Articles by

There were 5,524 store closures in the United States alone last year. There is no doubt that the retail industry increasingly is moving to e-commerce For mid-sized retail companies, this trend can be a major opportunity to gain market share in their local areas and continue to grow in an industry dominated by Amazon and other giant retailers....

Apple held its huge product announcement event last week, and what once had people besides themselves with excitement has become a near pointless program of copied features and missed expectations. It is a shame to watch -- much like it was when Apple fired Steve Jobs. It appears that the firm has forgotten what Steve did to turn Apple into a uni...

Too often, sales teams and successful reps are shrouded in mystery. Many can't tell you exactly how they do what they do. Nowadays, they do it behind a screen, which limits the potential for apprenticeship, immersive learning, and modeling. It offers little data beyond outcomes for managers attempting to dissect what's really working So, what is th...

Developers released the latest edition of Archman GNU/Linux on Sept. 5. The Xfce desktop edition updates the Nov. 5, 2018, release....

Holiday shoppers spent more money on online purchases last year than ever before -- a whopping US$126 billion from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, according to Adobe Analytics' holiday recap. That was a 16.5 percent increase from the previous year If the steady upward trajectory of online holiday spending is any indication, 2019 promises to be another reco...

At Apple's annual new products and devices event earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook told the crowd gathered at its Cupertino headquarters that the new Apple TV+ streaming service will be available for US$4.99 per month. Consumers who buy a new iPad, iPhone, or Apple laptop will receive a year of the subscription-based streaming video service for free ...

Disruption drives business failure and success. Most people think technology drives disruption, but technology merely enables disruption -- changing customer needs cause it. This is especially obvious in e-commerce. Amazon's rapid growth and increased customer base got retailers worried. Leaders thought expanding their online presence would bring growth back -- but they were wrong.

It has been my belief for several years that our industry is trending toward the formation of an information utility. I draw this conclusion carefully based on my understanding of how markets develop and commoditize. I also believe large swaths of this utility deserve regulation (that's you, Mark Zuckerberg) I consider the beginning of the modern i...

California Assembly Bill 5, which would require many businesses to hire workers as employees rather than independent contractors -- and reclassify their existing workforces accordingly -- has passed its second reading The State Assembly will vote on amendments in a third reading and then send it to Governor Gavin Newsom, who has indicated he will s...

The attorneys general of 48 states, plus those from United States territory Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have joined in an investigation into whether Google stifled online advertising and search competition The only holdouts are the attorneys general of Alabama, where Google is building a US$600 million data center, and California, where Googl...

Apple raised the curtain on its latest iPhone models, introduced a new iPad, refreshed its watch, and announced pricing for its subscription game and premium TV services at an event held Tuesday at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California The highlight of the presentation was the new iPhone lineup: the iPhone 11 (US$699), the 11 Pro ($999) a...

Insightly on Tuesday announced the availability of Insightly Marketing, which integrates marketing, sales, and project management into a single platform to support dynamic customer journeys The company also released the results of the Insightly Marketing Study it conducted last month, probing trends and challenges in customer relationship managemen...

X1 is a Comcast-branded pay-TV service that gives users more control over their television experience. The service recently gained new features that cater to businesses. I spoke with Christian Nascimento, vice president of product and premise services at Comcast, about what the announcement means for the changing cable television industry X1 for Bu...

A larger version of Google's Nest Hub smart display hit retail shelves on Monday, and it's garnering mixed reviews The new Nest Hub Max has a 10-inch screen, compared to its predecessor's 7-inch display, and it sells for US$229, compared to $129 for the Nest Hub introduced at Google's I/O conference in June....

Voice can provide a simple, compelling user experience, but the path to adding voice controls to any product, service, or application is complex. As dominant tech players continue to develop voice-enabled interfaces and assistants, product designers, developers, and manufacturers will be forced to rethink the user experience and user interface With...

If you ever have considered investigating or working with elements of the geospatial world, check out the latest edition of OSGeoLive....

Users of a multi-cloud storage strategy may be twice as likely to face a security breach as those that use hybrid or single clouds, suggests a report by UK-based security specialist Nominet released this week Fifty-two percent of survey respondents who adopted a multi-cloud approach suffered a data breach over the past 12 months, compared to 24 per...

Digital transformation has left hardly any industry unshaken. In broadcasting, it's safe to say that it has transformed completely the way we create, deliver and consume content. Undoubtedly, the most noticeable change lies in the shift toward the OTT (over the top) format. Traditional TV now plays second fiddle: Sixty-five percent of consumers pa...

Amazon reportedly is testing scanners that can identify a human hand to use as a payment method for in-store purchases The company plans to introduce "Orville," as the system has been dubbed, to some Whole Foods stores by the beginning of 2020, and later expand it to all locations in the United States, according to the report....

Samsung's first-generation foldable phone isn't expected until later this month, but reports of a second-generation device to be released in early 2020 already have started appearing online The next-generation model will be a luxury phone that folds into a square, Bloomberg reported Tuesday....