zappos

Black Friday is almost here, and if you're the type who likes to avoid the shopping rush like the plague, I may have the perfect collection of iPad apps for you.

Instead of getting up early and waiting in crowded lines for the doors to open, how about sitting on your couch with an iPad and a cup of coffee, and getting your holiday shopping done in peace? It's true that you probably won't get the super mega deals found by doing the leg work at your local retail outlet, but you'll also run zero risk of being trampled by overexcited shoppers.

While this collection is focused on the iPad (simply because it's easier to see the items you're buying), you could just as easily get any of these apps for smaller iOS devices.… Read more

Crude spam spreads on Facebook, the fight over an online piracy bill heats up, and Sony is working to distribute television channels through Net-connected TV sets as an alternative to cable.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

There's gold in them thar closets.

That's what Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn is telling people with his new startup, RNKD, which is aiming to dole out rewards to people who share with the world photos of what's in their wardrobes.

The idea behind RNKD, which launched today, is fairly simple. Swinmurn, who came up with the idea for what eventually became Zappos, and who got eventual CEO Tony Hsieh to invest, wants to help brands learn more about shoppers' tastes. And Swinmurn thinks that the best indication of their future behavior is their past actions.

The more … Read more

Apple has won a second award for customer satisfaction in as many days.

Beyond Philosophy, which assists companies in improving customer experience, announced today that Apple delivers the "most admired customer experience" in the marketplace, besting Amazon.com, Zappos, Starbucks, and Disney, respectively, in the top 5.

"Apple has married all the elements of its experience and connected with its customers in a deeply emotional, irrational way," Steven Walden, senior head of research and consulting at Beyond Philosophy, said in a statement. "Amazon put a stake in the ground when it announced it would become … Read more

Zappos has laced up its first iPad app.

Dubbed Zappos Mobile, the free app provides the same service as the retailer's Web site. Users can sift through its selection of shoes and sneakers, choose their size, and buy the desired footwear from the app. The program also includes access to other Zappos products, including handbags, clothing, and accessories.

According to the company, purchases made through the application "are routed through Zappos.com's secure servers just as they are on the Web."

A company representative said that the Zappos iPad app had a "soft launch" … Read more

Rafe hits us with the best Facebook analogy yet: it's like a nude beach that you have to go to, and also, it rips your clothes off. Also, we get all excited about WebOS in the HP slate until Rafe irrefutably proves how it's not going to work. And then Molly turns into Tom and says a "graduated response" to piracy from ISPs might not be that unacceptable. What!?

A sister site of online retailer Zappos.com fumbled more than $1.6 million in the wee hours of Friday morning when a pricing-engine blip inadvertently made every product on that site available for no more than $49.95.

Aaron Magness, director of brand marketing and business development for Zappos Development, said in a blog post that 6pm.com would be honoring purchases made during the glitch, which, he said, took place between midnight and 6 a.m. PT that day.

Touting itself as a bargain retailer of brand name products, 6pm.com features, among other things, a GPS device … Read more

Battery maker A123 Systems in late September scored the biggest IPO among venture-backed companies in 2009, helping boost the overall value of such initial public offerings markedly from the preceding year.

Amazon's acquisition of Zappos, which closed in November, was the biggest takeover of a venture-backed company in 2009.

That economic activity from the final months of the year is grounds for optimism about 2010, according to industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource.

"The fourth quarter has set the stage for an active year in M&As [mergers and acquisitions] in 2010," Jessica Canning, director of global … Read more

Microsoft cancels its family licensing program and Molly decides it needs a lesson in economics. Stop focusing on dimes, Microsoft! We also plea for some common sense in the case of the woman jailed for recording some of the new "Twilight" movie at a birthday party.

Apple buys Lala service http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/12/apple-buys-music-streamer-lala-but-whats-it-getting.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10410206-261.html http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/12/07/apples_lala_purchase_could_bring_browser_access_to_itunes_content.html… Read more