Technologizer

Look Out Ma Bell Here’s…Wal-Mart

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Today, Wal-Mart announced that it is becoming a wireless provider. The retail giant is offering an “unlimited” no-contact cell phone service for $45, and a metered plan for $30. While there is no contract, customers must purchase an eligible phone. Wal-Mart is offering an entry-level LG 220 flip phone at $39.98, an LG Slider 290 at $79.98, [...]

Wal-Mart Wants Your Used Games

Monday, May 18, 2009

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If you need to unload some old video games and don’t care to interact with GameStop employees, consider machines as an alternative. Wal-Mart is testing standalone buy back kiosks at 77 stores in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, Video Business reports. The kiosks will scan the bar codes of used games and separately swallow [...]

Wal-Mart Beefing Up Electronics Departments

Monday, May 18, 2009

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Wal-Mart is making a move to become a premier electronics destination and gain share in the wake of Circuit City’s demise. Beginning this week, the electronics departments in all 3,500+ stores will get a facelift. Wal-Mart and Amazon seem to have been the biggest beneficiaries of Circuit City’s fall, splitting the company’s business rather evenly. Best [...]

So Much for Cheaper Music on Amazon

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

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Well, it didn’t take very long for the other music stores to follow suit after iTunes’ price hike Tuesday. By late evening, both Amazon and Wal-Mart had simarily raised prices on some of their top tracks by 30 cents. Both had priced their tracks at 99 and 94 cents respectively. Like iTunes, both stores have cheaper [...]

5Words for March 17th, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

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Happy Saint Paddy’s day, everybody! Sneak peek: Dell’s Adamo notebook. Macworld’s iPhone 3.0 wish list. Three More HTC Android phones. Nine-hour MSI Wind netbook. Comcast passwords exposed on Web. Super-fast game download service. Boxee does an iPhone remote control. Best Buy takes on Walmart. Rough February for Macs, iPods. HP adds long-life batteries. Nintendo victorious in remote lawsuit. Vatican: Serious about the Internet.

Wal-Mart to Sell the iPhone: Nothing to See Here

Friday, December 26, 2008

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It’s felt all but official for weeks, but now it’s officially official: Wal-Mart will begin selling iPhones on Sunday. The one thing that was intriguing about the rumor version of this news was the theory that it would offer a 4GB version for $99. But as I suspected, the retailing behemoth will sell the same [...]

Wal-Mart iPhones Apparently On Their Way. Either For $99, or Not For $99.

Monday, December 8, 2008

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Bloomberg and the San Jose Mercury News seem to have confirmed a rumor that’s been around for a long while now: Wal-Mart is about to start selling the iPhone, joining the Apple Store, AT&T retail locations, and Best Buy. And the Mercury-News found a source willing to say on the record that there were plans [...]

How Low Can iPhones Go? Wal-Mart Says $99. Maybe. (Actually, I Kind of Doubt It.)

Thursday, December 4, 2008

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Boy Genius Report, which has a pretty good record for reporting stuff about phones before anybody else, has posted about the possibility of a $99 4GB iPhone to be sold exclusively by Wal-Mart. It does look like Wal-Mart will become the fourth iPhone seller (after Apple itself, AT&T, and Best Buy). But Boy Genius goes [...]

Black Friday Turns Ugly. Genuinely Ugly.

Friday, November 28, 2008

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Okay, I had some fun with my distaste for Black Friday earlier today, but this is serious stuff. A Wal-Mart employee was knocked to the floor by maniacal shoppers and killed today at a store on Long Island, in a riot that sent four other people (including a pregnant woman) to the hospital. (The crowd [...]

Not-So-Black Friday Preview: Wal-Mart

Friday, November 14, 2008

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Okay, so Best Buy didn’t exactly thrill us with its “doorbusters” and supposed Black Friday specials. So, will the mecca of American retail capitalism be able to do any better? From the looks of it, not really. According to a copy of a circular obtained by CNNMoney.com, here are the specials — and they look pretty [...]

Walmart.com Music “Buyers” Get a Reprieve

Friday, October 10, 2008

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There’s good news–sort of!–from Bentonville: Walmart.com, which had told folks who bought copy-protected music that it was shutting down the DRM servers that let them move their tunes from device to device, has relented. At least for the moment. Ars Technica has details, along with some good background on previous instances of big companies who [...]

Walmart.com Stiffs Its Music Customers

Sunday, September 28, 2008

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It’s DRM deja vu all over again. Yet another major purveyor of copy-protected media has alerted the customers that purchased downloads from it that it’s shutting down its DRM servers, thereby crippling the stuff those customers bought. This time it’s Walmart.com and it joins Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo in what’s becoming a really predictable tradition [...]