polling

Not too long ago, we told you about a Consumer Electronics Association prediction that sales of some gadgets would actually go up despite the current economic woes.

The CEA said sales of flat-panel TVs and gaming hardware should do well during the upcoming holiday season even as consumers seek to rein in their dollars amid the ongoing financial uncertainty.

Whether or not that proves to be the case, it got us wondering. If you're among the many consumers watching your bank account more carefully than usual, which bit of gadget goodness, if any, will get axed from your holiday … Read more

While I normally leave the politics writing to others, this Wall Street Journal story caught my eye.

Sure, I was sucked in by the main story about how some polls show the presidential race as much closer than others. But what really captured my attention was the technology issue that was behind some of that variance.

Historically, pollsters have dialed random house phones to get their selection of voters. The problem is that more and more people, particularly young adults, don't have a landline.

The difference can be significant, as pointed out by a Pew research study last month. … Read more

Web-based polling and survey company PollDaddy has been acquired by Automattic, the company behind the Wordpress platform and the Wordpress.com blog hosting service.

PollDaddy offers free polls. (My most recent one is on this post: Five old-fashioned Web concepts that need to die.) The option to run more detailed surveys costs either $200 or $899 a year, depending on the volume of replies you've signed up for.

PollDaddy is based in Sligo, Ireland. CEO David Lenehan told me the company will be staying there and that his office becomes, "Automattic's first office anywhere in the world.&… Read more

According to you, readers, Barack Obama's an iPhone, while John McCain is a phonograph, and Sarah Palin is a Hello Kitty assault rifle.

Now, in the final installment of our presidential-race-related Friday Poll, our thoughts turn to Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, Obama's running mate. With so much attention on the other three candidates, it was a little hard to come up with our choices. Luckily, Biden's been around a long time, which gave us some good material to work with.

If none of our poll options quite hit the spot, be sure to suggest your own in … Read more

We've been covering the economic crisis in depth recently (see The tech downturn: How long and how bad?). If you're a tech entrepreneur, we'd like to know how the stories of doom and gloom are affecting you. So chime in. Answer these two questions:

Just in from GigaOm: Inside Details of Sequoia Capital's Doomsday Meeting With its Companies

In the wake of Thursday night's vice presidential debate, we return to the important question only you the voters (or you, the underage reader, or you the foreign reader, or you the felon) can answer. Since we started with Barack Obama in the Crave presidential gadget poll before turning to John McCain, we'll give first jabs...er dibs, to Gov. Sarah Palin.

Got any ideas other than the options mentioned in our highly scientific poll? Let us know in our talkback section below. And if you have suggestions for next week's Joe Biden poll, be sure to … Read more

Unless you've been living in a cave (and as comedian Jon Stewart recently pointed out, that might be the safest real estate investment around these days), you probably noticed that a little phone called the T-Mobile G1 made its debut this week.

Now that you've had a chance to glimpse the first phone powered by Google's Android software, would you plunk down for a G1? And if so, what would be the main factor motivating you to become a G1 owner?

Click here for full coverage of Google Android.

As part of CNET News' election coverage, we thought we'd turn the Crave Friday Poll to a burning question on the minds of so many voters. If the two major presidential candidates were tech gadgets, which would they be?

Last week we asked you which gadget Democrat Barack Obama would be. The iPhone (aka the JesusPhone) handily beat out the other three options, taking 43.3 percent of the vote. Windows Vista was second at 27.5 percent, Facebook third with 19.3 percent, and Baby's First Walkman last with just 10 percent of the vote.

Today we … Read more

As part of CNET News' election coverage, we thought we'd turn the Crave Friday Poll to a burning question on the minds of so many voters. If the two major presidential candidates were tech gadgets, which would they be? We'll start with Barack Obama and move on to John McCain next Friday. After all, we believe in equal opportunity (that's equal opportunity harassment) here.

If none of our poll options quite fits, in your view, be sure to suggest your own ideas in the Talkback section below. We know you'll come up with some great ones.… Read more