that, hopefully, offer a little more imaginative scope to the use of such vast wealth.

1. DEDICATE THE MONEY TO OUTER SPACE. Given that NASA has fallen on very hard times, Apple could have offered this money in an attempt to get ahead of Newt Gingrich, who, I understand, is ready to set up a pleasant gray homestead on the moon. … Read more

The 404 937: Where we shoot the Courier (podcast)

Today's show begins with a history lesson on the fate of the Microsoft Courier tablet and its possible reincarnation with a modified version of the Windows 8 operating system.… Read more

The 404 917: Where we give the iPhone a high five (podcast)

Joey Kaminski joins the cast of The 404 today to talk about the next iPhone, Sprint's $20 billion deal with Apple, and whether or not the new video game Rage is worth the long wait.

The 404 Digest for Episode 917

Crave reviews Rage Sprint's 20 billion-dollar deal Bathroom break: Hamster vacuum!

Episode 917

Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS VideoRead more

Analyst: Apple's revenue to reach $200 billion

Apple's record sales and growth could continue for the next two years, pushing the company to becoming a $200 billion behemoth and eventually dwarfing the revenue of tech giants like IBM and Hewlett-Packard, according to one analyst.

That claim was made by Forrester Research's founder and CEO George Colony during an interview with Bloomberg earlier today. Colony suggested that the company's hardware successes with the iPad and iPhone had created a cycle where those same customers buy applications in the App Store, then continue to buy Apple's products to keep using the software.

But that ecosystem … Read more

Apple gifting $10,000 for its 10 billionth App Store download

Less than 3 years after its celebrated opening, despite pointed punditry and challenging growing pains, Apple's App Store is about to claim 10 billion App downloads. To celebrate, as they did when iTunes reached 10 billion downloads, Apple is giving away a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the person that purchases the 10 billionth download.

"As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a $10,000 … Read more

The 404 629: Where there must be some magic clue inside these tearful walls (podcast)

If you have time in the morning, be sure to check out CNET's The 404 Podcast every day at 8 a.m. PT on CNET LIVE; that way you won't miss things like yesterday's post-show, where the three of us spent half an hour reminiscing about the glory days of ABC's classic TGIF programming lineup.

All of us connected to legacy sitcoms like "Full House," "Perfect Strangers," and "Boy Meets World," but join us this morning as we belt out a pitch-poor version of the "Family Matters" theme song, … Read more

Webware Radar: Hulu to stream prez press event

Video site Hulu announced on Monday that it will stream President Barack Obama's first formal press conference Monday night at 5 p.m. PST. According to the company, the live stream will run until its conclusion and then it will be made available for streaming on the site thereafter.

Blogger Brandon Kraft says he found a new feature in the Google Apps version of Google Calendar. According to Kraft, users can now attach files from Google Docs and photos from Google's Picasa to any event in the calendar. Google has yet to comment on the find.

OneSpot, a … Read more

Activists call for a mashup-friendly Recovery.gov

As President Obama's $825+ billion financial stimulus package works its way through Congress, a number of groups have started to call for increased transparency in the way that data on the proposed spending will be shared with citizens.

Most noteworthy are demands from public-interest groups and academics that the the data be provided in a format conducive to user-generated mashups and remixes.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 passed through the House Appropriations Committee a couple weeks ago, and it is expected to come up for a full House vote in the coming weeks.

In addition to … Read more