Sony first bought online video hub Crackle back in 2006, when it was a repository for user-generated clips known as Grouper. But attempts to transform the site into a programmed channel have been slow to materialize, so now Sony is shaking things up. The site is getting a new management team, new headquarters and an infusion of full-length TV shows and movies from the Sony library to complement the increasing slate of short-form originals already rolling out. Previously based in San Francisco, Crackle will move to Culver City, Calif., and be formally folded into Sony's digital content operations, which include …

Conditions are ripe for an abjectly terrible holiday shopping season, so forget your top 10 lists of big sellers. CNN.com is already touting the 10 tech gadgets most likely to register as huge flops this holiday season. At the top of the list is the TMobile G1, or the "Google Phone." Despite the hype, design flaws and clunky operation will keep this "iPhone killer" from living up to the name. Also making the list is Elmo Live, the latest attempt from Fisher-Price to cash in on the sensation that was Tickle Me Elmo. Unfortunately, for $65, this chatty, gesticulating …

Just in case you needed more evidence that the economy is headed south: Hitwise is reporting that visits to online retail Web sites in the U.S. have declined for the eighth consecutive week. Visits to retail Web sites were down 3% for the week ending Oct. 25 compared to that same week a year ago. Retail sites had actually experienced a bump in traffic from June through August of this year, but then started sagging in September, when they dropped by 4%. We all know the story from there. "These declines have strong implications for the upcoming online …

There was a time when all it required to play a video game was a television and at least one thumb. But now, before playing game one on a Microsoft Xbox or a Nintendo Wii, you are encouraged to create an avatar that will become your virtual representation in some online universe. And the companies behind these games have big plans for those virtual interlopers. Companies like Microsoft and Sony (maker of Nintendo) are banking that users will stay in their virtual worlds longer if they have some digital representation, particularly one that looks the way they would like …

Measuring firm comScore wants to make it easier for publishers to track content across multiple third party sites -- videos, social media applications, widgets and photos -- with a new service called comScore Extended Web. The firm's Media Metrix service will also begin offering gross rating point data for online ads, an online counterpart to the standard GRP metric in the traditional ad world, which will also help advertisers better evaluate cross-media campaigns. Together, both efforts represent an ambitious step in solving one of the greatest challenges of the digital media era: measuring audiences for efforts that span the Web. …

Never played a video game in your life? Have no idea what an Xbox or Wii is? Well watch out! You're just asking to be brought up on charges by a U.K. campaign to crack down on video game piracy. Such was the case with one elderly couple from Scotland, Gill and Ken Murdoch, who received a letter from Atari's law firm telling them they could pay 500 pounds for their crime of illegally downloading games or face criminal prosecution. "We do not have, and have never had, any computer game or sharing software," said the couple. "We did …

What would your ideal PC look like, and what would it do? Would it have endless memory, staggeringly high-definition resolution and lightning-fast Internet access, or come in bright pink and play Jonas Brothers records every time you get reboot? Well now you can tell Intel what you want, and maybe your wishes will come true. Intel has teamed up with IT firm ASUS and ad network Federated Media Publishing to launch WePC.com, where the public can go and share their ideas for the perfect PC, and vote on others' ideas. Sometime next year, Intel will review the entries and …

Talk about a battle of the bands. Activision, which makes "Guitar Hero," and MTV-Harmonix, which makes "Rock Band," have for years been engaged in a war for exclusivity with some of the world's all-time greatest musicians in an effort to build the ultimate set lists for their respective music-based video games. But the big catch, The Beatles, have long lay unclaimed. Until now, that is. In one of the biggest coups of the digital music era, MTV has won the rights to include Beatles music in its "Rock Band" game. But this is about more than gaming: This is …