Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over years (aside from the fact that Segway users will always be looked at strangely), it’s that Best Buy’s inventory systems are famous for turning us on to forthcoming wares. Just this year, strange part numbers in its stock system have correctly predicted the arrival of new MacBook Pros, the Nikon D90 and an unlocked US 3G Touch Diamond. Now, we’re feasting our eyes upon the latest snippet from Future Shop’s (Best Buy’s Canadian sibling) inventory system, which shows a half dozen new Mac placeholders for French and English language machines. Unfortunately, “Apple Mac” is about as vague as it gets, but we wouldn’t be shocked one iota to see new MBPs surface in the near future. C’mon stock system — don’t let us down.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Slowly but surely, we’re seeing retailer after retailer conjure up its own trade-in / exchange program to deal with the finality of the format war. Canada’s Future Shop, however, has certainly put an interesting twist on things. First off, it’ll accept standalone HD DVD players purchased from anywhere until April 3rd. In exchange, you’ll receive $100 off the purchase of an LG or Samsung Blu-ray / HD DVD combo player, but not a standalone Blu-ray player of any kind. Unfortunately, that means your options are pretty limited, but we can certainly understand the retailer’s desire to wash its hands of anything with an HD DVD logo on it. Better still, Future Shop will be donating all of the returned HD DVD players to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada “for use in their after-school and evening programs.” Now if that’s not a reason to trade-up, we don’t know what is.

[Thanks, Josh]

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