If you’re suffering the black screen update problem that is reportedly striking some Windows systems … you probably aren’t reading this.

Kidding aside, reports have come in that some Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 systems are suffering “black screens of death” for some reason after the latest Windows security update.  Here is the explanation from PCWorld:

Microsoft apparently made changes to the Access Control List (ACL), a list of permissions for a logged-on user. The ACL interacts with registry keys, creating visible desktop features such as a sidebar.

However, the latest patches appear to make some changes to those registry keys. The effect is that some installed applications aren’t aware of the changes and don’t run properly, causing a black screen…

In short: your system may be messed up.

What seems odd about this whole report is that the supposed guilty security update was sent out Nov. 10th, but the first reports came in last week from a security firm named Prevx.  Prevx says they have a tool that will fix some instances for users, and at this point Microsoft is simply stating that they are investigating the situation and have no official word on it.

The reason I find this whole thing a bit questionable is how as someone plugged in to the technology world such as I am heard no complaints prior to a third-party company I’ve never heard of suddenly saying they know how to fix it.  True its solution is being provided for free, but the amount of publicity more than makes up for it.  I have heard no independent verifications of something being wrong with the update, and believe me, something like this happens, you’d hear all about it on Twitter.

There is every chance this problem is real, but it does seem a tad odd at the moment.

It would seem from the prices we’re seeing that retailers aren’t quite as excited as they used to be about Cyber Monday.

While we headed out to Walmart for Black Friday, we also did some online shopping during the sales, picking up a lot of DVDs and Blu-rays. Now, normally the sales get repeated on Monday, or even more deals show up as online retailers have come to love “Cyber Monday”, the online equivalent of Black Friday.  However, it seems retailers are caring a lot less about the day as I wrote in an article on another blog entitled Cyber Monday slowly fading away as less employees shop at work.

As the details of the sales for tomorrow have started to come out, the deals are not better than Black Friday this year, they’re actually worse.

Now, mind you I am only judging this by DVDs I looked at on Amazon, but here are some examples of what I’m seeing.

We’re not quite sure why the prices have crept up for Cyber Monday, but perhaps you would be better off waiting until closer to the holidays when retailers begin to mark things down again, but these new prices are a rather large disappointment after the fantastic prices we just saw on Friday.

If you’ve ever been up late at night, you are sure to be familiar with John W. Scherer, Founder and CEO of Video Professor … as he says it endlessly, telling you to “try my product.” The question is, should you?

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch is currently on a bit of a personal crusade to rid the world of advertisers who scam you out of more money than you are first led to believe to be spending.  While I have personally never been a huge fan of Mr. Arrington, I can’t say I exactly disagree with his current mission.  There are numerous companies out there that will get you when it comes to the fine print, and someone pointing those companies out is nothing but a good thing.

After making a cursory comment about Video Professor being one of those companies, they contacted the Washington Post, which syndicates content from TechCrunch, and demanded the comment be removed.  The paper refused and said they would need to speak with Mr. Arrington.  The whole sordid tale has now been spelled out on a post on TechCrunch, and it’s worth reading for the finer details of how Video Professor gets you for $289.95 when you really think you are only paying $4.85 in shipping.  You just need to wade through Mr. Arrington’s trademarked chest thumping of how he is superior to all other tech journalists to get to it.

The moral of the story is that you always have to read the fine print on offers that sound too good to be true.  Video Professor lures you in with the idea you can get a free lesson CD from them on the computer subject of your choice, and you only have to pay for the shipping to you.  If you decide you don’t want it within 10 days, simply return it and they’ll refund your shipping.  What they neglect to tell you outright in most cases is that if you don’t return the CD within 10 days, you are authorizing them to charge your credit card $289.95 and you’ll end up with the entire series of CDs.

The information is there, you just have to read the fine print, which is something hardly anyone ever does.  And the sad part of this is that it is totally legal.  Is it moral or ethical?  No, but it is legal.  Of course you think, “Well, if I get that charge, I’ll just ask for a refund.”  Good luck with that.  As you can read the stories of others who have tried this on Ripoff Reports and Epinions, that is no easy task.

While we are only pointing out Video Professor here, they are certainly not the lone perpetrator of such tactics.  It is just an easy way to point out that you should always read the fine print of any offer, and, as the old saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true…”

We don’t normally refute other publication’s gadget news, but when it is overbearingly wrong, sometimes you have to.

Mike Elgan of Computerworld wrote a syndicated piece entitled 7 reasons e-book readers make lousy gifts this year, and he’s wrong on almost every point, but in particular I take issue with:

6. Everyone who really wanted one already has one

It’s well understood that e-book readers pay for themselves with the lower price for books. Anyone who really wants an e-book reader would have bought one by now. By buying one for someone who doesn’t have one, you’re forcing a gift on them that they have already decided they don’t want.

Um … no.

When my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year I said “A Barnes & Noble nook”.  While Mr. Elgan points out that the best option this year, the nook, is currently sold out and won’t be delivered until Jan. 4th, this doesn’t matter, and he is extremely wrong in that everyone who wants one has one.  I know several people who want them and just haven’t taken the leap yet because they wanted to make sure the technology was going to continue to be supported.  As someone who has been burned many times by technologies that eventually get dropped, this was partially my case.

By the way, doesn’t the nook being sold out without it even shipping yet kind of tell you that not everyone who wanted a e-reader has one yet?  Even on tonight’s episode of CobWEBs (adult language), my co-host, Steven Hodson of Shooting at Bubbles, discusses his growing interested in an e-reader.

I’m sure Mr. Elgan had the best of intentions with his post, but I also think his article is an example of the typical “it’s the holidays and there is no news, let me write something random that is sure to stir up controversy” school of tech journalism.

Are you waiting for the Star Wars films to come to Blu-ray? Well, prepare to keep waiting.

Remember how it seemed to take forever for the original Star Wars trilogy to come to DVD?  It seems that George Lucas, creator of the film series, wanted to wait until DVD players were in nearly household, and it seems he wants to do the same thing before the famous movies come to Blu-ray.

According to the Australian edition of Gizmodo, 20th Century Fox Managing Director Chris Dunn spoke at a Blu-ray launch event this week, and when directly asked about the current status of the Star Wars films, he simply said that was a question for George Lucas.  Or translation: Yep, just like DVD, we’re all going to have to wait a while before we get to see the highest grossing sci-fi film series ever in glorious high definition.

The only reason this is odd is because sci-fi and action/adventure films are the best selling films on Blu-ray currently because those are the typical film choices of the current Blu-ray customers: early adopters.  As a rabid fan of the series, I can’t wait to see the movies in true HD, but I understand Mr. Lucas’ viewpoint also.

Of course, once they are released, then the question is will we get the theatrical cuts, or will have to suffer through Greedo shooting first once they do appear on Blu-ray?

Google seems to be in a real giving mood when it comes to Wi-Fi this holiday season.

As we reported earlier this month, Google has a program in place through Jan. 15th, 2010 to provide free Wi-Fi in dozens of airports around the United States.  While we all thought the list was complete, it seems it wasn’t.

The new cities added to the list are:

• Albany, NY
• Asheville, NC
• Boise, ID
• Columbus, OH
• Phoenix, AZ
• Washington-Dulles Washington-Reagan National

You can visit FreeHolidayWiFi.com for full details on the program, and you can see a map and list of all the airports below.

It seems things are not looking good for TiVo.

According to TV By The Numbers, TiVo has released information that is has suffered its largest ever quarterly loss of subscribers. The total number of lost subscribers for the quarter ending Oct. 31st, the DVR service lost 314,000 subscribers.

This has been a trend for the service since Jan. 2007, but the extreme jump in loss was surprising seeing as they only lost around 46,000 subscribers the quarter previous.  This new loss brings the company down to 2.76 million total subscribers, or only about 8 percent of the estimated total 38 million DVRs in U.S. households.

It seems that the company is now making the majority of its revenue from licensing its technology to other companies, or actually suing companies such as Dish Network for stealing their intellectual property.

It will be interesting to see how long TiVo can survive as a hardware manufacturer with this sort of drop in business, or will they just finally give up and just go the licensing route?

The popular Roku brand players have finally moved past the premium content to add streaming media from free sites.

The Roku Box has gained a reputation as the easiest way to get Netflix Streaming and Amazon Video on your TV, but seeing as both those are premium services it did limit their potential customer base somewhat.  Later on the company added MLB.com for out-of-market games, but again that was a premium service, so what were they going to do to start to lure customers who don’t use those services?

Enter the Channel Store.

Roku Boxes can now stream content from:

• blip.tv
• Facebook photos
• Flickr
• FrameChannel
• MediaFly
• MobileTribe
• Motionbox
• Pandora
• Revision3
• TWiT.TV

While none of these services will give you the breadth of content something like Netflix Streaming will, there is some solid entertainment in this line up. Pandora alone, one of the leading music discovery sites, could keep you dancing in your living room for hours on end.

While there is no official word on what this might mean for the future, this sure has the feel of being a “first wave” of content.  In other words, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see them adding many more channel partners in the very near future.

Roku is one of the top items for me this coming Christmas, and it may have just jumped to the #1 spot with this news.

So you’ve decided you’re going to brave the crowds on Black Friday, but do you know how to really get the most out of the sales?

We’re taking a look on how to make sure you really are getting the most out of Black Friday this year, and also to make sure there are no incidents like the death of a Walmart employee last year in Long Island, NY.  While these deals are great, they are never worth someone’s life.  I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I was going to Walmart this year, but there is one key difference: my store is a 24-hour store.  As opposed to everyone waiting outside the doors for opening time, we are allowed in the store whenever, and we can just walk to the specific items we want before the official time.  If my store was set up like the one in Long Island is, I would not be going.

All that being said, how do you get the most out of Black Friday?

Research, Research, Research

Are you sure those prices you are seeing in the ads are really that good?  Just because they are printed in a flier for for the Black Friday sales, that doesn’t mean they are necessarily the best prices out there.  It is easy to look at those prices and think, “Wow, that’s a heck of a bargain!”, but is it really?

Ask yourself some simple questions:

• Can you find it any place online for a similar price?
• Can you find it any place online for at least a close price, and the site doesn’t charge sales tax?
• Can you find it any place online for at least a close price, and they don’t charge shipping?

If you can answer “yes” to any of those three questions, or a combination there of, you then have to think is it worth going through the hassle of going to the Black Friday event?  Even if it’s a couple dollars, think about the amount of sleep you’ll lose, the crowds you’ll have to fight, etc.

You also need to research is anyone else price matching?  Walmart has a ton of DVDs on sale for as low as $2, but if you go to the Amazon Black Friday Deals page, you’ll see they are going to have the exact same discs on sale for the same price.  Wouldn’t you rather shop from home in your PJs?

Have you read the reviews?

Even if you don’t like Amazon, there is no denying that it has become one of the most amazing resources on the Web for consumer reviews of items.  While price checking, make sure to read the reviews, see what it was people complained about, is it something you can live with?

Check on the go if you must

We recently wrote about a service named Retrevo that will let you check prices and reviews via your cell phone by simply texting them information on the item.  If you forgot to do your research on a certain item, this is better than nothing.

Be aware of your surroundings

I’ve left the most important for the last … please be careful.  None of the items offered at these sales is worth you getting injured.  Take a deep breath, remember these are material items and your health is worth far more than the few dollars you will save by getting that item.  Or imagine you are somehow involved in injuring someone else.  Is that the memory you want hanging over you through out the holidays?  Probably not.

Just be careful folks, that’s really the best advice anyone could give you.

The past few years of Black Friday sales from Walmart have been rather lackluster, but this year it appears someone lit a very large fire under the companies collective behind to go all out with the discounts.

Normally we don’t do breakdowns of an individual retailer’s sales around here, but when the Walmart Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving holiday in the USA for those of you from elsewhere) sales flier leaked online yesterday, we honestly couldn’t believe it.  These aren’t just deals, they are insane deals.

(all prices pulled from Walmart’s every day prices)

Digital Cameras

Nikon CoolPix S230

The CoolPix S230 normally sells for $179.88, but will be available on Black Friday for $139. (5 A.M. to 11 A.M. only)

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC S930

This one is sort of a mixed deal.  You can get the camera for just $79 on Black Friday, but if you go on Walmart’s site right now, you can get it for $99 with a 2GB memory card on a case. (5 A.M. to 11 A.M. only)

Miscellaneous Electronics

8GB iPod Touch

This has to be one of the weirdest deals this year … they are charging more for the 8GB iPod Touch on Black Friday than they do on a normal day, but with a reason.  $188.95 is the normal online price for this iPod, but on Black Friday it will be $195 with an included $50 gift card to the iTunes store, technically making it $145.  You still save, just in an odd way. (all day Friday)

Sandisk 8GB Cruzer USB Flash Drive

Normally $20, will be $14 on Black Friday.  You can never have enough flash drives. (all day Friday)

Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive

Normally $89.82 on Walmart’s site, it’ll be $78 on Black Friday.  Not a huge savings, but one can never have enough hard drive storage. (all day Friday)

Video Games

Playstation 3

The SonyPlayStation 3 Slim will come with two games, Infamous and Batman Arkham Asylum, and The Dark Knight movie on Blu-ray for $299.  The PS3 Slim alone normally sells for $299, Batman Arkham Asylum goes for $59.82, Infamous sells for $53.82 and The Dark Knight for $15.86, so you are getting $129.50 in added bonuses.  If you are looking for a PS3 for this holiday season, this is going to be a tough deal to beat. (5 A.M. to 11 A.M. only)  (We know the Walmart ad says the extras are a $139 bonus, but we got the $129.50 by using Walmart.com’s prices.)

Xbox 360

You can pick up an Xbox 360 Arcade (meaning no hard drive included) for $199 and it will include Madagascar 2 game and Madagascar/Madagascar 2 DVDs.  The game and movies are a $53 bonus, but we really don’t recommend buying Xbox units without hard drives as it limits what you can do with the system. (5 A.M. to 11 A.M. only)

Should you go to Walmart for Black Friday?

We have only looked at the tip of the deals Walmart is offering on Friday, you can see the full ad here (PDF link), but I’m going for the first time in several years.  There are just enough deals here to lure me out of my house at that insane hour.  We haven’t even touched on the numerous HDTV deals as they would take forever to research.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for some general tips on how to get the most out of Black Friday, and how to stay safe.