smart phones

Here's the scoop on the holiday shopping season: Fewer people will camp out in front of stores before Black Friday this year in hopes of scoring hot deals on the "it" gifts. Instead, they'll use smart phones and tablets to comparison shop for the best prices, according to Accenture's latest survey.

When you're buying a new phone, the price can be dramatically affected by your choice of a cellular plan. But what do you really get for your money in this shotgun wedding? Is a two-year contract a fair trade for the discount? Read on for background info on some plans you may be considering.

Amazon (AMZN) boss Jeff Bezos doesn't take the usual approach to sales, technology or even competition. At this week's ShopSmart summit, he spoke with candor about his idiosyncratic strategies, growth opportunities, and how digital technology is still reshaping retailing.

Black Friday is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to an entire season devoted to holiday shopping and festivities. Even "The Most Organized Man in the World" (so-called by Men's Health Magazine) former Google chief information officer, Douglas Merrill says it's easy to feel stressed-out and...

Hewlett-Packard is unveiling the Palm Pre 2, a new version of the phone developed by Palm, which HP bought a month ago.

Would you be OK with retailers knowing your exact location? Best Buy and Macy's will start using an application that will allow them to know when people are nearby and offer rewards in hopes of luring them inside to make a purchase. This kind of fishing for customers is courtesy of Shopkick, a Palo...

It's always a challenge to keep track of paper boarding passes while negotiating endless security lines and juggling awkward carry-on luggage. And there's always the guessing game about whether the TSA agent will want to check it after you walk through the magnetometer. Travelers can avoid this...

In the hopeful-timing department -- the real estate market traditionally busts open in the spring -- Zillow.com has launched the Zillow Android App, delivering data on 95 million U.S. properties literally into the palms of cell-phone users' hands. Capitalizing on the success of the Zillow iPhone...

In the heart of the holiday phone-buying season, AT T handed Google a fabulous present and partner Apple a lump of coal. Both were wrapped in one spectacular network failure, which stranded thousands of the Web's most vocal and demanding iPhone users.

Free range cash has several drawbacks. For the user, carrying a wad of cash can be hazardous; for banks, cash is cumbersome and offers no opportunity to charge interest; to the merchant, paying cash turns buyers annoyingly frugal; for the government, cash greases illicit business operations....