citi

When and where will Google Fiber roll out next?

If you've spent any time online, you've played the waiting game. Waiting for a site to load. Waiting for your photos to upload. Waiting for a video to download.

That's why so many of us salivated when we first heard about Google Fiber, the blazingly fast connection that promised Internet speeds 100 times faster than what most Americans have today.

It's been three months since the service launched in Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. And, yes, it's fast. Street View images load almost instantly. You can open multiple browser windows and simultaneously play … Read more

Zynga shuts down Baltimore office, consolidates in Texas, N.Y.

Zynga is shutting down its Baltimore office and consolidating its presence in Texas and New York, the company announced today.

The Baltimore closure, which affects about 1 percent of Zynga's roughly 3,000 employees, comes shortly after the company shut down the studio's CityVille 2 game.

Zynga offered the Baltimore employees a chance to transfer to other positions in the company, Zynga COO David Ko wrote in the blog post announcing the moves. About half of the approximately 30 Baltimore employees decided to stay.

Zynga will also consolidate teams in offices located in McKinney, Texas, with its downtown … Read more

Get lost in a stunning 320-gigapixel image of London

How well do you know the landmarks of London? Get up close and personal with a stunning 320-gigapixel image of the city captured atop the BT Tower.

Snapped by panorama experts 360Cities, the epic photography endeavor required the use of four Canon 7D dSLR cameras outfitted with some heavy-duty equipment.

Each camera used an EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, Extender EF 2x III teleconverter, and a Rodeon VR Head ST robotic panorama head. After shooting 48,640 individual pictures over the course of three days (shortly after the 2012 Olympics), 360Cities spent the next several months assembling and stitching together the final gargantuan image.… Read more

Marketing 101: Know your audience

One of the ways to know your audience is through research. My never-ending quest as a TV marketing guy is to understand viewer behavior and how to influence that decision-making process. We study why TV viewers choose what they choose.

Recently, I traveled with members of my team to Las Vegas to ask these questions and more at our world-class CBS Television City research facility at the MGM Grand Hotel. The 9,000-square-foot space is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, cutting-edge technology, and an expert research staff. This is where we test audience response to new TV shows as well as … Read more

Sign up for SimCity beta -- if you can

Did you miss the last SimCity beta sign-up event? You're in luck, because EA and Maxis want to give you another chance to get in on the beta for the highly anticipated building game. There's a catch, though: beta builders only get to play a snapshot of game for up to 1 hour at any point between January 25 and January 28.

Amusingly, the actual process of signing up for the beta might be more difficult than playing the game itself, as the sign-up page seems to have some serious problems going on right now -- most likely because of a high influx of interested participants. … Read more

Sony eyes $1 billion building sale in Japan

Sony is trying to sell a Tokyo building in an effort to raise some cash for its ailing operation.

The Sony City Osaki building in Tokyo is on sale for between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today, citing sources with knowledge of the plans. The move follows a corporate decree passed down by CEO Kazuo Hirai to offload any nonessential assets as Sony attempts to regain its financial footing.

Sony has watched its financials slip over the last several years. In the year ended March 31, 2012, Sony lost about $5 billion as … Read more

NYC turns to pilot program for app to hail taxis

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

Apple shares have fallen far enough, Citi says

Citi prefers to be optimistic when it comes to Apple.

It's not really alone in this (as the firm notes, 51 out of 56 analysts recommend investors buy Apple shares), but what is different is the optimism comes after a rough patch for Apple's stock.

Apple shares have dropped pretty badly over the past couple of months -- down about 18 percent from a high of $705.07 in September -- but that decline is likely about over, Citi says.

The firm today started coverage on the electronics giant by recommending investors buy shares and saying the stock … Read more

NYC payphones get revived as touch-screen tablets

Payphones are a dying breed, which will probably make some people yearn for our simple past and others celebrate our tech-filled future.

New York City and two companies, Cisco Systems and City 24/7, announced today that they're officially commencing their plan to transform those endangered species into 32-inch touch-screen information kiosks, a.k.a. "Smart Screens," around the city, according to GigaOM.

The idea was originally introduced in April and the companies have been testing the pilot project over the last few months. Now, the Smart Screens are officially live and a handful of kiosks are … Read more

Developer reaffirms plan to finish world's tallest building in 90 days

A 220-story Sky City tower in the Chinese city of Changsha could take the crown as the world's tallest skyscraper next March with an astounding height of 2,749 feet, edging out the mega Burj Khalifa that currently stands 2,722 feet over Dubai.

What makes the 11-million-square-foot Sky City so astonishing isn't its height or its appearance but rather the three-month construction plan to create the building that kicks off at the end of the year. Broad Group -- the company responsible for assembling the skyscraper -- plans to achieve these insane building speeds by using 95 percent prefabricated modular pieces that are sort of similar to a giant Lego set to construct the building. … Read more