Now that all hopes of getting last-minute gifts are passed, there are only two things that the Web will be good for on Christmas Eve—finding which stores near you are still open and have batteries, and tracking St. Nicholas' progress.
The Blu-ray disc was supposed to make DVDs obsolete with its high definition and all sorts of extra digital content. It hasn't. DVDs are still outselling Blu-ray discs by more than three to one, mostly because you can now buy a stack of DVDs (and maybe even a player to watch them on) for less than it costs to take a family of four to go see the latest 3-D theatrical release.
With the year almost done, and the technology industry preparing to show off its hopes and dreams for 2011 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in a few short weeks, it's time to take a look at the products that they're going to have to shoot to beat from this year. The tech industry has certainly turned its sights (at least to some degree) on the upper age brackets of the population in the last year more than it has in the past; Some of the gadgets and services introduced (or improved) in 2010 made technology more approachable for average people and even might have made life
If you're looking for a last-minute holiday gift for any laptop or netbook toting family member or friend—or just shopping around for yourself—you may want to consider the gift of volume.
The Kinect is this year's hot ticket for Christmas. Microsoft's new add-on device for the XBox 360 offers the promise of getting you up off the couch and engaged, using your whole body to play a variety of games. And there are other features that might get your interest—such as VideoKinect, the video chat system that uses Kinect's cameras and microphone to turn your television into a living room video conference with XBox-equipped friends or family.
Earlier this year, I told you about the Google Nexus, Google's brave attempt to break the model of offering phones chained to specific wireless carriers by subsidies in exchange for long contracts.
The Nexus failed to achieve that, in the end, and Google eventually pulled it from the market. But now they're trying again with the Nexus S, a smartphone built by Samsung to Google's specifications.
Most of us are used to making our TV viewing choices with a remote. But with the proliferation of online video, from full-length movies and television shows to animated shorts and viral videos, it takes a whole lot of surfing to find what to watch. It's too bad our computer can't just take us to the videos that it thinks we'd like and save us some time, right?
A week doesn't pass without another Apple rumor. But with Christmas approaching, a lot of the latest rumors may make you want to check to make sure you got a gift slip.
That's because this week's batch of rumors indicates a lot more competition for the iPad coming soon, and a confluence of events that might lead to a price cut after the holidays on the existing iPad—as Apple tries to clear the decks of inventory before introducing the next-generation iPad in the early spring.
I usually end up fielding tech support calls from members of my family, friends, and the occasional random stranger. Usually, they're legitimate questions about what software to buy, or how to make Internet TV work. When I come to visit for Christmas, there's usually a list of things my parents want tech advice about waiting for me.
My parents are pretty tech-savvy for their generation. But the questions I field from other people belie a deeper problem—a total lack of basic computer knowledge.
With the proliferation of ebook readers and ebook stores, picking the right one can be confusing. So I've put together a chart that gives the key features of each e-book store and its associated reader: Amazon Kindle, Barnes &Noble's Nook and Nook Color, Apple's iBook store on iPad and iPhone, and the Google eBookstore and its associated reader apps.