There weren't as many Nooks under the Christmas tree this year as Barnes & Noble had been hoping for.

The company this morning didn't mince words about holiday sales for its line of tablets and e-readers.

"Nook device sales got off to a good start over the Black Friday period, but then fell short of expectations for the balance of holiday," Barnes & Noble said in a statement. "We are examining the root cause of the December shortfall in sales, and will adjust our strategies accordingly going forward."

For the nine weeks that ended … Read more

Apple and social-navigation app Waze might soon come to terms on a lucrative deal for the startup.

Apple is currently in talks to acquire Waze, TechCrunch is reporting today, citing sources who claim to have knowledge of the negotiations. Those sources say that Waze is looking to net $750 million in the deal, but Apple is so far only willing to offer $400 million in cash and an additional $100 million in earnouts, based on performance.

Waze is a relatively popular social-navigation app. The service has over 30 million users that share real-time traffic information as they drive around the … Read more

Samsung will, in fact, launch some Tizen-based smartphones this year, the company has confirmed.

In a statement to CNET, a Samsung spokesperson said that the company plans "to unveil a competitive Tizen devices within this year." The person didn't say how many devices would be offered, and failed to provide details on what sort of features those handsets might deliver. Those details will be announced at a later time.

The Samsung spokesperson said that the company will launch more Tizen-based devices "based on market situations."

Reports have been swirling for days that Samsung would be … Read more

IT spending around the world is likely to hit $3.7 trillion for the coming year, according to a report out today from Gartner.

The latest projection calls for an increase in spending of 4.2 percent in 2013, an improvement over Gartner's 3.8 percent estimate from last year's third quarter.

But the rise will mostly derive from growth in the value of foreign currencies versus the dollar, the research firm said. With that piece out of the picture, the actual gain would be around 3.9 percent.

"Uncertainties surrounding prospects for an upturn in global … Read more

Leap Motion, which created an innovative gesture control technology that measures users' movements to an accuracy of a hundredth of a millimeter, has struck a deal to bundle its Leap device and app store with a series of Asus computers.

According to Michael Buckwald, CEO of the San Francisco startup, the Asus deal -- under which the computer giant will package the Leap device with high-end laptops and premium all-in-one PCs, and pre-install the Leap app store on those computers -- is just the first partnership of its kind. Similar deals with other computer makers, or even smartphone manufacturers, are … Read more

As a skier, I've often wondered how fast I'm skiing when I'm skiing really fast.

Turns out it's 44.7 miles per hour.

I got my answer from Zeal Optics's Z3 goggles during a December trip to Whistler Blackcomb mountain in British Columbia. The Z3s are a new, and very expensive, breed of goggles that capture data using GPS technology and flash it on a tiny heads-up display unit at the bottom of the field of vision on the right side of lens. Zipping down Springboard, a wide-open, groomed intermediate run, the tiny display ticked off my speed as the slope steepened and the wind whistled past me.

Zeal is one of a handful of ski goggle makers selling devices that include the heads-up display technology from Recon Instruments, a Vancouver, B.C., company that's trying to bring hands-free, real-time performance statistics to skiers. The devices include tiny GPS receivers and a set of sensors to provide speed, distance, vertical descent data, and more. I also brought along goggles from Oakley and Smith Optics that use Recon's heads-up displays to test during my ski trip as well.… Read more

Sprint Nextel is about to dip its own toes into the prepaid world, according to Android Police.

Sprint will launch its own prepaid service on Jan. 25, initially offering two smartphones and two basic phones, the site said, citing promotional material it obtained. The smartphone plan costs $70 a month for unlimited talk, text, and data, although there are roaming restrictions for data use on its 3G EVDO network. The basic phone plan costs $50 a month.

The move would mark an expansion in Sprint's already significant push into the prepaid business. The company has largely relied on its … Read more

This is an update of a deal I wrote about many moons ago. Like, 19 moons.

If you're still chasing that pipe dream known as the paperless office, you know that half the battle is digitizing all your paper documents. It can be a major hassle, especially if you're working with a flatbed scanner (i.e. one that lacks an auto document feeder).

That's what makes the NeatDesk such a cool tool: it quickly batch-scans documents, receipts, and business cards, then organizes them into digital filing cabinets. Though it's been around for years, there's no … Read more

WhatsApp has a message for its users -- a lot of them.

The mobile messaging service announced today that it set a personal record on New Year's Eve, processing 18 billion messages on the last day of the year. The company said it delivered 7 billion inbound messages and 11 billion outbound messages, surpassing its previous record of 10 billion messages processed in one day back in August.

On Dec 31st we had a new record day: 7B msgs inbound, 11B msgs outbound = 18 billion total messages processed in one day! Happy 2013!!!