HP board shakeup and chairman exit gives CEO Meg Whitman a chance to shake off troubles.

BP faults Deepwater Horizon claims overseer, launches first brand-wide fuel loyalty program.

BMW prepares X4 crossover for U.S. market, makes vehicles greener with fewer cylinders, less gasoline.

Al Jazeera America hires CNN's Ali Velshi as anchor.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos leads $5 million investment round in Henry Blodget's Business Insider.

Apple reportedly signs music labels for streaming service as Google's YouTube clinches deal with Universal Music.

Best Buy may have turned the tide on showrooming Amazon.Continue reading...

It has been nearly 16 years since the episode of “Ellen” that found its main character, as played by Ellen DeGeneres, come out of the closet and tell the world that she was gay, followed up by the historic "Yep, I'm Gay" cover of TIME.

That, of course, was a watershed moment and plenty has happened since. States have legalized gay marriage. Gay characters that don’t fall into ancient stereotypes actually populate mainstream films and television shows. Those in the 18- to 44-year-old demographic are mostly all for gay marriage, leading many to assert that, with time, it will be fully integrated into American culture. 

That same demographic is the target of most marketers, which has led to a rapid growth in gay-themed ads. Anti-gay sentiment clearly isn’t dead, though, and marketers take the risk of getting one faction of its fans upset when it goes that route, a fact Kraft’s Oreo brand found out last summer when it put a rainbow-themed Oreo on its Facebook page and then discovered a massive fight occurring in its comments section.

Amazon has now stepped in to show that it’s happy to have its products, specifically Kindles, used by gays or straights. In a new ad campaign that broke this week, a shirtless man and bikini-wearing woman sit next to each other at a resort looking at their e-readers. While he squints at what looks like an iPad in the sunlight, she can see her Kindle Paperwhite just fine. He decides to purchase a Kindle from his device and after, suggests that they should celebrate. She says that her husband is bringing her a drink right now. His response? “So is mine.” Touché.Continue reading...

Google homepage logo pays tribute to the opening of the XXX Olympic Games in London.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledges $2.5 million in support of gay marriage as Chick-Fil-A deals with firestorm created by CEO’s gay-marriage stance.

Barclays reveals new interest-rate probe and more U.S. lawsuits.

Airbus delays A350 over production problems.

Apple acquires fingerprint security firm.Continue reading...

It may be soon that “musk” may not just signify male perfume. Instead, American consumers may immediately associate it with space travel or, more likely, with gobs of cash.

Like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Paul Allen, Elon Musk is a wealthy man who can now fund his boyish billionaire enthusiasm for space travel, and has now taken a major step toward making those kinds of trips more accessible to the common man.

The founder of SpaceX was obviously thrilled that his rocket made it off the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday following an aborted attempt. Its next challenge will be to hook up with the International Space Station on Friday to drop off a few things with the folks stationed there.Continue reading...

British billionaire Richard Branson has set all sorts of world records and is planning plenty more adventures, even if the center of the earth isn't one of them. Hollywood's resident daredevil, filmmaker James Cameron, who's also passionate about ocean and space exploration, recently plunged to the deepest known part of the ocean in a specially designed submarine.

But there is another wealthy adventurer vying for the record books: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. But unlike his brand's grand name, the intrepid e-tailer isn't planning to explore the Amazon; instead, as Taiwan's NMA TV recounts in its animated version above, he recently discovered the rockets that pushed Neil Armstrong and pals upward into space at the bottom of the ocean and is planning to bring them back to dry land, according to CNET.com.Continue reading...

Amazon today unveiled "Found new Kindles, four amazing price points," but it was the top-end of the range that's garnering the most attention.

The $199 Kindle Fire (available Nov. 15) is burning up Twitter and Facebook, with consumers poring over the just-released details of the tablet computer seen as a direct shot across the bow of Apple’s iPad.

More than 'just' an e-reader, the smaller and cheaper-than-an-iPad Kindle Fire has a 7-inch display, Wi-Fi connectivity, (but not 3G access) comes with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime and runs on Google’s Android software.

Announced at a press event in New York, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos sees Kindle Fire — the flagship device in its newly expanded Kindle line — as more than just a tablet — it's a digital hub and services platform that leads right to his store.Continue reading...

Here's the new Amazon commercial for Kindle Fire, the $199 tablet Jeff Bezos revealed today in New York to take on the iPad. The description: "Meet the all-new Kindle Fire — a Kindle for movies, music, apps, games, reading & more. Only $199."

Below, watch the commercials for the new lower-priced ($79) Kindle, whose pricing drew gasps from the reporters at the press conference; Silk, Amazon's new cloud-based browser; plus Kindle customer testimonials taped two weeks ago ... and let us know what you think of it all in the comments below!Continue reading...

Jeff Bezos may be the founder, president, CEO, chairman of the board, and owner of 20% of Amazon, but he’s also an incredibly creative, brilliant thinker. After all, this is the guy who started up the human-spaceflight company, Blue Origin, back in 2004.

New evidence of the Bezos brainpower has become public in the form of a patent filed in February (along with Amazon VP Greg Heart, to give credit to another Amazonian) to create tiny airbags that would protect a falling phone, according to TheRegister.com.

The technology would use a “phone's accelerometer to detect when it is falling, and deploying tiny airbags to cushion the impact,” the site reports. Who knew your phone has a cat-like "accelerometer"? Jeff Bezos, that's who!Continue reading...