Poll: Video games & accessories top choices for Black Friday

Consumer Reports Black Friday shopping poll results. (Click to enlarge.)

A new Consumer Reports poll finds video games and accessories top the list of electronics products consumers will be shopping for over the Black Friday weekend.

Forty-six percent of electronics shoppers said they’d be looking for items in the category, which also ranked high on the list of popular gifts from our October poll. The next-most-popular electronics items people plan to shop for over the Black Friday weekend are MP3 players, video-game systems, and laptop and netbook computers; all were mentioned by about one in five shoppers. Other choices high on the list: digital cameras (16 percent), flat-panel TVs (13 percent), and GPS units (12 percent).

About 70 percent of shoppers plan to buy electronics over the Black Friday weekend, with men a little more likely (at 73 percent) to seek out gear than women (at 68 percent). For the most part, interest in particular product categories is fairly comparable by gender. The biggest differences: Men are more likely than women to be shopping for headphones, and women are more likely to be shopping for a digital photo frame.

Overall, about a quarter of people plan to brave stores on Black Friday, about the same percentage who planned to do so in the past two holiday seasons. It’s perhaps surprising that the trend held this year, given that most consumers are cutting back, according to the October poll, and that the electronics deals started early this season, with the likes of Sears offering deals since Halloween.

We’ll have more on the what stores will be offering on Black Friday in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. –Paul Reynolds

Phishing scams hit Xbox Live

Screen grab of the phony Xbox Live page. (Click to enlarge.)

If you’ve got an Xbox, or are planning to buy one this holiday season, you should know that Xbox is the latest platform to be victimized by phishers, according to security software maker F-Secure.

Victims are first conned by a YouTube video claiming to give away free Xbox Live memberships and Microsoft points (which are the equivalent of money in the Xbox world). You’re told to go to a Web site where you have to enter, of course, your Xbox Live gamer tag, password, and e-mail address. F-Secure’s blog points out that, while the Web site looks authentic, it’s got a country code from East Timor.

If you know anything about phishing, you know what happens next—your Xbox identity is up for sale. The more software you’ve got on your Live account, and the higher your gamerscore, the more valuable your Xbox identity. Don’t be taken in by phony deals, and never give away your password to an unknown Web site.

Think you can spot a cleverly disguised phishing scam? Take our quiz and find out. —Donna Tapellini

Walmart joins the "Why wait for Black Friday" club

Joining the likes of Sears, which jump-started the traditional Black Friday holiday shopping period with pre-sales that started last weekend, this Saturday Walmart kicks off one week of special savings on everything from a $5 turkey to a $500 TV.

Starting on Saturday November 7th at 8 a.m., Walmart stores will offer a variety of deals, including its first one-week electronics savings event. Items include Sharp LCD TVs ($498 for 42-inch set, $698 for a 120Hz 46-inch model, and $898 for a 120Hz 52-inch set), a 46-inch 1080p Panasonic plasma TV, and a $148 Sony BDP-S360 BD-Live-ready Blu-ray player. Other deals include $200 Microsoft's Xbox Arcade systems, which come with a $100 Walmart gift card, and a $298 HP notebook computer with Windows 7.

For those looking for more elemental fare, Walmart is offering a complete Thanksgiving meal, including a 12-pound turkey, for $20. For complete information about special deals and price roll-backs, plus store locations, visit Walmart's Christmas Shop Web site. —James K. Willcox

5 hot electronics gifts flagged by Consumer Reports Holiday Shopping Poll

Electronics are again at the top of a lot of gift lists for the coming holiday season, according to the results of a Consumer Reports Holiday Shopping Poll released this week.

Here, are the five hottest electronics gifts, listed in order of respondents’ intentions to give them. I’ve added some reasons why they’re hot at the moment and, for some, details on the kind of people who are buying them:

• Video games and accessories. Planned as gifts by 28 percent of respondents. In a year where many people plan to cut back, as other survey data underlines, these are gifts that cost a lot less than most hardware. Nearly half of households with kids under 12 are planning such purchases, but so are nearly a quarter of homes with no such youngsters—underlining that games and extra Wii nunchucks aren’t just being bought for kids anymore. It helps that some of the hottest game titles of the year appeal equally to young and old players—notably Beatles Rock Band.

• Video-game consoles. Planned as gifts by 14 percent of respondents, including 25 percent of homes with kids under 12. With no new versions of consoles out this year, and the economy softening, prices have dropped for most brands. Also, after two seasons in which getting a Nintendo Wii consoles required military-level planning, the promise of its wider availability may be prompting some Wii holdouts to plan a purchase. (See our video buying guide for game consoles.)

U2 concert to stream live on YouTube

I recently attended a U2 show at Giants Stadium, and was excited to learn that this Sunday, October 25th, U2 plans to stream their final tour stop, live on YouTube for free. With 96,000 tickets sold to the Pasadena Rose Bowl show in California, this is expected to be largest concert ever streamed online.

This will be another first for U2 who produced the first concert performance to be shot in 3D for a theatrically released film.

Paul McGuinness, U2's manager tells of U2's desire to share their music across the Internet:

'The band has wanted to do something like this for a long time. As we're filming the LA show, it's the perfect opportunity to extend the party beyond the stadium. Fans often travel long distances to come to see U2—this time U2 can go to them, globally.'

The show starts at 8:30 Pacific time and can be found at: http://youtube/u2official

So fire up your computers, Internet connected televisions or Apple TVs and enjoy the free show. —Dirk Klingner

Samsung adds Blockbuster, Amazon on-demand video services

Samsung Series 7 7000 LED-backlit LCD TV. (Click to enlarge.)
[ PHOTO: Courtesy of Samsung ]

Tired of playing wallflower while other TV brands did the streaming-movie tango, Samsung today hit the dance floor with deals with both Blockbuster and Amazon to bring their respective on-demand movie services to select Samsung TVs, and in the case of Blockbuster, Blu-ray players and home-theater-in-a-box systems (HTIBs).

We've been waiting several months for Blockbuster On Demand, the video giant's streaming movie service, to appear on Samsung TVs, but weren't aware the service would be rolled out to other Internet-enabled devices. The deal with Amazon was also a surprise, as the company offers Netflix's instant-movie service on some Blu-ray players.

The Blockbuster On Demand service, which requires a firmware update, will be available on all Internet-enabled Series 650 and above LCD and plasma TVs, plus Series 7000 and above LCD models with LED backlights. In addition to the TVs, the service can be added to three Samsung Blu-ray players—models BD-P1600, BD-P3600 and BD-P4600—and Samsung’s HT-BD1250, HT-BD3252, HT-BD7200 and HT-BD8200 HTIB systems.

Microsoft’s limited-time offer: an Xbox 360 Elite for $250

While we’re not the biggest fans of mail-in rebates, here’s a deal that’s worth looking into for early holiday shoppers.

Microsoft is offering a $50 rebate on sales of its Xbox 360 Elite. The rebate brings the price down from the usual $299 to $250; just one month ago, this Xbox was going for $400. The offer is only good on purchases made from September 22 through Monday, October 5, so act quickly if there’s an Xbox on your wish list.

In August, Microsoft and Sony slashed the prices of their Xbox 360 Elite and Playstation 3 consoles, respectively, from $400 to $300. Now, rumors abound that Nintendo will cut the price of its top-selling Wii console from $250 to $200 this weekend. —Nick K. Mandle

[Update: It's official. Nintendo is dropping the price of the Wii to $200.]

The big day for Beatles fans: A primer

The Beatles Rock Band hits store shelves today. (Click to enlarge)
[PHOTO: Courtesy of Harmonix Music Systems]

Today’s the day the Beatles Rock Band music game, along with remastered versions of their albums, becomes available. Curious about these launches, but haven’t had time to get up to speed on them?

Here’s a quick guide:

Beatles Rock Band. Among the more successful video games of recent years, Rock Band, like rival Guitar Hero, offers music fans the chance to play and sing along—using instrument controllers and special microphones—with classic rock songs. As for the game itself, you’re scored on how accurately you hit colored buttons on the instrument controllers in response to on-screen prompts or how well you hold pitch when you sing.

Where other editions of Rock Band come with 58 classic-rock and alternative songs from various artists, the Beatles game comes with 40 songs, all Beatles titles. The software itself costs $59 and is available for the Wii, X-Box 360, or Play Station 3. If you need to buy a console, they cost $200 and up, despite some recent price drops.

If you don’t already own controllers for Rock Band (or for Guitar Hero, most of which work with Rock Band), the best deal is probably to spend $70 or so on a bundle comprising drums, guitar, and microphone. But since the Beatles game is the first “music game to offer harmonies," you may want to buy an extra mic or two, at $20 and up apiece. You can also buy controllers that are replicas of the Beatles own guitars, like Paul McCartney’s violin-shaped Hofner bass.

The Beatles reissues. As Beatles fans are aware, tomorrow also marks the availability of the first remasterings of the full Beatles catalog in more than 20 years—an eternity in digital time. Most reviewers raved about the improved sound of “Love,” the 2006 Beatles’ Las Vegas show (and CD), which includes remastered versions 20 Beatles songs from the team responsible for this week’s reissues.

But there are also reasons to grumble about this week’s re-releases, even before hearing them. The extras are confined to making-of video documentary on each album. Also, though the albums have been remastered in both stereo and mono (the latter being the preferred format by some Beatles fanatics), the reissues do not combine both versions on one disc—as recent reissues for many other 1960s bands have done. Rather, when bought singly, the reissues only carry the stereo version of the album. To get the mono, you must buy the entire catalog, in a box set that lists at $300—if you can even get it (it sold out in advance at many retailers, though a second run is promised). And the titles aren’t being issued in Blu-ray or DVD formats, and hence there are no 5.1-channel surround versions as of yet.

To many observers, including me, the formatting decisions look like an attempt to sell diehard fans those thirty-something-minute-long Beatles albums not just once more, but several times more over the coming years. That’s a little unseemly from a band that’s traditionally been classier than most. —Paul Reynolds.

Sagging video game industry looks to price cuts, new titles

[PHOTO: Courtesy of Rebecca]

While major home electronics are still selling despite the sagging economy, smaller personal electronics are sitting on store shelves, according to the Consumer Reports Index, our new economic survey.  I expect that finding is hardly a surprise to the video game industry--sales of video games and game consoles have been dropping for months.

The decisions by Sony and Microsoft to slash $100 off the price of their Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 Elite systems, respectively, could help slumping sales. (With the cuts both consoles now cost $299.) Those price cuts could increase unit sales by as much as 60 percent, NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier told Gamasutra recently. That’s welcome news to both console and game makers: NPD has reported a year-over-year sales drop of 37 percent in console sales and 29 percent drop in game sales.

[Update to expand on new X-Box prices: Thanks to the $100 cut, the Xbox 360 Elite system is now $300, while the Xbox 360 Pro package, which is being phased out, is $250 following a $50 price cut. A basic Arcade version is still priced at $200. One change is that the Elite system, which has a larger hard drive, will no longer include an HDMI cable.—Ed.]

New game titles may also help not only manufacturers but the retailers that sell their wares, such as game-rental giant GameStop, which reported a 32 percent profit dive in the second quarter. GameStop CEO Daniel DeMatteo sees some hope with the impending release of several new games this fall (including Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2), according to Reuters, but says his company is “cautious” given ongoing concern about the economy and consumer spending.

Less than a year ago, some analysts speculated that the video-game industry could be recession-proof. Obviously, that’s not the case. Nintendo, the third of the “Big 3” game-console manufacturers, is now facing pressure to drop the price of its $250 Wii.

Are you considering buying any video games or consoles this fall, or are they still too expensive? Let us know. --Nick K. Mandle

Sony to sell slimmer, cheaper PS3

Confirming several weeks of rumors that a new, cheaper PlayStation3 was in the works, on the eve of a German videogame show Sony Computer Entertainment announced the new console, which has a slimmer design, a 120GB hard drive, and $299 price tag. The system, which will also have a few new features, such as Bravia sync (for control of the PS3's X Media Bar interface via a Bravia TV's remote), will be available here in the U.S. September 1.

Along with the launch of a new console, Sony is lowering the price of two current PS3 systems by $100. As of yesterday, the price of the 80GB PS3 is now $299, while the 160GB version falls to to $399.

The price moves come as videogame console sales in general have slipped, and brings Sony's system closer in price to its competitors, the $249 Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which is offered in a basic (Arcade) configuration for $199.

To see images of the system, click the PlayStation3 link above, which takes you Amazon.com, where the new console can be pre-ordered. —James K. Willcox