Hasta La Gadget!

Hmmm, normally, one would take to social media to spread the word on a particular event or happening at the lowest cost possible, but it seems as though this Black Friday, social media proved to be far from effective. In an IBM study, it discovered that shoppers referred from social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube generated a mere 0.34% of online sales on Black Friday itself, which is a huge drop from the minimum of 35% in the year 2011. You might be wonder, just what role did Twitter play throughout Black Friday? Fans of the little blue bird will be upset to hear that Twitter did not contribute anything at all to the bottomline.

Of course, there is no point in reading too much into a survey or study, as there are many othe parameters that one needs to be aware of when conducting such a study. Perhaps shoppers already did their homework beforehand this year, and did not need to ask around on which shop or what item to pick up. However, shoppers relied on social media to express satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with their purchases.

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It is a well known fact that Apple’s brick and mortar stores have done a whole lot when it comes to selling stuff for Cupertino, and Microsoft, too, has decided to take the plunge into physical stores recently, even working on a blueprint for a possible European release. Well, HTC, the smartphone company from Taiwan, is not doing too great in recent times, and this could be part of the reason why there are whispers going around that HTC themselves intend to emulate Apple in terms of opening up actual retail stores.

In fact, the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer recently inaugurated its first store-within-a-store in Hamburg, Germany. Actually, this is a pseudo-HTC Store, as in reality, it is a special HTC area located within a Saturn electronics shop. This store-in-store formula is not a new idea, since it has been given a go before by Samsung in the UK. Lower operating costs for a greater commercial presence to sway the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers? Perhaps it will work, but a whole lot of the war is waged over advertisements, word-of-mouth, and of course, reliable products that deliver as promised.

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Hordes of Nexus 4 hopefuls cringed after receiving an email stating that their order had been delayed due to the overwhelming demand for Google’s latest purebred smartphone. While some folks opted to cancel their purchase in hopes of buying the handset elsewhere, those who chose to weather the storm are in for some good news. Google is now sending out emails advising customers that their order will go out sometime this week and that it will provide tracking details once a device officially ships out. If you’re among those who hunkered down and exercised patience, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your inbox, as there may be a precious gem in your junk mail folder resting somewhere between messages from a Nigerian Prince who desperately needs your help.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

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There is just something about the wonders of miniaturization, and what happens when a geek decides to work on an extremely small arcade cabinet? The kind of computing power that he needs to fall back upon would be rather limited, but this is where the unique and versatile Raspberry Pi (which is due for an update with a camera, by the way) comes in handy. Sure, the Raspberry Pi is definitely far from being the most powerful computer in the market, but it does pack more than enough punch to handle classic arcade-style video games. Not only that, since it has a size that is smaller than a deck of cards, the Raspberry Pi made the perfect fit to run a tiny arcade cabinet.

Attached to the Raspberry Pi is a 2.4-inch 320 x 240 pixel LCD display, where it was built with a custom case in tow to make the entire shebang resemble that of a classic video arcade cabinet. When loaded with the MAME video game emulator software, you know you are in for an ass kicking time – Double Dragon 2, here we come! Other hardware specifications include itty bitty speakers, a joystick and a quartet of buttons, not to mention a small 128 x 32 pixel OLED display which is located right above the screen, telling you which game is loaded at the moment.

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It did not take too long for the larger sized Archos 97 XS to arrive at the FCC, taking less than a week after its sibling, the Archos 80 XS knocked on the doors of the FCC. Needless to say, it does not take a genius to figure out just what kind of screen size the Archos 97 XS packs – we are talking about a 9.7-inch display, but other than that, details on the Archos 97 XS remain scant, so we do hope to fish for leaks somewhere on the Internet.

What we do know, however, is that Archos relies on a TI OMAP processor for their 10-inch Archos 101 XS, while inside the 8-inch Archos 80 XS, a Rockchip processor runs underneath the hood. Hence, it remains unclear as to whether the Archos 97 XS will rock to the Texas Instruments or Rockchip camp. Some of the safer assumptions that one can make would be this – the Archos 97 XS will, in all probability, ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on board, although who are we to say that Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is not out of the picture? Since the other XS tablets come with built-in kickstands, it would also make sense to see the Archos 97 XS follow suit.

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