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Apple Stores Profit 17X More Than Other Top Retailers, Generate 8X More Revenue

Apple's brick-and-mortar stores are—by far—the most profitable of any retailer in the world. New research from RetailSails reveals that Apple is currently raking in an incredible $6,000 annually per square foot of store space.

The average annual revenue per square foot among the top 20 retailers is only $787, just 13% of Apple's. And Apple outshines them even more profoundly in terms of profit: RetailSails found Apple stores to be 17X more profitable than the average retailer.

Luxury fashion retailers dominate the list—Tiffany & Co, Coach, and Polo Ralph Lauren all make the top five—but no one comes even close to Apple's numbers. GameStop and Best Buy are the only other tech-related retailers in the top 20.

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Half of Canadian Parents Secretly Snoop Their Teenagers' Facebook Accounts, Study Finds

People complain that Facebook isn't private enough, how it mishandles one's personal information. But it seems that another privacy breach is also rampant: your own family.  Indeed, over half of Canadian parents secretly access their teenagers' Facebook accounts, according to a survey conducted by security firm AVG. This is well above the global average of 44%. ("Global," in this instance, is 11 countries.)

However, Canadian parents weren't the world's snoopiest. Than went to our neighbours to the south: 61% of American parents snoop their teenagers' accounts.

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Little Games, Big Business: The Mobile Gaming Space Can No Longer be Ignored [Infographic]

Mobile games are proving to be worth a lot more than their deceiving 99¢ price tags. As a recently published infographic titled Little Games, Big Business observes, mobile games are the most popular app category on smartphones. And these days, people spend an average nearly eight hours per month gaming on their iPhones. Plus, the word "mobile" really rings true here: people play mobile games everywhere, from school, to work, to while bed—and even in the bathroom (don't pretend you're the exception!).

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Finance Industry Goes Social, Mobile: Use of Tablets and Social Media by Financial Advisors Doubles

Doctors were among the earliest adopters of tablets, as the capable mobile devices proved a boon for the healthcare profession. Another popular channel for tablets quickly became the education sector, where the mobile devices have proved practical in numerous ways. Now it seems that the finance industry is also finding tablets handy.

According to the third-annual Financial Professionals Social Media Adoption Study conducted by American Century Investments, tablet adoption has doubled among financial advisors in the past year. 22% of financial advisors in the US now use tablets, up from 11% last year.

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Canadian Retailers Lag US in Mobile Technology by Two Years, Study Suggests

Canadian retailers lag their US counterparts by two years in terms of utilizing mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, a new study suggests. The research, conducted by the International Data Corporation Canada and the Retail Council of Canada, reveals that even Canadian consumers are ahead of their own retailers when it comes to using mobile devices—they regularly use smartphones to find product information and perform comparison shopping, while retailers are slow to adopt tablets as on-the-fly point-of-sale devices, for example.

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Canadian TV Show Leverages the Second Screen to Achieve Incredible Engagement [Infographic]

Canada’s Smartest Person is has become a truly interactive television experience. The show leverages second-screen engagement mobile apps that allow Canadians to compete and rank themselves against contestants and the nation. During the broadcast on CBC, 30,000 viewers went head-to-head with the finalists on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops using the Canada’s Smartest Person app. The app featured challenges synchronized in real time.

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Tablets Changing How People Use Other Devices and What They Buy, Study Finds

The tablet may seem a natural cannibalizer of laptops, but it seems that the emerging product category is siphoning time from many other devices and activities as well. Research firm Forrester released the results of a survey that found tablet owners engage much less with traditional devices and media.

According to Forrester, one-third of tablet owners use desktops and read printed books less frequently since acquiring their device. Further, one-quarter of tablet owners read print magazines and newspapers less often, and one in five use their MP3 players less often.

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Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Among World's Top 25 Technology Startup Ecosystems

Startup Genome has released a treasure trove of data though its Startup Compass that ranks the technology startup ecosystems of cities around the world. Most of the Compass findings focus on Silicon Valley, London, and New York, which are ranked as the top three ecosystems in the world. But three Canadian cities make the list.

Toronto is ranked an impressive fourth on the list, ahead of some notables including Singapore, Paris, and Seattle. Vancouver ranks 16th, ahead of Berlin and Boston, while Montreal squeaks in at 25th.

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