Filed under: Portable Audio

Walmart began selling DRM-free tracks in its music store in August of last year. 13 months later, the mega-corp has decided to follow the footsteps of so many others and hit the kill switch on its DRM management servers. As noted in an e-mail to customers, Wally World will be making the final transition into a fully DRM-free MP3 store on October 9th, and in order to keep those DRM-laden files playable on anything, it’s recommended that you burn protected files on a CD on the double. If you choose to ignore this message, you’ll be unable to “transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash.” Heed the warning, kids.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Given that $100 at Wal-mart is essentially as good as cash, we can only imagine how titillating this offer may seem for Blu-ray holdouts. Announced today, the mega-retailer will be offering a $100 gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player from June 8th through 14th — and yes, Sony’s PlayStation 3 is included. In case this wasn’t enough to maybe-possibly get the general public to actually pay attention to the format, Wally World will also sell “select” BD titles for $15 starting on the 8th. Since the format war ended earlier this year, we’ve seen report after report proclaiming that Blu-ray adoption just wasn’t taking off here in America, but with a theoretical net price now close to $200 (albeit for a few days only), we can certainly see the masses taking notice at long last.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: HDTV

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Wal_Mart_to_officially_discontinue_HD_DVD_sales_by_June’; With HD DVD, things are just going from bad, to really bad, to worse, to car-crash-you-can’t-stop-looking-at. You can file this one under that latter category, as Wal-Mart has officially announced its intentions to stop stocking HD DVD players and movies by June. According to reports, the retailer came to the decision after Netflix and Best Buy made announcements concerning their position in the HD format war. Susan Chronister of Wal-Mart wrote on the company’s blog, “By June Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines, and of course standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players.” Susan went on to deliver what we consider a total burn by adding, “if you bought the HD [DVD] player like me, I’d retire it to the bedroom, kid’s playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a BD player.” Look, we’re not gonna say that this is it for HD DVD, but… uh, it doesn’t look real great.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Laptops

Remember how we told you Everex’s little gOS-sporting Cloudbook was headed to Wal-Mart this month (today, to be specific)? Well hold your check book, friend-o — they ain’t done with it. According to the company’s director of marketing, Paul Kim, the system requires, “A couple of last minute software tweaks,” before it’s ready for prime-time. There’s no word on when it will make an appearance, though we’re inclined to think this won’t be a major delay… but you never know. Should shipments alight, we’ll be the first to share the good news.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

According to rumblings on the internet, the new Cloudbook from Everex that’s worming its way into Wal-Marts across the US this weekend will be getting a big brother soon. If you believe what they say (they being Paul Kim, director of marketing at Everex), we can expect a 9-inch version of the Eee-competitor to make an appearance in June, boasting a larger keyboard, more memory, and possibly new “skins” (but please, no tattoos). The Linux-equipped computer will clock in around $500, and will be part of the Ubuntu-based gOS family. The company also has plans to introduce a variant of the smaller CloudBook called the DevBook, a $400-500 laptop aimed at developers with a touchscreen and swappable side-panel accessories, plus a $399 standard size 15.4-inch laptop, and a “mini” desktop with a dual-layer DVD drive, as well as DVI and S-Video outputs for $499.

[Via Eee Site]

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Filed under: Desktops

You’ve watched, you’ve waited, you’ve sent lengthy, shameless requests to Santy Claus… and now your dreams have come true. The gPC, Everex’s $200, Linux-based, Google-tinged-OS sportin’ machine is once again available at your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart. If you’ll recall, the desktop PC (known in good company has the TC2502) was quickly snapped up by shoppers hoping to avoid the wallet-burning prices of typical Windows-equipped offerings. The system, sold without a monitor, includes a 1.5GHz VIA processor, 512MB of RAM, a DVD-ROM / CD-RW optical drive, and an 80GB hard drive. Not to outdo themselves with all these exciting, open source vibes, Everex also offers a Vista-endowed version of the system for $298. Both are available now wherever you get your Chinese-made popcorn.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops

We honestly didn’t know what to expect from Wal-Mart’s $200 Everex gPC, but it looks like the early results of putting Linux in front of Middle America are overwhelmingly positive — Wal-Mart’s online warehouse has already sold out of the cheapo Linux box, and users both savvy and new are filing enthusiastic reviews. Of course, it’s still early and we can’t imagine anyone getting too down on a $200 computer, but it certainly looks like Team Ubuntu is making a strong play to shift the balance in those OS wars.

[Via Slashdot]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops

Been dying to cobble together some code for one of those high-falutin’, big-ticket Everex gPCs, but just couldn’t scrape together the $199? Well friends, fear not — your spot in the poor house won’t keep you from writing that killer app, thanks to VIA’s generous offering of the $60 “dev board.” What can you expect from this package? Well first off, it’s not a package, it’s a mediocre motherboard with a “bundled” CD of the gOS. The Linux-based gOS addition isn’t really too impressive, considering it’s open source, free, and available for download from Everex’s site… but hey, who’s keeping score? Slap on a case, power supply, hard drive, optical drive, memory, keyboard, and mouse, and you’ve got yourself a real honey of a system. If you can do it for less than $200 — you’ve made out like a bandit.

[Via LinuxDevices]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Laptops

Everex — riding high on the semi-propulsive steam that is currently buoying the company into the public eye (due to its Ubuntu-based, $198, “gOS” Wal-Mart desktop) — is about to take things to the next sub-level. According to reports, the company plans to launch a line of ultra-cheap laptops next year, ranging in size from 12.1-inch to 17-inch, starting at under $300. Like its desktop brother, the portable computer will feature the company’s custom operating system, which puts the emphasis on Google webapps with familiar icons, and a launch-bar with links to the ubiquitous portal’s content. “The intent of gOS is to take [Linux] to the consumer and do what Steve Jobs did with Mac OS X– to take an alternative OS and package it for the consumer,” says David Liu, founder of gOS — though it’s clear they’ve got an uphill battle for the hearts of Wal-Mart buyers. There’s only one question on our minds: will the laptop be as hideously ugly as the desktop?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV

Remember all the hubbub about the $299, then sub-$200 Wal-Mart HD DVD player? Well, if that photo is to be believed, then it’s here. However, this ain’t some cheapo, no-name player. Nope, it’s Toshiba’s A2, listing for $399 back in April, now just $198. According to the AVS Forum jockey who supposedly took the pic, it’ll be on sale nationwide on November 3rd with an allocation of 18 units per store. However, at least a few lucky AVS members are reporting that sales have already begun. So what’s the dealio readers, how’s it looking at your own local Wally World?

[Thanks, Andrew]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Wireless

Although Wal-Mart is traditionally viewed as a logistics leader and a pioneer in RFID adoption, only 975 of its stores currently utilize the technology. Frustrated by losing sales due to misplaced inventory, the firm is now dead set on rolling out RFID gear into every single North American store, and soon. When complete, over 4,000 locales will be fitted with the equipment, which could net Wally World over $287 million in extra sales by simply having the technology in place to quickly track down wares before a customer heads elsewhere. Of course, it seems but a matter of time before these tags actually make it beyond the crate and onto individual items / shelves, but hey, it’s not like you actually expected Wal-Mart to turn away Big Brother, right?

[Image courtesy of Weka]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!