economy

GM announced its development of a new, more efficient internal combustion engine that will eventually be used to power its lineup of hybrid and extended-range plug-in vehicles.

In the homogenous charge compression ignition engine (HCCI), the air and fuel mixture is compressed to ignite rather than using a spark. When combined with other advanced technologies, the HCCI engine provides up to 15 percent better fuel economy, according to GM. … Read more

After the economic meltdown over this past year, many Americans are looking for ways to cut back their monthly expenses. And prepaid wireless plans offer a great alternative to expensive contract plans.

Traditional prepaid services or pay as you go services allow people to buy their own phone at full retail price and then put a certain amount of money in an account that is deducted based on usage. Some plans offer buckets of minutes for a set price, and some allow people to just put however much money they want in their prepaid phone accounts. These plans allow people to know exactly how much they are spending each month, and if they run out of minutes or money in their accounts, they simply add more online, over the phone, or at a retail location.

These plans differ from post-paid plans, which offer buckets of minutes for a set price, and then bill customers at the end of each month, sometimes resulting in surprisingly high phone bills or excess charges for services that were never used.

Prepaid services have long been popular in Europe and other parts of the world, but in the U.S. these services have traditionally served only niche markets. But now prepaid is gaining steam in the U.S. And consumers of all stripes looking for good deals with no service contracts are considering canceling their post-paid services and going to prepaid.

Ideal candidates for prepaid services include people who use their phones rarely to call friends or family when they are out and about or who only own a cell phone because they think they may need it for an emergency. My 66-year-old, retired father falls into this category. Teenagers are also prime candidates for prepaid services, especially for plans specific to text messaging, such as Virgin Mobile's Texter's Delight or T-Mobile's Sidekick plan. These plans offer loads of free texting and cheap per-minute voice charges.

And now a new category of prepaid services has emerged that will likely appeal to traditional post-paid customers, who talk, text, and access the mobile Web a fair amount each month. Several carriers including Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, MetroPCS, and Leap Wireless' Cricket offer low-cost unlimited plans that include voice calling, messaging, and unlimited Web surfing. And the beauty of these all-you-can-eat plans is that customers aren't required to agree to a pesky one-year or two-year contract and risk paying expensive early termination fees.… Read more

I'm still processing the many great insights from the next09 conference in Hamburg, Germany, one of Europe's leading digital-creative-marketing forums. This year's theme was "Share Economy," and the 1,300 attendees consisted of European VCs and angel investors, Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, media, creative agencies, and executives from German corporations (from BMW and Deutsche Bank to Deutsche Telekom).

Jeff Jarvis: "The Great Restructuring"

The first day, the keynote day, was a little disappointing, maybe because expectations were so high. Jeff Jarvis warmed up the crowd with his trademark "What Would Google … Read more

Verizon Wireless is expected to launch its long-awaited Netbook from Hewlett-Packard on May 17, according to a report from the blog Boy Genius Report.

The blog said the company will be offering the 115NR Netbook from HP with wireless broadband capability for $199 after a mail-in rebate. The subsidized device will come with a two-year service contract that will likely set users back $40 to $60 a month, the site said.

Verizon declined to comment on these most recent rumors. But the company confirmed earlier this year that it is planning to launch a Netbook on its network.

Prepaid wireless providers are scooping up subscribers as cash strapped consumers downgrade to lower cost cell phone service.

First quarter earnings reports from MetroPCS Communications and Leap Wireless on Thursday provided further evidence that consumers are flocking toward no-contract, unlimited prepaid services. These carriers, which operate primarily in smaller urban areas, each reported they had nearly doubled their subscription rate compared to a year ago.

MetroPCS said its new subscriber additions increase 51 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier. In total it added 684,000 new subscribers, bringing its customer base to 6 million. This was the … Read more

The prepaid cell phone market has finally hit the U.S. in a big way as economically strapped consumers flock to inexpensive pay-as-you-go services. The result will likely mean that big cell phone providers may be forced to slash prices on contract service plans to keep consumers from defecting.

This is good news for consumers, who could see lower prices on both prepaid and post-paid service plans. But it is very bad news for cell phone operators, which make more money from their post-paid customers than they do from prepaid customers.

Prepaid cell phone plans, which have been very popular … Read more

How bad is it? The economy, we mean. Are we bouncing into a recovery or continuing to sink? Below is a list of resources that will help you track the economy and determine for yourself if it's as bad as some people say.

Bureau of Economic Analysis If you want to be inundated with data detailing every last element of the economy, the Bureau of Economic Analysis is for you. It has data on national, regional, and state levels. If you want to compare the U.S. with economies around the world, you can do that too. Its trade resource is a great place to learn just how much the U.S. is importing and exporting. Finding a particular indicator can be difficult. But that's mainly due to the site's huge database of information. If you want information on anything related to the economy, you can find it here.

Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides information on some of the major economic indicators, like the Consumer Price Index and employment figures. You won't find every economic indicator, but since the site lists a handful of indexes that matter most to the health of the economy, you should be satisfied. The documents on the BLS site are the full reports presented to Congress each month. They provide outstanding insight into what's really going on in the economy. I highly recommend it.

CBS News Economy The CBS News Economy page helps you learn about taxes, the national debt, and other economic indicators. The page features basic definitions to help you understand more difficult topics. And its use of visual elements like graphs and charts make understanding the economy just a bit easier. (Disclosure: CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.)

Economagic Economagic offers a wealth of financial data. Whether you want to see how interest rates have changed over the past few decades or you want to determine the amount of credit market debt outstanding, you can. From the simple to the complex, you'll find anything you're looking for on Economagic. The site isn't designed well--it's basically a list of links and numbers--but you'll get over it quickly once you see how much information is at your disposal. Check it out.… Read more

Motorola continued to lose money during the first quarter of 2009 as shipments for wireless handsets declined amid the ailing economy.

The company was already in pretty bad shape when the global economy started to tank last year. And since then, things have continued to get worse. Without any cool new handsets and with dropping demand from customers, Motorola's troubled handset business continues to drag the company down.

During the first quarter, which ended April 4, Motorola reported that shipments of cell phones fell about 46 percent to 14.7 million compared with the same quarter a year before. … Read more

Setting a world record a gasoline fueled midsized sedan, the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid traveled 1,445.7 miles on a single tank of gas on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

Traveling between 20 and 45 mph depending on traffic to take advantage of the car's capability to operate in electric-only mode up to 47 mph and foregoing cruise control to maximize fuel economy, a team of seven eco-drivers set out from Mount Vernon, Va. on Saturday at 8:15 a.m. ET with a goal of reaching 1,000 miles on their 17-gallon tank.

The team included Nascar driver Carl Edwards, high mileage trailblazer Wayne Gerdes and several Ford Motor Company engineers who took turns at the wheel, twittering their progress along the way.

The 1,000 mile target was easily reached at 9:07 a.m. EDT on April 27. Edwards reportedly took them past this milestone with an average fuel economy of 76.3 mpg, according to a post on Twitter.

With fuel still in the tank, the team continued driving into the night to see just how far the Fusion Hybrid could go. … Read more