Circuit City’s same store sales for the month of December are down 12% in the U.S., causing some to speculate that firing all the people who understand the products you carry might not be a winning sales strategy.
ELECTRONICS
By 1.7.08
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TigerDirect announced it will buy all that’s left of CompUSA. Finally, the rumors have come true. [ArsTechnica]
Some Spare Batteries Banned On Flights
By 1.2.08
Because some have been known to spontaneously combust, the Department of Transportation (DOT) is banning some lithium batteries from your checked-in luggage. In the spring, a laptop battery related fire erupted in the overhead compartment of a Jetblue flight, and on an American Airlines flight from Argentina, prompting the DOT to issue a warning about packing spare batteries. Lithium batteries are commonly used in laptops and cellphones. However, the rules mainly apply to professionals and/or people who travel with spare batteries. For the most part, batteries installed in the electronic device are fine. Inside, a handy chart to tell you what’s been banned. [More]
Nintendo Officially Disapproves Of "Bundling"
By 12.18.07
Bundling may be a popular tactic retailers employ to force customers to spend more money, but Nintendo of America’s celeb-President Reggie Fils-Aime has come out against it, finally: “Retailers have already been given feedback that we are not big fans of that,” he told Reuters this week. Is the pre-purchase deal with GameStop one way Nintendo is preventing that from happening this December? If anyone actually buys one of those empty DVD cases, let us know if they try to upsell you to a bundle.
3 Sites To Help You Save Money Online
By 12.14.07
PriceSpider works much like WishRadar that we mentioned last week, except PriceSpider focuses exclusively on electronics, and searches more sites. You choose the product and set a target price, and when it sees that price somewhere online, it sends you an alert.
Save Money By Buying Last Year's Gadgets
By 12.14.07
The evolutionary cycle of gadgetry is fast enough now that you can score some great deals on last year’s products, which are perfectly fine for all but the most technologically literate (or obsessed) people in your life. A perfect example: the first generation Zune, which can be found for as low as $80, has a bigger screen than a non-Touch iPod, and a 30 gigabyte capacity. Yes, it’s also got lots of drawbacks. But that’s why it’s $80, and for the average consumer who just wants a decent mp3 and movie player, it does the job nicely.
Avoid In-Store "Finance Traps" When Buying An HDTV
By 12.12.07
Several retailers are offering special deals on expensive HDTVs this season—things like no payments until x date or zero percent financing—but PC World cautions that they’re not always the bargains they appear to be. Their advice: “Cash is always best. If you need a special promotion to buy an HDTV, you can’t afford it.”
Dangerous Toys Helping Walmart?
By 12.7.07
Parents are staying away from small toys this holiday season, says a survey from America’s Research Group, and planning instead to buy more expensive tech items.
Fry's Employees Sell Opportunity To Cut Black Friday Line
By 11.25.07
Fry’s employees in Renton, Washington sold Black Friday aspirants the chance to cut to the front of the pre-dawn line for between $108.79 and $200, including tax. Puzzled shoppers were assured that the money went to Fry’s, not the employees. A Fry’s worker explained the situation with disarming naiveté:
When KING 5 asked about this at the customer service desk, one employee said: “Oh they stopped doing that. They weren’t supposed to.” The employee said the store manager put a stop to it.
Anyone who paid the advancement fee will receive a full refund. The rogue salesmen will be sent to the back of the unemployment line.
Fired By Circuit City? They Might Want You Back
By 11.20.07
Circuit City fired 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees in March, claiming that it needed to hire cheaper help in order to stop hemorrhaging money. It didn’t work. Only a few months later, analysts blamed the ill-advised job cuts for Circuit City’s poor sales.
Reader Gets SHARP To Take Back His Defective TV 1 Month Out Of Warranty
By 11.12.07
Dan bought an Aquos LC-32D40U 32″ LCD TV’ and one month out of warranty it developed a thin black line on the right side of the screen. Sharp didn’t want to talk to him. Best Buy wanted to charge him $100 just to come out and look at it. Something had to be done. Dan writes:
Where To Get Help When Your Gadget Breaks Down
By 11.9.07
When your iPod, Zune, CueCat, HP printer, DVD player, or game console goes on the fritz, you no longer have to put it in that closet where you store all the stuff that doesn’t work but that you don’t think you should throw away. There’s now a whole world of self-help forums and repair advice websites online where you can trade tips with other owners of consumer electronics—weird things companies would never tell you, like using a piece of folded paper as a shim to get a failed hard drive working again in your iPod.
How To Extend Your Battery Life
By 10.30.07
Reader Don felt compelled to share this tips about proper love and care of your electronic items’ batteries so they last longer and you don’t have to buy more unnecessarily…
Aquos LC-32D40U Develops Defect 1 Month Out Of Warranty
By 10.11.07
A friend of ours bought a Sharp Aquos LC-32D40U last year. Its warranty expired in August. Naturally, this month, it developed a strange liberation. There’s a thin black line on the right side of the screen. It sorta looks like it’s not completely hiding the letter boxes when you go to full screen format. When he called Sharp, they didn’t want to help him because his warranty was over. Best Buy, where he bought it, will charge $100 to come out and look and it.
Sony Rips Off Artists For New Bravia Campaign
By 10.6.07
They say there’s no new ideas in advertising, but after seeing the latest ripoff routine, where Sony Bravia totally jacked an independent artist team’s work for their new ad, we disagree. They do have one idea. It’s that it’s totally okay to blatantly steal other’s work, repackage it, and get away with it. But we’ve got to wonder, what are these firms thinking? If consumers discover the cut and paste job, isn’t that a pretty negative backwash on the client they’re supposed to be promoting? Or do they figure, hey, it’s just a few thousand internet geeks and artists, they don’t have any money anyways, who cares, let’s snort some more coke off the copying machine glass?
Research Group Suggests iPods Are To Blame For Increase In Crime
By 9.28.07
A research group in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the spike in violent crime, particularly robberies, in the past two years correlates with the rising popularity of the iPod line of products. They don’t really back this up with rigorous statistical analysis, they just say it. So now you know.
By 9.25.07
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“They are the secret language of the gadget world: mysterious icons that are printed, stamped, and engraved on every electronic device and the packaging it comes in.” Wired explains the meanings behind eight commonly used symbols you find on today’s electronics. [Wired]
