Walmart

Wal-Mart announces new Family Mobile service

Wal-Mart, which already offers Common Cents and Straight Talk prepaid plans, has just launched a post-paid service called Wal-Mart Family Mobile. While Common Cents and Straight Talk runs on Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless respectively, Wal-Mart Family Mobile will piggyback on T-Mobile USA's network.

Customers will get unlimited calls and texts for $45 a month for the first line, and $25 for each additional line. However, data and international calls will be deducted from a prepaid account attached to the family plan, so this isn't really a service for high data consumption. For 1GB of data accessible to … Read more

Wal-Mart expands prepaid phone service to AT&T

Shoppers perusing Wal-Mart for a cell phone will soon have double the options--that is, a choice of purchasing a prepaid phone on two carriers instead of just one.

Wal-Mart's Straight Talk wireless service, which has previously run only on Verizon's networks, is expanding to AT&T. StraightTalk is a brand made by TracFone, and is sold exclusively in Wal-Mart stores.

AT&T confirmed to The Wall Street Journal on Monday that StraightTalk phones will work on the network. Wal-Mart would not comment on the impetus behind building out the service to include AT&T.

The … Read more

Is Walmart.com's Xbox Kinect preorder bundle a deal?

If you're interested in adding Microsoft's Kinect to your Xbox 360, which comes out November 4, you might want to check out Walmart.com's $199 preorder option that it's serving up until July 23.

The bundle includes the Kinect ($150 value) along with your choice of one of six Kinect launch titles and a $30 Walmart.com e-gift card that you can apply to a second Kinect game (or not). The list price of most Kinect games is $60, so if you do the math, the whole thing works out to a $10 savings plus that … Read more

World Cup on Twitter

This is my last day of Loaded for the next week. I am off to Los Angeles tomorrow to cover the E3 gaming conference for CBS News. You can follow all of CNET's E3 coverage here or of course you can follow me on Twitter for personal anecdotes of the event here.

Mark Licea will fill in for me on Loaded while I am gone next week. Please be nice to the sub!

Links from Friday afternoon's episode of Loaded:

The iPhone 4 will go on sale at Wal-Mart on June 24The Nissan Leaf is being shown … Read more

iPhone 4 at Wal-Mart on June 24

If you'd rather avoid the lines at Apple and AT&T stores on iPhone 4 launch day, you have options this year.

Wal-Mart said Friday that it will be one of several retail outlets that will have the iPhone 4 on June 24, its first day of availability anywhere. While Wal-Mart has carried previous versions of the iPhone, this is a first that it will be for sale in its stores on the device's official launch day.

Wal-Mart is not the only alternative to Apple and AT&T, however. It's rumored that Best Buy will have the device on launch day, … Read more

Yahoo gets social abroad

Yesterday I wrote about Yahoo's lack of social networking. Today Yahoo announced that it is acquiring a location-based social network called Koprol. It's a start!

Koprol is an Indonesian social network that sounds a lot like FourSquare, only it gives you the option to photograph and review locations that you check in to.

Will Yahoo use this in all of its mobile products moving forward or is this just a strategic acquisition for the Indonesian market? For what it is worth, I think they should add social features to all mobile products moving forward. I'm not … Read more

Get a new 16GB iPhone 3GS for $97

Here's a pickle: Do you jump on a killer iPhone deal right now or wait for the new model that may launch next month?

It's no secret that Apple will likely unveil the "iPhone 4G" at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off June 7. It may be weeks or months after it's announced before it's available, but it's coming.

Perhaps as a big push to unload its existing iPhone stock, Walmart is offering this spectacular deal: a 16GB iPhone 3GS for $97, plus sales tax in most states.

For that price, … Read more

Wal-Mart launches Gamecenter

Links from Friday afternoon's episode of Loaded:

Wal-Mart launches a gaming cite called Gamecenter

Yahoo and Nokia may announce a partnership agreement next week

The iPad steering wheel mount is probably not the safest way to drive

Super Mario Galaxy 2 launches in a few days and Guinness names the franchise the best-selling video game series ever

Morley Safer interviews Marty Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, on 60 Minutes this coming Sunday

Time for Apple to get serious about video

Netflix is cruising. The cable guys are catching on. Wal-Mart just rumbled in.

The Web's video-on-demand sector is filling up fast with some serious heavyweights. If Apple wants to make a mark in digital video that even vaguely resembles the one it made in music, perhaps the company should start treating Apple TV as more than just a "hobby." That's Apple's attitude toward the streaming-media device, said Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who spoke at a conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

This doesn't seem to be a good time to toy with online … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1170: ACTA must be stopped

In today's show, more unbelievable details from the top-secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement leak out, and we determine (again) that it's sheer unadulterated evil and has to be stopped. Also, we explore the "winkie" defense, discover that naps boost your brain power, and hey, Betty White? We'll let you host Buzz Out Loud for real anytime you want. --Molly

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1170