In addition to an even trippier special edition of its tie-dye logo, Apple unveiled more than one dozen new products today at the brand's highly anticipated 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference. While Apple’s main growth drivers remain the iPhone and the iPad, its Mac line remains a cornerstone.Continue reading...

Foursquare is squaring off against Yelp, and has become a “mobile, socially powered version of Yelp," as Fast Company puts it, thanks to the Explore tool that gives users dining and bar recommendations based on location check-in.

Add the latest tweak to the tool, a proximity-based finder for maps that zooms and can be dragged and pinched at will, and Foursquare’s search iterates from present to future location. The sophistication of the app's user interface puts it ahead of Google Maps, MenuPages, Urban Spoon and Yelp.

Foursquare recently partnered with Open Table, adding a reservations function that covers more than 15,000 restaurants including hours of business and menu perusal.Continue reading...

Waterborne illness is the second leading cause of preventable childhood deaths worldwide, killing an estimated 4,000 children every day. That's why the UNICEF Tap Project, now in its sixth year, is asking thousands of volunteers, restaurants, partners and individuals to protect young lives with safe, clean water.

A donation of $1 for a glass of tap water during World Water Week, March 19-25, at participating restaurants across the U.S. will give a child clean, safe water for 40 days, or 40 children safe water for one day. 

“Many of us consume and use safe, clean water every day without thinking twice. Meanwhile, in communities across the globe, disease can spread with lethal swiftness for the millions of children and adults who lack access to a safe water source and adequate sanitation,” said President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF Caryl Stern. “Today, for too many of the world’s children, clean water can mean the difference between life and death.”Continue reading...

Small business has been feeding the daily deal industry, routinely assuming 75% of a deal’s cost and often with little or no repeat business. The draw for SMB’s to behemoths like Groupon is the reach: 60 million users and 500 markets.

Smaller merchants are becoming savvier in the deals they are making with the big guys like Groupon, LivingSocial, and web mainstays like Facebook, Yelp, Travelzoo, OpenTable who are all adding Groupon-like features — all the while being "bombarded" by a growing array of smaller wannabes, and contemplating what they can do without a middleman.Continue reading...

Facebook today formally launched Deals in the US, with local offers now wooing Facebookers (and brand marketers) in five US cities at launch: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco.

Available in Europe for three months, Facebook's expansion to the US gets it closer to serving Deals directly to all 600+ million members — a move seen as serving notice to Groupon and Living Social.

Naturally, as the owner of all that user data (which Facebook calls the social graph), the social network is poised to take full advantage of consumers' zeal for local, social deals. It's also, naturally, going beyond discounts.Continue reading...

Groupon’s meteoric rise is probably already a B-school case study.

The startup, with 30-year-old Andrew Mason at the helm, emails a whopping 70 million deal-of-the-day promotions to subscribers world-wide. The next stage, according to a company profile in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine: skipping email and going straight to users cellphones with Groupon Now, a new mobile app that offers deals based on time of day and the user's location at that moment.

It's a development that could define the near future of local commerce.Continue reading...

* Apple's plan to offer 99-cent TV-show rentals is "getting limited support from media companies," reports the Wall Street Journal. Amazon cut the price of some TV show downloads to 99 cents in response, while Apple's partnership with Netflix is seen as a sign the DVD rental company may weather a shift to Web video that is challenging others. Sony is also launching a digital-music service to compete with iTunes.

* Allergan settles Botox allegations with the federal government for $600 million. 

* Burger King may need a new brand strategy rather than just another new owner, as suitors start to circle.

* Chrysler posts August sales gain, but every other major automaker sees sales slide in comparison with last year’s robust “cash-for-clunkers” campaign.

* Discovery Channel gunman James Lee told NBC mid-hostage-taking that he picked up pointers from Mythbusters.

* General Motors, which is making the Chevrolet Volt, is trying to trademark the expression "range anxiety."Continue reading...

BP's new commercial featuring CEO Tony Hayward hit YouTube and US TV yesterday. The damage control isn't just aimed at BP's brand, but the "gaffe-prone" Hayward and images such as AP's latest. After addressing BP on CNN last night, a "furious" President Obama is heading to the disaster site again today. And crowdsourcing solutions to the spill is officially a cottage industry.

McDonald's recalls 12 million cadmium-tainted Shrek Forever After glasses.

NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg appeals directly to LeBron James to join the Knicks.Continue reading...