Buy a Blu-ray player and get a $100 Wal-Mart Gift Card

Wal-Mart announced today (Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008) that it would offer a $100 Wal-Mart gift card with the purchase of any Blu-ray player in its retail stores. The offer runs from that from June 8-14. Wal-Mart will also offer select Blu-ray movies for $15 during that time (such as 3:10 to Yuma, WAR, Shooter, 300, and The Fifth Element).

Online they show this offering:

Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray Disc Player ($388)
Magnavox Blu-ray Disc Player, NB500MG9 ($298)

In stores, I think they will also have Samsung and Panasonic.

What is an "Air" Mouse - (from Logitech / Gyration )

While digging into the differences between the Optical and Laser Mouse, I came across an Air Mouse from Logitech (Logitech MX Air™ Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse). This is really a laser mouse with an added feature -- Freespace™ motion sensing. You can pick up the mouse and move it in your hand. These hand movements translate to cursor movements on your screen. So, you can use it when listening to music to raise the volume, move to the next track, etc. from across the room (up to 30 feet - uses 2.4 GHz wireless). So, it looks like the mouse is starting act more like a Wii remote.

The Logitech MX Air™ Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse pictured below retails for roughly $150.
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Besides Logitech, the only other Air Mouse I found was from Gyration (Gyration GO Pro 2.4 Optical Air Mouse). It looks to be pretty similar except Gyration claims to have a 100ft radius. Their version sells for just under the price of Logitech's.

Laser Mouse vs. Optical Mouse - Logitech - what's the difference

Optical vs. Laser Mouse - So, what's the big difference (besides the price)?

The first obvious thing is an Optical Mouse uses a LED light in the optical engine to track movements. A laser mouse uses a laser to track the movement. If you flip over the Optical Mouse you will see a red light. With a laser you won't see the red light. If you look real close you may see something, but you could risk burning your retina with the laser (pure speculation). I didn't risk looking.

Besides the above, the laser mouse is more sensitive and more accurate. An optical mouse will track around 600dpi on average. A laser mouse tracks at more than 2,000dpi (again... making it more sensitive and more accurate). The Laser mouse will also work on almost any surface where the optical mouse may not work as well on reflective surfaces.

There are a variety of mice available to choose from these days regardless of which type you choose. I purchased the Laser one this weekend (Logitech V450 Laser Wireless Mouse) for roughly $40. Prices go up into the $90 range for Laser Mice. I don't know that I really needed it, but it just sounded cooler to have a laser mouse. I don't have any recommendations regarding the brand. I also went with the wireless USB version. The USB actually fits back into the mouse when not in use, and the mouse turns off to extend battery life. These seem to be standard features with the newer mice out in the market.

Cool Electronics at Lowes? Onsia Speakers

This weekend at Lowe's, I ran across some very cool concealed Flat Panel Speakers (Onsia Concealed Sound Speakers). You basically have 3 options with Onsia:

In-Wall - - You cut out a section of drywall and place the In-Wall speaker in the space (self adhering compression foam), then apply mesh and mudd (like if you were patching drywall).

In-Ceiling - You can replace one of your ceiling tiles with the Onsia speaker.

In-Frame - You select a piece of art, cut the speaker panel size to match it, wire it up, and then put it on the wall.

The main differences called out on the Onsia website (compared to other speakers) are: Design - the way they are designed allow the sound flow through entire panel surface providing a wide dispersion angle. The sound quality is also supposed to be better.

The Onsia Concealed Sound Speakers have been out in the market for a while, but now that they are at your local Lowes, maybe more folks will start to use them.

Dell Mini-Laptop /Notebook (Inspiron)

It looks like Dell has a new mini-laptop/notebook coming out (Dell Inspiron). Details are scare, but images of the Dell Inspiron have surfaced on the Dell Company Blog.

5,000 More Titles available on Amazon Kindle

Amazon.com and Simon & Schuster announced today (5/30/2008) that they will make 5,000 additional titles available for the Amazon Kindle over the course of 2008. Kindle books overall are starting to grow as a percentage of Amazon's overall sales (Currently 6%).

In case you were wondering, the Kindle is a portable reader that can downloads books, blogs, magazines, newspapers and more wirelessly. The Kindle reader itself will run you about $359.00.


Additional News on Amazon Kindle

TiVo and CinemaNow team up to offer Disney Movies

Tivo's market share has been falling quarter after quarter so it looks like they are trying something new. Tivo and CinemaNow have teamed up and will start allowing Tivo users to download (rent) movies from Disney's Studios.

You will be able to download the movie for a fixed price and it will stay on your Tivo box for 24 hours (similar to the cable company offerings). The prices will range from $3-$4 dollars depending on the age of the movie.

Earlier in the year Tivo annouced that they will alow Tivo users to subscribe to watch video content from the Web on their TV's.

Here's a list of Tivo Products in case this announcement has enticed you to want to get one.

TiVo Series2 DT DVR ($99.99)
TiVo® HD DVR ($299.99)
TiVo Series3 HD DVR ($599.99)