shopping

Nintendo 3DS update adds 3D video recording

How many pictures have you taken with your Nintendo 3DS? I haven't taken all that many, but I'll admit I'm curious about Nintendo's software update, available today, which finally adds 3D video recording to the 3DS' bag of tricks.

There is a catch: only 10 minutes of 3D video footage can be captured on the system at once. However, the 3DS can also record its video in stop-motion mode. Homemade 3D clay animation on your desk? Yes, except it's not clear if these video files can be exported or shared once recorded.

A few other minor system update tweaks include Nintendo eShop credit card payments for partial purchases (finally), and new updates for the Find Mii and Puzzle Swap games in the Mii Plaza. More importantly, where are the Game Boy Advance free game downloads for Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors? For that, I guess we'll have to wait.… Read more

How to save money on home theater gear this holiday season

Lots of great choices for new AV gear this year, but it's also easy to get suckered into getting more than you need.

Check out these tips and tricks to save yourself some big money this holiday season.… Read more

Tamagotchi 15th anniversary pet can still die

Fifteen years is a pretty good life span for many pets. Tamagotchi is celebrating the birth of its digital critters with a limited-edition anniversary model.

In case you missed the Tamagotchi craze, they are little egg-shaped gadgets with small screens that house electronic pets. Each one starts from an egg, and has to be fed, cleaned up after, and disciplined as it goes through its virtual lifecycle.

Bandai's Tamagotchi spawned the sale of 78 million units and taught a lot of kids about the virtual joys, tribulations, and sorrows of digital parenthood.

Tamagotchi may be 105 in dog years, but it has learned a few new tricks along the way. The Tamagotchi iD L 15th Anniversary Model features a full-color screen with new characters and games.… Read more

How to avoid sites selling counterfeit items

It's getting to be a Cyber Monday tradition: as the biggest online-shopping day of the year approaches, the U.S. government seizes Web domains it suspects are selling counterfeit products. CNET's Edward Moyer explains in a post that this year's takedown netted more than 130 such sites.

That's nearly double the number of domains seized by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security on the eve of 2010's Cyber Monday. Still, determining just how prevalent counterfeit product sales are online is not easy.… Read more

Tune in: CNET Holiday Help Desk talks laptops, Amazon sales

Need laptop advice? Want to find out the inside scoop on Amazon's deals leading into the holidays? We're here to help--live.

Tune in to the CNET Holiday Help Desk today and every Monday until Dec. 19 at noon Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern at CNET Live.

Today's show is the third of five weekly call-in shows designed to help answer your holiday tech shopping questions. This week, Dan Ackerman helps make sense of the sea of laptop deals that have been enticing buyers since Black Friday. After all, you don't want to pick the wrong one, … Read more

Google Catalogs: The almost awesome shopping app

For Android Honeycomb users, Google Catalogs could've served as an incredibly useful mobile shopping tool this holiday season.

It aggregates catalogs from over a hundred popular retailers, lets you search through and mark favorite products, and gives you links to make purchases directly from retailers' sites. It even lets you create and share visually stunning collages with friends. Unfortunately (for us and for Google), the app appears to be marred by a few performance issues that can't be overlooked.

The app's interface is beautiful, with high-resolution graphics and simple navigation. You can flip through pages with a … Read more

Google Catalogs looks great, performs poorly

The Google Catalogs app for Android Honeycomb tablets aggregates shopping catalogs from over 100 popular retailers. It lets you search and mark items as favorites, gives you links to make purchases directly from retailers' sites, and even lets you create and share visually stunning collages made up of your favorite products. However, as great as the app sounds on paper, it unfortunately suffers from some annoying performance issues that just can't be ignored.

The interface of the Google Catalogs app is beautiful. It's easy to navigate, features high-resolution graphics, and flips through pages quite smoothly. Items on catalog … Read more

Would you please pass the funding?

Just when it seems that the romantic era of garage-based startups is over, along comes San Francisco, Calif.-based Frugalo, a startup keeping the dream of having a home-based company alive.

"We are sitting in the dining room right now, drinking tea and eating toast," said Frugalo founder Michael Cieri, who sits across from the other founder, Scott Reynolds. They are working to get today's product launch up and running. A whiteboard with launch steps looms on the wall over their heads.

"We're going down the whiteboard to-do list and crossing things off," Cieri … Read more

How to get notified when prices drop on Amazon

Say you're shopping for a gift or for an addition to your kitchen gadget collection, but you need to stick to a firm budget. You can scour deals sites, compare prices, and hope for the best--or you can install the great Chrome extension That Is Worth.

For now, it only works with Amazon.com, Direct2Drive, and Steam, but it lets you set a price for any product and then receive notifications when the price falls to your acceptable level. Here's how to use it:

Install That Is Worth from the Chrome Web Store. The extension automatically opens its … Read more