Economy Archive

  • Apple: Sorry about all the failed iPhone 4 pre-orders, but we definitely had a good day

    Apple: Sorry about all the failed iPhone 4 pre-orders, but we definitely had a good day

    Posted on June 16, 2010 | No Comments
    Apple just released a tiny little message about its 600,000 pre-orders. First, it crowed that it got 600,000 pre-orders and then it apologized for, um, sucking the life out of the economy while people at work kept pressing the “Continue” button over and over again in a Skinner-esque effort to make the damn site work. [...]

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  • Y’all spent 4.8 million hours playing Google Pac-Man

    Y’all spent 4.8 million hours playing Google Pac-Man

    Posted on May 26, 2010 | No Comments
    Good job, everyone. Research firm Rescuetime says y'all spent (wasted?) 4.8 million hours playing Pac-Man on the Google homepage since its launch last week. If we convert those lost man-hours to dollars and cents, then you can say the U.S. economy has lost slightly more than $120 million because of Pac-Man.

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  • Is the Next Prius Going To Be A Tesla?

    Is the Next Prius Going To Be A Tesla?

    Posted on May 20, 2010 | No Comments
    Toyota and Tesla announced a new partnership at Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto today, the auto makers will collaborate on technology, the development of new electric vehicles and Toyota will purchase $50 million of Tesla's common stock. The press conference featured the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk and TMC President, Akio Toyoda. Calling it an "explosion" for California (I think he meant this in the positive sense, not the Terminator sense) Schwarzenegger framed it as a victory for California's environmental agenda and the economy. He predicts it will create 1,000 jobs for the state's embattled economy.

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  • Sales of netbooks and CULV notebooks expected to increase this year

    Sales of netbooks and CULV notebooks expected to increase this year

    Posted on May 7, 2010 | No Comments
    It looks like people are still buying computers. Research firm iSuppli Corp believes that netbooks and Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) notebooks are poised for significant growth in 2010. Notebook PC shipments overall are expected to hit 209.5 million this year, up 25.5% from last year. In particular, sales of netbooks, or smaller and cheaper versions of a notebook, are expected to grow 30% to 34.5 million units. Meanwhile, CULV notebooks are expected to reach sales of 14.5 million units this year, a whopping 93% increase.

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  • Solar industry creating jobs, not just juice

    Solar industry creating jobs, not just juice

    Posted on April 21, 2010 | No Comments
    It appears that there may be a recession proof industry after all. The Solar Energies Industry Association just released their annual report, and while coal and oil are "suffering", solar is a growth industry.

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  • Nintendo blames piracy for 50% drop in EU sales

    Nintendo blames piracy for 50% drop in EU sales

    Posted on April 20, 2010 | No Comments
    Sales of Nintendo's DS games are dropping in Europe, and according to Nintendo there's clear reason why: piracy. With the release of software like R4, it appears that more and more owners of the portable systems are turning to less then reputable sources for their games.

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  • Wanted: Comment shills for a “large project”

    Wanted: Comment shills for a “large project”

    Posted on March 25, 2010 | No Comments
    Are you in the Harrisburg area? Are you able to type in English? Well some weird company wants you to shill for them, offering $50 for your trouble. Here’s the post: We are an internet marketing company that increases market awareness for our clients and there is a large project with a March 29th deadline, requiring [...]

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  • A closer look at the Square Payment System

    A closer look at the Square Payment System

    Posted on February 25, 2010 | No Comments
    Phil Torrone got to look at the new Square iPhone Payment system and he and the daring Lady Ada of AdaFruit industries took some photos and video of a prototype of the new device. To recap, the Square device is a little dongle that lets you swipe credit cards. With a quick slash of the [...]

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  • No new Wii ‘any time soon’ says Nintendo

    No new Wii ‘any time soon’ says Nintendo

    Posted on February 25, 2010 | No Comments
    Don’t expect new console hardware from Nintendo in the near future. When asked “When do you think it’ll be time for new hardware?” in a recent interview with Gamespot, Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway replied, “I don’t think it’ll be any time soon because even though our installed base is, at this point, 5 million households larger than the PS2 installed base was at the same point in its lifecycle, it still has a lot of room to grow.”

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  • CEA boots small vendors out of Las Vegas hotels

    CEA boots small vendors out of Las Vegas hotels

    Posted on January 11, 2010 | No Comments
    In the dog eat dog world of the CE business, margins are low and money - especially in this economy - is tight. That's why a number of smaller vendors, including some we talked to in Vegas, took rooms in local hotels or ran "peripheral" events in other venues. The Daily Tech reports that some of those vendors have been ousted by the hotels themselves after the CEA, the organization that runs CES, convinced management to force them out.

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  • CES so far

    CES so far

    Posted on January 9, 2010 | No Comments
    CES always seems shorter than it really is. We've been here in Vegas since Tuesday, reporting live on almost everything of any importance, and we're all goofy and tired. I usually hate CES. It's a long slog through endless halls and repetitive meetings that go over what has already been gone over. But this year was different. This year's CES was strangely subdued yet refreshing. CE companies have stopped the genitalia-waving associated with speeds, sizes, and megapixels and have started producing products with considerably more finesse. The devices we saw were well-designed and featured a number of clever UI tricks that can turn an average iPod dock into a thoughtful device designed for a specific purpose and person.

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  • Happy Thanksgiving: Sony sells some 400,000 PS3s last week

    Happy Thanksgiving: Sony sells some 400,000 PS3s last week

    Posted on December 1, 2009 | No Comments
    This may be the first holiday season in a long time that Sony is looking forward to. Some 440,000 PS3s were sold last week (compared to 550,000 Nintendo Wiis), and Sony says demand for the system was at “an all-time high.” Good thing for that price cut and re-design, right?

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  • Too expensive? DJ Hero sales ‘modest’

    Too expensive? DJ Hero sales ‘modest’

    Posted on November 3, 2009 | No Comments
    While there's no hard numbers, an analyst over at Capital Markets has called the sales of DJ Hero “modest.” Usually you want phrases like “brisk pace” and “exceeding expectations” when you release big ticket games like DJ Hero, but it doesn't seem to be happening here.

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  • So! How excited are you about Windows 7

    So! How excited are you about Windows 7

    Posted on October 21, 2009 | 1 Comment
    It's nigh on a few hours before the Windows 7 launch and things are heating up in the big city. Folks are lining up at the Windows store, children are quieter and more attentive in school, and the troubles of the world - global warming, terrorists, the economy - are on hold. We are waiting for a miracle and when it comes it will rhyme with 'dindows' and end with '7' How happy are you about Windows 7? Like how totally happy? A poll, if you will, after the jump.

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  • Too big to fail: Using MMOs to study economics

    Too big to fail: Using MMOs to study economics

    Posted on October 6, 2009 | No Comments
    We all know that real world officials have used games like World of Warcraft to monitor the spread of infectious diseases, like trout flu. But what's new to my eyes, broken pieces of junk that they are (I wouldn't be able see Jupiter even if I were five feet away from it), is that researchers are using them to study economics. It's simultaneously a bad and good idea.

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