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Urban office revival in the offing

June 19th, 2009

Reversed fortunes, reverse mortgages

A growing number of senior citizens are securing reverse mortgages to increase their cash flow in retirement or to avoid financial troubles, a sign of growing financial insecurity among people whose retirement savings have been devastated.

According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, reverse mortgage volume increased by nearly 7,000 loans from 2007 to 2008.

Similarly, HUD data shows endorsement volume in March 2009 increased 24 percent from February of 2009, and set a new monthly record at 11,261 endorsements.

But are reverse mortgages a bad idea that reeks of desperation? A measure of the negative effects of the down economy? Or a lifesaver that seniors should welcome as part of their financial planning?

Click here to read the rest of my story on The Real Deal.

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Bing Branding Boosts Microsoft’s Search Results

Whether the rumors about Google working overtime to reverse-engineer Microsoft ‘s Bing “decision engine” are true or false, one thing is certain: Bing is still booming.During the second week of its public launch, comScore data shows Microsoft continued to increase its positioning in the search market. The average daily search penetration and Bing’s share of search-result pages in the U.S. continue to rise.

“This is Microsoft’s best chance so far to gain traction,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. “Microsoft has continued to improve the basic features of their search engine over time. The original search engine, MSN Search, wasn’t as good as Google, but over the years Microsoft has gotten much closer to parity and added travel search and product search and some user-interface features.”

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

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Paid SIRIUS Service Delivers To iPhone and iPod Touch

Microsoft debuted its Zune with an FM radio that gave it favor with loyal broadcasting fans, but SIRIUS XM Radio is delivering an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that may one-up the Zune.On Thursday, SIRIUS announced the first application to deliver its exclusive sports, entertainment, comedy and commercial-free music channels to iPhone and iPod touch users. SIRIUS is a paid subscription service offering 120 channels of radio content.

SIRIUS programming includes Oprah Radio, MLB Home Plate, Martha Stewart, SIRIUS NFL Radio, Opie & Anthony, Blue Collar Comedy, E Street Radio, The Grateful Dead Channel, Eminem’s Shade 45, Elvis Radio, Siriusly Sinatra, Metropolitan Opera Radio, and many others.

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

Add comment June 19th, 2009

iPhone 3GS Challenges BlackBerry

The new iPhone 3GS went on sale Friday morning with new and improved features that may draw more business users as Apple moves to challenge the dominance of BlackBerry .The lines are not as long and the frenzy not as strong as Apple saw with previous iPhone launches, but the demand on the street seems healthy. Advance orders may have helped reduce the long waits in lines at retail stores across the country.

“We understand that customers are eager to get their hands on this great new device,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets. “So we’ve worked hard to make the experience as easy as possible.”

Despite the preparation on AT&T’s part, reports of Apple’s servers lagging under the strain of new iPhone 3GS activations are widespread. Complicating matters is older iPhone owners trying to download the iPhone OS 3.0 software to their devices. But it’s the new operating system that may help draw business users to the new iPhone.

Click here to read the rest of my story on NewsFactor.

Add comment June 19th, 2009

Archive for June 19th, 2009

Urban office revival in the offing

Reversed fortunes, reverse mortgages

Bing Branding Boosts Microsoft’s Search Results

Paid SIRIUS Service Delivers To iPhone and iPod Touch

iPhone 3GS Challenges BlackBerry