Recently in TMCnet Category

An interesting article at the Register claims that a recent uTorrent decision to use UDP for P2P file transfers (instead of TCP) to get around ISP "traffic management" restrictions will cause a meltdown of the Internet. Poppycock you say?

It's worth pointing out that traditionally P2P sharing apps such as Bittorrent,  use TCP not UDP. So why would UDP cause VoIP apps to fail? Well for one huge reason, TCP allows for congestion control.

First, the article explains:
The article then adds: Yikes! Say goodbye to VoIP. No more Skype. No more fring, Gizmo5, Packet8, Vonage, Bandwidth.com SIP trunks, and all the rest of my beloved VoIP applications and services. May you rest in peace my good friends. [sniff] Now I'll have to change my blog to the "Gadgets Blog".

Game over man, game over!

Click above to hear this famous audio clip from Alien.

It appears it just might be a Merry Christmas even with the doom & gloom surrounding the economy. I guess President-elect Barack Obama must be the Messiah, since he's already creating miracles and he hasn't even been sworn in yet. Or it could just be that credit card loving Americans just don't know when to quit spending & charging.

Check this out:

NRF Survey Finds Black Friday Gets Holiday Season Off to Energetic Start
-- Great Bargains, Pent-Up Demand Drove Shoppers to Stores, Web

Though the holiday season is far from over, retailers across the country are breathing a collective sigh of relief after shoppers headed to stores and websites in droves over the weekend. According to the National Retail Federation's 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey, conducted by BIGresearch, more than 172 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 147 million shoppers last year.*

Shoppers spent an average of $372.57 this weekend*, up 7.2 percent over last year's $347.55. Total spending reached an estimated $41.0 billion.

"Pent-up demand on electronics and clothing, plus unparalleled bargains on this season's hottest items helped drive shopping all weekend," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. "Holiday sales are not expected to continue at this brisk pace, but it is encouraging that Americans seem excited to go shopping again."

Friday was clearly the busiest day of the weekend with 73.6 million people hitting stores and websites for doorbuster sales. Though traffic did subside after Friday, retailers were also buoyed by two-day sales as 56.9 million people shopped on Saturday, up from 48.3 million last year, while another 26.2 million people planned to shop on Sunday. Thanksgiving Day also continues to increase in importance as the number of people who shopped on Thursday was up 48 percent over last year (16.2 million people vs. 10.9 million people).

Those who shopped on Friday lived by the adage that the early bird catches the worm. The survey found that 23.3 percent of shoppers were at stores by 5 a.m. while more than half (57.6%) were at stores by 9 a.m. Bargains appeared to be so good that people have more of a jumpstart on shopping.

According to the findings, Americans have completed slightly more shopping than they had one year ago (39.3% vs. 36.4%), indicating that traffic and sales over the next several weeks will moderate.

"Though retailers should be encouraged by strong traffic and sales over the weekend, consumers are still being cautious," said Phil Rist, Executive Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, BIGresearch. "Weekend shoppers indicated that they are still sticking to a budget and thinking carefully before making any holiday purchases."

Though retailers in all categories were featuring big bargains, a majority of shoppers visited discount stores for holiday deals. According to the survey, more than half (54.7%) of this weekend's shoppers visited discount stores. Nearly half (43.0%) shopped at a traditional department store, up 11.1 percent from 38.7 percent last year. About one-third of shoppers visited specialty stores like clothing or electronics stores (36.0%) and shopped online (34.0%).

As expected, many shoppers (50.9%) purchased clothing and accessories over the weekend while 39.0 percent bought books, DVDs, CDs and video games and 35.9 percent purchased consumer electronics. Toys were also big sellers, as 28.5 percent of shoppers bought a toy. Gift card purchasing dropped ten percent with 18.7 percent of shoppers purchasing a gift card over the weekend, down from 21.0 percent last year.

NRF continues to project that holiday sales will rise 2.2 percent this year to $470.4 billion.

About the Survey

The NRF 2008 Black Friday Weekend survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to the winter holidays. NRF defines the weekend as sales from Thursday, November 27 to Sunday, November 30. The survey, which polled 3,370 consumers, was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch from November 27-29, 2008. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percent.

BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm that provides unique consumer insights that are gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch's syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 8,000 consumers each month to empower its clients with unique insights for identifying opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2007 sales of $4.5 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com

Via NRF

Amazon has a special landing page listing all their Cyber Monday deals. Amazon doesn't call it "Cyber Monday" but rather the "Black-Friday-After-Thanksgiving-Sale", so this landing page should be good until Christmas. Maybe they were afraid Cyber Monday was patented, kinda like their one-click ordering patent.

Anyway, here's the current category breakdown on the Amazon holiday specials landing page:

There are some Blu-ray DVD players for sale, including a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray Player for $199. (under $200). Still doesn't beat the $128 Blu-ray player Wal-Mart was offering on Black Friday (now $199), but it's the best deal on Amazon today.

For the full listing on Amazon holiday specials, head over here.

Some experts are skeptical about whether consumers will buy Blu-ray DVD players this Christmas - I am not one of them. Many are saying it's going to be a "blue" Blu-ray Christmas. I disagree. I went shopping for a cheap Blu-ray DVD player on Black Friday, with one bargain special at Wal-Mart offering a $128 Blu-ray player. This was one of the biggest deals offered by Wal-Mart on Black Friday, and one was to wonder if this deal was part of the draw for the raucous crowd that stampeded and killed a Wal-Mart employee.

When I went to one Wal-Mart, then told me they sold out in 2 hours. I tried another one and they told me I just missed the last unit by less than an hour.


Wal-Mart was offering the Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray Disc Player, a mid-range Blu-ray player. Today (Cyber Monday), that same Blu Ray player is going for $199 online.

Features of the Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray player include Full-HD 1080 output (24 or 60p), 1080p DVD upconversion, Composite video output Component video output, Progressive scan video output for HDTVs, HDMI with audio output for Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound, Digital audio output (coaxial), Analog audio output (left and right), CD support, Jpeg photo viewer, screen saver and surround sound effects. However, the Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray player only supports Blu-ray profile 1.1 and not the current Blu-ray 2.0 version. Thus, no BD-Live support for access to more special content via the Internet. Still, this was a bargain Blu-ray player coming closest to breaking the $100 barrier. I planned on giving it to my brother-in-law for Christmas since he was looking at upgrading to a 42" HDTV flat screen.

If the two Wal-Marts I visited are any indication that this will be a "Blu-ray Christmas", then retailers that sell Blu-ray players and Blu-ray discs should be very happy. In fact, I'm surprised with retailers haven't offered a $99 Blu-ray player for sale. Yes, they'd be taking a loss, but perhaps they could offer it as part of a bundle, such as buy 5 Blu-ray movies at $24.99 and get a $99 Blu-ray DVD player plus a coupon for 50% off your next Blu-ray purchase. They'll entice them to come back and purchase more Blu-ray titles, which should more than offset any profits lost on the low-priced Blu-ray player. Once they get consumers hooked on Blu-ray, they'll be paying nearly double what regular DVDs cost.

Retailers need a shot in the arm and one way of doing that is by getting a Blu-ray player in as many homes as possible and as quickly as possible - before HD-on-demand starts to take off. Personally, I prefer to own my movies rather than rent/PPV/video-on-demand. I like to build my movie library so I can watch any of my 500+ movies anytime I want without paying another dime. I think consumers are looking to escape today's harsh economic climate. Watching movies is a heck of a lot cheaper than going to the movies. People are going out a lot less, eating out less, but they still want some form of escapism and quality entertainment. For that reason, I think it's going to be a very "black" Blu-ray Christmas. I have a Blu-ray player on my Christmas wish-list. Crossing fingers Santa Claus thinks I've been good this year.

Also, since today is Cyber Monday, I'm keeping my eye on Amazon for any Blu-ray specials (see: Amazon Blu-ray player special prices). You should as well.

So you want Skype High Quality (HQ) video, but aren't willing to shell out for a nice dual-core processor and a high-end Logitech camera, eh? Well, no worries - Nodewave has a Force 'Skype' HQ Video app that allows you to Enable/Disable (and even configure) High-Quality Video in Skype, and even High-Definition Video regardless of your camera or processor.

So if Santa doesn't stick a high-end Logitech Orb AF webcam (my favorite webcam) in your stocking for Christmas, then this hack might just be the way to go!

Nimbuzz is a free app that lets you call (VoIP), chat, message, and send photos, music and video on your iPhone, which was recently made available on the Apple App Store. Using a centralized contact list you can connect with all your buddies on Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, GoogleTalk, AIM, Gadu-Gadu, StudiVZ, Hyves, Jabber and Twitter, plus popular social networks including Facebook and MySpace. It features presence (who's online and where), group calling, chatrooms, and more.

If your buddies are offline, let them know you're trying to get in touch by sending them a "Buzz". It will start Nimbuzz Mobile on their mobile phone. Nice feature.

Nimbuzz is pretty similar to fring, which I've used extensively. One thing Nimbuzz has up on fring is that it supports regional social network support including German StudiVZ, Dutch Hyves and Polish Gadu-Gadu.

Go download your copy on the Apple App Store today!

VoxOx just released a new version of their "Universal Communicator", which aims to combine VoIP, video, and social networks. VoxOx aims to take on Skype by offering more social networking features. Last year, I wrote an article titled Skype Could Trump Facebook in Social Networking, but Skype still hasn't added social networking functionality.

In any event, today version 1.0.1 was released, less than a month after their initial launch. I was never able to get the Facebook integration to work, but it was a beta release, so I'm hoping they worked out the kinks.

Here are some new features:

New Additions
• Status field set to your auto-response message when away
• Facebook icons link out to friends' profiles so you can write on their wall, private message them, etc
• View Facebook contact photos from their VoxOx Profile
• Text Message window remembers Mobile Numbers
• Chat to Email window remembers emails addresses

Bug Fixes
• Call-Back (Web and SMS) fully functional
• Fixed Crash bug when ending calls
• Added default group for new contacts to be saved
• Login screen text updated to "Login Automatically"
• Web Portal login back online

Some of the major updates they are working on include a new and improved user interface, more efficient memory utilization, smoother and faster SMS functionality, enhanced Facebook integration, MySpace integration, and Outlook & Mac address book integration.

FOX News Channels' Alan Colmes is leaving Hannity & Colmes (H&C) at the end of this year. Well there goes my 9 o'clock nightly timeslot. What the heck am I going to watch now? Reality TV? Ack! Well, the good news is that not watching the at-times heated debates should be good for shaving off a few points off my blood pressure. So you're probably wondering if Sean Hannity finally got under Alan's skin, he got tired of debating Sean and he quit as a result. Well, according to the newswires, it was an amicable departure.

Alan Colmes said, "I approached Bill Shine (FNC's Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of FOX News programming, including Foxnews.com's The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on FOX Talk, a division of FOX News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

It's too bad Alan couldn't have the 9pm timeslot currently occupied by H&C, since then he'd be going against Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. It would be a lib-on-lib ratings deathmatch!

Shine said, "We're very sorry to see Alan reach this decision but we understand his desire to seek other creative challenges in his career. We value his incredible hard work in making Hannity & Colmes the most successful debate program on cable news and we're going to miss him on the show. Thankfully, he will begin developing a weekend pilot for us."

FOX News Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Roger Ailes added, "Alan is one of the key reasons why FOX News has been such a remarkable success. We're sad to see him leave the program but we look forward to his ongoing contributions to the network."

Hannity & Colmes is the only FNC program which has remained in the same timeslot for 12 years, catapulting to number one in 2003 and never relinquishing the top spot. The second highest-rated program in cable news behind only The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes averaged 3.3 million viewers nightly for the Nielsen month of October and is poised to mark 60 consecutive months at number one at the end of November.

Hannity added, "Not only has Alan been a remarkable co-host, he's been a great friend which is rare in this industry -- I'll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner."

Throughout his 12 year tenure on Hannity & Colmes, Colmes has interviewed numerous key political figures, including: President Elect Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), DNC Chairman Howard Dean and former Vice President Al Gore.

FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour general news service covering breaking news as well as political, entertainment and business news. For nearly seven years, FNC has been the most watched cable news channel in the nation. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 90 million homes.

Read