Now that I've been able to share with you all the great news about the GrundeBuds giveaway, it's time to get back to normal here at Byte-Sized --

Let's take a look at the week's headline in the realm of technology, science and just plain cool stuff ...

-- It's that time of year again ... when people who shouldn't be shopping for gadgets take to the retail stores to utterly confuse themselves as they shop for their tech-loving friends. Here is a guide to navigating retail stores help them out. Email it around and share well.

-- Much to my own delight, it looks like ebooks/ereaders have finally gone mainstream! Once just a niche technology for the technophiles like me, Barnes and Nobles' new nook has broken that fourth wall! And, it looks like publishers are embracing the ereaders ... on the surface. Underneath, they-re probably pissed, but what can you do?

-- Eek. Video game sales dropped 19% in October. Not that they'll stay low for much longer, what with Dragonage Origins and Modern Warfare 2 blasting into the market and, as my brother says, 'changing the face of gaming forever.' Especially this close to the holidays. Don't worry, I expect an upswing.

-- On the video game vein, XBox is getting a Facebook upgrade! Next Tuesday, Nov. 17, XBox users will download a new firmware upgrade to their dashboards that will bring with it Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter upgrades. Be sure to log in and get this set up! Also, for more video game news, check out Captivate's Gamer's Edge blog.

--And, finally, here is the strangest story of the day. Coming soon to a smartphone near you: An app that analyzes the quality of your cough to determine what virus you may or may not be harboring. That's lab diagnostics at your fingertips -- for real. Just don't share your phone after you get your germs inside of it, thanks.

See you all next week, when we'll announce the winner of the Pre-Thanksgiving Giveaway of the Atomic9 Grungebuds! Thank you so much for all of the entries thus far, and if you want to enter yourself, shoot me an email at bytesized@captivate.com! See you Monday!