Consumerist
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entertainment
Should Concert Promoters Have To Disclose Lip-Syncing?
Various people in the country of Australia are upset at Britney Spears for lip syncing — and feel that it is dishonest for the pop star not to disclose that sometimes she's just mouthing along while she dances. More » -
video wars
DVD Price War: Harry Potter, Star Trek For $10
Walmart announced yesterday that it will be slashing prices to below wholesale on 10 of the most popular DVDs that will be released soon, says the LA Times. Target announced that it will be matching Walmart. Amazon has not yet responded. More » -
video wars
Streaming Movies: Best Buy Preparing For A World Without DVDs
Best Buy announced a "a Best Buy-branded offering, available starting early next year," that will stream "first-run DVDs" online directly to consumers, says the NYT Bits Blog. More » -
money
Save Money on Cable Television and TV Services
Given the state of the economy, it seems like everyone is looking for ways to save on non-discretionary expenses. Lucky for us, The Digerati Life offers some useful thoughts on how to cut back on TV services without turning off media completely. Their five suggestions include: More » -
silly
Target Is Somewhat Liberal When It Comes To "Kids" Programming
Hey, where was Target back in the day when our parents were looking for a babysitter? The one we had wouldn't let us watch anything cool. Certainly not anything with a huge "CENSORED" sticker on the front of it. More » -
how to
Make Your Own Playdough
Looking for a cheap way to entertain your kids or spice up a rainy day? Make your own playdough! The homemade stuff may not come in a shiny yellow play-doh container, but you probably have most of the ingredients in your cupboard already, and the concoction won't smell or contain yucky toxins. Hit the jump for the recipe... More » -
If we owned a Blockbuster franchise, we'd seriously think about just renting out the space to a bunch of Redbox kiosks. Blockbuster reported a 42% drop in revenue for the first quarter of 2009, which CEO Jim Keyes blamed on people going out to watch movies at theaters instead. Regarding the Redbox threat, Keyes said they hope to have 3,000 kiosks functioning by the end of the year. Redbox, on the other hand, has about 12,000. [Reuters]
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tv
CBS Is Counting On Leno To Fail In Prime Time
You know how much it sucks to lose a $5 bill, right? Well, times that by 11 million and you get an idea of how CBS president and CEO Les Moonves felt during the first quarter of the year, when his company lost $55.3 million. More » -
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Time Warner as a whole reported a 4th quarter loss of $24.2 billion today. The cable unit, which lost $8.16 billion, suffered as people canceled subscriptions due to the economy. Yowch. [NYT]
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If you're a fan of Joss Whedon (or Nathan Fillion or Neil Patrick Harris or Felicia Day), you can watch Whedon's new online-only supervillain musical for free until July 20th. [BusinessWeek]
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movies
9 Ways To Save At The Movies
Summer means movies, but don't get stuck paying $12 per ticket or $7 for a bag of popcorn. Instead, check out these nine ways to slash your movie budget without missing any summer blockbusters.
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Blu-ray players just aren't selling that well, says Business Week. Maybe that's because Sony has said that prices for players "likely won't fall below $200 until the end of next year—at the earliest." [Business Week]
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Blockbuster has offered to buy Circuit City for a little over $1 billion, with the goal of creating "a chain that could sell portable devices and entertainment for them, much like Apple Inc.'s stores." [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
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scams
Consumer Alert: Fortune Tellers Cannot Curse You, Do Not Give Them Your Money
Two fortune-tellers in Chicago are in being held in jail in lieu of $750,000 bail each for defrauding customers by convincing them they were cursed, then selling them expensive curse-removal/protection services. Remember, folks, fortune tellers cannot curse you, see your future, turn you into a werewolf, or make you lose horrific amounts of weight. They can, however, take your money. More » -
movies
New Service Delivers Video On Demand When You Order The DVD
Cablevision and Popcorn Home Entertainment have announced a new service that lets you watch movies immediately through Cablevision's set-top box whenever you buy the DVD through their menu system. The DVD is mailed to you, but in the meantime you have the on-demand version for "instant gratification," reports Reuters. More » -
new business models
EA To Release "Free" Video Game In U.S. This Summer
Electronic Arts saw crazy profits in South Korea over the past two years from distributing its FIFA soccer title online for free, then charging an average of $1.60 per transaction for character clothing and accessories. Now EA has announced it will release a free online version of Battlefield Heroes in the U.S. and Europe this summer. If it proves successful, more titles will follow. Unfortunately, in addition to micro-transactions EA will also include in-game advertising to support the business model. Suddenly we're picturing a surreal NASCAR battlefield... hey, that sounds like a new game idea! Pay up, EA! More » -
music
Last.fm Offers Free Streaming Albums And Tracks
The popular music site Last.fm announced today that beginning immediately, you can listen to entire music tracks and full-length albums for free. Previously, you could only hear excerpts of most tracks, which made Last.fm a great place for discovering new artists but a rotten one for actually listening to them. The site is taking a Flickr-style approach to its new service, offering a free version—you can listen to a track up to three times—and a forthcoming subscription service which will allow for unlimited streaming. This sounds good, but we're curious about the three-listen limit, and how frequently that count is reset, if ever. More »
entertainment
New York, 4:41 AM
Tue Nov 10
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