holidays

Web sites that promise to pay for your old gadgets look bright around the holidays, when every extra dollar can count toward new gifts or even utility bills. But are the services worthwhile? How much can you earn?

We examined nine services that pay for your unwanted digital wares. These are among the newest options to help keep electronics waste out of landfills, while uncluttering your closets.

We looked up what each service said it would pay for working iPods, PDAs, laptops, gaming consoles, and more, with cables but lacking their original boxes. For dead devices, some offer a pittance, or will connect you with willing recyclers and charity recipients. Our chart (at right) shows what each site claims it pays for specific equipment. Keep reading for highlights of the trade-in services.

We can't yet vouch for the start-to-finish experience of mailing in products to these companies. Those that find your equipment in worse shape than you estimated will downgrade the trade-in value.

If you only need to offload an old phone, look out for our upcoming comparison of sites that specialize in refurbishing and recycling handsets, including Cell for Cash, Simply Sellular, and ReCellular. … Read more

While I'm not yet sold on the idea of cell phones as gifts (really, a two-year contract is the gift that keeps on taking), I have to like AT&T's new mobile phone holiday gift finder.

It's a Flash-based Web site that lets you easily pick out the cell phones your loved ones will want based on their tastes, though I think it would be more handy for people who are looking at signing themselves up with AT&T or those looking to upgrade.

Whatever the reason you're at the site, you'll like … Read more

Animoto, a company that creates videos from a user's photos and music on-the-fly, announced Tuesday that it has added new features to its software that will turn its videos into online holiday greetings.

According to the company, the new holiday feature will use a snowscape to set the scene for the greeting and with the help of its new text feature, users can add captioning to detail events.

In order to create the holiday videos, users can upload photos using Animoto's service and click the "Santa" button, which turns the video into a holiday greeting. A … Read more

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York got "Rickrolled" on Thursday.

If you weren't watching the parade live or on TV, you probably saw the mass influx of Twitter messages: '80s pop singer Rick Astley, whose cheesy song "Never Gonna Give You Up" became the center of a corny Internet meme called "Rickrolling,", gave a surprise performance. "Rickrolling" originally started as tricking someone into clicking on a link to the "Never Gonna Give You Up" music video by claiming it was something else, like a highly … Read more

Update at 10:30 a.m. PST, with information from IDC holiday spending report.

The Grinch has made off with Christmas.

In yet another sign that e-commerce is taking a hit over the holidays, online sales growth projections for the critical November-December holiday shopping season were cut by more than half Tuesday in a survey released by digital marketing and media research firm eMarketer.

Online sales are expected to grow a mere 4 percent year over year to $30.3 billion during the two-month period, versus eMarketer's previous projection in May of 10.1 percent growth, or $32.1 … Read more

According to I4U, Alienware will soon be offering a $200 instant discount on the Area 51 m17x Notebook (which starts from $1,999) and the Area 51 790i Desktop (which starts from $1,349). This deal will be available from November 26 until December 2, and free shipping is available until December 31.

We reviewed the Alienware Area 51 m17x in September and were really impressed with its performance. However, $200 isn't that much of a deal for this kind of beast, but if you're a fan of the systems then I guess you can't look a … Read more

Update at 1:38 p.m. PDT, with additional details from the ComScore report.

Online shoppers put a stranglehold on their wallets in the first several weeks of November, marking the first historic decline in e-commerce sales, according to a ComScore report released Tuesday.

Market researcher ComScore said online shopping declined 4 percent during the first 23 days of November, compared with a comparable time period last year.

During the first 23 days of the month, ComScore said online retailers rang up a total of $8.19 billion in sales.

For online retailers, growth in e-commerce sales had been steadily … Read more

For a company that's cutting costs these days, the annual holiday party is an easy target. But there have been fewer cancellations in the tech industry than one might think.

True, eliminating an evening of eggnog and sugar cookies won't help an ailing balance sheet that much; in the current financial downturn, it has a lot to do with appearances, too. "It's the economy, definitely, but it's also a lot of public perception," said Celia Chen, a New York-based event planner who runs the blog Notes on a Party.

"People don't want … Read more

Even though it was released in the U.S. back in May of this year, Nintendo's Wii Fit looks like it will be especially hard to come by this holiday season. Forbes reports that while Nintendo has finally ramped up production of the Wii console to meet demand, the Wii Fit--a $90 packaged bundle including a bathroom-scale-sized balance board and a game disc--won't be as easy to find.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime tells Forbes, "With Wii hardware, I think we've got a good shot at meeting demand during the holidays...With Wii Fit, … Read more