Black Friday weekend CE sales were up by high-single to low-double-digit percentages, despite a month’s worth of discounts that prompted some consumers to buy before the post-Thanksgiving sales blitz began, said retailers we polled.

Cyber Monday presented an interesting collection of electronics steal deals, inventory blowouts, bundles and free shipping, Consumer Electronics Daily found as we perused websites Monday for advertised specials. Going after aggressive shoppers, Target scraped 99 cents off an already-slashed Hewlett-Packard all-in-one printer, bringing it to $29 even. In video, Target used pricing on little-known brands to lure e-shoppers. Sale items included a Sceptre 19-inch LED LCD TV marked down $69, to $149, with free shipping. An Aiptek HD camcorder with 47.5 MB storage and 5x optical zoom went into carts at $119, down from $179. Target broke the $300 barrier on a 32-inch TV with a Vizio 720p 60Hz-model discounted $58, to $299. Savvy shoppers would have done their homework and shopped elsewhere for a Samsung 26-inch LN26C350 that Target pitched at $429. Wal-Mart offered it for $386 and J&R for $299, both with free shipping.

Media companies are working on new apps to run in Web browsers and on devices such as Internet-enabled TV sets, Internet industry executives said. They said part of their motivation is the prospect of charging for content currently available free on the Web. Media companies are working on new apps to run in Web browsers and on devices such as Internet-enabled TV sets, the executives said. They said part of the motivation is the prospect of charging for content currently available free on the Web.

The FCC should not impose an in-store testing requirement as part of its hearing-aid compatibility rules, the CE Retailers Coalition (CERC) said in reply comments on an FCC further notice of proposed rulemaking. CTIA, meanwhile, urged the FCC to base its rules on a collaborative process between carriers and the public. Groups representing the deaf and hard of hearing did not file reply comments.

TVs again appeared to be the deal du jour for Black Friday, our canvass of stores in metropolitan New York and in Ann Arbor, Mich., found. CE manufacturers sought to turn around what have been sluggish TV sales by resorting to instant rebate offers that averaged $800-$1,000 in Black Friday savings, compared with $200-$300 in years past, said retailers we polled.

Provocative statements about privacy by leading Internet companies’ CEOs continue a tradition set by predecessor high-tech chiefs, said industry players and researchers. Comments by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Eric Schmidt taken as characterizing conventional privacy complaints as overblown or outdated in the digital age follow in a line created years ago by Sun Microsystems’ Scott McNealy and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, they said. The comments have gone well beyond other statements of their companies’ outlooks and they have invariably generated controversy, at least in the media and with privacy advocates.

TiVo’s upfront subsidy that helps slash the entry-level Premiere DVR’s price to $99 with a one-year subscription will add $8-$10 million in losses to Q4 earnings, TiVo Chief Financial Officer Anna Brunelle said on a conference call. The price of the step-up Premiere XL also was lowered to $299 from $399.

Social media tools are reshaping how consumers will shop on Black Friday 2010 and in the future. The Huffington Post said Wednesday that with the increasing popularity of social media sites Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Groupon, this year’s Black Friday is “the most social media-savvy to date.”

Target’s Black Friday doorbusters will include a $449 Apex 40-inch, 60-Hz, 1080p LCD TV when its stores open at 4 a.m. Other doorbusters featured in Target’s ad circular, available Wednesday, were a Philips dual-screen portable DVD player at $85, saving more than $70; $3.99 DVDs including The Blind Side; $39 game controllers for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360; and a $127 PSP-3000 bundle including the Sony handheld system, Sony’s game LittleBigPlanet, the movie The Karate Kid on Universal Media Disc and a Sony 1-GB Memory Stick, offering “over $100 in added value” combined, Target said. All will be available only while supplies last, it said. Not listed as a doorbuster but one of the best deals offered by Target in the circular was a 4-GB Xbox 360 at its normal $199.99 but with a $50 gift card thrown in.

Flat-panel TVs will be a top draw for Black Friday this year, presenting an “interesting phenomenon,” according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. “We've always seen really low-priced things do well,” he told Consumer Electronics Daily, but this year TVs have helped “turn that aside.” Historically, the leading product for Black Friday features “a lot of money off” on low-priced goods, he said. “Now we're seeing stuff at $300, $400 and $500 being a great deal and Black Friday doorbuster products,” he said.