Los Angeles Times

Getting the average homeowner to take an interest — and make an investment — in managing energy is a chronic problem for the industry. But it's the wave of the future, and utilities, service providers and a slew of technology companies are all trying to figure out how to get people to open their homes and wallets. According to Parks Associates, 17% of U.S. households will have some form of in-home display for monitoring energy consumption by 2015. By 2021, nearly half of households - ...read more

It's not just time. "Camelot" players also spend more money. The average social game on Facebook succeeds in getting between 2 percent and 5 percent of players to spend money on the game, according to Pietro Macchiarella, an analyst with Parks Associates. Most pay to get special powers to advance faster in the games or - ...read more

The average social game on Facebook succeeds in getting between 2% and 5% of players to spend money on the game, according to Pietro Macchiarella, an analyst with Parks Associates. Most pay to get special powers to advance faster in the games or - ...read more

For Zynga, recruiting players for its games is just the first step because their games can be played for free. Zynga generally makes money when it can persuade those players to pony up actual dollars, or in this case Chinese yuan, to get special virtual items or to advance more - ...read more

Google+ is Google's most aggressive effort yet to crack the evolution of the Web from a place that connects people to information to a place that connects them to one another. It has amassed 20 million users in three weeks, according to research firm ComScore Inc. The addition of - ...read more

Nonetheless, Internet TVs began gathering retail momentum this year, as 1 in 4 high-definition televisions sold in the U.S. provided Internet capability, according to researcher Parks Associates. Fewer than half of the consumers who purchased such high-end devices, or 40%, took - ...read more

Paul Gagnon, an analyst with DisplaySearch, calculated that based on the NPD figures, about 20,000 of the flat-panel sets were sold by those major retailers.

That's a tiny number compared with the approximately 7 million TV sets overall that were shipped to retailers - ...read more

The Blockbuster OnDemand service will be integrated into new Blu-ray players, home theater systems and high-definition televisions sold in the fall, and some 2009 models can be updated to be compatible. People with the right hardware will be able to access both Netflix and - ...read more

In another bit o' news about online TV, a report released today by Parks Associates estimates that 2.5 million Americans and Canadians would be willing to pay up to $100 extra for a TV if it could connect to the Internet. What they want most, according to Parks' research director - ...read more

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas -- known in years past for its outsized booths, wall-to-wall crowds and lobster dinners -- is going to be a lot tamer next month.

Other companies will have similarly somber approaches at CES, said ...read more