Michelle Maisto

Grocery titan General Mills says it has heard, loud and clear, consumers’ displeasure with its new legal terms and so has reverted to its old terms. “Those [new] terms—and our intentions—were widely misread, causing concern among consumers,” Kristie Foster, General Mills’ director of external communications, said in an April 19 blog post. General Mills had […]

Dropbox’s latest efforts to expand beyond the backup and storage world include the acquisitions of Loom, a photo-sharing company, and Hackpad, a document-sharing startup. Dropbox last week introduced Carousel, an application that lets users browse and share images stored in their cloud-based account, and with it announced it had entered “Chapter 2.” “We’re moving from […]

In a smartphone market in which experienced competitors with, by all accounts, excellent devices have had a terrible time chipping away market share from industry leaders Samsung and Apple, rumors of a new entrant might be news to shrug off. Unless that entrant is Amazon. The company that started as a bookseller has spread its […]

Facebook already helps users of its mobile app discover nearby restaurants and shops, and soon that helpfulness will extend to capital-F Friends. On April 17, Facebook announced the rollout of Nearby Friends. The GPS-based feature alerts users when people they know are nearby and game for some company. For friends to learn that friends are […]

Apple’s CarPlay will be available to more drivers this summer, thanks to two deals with aftermarket companies Pioneer and Alpine. Apple introduced CarPlay March 3, and Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have committed to including the in-dash software in new vehicles arriving this summer. BMW Group, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, […]

New York Auto Show Highlights a Changing Car Culture by Michelle Maisto At the New York Auto Show, a Changing Car Culture Many of the old tactics for selling and displaying a car still apply. Speed, fuel efficiency and good looks all matter. But increasingly, so will the wireless modules under the hood (as it […]

The Galaxy S5 is the latest Samsung device to suggest that the company has never met a feature it didn’t like. But features don’t come cheap, and the GS5 carries an “astronomical” bill of materials (BOM), according to an April 15 report from IHS iSuppli, which performed a teardown of the device. While the 32GB […]

When it comes to privacy, a business can’t be too careful. That’s apparently the stance over at General Mills, the parent company to a long list of household brands, including Pillsbury, Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Bisquick and Gold Label. General Mills this month made changes to its Privacy Policy and its Legal Terms, which now […]

NEW YORK—As media day at the New York International Auto Show got under way, AT&T announced that Volvo’s 2015 model year vehicles, arriving this May, will be equipped with its wireless technology. Unlike AT&T’s January announcement with Audi, there was no mention of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) this time. Glenn Lurie, AT&T’s president of […]

AT&T and Volvo have entered into a multiyear agreement, in which AT&T will enable high-speed wireless connectivity in Volvo vehicles. AT&T’s Single SIM platform will power Volvo’s Sensus Connect in-car solution in model year 2015 vehicles, which will be available this summer. Sensus offers drivers access to the Internet via any in-dash display (though for […]

We haven’t yet reached the point where most consumers can leave their wallets at home and head to a cash register with only a mobile phone. But some new mobile payments solutions are eliminating the need for either. Payment solution Quixter scans the vein pattern in a person’s palm, which is as unique as a […]

There are several instantly likable features about Fire TV, Amazon’s entry into the set-top box market, where it now competes with Apple TV, Roku and Google Chromecast. But there’s also one serious drawback that does much to cancel out the good feelings a user initially has pulling out the Fire TV and setting it up. […]