Sure, you can already snag one of those Chromebooks from places such as Amazon, Best Buy and Google's own Play shop. But, starting today, the Mountain View-based company is making various Chrome OS-sporting laptops available at more retailers around the globe -- over 6,600, to be specific. Google says the likes of Walmart and Staples will now have a selection of Chromebooks up for grabs, while Office Depot, Office Max and Fry's are expected to do the same "in the coming months." For those across the pond, you can expect to find some of Google's laptops at Dixon retailers in the UK, as well as Mediamarket, FNAC and Elgiganten stores in the Netherlands, France and Sweden, respectively. All in all, this is definitely a good thing for Google's plan to get its Chromebook machines in as many locations as possible.
Source: Google
The involvement between Facebook and Walmart is about to get a lot cozier than gift cards in aisle three. Facebook says it wants to "deepen" its connection to Walmart and hopes to learn from the big-box retailer's skill in building a long-term business; that's rather important when the social network is still young enough for the ink to be wet on shares from its initial public offering. To that end, Facebook's entire executive team will meet with Walmart at its Arkansas headquarters on July 20th in the hopes the two companies will be singing kumbaya when all is said and done. Knowing that both companies have taken a bruising in their public images from time to time, we can understand why some might be apprehensive about the idea of any tighter collaboration -- not until they can buy FarmVille harvests for 88 cents, at least.
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Facebook and Walmart to 'deepen' involvement, won't rollback FarmVille prices just yet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google's search engine and its almighty Omnibox in Chrome have given the public instant search capabilities for some time, and now Google's sharing that same search goodness with its retail partners. Called Google Search As You Type, it's a pilot program providing AdWords advertisers access to Google's predictive and instant search on their own websites. That means customers can find what they're looking for more quickly and sellers can separate said buyers from their money faster than ever. Search As You Type is free for the first 25 million searches each year, so you'll likely be seeing this widespread on retail websites soon. That said, if you simply cant wait to witness your online retailing future, check out the video after the break.
Continue reading Google Search As You Type gives retailer websites instant search
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Google Search As You Type gives retailer websites instant search originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Square, PayPal, Intuit, Verifone -- the mobile payments field (and we're not talking wallets here) is seriously crowded already. So, the question is then, why on Earth would Groupon want to join the fray? We're not entirely sure, but VentureBeat is reporting the coupon service is preparing to do just that. According to a source within the company, Groupon is testing card-reading dongle and payment platform with surprisingly aggressive pricing. According to the insider, transaction fees will be 1.8 percent, on top of a $0.15 base charge. By comparison, square charges a flat 2.75 percent. Interestingly, the source also claims that Groupon is handing out, not just free readers, but free iPod touches to plug them into. The move makes obvious sense since the company snatched up Kima Labs, makers of TapBuy, in February. Besides, it could easily integrate its discount offers with the platform as a value added service. None of this is confirmed just yet but, we certainly wont be surprised if this rumor pans out.
Groupon reportedly experimenting with Square competitor originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 May 2012 18:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Although PayPal's mobile payment system started out small with a Home Depot deal, that snowball is quickly rolling itself into a boulder. Starting next month, 15 extra US retailers will be happy to see you slap down your smartphone (not literally, we hope) instead of a credit card. The selection leads us to think a lot of smartphone owners like to shop for wearables -- Aéropostale, Foot Locker and JC Penney are in the batch, along with others -- but there's a few useful exceptions, like Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice and TigerDirect. At least a total of 20 merchants are expected by the end of year, and as with Home Depot, you won't need special hardware besides an Android or iOS device to spend your hard-earned cash. We'll just be thankful we won't have to buy our yogurt with actual cash, like savages.
PayPal lines up 15 retailers for mobile payments, will let you buy Jamba Juice smoothies with a smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 06:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We hope you hadn't planned too much of your late summer around the original Nokia World 2012 schedule, because the timetable has just been given a big shakeup. Instead of holding one, monolithic event in late September, Finland's phone giant is splitting the show into smaller, more targeted events. The first will start much earlier than planned, running between September 5th and 6th in Helsinki, but don't expect any big Lumia introductions: the early show is focused on carrier and store partners rather than any opportunities for a public hands-on. Details of more events are coming in the weeks ahead, and some of those gatherings we imagine will be more about new devices than wheeling and dealing.
Nokia World broken up into smaller events, bumped up to September 5-6 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 10:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Best Buy details its 50 big box store shutdowns in the US, most will close by May 12th originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Apr 2012 05:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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