Gadgets

Black Friday Results are in!

December 1, 2008

It appears it just might be a Merry Christmas even with the doom & gloom surrounding the economy. I guess President-elect Barack Obama must be the Messiah, since he's already creating miracles and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Or it could just be that credit card loving Americans just don't know when to quit spending & charging.

Check this out:

NRF Survey Finds Black Friday Gets Holiday Season Off to Energetic Start
-- Great Bargains, Pent-Up Demand Drove Shoppers to Stores, Web

Though the holiday season is far from over, retailers across the country are breathing a collective sigh of relief after shoppers headed to stores and websites in droves over the weekend. According to the National Retail Federation's 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch, more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year.*

Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend*, up 7.2 percent over last year's $347.55.

Cyber Monday Amazon Deals

December 1, 2008

Amazon has a special landing page listing all their Cyber Monday deals. Amazon doesn't call it "Cyber Monday" but rather the "Black-Friday-After-Thanksgiving-Sale", so this landing page should be good until Christmas. Maybe they were afraid Cyber Monday was patented, kinda like their one-click ordering patent.

Anyway, here's the current category breakdown on the Amazon holiday specials landing page:

There are some Blu-ray DVD players for sale, including a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray Player for $199.

Posted in Digital Cameras, Gadgets, Home Entertainment, MP3 Players & Digital Audio, News, TMCnet, Video Games & Gaming, Video Hardware & Software

It's Going to be a Blu-ray Christmas

December 1, 2008

Some experts are skeptical about whether consumers will buy Blu-ray DVD players this Christmas - I am not one of them. Many are saying it's going to be a "blue" Blu-ray Christmas. I disagree. I went shopping for a cheap Blu-ray DVD player on Black Friday, with one bargain special at Wal-Mart offering a $128 Blu-ray player.

Posted in Gadgets, Home Entertainment, TMCnet, Video Hardware & Software

Force Skype HQ Video Mode with any webcam

December 1, 2008

So you want Skype High Quality (HQ) video, but aren't willing to shell out for a nice dual-core processor and a high-end Logitech camera, eh? Well, no worries - Nodewave has a Force 'Skype' HQ Video app that allows you to Enable/Disable (and even configure) High-Quality Video in Skype, and even High-Definition Video regardless of your camera or processor.

So if Santa doesn't stick a high-end Logitech Orb AF webcam (my favorite webcam) in your stocking for Christmas, then this hack might just be the way to go!

Posted in Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Digital Cameras, Gadgets, Skype, TMCnet, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP, p2p

Killing off Vampire Power for Good!

November 28, 2008

It's been called both "vampire power" and "phantom load" -- likened to the power-hungry HAL 9000 computer (at left) in Stanley Kubrick's classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

It's the little unblinking red light on the television set that is silently drawing energy from the grid; studies have shown it can add 10% or more to a household energy bill.

Now Spanish entrepreneurs claim to have invented a way to end the problem that has bedeviled energy regulators, environmentalists and appliance manufacturers. They have patented an algorithm that can detect when an appliance is in standby mode and automatically switch it off completely.

The standby-mode killer has yet to be proven commercially and must contend with other new products designed to tackle the same problem. But, despite some doubters, the Spanish inventors say theirs is the only product able to completely do away with a large, and growing, world-wide problem.

Now how about that!

Get more at the Wall Street Journal.

Posted in Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Gadgets

It's Black Friday! America's Retailers Need You!

November 28, 2008

Yes, Black Friday it is!

(And did you know about Black Friday the movie?)

And gadget retailers (and all others, too!) are looking for you to make your contribution to their coffers!

Now, I know it may have been hard (very hard), even too hard, to get up before the rising sun to hit those eager merchants at 5 AM when the best (very best) deals could be had, but there is still plenty of time today to either hit the pavement for a real physical visit or simply click the keyboard to do some stylish online shopping.

Whatever your choice, get out there and do it!

Posted in Gadgets

Making Black Friday Deals Easy

November 28, 2008

You know I scoured all of the flyers and online ads to put together a great list of Black Friday deals, but seems Gizmodo has just plain beat me to it!

So just like last year, they have rounded up and sorted through all of the real deals for you, broken down by category and merchant.

If you know how to survive, this is the only Black Friday deal list you need.

Get it all here.

Posted in Gadgets

Need more Terabytes this Christmas?

November 26, 2008

Looking for a faster, bigger hard drive this Christmas? (Two days till Black Friday sales by the way) Well, I came across this funny Youtube video of the day - filmed at famous Mac Store Tekserve in Manhattan, New York and paid for by drive manufacturer Seagate. It's a tad long, but it features a hip-hop office drama and the desire for "A new disk drive. 1.5 Terabytes...." (don't let that little jingle get stuck in your head) Just in time for the Christmas holiday season.

Also, if looking for some sweet terabyte hard drive deals, check out this list on Amazon.

Via 9to5mac.com

Posted in Accessories, Apple, Computer Hardware, Gadgets, Home Entertainment, Video Hardware & Software

HTC Touch HD

November 26, 2008

HTC's Touch HD is arguably the best touch-screen Windows Mobile-based phones you can buy. In fact, even before the HTC Touch HD, I always felt HTC mobile phones were the best Windows Mobile phones you could buy. I own an older HTC-based "Apache" XV6700 Windows Mobile with a cooked ROM upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.1 and I'm still pretty happy using it. I still consider my xv6700 one of the top 5 Windows Mobile phones available.

Posted in Apple, GPS, Gadgets, Google, Mobile Phones, Wireless

Get Ready for a Really Crazy Black Friday

November 24, 2008

The Friday after Thanksgiving is the day that all retailers look forward to -- known as Black Friday, it's the day that retailers sell so much stuff that they get into the black and are now profitable for the year. (Or at least they hope to be.)

With this awful economy, retailers are going to all kinds of extremes to entice shoppers into their stores and move those goods and gadgets.

Are you willing to get up early -- really, really early -- and be in the store at 5:00 AM to get the best deals?

And what will that be?

And will that price be a "Crazy Eddie insane price"?

We really want to know!

Posted in Gadgets

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