Holiday spending at retailers’ Web sites jumped 15 percent on Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, from a year ago, according to research company ComScore Inc.
Andy checks out three new HD camcorders from Flip, Kodak and Aiptek that come in a small package with a price tag to match. But can you get HD-quality video at a bargain price?
It was online retailers' turn to offer doorbuster sales Monday, the day workers used their spare time with high-speed Internet access to snag bargains. Retailers offered discounts up to 75 percent and free shipping. The National Retail Federation started Cyber Monday three years ago as a way to keep shoppers' interest in doorbuster sales that kick off the holiday.
Brad Spirrison: I have the attention span of an amoeba. My browser brain is physically incapable of spending more than 45 seconds reading an instruction manual. If a newly purchased electronic device is not fully operational within minutes of being removed from its box, it will linger in the attic or home office for years and decades to come. My wife loves that.
Being a technology pundit means never being satisfied with what you have, whether it's a takeout burrito or the digital camera you used to photograph it for your food blog. Traditional pocket cameras are cheap, simple and convenient. But in the end, they're built for snapshots, not photography. And while there's no limit to the sort of pictures you can take with an SLR, its bulk and heft often lead you to leave it at home, or back in your hotel room.
At first glance, one might have believed the pupils at Wredling Middle School were surfing TV or the Internet, or perhaps into some serious text messaging.
SAN FRANCISCO---- Blockbuster Inc. will start renting movies and television shows through a new gadget that may give consumers another reason to bypass the struggling video chain's 7,500 stores.
While things are tough all over, recessions are not necessarily bad times to start or fund technology companies. Microsoft, Apple and Oracle were all founded during dicey economic times in the '70s. Yet inflation and volatile energy prices did not prevent those pioneering companies from eventually cashing in on their innovations.
LONDON — Paul McCartney said today negotiations on a long-awaited deal to make the Beatles’ catalog available on the online music service iTunes have stalled.
Adny Ihnatko: It wasn't a hockey fight video, but it was a good way to get through a boring morning all the same, as I watched an online video of Oblong Industries' new "g-speak" spatial user interface and software development platform. "G-speak" is a whole new interface based solely on hand gestures. You really should watch the video (helpfully embedded at oblong.com); it's quite remarkable.
Brad Spirrison: Two Chicago companies were named the state's most innovative entrepreneurs: Harrison Custom Harmonicas and CallPod Inc. The Innovate Illinois entrepreneurial winners announced Wednesday each received $40,000 in cash from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
SAN FRANCISCO---- Yahoo Inc. shares shot up 11 percent Tuesday as investors took the resignation of CEO Jerry Yang to mean Microsoft Corp. is more likely to make another bid for the ailing Internet company.
Brad Spirrison: Less than two years after selling his 700-employee technology consulting firm Greenbrier & Russel to Fujitsu, Eric Wasowicz began shopping for a new deal. The 51-year-old River Grove native became overstocked with e-commerce ideas while instructing entrepreneurship students at alma mater Northern Illinois University. Working with the owner of national discount retailer the Bazaar, Wasowicz earlier this month opened up the virtual doors to UWantSavings.com.
Despite the dizzying array of new tech gadgets on the market, many break down frequently and are still maddeningly difficult to use, a new survey suggests. Nearly half of technology users need help from friends or professionals to set up a new electronic device or explain how to use it, according to a study released Sunday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Sandra Guy: James Edwards wanted a promotion at his telemarketing job, so when he saw a sign for a computer-training program, he jotted down the number and ended up getting hired as a part-time computer instructor. Edwards, 38, joined the program at the Chicago Commons Employment Training Center at the West Humboldt Education and Training Center at 3441 W. Chicago.
Andy Ihnatko: In the last few months the iPhone App Store has been in business and it has been possible to install all kinds of apps that Apple never considered or doesn't care about, I've discovered two that are total game-changers: AirShare and Stanza. And when I tell you that each one of these has transformed and elevated my iPhone experience, I'm squeezing my eyes shut and preparing for the onslaught of sarcastic (but entirely correct) comments to follow.
This isn't your grandfather's fireside chat. President-elect Barack Obama plans to tape a weekly address not just for radio listeners, as presidents have for years, but for YouTube Internet viewers, too. Well, what else would you expect from a president born at the tail end of the baby boom?
Chicago’s Bozo returns to television Wednesday, and if you can see him, that’s the digital age equivalent of a pie in your face.
Sandra Guy: A Chicago economist who foresaw the market-driven advantages of the Internet and who is among President-elect Barack Obama's brain trust is expected to head the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Austan Goolsbee, 39, is a University of Chicago Booth Business School professor and political newbie who describes himself as a research academic and a Jon Stewart Democrat.
Fans of Oprah Winfrey can find their hero's favorites lines at Oprah's new online store. The site, www.theOprahstore.com, launched this weekend, features most of the products that can be found at Oprah's brick-and-mortar store at 37 N. Carpenter, across from Harpo Studios.
Brad Spirrison: There has never been a better time to be a community organizer. While bringing together like-minded professionals may not catapult you to the highest office in the land, hosting or attending a "Meetup" could bring change to your career.
In the last few months the iPhone App Store has been in business and it has been possible to install all kinds of apps that Apple never considered or doesn't care about, I've discovered two that are total game-changers: AirShare and Stanza. And when I tell you that each one of these has transformed and elevated my iPhone experience, I'm squeezing my eyes shut and preparing for the onslaught of sarcastic (but entirely correct) comments to follow.
Andy Ihnatko: So many new notebooks are released every year with such subtle variations from one make to the other that it's hard to devote a whole column to each new iteration. Apple's notebooks are exceptions. Every time they retool their MacBook and MacBook Pro, it's like a new concept car being unveiled at the auto show.
Given the historic election we've all just experienced, it's hard to remember back to last week, let alone June 2007, when Barack Obama was a true underdog, polling way behind front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's when a 32-year-old ad executive came up with an idea for a new Web video.
