gadgets

Consumer electronics retailers have good reason to be scared right now, and it has nothing to do with Halloween.

Retailers typically do one third of their annual sales between October and December, and this year's holiday shopping season is not on track for big gains, according to an analyst firm that follows the industry and interviewed shoppers. In fact, the outlook is pretty bleak.

The NPD Group says it is expecting a 1 to 3 percent decline in sales for the approaching holiday shopping season for tech retailers. And that's unfamiliar territory for an industry that's been … Read more

Sony has announced it has finally retired the Walkman cassette tape player, marking the end of one of the most successful consumer gadgets of all time.

At least it outlived disco.

By today's standards, the Walkman was clunky. The plastic tape player required frequent replacing of two AA batteries. There was no shuffle. There was no storage to speak of. It could play only the number of songs on the tape. Jumping to a new song tasked an owner with fast-forwarding, an inexact process that meant repeated stops to find the start of the desired tune.

But until July … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--Cell phones in Japan have long been more advanced than what we can get in the U.S. Watching TV, filming video, paying for groceries with a mobile phone--none of that is new here.

But there are still some cell phones that are too futuristic even for here. We scoured the halls of Makuhari Mess here at Ceatec 2010 and found a variety of phones and some accessories that are intended to be prototypes or design concepts.

Some seem more realistic than others, like this dual-pane device from Fujitsu. It's a flip phone with two touch screens that … Read more

Impossibly thin televisions, wireless HD video systems for the living room, and TVs that respond to gestures instead of a remote control were all things seen first at Ceatec, the annual gadget extravaganza outside Tokyo.

The show's well-earned reputation as a peek into our gadget future remains intact as Ceatec 2010 kicks off Tuesday. It's guaranteed to be full of some of the geekiest stuff you've ever seen, along with some fantastically designed gadgets, and a mostly realistic look into what the rest of the world will some day be buying for their homes, backpacks, and cars. … Read more

I am always suspicious that those who design surveys are looking for particular, amusing answers.

So I am delighted that those who designed a gadget-conscious study for PC Tools chose to offer respondents some very cerebral choices.

Essentially, PC Tools was looking to see just how deeply the need to be plugged in online had penetrated human psyches. So they willfully probed into scenarios from which others might have shied, which, coincidentally made for a searing analysis into the state of the American nation.

Here is the state of society, neatly encapsulated in one single finding: more people believe that … Read more

Click, send, call, text, Like, tweet, undo, reset, delete... it just doesn't end. Which is why a couple of marketing guys are dubbing September 18 "No Device Day" for consumers who might be too involved with their gadgets.

Though the idea of dedicating an entire day to shutting devices off may seem silly (or virtually impossible) to some, Mark DiMassimo, CEO of ad firm Digo, and Eric Yaverbaum say they believe Americans need to be reminded to turn off their electronics from time to time. Thus, their "lifestyle intervention."

They didn't randomly choose September 18 for the latest installment of the larger Offlining ad campaign, though. It's also Yom Kippur, considered by many Jews to be the holiest day of the year. On this day, also known as the Day of Atonement, observant Jews disengage from things like playing on their BlackBerrys, as well as other daily activities like writing, playing instruments, and even eating.

DiMassimo and Yaverbaum are applying the same tradition to No Device Day, but here's their shtick--"You don't have to be Jewish..."… Read more

Record-breaking heat in San Francisco earlier this week got me thinking about the effect of temperature and other external conditions on portable electronics. Most gadgets weren't designed to withstand extreme heat or cold, or to fend off excessive moisture (with some notable exceptions). With that in mind, I've compiled the following tips to help you keep your tech in good working order.

It may already be nearing the end of August, but many of us still have several warm, sunny weeks left. During that time, DON'T leave your cell phone, MP3 player, or other portable device in your car all day long--especially in direct sunlight. (In this city, doing that is just begging to have your car window smashed in, as well.) Gadgets, like prescription meds, are best kept at room temperature. Exposing them to extremes can damage the internal hardware, causing system malfunctions and general user unhappiness.

If you're wondering about the limitations of your device, DO check out the packaging; most electronics call out an appropriate temperature range in the specs. For example, the iPod Touch is guaranteed operational between 32 degrees and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. As you can see, the upper end of that range is not all that high. From what I've been told, many parts of the country also dip well below freezing some months of the year, so heed this advice in the winter as well. (Or just spend November through March in California--it's totally affordable, I swear.)… Read more

If you're looking to bring a little levity to your morning cup of tea--and who isn't?--you'll appreciate this fun infuser from RSVP International. The infuser is made of 18/8 stainless steel. Fill it with loose tea leaves and drop it in your hot water. Then, when your tea has brewed the proper amount, there's no need to fish around for the infuser or to dirty a spoon. Simply lift Ducky out and place him into his handy drip cup. It's about $10 online, and makes a cute gift for any tea lover.

Ducky … Read more