holiday

A battery charger is essential gear for any household with a game console (those controllers burn through AA's like nobody's business), childrens' toys, or anything else battery-powered.

Because, let's face it, you'll pay a lot more in the long haul for disposable batteries than you will for a good charger and some rechargeable batteries.

Of course, a good charger--one with features such as a heat monitor and status LCD--can cost you upward of $70 or more--batteries not included.

Today only, Amazon has the La Crosse BC-9009 AlphaPower Battery Charger for $34.99 shipped. And in addition … Read more

For this weekend, the Crave Giveaway is the Motorola Cliq. It's one of T-Mobile's latest and greatest Android phones, and it scored a four-star rating from Kent German, who noted its "great design," "brilliant display," and "easy-to-use controls and keyboard." Its MotoBlur interface is optimized for fans of social networking and media sites including Facebook, Picasa, MySpace, Twitter, and Photobucket.

Normally, the Motorola Cliq would cost you $449 (with a service plan from T-Mobile, that price drops to $199). But you have the chance to get it gratis.

So, how do you … Read more

We spend most of today's show covering holiday gifts you won't want to stuff in the stocking of someone you care about... and a few that you might.

ThinkGeek 8-bit tie

Necktie for music-loving commuters

Blacksocks — the Sockscription ™

The Cushy Tushy

Passive aggressive gifts for tardy geeks

The H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

My DNA Fragrance lets you smell like a celebrity… Read more

In our current roundup of retail-specific laptops, we've divided our 25-plus systems into four different price categories, from sub-$700 budget models to high-end ones that cost more than $1,000.

In the "Netbook" category, we looked at three off-the-shelf models that all retail for $399. While you can get a similar set of components for around $100 less if you shop around, these models all offered some kind of step-up feature, from the Gobi 3G antenna in the Asus 1005HA, to the faster Atom N280 CPU and big touchpad in the Toshiba NB205, to the exotic design of the HP Mini 110.

Our favorite from this group was the Toshiba mini NB205-N325BL, because of its excellent battery and touchpad, but we'd actually look into stepping up to an HD model, such as the HP Mini 311, or else trading down to a basic entry level $299 Netbook.

Note: For a roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

Good news, entertainment fans.

Despite proliferating media platforms and a world of choice, more people spend more of their leisure time with TV than anything else, by far. But we don't rest on our laurels here at CBS. The explosion of video available online--both premium and user-generated--has flooded consumers with an overwhelming amount of choice. And it's growing every second.

And people need a guide to help navigate these options, too. Our mission is to make it easy for them to find and enjoy our content. People don't watch technology; they watch programs. But technology has enabled … Read more

The 2009 holiday season thus far is revealing much stronger online sales figures than what was witnessed in 2008, market-research firm ComScore announced late Wednesday.

According to the company, which has monitored spending for the first 30 days of the November-December shopping season, sales are up 3 percent to $12.26 billion, compared to the same period in 2008. Cyber Monday sales hit $887 million in online spending, tallying a 5 percent gain over the same day last year. That amount also matched "the biggest spending day on record, December 9, 2008."

"We've seen an encouraging … Read more

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just a memory, the holiday season is in full swing. For those of us who like to be organized when we hit the stores, creating a shopping list is really the best way to go.

Unfortunately, though, there aren't many services that do a great job at creating those shopping lists. Too often, they provide very simple functionality. Realizing that, I've compiled a handful of services that do perform well for anyone looking to get organized this holiday-shopping season. In this list, you'll find a few sites and a few iPhone apps to check out.

Let's get started.

Amazon Shopping List Not to be confused with the company's Wishlist, Amazon's shopping list helps you keep track of all the products you want to buy.

Overall, Amazon's Shopping List is useful. It's not the best service in this roundup, but it if you're looking for simple, one-click experience, Amazon's tool provides it. That said, I should note that you can't simply add any product on Amazon to the list. Unfortunately, I could only find items that could be added in the grocery, beauty, gourmet food, and health and personal care pages. Even then, not all the products listed in those categories were capable of being added to the shopping list. It was a little disappointing. But if you're a heavy Amazon customer who shops in those categories, try it out. If not, there are some better services out there.

Boxedup Boxedup is one of my favorite services in this roundup. It makes it quick and easy to find products anywhere from the Web and add those to a shopping list.

When you start using Boxedup, you'll need to download a Boxedup button that's added to your browser (I was using Firefox, which it works well with). From there, simply go out to any online retail site and click on the Boxedup button when you want to add the item to your shopping list. Upon doing so, it's added to your Boxedup list for later viewing. You can also add items to your profile right from the Boxedup page, but to be quite honest, that's not how the service was designed and that functionality is a little suspect. Regardless, having the option to add content to your list from just about anywhere on the Web is fantastic. Boxedup works quite well. Check it out.… Read more

Despite the recession, people are expected to be in a charitable mood this holiday season, as they shop online.

In the United States, cumulative online donations to charities could hit more than $4 billion during the holidays, according to a survey released Tuesday by marketing firm Convio. More than than 63 percent of those surveyed said they plan to donate money via the the Internet over the holiday season (November 1 through December 31, 2009), up from 51 percent in 2008.

Convio's "North American Technographics Omnibus Online Survey" for the fourth quarter of 2009 found that despite … Read more

Buying a laptop, either for yourself or as a gift for someone else, is always a nerve-wracking process (even with our expert help).

To make your holiday shopping a little less tense, we've put together a list of handy laptop resources, including buying guides, shopping tips, and roundups.

Laptop Buying Guide (2009 Edition) Our basic industry overview looks at the different laptop categories, sample user types, and key components to look for (or avoid). Even better, it's been completely rewritten to cover the latest hardware and industry trends.

Holiday Tech Guide: Laptops and Netbooks Our little slice of … Read more