Hasta La Gadget!

Here in the U.S., the biggest two shopping days of the year are Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as people start to shift into the holiday gift-giving spirit  after Thanksgiving. In China, an offbeat holiday called Singles Day has become an insanely popular time for shopping. In fact, holiday discount shopping was so popular this year, that shipping companies couldn’t keep up with all of the gifts being purchased and shipped.

The biggest example is Chinese online retailer Taobao, who did a record 19.1 billion Yuan (~$3.06 billion USD) in sales on a single day, and their website saw approximately 10 million unique visitors in the first minute of holiday shopping. It’s estimated that over 105 million orders were placed with Taobao on 11/11. This mass influx of online orders overwhelmed delivery companies as you can see in the pictures shown here.

Shipping carriers are still digging out from the literal mountains of packages shipped during the holiday, and it could be as much as a month before the delivery infrastructure can catch up. Can you imagine the chaos here in the states if the same thing happened with last-minute Christmas orders?

[via ChinaSMACK]

Amazon has announced a new service further proving that you can buy just about anything from the massive online retailer. The new services called Amazon Wine, and as you can imagine, the service will ship wine to certain states. However, Amazon isn’t stockpiling a huge inventory of wine and then shipping bottles out directly. Rather the wine is purchased through Amazon, and then shipped directly from the vineyard.

Wine services are available in California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Washington, D.C. Presumably, the limited availability has to do with laws in various states governing the shipment of alcohol from outside of the state. Amazon says that more states will be participating in the program soon.

Naturally, to purchase the wine requires that the buyer be at least 21-years-old. If somehow a kid should happen to figure out how to get around that purchase requirement, the packages won’t be delivered unless someone at least 21 or older is home to sign. Amazon is charging $9.99 to ship up to six bottles of wine and Prime Shipping rates are not available for the wine service.

[via CNET]

If you’re one of the many people who pre-ordered Microsoft’s Surface with Windows RT, you could be getting your tablet just in time for its official October 26th ship date — and perhaps even before then. According to a few reader tips and a confirmation email sent to WP Central, those tablets are indeed in the shipping stages and could arrive as early as next week depending on your selected delivery method. While there have been reports of delays in UK and Canada, those were apparently incorrect, and we have no reason to believe the US shipments won’t be on time. That said, if you haven’t pre-ordered and you want one soon, you better get a move on — Microsoft’s store currently shows that Surface RT with touch cover bundles are shipping in one to two weeks while standalone units are set to ship in three weeks. Or maybe you can cross your fingers and hope you’re one of five million to find one gift-wrapped under the tree.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

Pre-orders for Microsoft Surface with Windows RT start shipping originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest and greatest 5th generation iPod touch, with its 4-inch Retina Display and new multi-colored aluminum backs, is reportedly preparing to ship out, according a couple different sources. First, MacRumors reports that pre-order customers are seeing their order status turn to “Preparing for Shipment,” and separately, Japanese Apple-watching site Macotakara reports that Apple will begin selling both the new touch and the new iPod nano starting October 9 in Japan.

One customer is also reporting that his credit card has been charged, according to MacRumors, which generally means that the shipping process is underway. yesterday, estimates in Australia changed from October to an estimated wait time of “3 weeks,” and some new customers just pre-ordering now were seeing specific scheduled delivery dates of later in October and the beginning of November.

Apple had said that the iPod touch and nano would ship sometime in October, but gave no definite timeframe. Here’s hoping users will be able to get our hands on some of the new hardware soon. If you’ve pre-ordered, and are seeing your status changed or your card charged, let us know in the comments.

Shortly after leaping through the requisite FCC hoops, Sony’s 1.5GHz Xperia acro S is now on sale to able and willing Americans. For those who’ve forgotten, the 4.3-inch smartphone packs a 720p panel, IP55 and IP57 dust / water resistance, inbuilt NFC, Bluetooth, a 12.1-megapixel camera around back, a battery good for up to eight hours of yapping and Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). In unlocked form, it’ll set you back $649.99 — or, for the Sony faithful, just 64,999 Rewards points. Sadly, you can’t get one stamped with a Sony Ericsson logo for the sake of nostalgia at any price. Per usual, the source link is awaiting your order.

[Thanks, Kevin]

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Sony’s Xperia acro S now on sale in unlocked form for $650 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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