Archive for the ‘Services’ Category

Walmart to rival Best Buy’s Geek Squad with own in-home install crew

We’ve never truly been at ease with that Geek Squad crowd. Something about “the people” they hang with and “the places” they hang at just worries us, so we’re pretty thrilled to see another mega-corp stepping in to take the place of the now-deceased Circuit City FireDog crew. Starting sometime before the holiday season, Wally World will be partnering with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies in order to offer in-home installation to customers buying anything from a wireless router to a HTIB. The service plans will be sold on prepaid cards ranging from $99 to $399 in value, and each install includes a “preliminary consultation and a tutorial after installation is completed.” Granted, it may be a bit tough to get the dude looking to spend $5 on a new plasma to spring for such a service, but hey, it’s not like competition is a bad thing.

[Via Hot Hardware]

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless, Networking

Walmart to rival Best Buy’s Geek Squad with own in-home install crew originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Astronomy service Slooh will let you watch the LCROSS impact live on October 9

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Slooh, a service that offers unfettered access to two huge earth-based telescopes, is inviting folks to watch the LCROSS impact on Friday at 4:30am PDT or 7:30am EDT. The feed begins at 3:30am PDT.

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite will hit the moon to created a crater 14 meters in diameter and 2 meters deep. The resulting analysis will help assess how large bodies will damage planets along with an assessment of current water levels in the moon. Plus it involves blowing holes in the moon.

The feeds are available here and they will be transmitting from New Hampshire and Arizona simultaneously. NASA is also transmitting the impact live.

Slooh is a cool web-based service that lets “borrow” time on high powered telescopes. I’ve had bad luck with it – I’ve never been able to see much because of cloud cover – but if the weather is right and you’re fascinated by astronomy it’s a fun service.

The service costs $5.95 a month (the LCROSS impact is free) or $49.95 a year. It includes live picture-taking and group missions led by a professional astronomer. You can also share your pictures at MySlooh. There is also a kids’ version including tours of the moon, the universe, and the outer stars.



Posted: October 6th, 2009
at 3:11pm by John Biggs


Topics: Headline, Services, Space, slooh