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Alltel adds the BlackBerry Pearl

Alltel said today it will release its own version of the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130 in time for the holiday shopping season. The carrier didn't say exactly when the smartphone would go on sale, but you can register for more information on Alltel's Web site. The price will be $149 with a two-year contract.

Alltel's Pearl will offer the full slate of smartphones features including a Web browser, e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, integrated GPS and mapping, a 2-megapixel camera, a media player, stereo Bluetooth, a 3.5-millimeter headset jack, speaker independent voice dialing, 64MB of internal … Read more

A black Friday for the BlackJack II

The newest edition of the Samsung BlackJack officially will become available on that uber-shopping day, the day after Thanksgiving. Announced last month at CTIA, the Samsung BlackJack II for AT&T sports a revamped design that comes in two color schemes: black or burgundy. Improvements include a larger display and more shortcut buttons while a front jog wheel replaces the side-mounted scroll wheel. On the feature front, the BlackJack II offers everything we saw on its predecessor but adds integrated GPS and support for AT&T Video Share. Only the black version will go on sale this Friday, … Read more

Black Friday will be 'average' for retailers this year, says economist

The economy's not as bad as you might think, and this Black Friday is going to prove it, says one researcher.

"Retailers will come out OK" on one of the biggest shopping days of the year, said Joseph Haslag, economist at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "The numbers may not be great; they won't be horrible. There won't be any reason to walk away from Friday's numbers thinking the economy is in dire straits."

Predictions like that ought to make retailers sleep a little easier. On Tuesday, one of them, the nation's … Read more

Beware Black Friday laptop deals

Editor's Note: If you've stumbled across this page looking for the latest on Black Friday laptop deals, we've rated many of the 2009 Black Friday bargains here.

Like opening weekend box office numbers to Hollywood bean-counters, the weekend shopping extravaganza known as Black Friday is read as tea leaves for the rest of the holiday shopping season (even though these initial impressions are not as accurate as they used to be).

Besides door-busting deals on big-screen TVs and digital cameras, one of the most-watched categories is laptops, where eager bargain hunters are looking for a sub-$500 … Read more

Wal-Mart now giving away Blu-ray movies--with an 80GB PS3

If you thought you could escape this Blu-ray and HD DVD format back-and-forth nonsense, well, you were wrong. It's actually just beginning! This holiday season, both sides in the next-generation DVD battle are continuing to ratchet up the pressure on you lucky consumers.

Exhibit A: The folks over at Wal-Mart have followed up their boffo $98 Toshiba A2 HD DVD player with a pretty impressive overture for Blu-ray. Buying an 80GB Sony PlayStation 3 this Saturday will also get you 10 Blu-ray movies for free, as long as all the titles are below $30. (Go to the Wal-Mart holiday shopping site … Read more

Sprint's holiday smartphone bonanza drops on November 23

Hold the gravy! Check it out--it looks like you can add the Sprint store to your list of places to shop on Black Friday, as the carrier announced today that the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130, Motorola Q9c, and Motorola i335 will all be available starting November 23, though you'll only be able to purchase the Moto Q9c online for the time-being.

The RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130 will run $199.99 with a two-year contract and has built-in GPS and EV-DO with support for the Sprint Power Vision services, including Sprint Music Store, Sprint TV, and Sprint Navigation--a pretty robust … Read more

Hands-on: WorldMate Live for BlackBerry

I liked previous iterations of WorldMate, a travel organizer best suited for power business travelers, at least in theory. The app grouped valuable travel information in one place, but pricing made it impractical for most casual users. WorldMate Live for BlackBerry is an app I can get behind, with its clean, friendly interface; fully synchronized Internet maps and alerts; and a more congenial pricing model that assumes basic, free usage and provides frequent, but never obnoxious, opportunities to upgrade.

The revamped WorldMate Live adds more value with a brand new on-app itinerary section for inputting flight, hotel, car rental, and meeting details to go along with a corresponding Web app, where you can also input information. All trip data is stored on WorldMate's servers and synced in real time when the app opens and auto-connects online. Maps, powered by Google on your online account and by BlackBerry's native map on the device, are another new addition.… Read more

Black Friday Watch: Maxtor OneTouch 4 500GB, $79.98

I may be cheap, but I'm not crazy enough to line up at 5 a.m. in the freezing cold on that glorious day known as Black Friday. Well, at least, not at the big-box stores. But I might just take a drive to Staples (how bad could the crowds be?) for a $79.98 Maxtor OneTouch 4 500GB. That's half a terabyte of external hard-drive goodness. And with the amount of digital video I'm shooting these days, there's never enough storage space.

Head to the aptly named BlackFriday.info for the full list of Staples' Black Friday deals, … Read more

Verizon's BlackBerry Pearl available in stores Nov. 8

For those Verizon Wirelesscustomers who have been waiting for the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130, the time is here. The pretty little Pearl is available now for purchase online and will be in stores nationwide on November 8 for $149.99 with a two-year contract. Unlike the original, GSM Pearls, the Pearl 8130 features video-recording capabilities, 3G (EV-DO) support, and built-in GPS, which you can use with Verizon's location-based service, VZ Navigator. It also has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and support for up to 10 e-mail accounts. Sounds like … Read more