Retailers Taking Action Against Rising Rate of Blu-ray Thefts
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Cameras, Holiday Gift Guide 2008
Target Holiday Gift Card Doubles as Digital Camera
Fake Target Employee Steals $17K In iPods
If you've ever had the misfortune of accidentally wearing a red shirt into a Target store, chances are pretty good that you were tapped on the shoulder by some other customer. The store's red shirts are so noticeable that it's hard to not assume anyone wearing red there is an employee. That's exactly the impression a man in Miami Beach, Florida exploited to walk off with $17-thousand worth of Apple's iPod Touch music players.The man, 24-year-old Antonio McKenzie, simply threw on a red polo and wandered into a number of Target stores in southern Florida. On his way to a store's electronics section, he'd help out a few customers before helping himself to the iPods on the shelf. He'd then simply walk out with the devices without anyone stopping him. His antics were noticed on camera, however, and he's currently on the run from the North Miami Police Department.
So, always look for the logo before assuming someone is an employee -- especially if they're walking out of the store with an armful of expensive electronics.
From CBS4
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Citing Violent Content, Target Pulls 'Manhunt 2' Video Game
The first 'Manhunt' was one of the most brutal games of all time, calling on you to do a raft of icky feeling things to survive, like killing thugs as they plead for their lives, or stabbing broken pieces of glass into the necks of unsuspecting guards. While many look at the 'Grand Theft Auto' series as bad, it doesn't even compare to the level of disturbing behavior in 'Manhunt'.
Recently 'Manhunt 2' made a stir, as it was banned in a number of places due to its excessive violence. A cleaned-up version was finally approved for release, which blurred out the really nasty bits in the same way that 'The Sims' blurs out the naughty bits of your characters while they shower. Now, retailer Target has decided to pull even that cleaned up version from its shelves, since it was recently discovered that it may be possible to get rid of the blur.
As with the 'hot coffee' scandal before, which resulted in the discovery of sexually explicit content in 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,' hackers have managed to uncover all that explicit violence that was hidden from the retail release of 'Manhunt 2.' However, unlike the hot coffee hack, this one actually seems to require that the people unlocking the content have a modified version of Sony's PSP to see any of it. In other words, without a lot of work, it's not possible to reveal the extra violence. For this reason the the video game rating board ESRB decided to keep the title's M (Mature) rating made possible by the blur.
Unfortunately, it's not good enough for Target. The discount retailer is pulling the game in all its formats due to the content. It might start a trend like the one that resulted retailers worldwide pulling 'San Andreas.'
Really, though, it doesn't seem like this one's going to get quite the same publicity as the earlier scandal, if only because 'Manhunt' is a relative unknown and even its basic premise is so much more fringe than 'Grand Theft Auto,' which at least had a vague resemblance to movies like Scarface. What does 'Manhunt' resemble -- a snuff film? Who relates to that?.
Regardless, you'd think Rockstar, creators of both games, would have perhaps worked a little harder to lock out the bad stuff this time around, particularly after nearly being driven to bankruptcy after getting badly burned by hot coffee.
From ABC News
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$399 PlayStation 3 Confirmed (Again)
First there were rumors, then there was a supposed confirmation at Best Buy. Now it seems that there can be no doubt that a $399, 40-gigabyte PS3 model is coming to the U.S., even if Sony still isn't ready to confirm it. A couple of intrepid gamers printed out the UPC from the earlier Best Buy leak and scanned it at a Target price check kiosk. Up popped the price and description, shown above, confirming that the thing is destined for U.S. shores.
The 40-gigabyte PS3 is rumored to include a copy of 'Spider Man 3' on Blu-ray, which releases on 10/30, two days after the anticipated release date of 10/28 for this new PS3. That's definitely a nice inclusion, but something missing from this newer low-priced PS3 is backwards compatibility with PS2 games, previously one of the big advantages compared with the Xbox 360's limited ability to play Xbox games. But, whether gamers really care much about playing their old titles at this point remains to be seen.
From Engadget
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Target Sued Over Site's Visually-Impaired Accessibility
US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, of the Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that the case of the "National Federation of the Blind vs Target" is eligible for class-action status, meaning that the suit against Target can go forward in court and make the company liable for the site's accessibility issues. Patel ruled that "the inaccessibility of Target.com impeded full and equal enjoyment of goods and services offered in Target stores."
Target has attempted to have the case thrown numerous times, but but has failed.
From Tech Crunch
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Low-Cost Sony Flatscreens Arrive at Target
Sony's offering two sets up to the Target faithful, the $799, 26-inch KDL26ML130 and the $899, 32-inch KDL32ML130. The sets are only available on Target's Web site for now, and arriving at stores in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, few technical details are known about them at the moment. About all we do know beyond size and price is that they are 720p sets, meaning they won't be able to natively display the full resolution of either high-definition disc format, both of which provide video at a resolution of 1080p. The price and 720p resolution makes them comparable to similar budget-priced products from Sharp and Samsung, which also fall within the $799 - $899 price point at Target.
If you'd like to go even bigger for just a little more green, go with a plasma instead of an LCD -- specifically, the sub-$1,000 42-inch Vizio VP42, which does do 1080p and is available at Wal-Mart.
From Engadget
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False Alarm: Target Still Selling HD-DVD Players
Seems last week's buzz about Target dropping the HD-DVD format from their stores was, well, a little less than factually based, and we confess we were caught up in the spin as well. An AP report talking about Target promoting Blu-ray in stores was misinterpreted to mean that the company was going to exclusively sell Blu-ray in stores. As it turns out that's not the case -- Target will continue to sell HD-DVD products, including Microsoft's Xbox 360 add-on.
So, no, the format war isn't over yet. Appropriately, with '300' hitting both HD-DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, that war is likely to only get hotter from here.
From Engadget
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Target Selling Blu-Ray Instead of HD-DVD
Is this a big win for Blu-Ray? Surely it sends a message to shoppers. Couple that with Blockbuster's recent announcement that they will only carry Blu-Ray discs, and you have two huge consumer-facing companies making the choice for you, like it or not.
UPDATE: Seems this was a bit of a miscommunication. Target is still selling HD-DVD after all.
From Engadget
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