holidays

Three awesome ways to spend your holiday cash

Did Santa bring you cash this year? A big fat gift card? An unexpected work bonus? Whatever the case, you're probably primed and ready for a little splurging.

And on this one day out of the entire year, I'm going to recommend three decidedly splurge-y items. They're not necessarily deals (though I've found the best possible price for each of them); they're just items I've enjoyed myself in recent months.

1. A second monitor After years of hearing how great it is to run side-by-side monitors, I finally took the plunge. Guess what? It … Read more

Best hardware and software add-ons for your PC

Each holiday season, millions of computers celebrate the holidays isolated and unappreciated for all the hard work they do throughout the year. Whether you just unwrapped a new PC or you're just looking to upgrade your old standby Windows XP or Mac G5 computer, we have the perfect accessories to complement your system.

From replacement keyboards and mice to reduce typing fatigue to aftermarket monitors that increase your workspace and external hard drives for more storage space, these peripherals are a simple and cost-effective way to show your PC the love it deserves.

Accessories Best Printers Best Storage Drives … Read more

Kindle is most gifted Amazon item, ever

Amazon.com on Saturday released its annual post-Christmas statement on holiday sales and made one thing clear: the Kindle was king, perhaps fueled by continued shifts in plans for shipments of Barnes & Noble's competing Nook e-reader.

"We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

In another milestone for the e-reader, the company noted that on Christmas Day, for the first time ever, Amazon customers bought more Kindle books than physical books. The company didn't offer specific numbers for either category.

The peak shopping day for the online retailer was December 14, when customers ordered more than 9.5 million items worldwide, "a record-breaking 110 items per second."

Among those items bought between November 15 and December 19, the top electronics, following the Kindle, were Apple's iPod Touch 8GB and the Garmin Nuvi 260W GPS.

In the video game category,… Read more

You got an iPod, now what?

Year after year, Apple's line of iPod portable media players make for great holiday gifts to give and receive. But whether it's your first iPod or an overdue update, the increasing complexity of the iPod (and the iTunes software behind it) can be challenging to wrap your head around.

To shorten the distance between unboxing and rocking out, I've put together a collection of all the major iPod and iTunes tutorials I've created over the course of the year. Happy holidays.

iPod setup guides:

How to set up an iPod Touch How to set up an iPod Nano … Read more

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode: Where we have fond memories of 2009

Welcome back to another Yuletide Mini-sode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. We'll be keeping you company all season with fresh episodes, year-end wrap-ups, CES 2010 previews, and much more!

It's hard to believe that 2009 has already come and gone, but with the holidays over and 2010 around the corner, we've decided to record a special wrap-up episode to finish off the year. Lots of big changes that happened in the past twelve months, but the most momentous for the show has to be the introduction of the Tricaster and the subsequent evolution into a full-fledged video show. Of course, we have to thank Jason Howell, the man behind all the CNET Podcasts who helped us set up and troubleshoot our new equipment.

2009 also saw our first ever corporate sponsorship by way of Beck's Beer and the Beck's Beer Semi-Weekly Audio Draft in Conjunction with Beck's Beer and Last.FM, a subsidiary of CBS Interactive, or BBSWADCBBLFSCI for short. As a result of this segment, new music became an asset to the show, and we were very excited to welcome musician Andrew WK, Family of the Year, Jonathan Coulton and The Paper Raincoat into our studio for an interview and even a few in-studio performances!

Another huge change we remember in 2009 was the contest submissions for our logo competition! We asked for your best ideas and you guys answered in DROVES! We had so many (hundreds!) of the most creative and inspired logos that the decision became much harder than we predicted. We finally voted on Blake Stevenson's bubbly design, and you can now see the finished product plastered all over our studio and merchandise. Thanks again Blake!

Before we welcome the new year, The 404 would like to extend a personal thank you to everyone involved with The 404. We consider ourselves incredibly lucky to say what's on our mind every morning, and we certainly wouldn't be able to do it without you, the listeners. The three of us listen and read each and every tweet, Facebook comment, e-mail, and voice-mail, and although we might not respond right away, we definitely appreciate every kind (and constructive) message. We also want to give a big thanks to every single person in the daily chat room, Jason Howell, Bonnie Cha, Cheryl Holloway, Mark Licea, Natali Del Conte, Richard Peterson, and everyone else that helps us navigate through the rigors of a daily talkshow.

It's going to be very difficult to top 2009 in the new year, but we're already off to a productive start with our debut at CES 2010. We're broadcasting LIVE everyday from January 5-9 on the CNET stage, so come say hi if you're heading to the show! In addition to merchandise (we promise!) and a very exciting new CNET podcast, we also have plenty of exciting guests lined up including artists, musicians, authors, celebrities, and sports starts, but you'll have to keep listening and downloading the daily show to find out more.

Have a fun and safe New Years everyone, see you in 2010!

Yuletide Mini-sode - Remembering 2009 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Snowstorm blankets Web with high shopping traffic

A blizzard that pelted much of the Eastern Seaboard with over a foot of snow also led to a spike in last-minute online holiday shopping last weekend, traffic firm ComScore said Tuesday.

Online shopping continues to eat up a bigger chunk of holiday retail each year, but this season, with roads snowbound and temperatures well below freezing in some of the most populous areas of the country at the tail end of the holiday season, it was even more than usual. (Several cities in the mid-Atlantic, like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., pulled in more snow in a single snowfall … Read more

New Atom Netbooks: Strange timing for shoppers?

It's an exciting and interesting morning for Netbook fans, as full official details and even system reviews of new Netbooks bearing Intel's next-generation Atom processors have emerged.

However, does the timing annoy you?

While we've known new Atom Netbooks were around the corner for months now, the announcement hits just three days before Christmas Eve and after the last weekend of holiday shopping. Does the new Atom make you want a new Netbook or regret getting one this holiday? On the other hand, do the modest gains from the new Atoms make you want an ultralow-voltage thin-and-light with a faster processor instead, … Read more

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode: Where hackers of the world unite

While you're enjoying the holiday break, check out this very special prerecorded Yuletide episode dedicated to the most inaccurate cyberpunk movie ever to tumble out of Hollywood. Of course, we're talking about "Hackers," the cult classic film that first phreaked its way into our hearts way back in 1995.

Directed by Iain Softley and starring Jonny Lee Miller, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, and Fisher Stevens, "Hackers" tells the story of Dade Murphy, aka "Crash Override," a curious kid obsessed with breaking into virtual environments with his laptop computer. After suffering a brutal punishment banning him from using a computer until his 18th birthday, Crash is forced to dust off the keyboard when his new friends discover a "truly heinous" plot to capsize a large ocean tanker.

There's a lot to be said about this movie, but the mass appeal of it is the fantasy world that the hackers call their playground. And however ridiculously inaccurate, it gave kids a visual representation of the mythical cybernetic universe. Oh, and also Angelina Jolie.

There's tons of "Hackers" trivia, bloopers, quotes, and favorite scenes in this episode, so go rent the movie and download the show!

Yuletide Mini-sode - Hackers Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

What we craved this week

As is the tendency at year's end, this week Crave has seen several "best of" lists, including the 10 best cell phones of the year. Not to be single-minded, we also put out the 10 worst cell phones of the year. But it's not just phones, we listed the 20 most notable tech products of the year, period.

We also shared a collection of last-minute gifts you can print. If you have a printer, you now have stocking stuffers. Getting a new HDTV for Christmas? We're here to help.

Did you hear about the wicked … Read more