As America’s economy climbs back from some brutal years, plenty of folks are still looking for work. No matter how desperate they are, though, there are a few companies that they might want to avoid. 

One of them is satellite TV provider Dish Network. It already has 26,000 employees, but the word is that not too many of them are happy. Last August, 24/7 Wall Street named it the Worst Company to Work for in America. Now that’s an accolade to put on your LinkedIn profile.

What makes it so bad? “Long hours, lack of paid holidays, and way too much mandatory overtime,” Bloomberg Businessweek reports. And it’s all because of one man: the 59-year-old legendary founder and chairman of Dish, Charlie Ergen, who maintains 53.2 percent of the company’s shares and 90.4 percent of the voting rights.

Ergen has never met a penny he didn't pinch. And while that sometimes means making shrewd business decisions, it also means making such choices as installing fingerprint scanners at the doors to company headquarters that are rigged to send emails directly to HR if an employee is late. The company only put in the scanners after Ergen noticed that the key/badge system was being circumvented by employees badging in for coworkers.

And the renowned cable-hater certainly has an eye for such detail.Continue reading...

While Google+ is looking to boost brand connections with consumers, the upper hand still goes to Facebook — which has unveiled a range of features to better connect its users with brands.

That includes a just-announced line-up of media-branded apps coming to Timeline through the social network’s open graph including Buzzfeed, CBS Local (Los Angeles and New York versions), CMT, Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, GetGlue, Huffington Post, Mashable, MSNBC.com, MTV News, Pixable, Sporting News, and MSNBC.Continue reading...

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RIM denies it's killing the BlackBerry PlayBook.Continue reading...

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GameStop to sell branded gaming tablet.Continue reading...

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Google and US Justice Dept. also near deal on ITA acquisition.

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Apple sues Motorola over smart-phone patents. 

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BlackBerry services can continue in India.Continue reading...