Holiday -- Engadget

holiday posts

Black Friday deals bonanza round up

by Laura June posted Nov 14th 2009 at 2:04PM

Thanksgiving is moving ever closer -- and we all know what that means: the day that comes after. That's right, there's nothing more American than following up a day of thanks with a day of hitting the malls, strip malls, big boxes, and virtual shops up for the hottest deals to be found this side of the Atlantic. We've rounded up a few of the more choice deals we've found on the 'net for you so you don't have to search all alone... and first up, Office Depot's got a 17.3-inch,Windows 7-boasting Toshiba Satellite L555D-S7930 for $649 and a 12 megapixel Nikon Coolipix S570 for $200, while over at Best Buy you can grab up a 120GB PS3 with three games for $300, with a host of cheap video games for Xbox 360 and PS3. Finally mammoth of the retail world Sears has a Canon EOS Rebel XS for $570, plus some of the cheapest digital photo frames around and a DVD player for $18. You're getting excited, aren't you?

Read - Best Buy Black Friday Ad
Read - Office Depot Black Friday Ad
Read - Sears Black Friday Ad

Black Friday ads leaking all over town, we've rounded them up

by Laura June posted Nov 11th 2009 at 6:02PM

The holiday shopping season is really creeping up on us quickly this year... wasn't it just Halloween the other day? Regardless, Black Friday ads revealing the deals to come are leaking all over the internet, so we thought we'd round up a few of the less monotonous-looking bargains. So what's on offer? It looks like Sam's Club has an Acer Aspire One 10.1-inch netbook going for $197, and an HP G71 17-inch laptop with a Blu-ray player for $499, an Olympus FE-4000 12 megapixel digicam for $98, and a few other odds and ends. Meanwhile, over at Staples you can snag a 500GB Western Digital My Passport portable hard drive for $70 and a 23-inch Acer widescreen LCD for $140. If you're still up to it, you can head over to Target and grab a Nikon Coolpix S203 for $88 or a TomTom XL340S for $97. Finally, it looks like Kmart's going to have a 42-inch Panasonic 720p Plasma HDTV for $550 and a 10.1 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot W180 for $99. While you're there, don't forget to pick up a Jaclyn Smith cashmere sweater set for $30, too! Hit the read links for full ads.

Read - Sam's Club Black Friday Ad Leaked
Read - Staples Black Friday Ad
Read - Target Black Friday Ad
Read - Kmart Black Friday Ad

GE builds an OLED Holiday Tree, makes mistletoe out of disused RAM

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Dec 17th 2008 at 3:04PM

The R&D-types at GE have high hopes for their roll-to-roll OLED manufacturing process, but it looks like we have a couple years to wait before the tech is cheap enough to really catch on. In the meantime, what do we have for you? How about some super-expensive digiframes and a YouTube video of the world's first ever "OLED Holiday Tree?" Man, we hope those "War on Christmas" people don't catch wind of this one...

[Via OLED Display]

Continue reading GE builds an OLED Holiday Tree, makes mistletoe out of disused RAM

Crapgadget: Dead Santa edition

by Thomas Ricker posted Dec 17th 2008 at 6:11AM

Nothing celebrates excess like a holiday murder immortalized in 10 bucks of USB-powered plastic. The Mini X'mas Desktop Snowman USB Aquarium Office Gift (really, that's the name) features a built-in motor that keeps Santa's corpse and undelivered package in constant motion. Festive, sure, but only if you share The Snowman's contemptuous glee at becoming the number one pitch man for the holidays. Hurry, only two left.

Baby Jesus and Co. get free GPS devices this holiday season

by Laura June posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 9:43PM

The baby Jesus in the manger continues to be too enticing a prospect for some sticky-fingered pranksters, apparently. We've seen GPS tech harnessed on a small scale in the past to stave off such thievery, but now the counter-attack is going national. LightningGPS and their partner BrickHouse Security have announced that any house of worship or school can rent and use their GPS devices (and hidden cameras!) free of charge throughout the holiday season to protect the baby G and his family, the menorah, and uh... Santa. Nice to see they're covering all the religious bases here.

Best Buy's holiday gift cards now double as speakers, still a lazy present

by Paul Miller posted Nov 11th 2008 at 9:36AM

Not to be outdone by Target's camera gift card gimmickry -- or perhaps to be exactly outdone -- Best Buy is offering gift cards this year with built-in speakers and a 3.5mm hookup. This is ostensibly to rock some tinny tunes while pondering how best to spend a $50 card on a $4,000 home theater system -- there's an alternative, highly discouraged usage after the break. What's absolutely clear here is the incredible margins these retailers enjoy on gift card purchases, and while we'd love to stick it to the man and buy real presents for our loved ones, we're probably looking at another mad dash on [respective holiday] Eve to gather up an assortment of cards to be accompanied by misattributed scribbles and perhaps a bow. We can't wait!

[Thanks, Oscar]

Continue reading Best Buy's holiday gift cards now double as speakers, still a lazy present

Microsoft ships red wireless Xbox 360 controller for the holidays

by Darren Murph posted Sep 30th 2008 at 10:32PM

Here's an interesting one. That red / black Xbox 360 controller that was showcased back in July is now available to any ole consumer in the US, Canada, Latin America New Zealand and Asia, and it comes bundled with a Play & Charge Kit and red rechargeable battery for $64.99. For whatever reason, Microsoft's totally missing a golden opportunity to cash in on the holiday shopping season by reserving the green counterpart as some "promotional item." C'mon guys, is it really that hard to understand how irresistible a red and green gamepad tandem would be in late December?

[Via IGN]

Jingle Bells played with graphics card, Santa wonders why

by Darren Murph posted Dec 24th 2007 at 12:34PM

As if an office full of guitar-controlled lights weren't enough to get you in the holiday spirit, along comes a self-proclaimed geek to play Jingle Bells on his graphics card. We know, it's hard to really grasp what we mean, so jump on past the break to catch a video that will undoubtedly do our explaining for us.

[Via TheInquirer]

Continue reading Jingle Bells played with graphics card, Santa wonders why

Christmas lights synced with Guitar Hero axe

by Darren Murph posted Dec 24th 2007 at 10:26AM

While we already knew Sony's mysterious Rolly got down to holiday tunes, this installation managed to capture our attention just a wee bit more. Rivaled only by the famed TSO project from 2005, this guitar-controlled setup transforms a traditional office into a holiday funhouse by enabling rockers to control the light patterns within the building. Open source software, dubbed Frets on Fire, was modified to generate controls for dozens of light strings around the cubicles, with the corner plant being used to "keep the beat" and the trash can fittingly being lit only when someone missed a note. Click on through to catch this madness in action -- and yeah, it's pretty evident the boss left weeks ago to enjoy the rest of '07 from afar.

Continue reading Christmas lights synced with Guitar Hero axe

Epson's Peanuts laptop surfaces just in time

by Darren Murph posted Dec 21st 2007 at 3:54PM

Really, what would the week before the new year be without a half-hour of Charlie Brown in all of its grainy glory? Right on cue, Epson has unveiled a Peanuts-themed laptop that should fit the bill if you weren't really feelin' its Hello Kitty variants. The machine checks in with a 15-inch display, a 1.73GHz Intel Celeron M430 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, an 80GB hard drive, four USB ports and a DVD combo drive. As if those partial specs weren't enough to satisfy, you can also count on a number of Snoopy themes being bundled in to clog up your system resources. 'Course, you'll be paying an absolutely insane amount for the privilege of owning one -- and just think, your $2,799.99 still can't get it here any quicker than January.

[Via ChipChick]

Walletex uncovers ultrathin holiday flash drives

by Darren Murph posted Dec 7th 2007 at 7:52AM

Just in case you missed the memo -- and have subsequently wondered why the mall traffic has been just unmanageable of late -- the holiday season is upon us, and there's no better way to celebrate than by picking up one of Walletex's newest flash drives. Granted, the firm only has Christmas and Hanukkah editions, but it is offering up a couple of motifs in each of the aforementioned flavors. The wallet-sized cards are available now in sizes ranging from 128MB to 4GB, and while you can snag one for you or a loved one for as low as $26.95, don't expect to store too many jingles without ponying up quite a bit more.

[Via ChipChick]

Read - Christmas flash cards
Read - Hanukkah flash cards

All I want for Christmas is my HDTV... and an Apple

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 10th 2007 at 9:42AM

A national survey of 1,200 consumers conducted by Solutions Research Group found that 3 out of 4 surveyed Americans wanted a new gadget this holiday season. The rankings went a little something like this:

HDTV (35%)
Windows-based notebook (20%)
Digital camera (17%)
Windows-based desktop computer
GPS car navigation
Cellphone
Digital video camera
Nintendo Wii
Sony PS3
HD DVD or Blu-ray player

So where's Apple, the big bad daddy of consumer electronics? Well, their best showing was the MacBook with an 11 ranking followed by the iPhone at number 15. Pretty good when you consider the level of brand awareness this represents in a field of otherwise unspecified laptops and cellphones. In fact, 1-in-6 consumers are hoping for some type of Apple gear under the Chanukazaa tree this season.

if(date == "09/13/2007") Engadget.Write("Happy Programmer's Day");

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 13th 2007 at 1:35PM

Quick: what's two to the eighth power? 256, of course, and if you knew the answer before you even had a chance to read it, we can say with some confidence that you're a ~~nerd~~ ~~mathematician~~ ~~liar~~ programmer. Programmer's Day is celebrated annually on the 256th day of the year, which happens to be today -- so reach over and give that special computer scientist in your life a big bear hug, flowers, chocolates, or a simple "thanks" for making Engadget (and pretty much everything else we care about) possible. If you're a programmer, grab another Red Bull and get back to work, playboy; we've got a list of bugs about a mile long and they're not fixing themselves.

Roombas get some holiday cheer, go caroling

by Darren Murph posted Dec 22nd 2006 at 6:10PM

Just in case that "holiday cheer" you once had has completely vanished at the thought of battling the crowds this weekend in an attempt to snag those last-minute gizmos on everyone's gift list, here's something to not only brighten your spirits, but to help you procrastinate a bit more as well. While gadgets getting their sing 'n dance on aren't anything new, a trio of Roombas breaking it down to Frosty the Snowman is enthralling nonetheless. We figured out how to give that pre-programmed Roomba its own freedom of expression awhile back, but serving up a few glasses of "robo-nog" and donning the Christmas apparel just puts this act over the top. Still, the Trans-Siberian lightfest remains numero uno until further notice. Hit the jump to see these servantbots strut their stuff...

[Via MAKE]

Continue reading Roombas get some holiday cheer, go caroling

TiVo fundraising with self-branded toasters / snowglobes

by Darren Murph posted Dec 22nd 2006 at 4:34PM

While just about everyone has experienced their fair share of ups and downs with TiVo, it's great to see the smiley TV box raising funds for two meaningful causes. The firm is offering up self-branded toasters and snowglobes (for $45 and $28, respectively) to its employees in order to raise money for the James Kim Memorial Fund and The Katrina Fund. Of course, it could be slightly difficult to get your hands on either of these adornments if you can't badge into TiVo HQ everyday, but perhaps a saintly reader could be a liaison for a group buy? Regardless, even if you're still using one of the eight toasters you got as a graduation gift or you've severed all ties with TiVo (and jumped ship), here's to lending a helping hand to those in need. Keep reading for a taste of TiVo toast...

[Via PVRWire]

Continue reading TiVo fundraising with self-branded toasters / snowglobes