Starbucks in the News

Once again our favorite $4 coffee is in the news, this time Starbucks is making it easy to pay by using our Smart Phones. New apps available for black berry and iPhone.




Has anyone had experience paying for goods with their cell phones? Do you think this new app will catch on?

Goldman's Facebook Valuation

As we discussed Facebooks Valuation in class, here is an interesting blog from Damodaran (prof. for finance at NYU) about the dangers of extrapolating Goldman's valuation. Interesting for those, who are into valuations etc

http://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/2011/01/facebook-valuation.html

Home Energy Management

Perfectly matched to our energy-team, smart metering is coming into your homes (slowly, but steadily)

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-32254_1-20027935-283.html?tag=mncol%3btxt
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20028174-54.html?tag=mncol;1n

Investment bankers have been making proposals to online deals site Groupon Inc. about a proposed initial public offering

Groupon, which turned down a $6 billion takeover offer from Google Inc. last year and said it would raise $950 million in funding, has been planning its public debut for later this year....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703959104576081553310431910.html

Linguists vote 'app' Word of the Year

The tech slang "app" was voted the 2010 "Word of the Year" Friday by the American Dialect Society, beating out Cookie Monster's "nom, nom, nom, nom."

The shortened slang term for a computer or smart phone application was picked by the linguists group as the word that best sums up the country's preoccupation last year.



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gO_3DHeXRb-b1CJCbGjRCUK1vVgQ?docId=1635c27d508b451396e873660a279cd6

Facebook, Texting, and OnStar?

"Texting while driving is deadly. But letting someone else read to you is rather less risky..." Check out the latest offerings from OnStar in this Engadget article.

Hot Social Networking Site Cools as Facebook Grows

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/technology/internet/12myspace.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Yes, people are fickle and trends come and go. Seems like MySpace was badly mismanaged and just lost its way. It will be interesting to see if its new strategy to focus on music takes off.

Facebook on the other hand is enjoying its heyday, but we'll see how long it lasts until the next big thing comes around in the social networking space. I don't think Mark Zuckerberg will lose its focus as quickly as MySpace did.