Walmart posts

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web

Walmart MP3 store adds 74 cent tracks, Mac, Linux support

by Brad Linder Oct 28th 2008

I love a good price war. And it looks like Walmart is challenging Amazon and Apple to one by offering select MP3 downloads from Walmart's online music store for just 74 cents. Not every song will go for that price, but standard tracks start at 94 cents per song, which is still cheaper than music on iTunes. Amazon typically sells MP3 music for between 89 and 99 cents per song.

Walmart is also rolling out improved support for web browsers that aren't Internet Explorer and operating systems that aren't Windows. You can now download MP3s from Walmart's web store using OS X, Linux, or Windows, Firefox, Safar, or Internet Explorer.

Walmart has a library of over 3 million DRM-free MP3 tracks from the four major lables and a number of independent artists.

[via Electronista]

Tags: amazon-mp3, itunes, mp3, music, walmart

Filed under: Business, Linux

Wal-Mart to stop selling Linux machines in-store

by Simon Kerbel Mar 11th 2008

The corporate monolith that everyone loves to hate, Wal-Mart, has announced that they will no longer stock computers that run the Linux operating system on their retail shelves.

While Wal-Mart made a bit of a splash in the tech world when the company announced it would be carrying Linux PCs last summer, it appears the rest of the world failed to notice and Wal-Mart is pulling the plug on its Linux experiment.

After all, it's hard to imagine a world where you would send somebody looking for a PC with a Linux distribution to your friendly neighborhood big box store.

You've got to hand it to Wal-Mart; they gave Linux the old college try, which is more than most PC retailers would do. To the marketing guru's, a PC under $200 has to look like a good sell (Wal-Mart carried the $199 "Green gPC," made by Everex of Taiwan).

However, like PeeWee Herman passed up the gopher snakes again and again during the pet shop fire, people passed up the Linux box for safer, and more palatable, fare (i.e., Windows).

While Wal-Mart will no longer carry the gPC in stores, it will remain available online at walmart.com. So, in the foreseeable future, Linux will have to find somewhere other than Wal-Mart to find its big break.

[via Yahoo! News]

Tags: linux, walmart

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Live customer service going the way of the dodo bird

by Lisa Hoover Oct 3rd 2007

Back in the day (meaning, only about five years ago), when you needed the customer service department of a company to solve a problem, you simply picked up the phone and talked to a real, live person. That soon gave way to working your way through phone trees more complicated than the schematics of the International Space Station. Gradually, we found ourselves shouting, ""Return a package....reeeee-turn a paaaaack-age!" to disembodied robotic voices that ask why we're calling.

Sick of the process? We are too, so the idea that Wal-Mart would do away with all that filled us with child-like glee. Until we realized what they had in mind.

Tags: customer-service, lousy-customer-care, online, shopping, wal-mart, walmart

Filed under: Fun, Internet, News

Walmart seeks to keep lead - launches MP3 "DRM Free" music downloads

by Dolores Parker Aug 21st 2007

Aiming to keep its lead in the music retail market, Wal-Mart is launching DRM free MP3 music downloads at Walmart.com for 94 cents per track and $9.22 per album. The uber retailer's music catalog offers digital tracks from major record labels EMI and Universal. The new MP3 format allows customers to play music on most devices, including the ubiquitous iPod, iPhone and Zune players.

Universal followed EMI in announcing DRM free music to major retailers but bypassed iTunes, which is in third place behind Best Buy's second in the music retail market line-up. This is a good move for consumers, allowing competition and hopefully provide more options for the digital music buying public.

DRM free allows users the ability to play songs on any device without copyright protection software, which not only limits unauthorized copying of songs, but on which devices the songs can be played as well.

Sorry, Mac, and Linux users, no rollback for you - only Window's 2000, XP and Vista are supported.

Tags: DRM, EMI, iTunes, mp3, music download, MusicDownload, Universal, Walmart

Filed under: Internet, Web services

Wal-Mart launches online ratings and reviews

by Grant Robertson Jul 19th 2007

Super-mega-giant retail king Wal-Mart has just added interactive review and rating features to their online store. The retail mega-corp is tapping into the millions of online shoppers they have to rate, review and recommend products from their enormous catalog.

Wal-Mart suits hope the move will enable the 75% of their 130 million customers who are online to "further engage, communicate, share opinions, and learn more about products."

Shop smart, shop S-Mart.

Tags: online shopping, OnlineShopping, wal mart, WalMart

Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Wal-Mart offers video downloads with support from the big guys

by Emily Price Feb 6th 2007

We heard the rumors in September, and now the day has come.

Industry giant Wal-Mart will introduce a new and improved Wal-Mart video downloading site today, in another move toward their ultimate goal of complete world domination.

The big news is Wal-Mart has partnered with Sony, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Universal making them the only video download site with support form all six major studios, and making them an instant video powerhouse. The site also plans on getting television shows from Comedy Central, MTV, FX, and Nickelodeon amongst others.

New release movies will run you anywhere from $12.88-$19.88, with older movies starting at $7.50 and TV shows at $1.98.

[via NY Times]

Tags: video downloads, VideoDownloads, wal mart, WalMart, walmart video, WalmartVideo

Filed under: Business, Design, Developer, Internet, Text, News, Open Source

Walmart.com beefs up, adds open-source

by Ryan Carter Oct 27th 2006

Wal-Mart has generally had a good-enough web presence online, that is for the most part helpful in finding products and priming the pump for customers to visit the store knowing what they will find already since they saw it online. I have used their website for a long time. Now, Walmart.com has had a face-lift, a make-over, and even to some extent, a make-under. Using open-source software, Wal-Mart has pulled the trigger on their reloaded web experience. New features include: the use of Flash for promotional spots and new flashy-popdown-menus to quickly find what you are looking for, which saves a lot of time having to click on each tab previously and wait for it to load. Alphabetical menus, a "what's hot" area, and logical product groupings make everything easy to find. Walmart uses OpenLaszlo and Flash technologies to accomplish this newly christened voodoo, making open-source a big component of their operation. One more thing, hub, the failed social networking experience is not a part of the new site, thank goodness. If you ask me, Wal-Mart should think about adding social product voting and interactive user comments on products. Turn the thing into a giant blog that the customer can contribute to. That would be something.

Tags: content, dynamic, flash, menu, openlaszlo, walmart, website

Filed under: Audio, Photo, Video, Hardware, News, Microsoft

Wal-Mart leaks Zune price?

by Ryan Carter Sep 19th 2006

Engadget reveals that Wal-Mart has seemingly leaked Microsoft Zune pricing at $284. That isn't a bad price for Microsoft's highly hyped mp3 player. You never know until the whole thing is released. We'll see if the price is around the supposed $284 when it comes out, but I hope it is, because that is very reasonable, especially from Microsoft. I gotta say now I am torn. I like the idea of Zune, its larger screen and nice simple design, but I don't know how the whole "sharing" idea and possible legal trouble sits with me. I also like the Sansa e280 as well and I can play all my music on it without so much trouble since the Sansa is a proven device. It is really a toss up right now. Sansa it seems is going after Real's wide-eyed delusions of grandeur. The Sansa of course doesn't have a 30GB drive behind it, but an 8GB. What do you think, is Zune worth it at the price?

Tags: digitalmusic, engadget, microsoft, mp3, player, walmart, zune

Filed under: Web services, Social Software

Another company takes aim at MySpace: Wal-Mart??

by Jordan Running Jul 18th 2006

I love the title of this Advertising Age article: Wal-Mart Tries to Be MySpace-Seriously. Because it's so apropos. If you were asked to name 50 companies poised to capture the hearts and minds of hip, young Americans, I doubt Wal-Mart would be on, or even anywhere near, your list. But that doesn't stop it from trying: The HUB (School Your Way) is Wal-Mart's answer to MySpace, and it's worth partial credit at best. The HUB allows young Wal-Mart shoppers-the site seems aimed mostly at tweens-to put together their own personalized page with the opportunity to "win some fab prizes." They can also upload a video of themselves, but all content is rigidly controlled by Wal-Mart, so don't expect to see much in the way of free expression (oh, and the only teens featured on the site's front page are paid actors and models). In the end, Wal-Mart's HUB is-as thought it's not obvious-much less a social networking site (in fact, social networking features are all but absent) and much more an attempt by Wal-Mart to get kids to run its advertising campaign for it, and from the sounds of the Advertising Age article, kids aren't too interested, and I can see why.

Tags: advertising, marketing, myspace, schoolyourway, socialnetworking, socialsoftware, teen, thehub, walmart

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