Costco is offering Vizio’s VBR110 Blu-ray player for $99 on Black Friday. It’s important to note that the VBR110 is considered an “entry level” Blu-ray player, meaning it doesn’t come with some of the bigger bells and whistles that other players are sporting these days, like streaming Netflix digital rentals. But Vizio’s player comes with an Ethernet port for BD-Live capabilities, and they throw in an HDMI cable.

Walmart has the best deal I’ve seen so far, with a bargain-priced $78 Magnavox Blu-ray player available on Black Friday. (I’d suggest getting there early if you want to score one of these — they’re sure to go fast!) The Magnavox player upscales regular DVD videos up to 1080p, so they look more like the quality of Blu-ray discs, but it includes no other major extras. But it does not include BD-Live capabilities, so you won’t be able to download any additional content that way. Still, it’s the best Black Friday price overall, and that’s likely to go unchallenged by any other retailer.

Best Buy is offering a $99 Blu-ray player from its own brand, Insignia. The Insignia player upscales DVDs to 1080p, streams Netflix if you connect it to an Ethernet cable, BD-Live, and even plays BD-ROM discs. Best Buy is also throwing in a free Blu-ray copy of either Superman Returns or Beetlejuice. If you want the most options for the best price, the Insignia player is my recommendation.

Post from: EveryJoe

Black Friday: best chance to go Blu-ray?

The Insignia NS-BRDVD3 Blu-ray Player outputs at 1080p and comes with a remote control and an A/V cable (HDMI cable sold separately). It plays BD-ROM discs, standard DVDs, and MP3 & WMA audio, and has a USB port built in.

Best Buy’s deal, which discounts the player down from a regular price of $149, doesn’t include $7 shipping, but the in-store pickup option will eliminate this charge. A Netflix subscription is required to access the service, and the device needs an Ethernet connection to connect (no wireless support built-in).

But with all this box offers, it’s an unheard of price point. Is this a sign of things to come about a month from now, when Black Friday arrives? How low can Blu-ray players go?

Image: Best Buy.

Post from: EveryJoe

Black Friday hits early: $99 Blu-ray player

Best Buy execs are justifying the move via the “diversification for future growth” explanation that so often comes up in big business. But there’s no getting around the fact that electronic vehicles like the Segway or the Enertia are listed at prices significantly higher than the DVD players or video games Best Buy is known for.

What do you think? Will Best Buy’s foray into vehicle sales fly, or crash?

Image: Segway Inc.

Post from: EveryJoe

Best Buy testing electric vehicle market

Toshiba Infinia Desktop from Toshiba website

I’ve still got the tower and the CRT. I just dumped off three other old CRT’s at Best Buy to take advantage of their recycling program. I just can’t ditch the Infinia monitor though. My original goal was to rebuild my own machine as a living room computer/media center. The immediate goal now is to figure out how I can reuse this monitor.

My first thought was to hope that the AT&T U-verse box had a monitor out option. It doesn’t, so now I’m wondering if there’s an adapter that will let me use the monitor as a display and accept input from S-Video or RCA outputs.

Anyone have an idea of how that could be done?

Post from: EveryJoe

Toshiba Infinia – Gorgeous CRT Design

EPA website header graphic

A quick search and poll of twitter gave me some ideas on what could be done. First I found the eCycling website setup by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s got information about what to do with your e-waste and the different options that are available for you to take advantage.

This site offers:

• Basic Information about reducing and recycling electronics
• Where You Live provides information about regional and State eCycling programs
• Where Can I Donate or Recycle My Old Computer and Other Electronics? lists organizations and retailers with donation and recycling programs
• Statistics on the Management of Used and End-of-Life Electronics
• Regulations/Standards for handling electronic equipment
• Frequent Questions and answers about electronic waste
• Resources publications and links that offer additional information on the management of electronics

A friend on twitter also let me know that you can take some old equipment to Best Buy and they will help you recycle it. Some items require you to pay a small fee, but Best Buy will give you a gift card for the equivalent fee for you to spend at a later time.

Pretty cool. So, what are you getting rid of today or this weekend? What ideas do you have for using old equipment for something useful?

Post from: EveryJoe

Old Computers on Earth Day

Are you a racing fan? Do you own an Xbox 360?

Combine your two passions into one with the newest Forza 2 Motorsport game, which is now available at Best Buy. Buy it now and get a $10 gift card free to Best Buy. I’m not sure about you, but that kind of deal means $10 off another game later for me.

Once you’ve got the game, you can play it online for a chance to win some great prizes like Xbox 360 HD-DVD player, racing wheel and LIVE subscriptions.

Check-it-out

Post from: EveryJoe

Forza 2 Motorsport

WGA kill switch is a racketeers’s dream.

I could care less if Msft takes this incident seriously or not, as a set of CA lawyers likely will in class action suits against Msft. But, FYI – this is being posted all over…

The WGA kill switch did kick in when I scheduled a chkdsk to run on next reboot. Msft is LYING about a kill switch not kicking in. The keyboard and desktop were LOCKED – so I couldn’t log into any account (passwords). There was NO prior notification and I have witnesses. Those WGA screens came up AFTER the keyboard was locked. Computer came up only in SAFE MODE. Corporate customer. When I clicked on RESOLVE now, it went to a go.microsoft site THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.

And that’s where Msft will pay – hopefully in a “currency” that will hurt VISTA.

Computer was purchased 2 years ago from a reseller. As were many, many others.

Took this WGA-killed computer to Best Buy at 8pm. Best Buy looked at the hologram sticker and said the computer was Msft genuine. Someone else said the Bay Area reseller who sold the computer had been in the papers as having VL issues; another tech said the reseller had been burned by Msft; and yet another said the reseller was clean, and that was also “in the papers”.

All however acknowledged OUR company had been screwed by Microsoft’s WGA, they offered their “911 service”, meaning, 24 hour turnaround – would have cost $900 dollars. They tried to figure out a way to lower the cost to us. However, all our biz programs would have to be reloaded. SOL for 3 days at least.

I am taking this time out to start a Linux conversion business for biz applications and use this incident as the quintessential WGA horror story that Vista won’t survive.

My opinion? This WGA business is corporate thievery, as the Msft WGA “knowledge base” process can make any claim whatsoever, with ZERO TRACEABILITY and RECOURSE. It is likely a disreputable pre-VISTA marketing practice. What else can CUSTOMERS expect of a company that can buy it’s way out of anti-Racketeering laws. Lets see, if Enron lawyers can purchase a decriminalization of KEN LAY, why can’t BILL GATES – IMO a higher echelon racketeer than KEN LAY or CARLOS MARCELLO (Mafia) – get away with CORPORATE TERRORISM.

Anna
PS I posted this on Microsoft, and everywhere else I can.

If you’ve experienced this or similar challenges with WGA, please let me know.

Post from: EveryJoe

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Kill Switch Experience