Consumer content

After Yahoo announced that Max Levchin was appointed to its board, the PayPal co-founder and Silicon Valley all-star took to his blog to explain his reasoning for accepting the position.

According to Levchin, his decision centered on three areas -- personal, business, and sentimental. On the personal side, he said that he has for a long time "respected Marissa [Mayer's] talent and tenacity," adding that her decision to take over Yahoo "was a very ballsy move, and when she asked for my help, I was excited about working with her."

On the business side, Levchin … Read more

After a monster 2012 in which Square, a leader in the mobile payments space, tripled its user base, added Starbucks as a major partner, and hit more than $10 billion in annualized transactions, its COO is predicting that 2013 looks even better.

A year ago, the San Francisco-based startup, which was founded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, announced that it had reached a million users and that 75,000 merchants were accepting payments through Square. Now, COO Keith Rabois told CNET in an interview, the company has passed 3 million users and 250,000 merchants taking Square Wallet.

Without question, … Read more

Twitter said today that it has launched new tools that give advertisers better ways to match promoted tweets to search terms.

In a blog post this afternoon, Twitter said that advertisers can now choose to buy promoted tweets against exact keyword matches, phrase matches, or basic keyword matches. This should allow them to place their promoted tweets against a much wider selection of search terms, if they choose to do so.

At the same time, the microblogging service is now allowing advertisers to restrict their promoted tweets from showing up in searches for specific keywords. "For instance, if you … Read more

With all the chatter about Apple upending the TV business as it did the music industry, you'd think the incumbent cable players were incapable of redefining the TV user experience. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts begs to differ. In an interview with Fortune, Roberts said he's taking lessons from Apple in how to "take really complicated things and make them simple, make them fun, make them beautiful and easy."

Read: CNET's Apple HDTV rumor roundup

He continued, "As I think about where I'd like to see us go, it is absolutely … Read more

Consumers looking for a Nook tablet can now pick one up at Walmart.

The retail outlet is selling the Barnes & Noble tablets at their usual prices. So the Nook HD tablet will run you $199 for the 8GB version and $229 for the 16GB model. The Nook HD+ will cost you $269 for the 16GB edition and $299 for the 32GB model.

All four versions and their related accessories are available through Walmart's online store as well as its brick-and-mortal outlets.… Read more

Amazon has stepped its e-book toes into China by launching a Kindle store for Chinese consumers.

The new store mimics the look and feel of the typical Kindle store but offers a wide range of Chinese-language books.

Since Amazon doesn't sell Kindle tablets and e-readers in China, buyers are directed to download the Kindle app for iOS and Android devices.

The store's opening could also be a move toward launching Kindle devices in China.

In June, four Kindle devices, including the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire, received regulatory approval from the State Radio Regulation of China, according to … Read more

Research In Motion's upcoming BlackBerry 10 is being eyed by one government agency that had already planned to switch to iPhones.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will take a look at BB10 starting in January. The agency plans to launch a pilot program to test BlackBerry 10 devices and the BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to see if the new operating system can meet its needs for security and mobility. ICE will be among the first government agencies to give BB10 a spin, according to Research In Motion.

"ICE has been a valued BlackBerry customer … Read more

A new Apple technology could make it easier for you to manage incoming phone calls.

Approved today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent dubbed "Dynamic Context-Based Auto-Response Generation," describes a method to intelligently manage an incoming call, whether you're on the line with someone else or simply unavailable.

In one scenario, the system can be totally automated. So if you can't answer the call, the caller receives a specific pre-recorded message based on the caller ID and other attributes. In that case, the caller would be prompted to leave a voice mail. … Read more

Samsung's chief strategy officer, Young Sohn, is sure to ruffle some feathers in Seoul over his recent comments regarding Apple.

Speaking to MIT Technology Review in an interview published today, Sohn said that Apple's key strength might not be products, but the company's "ecosystem, such as iCloud."

"I like that my family 6,000 miles away in Korea is able to see my schedule and see all of my contacts and photos," Sohn said. "It is sticky, but it is a proprietary architecture. Look at your phone [pointing to the writer's … Read more