Articles about Christmas

Shopping for presents for the holidays, or for bargains for yourself during Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be a nightmare. A lot of people opt to shop purely online in order to avoid the hassle of fighting their way through crowded stores.

You can get the items you buy on the web delivered to various locations, including home and work, but if that’s still not convenient enough for you, how about having the deliveries made directly to your car instead?

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A new report has revealed that Apple devices were a hugely popular Christmas gift this year, trumping smartphone rivals.

Flurry’s annual Christmas report found that 51.3 percent of new devices activated on Christmas Day were manufactured by Apple, compared with 17.7 percent by Samsung and 5.8 percent by Nokia.

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This year, I did all of my Christmas shopping online. More specifically, I did all of my shopping on Amazon.com. I wasn't opposed to going to a physical store, but every time I drove by the mall, the parking lot was full and people were fighting over parking spots. Sorry, I am not going to get involved in all of that.

Since I have a Prime membership, I was able to wait until the last minute for much of my shopping, as the included 2-day shipping got things to me fast. Not only does Prime come with free expedited shipping, it also includes free video streaming and more -- a great value. Hell, a Prime Membership makes a great gift to give too. Today, Amazon announces that it has achieved a record-breaking 10 million first-time memberships over the holidays.

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Google Chromecast is the perfect stocking filler -- it’s small, affordable, and guaranteed to be a hit with anyone who receives it as a gift this holiday season. Google is continuing to bolt on features (most recently it added a guest mode), so you’ll be able to do even more with it throughout the coming year.

The tiny powered dongle plugs into your TV set and lets you watch streaming video from the likes of YouTube, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, and Google Play. You can even 'cast' content from your Chrome browser on to the big screen, and play your own videos.

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A little last minute gift shopping and panic wrapping aside, we're all ready for Christmas here at BetaNews. The tree is trimmed, the eggnog is flowing, and we’ve got all the Santa tracking apps we need fired up and locked in on the jolly big man and his reindeer-powered sleigh.

Hopefully you're similarly prepared for the big day tomorrow, (even if you don't celebrate Christmas, we trust you've got something fun in mind to do) and we'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas. We’re crossing our fingers that you receive all the tech treats you're hoping for.

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Unsurprisingly tablets proved to be a very popular gift this Christmas. According to mobile measurement firm Flurry, device activations were up by 63 percent on Christmas day, compared to any other average day in December.

Flurry’s activation figures cover Amazon, Apple, Acer, and Samsung and reveal an interesting trend. While all four tech firms enjoyed a major bump on the day, activations were much lower this year than in the previous two years.

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For a longtime, I was a last-minute shopper. You could find me on Christmas Eve, picking through the remaining greeting cards and scrambling to buy gifts. However, as I got older, I learned to finish my shopping early to avoid the stress.

Unfortunately, delays by UPS have caused some last-minute gift deliveries to miss their Christmas Eve deadline. But who is to blame, UPS or the last-minute shoppers?

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If Santa brought you a Surface 2 for Christmas, you will experience one of two emotions -- happiness or anger. If you asked or wished for the tablet, congratulations, you achieved your desire; be happy! Conversely, if you didn't ask for it, there is a good possibility that you are angry because it is not an iPad Air (controversial!).

If you fall into the latter category, you may be wondering what you did for Santa Claus to hate you. Well, I am here to tell you that Santa loves you and the Surface 2 is a wonderful tablet. Consider yourself lucky for scoring such awesome hardware. As someone who owns and loves a Surface 2, I am going to help you to have a great first-day experience with it.

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