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Wal-Mart deals are heating up for Saturday.

(Credit: Wal-Mart)

Not content to wait until Black Friday, Wal-Mart announced Wednesday that it will deliver some great deals on assorted tech products this weekend.

Customers shopping in-store on Saturday will find several deals. The company said it will sell the 46-inch Panasonic TC-P46U1 1080p plasma HDTV for $788 that day. It also plans to sell the 42-inch Sharp LC-42SB45U 1080p LCD for just $498.

Besides that, Wal-Mart plans to sell a 15.6-inch HP notebook for $298, a Sony Blu-ray player for $148, and a Magnavox upconverting DVD player for $29.

But it might be the offer on the Xbox 360 Arcade that will attract the most attention. According to Wal-Mart, it will sell the Xbox 360 Arcade for its standard price of $199, but include a $100 Wal-Mart gift card with that purchase. That can cover almost the entire cost of an additional controller and a single game. It can also cut a big chunk out of the cost of a hard drive add-on for the console, if consumers decide to go that route.

Although all these deals will only be offered on Saturday in Wal-Mart stores, it should be noted that many of these deals are available now on Wal-Mart's Web site. That said, beware that the Xbox 360 Arcade offer is already sold out online. Anyone looking to capitalize on it will need to do so in a local store.

Wal-Mart's in-store special offers start at 8 a.m. local time on Saturday. It should be interesting to see if Amazon and other online retailers match Wal-Mart's offer at that time. We'll update this space if they do.

I should have bought the $31 DVD player.

(Credit: Matt Hickey)

Exploding iPhones are so earlier this week, people. The new scary consumer electronics product that might explode and kill you and your family is the cheap Durabrand DVD player exclusive to Wal-Mart. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of the device, saying the players can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers.

The players retail for less than $30, are made in China, and are full of shrapnel to flay flesh from bone. OK, that last bit was hyperbolic, but still, any Durabrand DVD player bought from Wal-Mart after 2006 can be returned to the nearest store for a full refund.

So far 12 out of approximately 1.5 million units have flamed up, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which adds that the fires have caused property damage but no injuries. While 12 problematic devices don't really add up to epidemic-like numbers, it's still troubling knowing yours could be the 13th. Not that I'm fearmongering or anything.

So this isn't quite a sub-$300 laptop, but it's close and is a decent deal for back-to-school.

(Credit: Wal-Mart Stores)

Beginning Sunday, Wal-Mart Stores will offer a 17-inch Toshiba Satellite L355 for $348. The model is almost a year old, so the specs aren't fantastic--3GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, Intel Celeron processor, and Windows Vista Basic--but for the price it's understandable. (Also, you'll have to wait. If you try to buy it now it will say "out of stock.")

Of course, not everyone is going to want a 17-inch laptop, but if you're looking for value it's a steal. At $348, it's a full-feature laptop that's less expensive than some Netbooks, with a normal-size keyboard, screen, and everything. As competition heightens for consumers among retailers there's sure to be more where this came from, with better deals on traditional notebooks. And then there's the new wave of CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) laptops that are super sleek and light that will come with very attractive pricing too. The effect these lower-priced laptops will have on Netbooks still remains to be seen.

If you do happen to be in the market for a back-to-school laptop, don't miss our handy buying guide put together by resident PC experts Dan Ackerman and Rich Brown.

Update: Just came from the Wal-Mart store in Commerce Township, Mich. Not only was the Magnavox priced at $168, but the sales guys had never seen a Blu-ray player for $98. Could be this is a regional thing, or it could just be bad reporting (on my part and others'). Were you able to find this deal? In any case, my apologies if you went to Wal-Mart and came up empty.

The good news: You can finally buy a new, non-refurbished Blu-ray player for under $100--no rebates required.

The bad news: You have to go to Wal-Mart to get it. And not Walmart.com, either, for now this deal is in-store only. (I'd phone first; this story first broke on Friday, so I wouldn't be surprised if many stores were sold out.)

Another Blu-ray player shatters the $100 barrier.

(Credit: Magnavox)

This isn't the first time a Blu-ray player has dipped below the magical $100 mark: Sears had a refurbished Magnavox for $99.99 last month, and shortly thereafter Meijer had a new Curtis Mathes model for the same price. Both are long gone.

The Wal-Mart player is the Magnavox NB530MGX, a no-frills, no-BD Live model. Of course, I suspect most buyers upgrade to Blu-ray for the better picture and sound, not for mostly fluff extras. I honestly couldn't care less about Profile 2.0 and all that.

However, I know from previous posts that many readers dislike Wal-Mart, so this begs the question: Is a $98 Blu-ray player enough to draw you into the store?

If not, why? Are Blu-ray movies still too expensive? Are you satisfied with your current DVD player? Or are you streaming/downloading most of your movies nowadays, and therefore don't need a player at all?

If you do happen to visit a Wal-Mart today, hit the comments and let your fellow Cheapskaters know which stores have or don't have the player in stock.

Wal-Mart is already selling Vizio's 1080p VO420M for $697 online.

(Credit: Walmart)

Following the demise of Circuit City, Wal-Mart's been making a big push into the electronics market, and one of its PR folks let us in on a couple of upcoming "deals" on certain LCD TVs. The sale runs from June 14-20, or while supplies last.

• Vizio VO420E 1080p 42-inch LCD ($697)
• Sony Bravia KDL-52S5100 1080p 52-inch LCD ($1,788)
• Sanyo DP37649 720p 37-inch LCD ($398)

We've seen lower prices on the Sony, but the Vizio and Sanyo look pretty close to rock-bottom. (Note: Just checked and Walmart is selling the Vizio VO420M) online for $697. The "M" and "E" series appear to be the same model--or at least very similar).

Update--Here are a few more electronics deals Walmart will be throwing out there for Father's Day:

• Magnavox NB500MGX Blu-ray Disc player ($128 )
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play Wii bundle with Wii Motion Plus Accessory and protective sleeve ($59.96)
• PS3 (80GB) Bundle including Quantum of Solace on Blu-ray Disc and the MLB '09: The Show ($399 )
• Dell Inspiron Black Notebook Computer ($398--not sure which model) or Dell Studio One 19 All-in-one Touch Desktop Computer ($848)
• Canon Pixma Ink Jet Photo Printer with Fax($69)
• Seagate Free Agent Go 250GB Portable Hard Drive($69)

(Credit: CNET)

Wal-Mart is trying to fill the space in consumers' shopping bags left empty by the disappearance of Circuit City. As part of that effort, the retail giant is stepping up its Blu-ray offering.

In the next few weeks, Wal-Mart will sell two Blu-ray players priced below $200, according to a post on the company's official CheckOutBlog.com. We know one will be a $198 Philips player, though the other sub-$200 player's brand name wasn't revealed.

Wal-Mart does offer one Magnavox Blu-ray player in its stores right now for $168. It should be noted that Funai manufactures electronics under the brand names of Philips, Magnavox, and Sylvania for the North American market, so the quality between those brand names won't really vary. And even though getting below $200 is important, the features won't be the same as a player you could get for just $50 more. They'll likely be Blu-ray Profile 1.1, not the latest 2.0, and can't do multimedia streaming from services like Netflix and Pandora. See our CNET review of the range of current Blu-ray models across a variety of price points for more.

Besides more players, Wal-Mart is also selling more discs. The retailer's renewed Blu-ray push comes on the heels of its move past Amazon.com as the nation's No. 2 seller of Blu-ray discs. Best Buy leads with 40-50 percent market share of Blu-ray discs sold at retail, followed by Wal-Mart with 20-30 percent share, according to industry sources cited by Blu-ray.com. The data showed Wal-Mart leapfrogged Amazon.com, which now has 15-20 percent of Blu-ray sales.

Wal-Mart is currently in the process of instituting an electronics department makeover to be unveiled in each of its 3,500 stores over the next month. The retailer hopes more store displays will help it compete better with Best Buy in the fight over the space left by Circuit City's demise.

(Credit: Boy Genius Report)

While the Android 1.5 Cupcake update is on its way to T-Mobile G1 owners, the bigger question on some people's minds is when we're going to see a new Android device here in the United States. The HTC Magic, which was first introduced at GSMA 2009, has launched in several European countries, and Canada will get its Android devices in June, so how far behind could we be?

Well, according to the Boy Genius Report, July will be the hot month. BGR posted what it says is Wal-Mart's roadmap of upcoming mobile phones and under the July column is the lovely HTC Sapphire (another internal name for the Magic) for T-Mobile. It's expected to go for $179 with a two-year contract and interestingly, the Sapphire appears to have a better camera than the Magic: 5 megapixels versus 3.2 megapixels.

Also in Android news, TMOToday found a new iteration of the T-Mobile G1, called the T-Mobile G1 v2 (codename Bigfoot), which features a similar slide-out QWERTY keyboard as the G1 but in a much more attractive design. BGR later found the smartphone on the Wal-Mart document with a slated October release and $148 price tag, which adds some credence to the story, but here's hoping that we get some official announcements soon.

(Credit: Helen Magg)

We chat with Kevin about some tips on eating well during these tough times and how shockingly easy it is to save money at the grocery store. Kevin also dishes out some of the dirt on his new sponsors and how his own show is in the works.

The second half of the show we dedicate to some questionable applications on the App Store. Trent Reznor is calling Apple the new Wal-Mart because of its questionable censorship practices regarding a Nine Inch Nails application. Next, we laugh at the idea of Sarah Palin on Twitter and Justin explains how your high school yearbook photo tells a lot more than just what was in style at the time.

We're still accepting Star Trek Photoshop submissions for a chance to see the film a day earlier with us in NYC! We've had a lot of great ones so far, so check out the competition below and be sure to send all of your creations to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. As always, leave us a voicemail, 866-404-CNET.

Submissions for The 404's Star Trek Photoshop Competition!

This post was updated at 9:41 a.m. PST with more details from Wal-Mart.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET Networks)

Wal-Mart on Friday confirmed that it will be selling Apple's iPhone 3G, beginning Sunday at about 2,500 stores. The price, with a new two-year service agreement with AT&T (or qualified upgrade), is $197 for the black 8GB model and $297 for the black or white 16GB version.

"We are delighted to bring customers this ground-breaking mobile technology," Gary Severson, Wal-Mart senior vice president of entertainment, said in a statement. "Our electronics associates have been preparing for many weeks for the arrival of iPhone 3G."

And some of them let the cat out of the bag a little early, as CNET News' Marguerite Reardon noted several weeks ago.

The popular smartphones are currently available at Apple retail stores, AT&T stores, and at Best Buy, where the 8GB phone is sold for $199 and 16GB phones are sold for $299.

Wal-Mart's iPhone offering amounts to two dollars in savings and negates, for now anyway, the rumored 4GB model that some had speculated Wal-Mart would sell for $99.

Wal-Mart will be staffing Apple iPhone 3G kiosks located in the Wal-Mart Connection Center in the store's home entertainment department.