E-commerce

Apple's online store is offering free two- to three-day shipping on all of the products it carries.

The iPhone maker is promoting the deal on its home page today, saying that choosing the fast-shipping option will, in most cases, ensure customers get the products they desire "in time for the holidays."

Apple was quick to point out that the deal is available on everything in its store -- even those products, like the company's newly updated iMacs, that are either not available to ship soon or won't be available until next month.

To help customers … Read more

Best Buy's Richard Schulze is ready to make his buyout bid for the company he founded.

By the end of this week, Schulze is expected to make a $5 billion to $6 billion offer for Best Buy, the Star Tribune is reporting, citing unidentified sources who claim to have knowledge of his plans. Last week, Schulze reportedly inked deals with private equity firms and bankers to help him finance the deal.

Schulze founded Best Buy in 1966. Over the summer, he submitted plans to buy out Best Buy for between $24 and $26 a share, representing a 36 percent … Read more

Whether people call a taxi or hail one can be a contentious matter in New York City -- because of rules set up between yellow cabs and for-hire vehicles. So, it's no surprise that a smartphone app that lets users beckon yellow cabs has been a topic of hot debate with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The commission announced Wednesday that it will vote on whether to allow such apps in a pilot program, according to the New York Times. The vote is scheduled for Thursday. Update December 13 at 10:04 a.m. PT: On … Read more

Google has pulled the plug on its shopping search engine in China, three months after it did the same with its music download service in the country.

The U.S. Web giant said the service will close as of today. Google said it made the decision to better optimize resources, according to a blog post.

The shopping search service in China, which launched in 2008, was intended to be a bridge between consumers and retailers, but the level of impact did not meet the company's expectations, Google said. The company will instead focus on mobile advertising with AdMob, mobile … Read more

For Groupon Chief Executive Andrew Mason, there are a lot more questions than answers.

The young executive wasn't exactly verbose during an interview today with Fast Company's E.B. Boyd at the Mobile Loco conference in San Francisco. It was evident pretty quickly (aka after the first question) that there are a lot of things he's not really interested in chatting about right now.

He didn't want to talk about the rumor that Google was interested in buying Groupon, and he didn't want to broach the topic of possibly being acquired by someone else. That'… Read more

With two weeks of Christmas shopping left, Facebook is making Facebook Gifts available to all users starting today.

"Now you can instantly send real gifts, digital gift cards, charitable donations and wine to your friends right from Facebook," the company said in a short blog post.

Catch that last item? Wine. For the first time, Facebook users will be able to send alcoholic beverages to one another using the service, so long as both sender and recipient are older than 21.

Wine partners include Amuse Bouche, Blackbird, Bonterra, Capture Wines, Clark-Claudon, David Family, Domaine Chandon, Goose Cross, Mondavi, … Read more

Amazon's 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is a bit cheaper today.

When customers check out the tablet on Amazon's site, a pop-up is displayed, informing them of a $50 deal. After placing the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD in their shopping cart, customers can input the promotional code "FireHD89" at checkout to get the deal.

Amazon is only offering the deal for today, and it's limited to one unit per customer. Only U.S.-based customers can take advantage of the deal.

Amazon launched the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD line earlier this year, helping … Read more

Square Gift Cards from Square on Vimeo.

Square, a leader in mobile payments, today launched a gift card service tied to its Square Wallet program.

The new service is designed to let anyone purchase a gift card for friends or family at any of the more than 250,000 businesses nationwide that accept Square Wallet, an iOS and Android app that lets users pay automatically with their mobile device. The recipient would then redeem the value of the gift using Square Wallet on their own device. All it takes to send a gift, Square said, is to pick a merchant, … Read more

Amazon has finally launched in Brazil, tapping a burgeoning population of emerging-market users.

The retail giant's new Web site launched overnight. In a separate statement, Amazon said it has launched the Kindle Store in the country, allowing users in the region to tap into the company's 1.4 million books, including 13,000 Portuguese language books. 

The company confirmed that its Kindle e-reader will soon go on sale in the country for BRL$299 (around US$149).

Amazon is reported to have finally resolved a dispute with an IT firm based in the country, named Amazon … Read more