When the US inventory of the 128GB version of Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet dried up within hours after going on sale Saturday, there were plenty of disappointed shoppers.

This is the time of year when friends, family members, casual acquaintances, and people in the street stop me to ask about buying a new PC.

Apple's Mac App Store has delivered more than 100 million downloads since launching in early January, the company announced Monday.  The Mac App Store is Apple's online retail outlet for PC applications for Macs running OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher. While topping 100 million downloads is a far cry from the one billion downloads the iOS App Store sees every month, it proves the Mac App Store is popular with Mac users.

I’m dating myself, but I remember when holiday shopping involved pouring through ads in the Sunday paper, placing actual phone calls from tethered land lines to research product stock and availability, and actually driving places to pick things up. Now, holiday shoppers can do all of that from a smartphone or tablet in a few seconds, but there are some security pitfalls to be aware of.

Internet darling, Regretsy, is a site and community built around poking fun at strange and weird offerings on the handmade goods site Etsy. Regretsy is also known for its charitable funding efforts, which have helped Etsy sellers in need and charities to the tune of over $100,000 since 2009.

As rumoured last month, Apple has updated its Apple Store iOS app, expanding its in-store pickup pilot program to all of its US retail locations and adding a new EasyPay feature that lets customers buy some items simply by scanning their barcodes.

Motorola's Xoom is the latest Android tablet to get lower pricing, with a new "Family Edition" Xoom now available for $379.

In the last 13 years, PayPal has expanded far beyond its initial growth spurt on auction Websites. According to its second-quarter results, the online payment service busted through the $1 billion-earnings mark and is processing more than $315 million a day in online payments.

The glorious chaos we call the Holiday Shopping Season will soon be upon us. Holiday shopping also means a spike in online scams, fraud, and malware, so you need to be aware of the risks and threats, and exercise some common sense to avoid a cyber-Grinch incident.

Malware targeting Android-powered mobile devices and Apple computers top a list scams and security threats the people need to guard against this holiday shopping season.

It's not an exaggeration to say that the recent Wikileaks scandal has shaken the Internet to its core. Regardless of where you stand on the debate, various services have simply refused to handle Wikileaks' business -- everything from domain-name providers to payment services -- and this has led to many questioning how robust the Internet actually is.