Believe it or not, that’s what the latest data shows: The economy is bouncing back, or at least, retail spending is. The trend is clear especially in electronics, where spending has skyrocketed from a little above $160 to almost $190. That figure is the average spending per user, post-Black friday. The main winners were Best Buy—with a 18.3% year-over-year growth—and Fry’s—with a 12.2%. No only that but, spending in the high end retail has also increased, reverting a negative trend.

If your holiday plans involve buying a new HDTV, HD Guru has put together a quick and dirty guide to help you avoid some of the pitfalls many consumers fall into. You will learn important lessons like: sizing your TV to optimize resolution , whether to choose LCD vs plasma vs LED and why you don’t need to spend money on a 240 Hz TV . So, make sure to check out the following link before you shop. [ HDGuru ]

As this leaked Best Buy Black Friday ad reveals, one of the many deals coming our way the day after Thanksgiving is a Nintendo DSi , preloaded with a number of free DSiWare titles. The price remains the same as it’s been for the DSi: $170. The downloadable titles, which have been downloaded for you at the factory, are the gravy. There are two bundles in all, reports Siliconera : One bundle is geared towards Brain Age fans. It includes Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Sudoku, Brain Age Express: Math, Clubhouse Games Express: Card Classics, Photo Clock and a white Nintendo DSi.

That black Nintendo Wii bundle Nintendo is gifting to Europe on November 6th has found itself home amongst the Amazon UK listings. Recommended price is

An electromagnetic black hole — which sucks in the light surrounding it — has been built at Southeast University in Nanjing, China for the first time. The device works like cosmological black holes in that it has gravity which is intense enough to bend the surrounding space-time, causing any matter in the neighborhood to spiral inward and create the hole itself. The earth-built ‘black hole’ for microwave frequencies is constructed of 60 annular strips of meta-materials (yes, that’s the stuff of invisibility cloaks ). Each strip is an intricately etched circuit board which seamlessly and smoothly connects to the strips next to it, creating both a shell and absorber section to the device. When an electromagnetic wave hits the device, it is trapped and guided through the shell region toward the core, where it is absorbed. The device, which was created by Tie Jun Cui and Qiang Cheng, converts that absorbed light into heat, meaning that future possible applications could include new ways of harvesting solar energy

This unconfirmed memo from Nexus404 says what Project Black isn’t: A phone. It also claims Black is a turnaround plan with “blazing speeds” “3x” the competition and phones from hot makers (”Nokia #1 and Samsung #2″). WTF. All the employees who received the information were required to sign confidentiality agreements. Each sector has received it at different times, the bulk of them actually received it the 13th, after most of the information was already leaked (Although it’s not entirely accurate…) That said, the Project Dark is not any ONE thing..its a term for a company TURNAROUND; Last to First is what some like to say. It’s an all inclusive “package” that includes blazing speeds, 3 times faster than anyone will have on the market for years.

Put yourself in T-Mobile USA’s shoes for a moment: rumor has it that the guys who pay the bills aren’t happy . History, happenstance, and the realities of electromagnetics have left you with an oddball 3G frequency that literally no other carrier in the world uses (at least, not for HSPA). Larger competitors don’t take you as seriously as you’d like, and you don’t have smaller ones — they’re all regionals who don’t play in the same space you do. So what’s your next move? Continue reading Achtung, T-Mobile: if Project Dark is $50 unlimited, you’re in trouble Filed under: Cellphones , Handhelds , Wireless Achtung, T-Mobile: if Project Dark is $50 unlimited, you’re in trouble originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:00:00 EST.

Oh Nintendo, you tease. You still won’t give us that jet black Wii console bound for Japan, but you’ve got no problem giving us in North America a taste of the dark side with a black Wiimote and Motion Plus bundle, coming this holiday along with a black nunchuk sold separately. With any luck this is just the sign of things to come, and should the Wii’s sales momentum drop, we’re sure quite a few new colors will start shipping their way over here ( light blue , anyone?). On the more portable side of things, the DSi will be adding pink and white to its repertoire on September 13th. Unless the House that Mario Built is feeling particularly nasty, prices should be the same as their pre-existing color counterparts — you wouldn’t put a premium on a palette swap, right Nintendo?

Yeah, we were pretty bummed that Nintendo’s super-hot black Wii wasn’t coming to the US , but fear not, fanboys — it looks like the stealth console has hit the gray-market import scene. Sure, you’ll have to pay a bit of a premium at $333, but surely that’s a reasonable price for exclusivity, no? [Via DCEmu UK ; thanks Craig] Filed under: Gaming Black Wii now available from importers for $333 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read

Colorware ’s well known for offering up all sorts of consumer electronics in all sorts of hues, but the outfit has definitely stepped up its game with the Stealth MacBook Pro . This limited edition piece is an all-black 15-inch MacBook Pro with a matte display, 3.06GHz CPU, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 256MB SSD, an 8x SuperDrive, zero gloss finish and a SofTouch coating that’ll make it downright impossible for your fingers to stop stroking it. Reportedly, these will be limited to just ten units, and each one will cost a not-at-all affordable $5,999. See Apple, this is what you get when you voluntarily axe the BlackBook . Opportunity, lost.