Google Partners With Publishers on a New Kind of Paywall

You might not be willing to fork over a monthly subscription fee to read some of your favorite news sites, but would you answer a survey question? That’s what Google and a handful of well-known online publishers are aiming to find out. On Thursday, the tech giant unveiled “Google Consumer Surveys,” which allows publishers to glean a little more revenue from their content...

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3 Reasons Facebook Brand Pages Are Good for Businesses

Christian Taylor is founder and CEO of Payvment and developer of the number one Facebook e-commerce platform for brands, agencies and merchants, and the world’s only Facebook Shopping Mall. Not everyone is cheering over the recent switch to Facebook Timeline for businesses. But the reality is, the new layout will present many great opportunities, particularly if companies...

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5 Cities Benefiting From Mobile Apps

We live in a mobile world. With new research indicating that smartphone users outnumber basic phone users and 100 million Americans are relying on iPhone, Android or Blackberry to power their day, it’s no surprise that people are yearning to get more done on their phones. And now, the local government is beginning to heed the call of smarter mobile tools. City government...

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This Website Is Made of Real Bacon [VIDEO]

Ruby on Rails. PHP. HTML. Bacon? Yup, pork belly just became an honorary member of the list of things you can use to make a website. Bleacher Report — among the web’s most popular sports sites with more than 25 million monthly unique visitors — went all-bacon beginning Friday morning. After navigating to BleacherReport.com, users can click a yellow button on the homepage...

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Today’s Top Stories: Google Tablet Store Rumors, Changes at RIM

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories. RIM Refocuses on Enterprise, Changes Leadership After RIM’s less-than-stellar results in the last quarter, co-CEO Jim Balsille, COO of Global Operations Jim Rowan and...

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Google to Sell Tablets Through Online Store [REPORT]

Google plans to sell co-branded Android tablets directly to consumers through its own online store, the Wall Street Journal reports. This move comes in an effort to kickstart Android tablet sales, which are still nowhere near the iPad sales levels. The tablets will be manufactured by Asus and Samsung, WSJ claims, but a Google branded tablet is a possibility, too....

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Creepy iPhone Case Forces You to Interact with Siri

Your iPhone 4S has a beautiful touchscreen retina display. But who cares about that when Siri can do everything for you by voice command? This reverse iPhone case covers the smartphone’s screen, revealing only the home button. That way, Siri leaves you no choice but to interact with her. Muahahahahaha! Designed and sold by 3D printing company Shapeways, the Siri...

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Online Tool Reveals How Politicians Will Affect Your Wallet

Five different candidates for president means five very different economic plans. But whose would really benefit you? You can find out with Politify, a new online tool that encourages users to “rethink democracy.” Politify is simple: Enter your income, martial status, age, ZIP code, number of children and students in your household (“don’t worry, we won’t share...

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‘Wonders of the Universe’ Lets You Explore Space On Your iPad

HarperCollins released a new iPad app Thursday that will set you off on a 3D exploration through space using high-resolution visuals specifically optimized for the new iPad’s Retina display. Called Wonders of the Universe, the iPad application incorporates 210 full-color articles, hundreds of photos and two and a half hours of video from Brian Cox’s award-winning series...

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Apple Employees Like Tim Cook a Little Better than Steve Jobs

The late Steve Jobs may be as venerated within the company he founded as he is outside it. But that doesn’t mean his successor is suffering by comparison. In fact, according to anonymous employee posts on the employer reviews website Glassdoor, Cook has the highest approval rating of any CEO in tech — indeed, any CEO in the U.S. — a whopping 97%. That’s a small but...

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