gifts

Santa, older kids want laptops, younger ones iPads, iPhones

If you're a parent, you're probably already panicking about how to satisfy your children during the season of goodwill hunting for material goods.

I am here to help. For I have just been given the results of a survey conducted for online cashback shopping site Ebates.

It's a survey that delved deep into the complicated covetous minds of kiddies and emerged with fascinating results.

It seems that older kids and younger kids have very different ideas about what Santa should shove in their stockings.

Among the 16- to 18-year-olds, there seems considerable consensus that their one heart'… Read more

Apple adds Passbook-enabled gift cards to its store app

Apple is finally tapping into its own Passbook app by adding it as an option for store gift cards.

You can send someone a gift card either through the Apple Store app on your iPhone or iPad, or the Apple Store gift card Web page. In the Apple Store app, you'll need to scroll to the bottom of the home page and tap on the section for Apple Gift Cards and then choose the option to send an Apple Store Card by E-mail.

Either from the app or from the Web page, you can choose among blue, silver, or … Read more

Apple Store app update adds Siri integration, gift cards

Apple updated its Apple Store app today to include more advanced Siri integration and the ability to send gift cards via the iOS 6 Passbook app. This update should work on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

However, it appears that the gift card feature isn't exactly working, according to The Next Web.

The way the gift card feature works is it lets users buy Apple Store gift cards to send to friends or relatives with the Passbook app, which is Apple's stab at a digital wallet. But, according to The Next Web, users aren't yet able … Read more

Regifted! Facebook resets Gifts event for post-Sandy NYC

Facebook has rescheduled its Gifts events for November 15, making its second attempt to hold the presser in New York following problems from Hurricane Sandy.

The event, originally scheduled for November 1, will now be held next week. It will still take place at the FAO Schwarz on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Sandy, which swept through New York early last week, caused widespread power outages and transportation issues, and that led many companies to cancel or postpone their events. That included a couple events scheduled by Facebook, as well as a device launch by Google.

Facebook again gave few details … Read more

Facebook iOS update improves messaging, photos

Facebook hopes to make it easier to for users to chat and upload multiple photos on their mobile devices through a new iOS app released today.

In addition, the camera feature lets users add different filters to their photos, a la Instagram -- owned by Facebook. Twitter is also moving to add photo filters to its mobile app in a bid to stay competitive.

For messaging, you can swipe to the left anywhere in the app to see who's available for messaging, and mark friends you message the most in your Favorites. Facebook says the new Camera upload process … Read more

iPad Mini launches with mini lines

While CNET's New York office waits for power to come back after the storm, we're bringing you the Update show from our San Francisco office. Friday's top tech stories include:

- iPad Mini launch day: Lines were smaller compared to a typical iPhone or iPad launch, but there were still some crowds. New York saw a long lines at the 5th Avenue store, which was sold out of iPad Minis two hours after it opened. One analyst estimates Apple might sell as many as 1.5 million iPad Minis over the weekend.

- Apple released its first … Read more

Donate to charities using Facebook Gifts

Facebook is adding a new product within its gifting service -- charitable donations.

As part of the social network's Facebook Gifts service, users can now send donations in a friend's name to organizations like the Red Cross, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, or DonorsChoose.org.

The launch comes during the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm that's destroyed homes and left countless people without power.

"We are especially pleased to be launching this test now -- when so many people are looking for new ways to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy, or assist … Read more

Early holiday decorations driving shoppers online?

When there was no choice about shopping, stores did as they pleased.

If they decided that the holiday season began when the clocks went back, then shoppers had to endure it.

Now, however, shoppers don't have to populate malls where the restrooms are clean, but the fountains are dirty.

Now, they have the Web.

It seems, indeed, that this year might represent an even greater rebellion against holiday decorations adorning stores before Thanksgiving.

I am speaking with the assurance of a drunken pollster, because I have before my eyes a survey performed on behalf of a cloud and mobile … Read more

The Audiophiliac's favorite budget headphones

Great-sounding headphones have never been more affordable. Even the least expensive headphone model on this list, the Panasonic RP HJE 355 in-ear, has oodles of detail and decent bass punch. For me the most important thing when evaluating headphones is sound balance; no frequency range should call attention to itself, so I don't like overly bassy headphones, or ones that overemphasize treble. Headphones should sound clear, not muffled or fuzzy. I prefer spacious stereo imaging over sound that's stuck inside my head. Headphones that allow music's soft-to-loud dynamics to bloom are better than ones that constrict dynamics. … Read more