sale

I woke up this morning to a special deal from Amazon.com on a TomTom GPS device. While its one-day, 33 percent discount almost certainly has nothing to do with Microsoft's announcement that it is suing TomTom for eight counts of patent infringement, the appearance of Amazon trying to clear its inventory of the TomTom One-S couldn't have better comic timing:

I don't want to prey upon TomTom's misfortunes, however. I'm going to be waiting for the "75 percent off" sale next week. :-)

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

Somehow, CIO.com's Shane O'Neill divines that Apple's customers are dumping it in droves now that the global recession has kicked in. His evidence? A 6-percent retail sales drop in January compared to January 2008, according to NPD Group:

Apple, welcome to Earth in 2009, where premium pricing doesn't cut it anymore...We live in a time where cheap is trumping cool, and probably will until this economy turns around. That's bad news for Apple, which has no Netbook (that we know of).

This is a bold statement to make on one month's worth … Read more

One of the great things about Silicon Valley can be that freewheeling engineering culture. And one of the worst things about Silicon Valley? Yeah, it can also be that same freewheeling engineering culture.

When companies are flush, it's all grand. Beer bashes, special outings to the beach, and hugs all around between corporate divisions. But culture clash is unavoidable in companies with strong engineering traditions. And when times turn tough, the constant, low-grade tension that defines the sometimes awkward relationship between sales and engineering boils over and inevitably leads to finger pointing. We saw it happen at Apple. We … Read more

Jobs, taxes, and travel captured the interest of U.S. Internet surfers in January, marking double-digit to triple-digit gains over the previous month, according to a ComScore report released Thursday.

The number of unique visitors heading to tax sites climbed 176 percent to 24,703 in January, as users geared up for the upcoming tax season, according to ComScore.

Travel sites, meanwhile, posted a 46 percent increase to 13,028 visitors last month, as users took advantage of falling fuel prices and a desire to plan ahead for their vacations, while job search sites climbed 42 percent to 26,702 … Read more

Blu-ray U.S. disc sales have tripled in the past year, according to The Digital Entertainment Group, but there's a slight problem--Blu-ray sales are still lower than where film studios would like them to be, and there's no indication that Blu-ray sales will top DVD sales anytime soon.

The studios blame Blu-ray's performance on the economy, and claim that if we were enjoying better economic times, the format's sales would be higher.

But there's one person, Bill Mechanic, a film producer and former Fox Filmed Entertainment chief, who believes there's more to this story.

"I think it's one part recession, but there are bigger factors," Mechanic told The Wrap in an interview. "That's a misreading of consumer behavior as well as a misreading of the economic environment. It's devalued the libraries."

"If you can buy 'Titanic' for $4.99," Mechanic continued, "[consumers will say] 'Well, wait a minute...'" when they consider buying another film on Blu-ray at a substantially higher price.

"There's no rhyme or reason of what I see in the market place in terms of pricing," Mechanic said.

He has a point. Even on Amazon.com, where Blu-ray movies are usually priced at their cheapest level, there's a major difference between DVD pricing and Blu-ray pricing. In fact, an older film like "Independence Day" is currently being offered on DVD for $14.99 and on Blu-ray for $25.99. A DVD of a new film, "The Dark Knight," is retailing for $14.99 on the site, while its Blu-ray counterpart is going for $23.99.

It sure looks like DVD pricing is holding Blu-ray back.… Read more

China becomes the world's largest car market, but Ford is unable to unload Volvo there; you may get to write off part of your next car purchase; and we drop the top on a Corvette convertible. In January.

• China overtakes the U.S. in auto sales for the first time

• GM eyes S.F. and D.C. as early home runs for the Volt

• CNET Review of the Corvette Convertible

• OnStar looking for a home in non-GM cars

• New Mazda3 variants to bow in Geneva early March

How many of you weep into your downy pillows because Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends?

After all, you know that pretty much everyone you come into contact with loves you with truth, madness, and untold depth. Even the lovers you mistreat want to hang on your every happening.

You will feel giddy, then, that Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wants to help you and your unparalleled loveliness. In an interview with Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, Ms. Sandberg promised an era of extended familiarity.

Speaking of the 5,000-friend limit and the need to expand it, she said: &… Read more

Amazon.com beat Wall Street's fourth-quarter revenue and earnings expectations, as the e-commerce giant posted strong holiday sales amid a weak economy.

Amazon's revenues jumped 18 percent to $6.7 billion for the quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. Wall Street had been expecting Amazon to generate sales of $6.4 billion for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company reported a 9 percent increase in net income to $225 million for the quarter, or 52 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting a net profit of 50 cents a share, excluding stock options … Read more

At the risk of beating a dead horse, we dropped by our local Circuit City store this weekend to see if the oft-derided liquidation sales had picked up any steam. Hopefully, a couple of weeks into the CC death spiral, the discounts would ratchet up and we'd finally see some good deals.

While others have been prevented by store managers from getting actual in-store shots of the liquidation sales, we ninja'd our way through with the help of the iPhone's built-in camera, much as we did when sneaking pics of Wal-Mart's iPhone kiosks.

Many items were … Read more