These Bluetooth® devices deliver smarter ways to connect with convenience, durability, and just more fun. Check out the six featured items from our awards catalog here.
Part II: Home Entertainment and Technology
Another big trend we see for the coming holiday season is in the home entertainment and technology realm. Surprised? With so many great blockbuster films, engaging video games and evolving gadgets out there, neither are we. And we bet we’ll find more than one of these items on your holiday list!
DVD/Blu-ray™ and video games make great stocking stuffers for the movie buff or gamer in your life. Recent blockbusters such as “Life of Pi” and “Iron Man 3,” classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and kids’ movies including “Barbie® in The Pink Shoes” are all anticipated to be hot redeemers this season. New video games such as “Madden 25,” “NBA2K14” and “Disney® Infinity” are all expected to sell well, especially given the popularity of sports video games.
Smart gadgets are becoming more popular as functionality increases and price points decrease. TVs are working more like computers, with internet connectivity, streaming TV, 4K and combo TV/DVD units. Sound bars and wireless speakers are all the rage as people long to bring that big-screen experience to their own living rooms. 3D TV is also hot right now, as it supports the many 3D movies that are being shown recently – like the aforementioned “Life of Pi.” Some models even let you control how and what you watch from your tablet or smart phone.
Speaking of smart phones, accessorizing your favorite device is becoming quite popular, especially since people love using the camera. LG’s Pocket Photo Printer is a great way to get your fave shots off of your phone and into the real world. The Sony® Smartphone Attachable Lens is the first-ever zoom lens and sensor combo that clips right to your smartphone. Mophie® and Datexx have both introduced external batteries to power your device on-the-go.
Finally, what kind of tech round-up would this be if we didn’t mention the latest headphones? Bose® is big this year as the company has started to advertise on-air. The QuietComfort® 20 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones let you hear as much or as little of the outside world as you want while enjoying your music. Sony®’s NFC Bluetooth® Wireless Headphones let you stream music from your smart phone or take a call mid-playlist. And Monster®’s Diamond Tears™ On Ear Headphones offer a fashionable, feminine answer to the popular on-ear headphones of today. Never be without your favorite tunes – the way you want to enjoy them!
As we mentioned at the conclusion of Part I, this is just a sample of the variety of different entertainment and electronic items available here at Hinda. Stay tuned Part III where we will cover trends in housewares, outdoor and lifestyle merchandise!
If you're wondering about what's going to be a hot ticket item this holiday season, you'd be making a safe bet banking on e-books.
Way back in the day, Sony had the only game in town with a huge cumbersome e-reader. Eventually Amazon stole the show with their Kindle. For the longest time, Kindle has been the go-to device for e-reading with its plethora of content and grayscale, easy-on-the-eyes screen. However, the growth of the e-reader market has exploded with competitors looking to take over Kindle's throne. A recent article from Fast Company noted that e-books are now a $1 billion industry. With that market size comes more 
aspiring "Kindle Killers" to take a piece of that pie.
Barnes and Noble's Nook has seen a facelift of late with the release of the Nook Color. This device not only provides a sleek 7-inch color touchscreen to enhance the reader experience but also runs on an Android platform. The Nook upgrade also has a kid-friendly feature in its "Read to Me" application, a feature that has a professional narrator reading select children's books aloud via the device. In addition, Nook Color is a social device, making sharing book discussions a seamless experience for users via Facebook, Twitter and Google.
Other e-readers look to mix things up to. Sony's e-reader provides a lightweight portable device with one redeeming feature - battery life. Sony claims that users are able to enjoy up to two weeks worth of reading enjoyment on one single battery charge (in comparison to Nook Color's eight hour lifespan). Another device that will also crash the e-reader party will be the iPad. Though it's not first and foremost an e-reader, its iBooks application provides a very interactive reading experience for its users and looks to make even more waves in the e-reader scene.
The e-reader market has grown exponentially over the last couple of years. Do you see this being over-hyped? Or will these devices really be a holiday hit?
