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WhatsApp users can now shop for items by category using 'Collections'
WhatsApp has made it easier to buy products directly from a chat with the addition of Collections to its Catalog shopping feature.
Verizon and Nokia are building private 5G networks for businesses
Verizon will work with Nokia to create private 5G installations that can replace WiFi in large “manufacturing, distribution and logistics facilities.
You can buy Boston Dynamics' Spot robot (if you have $75,000)
Businesses in the United States can now buy their very own Spot robots from Boston Dynamics.
Oman lifts restrictions on secure video chats
In an effort to help businesses and schools function remotely, Oman is lifting restrictions on some video calling services. Its Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) tweeted that it will allow Skype for Business, Google Meet and Zoom, so that organizations can better communicate "during this exceptional period."
Uber is making it easier for companies to offer free rides
Uber is making it simpler for businesses to offer transportation for their customers by offering UberCENTRAL, a new dashboard that allows businesses to request, manage and pay for Uber rides for their patrons.
You can now message businesses directly through Yelp
Yelp has a very active community of reviewers, giving you plenty to consider as you search for the perfect restaurant, bar or spa. While the site gives you no shortage of opinions, sometimes you have something specific in mind -- like renting out an eatery for a rehearsal dinner -- that reviews don't answer. To help you find what you need, Yelp's added the ability to message businesses directly from the site.
Evernote launches Evernote Business, readies to make your life even easier
Evernote had said its fancy new service aimed at the more professional crowd would be coming around December, and surely enough the company's announced it's now officially open for Business. Via its blog, Evernote let it be known that, after many months of having the service in the works, it's now ready to welcome any business owners who are looking to try its novel Evernote for Business product. Of course, the cloud-based software company wants to reassure potential users that this is essentially the Evernote people have come to love, but "it's better" and with a "number number of features and refinements that make Evernote Business a perfect tool for small and medium-sized companies and small teams within larger organizations." For those interested in learning more, there's a very informative video after the break -- and, of course, the source link below will give you all the nitty-gritty straight from the outfit's mouth.
Square CEO hints at Windows Phone app, says Starbucks funding will go toward 'international efforts'
As you probably have heard -- it's created quite some buzz, after all -- Starbucks just announced a partnership with Square to accept mobile payments via the Pay with the Square app. That's huge news for Square, which currently processes transactions for some 75,000 merchants, as the coffee retailer is one of the largest national chains to integrate with the payment service. At a breakfast in New York today, Square CEO and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz fielded questions about the partnership's importance. While most of the talk centered on the rollout that will bring Square payments to 7,000 Starbucks stores ahead of the holiday season, the discussion also touched upon other areas of expansion for the mobile payments company. Currently, the Pay with Square app is only available on iOS and Android. Asked whether a Windows Phone app is in the making, Dorsey said, "We will definitely build for where the users are, and we're excited about the Windows Phone interface." Take that as you will. Starbucks will start accepting Square payments ahead of the holiday season, and Dorsey said the coffee retailer's $25 million investment will be used for hiring and to expand "international efforts." Starbucks, which has 18,000 stores in 60 countries, would certainly be a natural partner in any overseas plans.
Google+ launches Pages for businesses and brands
It may have taken a while, but Google has now officially opened up Google+ to business and brands, not just individuals. It's calling the new feature Google+ Pages, but there appears to be little difference between a Page and an individual account in practice -- you're able to add Pages to any of your regular Circles, and Page owners are able to post as usual and take part in Hangouts. Pages also naturally turn up in Google search results, and the company's introduced a new Direct Connect as well that lets you search specifically for Google+ Pages -- just type "+Google" or "+Angry Birds" in a Google search box and you'll be taken directly to the respective page. Both features are rolling out on a limited basis starting today, but Google's promising they'll be open to everyone soon. Update: Well, that certainly didn't take long -- Google has now opened up Pages to everyone. You can circle us at +Engadget if you like, and find Distro at +Engadget Distro.
Google rolls out NFC-equipped Places business kits, muscles in on location-based territory in Portland
Yelp may be the raconteur of restaurant recommendations and Foursquare the cardinal of check-ins, but Google has an ace up its sleeve: NFC chips. The company's embedded near-field communications chips into each and every one of these "Recommended on Google Places" window stickers, which you'll be able to trigger with a shiny new Nexus S -- just hold your handset up to the black dot, and voila, your phone gets a "tag." Google's now distributing the signs on a trial basis to Portland, Oregon businesses as part of a larger Google Places kit, though it doesn't explain how (or if) they'll be able to program the chips. Either way, if you own a hot new joint in Portland, you might as well give it a spin. Find the sign-up form at our more coverage link, or peep a Nexus S doing its thing after the break.
Apple profiles iWork@work for small businesses
While iWork isn't exactly at the top of everyone's wishlist of Apple software, it still offers a fairly strong set of Apple-esque tools for creating gorgeous presentations and documents. Since the company already has a fairly thorough iWork product page aimed at the general audience, it seems only natural (if a bit long-time coming) that Apple focus on the business customer with a new set of iWork@work Profiles. Through case studies that delve into the daily duties of a photographer, a historian and an architect, Apple highlights how iWork (and iLife, of course) helps them all get the job done. Naturally, these profiles are filled with quite a bit of Apple fluff, but I think it's interesting to read some of the finer details and features that iWork offers people who are actually running businesses with it. Yes there are plenty of complaints against iWork - it's missing a spreadsheet, it doesn't do this, it messes with that - but these profiles are a nice read if you're willing to set all that stuff aside for a moment and investigate what Apple's productivity suite has to offer.
Apple should offer Macs with OS X and Windows for businesses
The internet is absolutely abuzz on fire over the ramifications of Boot Camp, and this time around the wild speculation isn't confined just to the crazed, Mountain-Dew-infused digg posts. Everyone is hypothesizing that Boot Camp signifies things like the death of Mac gaming, software support for OS X or even that Dvorak (the shock-journalist that he is) was right after all.There are quite a few articles out there, however, about the appeal that these Intel Macs and Boot Camp have to education and IT departments of companies both big and small. A lot of headlines like "Companies now have one more reason to look at the Mac" are piling into endo at an alarming rate, and I started thinking about something C.K. said when Boot Camp landed: "However, over time, if Apple plays it's cards right and doesn't screw things up, people will see that booting into OS X runs more smoothly and is nicer than booting into Windows, and we may see more switchers than ever before."While that's probably very true on the consumer side of things, I'm willing to bet that, even if businesses want to gobble up a batch of Macs overnight, the software they need their company to run isn't going to magically start working on OS X in the blink of an IT manager's eye. Honestly, I never thought I would say this, but case in point: if Apple started offering Macs with OS X and Windows pre-installed to the business sector, they could rake in companies looking to switch by the truck load. This option would be the nail in the coffin for business customers who want an out-of-the-box solution for getting set up on Macs with a minimum of fuss. In fact, there would be any fuss. These customers would have the best of both worlds from the moment they hit the power button, and Apple would have a rock solid strategy for putting business hardware competitors like Dell on the run.Apple doesn't need to license Mac OS X to PC manufacturers. With all the doors that Boot Camp opens for the company, Apple simply need to warn them to get out of the way.
