Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

When she wasn't satisfied with her career choice, Anne-Marie Faiola decided to make a business out of what she knew how to do best: Make soap. You could say Anne-Marie Faiola made a clean getaway from her original profession of choice: Corrections officer. In December of 1998, then 20-year-old Faiola left the justice system because "it wasn't terribly satisfying or a good fit," she says.

Rumor has it that Apple may have a big product launch ready for the 10th anniversary of its stores--and it could be NFC-enabled tech. It'd be just like Apple to try to revolutionize the shopping experience for everyone

Who says to innovate, you have to pile on more technology? Sometimes a personal touch is the game-changer

Move over massages, martinis, and manicures. RapidBuyr wants to sell you printers, pens, and PowerPoint. (Yes, we adore alliteration!) The daily deals moshpit has mostly been a consumer affair so far

Visa is trying out a low-tech location-based offers system with Gap that doesn't require check-ins or even a smartphone. It's clever, but basically is a testing ground for the coming wave of NFC purchases.

1. Wal-Mart just handed over around $300 million for Kosmix, a topic-curated social media platform that's just six years old. The new firm will join the @WalmartLabs division, trying to build-out the retail giant's online shopping experience--which is now set to get a big injection of social media thinking, and will probably leverage Kosmix's smart semantic interpretation code to come up with purchase suggestions 2

Will cash and credit survive the Digital Age? According to a new survey conducted by Mobio Identity Systems, 94 percent of North Americans would be happy to complete payments through their phone if they knew the system were secure. Most merchants and small businesses choose to only accept cash or check to avoid paying the extra fee attached to processing a credit card

Charging sales tax on Internet purchases can be a messy, nebulous issue. Case in point: You can buy the latest Stieg Larsson novel on Amazon.com without paying any tax. But order the same book from Barnes & Noble’s website, and you'll still pay the 9.5 percent tax you would have paid at a store location in San Francisco, because any company with brick-and-mortar operations in California must collect sales tax online.

Incorporating sustainability into any company's operations is a hefty issue. But it's also an increasingly popular shift to make. "It's an increasing liability to not do it," says Summer Rayne Oakes, co-founder and CEO of Source4Style , the online fabric marketplace, which is based in New York City