friday

Holiday sales: How low will HDTV prices go?

Is it too early to look forward to holiday price drops while you wait to buy a new HDTV? Not if you're in the market for a no-name model, according to DealNews.com. The site predicts that plasma TV prices on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that kicks off the holiday buying spree, will fall to as low as $499 for a 42-inch model and $699 for a 50-incher. Meanwhile a $149 Blu-ray player may be in the offing, again from a no-name brand, along with $10 Blu-ray discs.

The upcoming DTV transition will help contribute to the price drops, according to the article, and as usual, plasma is less-expensive than LCD on an inch-for-inch basis. "LCD prices will remain higher than plasma, but they'll still dip considerably, with generic 42-inch 720p LCD HDTVs going for $599. Additionally, look for name-brand 46-inch or 47-inch 1080p LCD HDTVs to hit $799, and larger 52-inch 1080p HDTVs to drop to $1,199."

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Friday Poll: Is Obama the iPhone?

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

Friday Poll: Which summer movie hit the comic book mark?

When Crave editors Leslie Katz and Erica Ogg asked me to mastermind the inaugural Crave Friday Poll™, my first reaction was, "Get the hell outta my office! I'm trying to sleep in here!!" After a visit from HR and a few tears--mostly on my part--I agreed to come up with something.

I suggested the "Best Comic Book Movies of the Summer." Thing is, comic book movies are way too mainstream these days to be considered "geeky." Also, The Dark Knight would predictably clean up, followed by Iron Man and then everything else.

So … Read more

The 404 144: Where we just got Rickrolled, f'real

It's not easy doing a show after a trench-coated troubadour walks in wearing a pair of sunglasses, and starts to sing "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. A singing telegram... That's right, folks, we got a live Rickroll! Wow, it's pretty hard to follow that up with an equally funny and disturbing show, but we try our hardest, 'cause hey! It's Friday. On today's episode, we exonerate Andy Dick for his underage groping, analyze some strange statistics, and Jeff tells us about his favorite thing to do on a sunny Saturday … Read more

Virtual personal assistants make life easier

Too busy to book airline tickets, order takeout food, or call your parents? For $19 per month, virtual personal assistants from AskSunday.com will run 10 such errands for you.

Welcome to the world of online errand outsourcing, where on sites like AskSunday.com and GetFriday.com, ordinary people can get assistance with everyday tasks, for a small amount. SFGate recently ran an Associated Press article on the phenomenon, citing the growing number of Web sites that are making it easier to outsource virtual errands overseas to countries like India, China, and Bangladesh.

Some of the more unusual tasks handled … Read more

MySpace fans should give Qbox a try

A follow-up to my previous post on Qbox: they fixed whatever was preventing the player from playing songs embedded in MySpace pages, and I can now happily recommend it anybody who frequently listens to music on MySpace, Bebo, or YouTube.

A quick recap: the Qbox Web site lets you conduct searches for artists across MySpace, Bebo, and YouTube simultaneously. When results appear, you click a small play button on the Web page and the Qplayer launches and begins playing the song or video. You can conduct other searches and add them to your currently playing list, mixing audio and video … Read more

Circuit City's holidays not so happy

Circuit City posted a steep quarterly loss on Friday and warned the operating losses will continue into the current quarter, which includes the bulk of the holiday shopping season, traditionally when retailers make most of their money.

"We are very dissatisfied with our third quarter results," Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover said in a statement, adding that the company saw fewer sales of profitable items like accessories, services, and extended warranties.

"We believe that these issues are primarily self-induced and are within our control to improve," he said.

I can't say I was surprised … Read more

Episode 624: I can has monopoly?

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How sustainable is Black Friday?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, kicking off the 2007 holiday-shopping season...apparently in full force.

As you are probably aware, Black Friday is the term in the U.S. for retail shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday refers to online shopping on the Monday following Thanksgiving.

These have become milestone shopping days that retailers use as indicators for the health of the holiday-shopping season. While they are often referred to as the busiest or even biggest shopping days, they are quite often trumped by other days leading up to Christmas.

Retail, probably more … Read more