Today we can bring you early word that Circuit City is apparently on the verge of closing 155 stores and withdrawing from the consumer electronics business for good. Sister site the Consumerist broke the unverified news thanks to an insider tip, which has since been corroborated by a forum post over at Google Finance. Consumerist also reports that employees in certain departments, like car installation, will be unemployed within 48 hours (warranties will still be honoured). Most closings are expected to be wrapped up by December 31, 2008. It's a sad day for everyone at Circuit City, but also an inevitable one, given the coverage we've seen over the past year. The Sony truck turnaround story from earlier this week was especially damning. [The Consumerist]

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Father de Carli, the flying priest who got lost last April, has been found deceased in the middle of the Atlantic. In an effort to raise funds for a local charity organisation, De Carli planned to stay for more than 19 hours up in the air using a thousand party balloons, taking a GPS with him to communicate his position in case emergency. Unfortunately for the generous man, the trip ended in disaster.

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The inventor of the Pringles can, Dr. Fredric J. Baur, had an odd request regarding the treatment of his final remains. Well, odd for anyone but the inventor of the Pringles can, that is.

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Shiny new toys beget hordes of software utilities to make them easier to use, and the iPhone is no exception. Today's battle: video conversion software. The first offering is the aptly-named DVD to iPhone software from underdog Innovative Solutions. Four mouse clicks will have you transferring Entourage reruns with blazing-fast "Cyberspeed" technology. What software Goliath emerges to challenge this brave David? That behemoth is none other than Roxio, hardened veteran of the utility software realm. Its latest offering is Roxio Crunch, a simple-to-use conversion program with output settings for Apple TV, iPod and iPhone. A few clicks will handle all the grunt work here, too, and the added functionality of batch conversion and automatic iTunes integration puts it a step above the competition. Can David conquer Goliath? Not this time. If you're dying for a cheap(er) solution to your video problem, check out DVD to iPhone's free trial, or shell out the $30 if you're on a small business kick. Mac users be warned: DVD to iPhone is, ironically, PC only. If you're on a Mac or just want something that looks, feels and acts like a more polished product, you'll need to drop $40 for Roxio's Crunch. [DVD to iPhone Product Page] [Roxio Crunch Product Page]

If you're a big fan of the easy button and want to apply its simplifying logic to your fancy new iPhone, check out Innovative Solutions' new DVD to iPhone software. Using "Cyberspeed technology," it will take any DVD, AVI, MPEG or other downloaded video content and convert it to optimized iPhone dimensions. So how speedy is this "Cyberspeed" thing? They claim a feature-length film takes 45 minute to convert, but see for yourself with the free trial. If you like it, the full version is a $30 download. Unfortunately for Apple users, it won't run on Mac OS X? Product Page [DVDtoiPhone via Popgadget]