My productivity lapses don’t come from Facebook. My problem is a combination of world news sites and Twitter. Using RescueTime, an online time management tool, I’ve named two productivity goals for myself. One goal sets my unproductive time at less than 90 minutes per day. The other sets my highly productive time at greater than five hours per day.
Depending on whom you ask, U.S. online shopping is either in unprecedented decline–or one of the only bright spots in American retail.
On Thursday, comScore reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped two percent to $29.6 billion versus last year.
EBay Inc.’s PayPal plans to unveil a new system that makes it easier for software developers to integrate the online payments system right into their programs–as the company takes new steps to protect its turf.
With the new open software, called Paypal X, users won’t have to type their username and password into a separate PayPal Web site in order to complete a payment.
A coveted visa program that feeds skilled workers to top-tier U.S. technology companies and universities is on track to leave thousands of spots unfilled for the first time since 2003, a sign of how the weak economy has eroded employment even among highly trained professionals.
The success of private-sale sites like Gilt Groupe, which holds daily members-only sales of off-season luxury items, have led to imitators hoping to emulate the success of a business model that’s catching on with recession-strapped consumers.
Private-sale sites let shoppers experience the cachet of owning luxury items without paying full price.
Cash-strapped consumers have been slow to buy personal computers in the recession. But with the launch of Microsoft Corp.’s new Windows 7 operating system Thursday, PC makers are aiming to reverse that trend–and then some.
If the world’s eighth-largest economy were a member of the proper religious order, it’d be time to call in a priest to administer last rites.
There was a telling bit of news on the continued travails of the U.S. consumer today from a small Texas retail chain called Conn’s. (In general, I would say calling a retailer “Conn’s” is not something I would recommend. But I digress.)
Comments by Advanced Micro Devices yesterday apparently have triggered worries on the Street that the PC manufacturers, in their zealous optimism about the prospects for Microsoft Windows 7, may have built too many PCs.
As I noted last night, AMD said on its post-earnings conference call with the Street that it expects a less-than-seasonal sequential increase in Q4 revenues, due in part to the “the big build we’ve seen of PCs in anticipation of the Win 7 launch.”
The economic slump has bottomed out and optimism is returning, but it will take some time for business to return to more normal levels, Microsoft Corp. International President Jean-Philippe Courtois said Monday.
Mr. Courtois’s comments echo those of Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who told delegates at a Confederation of British Industry conference Monday that he expects the economy to stay weak and recover only slowly.
Global chip revenues in the third quarter are getting a big boost from inventory restocking, according to the research firm iSuppli.
According to iSuppli, in the second quarter inventories dwindled to “lean, but appropriate levels,” in a reversal of the excess inventory levels reached in 2008.
Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers was one of the first tech executives to predict that the recession–then limited to the financial sector–would spread to the rest of the economy. Now he’s among the first to say it’s on the way back.
Google Inc. Friday announced a highly anticipated service that will make it a middleman for selling graphical ads over the Internet.
The technology, called the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, resembles a stock exchange for display ads, ads with images and text that appear alongside content on a Web page.
Five months ago, a group of media executives including Steven Brill seemed to have the field to itself when it said it was building a system for newspapers to charge readers for access online.
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