YouTube Holds onto Top Web Video Site Title

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

Nielson online has announced its rankings for the top video streaming sites online. YouTube has held onto the top spot with 5.5 billion videos streamed in April. However, YouTube may find one day that it is no longer the top video streaming site. Hulu is coming on very strong, no doubt helped by the big marketing push that sees commercials for the site on TV frequently.

Hulu increased its video streams by a massive 490% year-over-year growing from 63.2 million streams in April 2008 to 373.3 million in April 2009. That marks Hulu as the fastest growing brand in the top ten video sites. Read more

Posted on Fri, 15 May 2009 06:06:19 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Alana Curry is our sexy Miss Santa 2008

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

Your gifts might be smaller this year because of the economy going south, but we at I4U News have a treat for you again this year: Meet or hot and sexy Miss Santa 2008 Alana Curry. You might have seen Alana in Days of Our Lives, Beverly Hills 90210 or Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

You sure wish Alana would be greeting you on Christmas morning with an Elmo Live in her hand. The presents would just become very unimportant - Wake up it is just a dream!
Enjoy instead the I4U News exclusive Miss Santa 2008 photos. Happy Holidays 2008!
(Depending on the culture at your workplace these photos are not safe for work.)
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Posted on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:35:56 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Short Take: Skate It for Nintendo Wii

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

We have had a Wii in our house since I happened upon one in Walmart about a year after it launched. My wife also found the Wii Fit recently so we have the balance board lying around. When I saw that Skate It for the Wii used the balance board, I was anxious to try something that didn’t involve Yoga with the balance board.

EA released Skate It for other consoles a while back. This time around, you are in the city of San Vanelona, which was destroyed in some sort of disaster. The entire city is open to explore and skate. Career mode lets you progress and perform challenges to grow your fame. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Short Take: Lazer Tag Multiplayer Battle System

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

My son and I like to play Nerf Wars and other games outside with his friends. The problem is when you get a bunch of elementary school age kids together with Nerf darts and guns it doesn’t take long before someone gets shot in the eye or the gonads (and often both places). I have fond memories of Lazer Tag from my youth and Hasbro has a new Laser Tag kit out for the holidays called the Lazer Tag Multiplayer Battle System.

The system consists of a pair of guns, a pair of phoenix taggers, a pair of shot blast attachments and a pair of pinpoint sight targeting units. A video game module is included that allows players to practice on a FPS style video game. The catch is the video game module only works with CRT TVs and we haven't had one of those in our house for years. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Short Take: FurReal Friends Tumbles My Roll Over Pup

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

My kids really want a dog, but we can't have one where we live right now. When the very realistic looking FurReal pets hit the market my little girl was immediately interested since we don't have a puppy. The one she has asked for most is called the FurReal Friends Tumbles My Roll Over Pup.

The toy dog looks like a beagle and is interactive. If you rub his tummy, he will wiggle and squirm around like a real dog (only without the fleas). Pet the pup for a while and he will fall fast asleep. Squeeze the dogs left paw and the dog barks and rolls over. That’s about the realm of interactivity with this pup. That might not seem like much but my little girl adores the puppy and totes it around with her all over the house. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 09:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Short Take: Baby Alive

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

I have a 4-year-old daughter and she likes to watch Dora the Explorer. It seems for a while every commercial between Dora was for Baby Alive. All I heard was that she wanted the baby that pee pees and poo poos. So I did what any dad who does product reviews would do -- I called up Hasbro and had a sample sent. My daughter was a little upset that the only Caucasian baby was a blonde, she wanted one with dark hair like her. Still she was literally beside herself with excitement over Baby Alive.

The key to this doll is that you can mix real food and feed the baby along with water she drinks. The stuff literally goes right through the baby and is deposited in the diaper. Feeding the baby is much like feeding a real tot, which is to say food gets everywhere. The Baby Alive had it on her face, her shirt, her diaper and my daughter was coated in a healthy dose as well. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Short Take: I-Dog Dance

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

Each holiday season there is one kooky gift that you just know your kids or other loved ones will love. This year one of those gifts is the I-Dog Dance. The device is an MP3 speaker that is designed to look like a little dog. You can get I-Dog in white or black colors and like any good pooch, he is trained to obey your commands.

Tell I-Dog to dance and he busts a move, tell him to tap paw and he taps his little paw. The face has several LED lights that allow you to tell what sort of mood the dog is in. His mood is affected by how often he is interacted with and how much music you feed him. You can connect most digital music players directly to the dog. Read more

Posted on Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:51:40 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Kindle the only Hard to Find Christmas Gift 2008

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

Did you notice that this year there is no real must have gift or new hard to find toy? Sure the Wii is yet again not that easy to find, but that has been the situation for three years in a row now.
Even the new Elmo is still very easy to find and even got put on sale. If you go by how much premium you have to pay to get your hands on a specific gift this year than the Amazon Kindle is the winner (besides the Wii). As reported Kindle is sold out way beyond Christmas. Read more

Posted on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:23:45 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Weasel puked Coffee

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

Here is a fun gift for coffee lovers. The Weasel Coffee comes from Vietnam and is supposedly puked up by a weasel or more accuratly a species of civet. I actually did not know that there was puked coffee. I only knew of Kopi Luwak (Wikipedia), which is the most expensive coffee and it also comes from a Civet, but the beans are found in the poop of the cat.
Anyway gadget shop ThinkGeek finds Weasel Coffee a fun gift for coffee loving geeks and sells the puked coffee for $24.99 for a 2oz package. Read more

Posted on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:56:01 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

The Slam Dunk Christmas Gift 2008

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

Christmas is exactly 10 short days away. In case you are still searching for the right gift there is one gift this Holiday that has a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
The black iPhone 3G gift card will make everybody happy even if he or she already has an iPhone. Apple makes it very easy to give an iPhone with the iPhone 3G Gift Card. With the black iPhone 3G Gift Card the overjoyed gift recipient can visit an Apple Retail store to redeem it and get free Personal Setup. Read more

Posted on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 08:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

10 Days left until Christmas - Our exclusive 100 Gift Ideas come to the Rescue

Topic: Holiday Gift Guide

There are 10 days left until the big gift exchange called Christmas. Online shops are closing down free or low cost Christmas day shipping options in a couple of days. So you better decide soon what you want to give to your loved ones. So far there are no real hard to get or must have gifts for Christmas 2008. It is safe to say that the Xbox 360 will be found very often under the Christmas tree as will be the Nintendo Wii again.
To find a great tech gift consult our exclusive Top 100 Gift Guide and our Top 10 gift guides for gifts in the consumer electronics and gadget field we feature it here again. Find the complete list of hot tech gifts below. Happy Holiday Gift Shopping.
Read more

Posted on Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr