AOL spent more than $300 million on distributing free sign-up CDs

AOL used to be king of the dial-up hill. At its peak, over 26.7 million households accessed the Internet via AOL, a figure that no American ISP has ever surpassed. That success came at a cost, though: those CDs (and floppy disks!) that arrived in your letterbox, often on a weekly basis, cost AOL over $300 million.

The data comes from Quora, a service that is fast becoming the go-to place for juicy, 'insider' information. Someone asked about AOL's distribution costs, and in mere moments, both the CEO-at-the-time, Steve Case, and the former Chief Marketing Officer, Jan Brandt, had chimed in with authoritative responses. Case recalls, that in the hay day of the mid-1990s, AOL was quite content to spend $35 on obtaining a new subscriber. Brandt, responding a little bit later, provided a total cost of "over $300 million," for the distribution of the CDs. She went on to provide a shocking statistic: "At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo on it." Shocking, but... sadly rather believable.

AOL spent more than $300 million on distributing free sign-up CDs originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/28/aol-spent-more-than-300-million-on-distributing-free-sign-up-cd/

Brittny Gastineau Charisma Carpenter Amanda Swisten LAM RESEARCH NANYA TECHNOLOGY

Ziff Davis Buys Tech Deals Site LogicBuy; Launches Ad Targeting Platform BuyerBase

When former Time Inc. executive Vivek Shah and private equity firm Great Hill Partners bought Ziff Davis back in June, it was assumed that Shah and his expertise would help breathe new life into the troubled technology publisher. Today, Ziff Davis' new leadership and direction is becoming apparent with the acquisition of technology deals and coupon site LogicBuy and the launch of an ad targeting platform BuyerBase. With the acquisition of LogicBuy.com, Ziff Davis will provide visitors with contextual deals and coupons related to the products they?re researching. The company will also partner with tech manufacturers and retailers to add more deals to LogicBuy's database. Last year, LogicBuy.com received over ten million visitors looking for deals on laptops, cameras, TVs and software.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zPgFhI90c_o/

Chandra West Amber Valletta Bar Refaeli ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL Amanda Peet

Daily Crunch: Micro Lab Edition

Angry Birds Is Coming To PlayStation 3 And PSP Sha-Miel: Sanyo?s Mobile Magnifying Camera Incoming Adidas AdiZero 5-Star Is The Lightest Football (As In NFL) Cleat Ever Created PrimeSense, Them Guys Behind Kinect?s Motion Control, Are At It On The PC What Are You Looking Forward To At CES?

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/01/04/daily-crunch-micro-lab-edition/

AVNET Brittany Lee GOOGLE NII HOLDINGS Alecia Elliott

Stick-On JoyPad Upgrades iPad Gaming

The Fling is a stick-on game-controller for the iPad. It comes from Ten One design, the company behind the popular Pogo Stylus that lets you write on your capacitive touch-screen with a pen. The Fling is made from bendy resin, aluminum and a pair of suction cups. You fire up a game with an on-screen joystick [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/stick-on-joypad-upgrades-ipad-gaming/

Carol Grow CISCO SYSTEMS Anne Marie Kortright ATandT Ali Campoverdi

Verizon teases 'suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices' this week

Surprised? Nah, neither are we -- Verizon's LTE-based Android smartphones have been leaking like the sweet, Cortex-A8 sieves that they are for weeks now -- but Big Red's using stronger language than ever before to say that we can expect multiple Android devices running on Verizon's fresh LTE network here at CES this week. Specifically, the press release says that "the company will also offer a sneak peek at a suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices" at its January 6th event here at the show, echoing Twitter teasers last month -- but with the key addition of the word "suite," which hopefully means we'll have an LG, an HTC, a Motorola, and a Samsung (at the very least) to toy with by the time this week is out. Stay tuned, folks. Follow the break for the brief press release.

Continue reading Verizon teases 'suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices' this week

Verizon teases 'suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices' this week originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/FA8tlmsfbcs/

AMERICA MOVIL Amanda Marcum AMKOR TECHNOLOGY Beyoncé Charlize Theron

What the Zuk: KeePass is an essential tool for your online security

keepass
What the Zuk is a (very) occasional feature, in which I review software that I have been using for many years, and which is instrumental for my work. These are the first tools I install on every new system, the reliable work-horse applications I turn to for every need. In each installment I will explain what makes this particular program special, and why I find it so vital for my computing experience.

You need a password manager!

If you already use a password manager (such as LastPass), feel free to skip this part. But if you don't currently use one, let me reiterate: you need a password manager.

Saying "safeguarding your identity online is important" is almost like saying "wearing a seat belt is important"; that's quite an understatement to make. There's no lack of incentive: 2010 had some very high-profile security breaches, and it may very well be that your account (or a loved one's account) was impacted.

Continue reading What the Zuk: KeePass is an essential tool for your online security

What the Zuk: KeePass is an essential tool for your online security originally appeared on Download Squad on Sun, 02 Jan 2011 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/01/02/what-the-zuk-keepass-is-an-essential-tool-for-your-online-security/

ARROW ELECTRONICS MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR Avril Lavigne Ana Ivanovi Camilla Belle

Google TV dev tools coming this year, Vizio announced as new partner

Since the announcement of Google TV, we've been promised Android apps, and devs have been promised the tools to build them. In a recent post over at The Official Google TV Blog, it was announced that those tools will be coming sometime in 2011 and that they are working on getting the Android Market onto Google TV devices as well. Considering the year just started, "2011" is about as vague as they could possibly get while still putting up a number.

In addition, the Google TV team announced that Vizio had signed up and would be bringing "a new line" of Google TV-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players -- which of course were just officially announced this morning. With CES just days away, we might get a sneak peek in short order. Or, we might not. [Official Google TV Blog]

Google TV dev tools coming this year, Vizio announced as new partner posted originally by Android Central

Sponsored by Android Cases and Accessories


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/f94A1KE684Q/google-tv-dev-tools-coming-next-year-vizio-announced-new-partner

ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING ARROW ELECTRONICS MILLICOM INTL CELLULAR Avril Lavigne Ana Ivanovi

12 favorite Time Wasters from 2010 to kick off your 2011 gaming!

Our 12 favorite Time Wasters from 2010
2010 has come to a close, and that means it's time for us to kill what little remains of your final Friday productivity with a look back at some of our best Time Wasters. Grab your mouse and keep your eyes peeled for the boss, it's time to fire up some casual gaming goodness in your Web browser!

Each screenshot is linked directly to the game pictured -- so when you see something which catches your eye, click on through and start playing!

Continue reading 12 favorite Time Wasters from 2010 to kick off your 2011 gaming!

12 favorite Time Wasters from 2010 to kick off your 2011 gaming! originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/31/12-favorite-time-wasters-from-2010-to-kick-off-your-2011-gaming/

Alexis Bledel Anna Paquin Christina Aguilera SHAW COMMUNICATIONS Carla Gugino

Adobe revels in first ever billion-dollar quarter

1 (billion) upAdobe, the software giant behind the monstrously-successful Creative Suite, Reader and Flash, has just racked up its first billion-dollar quarter. Up from $757 million in the same period last year, this represents a 33% year-over-year revenue growth, which is pretty damn massive. Over the entire year, Adobe enjoyed a total revenue of $3.8 billion, up from $2.9 billion in 2009.

With all of the negative press over Flash, people often fail to realize just how big Adobe is. If you take a quick look at the Forbes 2010 list of the world's largest software companies, Adobe would place just outside the top 10, with revenues just behind Yahoo! and CA Technologies. This year's excellent performance, whether you like it or not, is almost certainly because of Flash's continued dominance -- and the excellent Creative Suite 5, of course!

Adobe revels in first ever billion-dollar quarter originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/21/adobe-revels-in-first-ever-billion-dollar-quarter/

Carla Gugino POWERCHIP SEMICONDUCTOR HON HAI PRECISION IND Amber Brkich ASUSTEK COMPUTER