New front in Amazon kerfuffle: Warner movies | Money.cnn.com

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Amazon, has turned off the preorder function for DVDs of prominent Warner Bros. films as it seeks to raise pressure on the company during negotiations.”The Lego Movie,” for example, is listed as “currently unavailable” on Amazon. Set for release in the home video marketplace on June 17, there is no option to place a preorder.Warner is owned by Time Warner TWX, the parent company of CNNMoney.The missing preorder button illustrates the aggressive stance Amazon is taking in its negotiations with suppliers. Other retailers play hardball too — but Amazon’s gamesmanship is especially visible because it’s online.

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Ringly Lets You Know Who’s Calling By The Buzz Of Your Finger | TechCrunch

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Christina Mercando was a busy gal working her way through the eBay product department. Problem was friends and family could never get a hold of her.Some women have the habit of keeping their phones deep in the recesses of their purses, thus never catching that text and missing when their moms call. So one day while Mercando was looking down at the rings on her hands and thinking about her phone dilemma, lightning struck. If women with this habit were to ever know when someone was trying to get a hold of them without digging through their purse, they would simply need to put a ring on it.

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This Startup Wants to Turn Your Old Electronics Into Solid Gold| WIRED

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Sometimes, numbers say it all.About 50 million tons of electronic waste were generated worldwide in 2012, according to a United Nations report. The same report predicted that number would grow to 65.4 million tons of e-waste by 2017. To put that in context, that’s about 200 Empire State Buildings or, for the more worldly, 11 Great Pyramids of Giza.While some of that waste—from old televisions to smartphones—is refurbished and recycled, a troubling amount of it is shipped to landfills around the world, where often it’s incinerated, leaching toxic chemicals into the environment. In Guiyu, China, a now infamous dumping ground for electronics, studies have found startlingly high levels of lead in children’s bloodstreams.

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For a Memory Boost, Ditch the Laptop and Write It Down by Hand | Entrepreneur.com

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In our technology saturated, hyper-connected sci-fi reality, handwriting often seems like a relic of the distant past. Communication happens through email, notes are taken on tablets, and schedules are marked up on smartphones — who has time to scrawl anything out by hand anymore?But perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to forsake the act of putting the pen to the page. Turns out, there are real benefits to be gleaned from the process, benefits that typing can’t replicate.

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Starbucks Brings Back Lemon Cake After Customers Gripe | Bloomberg

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Starbucks Corp. is bringing back the sliced lemon cake.

After the coffee chain bought gourmet-baking company La Boulange in 2012, it used the acquisition to add fancier pastries to U.S. locations. Now Starbucks is discovering that some customers liked the food better before, prompting another round of retooling.

“We’ve got a few products that we are going to bring back from the old menu,” Troy Alstead, chief operating officer for Seattle-based Starbucks, said in an interview. “Some customers missed a few things.

”Starting this week, the company will begin reverting to selling slices of banana, pumpkin and iced-lemon loaf cake — old favorites — in its U.S. stores. Starbucks will be using new La Boulange recipes and existing suppliers to create food that more closely resembles its previous fare.

Getting the menu right is critical to Starbucks’ U.S. growth strategy. In a saturated coffee market, the company is trying to entice more customers to add a pastry or croissant to their latte orders. Starbucks also faces mounting breakfast competition from fast-food chains: McDonald’s Corp. has been offering pastries at some locations this year, and everyone from Taco Bell to Burger King is trying to boost morning sales.

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The Data You Ignore Is More Valuable Than You Thought | Forbes.com

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Business leaders understand the importance of data, but just because you’re checking analytics doesn’t mean you haven’t also overlooked some important metrics.The new world of data isn’t just about gathering new information; all kinds of data that your business collects effortlessly can provide enormous value if you can look at it the right way.Finding the needle in of your haystack of data sources can be a lot more difficult than it might seem. To explore the untapped wells of information that companies should be paying attention to, I recently sat down with Catherine Havasi, co-founder and CEO of Luminoso, one of the most advanced data analytics companies out there today

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7 Bad Reasons to Become an Entrepreneur | Businessnewsdaily.com

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Every entrepreneur has a reason for starting his or her business. Most of them say it was to follow their passion, or to solve a problem they encountered in their own life. But sometimes, a startup founder’s heart just isn’t in the right place.”You can always tell what drives a business by the story it tells,” said Mark Sephton, a public speaker and personal mentor to entrepreneurs. “Does the business look to give, add value, encourage, inspire, inform and educate? Or does it purely promote and sell its products and services like a bull in a china shop? A successful and sustainable business must be built through and for people.”

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Increase Revenue During Off-Peak Hours | Restaurant.org

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The recent recession did more than adjust people’s spending habits – it also changed how and when they eat. The days of three strictly observed standard meals are now past. As a result, snacking and off-peak food service continue to emerge as growth opportunities for restaurants.

Because of financial tightening, more consumers have focused on deals and smaller purchases, including for their food. They’re ordering less during main meals – which can make them hungrier during the day. This makes them graze and snack more often, as well as eat during non-traditional hours.

According to Technomic’s 2012 Snacking Occasion Consumer Trend Report, 48% of consumers are snacking at least twice a day, up from 25% in 2010. As restaurants have adapted to this trend, their share of the snack market has increased from 17% in 2010 to 22% today.

Thirty-seven percent of consumers have broadened their definition of snack to include a wider variety of food and beverages. Sixty-two percent admitted that snacks are typically an impulse purchase as well.

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Google Invests Billions on Satellites to Expand Internet Access | Live science

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Google is planning to investmore than $1 billion in a new fleet of satellites that will expand Internet access to unconnected regions of the world.The company’s decision to purchase 180 small, high-capacity satellites is just the first step in a project that could cost the search giant over $3 billion, reported The Wall Street Journal. The project’s price tag will depend on whether the company decides to embark on a second phase of the project, which would double the number of satellites needed, Google insiders told the WSJ.

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