Cablevision will offer a WiFi-only mobile-phone service called Freewheel to customers in the New York metro area starting next month with unlimited data, talk and text that will cost $9.95 for its broadband Internet subscribers and $29.95 for anyone else.

As it rolls out ambitious plans for Mobile Order & Pay and ramps ups plans for mobile delivery, Starbucks yesterday named technology industry veteran Kevin Johnson, who has been a director of the company for six years, to be its president and COO starting March 1. Profits were up 82% on a global comparable store sales rise of 5% for the quarter ending Dec. 28.

Melvin Gordon, who led Tootsie Roll Industries on a highly successful, fiercely independent and obsessively tight-lipped journey for more than 50 years after his wife Ellen inherited the candy maker from her father, William Rubin, died Tuesday at 95. Ellen, 82, was named to succeed him as CEO and chairman in a document filed with the SEC yesterday; she is also COO of the company.

In another expansion of its financial services offerings, Walmart says it will dole out cash to consumers for both federal and state tax refunds of up to $7,500. The Walmart Direct2Cash program is a partnership with 25,000 tax-preparation locations nationwide that "allows consumers to 'skip the check,'" according to the retailer.

Amazon said yesterday that it would produce about a dozen movies a year for theaters that it will then release to its Amazon Prime subscribers a mere month or two later, upending the traditional Hollywood window of 39 to 52 weeks from larger than life to streaming device.

Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" took in $90.2 million domestically over the weekend - with another $15 or so million expected today - setting records for a January opening and for a drama in any month. Disparaging tweets by director Michael Moore and actor Seth Rogen, meanwhile, garnered more headlines and touched off culture-war skirmishes that, if nothing else, will sell even more tickets.

Google Glass blacklisters, haters and fashion police, rejoice. As of Jan. 19, Google is "closing the Explorer Program" it announced in a Google+ post yesterday afternoon. Google Glass fans, defenders and fashionistas, rejoice. It's doing so to "focus on what's coming next."

Strapped for cash with its turnaround plan sputtering - Weird Al Yankovic's "Toyland" holiday cheer notwithstanding - RadioShack is considering a bankruptcy filing as early as next month, the "Wall Street Journal" reports in a story that is generating angst among common shareholders, not to mention nostalgic geeks.

After slipping behind Under Armour in the sportswear market earlier this year, No. 3 Adidas is launching an all-out effort to show it has got game in the U.S. market and will use popular athletes in mainstream sports to make itself relevant to consumers here.

Even as gas prices hit their lowest points since the recession in 2009 and with experts predicting oil could go below $40 a barrel in coming months, the North American Auto Show opened in Detroit yesterday with lots of buzz about electric cars that will be hitting the road soon with more than twice the roving capacity of the current affordable offerings.