holidays

IBM eyeing early Christmas for retailers

Consumer electronics retailers may be in store for some early Christmas cheer this year.

Sales of consumer electronics and appliances are expected to total $10.1 billion this November, a 4 percent rise over the same month last year, according to a forecast out today from IBM. Consumer electronics alone could ring in about $8.6 billion in sales for the month.

Looking ahead to December, overall sales from both categories should reach $13.8 billion, a 4 percent rise from December 2009, with $12.1 billion of that spent on consumer electronics. In another twist, the sales momentum going … Read more

Apple may release a FaceTime-capable iPad before Christmas

According to a report by AppleInsider, sources with direct knowledge of Apple's product plans claim that production of a FaceTime-capable iPad could be available in time for the holiday shopping season.

Although Apple has maintained a fairly predictable 12-month release cycle for its mobile devices, the source claims "that as of last month, there was an ambitious push inside Apple to verify the refresh for a possible launch ahead of this year's holiday shopping season.

Typically Apple will release updates to its iPod lineup in September (as we saw last week) and then update its Mac lineup … Read more

Are we at the beginning of a PC-gaming renaissance?

The past several years have seen a steady drumbeat of negative prognostications for PC gaming, both as a creative medium and as a viable business. High-profile releases were steered to living room consoles, with perfunctory PC ports at best, and messy DRM and hardware incompatibility made many of the remaining PC games more trouble than they were worth.

Magazines such as Computer Gaming World shut down (after an embarrassing sponsored name change to Games for Windows Magazine) and the only bright spot seemed to be the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft--even if other MMO entries found it hard to bottle that lightning twice.

No one was more at the forefront playing Taps for PC gaming than myself, having gone from a cheerleading booster to sober realist in the space of a few short years.

Yet, for the first time in a long time, I find myself much more interested in what's going on the PC side of the video game industry than the console side. My office and home laptops are suddenly buzzing with new and upcoming games, including StarCraft II, Civilization V, and OnLive's various streaming-game offerings--whereas this year's big list of holiday season console releases elicits a shrug at best, filled by the annual installments of mass-market cash cows. How did this potential reversal of fortune take place?

First, the companies that make PC games and the consumers who play them all seemingly decided it was OK to stretch the boundaries and leave their respective comfort zones. The seeds were planted over the past few years as game publishers opened the door to new ways to distribute their wares, losing the most frustrating parts of the DRM equation with services such as Steam and Battle.net (say what you will about online authentication, it works a lot better than discs, especially for those of us who like to install games on multiple PCs).

The next step was online stores like Good Old Games that offer classic games for less than $10, completely DRM-free. It's amazing how much goodwill one can build up by not treating customers like criminals.… Read more

Geek Squad wants to save me from myself

Did you know that my birthday is less than a week from now on March 17? That's also St. Patrick's Day, which everyone celebrates by going out and getting wasted. I'll admit it, that's exactly my plan for my birthday/St. Pat's.

The smart people at Geek Squad, knowing it's my birthday (because I've collaborated with a PR person there in the past), sent me this wonderful cell phone recovery kit in the off chance I drunkenly drop my phone into my beer, a toilet, or, more likely, Puget Sound. It wouldn't be the first time.

What's in the kit, you ask? Everything you need to attempt to resurrect a dunked cell phone. And what better way to show it off than with a series of unboxing pics? Because for some reason people who read tech blogs love unboxing pics.

First off we've got a generously sized Tupperware container that can also be used for storage of last night's leftover lasagna. Inside we see a handy card that features the seven key steps for saving a waterlogged handset: … Read more

Software sales slip just 1 percent for holidays

Retail software sales rang in at $278 million for the 2009 holidays, a dip of 1 percent from the prior year, NPD Group reported Wednesday. But the results were far more joyous than in December 2008 when software revenue fell by 13 percent.

Thanks largely to Windows 7, operating systems enjoyed the greatest improvement of any category for the five-week 2009 holiday season, climbing to $29 million from $10 million in 2008. Educational software also proved a popular gift for the November 22 to December 26 period, with sales jumping by 15 percent courtesy of strong titles like Rosetta Stone … Read more

Holiday tech sales dip slightly, NPD says

The holiday-shopping season certainly could have been worse for the consumer electronics industry.

Sales over the five-week holiday-shopping season chimed in at $10.8 billion, a decline of less than 1 percent from 2008 when sales dropped 6 percent from the previous season, according to new figures from NPD Group.

"The dynamics of the holiday season changed this year," Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, said Friday in a statement. "The holiday season started before Black Friday as retailers ran Black Friday-like sales throughout November. That move may have lessened the Black Friday hype … Read more

The 404 Podcast 491: Where we're all cast in new roles for 2010

We're back! Jeff and Wilson are joined in the studio today with "Kenri," and Justin chimes in from San Francisco via phone. It's back to our usual shenanigans again, and we recount our holiday break. Plus, we have an apology to make to James Cameron.

Jeff tells us about his near-death experience on the ski slopes. Listen to how a patch of ice almost did away with our favorite CNET emcee. Wilson recounts his Christmas vacation to visit his dear ole Ma. Finally, Justin tells us about how he's currently sunbathing in California, while we all freeze to death here in NYC.

With the exception of "Kenri," we all caught James Cameron's "Avatar," and boy was it mind-blowing! The film is just incredible to watch, and we're pleasantly surprised to see it bring in more than $1 billion at the box office worldwide. Wilson is not sure though that the movie is any good in 2D. The clips and trailers still look silly, so we're still recommending people catch it in IMAX 3D or Real3D. (Editors' note: please catch "Up in the Air." Two words: Vera Farmiga.)

Tomorrow is the first day of CNET's annual International CES coverage. There won't be a show tomorrow because we'll be en route to Las Vegas. We'll be hosting a live show Wednesday at 5 p.m., Thursday at 4 p.m., and Friday at 4 p.m. PST. We have some surprises up our sleeves, but honestly, we're just trying not to kill ourselves while partying it up in Vegas. If you're there, come by the CNET booth in the North Hall at the Convention Center.

EPISODE 491 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

For eBay sellers, a holiday hamster hangover

With toy store shelves and television commercials chock full of eye-popping video games and fancy tech playthings, it came as a surprise to many that some of the hottest toys this holiday season were inexpensive, relatively low-tech battery-powered hamsters imported from China called Zhu Zhu Pets. The fuzzy toy rodents manufactured by Cepia LLC, which came in models with names like "Num Nums" and "Mr. Squiggles," could barely stay on shelves for most of the end of 2009, and nobody really saw it coming.

For avid eBay sellers, it was the perfect recipe for profits--if they … Read more

Online holiday sales hit $27 billion

Holiday shoppers brought good cheer to e-commerce retailers, spending $27 billion online from November 1 through December 24, a 5 percent jump over last year, ComScore reported Wednesday.

The period from Black Friday through Christmas Eve was also bright and merry as sales grew by around 3.5 percent, even after adjusting for an additional shopping day this year. Consumer electronics proved to be the hottest selling category, rising 20 percent. Larger retailers outpaced smaller vendors thanks in part to their use of free shipping and marketing via social-networking sites, said ComScore.

The growth in this year's online holiday … Read more