If taken with persistent weakness in consumer confidence, still below the level historically associated with sustained increases in personal consumption.

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Soon after CH Products released the first consumer-level force feedback joystick, Microsoft came out with its own version: the SideWinder Force Feedback Pro.

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Thus, the recession is likely to continue to be felt at the individual employee level, with long-term implications for consumer spending.

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Coupled with the still high level of unemployment, that does not bode well for consumer spending to pick up in any sustainable way just yet.

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The first wave of NUads, which launched last fall with interactive polling, saw a record level of consumer engagement with 37 percent of people responding.

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The report showed a deeper consumer-retrenchment than was expected with sales sliding by 1.1% between months leaving the level 1.9% lower than a year ago.

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And, with a relatively low level of borrowings, the Chinese government has the ability to use fiscal stimulus as well if consumer spending does not develop as expected.

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It's genuinely difficult to think of a flagship consumer electronics product, with a display of any kind, being engineered in the year 2013 without at least some level of internet connectivity in mind.

ENGADGET