Circuit City

• Lenovo's new IdeaPad S12 netbook offers a 12-inch display, only weighs three pounds, and includes 160GB of storage. You'll be able to pick one up in black or white this June for $449. — Wired
• Find out how you can make your iPhone look like an old school Gameboy. — Kotaku
• And just like that, the Circuit City online retail store is up, functioning, and appears to have some good deals. — Gizmodo
• RIM's new successor to the Bold, the BlackBerry Onyx, gets a full video review so you can see it up close and in action. — IntoMobile
• Coming to Japan this Summer, is Sharp's solar phone which will give you one minute of talktime when it is placed in the sunshine for 10 minutes. It is also waterproof and comes with sports-related applications. — CNET Crave

It's been a few months since we saw the tech giant Circuit City file for bankruptcy and then shutter all of its stores.

Well dry your tears, because it's being resurrected, so to speak: the company Systemax Inc. has bought out the website and brand name of Circuit City, and is relaunching CircuitCity.com.

There's no word of actual stores, but the website — coming to you in a matter of days — sounds like it'll be a nice competitor for Amazon, since it'll offer lower prices, a bigger selection, and faster and cheaper shipping than it did before.

If you weren't convinced the first time I mentioned that Circuit City's liquidation sales aren't offering unbeatable prices, take it from ABC Action 6 News. The news team investigated the prices at the going-out-of-business chain and discovered that the liquidators are doing a good job and making as much money as possible, so that Circuit City can pay back its creditors. Below are some of the discoveries the team made.

• A Juno DVD at Circuit City was selling for $21.99 with a 10 percent discount, while the same DVD was selling for only $14.99 at Best Buy.
• Out of 25 items, 10 were better buys at Best Buy.
• They found cheaper prices online for all 25 items.

The ABC team gives a smart reminder that none of the items purchased at liquidation sales can be returned. They suggest checking to see that all parts and accessories are accounted for, ensuring that manuals are included, making sure warranties are good, and waiting for more markdowns as the sales continue.

The road has come to an end for Circuit City. The electronics chain filed for bankruptcy in November of 2008 and is now facing the same fate as Linens 'n Things — liquidation. All merchandise must go in the remaining 567 stores, and unfortunately that means more than 30,000 will likely lose their jobs.

While you may skip to your nearest Circuit City, confident that you'll walk out with the best deal in the world, slow down your step and take a minute to really scope out the prices. When the chain closed some of its stores after it filed for bankruptcy, Good Morning America ran a piece about the liquidation tricks they discovered in one of the closing stores. The show served as an eye-opener to why consumers need to be price aware: They found a Samsung HD TV for $1,799 only available from an opened box, while a still-in-business Circuit City was selling the same brand new TV for $1,599.

If you're planning on venturing to a Circuit City liquidation sale, try and shop with a purpose and research prices before you step into a store.

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• Geeze Louise! Apple has already had 500 million applications downloaded via the iTunes App Store. — IntoMobile
• Circuit City first announced that they were filing for bankruptcy last November. Well they are now beginning to liquidate all remaining stores. — Boing Boing
• Get this — 35 percent of adult Internet users now have profiles on at least one social networking site. Love that! — USA Today
• A cool site called iTrackMine will help you keep all of your personal belongings nice and organized. — Lifehacker
• Sony's new Vaio P gets taken for a test drive. See what the verdict is on its performance. — Gizmodo

Going out of business sales usually make shoppers' ears perk up, yet a recent sort of exposé by Good Morning America suggests that we shouldn't trust that sticker prices are actual discounts from the originals. With camcorder in hand, the show strolled the aisles of a soon-to-be extinct Linens 'n Things and visited a going-out-of business Circuit City store. What they found was nothing to be excited about, at least in terms of dirt-cheap deals.

A liquidator's goal is to make money, and they do so by capitalizing on the excitement surrounding going-out-of business sales. Store clerks admitted that liquidators raise prices and then gradually discount. At a Circuit City store taken over by liquidators, Good Morning America found a Samsung HD TV for $1,799 only available from an opened box, while a still-in-business Circuit City was selling the same brand new TV for $1,599. Protect yourself as a consumer by shopping around and not assuming that a so-called discounted price is the best available. Check out the video below for more insight into tricky liquidation tactics.

Thanks to a leaked ad that just hit the Internet, we can now get a sneak peek at some of Circuit City's Black Friday sales. Some noteworthy discounts include $100 off select Garmin GPS units and HP Pavilion laptops going for $399. And considering that Circuit City is having some financial issues, I'm sure there will be a lot more where that came from!

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• Not a happy day in Circuit City land. Today the company petitioned for Chapter 11 protection as it struggles to survive with competing retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. — Switched
• Last night on 60 Minutes, correspondent Scott Pelley exposed the electronic waste black market between the US and China. — Boing Boing
• Ozzy Osbourne has teamed up with Samsung Mobile to promote their latest cell phone, the Samsung Propel. — CrunchGear
• This year on Black Friday, Dell will offer their Xbox 360 Arcade and Rock Band 2 for $199! — Engadget
• What a chic-looking charger! The Uniross imagine POM is a universal battery charger that's shaped like a cute apple! — Unplggd

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