Pardon us Americans as we act surprised, but it turns out that we have one more thing in common with our Euro brethren: a growing number of us dislike shopping in stores. According to Kelkoo estimates, online spending in the European Union is projected to continue its upward trend, which is said to reach somewhere in the neighborhood of €232 billion before year's end. If the estimate holds, this would be a 16 percent increase over the €200 billion raked by e-tailers during 2011, and is naturally assumed to come at the expense of traditional brick and mortar outfits, whose growth is projected to increase by a mere 1.8 percent.

The data gathered also suggest there's significant room for expansion, however, as online spending accounted for just 7.8 percent of all EU retail sales in 2011, with the UK, Germany and France being responsible for a whopping 71 percent of that tally. The 16 percent projected growth is a slight decline from 2011, which saw EU online spending grow by 18 percent -- although, Europe's growing habit for click-and-ship continues to outpace the US, which grew by only 12.8 percent in 2011. Now, since you've crammed all these numbers, why not check the funny pages?

[Shopping button via Shutterstock]

EU online spending estimated to grow 16 percent, reach €232 billion in 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world's largest CDMA mobile operator, China Telecom, is looking to further expand its network footprint in Europe. With wireless assets already secured in the UK, Bloomberg reports that France and Germany may be next on the communication giant's proverbial hit-list. CT hopes to win the wireless business of jet-setters and Chinese citizens living outside of The People's Republic with competitive international roaming rates and its familiar brand. A separate report states that the company's interest is not confined to the Euro Zone and China Telecom may try and bring its services to the US sometime in 2012. Something tells us AT&T won't make a play to buy 'em, though.

China Telecom eyes network expansion in France, Germany and US originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Starting in July of 2012, the United States Army will deploy three Boeing A160 Hummingbird drones to Afghanistan as part of a one-year trial program. Unlike the Predator drones already in combat, the A160 is a rotor-based aircraft capable of vertical take-offs and landings. What's more, the craft will be affixed with the DARPA-developed ARGUS-IS imaging system -- which boasts a 1.8 gigapixel camera the Army says can "track people and vehicles from altitudes above 20,000 feet." The A160 Hummingbird platform will provide the Army with the ability and flexibility to: take off and land without a runway; fly for twelve hours or more without refueling; and monitor up to 65 enemies of the State simultaneously. Test flights of the unmanned chopper are scheduled for early 2012 in Arizona, but residents hoping to get a glimpse of the A160 in action best have great eyesight -- the ARGUS-IS system can see targets from almost 25 miles down range. Oh, and don't forget to smile when you look up. You want to look your best for the eye in the sky, right?

US Army's A160 Hummingbird drone-copter to don 1.8 gigapixel camera originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp Corporation claims they may top 1 million big-screen televisions (60 inches or above) sold in North America alone by March of next year, and expects growth the next fiscal year. With a stronger hold on the Japanese market then its competitors, the company is expanding overseas to bolster competition and avoid Asia's current market forecast -- a projected $6 billion decline in LCD sales by 2015. According to Kozo Takahashi, head of the American operations division, big-screen purchases in the United States are set to triple this upcoming year despite a declining trend in the North American market. While audio visual equipment accounts for more than half of Sharp's revenue, the company sees the need to market its other products more aggressively in the Americas to remain globally competitive.

Sharp nearing 1 million big-screen TV sales in North America, expanding global market originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Strategy Analytics: China leapfrogs US to become world's top smartphone market

Strategy Analytics: China leapfrogs US to become world's top smartphone market originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you've ever looked up in the sky and wondered where a plane might be headed, Wolfram Alpha might just know the answer. The search engine, which recently began incorporating data from the FAA can now, with a five-minute delay from real-time data, use a flight's speed, heading and altitude to offer a projection of a plane's position. A search for 'flights overhead' via the Wolfram Alpha web site or app will use your location to pinpoint flights that should be visible to you. That string currently only works if the flight has at least one endpoint in the United States, so tracking international flights might be limited. Even so, this should allow you to look up flight delays, check when the next flight will be, see a cool interactive sky map and track a specific flight, of course. You'll have no valid excuse for being late to pick a friend up from the airport ever again.

Wolfram Alpha search engine now tracks flight paths, trajectory information originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Nov 2011 08:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want a Nokia N9 in the US? Expansys has some, but it'll cost ya originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While it has yet to show up stateside as promised, that hasn't stopped BYD from beginning consumer sales of its EV back home in China. Shenzhen citizens are finally getting a crack at owning an e6 after seeing it on the city's streets in taxi and governmental garb for over a year. On sale for 369,800 RMB (or about $57,000), buyers will only have to part with 249,800 RMB (or about $38,000) come check writing time, thanks to extensive rebates from the government. In exchange for all that cash, you'll get an auto equipped with BYD's "i" system, which lets you access vehicle functions and info (like keyless entry and the car's location) from your smartphone. BYD-i comes onboard a five-seat crossover with a range of up to 190 miles (!) that supports rapid charging -- apparently there's plenty of the speedy power stations in Shenzhen. Those keen to charge at home will also get some installation "assistance" from the automaker, which we'll assume means a subsidy. Given that BYD's electric buses will hit our shores soon, China's first "domestic, long-range, all-electric" crossover can't be that far behind, right? PR awaits you, after the break.

Continue reading BYD's e6 goes on sale in China, still mulling trek across Pacific

BYD's e6 goes on sale in China, still mulling trek across Pacific originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you don't own a BlackBerry yourself, chances are you know somebody who does. And if that person lives in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America or South America, they're probably quite unhappy with RIM at the moment. This week's service outage began with a server failure in the UK, and spread like wildfire to Africa and the Middle East, before continuing on to parts of Asia, the US, Canada and a good portion of South America. This is only the latest BlackBerry service outage for RIM, bringing email, BBM and web browsing services to a halt. But with BlackBerry services playing a critical role in real-time business and government communications, any interruption is unacceptable, and costly for all.

RIM CTO David Yach responded to questions during a press conference this afternoon, explaining the original cause of the outage (that UK server failure, along with a series of failed redundancies), and how that grew into the global outage we're experiencing now:

"It's a backlog issue. Clearly we have a backlog in Europe, based on the initial outage and the time it's taken to stabilize that. At this point, we have not throttled the other regions, but as you can imagine, with the global reach of BlackBerry, people using it to contact others around the world, there's a lot of messages coming to Europe from Asia and the Americas, and those would be backed up on the other system. It's looking like over time that backlog built, and started impacting those other systems."

The obvious solution would be to clear the backlog and restore service, but in doing so, RIM would purge any undelivered messages. Yach said that all emails will eventually be delivered, however, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about there (there was no related comment regarding BBM messages). When asked what the company would be doing to "make right" by way of its customers, Yach emphasized that his focus was only on restoring service at this point, and made no promises of restitution.

Is the BlackBerry outage affecting you? Let us know by voting in our poll, or leaving a comment after the break.

Continue reading RIM clarifies global service outage, doesn't provide ETA for restore

RIM clarifies global service outage, doesn't provide ETA for restore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Mobile devices may outnumber humans in the US, but they can't take our soul

Mobile devices may outnumber humans in the US, but they can't take our soul originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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