Christmas is fast approaching. Our friendly TV networks' countdowns to the year's most anticipated holiday have passed by the midway marker.

Soon, almost everybody will be afflicted with the holiday disease — that indefinable state of mind bordering insanity, typically characterized by a hard-to-control urge to spend money, even money yet to be earned. It usually drives ordinary humans into some serious debt, if not near poverty, of course.

As a consequence of this affliction, perhaps, a proportionate number of souls are left with no choice but to grab enough money, by whatever means available to them.

So, yes, the holiday season on these shores also means the high-crime-rate season. Crimes against property and crimes against person go with the season as much as carols and Christmas decors do.

Scammers and fraudsters are working so hard they put Santa's little helpers, as well as politicians, to shame.

Nokia Down

We sure hope it's a case of "It's always darkest before the dawn," and that soon there will be light at the end of the tunnel for Nokia.

While more than 169 million smartphones were sold worldwide in the third quarter of 2012, only 7.2 million of them, or about 4.3 percent, came with the Nokia badge. The Finnish mobile vendor used to be numero uno in the smartphone market just a few years ago.

These days, however, Apple and Samsung combined account for 46.5 percent of the market, according to Gartner. The market research firm said global sales of smartphones, which account for about 40 percent of the total mobile-phone market, grew 46.9 percent from the third quarter of last year. HTC Corp. and Research In Motion were among the mobile vendors that overtook Nokia.

Nokia hopes it can turn around its fortune with its Windows Phone 8 Lumia line of smartphones.

Nokia's Here

Nokia last week introduced HERE, a free cloud-based map service for multiple mobile operating systems, including Android and iOS. The company said the iOS version will have a voice-controlled pedestrian navigation feature, public transport directions, and offline functionalities.

There will also be a Mobile Firefox OS version of the HERE Maps. A HERE SDK will be made available to Android developers in early 203.

B&N's Nook for Windows 8/RT

See what wonders can being friendly do.

Microsoft's cozying up to and its $300 million investment in a Barnes & Noble subsidiary has helped produce a Nook app for the Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems.

The app will allow users of Windows 8 and Windows RT computers, tablets, and other devices to read ebooks, newspapers, comics, and periodicals. Again, keep in mind, people. It pays to be nice and friendly. Of course, it helps if you're wealthy, too.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.