It's back to the garage for MTV's 'Rock Band'
While many users have posted complaints of hardware unresponsiveness, the surprising shoddiness of the gear may ironically resonate with real-life musicians.
Amid a swarm of complaints regarding its unresponsive Strat controller, Harmonix has issued a software patch for MTV's Rock Band, addressing the guitar's downstrumming problems.
Wal-Mart may drive online sales with bare-bones margins
Wal-Mart economics made simple: sell it cheap, sell more of it. This strategy seems to be well-received by consumers this holiday season, but may handicap the sales of higher-end competitors.
Discount retail giant Wal-Mart is driving its sales by diminishing profit margins. A random sale item pulled from walmart.com, Garmin's StreetPilot c330 Vehicle GPS Navigator, is cheaper than all competitors by a fraction. The lowest price on most comparative shopping sites is $169.00, today on Walmart.com, the item sells for $168.88. The same product on Amazon.com costs $224.95.
Will a Black Friday sales surge spell real profits?
In the consumer electronics space, high sales volumes don't necessarily add up to high profits. But as some see it, if Black Friday pricing is well planned and executed, retailers and manufacturers both stand to gain.
Black Friday clearly turned out to be a boon for financially pinched consumers, but will this year's high sales figures for consumer electonics and other holiday gifts translate into real profits for retailers and manufacturers? Although it's still too early to tell for sure, some observers are starting to reach preliminary conclusions.
Sony's new PSP selling faster than original in Japan
Sales of Sony's new PlayStation Portable in Japan have topped 1 million in just two months, hitting the milestone two weeks sooner than the original PSP did three years ago. The updated model is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and is available in pink to attract female gamers.
Sony's handheld has been struggling to compete with Nintendo's DS, which has become the fastest-selling gaming device in history. Nintendo released two new DS bundles last week to further shore up holiday sales, and expects to sell 28 million units for the fiscal year ending in March. Sony, meanwhile, is forecasting sales of 10 million PSPs over the same time period.
Lower retail sales per person could mean higher online sales
Initial data from the National Retail Federation point to higher retail sales traffic and higher overall sales for last weekend, but less spent per person in stores - implying more consumers may be hunting for online bargains.
The National Retail Federation's initial report for US consumer spending patterns over the Thanksgiving holidays, released this morning, show some surprises for both optimists and doomsayers: While traffic for retail stores rose 4.8% over the previous year to 147 million active shoppers, a survey conducted by the NRF and BIGresearch estimated shoppers were likely to have paid less per person in retail stores over the weekend, and more online.
Will Circuit City be this year's Scrooge?
Consumer electronics retailer Circuit City is showing an early improvement in holiday sales, thanks in part to widespread employee cutbacks.
Circuit City sales this past weekend were reported to have risen 3.7% over the previous year, although things could perhaps only gotten better after its apparently disastrous 2006. The good news gave Circuit City shares a 25.6% boost in early trading this morning on the New York Exchange, though shares settled back to near their Friday lows of $6, perhaps after investors did the some research on the back end.
TiVo launches in Canada, but without HD
While TiVo is pushing new high-definition models in the United States, the company has gone up north to sell its standard-definition DVRs, with an 80GB Series2 TiVo now available in Canada.
Canadians who have desired to fast-forward through commercials and pause live TV can pick up a TiVo at Best Buy, The Brick, London Drug or Future Shop for $199 CAD. This does not include TiVo serivce, which runs $12.95 per month, although is cheaper when prepaid annually.
Can an upbeat 'Black Friday' help float 'Cyber Monday'?
Despite some gloomy predictions for a bleak sales season, the early numbers from US retailers shows a robust post-Thanksgiving retail weekend.
The initial data from leading retail market intelligence firm ShopperTrak is encouraging: Retail sales for US stores on Friday, November 23 topped the $10 billion mark, coming in at $10.295 billion - up 8.3% over the previous year, and meeting that firm's expectations.
UK government loses data on as many as 25 million people
Calling it a data breach is an understatement. The UK government has lost child benefit data on as many as 25 million people in its country, making it the largest loss of personal information ever reported.
The information was included on two discs and was only password protected and not encrypted, meaning it could be fairly easy to get at. The data includes names, dates of birth, bank account, and address details. The discs went missing from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) office.
Microsoft's next XNA Game Studio beta supports multi-player
An expedited beta period is planned for the artistic development environment upgrade, which will now enable programmers to build multi-player games for Games for Windows Live.
For the better part of the 1980s, it was the reason young people entered the realm of programming: to have the opportunity to build something worthwhile on their own on a computer, that's as much fun to make as it is to run, and to exploit that real chance of making it commercial. The greatest game programmers of the 20th century entered this industry through a back-door flung open wide...one that was shut throughout the last decade, as commercial games became multi-million-dollar productions by design.
Startup with Intel ties to launch Office Live competitor
A Internet startup with close ties to, and an existing partnership with, Intel, is planning to release as soon as next month a new online small business suite to directly compete with Microsoft Office Live and Google Apps, BetaNews has learned.
Yesterday, TransMedia's Glide Digital unit released Glide Crunch, a full-featured spreadsheet application that, while said to be cross-platform, targets Linux users. Following up on that development, BetaNews has learned that the company is looking at December availability for new enterprise and small business editions of its crossplatform office suite for Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile platforms, a product that's viewed as a competitor to both Microsoft Office and Google Apps.
Verizon Wireless' newest camera phone has a rotating display
Verizon announced today's availability of the Samsung Flipshot 3.0 megapixel cameraphone in the US -- a slightly re-tooled version of the previously available A990.
Verizon today announced the availability of Samsung's new U900 FlipShot camera phone in the US. The 3.0 Mp handset is designed around the camera functions. And its rotating 2.2" 240 x 430 display is mounted in such a way that it can swivel and lock into a position more like a traditional dedicated digital camera.
Microsoft, Yahoo continue to bleed search share
While both companies showed growth in search queries, in the all-important matter of search share, both lost as much as Google gained during the month of October.
Google's search share climbed to 58.5 percent, up 1.5 percent from September. Conversely, Yahoo and Microsoft's share fell to 22.9 and 9.7 percent, down 0.8 and 0.6 percent respectively.
Sony opens up PSP game store for the PC
Sony debuted Tuesday a PC version of its PlayStation Store, aimed at replacing the old download service for the PlayStation Portable.
Users of the former service will need to transition to the new service by the end of January. Instructions will be given to users on how to use the PlayStation Store and transfer their purchased content.
Nokia case against Qualcomm in ITC declared 'finished'
It would appear infringement cases against Qualcomm by Nokia are unraveling all over the world, as a judge upholds a decision last month to dismiss an ITC proceeding in the US.
US International Trade Commission spokesperson John Greer is quoted by Reuters this afternoon as saying, "The case is finished at the ITC," referring to an administrative judge's ruling today effectively upholding last month's dismissal of Nokia's infringement claims against Qualcomm.
© 1998-2026 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.