holidays

Digital City Episode 107: Cyber Monday, MacBook rumors, and iPads...for kids!

We're back after a full weekend of turkey-binging and shopping guilt with a brand-new Digital City podcast. Bonnie Cha bravely guest-hosts, joining Julie and Scott for some shopping wish-list picks while Dan and Joe remain in holiday seclusion.

We marvel at a recent Nielsen survey claiming that iPads are the top holiday pick for kids aged 6-12. Is this really an appropriate kid gift?

Scott debates whether he has enough energy to try EA's NFL Training Camp fitness game, and whether an NFL game called "Training Camp" that's released in November suffers from awkward marketing.

Plus, new MacBook Pro rumors, a strange sequined glove pack-in for Ubisoft's Michael Jackson game, and a close-up look at the Samsung QX410, one of the best all-around laptop values of the year, and a recent four-star reviewed product. Enjoy!

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Black Friday's online sales rise over last year

This year's Black Friday saw a healthy rise in online sales, according to stats out today from ComScore.

Cybershoppers collectively plunked down $648 million online on Friday, a gain of 9 percent over the same day last year. Thanksgiving, a day where people typically spend more time filling their bellies than emptying their wallets, saw a solid 28 percent rise in cybersales from last year, hitting $407 million.

Overall, the online holiday shopping season has been robust so far, according to market researcher ComScore, with $11.64 billion spent at e-commerce outlets from November 1 to 26, a gain … Read more

Cyber Monday, a massive marketing scam

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Today is Cyber Monday, which is mostly a marketing scam in IMHO. Regardless, you will find it worthwhile to check out CNET's gift suggestions

Angry Birds' Christmas Edition is coming soon

Meanwhile, Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 is not coming soon

Richard Branson is said to be launching an iPad magazine to compete with Rupert Murdoch's rumored iPad magazine. Branson's version will simply be called Project

A village in India has banned unmarried women from using cell phones

Lady Gaga and the Twitterati have gone silent on social networks … Read more

For sellers and buyers, a very app-y holiday

Attention bargain hunters armed with smartphones: you have the upper hand this holiday season.

Thanks to a glut of product comparison mobile apps and the now-standard practice of retailers to offer their own iPhone and Android apps for product purchasing, shoppers have it easier than ever when it comes to getting deals during what is for retailers the most critical time of the year.

This holiday season is shaping up to be the first that mobile shopping has a significant impact on retailers' bottom lines. With well over 50 million smartphones in hand in the U.S., and hundreds of … Read more

Black Friday shopping: iPhone apps of the week

This week's post is a special edition of the iPhone apps of the week. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, and though I can't help you beat the lines or navigate through the crowds, I've rounded up a couple of apps that might make your holiday shopping a bit easier. These apps are made for price-checking on the go, so you can make sure you're getting the lowest price for the item in front of you.

Amazon Mobile needs little in the way of introduction as the mobile companion to the popular shopping site, with a huge database of products so you can compare prices on the go. But I would also like to introduce you to TheFind, a new iPhone app with a unique set of shopping tools that help you get the most bang for your buck by working in tandem with TheFind.com. With these apps in your arsenal and a little luck, you might get exactly what you're looking for at prices that won't break the bank.

This week's apps are both tools for holiday shopping. Get quick access to a huge database of products and prices along with some helpful shopping tools to make your shopping experience easier.… Read more

Cyber Monday: Beware the malware

It's the Monday after Thanksgiving and you're sitting at your work computer suffering from food coma. Too bloated to get any real work done, you decide to do something that doesn't occupy too much of the brain--online Christmas shopping.

There's more at stake here than the cost of shipping and handling, though. First off, your boss probably doesn't want you to be surfing Amazon when you have spreadsheets to complete. Secondly, you could be opening up the corporate network to malicious hackers during what is known to be a particularly risky period.

Scammers are ready … Read more

Bargain-hunt with Window Shopper browser add-on

Like it or not, the holiday shopping season is upon us. Luckily for those of us who dread the thought of wandering through crowded malls and department stores with Christmas music assaulting our ears at every turn, this nifty little tool called the Internet is here to help save our sanity. Still, scouring dozens of Web sites for the very best deal on that perfect gift is exhausting on a whole 'nother level. To that end, Superfish--a visual search engine developer that just raised $4 million in funding--has created a nifty app called Window Shopper.

Window Shopper is a … Read more

Black Friday point-and-shoot winners, losers

Black Friday digital camera deals primarily focus on point-and-shoot cameras--and entry-level ones at that. While you will find price reductions on higher-end models, they won't have the large price slashes that'll get people in stores or clicking "add to cart." That doesn't mean there aren't some models worth considering, though, such as the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W350, which is our top holiday gift pick. It's going to be available from Target for $150, but Wal-Mart has it for even less than that.

After checking out BlackFriday.info and BFAds.net, I found a handful … Read more

Survey: Smartphones altering holiday-shop habits

Mobile devices will have a big impact on buying behavior this holiday-shopping season, according to a new study from market researcher IDC.

An IDC survey of more than 1,000 American consumers in September shows that mobile devices are expected to give consumers "greater advantage as they engage retailers."

Over one-third of respondents said that they plan to use their smartphones to improve their shopping experience during the holidays. They plan to "search for price and product information" in stores, as well as search for "merchandise availability." About 45 percent of respondents said that … Read more