I’ve just received an email stating that Walmart has their Xbox 360 Arcade with $100 Gift Certificate for $199 deal online here! Go there NOW, as they are sure to sell out!

You have to scroll down the page to find the “Add to Cart” button. Personalize the e-Gift Card and then hit “Add to Cart” again to begin checkout process!

Quantities are limited, so hurry! Go! Go! Go!

Get an Xbox 360 for $99 ($199 purchase price gets you a $100 Walmart gift card)

via BFAds

Last weekend I had the opportunity to be part of a small group of tech bloggers invited to attend several Windows 7 launch events in New York and Washington DC. I wasn’t totally clear on exactly what we would be doing on this trip before going, but I figured no matter what, it would be fun and the food would be good. I was right…

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Sometimes there is much truth to the saying “the early bird catches the worm.” Take the Walmart specials occurring this Friday – weeks before the Holiday shopping season officially begins.

If you have an X-Box or a 15″ laptop on your list for a special person (maybe yourself!), then you must be at your local Walmart in time to snatch up one of these deals. Not only can you get an Xbox 360 for $199 with a $100 gift card, bringing the price to $99, you can get a 15″ HP laptop for $296. Granted, it’s not a gaming laptop, but it would be perfect for a high school student. Walmart is showing that they will have a minimum of 10 of each per store, and if you are looking for a deal on either, you can’t miss this event. If you miss those specials, you can sonsole yourself with the $29 DVD player or the $498 Sharp 42″ HDTV.

WOW!!

Update 11/06/09 from BFAds:

We’ve got an update about Walmart’s Saturday sale which we covered in our last email.

According to the online description, the Xbox 360 Arcade console is now going to come with an e-Gift Card in place of a regular Gift Card. The only difference between the two is that an e-Gift Card can only be used on Walmart.com and not at Walmart retail locations. Considering Walmart.com offers free shipment to stores, the deal is still really hot.

via: BFAds

We love our mobile applications.  They make our phones so much more than just phones. Now, Ford is hoping developers will love yet another mobile application platform — the automobile.   Ford has opened up their Sync software development kit (SDK) for developers in the hopes that they can attract the best and brightest to build new applications to be featured in the Ford vehicle lineup.

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photo credit: Joseph Robertson

If last week’s news is any indication, we’re all about to see an army of Droids to be released and hit the mobile scene — in a very big way. Even if you didn’t already pre-order through Best Buy, Big Red hopes you’ll be stopping by their stores this Friday to see what all the fuss is about.   Some good hardware from Motorola and a faster, much improved Android 2.0 should please quite a few Verizon customers by providing what could be argued as the carrier’s first eagerly anticipated smartphone.   But will it pose any real threat to the iPhone?

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Anyone who is a fan of role-playing games (RPG) is very excited for this week as perhaps the biggest RPG release of the year (we can debate whether Risen is bigger in the comments) – Dragon Age: Origins. The folks who have brought us the Baldur’s Gate series, Neverwinter Nights games, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Jade Empire and more are back – with the ’spiritual successor’ to Baldur’s Gate. I am rushing to finish everything else on my plate so I can be ready for this one on Tuesday. Recently it was announced that the PS3 version was un-delayed, which is nice since it means everyone gets it this week!

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! OK, you might be wondering why this is the only place NOT highlighting DJ Hero for this week. Well, while that game looks amazingly fun and will sell millions, I chose the expansion to one of the absolute best games of 2008 that got relatively little attention because it is a turn-based strategy game – King’s Bounty: Armored Princess. Of course, since we are in the midst of the Fall Gaming Avalanche, those are but the tip of the iceberg!

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In celebration of Windows 7’s launch today Dell is offering a great deal on their Vostro 220. This 2.6 GHZ Dual-core computer has 4GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, DVD burner optical drive, keyboard and mouse (bring your own monitor). Shipping is $35. Deal also includes a 1 TB Western Digital USB 2.0 external drive.

Del Vostro 220 and 1 TB MyBook – $395 via GearSponsor Logicbuy

A little bit later this morning I’ll be on a plane, headed north for a whirlwind round of Windows 7 launch activities in NYC and Washington DC as Microsoft’s and HP’s guest.

Wayne and Dan will be on their way into NYC as well, to attend Engadget Live, as the show engages in a “frank and unscripted one-on-one conversation” with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

We’ll meet up later in the evening for dinner, and I’m sure that we’ll have plenty to share. Be sure to check Wayne and Dan’s twitter streams for updates throughout the day, as well as mine tonight and over the weekend; it should be fun!

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! Last week was strong … but this week is just crazy! Some highlights include Borderlands, a hybrid FPS / RPG / Co-op / open world / post-apocalyptic shooter that hits PS3 & XBOX360 this week and PC next week. Also huge this week – albeit with a younger audience – is Bakugan Battle Brawlers, the first game based on the very popular ‘catch em all’ style game featuring magnetic balls that transform into monsters.

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DataViz RoadSync for Android, a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync client that has been in beta in the Android Market for the past six months, has now been released.

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As I’ve tossed out before while talking about the Wolfenstein iPhone releases, my history with Wolfenstein is nearly 30 years old. I’m not sure how I initially found out about it – it could have been an impulse buy at the local computer center – but from the moment I started playing Castle Wolfenstein on my Apple ][+ I was hooked. Locks that told you they would take 75 seconds to pick – and that was *real time*! During which you were vulnerable to the ever-roaming guard patrols.

By the time Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992 the gaming press was better so I knew it was coming and got it quickly after release (day of release rush wasn’t the sport it is today). I played the heck out of that for quite a while, and still love that game, having gotten it for the iPhone recently. My wife bought me Return to Castle Wolfenstein when that arrived, and I have recently replayed that on my netbook, and it is still a wonderful experience. So I was a natural ‘easy sell’ for Wolfenstein. Except for the fact that I found nothing particularly intriguing in the pre-release press.

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I am used to getting random spam instant messages through my Live Messenger account, but today has been a banner day, and I say that with total sarcasm. Today I have received at least five random IMs from a different address (which I immediately block after the message arrives), and each one has been completely trashy.

I’m posting the least offensive here, and the truly offensive ones after the break. Bear in mind that I have my Live account set so that I am not supposed to get any messages from people who aren’t contacts, and yet…they keep coming, and I can’t make them stop.

Once again, I am warning you that the IMs posted are completely offensive, so no freaking out when you see them. Okay? Okay.

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Welcome back to the GearGames weekly video game release feature here at Gear Diary! This week has a ton of games, but is actually rather thin on the top level blockbusters. First and foremost is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which we featured in a beta code contest here, and has already been receiving sterling reviews. The other obvious one is Brutal Legend, the delayed-by-legal-wrangling game which is from Tim Shaeffer (famous for LucasArts adventure games and recently Psychonauts), and is a tie-in to the movie of the same name. Also, there is a game that looks like a load of fun called A Boy and His Blob, which I have featured in the headline picture.

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If you use a Sidekick. DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR PHONE OR LET THE BATTERY DIE!!! That’s the message from T-Mobile and Danger/Microsoft. Apparently that data outage last week did more than just knock everyone offline…it also hosed their servers, which means everything stored there (calendar, contacts, pictures, emails, etc) is most likely gone.

This is just a terrible situation, and it doesn’t look like there’s an offline backup solution. Hopefully T-Mobile, Danger, and Microsoft can come up with a better answer than “Oops…all gone!”, but in the meantime make sure you don’t turn your phone off! And if you don’t use a Sidekick, this is a good opportunity to remember to download a good backup application and run a backup at least once a week if not daily. Never trust that a 3rd party, even your carrier or the manufacturer of your device, can always guarantee perfect service.

Frankly, I think it’s totally unacceptable that all T-Mobile and Danger/Microsoft have to say is to not turn off your phone, but it is a Saturday night, and hopefully by early in the week we’ll see a more concrete solution or reparations for affected users. Can anyone who uses a Sidekick and has been affected comment on this? What steps, if any, are you taking to protect your data if you still have it on your device?

Via: Engadget, Electronista and Boy Genius Report