Many American families are already digging deep to pay for gas and food. Now they can add toys to the list of products they will be paying more for in 2008.

Mattel , the world’s largest retailer and maker of iconic toy brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels and Elmo, said Monday that the company will raise prices for its brands in the mid-single digits by June.  Hasbro has predicted price increases as well.

They will raise retail prices mid-year to offset the rising cost of raw materials, production and lawsuits.

Read more here..

CLEVELAND —  A chemistry professor who raised an earlier warning flag about toxic lead levels in toy jewelry didn’t have to look far for evidence of similar risks in Easter items such as plastic eggs.

Thirteen of 45 items purchased off store shelves and tested by Ashland University chemistry students had paint made with lead, according to Jeffrey D. Weidenhamer, who has made the toy testing an annual spring rite for his students.

“It certainly demonstrates that the problem is still there,” Weidenhamer said. “2007 was called by many people the ‘year of the recall’ and 2008 that stuff is still on the shelf.”

Read more here…

Get a better idea of how far you can go once your gas light goes on. It’s not recommended to go below a half tank without filling up.  For now, this is limited to cars found in North America only.  Interesting!

Check it out here!

RICHMOND, Va. —  Circuit City Stores Inc. is getting on the Blu-ray digital video format bandwagon by tripling the period in which customers who purchased a rival HD DVD player can return them. The nation’s No. 2 electronics retailer has instructed its stores to “take care of our customers” and accept returns of HD DVD players within 90 days of purchase.

Read more here..

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ― Sharper Image Corp. said Thursday that it would immediately resume honoring gift cards and other vouchers that were suspended last month when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The luxury retailer said it would redeem gift cards issued before it sought bankruptcy protection on Feb. 19 if customers use them in full during one transaction and apply them toward items costing double the value of the cards.

Read more here..

The cost of a first-class stamp will rise to 42 cents starting May 12.  The price of the Forever stamp will go up at the same time, meaning those stamps can still be purchased for 41 cents but will remain good for first-class postage after the rate increase takes effect.

Click here to read more

Want to rent a movie? Just grab the remote. With Apple TV, you don’t need a computer to rent digital movies — you rent them directly from your TV.  The completely redesigned Apple TV interface makes it easy to browse, rent, and watch movies from every major Hollywood studio. Best of all, you get instant movie gratification.  Without losing your spot on the sofa.

Apple will have more than 1,000 movies for online rental through iTunes by the end of February, with prices of $2.99 for older movies and $3.99 for new releases.  High-definition versions of movies will cost between $3.99 and $4.99.
Users can watch instantly over a broadband Internet connection, or download and keep the movie for 30 days while having 24 hours to finish the movie once it’s started.  Titles will be available within 30 days of their DVD release.
Apple is partnering with 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony on the service, which will work on Macs, Windows-based machines, iPhones, iPods or Apple TV set-top boxes. 

The new software will be available as a Free automatic download later this month for current users.

Click here for Apple TV Guided Tour

Read more here

Free shipping at Apple.com on orders $50 +.  No code needed.

8GB iPhone for $399 + Free Ship here

Purchase Apple TV here

Congress passed a law on February 1, 2006,  setting a final deadline for the Digital Television transition of February 17, 2009.  Most television stations will continue broadcasting both analog and digital programming until February 17, 2009, when all analog broadcasting will stop. Analog TVs receiving over-the-air programming will still work after that date, but owners of these TVs will need to buy converter boxes to change digital broadcasts into analog format. Converter boxes will be available from consumer electronic products retailers at that time. 

The U.S. Department of Commerce has been directed by Congress to set up a program that will allow households to obtain coupons that can be applied toward the purchase of digital-to-analog converter boxes.

Between Jan. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009, all U.S. households will be eligible to request up to two coupons, worth $40 each, to be used toward the purchase of up to two, digital-to-analog converter boxes.

Click here for additional info

Click here for Coupon Info

Online DVD-rental pioneer Netflix Inc. and LG Electronics said that they’re developing a set-top box that will allow consumers to stream movies and other content directly from the Web to their high-definition TVs.

Click here for the rest of the story