business

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has launched a new membership category to try and bring more startups into the consumer electronics fold.

The CEA -- which represents thousands of consumer electronics firms -- has created the new $95 membership category as a means of "fostering innovation" in a stagnant economy.

Regular membership fees begin at $850 per year and can go as high as $40,000, depending on a company's annual revenues. Membership includes free registration for the Consumer Electronics Show.

The trade association says it can better serve both "new and established" companies with … Read more

Google is making it even easier to take a virtual visit to business interiors without leaving home.

Launched in September, Google Business Photos presented Google Maps users with 360-degree panoramas of the inside of businesses, a handy tool for scoping out the interior of a business before going there in person. However, the images were often hard to find.

Starting today, the Web giant began posting the photos to its Web search results page, presenting them along with the business results that appear to the right of requested results. As with the maps product, a simple click on the "… Read more

Steven Sinofsky, who recently left Microsoft after running the Windows division for six years, tweeted this morning that he will teach at Harvard Business School this spring.

"Excited to return to @HarvardHBS to teach again this spring!" Sinofsky wrote. "New perspectives, recharge, share experiences, write."

In response to a question on Twitter, Sinofsky said he intends to teach "product development" as well as write articles about the topic.

Sinofsky has some history at Harvard Business School. He served as a "visiting scholar" there in 1998. He also co-authored a book on organizational … Read more

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