Want to get rid of your bulky laptop? If yes, then you may want to check out Nokia's new N810 internet tablet, which is available right now at your nearest electronic retailer stores. Equipped with good things such as upgradable 2GB RAM, a 4.13" screen with 800x400 widescreen resolution among other things, this is all the device that you'll need.

If you're looking for a memory stick with lots of space and a reasonable price, you might want to check out SanDisk's 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo.  It has all the nice features that the brand has been known for, and it'll work with your Sony PlayStation Portable and digital cameras. And now, because it just got cheaper.

With this baby, you'll be able to store all your favorite homebrew games and applications, songs, videos images and what not. Data transfer is touted to be at high speeds all the time with SanDisk's proprietary technology.

The SanDisk 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo now sells for US$ 50 and comes with free shipping. This is its list of features:

• High speed data transfer
• Embedded MagicGate technology for safe transfer of copyright protected content
  
• Adaptor included
  
• Compatible to all MS PRO devices with the use of the Adaptor

Follow the Read link below to check out the deal at CompUSA.

 

The folks at Cheap Ass Gamer are saying there's a limited-time 20% discount for certain PSP accessories at CompUSA. It ends today, March 17, though, so if you've just woken up and are checking QJ for the latest, this is probably as late as it gets.

Now, according to the comments on the CAG forum post, it only applies to one single item, but at 20% off, you can pick up an extra memory stick or card for a much smaller sum. It also seems to be online only, though you can probably ask your store if the online discount could be applied at the store... if you ask very nicely.

Still, 20% off on anything PSP related isn't a bad thing, right? Hurry and grab your discount, okay? Hurry and click on that Read link below.

In this digital age, most people entrust their personal computer with personal data, including those for credit card information and account passwords among others. But when you send in your computer for repair, is it worth the risk entrusting such sensitive information?

One MacBook owner sent in his laptop to Apple, by way of CompUSA, because it won't start. He received his laptop back, with serial numbers matching, but he found out that the hard drive it now had was not his.

It sported all software, files, and information of someone else. What's more is that despite the fact that his original hard drive was an 80 GB one, the returned one was now only a 60 GB version. If this is what they meant by recycling your older hardware, they've got it the other way around.

If that wasn't aggravating enough, then listen up because there's more: he contacted CompUSA and they suggested he just wipe the hard drive and use it. What type of support is that? Yes, it's understood that one should always back up their data to avoid personal data loss (and because the techs will wipe the drive anyway), but we're talking about someone else's hard drive that doesn't have an apparent problem.

And why wipe someone else's hard drive and use it when your hard drive was far larger? He had then contacted Apple to sort things out, but the technicians have been no more helpful than CompUSA about the matter. One thing has been cleared with them, though: it was an official Apple technician who worked on his PC.

After a few more calls and e-mails, he discovered that the hard drive belongs to a woman and she happens to also have his hard drive. This he found out from an Apple representative who contacted him after his fruitless pursuit on the phone at Apple's repair division.

Pretty soon, everything just sorted out, and the details of the whole matter are now clear. Just as the MacBook owner recounted:

• A tech made an assembly mistake.
• Some questionable advice was given by a couple of low-level service advisers who clearly did not understand the importance of the problem.
• Calls were made, e-mails sent.
• Once the information made it to the proper level, Apple took appropriate and timely measures (starting on a Sunday afternoon!) to correct the situation.

Kudos to the high level intervention of Apple and applenewbie, the forum handle of the owner, for not just putting his story out there but handling the problem with patience and skill quite rare nowadays.

We're not really sure what's going on here, but we're guessing and hoping that CompUSA simply has too many iTunes gift cards in stock that it needs to dispose of.

Well, okay, not really.

As posted by the Spokane CompUSA employee who scanned and uploaded the ad that we have here, this was an advertisement tag that it acquired from the corporate computer. Apparently, the *cough* misprint that their manager caught on it was so funny, that he decided to keep it for himself. Thankfully, the mix-up was reported to HQ, and the tag was promptly replaced with something which announced a more appropriate freebie.

And you thought the PS3 was expensive? Over at CompUSA Nintendo's Wii (which has a suggested retail price of US$237.50) has a price tag of US$1,119. How's that again? More than a grand for Wii? Early this month we posted CompUSA hardware and software markup sheet for the Wii. Back then, CompUSA's markup was a mere $12.49 not $881.56!

Is inflation that bad? Did CompUSA got mega-greedy? Relax, kids. It's what they call in the business a SNAFU. SNAFU (short for Situation Normal: All F***** Up) is when an otherwise normal situation suddenly goes wrong. In this case Wii's price. So where did that $1,119 come from?

If you take out the dollar sign you get 1,119. Now remove the comma and you get 1119. Separate the 11 from the 19 and you get 11 19. Or November 19 - Wii's target launch date. Things could have been worse. CompUSA COD have included 2006 on the screwed up price tag making it look like the Wii will sell for $11,192,006!

Marketing the next-gen consoles demands a certain amount of shrewdness on the part of the manufacturers. From the gamers' standpoint, it will always be a war between the giants Microsoft and Sony, with Nintendo pitching in each time they get the chance. These marketing strategies often fall into two categories: the "push" and the "pull". Push encourages retailers to promote a product by giving them a higher profit margin. Pull lets the manufacturer resort to massive advertising, so that consumers will demand and retailers are no longer required to promote the product (consequently, they have lower profit margin).

  

An anonymous employee from  CompUSA has blogged about the supposed marketing strategies of both Microsoft and Nintendo. Apparently, Nintendo will push and Microsoft will pull. Nintendo will sell the Wii system by the bulk at $ 237.50, giving the store $ 12 profit for every Wii system sold at $ 249. Microsoft, on the other hand, will sell the core system by the bulk at approximately $ 292 and the full 360 at approximately $ 385. The retailer earns $ 8 on the core system and $ 15 on the full 360.

Microsoft "pulling" means it would have to spend more on advertising and attracting customers - a more secure tactic that won't have to rely on retailers to do the promotion. Obviously, Microsoft has proven that this is a workable marketing strategy. Nintendo doesn't seem to run short of advertising gimmicks, either. It's just a matter of time before the sales of these next-gen consoles will tell whether "pushing" is really better than "pulling", and vice versa.

After weeks of rumored Wii launch details and even more rumors, it's nice to have something to look at, isn't it? The folks over at Engadget have managed to get their hands on the CompUSA hardware and software markup sheet for the Wii and its accessories and games.

You've all heard your online friends saying that the Wii's low price is a strong factor, and now you can see it for yourselves. We're this close to digging for change under the couch, because it'll probably be enough to get a controller! Here's what they got (the price on the left is the retail price, and the price on the right is the cost), and we included the markup difference for you guys.

• WII CONSOLE - 249.99 / 237.50 difference: 12.49
• WII REMOTE CONTROLL - 39.99 / 32.00 difference: 7.99
• WII POINTS CARD - 24.99 / 17.00 difference: 7.99
• WII CLASSIC CONTROLLER - 19.99 / 14.50 difference: 5.49
• WII NUNCHUK CONTROLLER - 19.99 / 14.50 difference: 5.49
• WII GPAK ORGANIZER&TRAVEL - 29.99 / 18.95 difference: 11.04
• WII RAYMAN RAVING RABIDS - 49.99 / 41.22 difference: 8.77
• WII THE LEGEND OF ZELDA:TW - 49.99 / 40.00 difference: 9.99
• WII RED STEEL REVOLUTION - 49.99 / 41.22 difference: 8.77

And, as you can see, the console's markup comes out to only 12.49 US dollars, while the the markup for games is less than 10 or 9 bucks.

By the way, scroll down and see the Wii Dog Tags and Lapel Pins. Huh? Maybe these tags go on your Wiimotes so you can keep track of which controller belongs to you? You know, just in case everybody's Wiimote flies off at the same time (just kidding, people; we have yet to find a single documented case of flying Wii remote). Anyway, we're blathering, so on to the images (click on where it says "Full Article" below to see them, OK?).

This is one achievement every linux junkie should be proud of. It's well known that hardware hackers love to cram Linux into every concievable thing. Whether it's routers, game consoles, or just about any other gadget. "Does it run Linux?" is a funny one-liner asked everytime something new comes out. So, what is so great about Linux that these people like to port it to every platform? Firstly, it is the high of making the gadget do something which it wasn't meant to do. The second, and equally important function, is the possibility to make the device do whatever you want.

This "hack" is one of those things we're talking about. Our readers from our PSPUpdates blog might know this guy as Niacin. Also known to be one of the people behind few of the PSP exploits, this guy probably chomps down encrypted code and proprietary hardware for breakfast. You see, in February of this year, he was able to boot Linux on the MSNTV2. Let us quote him here:

"Where to start! I have been searching for a cheap device that i could use for a cluster.
I came across the msntv 2 at CompUSA one day about 2 months ago. Ever since then I have been buying them on eBay for around .99 cents.
I have bought 20 so far for a total price of around 0.
After socketing the msntv bios and poking around. I managed to get Linux running and even better managed to get it running without any hardware modifications."

So what's a cluster, you may ask. Well, how about we show you some of his pictures..

The full article awaits after the jump!

Today we have another great deal for all the gadget-loving computer techies out there, or just anyone that likes to store a huge amount of data. Now this hard drive may not be as cheap as the 4-port USB hub for $1.99 or the $16 1GB USB flash drive, but it is certainly on par with them on value for money. This hard drive isn't from a cheap manufacturer, this contraption is from SeaGate, who is well known for their hard drives.

As far as price per Gigabyte goes, you are paying just over $0.37 for 1GB of data. When you consider that the USB flash drive costs $16 for just 1 GB, the scope of this deal really comes to light. The SeaGate 750GB internal hard drive features:

• World's quietest 7200-RPM drives, with 8-Mbyte or 16-Mbyte cache, and the most advanced fluid-bearing motor.
• Award-winning DiscWizard software makes installation a snap.
• SeaTools diagnostic software continuously checks your hard drive for data safety and drive performance.
• Complete with cable, disc utility CD, quick-installation guide and mounting screws.
• Compatible with Windows XP, Me, 2000, 98SE, and NT; may be used with Linux, Mac OS and Netware.

This future-proof beast of a hard drive is available from CompUSA.com for $279.99 with free shipping, but the offer ends September 23rd so get in quick! After buying it, we challenge you to fill it up with useful files - let's see if it'll take you a very long time!