wal-mart

iPod Box Has Absurd Note Inside, No iPod in Sight

5:50PM Haroon Malik | Picture this: daddy buys his daughter an iPod classic for Christmas. The elated teen opens the iPod box to find nothing but the ramblings of some douche who has read one of Oprah’s recommended self help books, and/or wears a Che Guevara styled military hat. Jump for the festive note: More »

Wal-Mart Year-End Report Card: C

5:00AM Adam Frucci | Oh, Wal-Mart. You are so easy to hate. What with your union-busting, mom-and-pop-killing, big box awfulness, who wouldn’t hate you? It would be all to easy for me to come in here and just give you an F and everyone would agree with me and we could all walk hand-in-hand into the sunset, hating Wal-Mart. And while I do have my Wal-Mart issues, there’s no denying that it’s made some pretty solid moves in the tech world this year, and no matter how much I hate to admit it, I need to give them at least some props. This was the year that DRM stopped cramping online music stores, and that’s in some part due to Wal-Mart’s insistence selling DRM-free tunes. Together with Amazon, it’s one of two major online retailers selling MP3 files. And while the MP3 store is still pretty lousy, Wal-Mart’s push to have the last major-label holdouts drop DRM will be good for us all. If that happens, Wal-Mart’s influence will at least have something to do with it. This year has also seen the prices of HD DVD and Blu-ray players drop significantly, thanks in part to Wal-Mart’s pressures. Wal-Mart’s size gives them huge influence over the industry, and earlier this year when it went around that Wal-Mart was pushing for cheapo HD DVD playersit gave the then-suffering HD DVD camp a shot in the arm. The push for cheaper players makes us happy. In addition to using its influence to bring down pricing in the HD disc war, it also used it to try and break up Microsoft’s Windows dominance by introducing a $US200 Linux gPC to their generally non-techy clientele. It was a ballsy move, one clearly motivated by desire to sell cheaper computers over the desire to stick it to Microsoft, but stick it to Redmond it did. There’s no bigger retailer out there who has the power to introduce an alternate OS to the masses and make it seem friendly, and that’s just what Wal-Mart did. (Of course, we think the reason the gPC sold out so fast was because of Linux fanboys in search of cauldrons for their potions, but you never know.) Things aren’t all forward-thinking at Wal-Mart, though. They still do a lot of the stuff that’s earned them a horrible reputation for years now. They refuse to carry movies and CDs that they deem “inappropriate,” at times arbitrarily pulling products from shelves—or at least that’s how it seems. Consumers should get to choose what they want to buy; they don’t need retailers to act as babysitters and decide what is and isn’t appropriate. As for the brutal labor practices, there’s still a lot we think is totally uncool to, but to be fair, Wal-Mart is introducing a much-improved health care plan next month. Still, don’t look for the reputation of Wal-Mart retail jobs to get a lot better anytime soon. Everybody knows the store is full of miserable employees half-assedly serving miserable customers. So kudos, Wal-Mart, for being more forward-thinking in the tech department than I would have ever expected. Keep it up! When the gigantic, faceless companies that make up the RIAA and the MPAA want anti-consumer practices to become the norm, we need other gigantic, faceless companies to stand up to them, and if it’s gonna be you I’ll take it. And if you’re gonna make next-gen disc players cheaper for everyone, I’ll thank you for that. But I’ll still never set foot in one of your stores. I’ll admit to cautiously admiring some of your moves from afar but your reduced letter grade is because of the human cost: you really should treat your employees better. Final Grade: C More »

Superbad DVD Pulled from Wal-mart

8:50AM Mark Wilson | This may be the first time Gizmodo has reported on a DVD controversy that didn’t involve the words “HD” or “Blu.” Apparently the special edition of Superbad has been pulled off of Wal-mart shelves in Hawaii because of its inclusion of a novelty fake ID. Remember the movie? It belongs to a certain someone named “McLovin”. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann was none too happy about the ID, even though the card’s photo is really a hologram alternating between “Fogell” to “McLovin” (to be fair, I’m of age and I’d love to carry that bad boy in my wallet). So Wal-mart pulled the film from its 7 Hawaii locations. And then sub-21-year-olds turned back to their ways of purchasing good fake IDs and, in some cases, bypassing the temptations of alcohol altogether for abstinence and whippets. [thnt] Thanks Colin! More »

Amazon vs. Wal-Mart: MP3 Store Showdown Before iTunes Final Battle

5:00AM Adam Frucci | Now that EMI and Universal have seen the light and started offering music in DRM-free MP3 format—and according to well-founded rumours, Sony and Warner are also exploring a DRM-free launch in 2008—online music stores finally have the means to get iPod-friendly and take on iTunes. As you know, iTunes only offers AAC files, a small fraction of which are DRM free, so Amazon and Wal-Mart have launched MP3 stores to lure people looking to buy their newly-freed tunes elsewhere. So, iTunes defectors, where should you go? Into the familiar embrace of Amazon, or into the hairy, bologna-scented arms of Wal-Mart? I took them both for a spin, and made the call. More »

Amazon and Wal-Mart Push Labels to Ditch DRM Once and For All

1:54AM Adam Frucci | Even if the remaining major labels who have yet to ditch DRM are dragging their feet on the road of inevitability, major online retailers don’t feel like waiting around for them to finally do the deed. Wal-Mart has reportedly made an ultimatum of some sort to major labels demanding that they start selling in MP3 so the retail giant can add them to their upcoming MP3 store, which, coming from a retailer of that size, should get their attention. And as we reported on Friday, Amazon plans to give away one billion MP3s with an upcoming Pepsi/Super Bowl giveaway. More »

Dealzmodo USA: Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray Player $348 With 10 Free Movies

4:50AM Jason Chen | Our last Blu-ray Dealzmodo was also from Wal-Mart, but featured a more gamey solution to the next-gen debacle with an 80GB PS3 and 10 free Blu-ray movies for $US499. This time you can go purely set-top-box with a Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player (which doesn’t support the latest BD profile) and 10 free movies for the relatively low price of $US348. Of course, the free movies you get to choose from include Dirty Dancing 20th Anniversary Edition, House of 1,000 Corpses and Van Wilder, but there are a few good titles in there like T2 and Sharon Stone’s first cooter-displaying flick. Imagine that in 1080p. The p is for poonany. [Wal-Mart - Thanks Moe!] More »

$198 Wal-Mart Toshiba HD DVD Player Confirmed By Spy Shot

9:30AM Jason Chen | That rumour about a sub-$200 Wal-Mart HD-A2 HD DVD player from Toshiba seems like it’s true, judging from this no-reason-to-be-blurry blurry shot of an end-cap at Wal-mart. It’s not set to be sold until 11/03 and will be in the circulars for that week, and each store will get 18 units. The guy who posted this says it’s also a “non-replenishable item”, meaning that it might be a one-time thing. Is this enough to (along with Transformers) cut away at Blu-ray’s lead and possibly force a merging of the standards? We hope so, because we want to see kitties hugging, not fighting. [AVSForum] AU: In a local context, if a HD DVD player hit the market at $250, would you buy it? Would the format make a difference if either HD player hit that kind of price? Or are you already banking on one or the other? -SB More »

Weird Combo of the Day: PS3 Kiosk With HD DVDs

8:00AM Jason Chen | Seen at Wal-Mart, the finest high-tech outlet in the US, this PlayStation 3 store display has not just PS3 games and Blu-ray movies, it even has HD DVDs as well! No wonder its console costs so much. Hidden HD DVD support that nobody knew about! Click in for a better view. [Thanks Tipster!] More »