offering

Apple sells a record $17 billion in debt

Apple had a field day with its first debt offering since 1996.

Investors hungrily gobbled up $17 billion in Apple bonds, the largest offering in corporate history. The proceeds will be used to help fund the company's ambitious plan to return value to shareholders through share repurchases and dividend payouts.

The bond sale comes on the heels of Apple's plans to double its capital return program, which involves spending an additional $55 billion in dividend payments to investors. Apple also said it would be spending an extra $50 billion in repurchasing company stock along with increasing its quarterly … Read more

Dropbox reportedly preparing for IPO later this year

Dropbox has already been in the planning stages and holding meeting with banks about turning into a public company during the second half of 2013, according to Quartz.

Based on unnamed sources said to be "briefed on the talks," Quartz suggested that the cloud storage provider is ready for an initial public offering now following the debut of its new business products.

Earlier this week, Dropbox rolled out several new features and a new console for IT administrators as it attempts to ramp up its enterprise efforts.

The additional set of services for businesses certainly makes Dropbox look … Read more

eBay tries to outdeal Groupon with its own daily deals

eBay is attempting to carve out a piece of Groupon's action with its own daily deals special.

Dubbed Lifestyle Deals, the new service is being tested in several cities across the U.S., including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. And it works much like the daily deals offered by Groupon.

eBayers in one of the participating cities can choose from a variety of deals each day. New Yorkers who spend $19 can win a walking tour of Central Park. Those in San Francisco can get their dogs walked for a full hour for just $12. And … Read more

Why I'm choosing the Kindle with Special Offers

There was quite the hullabaloo last week regarding Amazon's new Kindles.

Turns out that the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD tablets were all "Special Offers" models, meaning they'd display ads on their lock screens and main home screens.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos neglected to mention this when announcing the prices for all these Kindles, causing a minor uproar in the hours that followed -- especially when Amazon reps said there would be no way to opt out. Then, barely a day later, Bezos and Co. reversed course and gave Kindle Fire customers the option of … Read more

Toys 'R' Us takes on tablets with Tabeo

This Monday tech news roundup doesn't want to grow up:

Toys "R" Us has created it's own tablet designed for kids, called Tabeo. It goes on sale in stores Oct. 21 for $150, but the store is now taking preorders online. This kid-safe tablet comes with 50 apps pre-installed for games, education, reading -- even apps for cooking and editing photos. And there's 7,000 more apps available in an app store. It comes with 4GB of memory, but is expandable with a memory card slot. And Toys 'R' Us won't be sharing this … Read more

Amazon backtracks, will offer $15 opt-out for ads on Kindle Fire tablets

It looks like you'll be able to opt out of the ads on the new Kindle Fire tablets after all.

I just received this e-mail from an Amazon spokesperson:

I wanted to let you know that with Kindle Fire HD there will be a special offers opt-out option for $15. We know from our Kindle reader line that customers love our special offers and very few people choose to opt out. We're happy to offer customers the choice.

In answer to my follow-up question, the spokesperson specified that the opt-out will be available on both the Fire HD … Read more

No option to remove ads on Kindle Fires

Friday's tech news roundup is bracing for the mini-tablet price war:

UPDATE: Amazon has had a change of heart over the weekend and reversed its stance on lock-screen ads. Find the follow-up report on Monday's Update.

Amazon's new generation of Kindle Fire tablets will have Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers on the home lock-screen, and you won't be able to pay extra to take it off. For the e-ink readers, Amazon has offered ways to pay a small fee, about $20, to take the ads off. But these ads are not coming off the new tablets. … Read more

Amazon confirms: All new Kindle Fires stuck with ads

Editors' note (September 8, 2012, 6:21 p.m. PT): One day after this story was published, Amazon has reversed course. The company now says it will offer a $15 opt-out option to go ad-free.

Amazon introduced a bevy of new tablets and e-readers at its Santa Monica, Calif., press conference yesterday. And once the dust cleared, it became clear that there was a tiny asterisk that the company wasn't highlighting: all of the new Kindle Fire tablets include ad-supported "Special Offers." That means that the lock-screen will have have an ad, along with a link on … Read more

Google and Boingo to furnish malls with free Wi-Fi

From urban to suburban, Google and Boingo continue to work on their nationwide free Wi-Fi project. The two companies announced today that free hotspots are coming to eight malls in the U.S, according to GigaOm.

It's not yet clear which malls will get the service, but Google and Boingo did say that at least four will be in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tampa, and Seattle.

This news comes on the heels of the Google and Boingo partnering to bring free Wi-Fi to several of New York City's subway stations as well as to 200 other above-ground hotspots … Read more

Sell your old stuff on Quick

Open up Quick and you'll see two paths you can take: Sell or Search & Buy. Selling an item using Quick is totally straightforward. Just hit List an Item and input all of the vital info, like Title, Price, Category, Description, Payment Options, Delivery Options, and Photos. You can snap a few new pics or import existing ones from your Gallery. If you're selling a fairly common item, there's a nice feature that lets you use Quick to search for it (either by keyword or scanned bar code), in order to autopopulate the item fields. Lastly, at … Read more