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.

Great. Now all those people without a single penny in the bank will be able to be rejoice. [Mint]

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]

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.

The Metallic Blue DSi Mario bundle is better suited for core gamers. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, WarioWare Snapped!, Dr. Mario Express, Mario Calculator, and Mario Clock are loaded on that DSi.

All told, the two bundles give you $28 and $22 worth of freebies, respectively. [Gearlive via Siliconera]

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. Phones people actually WANT, using top of the line models from the top 2 cellphone manufacturers in the world (Nokia #1, and Samsung #2). Hot software like Android. And European priced packages.

And all of this will make Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint's head spin when its released faster than anyone can have time to finishing reading any official press releases.

330 Million in new networks Verizon? Try nearly 10 billion.

First of all, assuming this email is real, I don't want—and I am guessing you don't want—any Nokia or Samsung handset. Second of all, I doubt that TMO of all companies, mr late to the game, can deliver speeds that fast, either. But suppose it's true. Then what's that "10 billion" number at the end for? Femtocells everywhere? Who knows! It's a rumor! You're not supposed to know yet!

But if anyone has any more information on TMO's project black, please drop me a line. We'd love to help you tell the world. [Nexus404]

Nah, it's one of the many art installations sprinkled over the dusty playa at Burning Man 2009. This year's theme is Evolution: A Tangled Bank. Safe travels if you're a weekend burner headed to the Blackrock Desert, and don't forget the distilled white vinegar to neutralize that alkaline playa dust!

One year later (and having travelled around three continents since), that stuff is still turning up in random places like my hiking shoes. [San Francisco Chronicle]

There are only ten available, and with each one costing $6000, you're probably not going to be one of the ten. So soak up the images and pretend that you can reasonably justify paying more than twice as much for a laptop just for it not to be so shiny and grey. [Colorware]

The new BlackArmor NAS 420/440 systems are network-attached storage infrastructures that can house up to four different hard drives at once, each holding a maximum of two terabytes of memory, which creates a total of either two, four, six, or eight terabytes of memory in just one system.

Intended for small companies—which support up to 50 networked computers—these BlackArmor drives were designed with both security and simplicity in mind. Proclaimed as the system with "unparalleled security, accessibility and peace of mind," it has a simple, built-in LCD screen and is meant for an easy to use, straight-out-of-the-box storage system.

Moreoever, with the BlackArmor security system, data is constantly protected because of its continuous and automatic backup abilities coupled with its full-system backup and RAID options. Furthermore, everything from individual files to entire volumes can be secured with password protection and encryption. Additional security to the BlackArmor NAS systems is so that it may be accessed through the Internet, hopefully without compromising any of its data.

Scheduled for release in May, the 2-terabyte BlackArmor NAS 420 will be available for $799.99, while the BlackArmor NAS 440 network servers will cost $1,200 for 4-terabytes, $1,700 for 6-terabytes, and $2,000 for 8-terabytes.

If you don't want to wait to shop, Newegg also has a pre-sale running right now with a 60 deal lineup. [Newegg]

• Panasonic 32'' HDTV for $599. Originally $699.

• Samsung 42' plasma for $799. Usually goes for around $1000.

• Unlocked Nokia N82 for $389. Originally $650.

• 8GB USB Flash drive $17.99. Originally $37.99.

• Insignia Blu Ray player $199. Originally $230.

• Garmin nuvi 4.3 inch Widescreen portable GPS $199.99. Originally $749.99.

• Sony Bravia Z-Series 46 inch hdTV $1,842. Originally $2,799.

• Motorola H350 Bluetooth Headset for $14.99. Originally $49.99.

• SanDisk Sansa 6GB MP3 player for $39.99. Originally $219.99.

• Element 32'' HDTV for $499.99. Originally $579.99.

• LG 42 inch 720p HDV for $799.99. Originally $1099.99.

The Kuro still held strong with its deep, bottomless blacks, but the LaserVue is noticeably better on colors, especially reds. The LaserVue is also better able to handle scenes with tons of motion than the Kuro, especially during action scenes in Iron Man. You can see above that the Kuro, on the right, makes the red of Iron Man's suit look too simple, while the LaserVue on the left has all the dirt and scars of a real battle. Below, the LaserVue's reds really pop, able to show the difference between the hues in the woman's top and skirt much more clearly than the Kuro—which is even from Pioneer's demo disc.

We've seen the LaserVue reviewed before, but only while using Mitsubishi's hand-picked content, which doesn't necessarily make for the most accurate test. Kurtis and Cameron at The Tech Lounge got themselves a Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blu-Ray player and a copy of both Ice Age: Meltdown and Iron Man to test out color, clarity, and motion on the "normal" settings of both HDTVs. They came away impressed with the color, but not with the hefty $7000 price tag. Still, if you can afford it, and you don't mind its fatty rear-projection girth, the LaserVue is definitely the cream of the crop. [Tech Lounge]

In an otherwise surprise-free keynote today, one without booms or "one more thing"s, one bit of news stood out: White made a quiet return to the iPod family in the premium 16GB iPhone 3G. Sure, it never fully left Apple—remaining the default color for earbuds, plugs, power bricks, AirPort products and the cheapest MacBooks—but we were finally getting used to a world without white iPods. Does this mean after nine short months put out to the pastures, white is already retro-cool again?

This time around, white won't be for everybody. Once the staple color of the iPod revolution, white will be a statement for those bold enough to sport a phone that bright. It's incredible; when Jobs dropped a little black on the masses, we thought that was radical, but eventually accepted it as the norm. When most Apple products went brushed-aluminum, we were again stunned, but now we think nothing of it. Today white, the color that we accepted from the beginning, is back, this time on an iPhone, and it looks like the most far-out Apple product yet.

Will the return of white in the iPhone set a pattern for the iPod touch, classic, and others? Will white be the new, well, white, taking back the reins as the most popular color? Will the color make its way back to Apple's high-style MacBook Air? Can Jobs, Jonathan Ive and the Cupertino crew keep us on our toes forever by recycling the same three finishes? Most importantly, are you a person that's bold enough to rock this flamboyant new phone? I, for one, am not. [Apple]

Update: AT&T's just denied the existence of an iPhone Black, pointing to leftover placeholder text from a weekend update.

Normally, she told us, the slot houses a little plastic arm that prevents the paper from dropping onto the floor. But it's a fragile little piece, so the bods at Samsung decided to remove it just in case any clumsy IFA-goers (ie me) snapped it off. Not that interesting, really because, given the looks, the peephole should hide microscopic laser guns that go "Pew-Pew-Pew-Pew" if they spot a typo. Just a thought.

UPDATE: I've got you some prices for you to get you some printer love. Most of the numbers at IFA are given to us in Euros, but Samsung told us to expect virtually the same price stateside as in Europe. The ML-1630 will cost 229 ($312) and the SCX-4500 349 , or $476.