businesses

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Analyst: Instagram will be big moneymaker for Facebook.

- NY Senator drafts bill to make ticket scalping at benefit concerts illegal.

- The most expensive, useless, awesome 3D-printed object ever.

- Home invasion plot foiled by Xbox 360.… Read more

Google will start charging small businesses to use its Google Apps productivity suite as the company taps previously free services for new revenue streams.

Businesses with 10 or fewer employees will now be charged $50 a year -- the same rate paid by larger businesses -- to use the Web-based tools, which include e-mail, word processor, spreadsheet and presentation graphics tools.

The move will allow the Web giant to focus on the quality of the business user's experience, Google explained today in a company blog post.

"When we launched the premium business version we kept our free, basic … Read more

Facebook released some new numbers today for its local business Pages, revealing that about 2 percent of the Pages have used promoted posts.

The social network said it's reached 13 million local Pages now -- up from the 12.8 million last reported during its earnings call in October -- and 300,000 of those have promoted more than 2.5 million posts. Promoted posts are ones that Pages pay for to make sure they reach more of their Facebook fans.

According to a Facebook representative, Facebook Director of Global SMB Markets Dan Levy went over some of these … Read more

PARIS -- In an attempt to bridge from individual users to corporate accounts, Evernote has launched version of its cloud-based document repository for business customers.

Evernote Business costs $10 per employee per month, CEO Phil Libin said at the LeWeb show here. It combines features of Evernote's premium personal accounts with central services business customers might need, such as the ability to share documents with all employees.

Evernote lets people store and edit documents with a wide range of media types -- audio, Web pages, photos, and of course text -- and synchronize it with the cloud, personal computers, … Read more

There are any number of utilities out there that can quickly and easily convert a variety of file formats into PDFs, so there's no reason to settle for one that doesn't quite meet your needs. DeskPDF Pro combines an efficient drag-and-drop interface with some useful features, but the limitations of the trial version are significant, and there are free programs with many of the same features.

Once installed, DeskPDF Pro appears as an icon in the Windows system tray; clicking it brings up a small interface onto which users can drag files for conversion. This launches a window … Read more

Nokia may be trying to sell its headquarters.

In an interview with Reuters published today, a spokeswoman for the embattled mobile company said that Nokia is "evaluating different options for non-core parts, such as real estate holdings, and that includes the headquarters."

In a follow-up statement to CNET, Nokia spokesman Brett Young confirmed that Nokia is considering selling real estate, including its headquarters. However, he made clear that it doesn't "have any plans to move our headquarters." Instead, Nokia hopes to lease back the space from the new owner.

Nokia's troubles have been well … Read more

Moo, a company that specializes in elaborate business cards, has announced it will sell NFC-enabled cards that can be programmed to share data wirelessly with smartphones.

The idea is kind of like encoding data in the checkered grids known as QR codes, which phone cameras can scan to extract contact information. Near-field communications (NFC) uses small chips with labyrinthine antennas that activate and transmit stored data when hit with a radio signal from a smartphone or other NFC reader.

That means, if all goes according to Moo's plan, tapping an NFC card against an NFC-equipped smartphone would transfer contact … Read more

Sharp is eyeing steep workforce cuts to become more agile and adapt to its hard times, a new report claims.

The company is currently considering cutting more than 10,000 jobs, representing approximately 18 percent of its workforce, Bloomberg is reporting today, citing sources. The company is also in talks with Foxconn to sell three manufacturing plants, the news outlet's sources say.

At the end of the second quarter, Sharp owed nearly $16 billion in debt and didn't have enough cash on hand to cover its short-term obligations. The company has previously announced that it would lay off … Read more

Facebook, as part of its ongoing attempt to make money off mobile, is letting businesses with Facebook pages promote posts using an app on their smartphones.

The newest version of Facebook's Pages Manager app allows users to pick their promoted posts -- i.e., posts the social network will shoot out to users far and wide, for a modest fee -- directly from the app. The app is only available on iPhone and iPad.

The ability to buy the ads directly from mobile phones was a widely requested feature from small businesses, according to Facebook.

It's just the … Read more