After visiting both Ideal Buy and Circuit City this weekend, I was floored by the astounding differences between both stores: Best Purchase was packed, Circuit City was begging people to come in; Best Buy was making sales each few seconds, Circuit City had one register open and no one in line. Thinking this must have been an anomaly, I did some research on both of the companies’ financials and came to a staggering conclusion: Circuit City is dead in the water.

Sure, some may say that my assertion that Circuit City is dead might be a bit premature considering the fact the company has enjoyed growing revenue with last year’s figure amounting to nearly $12.5 billion, but for the first time in three years, Circuit City incurred a loss of $8 million — a sharp contrast from its 2006 profit of $139 million.

But Circuit City’s problems go far beyond its financials. Much like CompUSA, it’s a company that’s plagued with poor leadership and a host of issues that its management simply can’t fix. And to make matters worse, the same two forces that killed CompUSA — the on the web world and Best Purchase — have Circuit City in their sights now and things don’t look good.

Trust me — it’s all over for Circuit City.

…

source The Digital Home

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[Update: Apparently the song is available right now. GO GO GO!]

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It’s nice to be able to flip on your Xbox 360 to view your favorite movies and television shows, but now it looks like the console will get its own original content.

Microsoft has reached an agreement with Hollywood producer Peter Safran for the production of original shows for the gaming console. Safran tells The New York Times that these new shows will be scripted, and will be about 10 minutes in length. He plans to focus on genres, like comedy and horror, that would be a good fit for the Xbox 360 audience.

The new shows, the first of which should be available this fall, will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for a time, but then might appear elsewhere later. Some might be supported by advertising, according to Scott Nocas, global marketing manager for programming of the Xbox Live.

My hopes are that these shows will be closer to the quality of TV shows, with the unrestricted feeling of web shows. What do you anticipate from this? Do you see yourself enjoying original video content on your game console?

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As early as last year, Midway has gone as far as to admit a new, Unreal Engine 3.0-powered Mortal Kombat title is in the works. While details have been scarce, that soon might be coming to an end. A countdown has appeared on Noob.com, a Web site registered to Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon — so what’s next?

There’s not much to go on, other than the fact that the Web site’s logo bears the iconic Mortal Kombat logo. Coincidentally, the countdown ties in nicely with Midway’s upcoming Gamer’s Day, which takes place in Las Vegas on April 17. I’ve never claimed to be smart, but it does seem like a safe bet that we’ll see some information on the next iteration of the Mortal Kombat franchise in the coming month. I’m also going to say that it will be a fighting game — you heard it here first, folks.

I’ll be sure to pass along any updates from Midway’s Las Vegas event as soon as I can shake the resulting hangover. Midway might not be able to spell “combat” correctly, but they sure know how to party.

Via Destructoid

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So it's not just the new BlackBerry Curve Verizon is announcing today. Later in a day, the CDMA carrier also unveiled four other handsets:

• LG enV2 - A slimmer version of the original enV phone with larger keys and a bigger internal display. There's also a 2 megapixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard, stereo Bluetooth support, integrated GPS (that works with VZ Navigator) and a microSD memory slot. Available in April for $129.99 after a $50 rebate with a new two-year agreement. (release)
• HTC XV6900 aka Touch is the device you probably know everything about. However, unlike the original Touch this one has more memory — 256 MB ROM and 128 MB RAM — hence it should work bit faster. Other specs remain pretty much the same and include 2.8 inch touchscreen, 2 megapixel camera, Windows Mobile 6 Professional edition. There's no word on WiFi, though. Also coming in April, and will cost $349.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a contract. (release)
• Motorola Q9c - It's not just Alltel and U.S. Cellular that have announced Moto's QWERTY keyboard equipped smartphone. Though to be fair, Verizon doesn't say anything about the Lime version. The carrier will be selling the device for $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, with additional $100 off being available for those who sign up for qualifying voice and data plans at the time of purchase. (release)
• Samsung Alias - Successor to the U740 model, according to Verizon's release, even though we're not quite sure what's better about it except the color of the device and somewhat improved keyboard. Then again, as we've argued before, Verizon must be thinking that by calling their devices by names rather than numbers, customers will remember them superior. Anyway, the Alias will be available in mid-April for $129.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. (release)

There you have it - Verizon showed its “CTIA cards.” What about other carriers? We're waiting guys…

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• HTC Touch coming to Verizon Wireless in White - the Verizon XV6900
• Bell Mobility goes live with White HTC Touch
• Verizon renames the Samsung U740 to Alias
• More details leaked for Verizon's Motorola Q9 lineup - the Motorola Q9c
• Verizon VX9100 gets real - LG enV2 on the horizon

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Nokia Siemens Networks just announced that they'll be supporting WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in the 700 MHz, 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz frequencies with their Flexi Multimode Base Station solution.

“License winners from auctions in the U.S. and Canada will be eager to deploy new networks and services as quickly as possible,” stated Sue Spradley, President, Nokia Siemens Networks, North America. “We are confident that Nokia Siemens Networks' LTE solution will enable service providers to deliver high-speed wireless services in the near term, while providing investment protection in the form of a cost efficient software upgrade to LTE in the future.”

With Verizon already announcing that they're going to switch to LTE for their 4G network and their success in the 700 MHz auction I can't think of a better match.

[Via: PR News Wire]

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• Nokia Siemens networks is ready to rock and roll at 700 MHz
• Nokia Siemens Networks expected to begin operations in the first quarter 2007
• Brief: Nokia breaks 173 MB/s during LTE test trial in Germany
• India's Siemens to sell unit to joint venture with Nokia
• Nokia and Siemens get together in Kolkata to make switches now, phones later

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CTIA is kick starting tomorrow and Into Mobile's own Will Park will be at the show, in the mean time Symbian just popped out 2 press releases worthy of your attention. First PR discusses Symbian's SQLite implementation, which directly correlates to their announcement back in December of last year that they [Symbian] joined the SQL Consortium, that will now go under the name of Symbian SQL. Expect devices with this technology to come out by the end of this year.

Location Based Services, otherwise known as LBS, will also be backed into the operating system therefore decreasing the time to market and complexity a manufacture would usually run into if they attempted to write an LBS implementation for their devices from scratch.

Second PR announces Dolby's entrance into the Symbian Platinum Partner Program which can only mean one thing: We're going to see phones hit the market with Dolby Mobile certification.

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• Symbian 9.5 will be announced on Monday
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• Tele Atlas to speed LBS development for Symbian smartphones
• New Symbian's and Nokia's partner - Trust Digital

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This day Alltel Wireless and U.S. Cellular announced availability of the Motorola Q9c on their networks. We've already covered the MOTO's smartphone in the past, so I'll just recap the basics — there's a 2.4″ screen, full QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, 128MB of on-board memory, Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, and a memory expansion slot that can accommodate cards as massive as 32GB in capacity.

While U.S. Cellular is quiet when it comes to pricing, Alltel said it will sell the device for $99 after a $100 rebate and with an appropriate contract. Neither of the two carriers stated anything about the availability, though we're kinda sure, the Q9c is coming sooner rather than latter. That's for both black and lime version… Official releases from Motorola are available from these two links.

[Via: MobileBurn]

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• More from Verizon: LG enV2, HTC XV6900 (Touch), Motorola Q9c, Samsung Alias
• More details leaked for Verizon's Motorola Q9 lineup - the Motorola Q9c
• LG Flip Chocolate gets more colors on Alltel
• Hack your Sprint Motorola Q9c to improve GPS performance - GPS + aGPS = awesome
• Blackberry Pearl 8130, Motorola Q9c, i335 on sale at Sprint

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Japanese CDMA operator KDDI has decided that they're going to go with LTE for their next generation network, just like their competitors NTT DoCoMo and Softbank. Anticipate the new network to be up and atom sometime in 2010.

[Via: Cellular News]

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Related Articles at IntoMobile:

• LTE gets a boost with GSMA support - 4G is now LTE
• NTT DoCoMo achieves 250Mbps on Super 3G LTE network test
• Verizon confirms LTE 4G network trials with Vodafone; to share with AT&T
• Motorola joins LTE/System Architecture Evolution trial Initiative
• Ericsson CTO predicts mass LTE deployment by 2012

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Virtua Fighter. Do I have to say anything more?

Virtua Fighter will be coming to mobile phones in June courtesy of Glu Mobile in June. It might be a Java application, but that isn't certain.

[Via: Pocket Gamer]

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• Glu Mobile to distribute Konami games in Europe
• Apple iPhone release date confirmed - iPhone Launches June 29!!

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