friday

It appears online retailers will have more to be jolly about this holiday shopping season.

Consumers in the U.S. spent $816 million online on Black Friday, a 26 percent increase over 2010's Black Friday, according to ComScore data released today. The results buttress numbers released Saturday by IBM Coremetrics that showed online sales on Black Friday grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year.

Some 50 million visited online retail sites Friday, a 35 percent increase over last year, ComScore reported. Excluding auction sites such as eBay, the most visited retail site was Amazon, … Read more

I've never been tempted to fight the hordes on Black Friday, for I feel sure the hordes would win.

Yet the stories you hear about Black Friday craziness can never match up to the actual footage. So I am grateful to Mashable for discovering this piece of footage from a Wal-Mart in Mesquite, Texas.

These supposedly sane human beings are fighting, clawing, crawling over each other in order to get hold of what seem to be DVDs and video games.

The boxes at which they are grabbing like lions tearing at a deer carcass say "$10 while supplies … Read more

I've received so many great-sounding Blu-rays over the past couple of months, I had to put together a Top 10 list.

A lot of them didn't make the cut; just because a Blu-ray has a high-resolution soundtrack doesn't automatically mean it sounds great; the variables of the original recordings and mixing can make or break the sound. For example, Tom Petty's "Mojo" Blu-ray doesn't sound much better than the CD version of the same music, but it does have an uninspired 5.1 surround mix. All of the following discs are distinctly better … Read more

Apple's iPhone and iPad helped make mobile devices a key driver of Thanksgiving and Black Friday e-commerce this year, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.

Online Thanksgiving shopping grew by 39.3 percent year over year, creating momentum that continued into Black Friday, where online sales grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said the report (PDF).

And Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker, who embraced his or her mobile device as a research tool for in-store and online bargains. Mobile traffic came close to tripling year over year, … Read more

Some say that the competitive spirit in America had died.

Those people are surely turning a blind eye to the places where Americans are showing that winning still is truly everything.

Last night, for example, at the Wal-Mart in the Porter Ranch section of Los Angeles, there were reportedly many shoppers ready to vie for the finest electronic bargains.

The way the Los Angeles Times disseminates it, one lady shopper showed that she would not be defeated under any circumstances. She allegedly got out her pepper spray and showed the rest of those wusses who was Queen of the Electronic … Read more

It's that time of year again.

If you're in the market for networking devices to upgrade your home's media-streaming capabilities, Black Friday is a great opportunity to fulfill that desire. As with everything else, not all networking devices are created equal. In fact when it comes to wireless routers, it's actually a better deal to pay the full price for one that works than getting a lemon for cheap.

But we're talking about getting the one that works for cheap here. And while I can't advise you on how great of a deal you'… Read more

A story on CNET's top tech turkeys rounded up the 2011 technology equivalents of dropping a Thanksgiving turkey on the floor right in front of a slobbering mastiff while your in-laws look on in horror.

We've had some spectacular tech fails this year ranging from the mildly disappointing (what, no iPhone 5?) to the epic (Sony PlayStation Network hack).

Hundreds of thousands of subscribers jumped ship from Netflix after it flailed around with big price increases and the stunningly ill-thought-out Qwikster spin-off. Now Netflix's stock is taking a nosedive.

RIM got red in the face after a multiday outage of the BlackBerry network that impacted customers around the world. That didn't help the company's reputation after RIM's quiet year on the hardware front.… Read more

Say, for the sake of argument, you haven't done all of your holiday shopping yet. If you're in the market for gear from Apple, then you might want to consider the discounts the company is offering today.

Today is, after all, Black Friday, the massive consumer spending spree that puts the jingle in many a retailer's cash register. Why should Apple be any different? As the retailer with the best sales-per-square-foot ratio, it can surely afford a few dollars off, here and there.

Apple's Black Friday discounts, which are in effect for today only, cover a … Read more

The number of cameras available this holiday season is ridiculous.

Even if you have a price point in mind there are probably a dozen or more models to pick from with different features and body sizes. Fortunately for you, we've tested and reviewed many of them, so you don't end up getting a camera that's a poor fit for your gift recipient.

Whether you're shopping for someone's first camera, looking for something for the whole family, or eyeing a model for your favorite creative photographer, we've rounded up your best bets.

If you're … Read more