liquid

After exploring other options, Circuit City said Friday it will begin liquidating all remaining stores.

About 30,000 employees face layoffs as the rest of its 567 stores are closed. The fates of outstanding warranties, its Firedog repair service, and Canadian stores are still to be determined, according to the company.

The nation's second-largest consumer electronics retailer filed for bankruptcy in November and initially closed 155 retail outlets in an attempt to get its roughly $2 billion debt under control. Just a week ago, Circuity City announced it was in talks for a sale with two "highly interested&… Read more

Samsung Electronics is reconfiguring four divisions into two, in a move to bring its consumer products under one roof and its components business under another, according to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal

The electronics giant will house such areas as its TVs, cell phones, and other consumer electronics into one group, while the components division will now include its liquid crystal displays and semiconductors, according to the report.

Samsung's restructuring comes at a time when a number of companies are retooling their operations in an effort to minimize the effect of a slowdown in corporate IT spending … Read more

One of the holy grails of consumer electronics is to create a wireless networking solution that works seamlessly behind the scenes to link together all your home AV, PC, and mobile gear throughout your house. Silicon Image, the company that brought you the HDMI standard, is on a quest to find that grail and the horse its riding is named LiquidHD.

The folks from Silicon Image are talking up the new technology at CES this year and the basic concept goes something like this: You have a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 connected to a TV in one room and … Read more

Liquid Mongoose, the purveyors of the do-it-yourself DVD and music CD sleeves has put out a new version of its bookmarklet that supports Picasa Web albums. Now, if you're planning to burn a compilation photo CD or DVD, you'll be able to sleeve it in paper packaging that features thumbnail previews of what's on the disc.

I just gave it a spin on one of my recently uploaded albums and it worked flawlessly. Users with the existing bookmarklet won't have to upgrade since the JavaScript has stayed the same. The only confusing part is that the … Read more

MTI Micro, a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Incoporated, unveiled a portable charger on Wednesday that uses replaceable fuel cartridges.

MTI Micro is not the first, and hopefully won't be the last, company to go to the fuel cell for portable convenient power. (People refer to these new tries as "fuel cell gadget chargers," though to me that seems like it refers to a charger for powering fuel cell gadgets.)

Just this past September, Medis came out with the 24-7 Power pack, a charger powered by a liquid fuel cell, for only $40 with replacement packs for about $… Read more

As an avid cyclist, my biggest concern about riding my bike in New York City isn't king-size potholes, wayward pedestrians, or even the hordes of aggressive cabbies itching to smash me into gray matter, but rather the constant fear of getting my bike stolen. I've been a victim of bike theft in the past, and it literally feels like the loss of a limb (not good), so I'm constantly researching new ways to deter thieves from snatching up my precious Surly Cross-Check. Whether it's making my bike ugly with stickers or carrying around extra locks in my bag, there's only so much you can do, because if a thief wants what you got, they're gonna get it no matter what.

Michael Lambourn gives cyclists one more bullet in the barrel with his SmartLock design. It's a cable lock with colored liquid inside that explodes everywhere if the lock is cut. It's a clever idea, and one almost certainly hatched after a freak skunk accident, and I applaud Michael Lambourn for making an effort to make cycling safer for paranoid city dwellers like myself. The goal is to achieve peace of mind while your bike is locked up, and the SmartLock is definitely a step in the right direction. If this product is successful and helps get people out of their cars and onto the bike, then I'll get behind it 100 percent. I just have a few critiques to make in the meantime.… Read more

If you've got an old burned CD or DVD hanging around and want to give it a more attractive home than a 100-disc spindle where it currently resides, you should check out Liquid Mongoose. It's a simple bookmarklet you can save to your browser and call up any time you want to print out a protective (and attractive) cover.

It works for both audio albums and movies as long as you're accessing their information from either Netflix or AOL Music. Once on the album or movie's page you simply click the bookmarklet, then print out the … Read more

Traditionally, anyone who wanted to convert a PC into a DVR was limited to the likes of Windows Media Center, SnapStream Beyond TV, or (for the more adventurous DIYers) MythTV.

Starting in October 2008, however, people can turn their Windows PCs into a full-on TiVo DVR thanks to Nero's new Liquid TV package. The software effectively turns a standard PC into a full-service TiVo DVR, replete with the same interface, program guide, and ease-of-use as TiVo's standalone hardware DVRs--but with the added ability to burn recorded shows to DVD or export them to portable devices such as the iPod or PlayStation Portable.

Liquid TV will be available in two versions. The $200 package includes a standard TiVo remote, USB DTV tuner/antenna (for over-the-air analog and digital TV, including HD broadcasts), and an IR blaster (for controlling external cable and satellite boxes, which would then be fed into a video capture card on your PC). The $100 package is software only; it's for people who already have a TV tuner card and remote solution (or who will opt for the software's onscreen mouse controls).

The software is said to support up to four TV tuners, one of which can be an external set-top box. Both versions include a year's worth of the all-important TiVo service (required for use). Nero hasn't officially set the renewal fee for the service, but company reps suggested that it will be less than the $13 per month that's the baseline for owners of the set-top TiVo boxes. … Read more

As I write, a small black box on my desk--a liquid fuel cell--is charging my iPod Touch.

It's a Medis 24-7 Power Pack, a portable charger for small electronics like a cell phone or an iPod.

Medis Technologies says that one Power Pack, which recently went on sale online and at Best Buy, can give you 30 hours of talk time on an average mobile phone or 60 to 80 hours of play time on an average iPod. That translates to about five or six full charges for an iPhone. A starter kit with adapters costs about $40 and … Read more