Filed under: Consumer Ally America may have invented the Internet, but more than 100 million American lack access to broadband and its accompanying economic benefits, according to a new report from the Federal Communications Commission. Some 26 million Americans in largely rural areas across the nation lack high-speed connections to the Internet, the FCCs Broadband Progress Report to Congress found, cutting them off from broadband-based jobs and other economic opportunities. Continue reading Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband’s Economic Benefits Millions of Americans Lack Access to Broadband’s Economic Benefits originally appeared on WalletPop on Wed, 25 May 2011 12:00:00 EST.

Filed under: Recalls , Consumer Ally , In the News For a third time, Hewlett-Packard Co. expanded a recall of its laptop batteries for HP and Compaq notebook computers — this time, 162,600 batteries are affected — after continuing to receive reports of the batteries overheating and burning consumers. The computer giant announced the recall expansion on May 27 through the U.S.

Filed under: Economy , People The ownership groups of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins recently held a panel to discuss ways of lowering ticket prices for the average fan — and came up with virtually nothing. Really, fellas?

Filed under: Company News , Technology , Earnings , Google , Microsoft , Apple , Baidu Inc , Yahoo , Stocks in the News Google’s shares have fallen 15% in the last three months while the S&P 500 has traded flat. This share price decline seems odd when contrasted with the spectacular success Google ( GOOG ) has been experiencing with its Android mobile OS. Android has proven so successful that it has moved from smartphones to tablet PCs to laptops, and its market share has surpassed that of Apple’s ( AAPL ) iOS, according to several studies

Filed under: Food Even if you pick a relatively spendy brand, brewing coffee at home has always garnered a huge savings over buying it already brewed and milked and sugared. It’s the frugal choice, and still will be, but if your favorite brand is one sold by Starbucks, it just got a little less frugal.