Think you can do better than Congress in coming up with a balanced U.S. budget? Several smartphone apps let you play along with all the fiscal fun happening in Washington. Raise taxes on market speculators? Cut spending on social services? You decide, and these apps will show you the results.
Communication is increasingly moving off the grid and into the cloud. For cellphone users -- especially ones with smartphones -- there are a host of online tools and apps that can help reduce usage on carrier plans and save money. Here are a half dozen easy options.
Macy's is bullish on e-commerce. Online sales for the department store chain grew more than 30% in 2010, and it's investing heavily in infrastructure upgrades, such as e-commerce product fulfillment centers, to accelerate its transformation into an "omnichannel" retail company.
Apple's shares are trading at about $347, just shy of their all-time high of $364.90, which they hit in February. It's second quarter earnings were record-breaking. So why are some analysts beginning to worry about Apple's stock?
The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer debuts Tuesday, and for the many folks in the corporate world already armed with BlackBerry phones, the addition of a PlayBook may make sense. But there are a host of reasons why the average consumer may find the device not quite ready for the spotlight.
A research firm that tracks video game sales reported that March hardware sales rose, but software sales plunged again. NPD claims that 23% of software sales in 2010 came from apps, but the industry isn't sure that its lagging sales figures can be entirely blamed on apps like Angry Birds.
Apple has sued Amazon over the term "App Store." Apple says it holds the trademark and claims that an Amazon Appstore will confuse customers who will wonder if it is part of Apple.
After a long, painful transformation from an online auction site to a mobile-focused e-commerce hub, eBay is finally staging a comeback, online and on Wall Street. But auction sales don't account for its rousing recovery. For that, it has PayPal to thank.
In an attempt to crack down on spam, Facebook has shut down a number of third-party software applications in the past week. The move could signal that the world's most popular social network plans maintain righter control over the apps that run on its site.
