consumer

Facebook is expanding its vocabulary.

Recently at f8, Facebook's developer conference, the company introduced a series of action verbs into its social platform. "Read," "Watch," and "Listen," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, were added to help build a "language for how people connect."

The one missing word, of course, was "Buy." That's really why Facebook and its army of content partners from news, publishing, music, and film and TV are rushing to set up shop on the famous platform with 750 million users. The overriding idea is that … Read more

Best Buy will hire fewer seasonal employees for this year's holiday stretch as wary consumers and competition weigh heavily on the company's business.

Speaking to Reuters in an interview published yesterday, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn said that his company plans to hire 15,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, down from the 29,000 the retailer hired last year. Permanent employees will be asked to work overtime to make up for the lost hours, Dunn said.

"The consumer is being really careful about where he or she is spending the dollars, and I think that will … Read more

Facebook is in flux, or let's say, full epic swing.

On the eve of F8, Facebook's annual developer conference, the world's busiest social network is expected to undergo its most radical change yet.

Facebook, now 7 years old, appears on the verge of becoming a full-on consumer brand powerhouse--where entire industries like publishing, film, and television will live and conduct commerce at an unprecedented rate and scale, industry watchers say. As Facebook grows and evolves, it's also becoming a more complex platform to understand and navigate. That's why Platlas, the world's first social-networking "… Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Staffers in the U.S. Senate were spied on today, but not by any one of our country's enemies. They were tailed by that most unholy of creatures: the mime.

To illustrate Google's alleged data-collection abuses, Consumer Watchdog, a vocal advocacy group and longtime Google critic hired a group of mimes to playfully spy on Senate staffers and visitors around the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Dressed in matching track suits with the words "Google Track Team" and "Don't be evil," written on them, the mimes peered over people's shoulders … Read more

When Google chairman Eric Schmidt heads to Washington this week to testify before Congress, political theater will follow him.

Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group critical of Google's gathering of personal information, is planning a barrage of stunts, a video, and testimony to highlight the dangers of the Web giant's growing power. The group is particularly concerned about Google's tracking of users as they move about the Web, and its gathering of data about them.

So Consumer Watchdog has hired mimes to follow workers around Dirksen Senate Office Building, where Schmidt will testify. Those mimes will be wearing … Read more

If Hewlett-Packard exits the PC business as planned, the U.S. is down to two major laptop makers, Dell and Apple. And the two couldn't be more different.

Apple: Apple is more about the iPhone and iPad these days and less about the Mac. And the core of its Mac lineup now is arguably the MacBook Air, which doesn't look or act like a traditional laptop.

The Air is getting smaller (11.6 inches), lighter (2.3 pounds)--and, matched with OS X Lion, offers an iPad-like interface. The iPad, on the other hand, will evolve into a … Read more

Consumers may be the big winners when the dust settles over Google's announcement today that it plans to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

Motorola's enviable patent portfolio was likely the driver in Google's decision to buy the handset maker. But the deal also gives Google its own hardware, which could pave the way for the company to create an end-to end mobile experience akin to what Apple has done with its iOS devices.

Google has taken an open approach to the mobile market. Its Android software is free and available to any hardware maker. This … Read more

By the year after next, we'll buy more consumer devices that connect to the Internet than PCs, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli. Wow, more Internet-connected set-top boxes and game consoles than PCs? Actually, no. But there's an exciting story behind the story.

The study puts tablets in the consumer devices category, which is usually limited to devices like TVs, set-top boxes, DVD players, game controllers, and sound systems. IHS iSuppli already counts tablets in the separate category of mobile devices. Counting them again in the consumer devices category is questionable.

Counting tablets, a type of computer, in with devices gives a false impression. According to the study:

Internet-enabled consumer electronics devices... will surge to 503.6 million units in 2013, up from 161 million in 2010. In comparison, PC shipments during the same period will amount to 433.7 million, up from 345.4 million. In 2015, shipments of Internet-enabled consumer devices will [be] 780.8 million units, massively exceeding PC shipments of 479.1 million.

But half of the increase in Internet-enabled consumer device shipments is due to tablets. Put tablets back in mobile devices where they belong, and PC shipments still beat consumer devices--through 2015 anyway.… Read more

I'm a big fan of Sonos, thanks in part to the loaner Play:5 in my kitchen. I use it more than the beautiful Marantz receiver and classic Tannoy speakers in my living room, not just because it's in a more convenient location, but because it gives access to much more music. My Sonos plays my music library from a networked hard disk, as well as Spotify, Pandora, and local and global radio stations. It's really a fantastic audio device.

With the introduction of the lower-end Play:3, it appears that Sonos is steadily moving down the market. Perhaps, I thought, the company is going to lower its prices even more, so I could afford put a Sonos box of some sort in my living room. Perhaps, even, when it's time to upgrade my receiver, I'll be able to get one with Sonos built in. I called Sonos co-founder Tom Cullen to ask when that would be.

The answer was not what I wanted, but it led to an interesting look at Sonos' and home audio in general. In short, according to Cullen, "We don't believe receivers are long for this world."

Cullen says that audio receivers made sense "before the digital world," when you needed a box for big amps and for switching between a lot of sources. As more entertainment comes over the Net, Cullen says, "We think the notion of switching between physical sources will be seen as quaint. Instead of putting Sonos into receivers, we're going to make receivers unnecessary."

He adds, "We play in a market full of companies that haven't made meaningful changes to how they do sound in 20 years."

This Sonos vision certainly makes sense, as a vision. At the moment, home audio (and video) users do have to deal with multiple hardware sources: DVD players, game consoles, television or satellite or cable signals, and so on. Granted, more of the content is going to the Internet, to both remote cloud services like Spotify, Pandora, and Netflix, and to local network storage. But you can't yet run a full entertainment system without having some way of switching between physical signals in addition to your IP streams.

… Read more