christmas

If you aren't completely sick of the "Gangnam Style" phenomenon, there's a new video entry vying for your affection. This one features a light show that would draw attention and eyeballs even if you plunked it down in the heart of Las Vegas.

The ambitious choreographed LED display comes to us from a Christmas light-obsessed guy named John Storms in Texas. Last year, Storms built a display that danced to the Angry Birds theme.… Read more

Between crowded airports, winter delays, and luggage loaded with gifts, holiday travel can be stressful. But with a little planning, you can make your trip a little easier from start to finish. So rather than gathering up a collection of apps that help you book flights, we decided to make a different kind of travel collection.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- A device to call your mom when you crash your bike.

- Stop the madness: 3D-printed headphones?!

- A jacket that hugs you for getting "Likes" on Facebook.

- Target adds QR codes to hot holiday toys for secret shopping.

- Also, New York is about to have QR codes everywhere soon.

Bathroom break video: Salt Lake from Lance follows up… Read more

If you used an iPhone or iPad to buy something online on Christmas, you had plenty of company.

Among all online purchases made on Christmas Day, 7 percent were done through an iPad and 6.4 percent through an iPhone, giving iOS devices 13.4 percent of all online purchases that day.

Eyeing online sales across 500 retailers on December 25 and 26, IBM's latest holiday benchmark report found a surge in cybershopping from mobile devices.

Android devices accounted for 5 percent of all online purchases on Christmas Day. And moving to the next day, the iPad again led … Read more

iOS and Android both saw a huge number of device activations on Christmas, but Apple may have outshined its mobile rival by about 1.6 million, says Fortune columnist Philip Elmer-DeWitt.

Following the trail of breadcrumbs to arrive at his estimate, Elmer-DeWitt first pointed to a Tuesday report from mobile analytics firm Flurry. iOS and Android devices combined generated 6.8 million activations on December 25, according to Flurry.

Then yesterday, Andy Rubin, Google's senior VP for mobile, revealed that 3.7 million Android devices were activated the weekend of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And on December 20, … Read more

U.S. consumers spent a total of $35.3 billion online this holiday season, hitting a record for holiday sales, ComScore said today.

The 56-day holiday shopping period from November 1 to December 26 marked a 15 percent jump in spending over last year's season. The week ending December 25 alone saw $2.8 billion in online sales, a rise of 16 percent compared with the same week last year.

And the spending spree continued on into Christmas Day.

On December 25 there was a surge in sales of digital content and subscriptions, an area that includes downloads of … Read more

Google and its Android partners had a lot to cheer about this Christmas.

In a tweet touting the holiday numbers, Google's Android honcho Andy Rubin said 3.7 million Android devices were activated the weekend of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

As Rubin explained in a Google+ post last week, activations refer strictly to the number of new devices (not resold ones) that Google records subscribing to a mobile service.

This news--directly from the mouth of Google--follows yesterday's report from Flurry that Apple iOS and Android devices combined recorded 6.8 million activations on Christmas Day alone. That … Read more

A few months ago we checked out a tribute to "Star Wars" by two old floppy drives. And although it's after Christmas, we thought we'd inflict some seasonal hardware harmonies on your eardrums.

Drumming is the theme with this project from YouTube user BD594 in Toronto. BD has rigged an old HP flatbed scanner and a robotic snare drum to crank out a charming version of the Christmas classic "The Little Drummer Boy."

Check out the vid below. The duo is no Bing Crosby and David Bowie, but it's quite a feat considering … Read more

If Ford engineers had their way, Santa Claus would be delivering packages to all the good girls and boys on Christmas Eve in a Ford sleigh concept.

The muscle car-inspired, bright-red, concept sleigh is powered by a 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine and boasts 125 horsepower, with 170Nm peak torque (with 200Nm overboost)--giving it the highest power density of any Ford production engine to date.

Ford engineers apparently presented the concept sleigh design to Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with its environmental and cost-saving advantages.

Each Christmas Eve, Jolly Old St. Nick reportedly circumnavigates the globe--124,421,727 miles--in a … Read more