Category: News

Did the media tell you that almost a third of U.S. mortgagors were underwater?  Well, what they meant was that about 23% were underwater.

First American CoreLogic, which estimates the numbers many media outlets use, has changed its methodology from the last survey.  It now no longer assumes that home equity lines of credit have been completely drawn down (fair), and it credits payments that mortgagors have made to pay down their principal (duh).

The net result is that the housing situation looks better than it did a few months ago.  Still bad, but better.

WSJ: The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth has swelled to about 23%, threatening prospects for a sustained housing recovery.

Nearly 10.7 million households had negative equity in their homes in the third quarter, according to First American CoreLogic, a real-estate information company based in Santa Ana, Calif…

The latest First American data aren’t comparable to previous estimates because the company revised its methodology. First American now accounts for payments made by homeowners that reduce principal, and it no longer assumes that home-equity lines of credit have been completely drawn down.

Read the whole thing >

See Also: Half Of Homeowners Will Be Underwater By 2011

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Today’s Housing Numbers Do Not Tell Us Anything About The Economy
• The Most Important Housing Chart Shows Things Are Still Getting Worse
• The Housing Double Dip Has Arrived

Somewhere in the space between Atom netbooks and full-blown laptops, there’s a space for the HP Pavilion DM1. With an Intel SU2300 dual core CPU under the hood, this ultrathin is powerful enough to compete with chunkier notebooks while thin and light enough to feel like a netbook.

Netbooked has gotten their hands on one, and bottom line is that the DM1 is a decent machine and competitive with other 11.6” models available like the Acer Aspire 1410 and Lenovo U150.

Out-of-the-box, the dual-core SU2300 was able to handle 720p video on YouTube, though 1080p playback was only possible with an upgrade to Flash Player 10.1.

Battery life from the 6-cell lithium ion powerpack was decent at about 4 hours and 20 minutes under normal use and 3 hours and 13 minutes watching a looped 1080p video.

In the review, the DM1 loses points for its keyboard. While offering a solid feel and good tactile response, the overall size is more what you’d expect to find on a 10” netbook. Hey, I generally love the keyboards on HP’s netbooks, but the extra width on its deck feels like a missed opportunity for something a bit larger.

Netbooked also had a couple of issues with the DM1’s touchpad. Apart from stiff, noisy buttons, it also has no support for gestures. That could be a major disappointment for some users, since plenty of smaller, less expensive models can handle multi-touch.

Asian bank shares led markers lower overnight, on fears that Chinese banks may need to raise capital in order to shore up their balance sheets.

This comes on the heels of sharp words from the Chinese banking regulator towards major Chinese banks.

Shanghai’s CSI300 crashed 3.2% while Hong Kong and the Nikkei fell a 1.5% and 1% respectively.

Gold is above $1,170, while the dollar is strengthening as wel.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Yankees And Southerners Go To War In Search For CEO At Bank Of America (BAC)
• How To Bet On Emerging Market Banks
• Every Major Bank In The US, Japan, Germany, And Spain Is Undercapitalized

	Prediction: In 2015, fuel cell vehicles “will be cheaper than a Rolls-Royce” Not for everyone, then?		Chevy Volt to address America’s school children in nationwide show-and-tell Hi, kids!
	Yikes. Top Gear lads build the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust Not bad for 18 hours worth of work.	Other news: Honda tops 2009 corporate fuel economy charts, Chrysler trails Rendered Speculation: Vauxhall Ampera goes “Outback” for CUV Porsche announces lithium ion starter battery

AutoblogGreen for 11.24.09 originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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S&P is out with a new look at the health of the banking system that gets beyond traditional metrics of capitalization and leverage.

The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports:

Every single bank in Japan, the US, Germany, Spain, and Italy included in S&P’s list of 45 global lenders fails the 8pc safety level under the agency’s risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio. Most fall woefully short.

The most vulnerable are Mizuho Financial (2.0), Citigroup (2.1), UBS (2.2), Sumitomo Mitsui (3.5), Mitsubishi (4.9), Allied Irish (5.0), DZ Deutsche Zentral (5.3), Danske Bank (5.4), BBVA (5.4), Bank of Ireland (6.2), Bank of America (5.8), Deutsche Bank (6.1), Caja de Ahorros Barcelona (6.2), and UniCredit (6.3).

While some banks may look healthy under normal Tier 1 and leverage targets, critics claim these measures can be highly misleading since they fail to discriminate between high-risk and low-risk uses of leverage. The system failed to pick up the danger signals before the financial crisis. The supposedly moderate leverage of US banks in 2007 proved to be a spectacularly useless indicator.

For now, the S&P’s new approach doesn’t affect banks on a regulatory basis, though that could change.

FT: The ranking of 45 of the world’s leading banks will unnerve investors, highlighting once again the capital shortfall that institutions still need to make up over the coming years.

Although some banks will be able to top up capital through retained profits, analysts expect a string of rights issues from weaker banking groups as they try to raise tens of billions of dollars.

S&P’s risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratios – a measure of balance sheet strength – foreshadow the new capital ratio regime expected to be set by the Basel committee on banking supervision early next year.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Meredith Whitney: "I Haven’t Been This Bearish In A Year" (XLF)
• John Paulson: Bank Of America Is A Double From Here (BAC)
• Forget Meredith Whitney, Paulson Loves American Banks (CBY, BAC)

With the Federal Reserve ordering severe constraints on bank overdraft fees and Congress considering even tougher rules, U.S. banks face a serious dilemma: How to replace the potential loss of billions in fee revenue?

Consumer groups that have been fighting the costly “courtesy overdraft protection” fear that banks have hit on a replacement that might be even worse – a crop of products with names like “Direct Deposit Advance” that are being pushed by lenders such as U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bank. The advances have a stated annual percentage rate of 120 percent but — if calculated as a traditional loan product — could have an APR of well over 1,000 percent.

"Banks are trying to figure out a way to keep getting high fees from consumers once the Fed and Congress tighten up overdrafts, and I think this will be the next big abuse," said Lauren Saunders, managing attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

Here's how the lending products work.  Consumers who have an existing relationship with a bank and a history of automatic direct deposits are pre-authorized to borrow up to $500 at the click of a mouse.  U.S. Bank's "Checking Account Advance" product also allows account holders to borrow directly through its ATMs.

Cost is generally $10 for every $100 borrowed.  There is very little risk for banks, because the money is repaid from the consumer’s next direct deposit.   But account holders pay interest rates far higher than those of the riskiest loans.

Assuming the payment arrives one month later, the interest rate is 10 percent for a month, or 120 percent for a year. But most consumers would repay the loan much sooner, whenever their next paycheck arrives at the bank. If payment arrives within a week, the loan's APR would be around 520 percent, notes Jean Ann Fox of the Consumer Federation of America. If payment arrives in two days, the interest rate would be 1,850 percent.

Because banks define the product as a line of credit rather than a loan, they are allowed to calculate interest based on a 30-day billing cycle.

"It should be shocking enough that banks say they charge 120 percent interest," Saunders said.  "But these are loans you will likely take out only a few days … so the real rate is likely, much, much higher."

At an online forum sponsored by the American Banker trade newspaper this summer, Terry Zink, executive vice president of Fifth Third Bank, bragged about the potential of his firm's new lending product, now called "Early Access." He said customers see the advance lending product as a valuable service, rather than overdraft fees, which are seen as punitive.

"If we pre-sell an overdraft in the form of a direct deposit advance, customers then are opting to buy, versus being punished for doing something,"  American Banker quoted him as saying. He said consumers have "overwhelmingly accepted" the products, adding that 80 percent of those who use it are repeat customers.

 

Accessing Direct Deposit Advance is easy
 

Today, Wells Fargo customers who log in to their online banking Web sites and click on "account activity" have the opportunity to obtain a direct deposit advance by clicking on a prominent link next to their available balance.

The service is not new, said Julia Tunis Bernard, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo. She said the bank introduced direct deposit advance  in California in 1994, and has offered the service in the 24 states where it has branches for about 10 years. 

"We do several things to make sure our customers understand this is an expensive form of credit,” she said. “…We try to educate customers to consider lower cost forms of credit."

On Wells Fargo's Web site, there is a warning and a link to other Wells Fargo lending products. 

"It not intended to solve someone's credit issues. It's meant to get people through emergency situations … to help customers who are in a financial pinch"

She defended the bank's stated 120 percent APR, saying Wells performed the calculation "according to federal regulations for an open-ended line of credit."

But Saunders warned that consumers who borrow using direct deposit advance services might not realize how quickly they can dig themselves into a hole. 

"Remember, that next direct deposit to the account could be a Social Security check or an unemployment check, money that's protected from debt collection, targeted at core necessities like food. But in this case, the banks get first crack at it," she said. "These could be worse than payday loans."

If for some reason, consumers do not make a new deposit to cover the cost of the borrowed amount, banks will pull the funds directly out of consumers' checking accounts on the 35th day.  If the money is not there, consumers could be hit with a double-whammy of high-interest borrowing and overdraft fees, Fox warns.

"If a borrower is unable to repay a $100 checking account advance at U.S. Bank within 35 days, the bank collects $10 for the initial advance, the bank’s $37.50 maximum overdraft fee, and $8 every day after four days that the account remains overdrawn and the loan unpaid," she wrote in a recent report. "If the loan is not repaid until 7 days after the due date, the borrower would have paid $71.50 for a 42-day $100 loan.  That comes to roughly 621 percent APR if calculated as a closed-end payday loan would be."

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It’s been almost four years since we wondered what would happen when the social networking generation started running for office, since there would almost certainly be a digital record of activities that historically would have been buried and/or lost to history for most candidates. It seems that we’re already starting to see what happens with some younger candidates. Earlier this year, we mentioned one candidate who dropped out of a race after “racy” Facebook photos popped up. MediaShift is now taking a look at the issue and finding that more and more candidates are dealing with this issue, though often in different ways. One embraced it, saying that the photos showed he was a real person and approachable. Others try (usually unsuccessfully) to scrub their digital histories. As this becomes more common, though, it seems likely that even as opponents try to exploit these sorts of things, most people will put the photos in context and not be all that concerned about them.

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It’s not even December yet and companies are already getting the Christmas fever. Who could blame them, the holiday season is the best time of the year for retailers and everyone is gearing up for a piece of the action. Google is not missing out either and is sprucing out its Product Search with several new features, ahead of the busiest time of the year for the service.

“This holiday season, whether you’re shopping for a new sweater for Fido, a Lego set for young builders, or that fancy camera you’ve been eyeing all year, Google Product Search can help you find what you’re looking for at a great price. You can compare products and prices from merchants across the web, from popular retailers like Amazon and Best Buy to places to buy unique gifts like eBay and Etsy,” Sameer Samat, product management director and Jeff Bartelma, senior product manager at Google wrote, announcing the new features.

One of the first changes users are likely to notice is the new Products OneBox which will show up along the regular one. Normally, the Products OneBox, which shows up among the search results for certain queries, list five products related to the search, with thumbnails, prices, and links to buy them. The new OneBox, that is currently being tested for just several searches, features only the most popular two products and information on them and then links to a list of top brands which offer similar products.

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‘Tis the season to take cheap shots at other pundits, it would seem.

Let’s see. You’ve got Peter Schiff and Niall Ferguson vs. Roubini. You’ve got David Rosenberg throwing haymakers at cheery Jim Paulsen.

And you’ve got Raymond Jamess strategist Jeff Saut, who in his latest letter wrote:

The call for this week: As the S&P 500 traded out to new reaction “highs” in the first part of last week we heard a cacophony of crybabies. First was Meredith Whiney, banking analyst now turned strategist, who stated, “I have not been this bearish in over a year!” One-upping her was Nouriel Roubini who exclaimed, “The worst is yet to come.” Then there was Timothy Geithner’s statement that, “I can’t take responsibility for the legacy of crises you (read: Republicans) bequeathed the country.” While I think Tim Geithner has done a really good job, excuse me Mr. Secretary but wasn’t it you that resided over NY Fed as President from 2003 through January 2009, which also brings the privilege of being Vice-Chairman of the FOMC? Accordingly, it was you who served as regulator of the country’s large financial institutions. Thus, it was on your watch that the big banks ran amok. Despite such cantankerous cries, we have indeed entered the strongest seasonality of the year and we remain constructive. As the sagacious Bespoke Investment Group writes, “Since 1941, the Dow has averaged a gain of 0.50% in the week before Thanksgiving.” That said, we would not like to see the S&P 500 break below 1083. And speaking of breaking down, the Japanese stock market is breaking down and we are close to “uncle points” on those recommendations.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Niall Ferguson: Roubini Is Okay, But He’s Not As Good As Me
• Schiff: Roubini Doesn’t Get Why Gold Is Soaring
• Why David Rosenberg Thinks Jim Paulsen Is An Embarrassing Perma-Bull

Heidi Klum, Ron Artest, Weezer

Add this to your queue
Added: Tue Nov 24 10:32:05 UTC 2009
Air date: Mon Nov 23 00:00:00 UTC 2009
Duration: 37:32

If you think cardboard’s just something the breakfast cereal comes in then you don’t know enough about cardboard. There are loads of interesting things to be done with cardboard and here are some of the best of them.

Cardboard Furniture

Wood has always been a good material for making furniture and cardboard is 95% wood. Or wood is 95% cardboard. Whatever, wood and cardboard are definitely related. There are plenty of ways of making cheap and environmental furniture from the brown stuff. Plus it’s creative and fun. There are quite a few websites to help you build chairs and tables. And some where you can buy it.

Cardboard Guitar Plectrums

The biggest problem with little things is they often get lost. That’s why so many mice end up in houses. If you play the guitar then you’re probably always complaining about missing picks and plectrums. Well now I have made your life better. Because cardboard plectrums are the new rock and roll. Simply trace the outline of an old plastic plectrum onto z piece of cardboard. Cut out. Cover with tape for added stiffness and play. You need to make sure the tape is applied smoothly and there are no rough edges before you start strumming. And you can experiment with thickness should you need a really stiff pick. But all in all this is one cheap and easy way to make music.

The Cardboard Laptop Bag

I’m aware that most people like their technology to look stylish. It’s one of the important things about technology. But if you’re not so worried about appearance then why not get yourself a cardboard laptop boxbag. You will need a strong cardboard box twice the size of your laptop (a box similar to those which contain reams of paper is good). Simply flatten the cardboard box and fold and glue together with flaps so that your laptop fits inside. Then make another outer box for this inner box. Hey presto. If it falls apart don’t come running to me.

A Cardboard Doll’s House

This may not be the most incredible way of using cardboard but if you’re a six year old girl then the chances are you’ll be pretty happy. Turn a cardboard box on its side, cut out cardboard tables and chairs, glue wallpaper, paint a roof. There are plenty of websites to help you build the very best home a dolly could hope to have.

Make A Cardboard Oven

If your child prefers cooking to dolls then why not make them their very own oven. Get a big cardboard box and cut a square out of the side of it. Remember to leave one side of the square uncut so the ‘oven door’ can open and shut. Add layers of cardboard inside for oven shelves and hobs, knobs and dials to the top. Then colour and get ready for dinner. All served on cardboard plates.

A Cardboard Coffin

As humans we spend our lives in boxes. Moments after we’re born we are put in a box, then we travel in a box to another box which we live in. We go to school, university and work in a box. And eventually we leave the world in a box. And if you’re ecologically minded then you might like to say goodbye in a cardboard box. Much like a pair of shoes.

Cardboard coffins come in different shapes and different colours and due to a multi-layering construction technique are very strong. They can even be made to look like wood.

The Cardboard Space Rocket and Airplane

One of the best things about being a kid is that you can turn any old box into a space rocket just by using your imagination. You can of course go one step further though and make a real space rocket and airplane out of cardboard. You may need some help to do it well. You can find inspiration here. Or just give it a go yourself.

The Cardboard Car

Alternatively for more adult tastes and bank balances, there’s the Aston Martin James Bond cardboard copy. A mere $30,000!

Build a Cardboard Bridge

You’re probably right to think of a bridge as one of the worst things you could make out of cardboard, the other being a boat, but it has been done. Architect Shigeru Ban designed one to cross the Gardon river in the south of France. It took over 280 cardboard tubes plus recycled paper, plastic and wooden boxes filled with sand to build but the bridge was able to support 20 people at a time. Thankfully the bridge was only ever intended to be temporary.

Build A Cardboard House

Yes. A house. Out of cardboard. It’s the future. According to Australian firm Col James of Stutchbury and Pape. They designed the house using recycled materials most of which is cardboard. The house is extremely sturdy, easy to assemble and comes with a waterproof roof. It was voted as one of the six houses of the future in 2004 which means pretty soon we should be seeing them popping up all over Australia.

The Cardboard Boat

So, you didn’t think it was possible. And depending on how far you want to sail it isn’t. But a cardboard boat will keep you dry on a short crossing. You’ll need some serious cardboard. And a lot of tape. But there’s plenty of help available online. Just don’t wear your best shoes when you give your new boat its first berth.

The Cardboard Crib

Environmentalists start young these days which is why Mothercare has been selling the Eco Crib, a perfect little cardboard cradle. It’s made with strong cardboard panels which travel flat packed and easily slot together for assembly. It comes in cool colours and has a curved bottom for easy rocking. You could of course have a go at making one yourself. But please be careful of the baby!

The web is build around advertising but, as a medium, it’s still relatively new and rapidly evolving at the same time. This creates a need and an opportunity to come up with new models and ad technologies which are better suited for the environment besides the established search and contextual ads, either in text or display form. One startup that aims to create a new niche is Pixazza, which can turn any blog photo into a product ad of sorts. The company, backed by Google’s venture capital fund, is now opening up its services and expanding its offerings by giving websites the possibility to set up a customized storefront for products featured on the site.

With Pixazza, any website or blog can insert ads with the photos they normally serve on their sites. Pixazza uses an army of people to tag the photos depending on the products featured in them and then serves links to shopping sites where readers can purchase the same or similar products. The idea is simple enough and could actually prove useful for the readers as long as it doesn’t get in the way of enjoying the actual content.

The technology has been tested on several celebrity gossip sites, but now the company is expanding its offering, making it available to any publisher. Pixazza is also launching the new Shopdot program which allows sites not only to s… (read more)

Commercial real estate is one trend that isn’t getting ‘less bad’. It’s just getting worse.

According to a recent August commercial real estate white paper, First American Corelogic shows how distressed commercial properties, excluding Boston, in May were 580% higher (6.8 times) the amount distressed in January 2006. Despite the carnage, it sounds like a great opportunity for the private equity players. Surely there must be some good deals amongst the distressed commercial real estate wreckage.

Check out the full document below.

CRE Newsletter August 2009

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Commercial Real Estate Slide Kills City Budgets
• The Court System Deals The Commercial Real Estate Death Blow
• Sam Zell Slams Wilbur Ross, Calls Him A Commercial Real Estate Wannabe

In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks:

• Respected technology commentator and friend of mine, Louis Gray joins Paladin Advisors Group as the Managing Director of New Media. Louis is one of the leading voices in technology, and a fine human being, congrats.
• Brian Ellefritz leaves Cisco and joins SAP as the Senior Director of Web 2.0 Marketing, I’ve worked with Brian on a handful of occasions and expect him to continue leading programs at technology corporations.
• Stephanie Fuerniss is Capella’s new Managing Editor for Online Communities at Capella University.
• Robert Stanke a new hire at Life Time Fitness Community Management & Social Media Strategist, in which he helps develop the growing community of Life Time Fitness members.
• Kim Snedaker is now the Social Media Manager AAA Mid-Atlantic, a financial services company.
• Angela Patterson joins Bridgestone Americas, Inc. as the Digital Media Coordinator, Corporate and Community Relations Dept. helping to rework the company’s social media strategy, and working across departments to implement it.

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How to connect with others (or get a job):
Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how you can too:

Submit an announcement
If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, fill out this form.

Seeking Social Media Professionals?
If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources

This list, which started with just 8 names continues to grow as folks submit to it. List of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers for Enterprise Corporations 2008 –Social Media Professionals.

Job Resources in the Social Media and Web Industry

Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, these affiliate fees pay for my hosting)

Read Write Web keeps announcements flowing at Jobwire, although is broader than just social media jobs

Facebook group for community manager group in Facebook

Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs

Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs

SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed

ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community

Teresa has a few jobs, some around community

New Media hire has an extensive job database

Social Media Headhunter

Social media jobs

Jobs in social media

Altimeter Group’s list of social media consultants and agencies

Hiring? Leave a comment
If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, please)

If there was any doubt that social gaming has hit the big time, it was dispelled recently when gaming giant EA acquired Playfish, one of the top players in the market, for $400 million, taking some people by surprise. It may turn out to have been a bargain for EA as the biggest name in social gaming, Zynga, is getting valuation estimations at the $1 billion mark and may be headed for an IPO next year, though the company dismisses any talks about going public for the foreseeable future.

The sum had previously surfaced with talks of a possible acquisition from EA. The gaming company eventually decided to go with the cheaper version buying Playfish for about three to four times its yearly revenue. Now Bloomberg cites several analysts who believe that the social gaming company may well be worth $1 billion and may hit that mark if it aims for an IPO mid-2010. This would make it the third-biggest video gaming company in the US, not bad for a company founded just a couple of years ago.

Zynga is the biggest social games publisher by a fair margin and has just announced reaching $100 million unique monthly users. It also gets about $200 million monthly active users across all the social networks it operates. That’s a massive number considering that the largest social network in the world, Facebook, is at about 325 million… (read more)

Google hasn’t been making too much inroad into display advertising, certainly not to the extent of its success with search ads. But it’s not giving up any time soon and, if it can’t deliver on its own, it could always buy a company that can. And this is exactly what it did with the acquisition of Teracent, a display advertising startup which creates automated, customized ads in real time.

“We think that this technology has great potential to improve display advertising on the web. That’s why we’re pleased to announce today that we’ve entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Teracent. The transaction, which is subject to various closing conditions, is expected to close this quarter,” Neal Mohan, vice president, Product Management, and Joerg Heilig, engineering director, wrote.

Google hasn’t disclosed any financial details, but it’s likely a small acquisition, nothing like the recent $750-million AdMob deal. Teracent has raised only $5.8 million from investors so far and it already had a growing business. Interestingly, Yahoo was one of its big-name clients and is using Teracent technology to offer its Mobile SmartAds. Google hasn’t said anything about this, but it’s likely that the partnership will be ending soon enough.

“Teracent’s technology can pick and choose … (read more)

IMAX theaters have become an increasingly important part of the movie business’s continuing success over the past few years, as theaters have realized that (1) you can’t “pirate” the IMAX experience and (2) people are often willing to pay more for it. But, it appears that at least one theater began to wonder why it had to pay IMAX so much for such an offering, and decided to set out on its own to build a competitor. The only problem is that this theater, Cinemark, has been a customer of IMAX, so now IMAX is suing Cinemark for trade secret violations and breach of contract (sent in by Eric Goldman).

The details of the case certainly look like a business deal gone bad, and also involve Cinemark preemptively going to Texas (of course) to file a patent action against IMAX, asking the court to make clear that it does not infringe on IMAX’s patents. There may very well be breach of contract issues involved here, so IMAX may have a decent case on that front. But what’s more interesting is the question of whether or not there are trade secret violations here. We don’t talk about trade secret protections as much around here, because they really don’t come up that often. But IMAX is claiming that it shared proprietary trade secret info with Cinemark as part of their relationship, and that info was used by Cinemark to build its competing service.

Perhaps much more interesting, however, is the fact that, at least according to the IMAX lawsuit, the Cinemark XD quality has been reviewed poorly compared to IMAX (I looked around and actually found the reviews to be mixed, with many saying that the two are comparable in terms of experience). Cinemark is a much bigger company than IMAX, and had direct access to all of their technology — and, even so, at least some are saying that the end result doesn’t measure up. I’m reminded again of how silly it is to claim that big companies can always “steal” good ideas from smaller ones. It’s simply not that easy. Beyond just the basic quality issues, IMAX really has built up a great brand name, and many people do think specifically about going to see “IMAX films.” Cinemark can chip into that, but it’s going to take a lot of marketing effort. And, really, what’s wrong with a bit of competition? IMAX has had the market to itself for years, and some competition between two different methods of “immersive” movie-going experiences seems like it should only create a better situation for consumers.

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Getting a jump on all the other retail stores, JC Penney Black Friday Deals start at 4:00 am on November 27, 2009. On sale are items in every department from jewelry to clothing, housewares and bedding. There is no part or corner in the stores that customers will not find significant savings on many items.

Children’s cloths are marked down as much as 60% on selected items. Arizona bottoms and tops are also at 60% off their regular retail prices. At 50% off are the entire stock of accent rugs, area rugs, bath accessories, bath rugs, memory foam pillows, memory foam toppers and shower curtains there is so much to chose from.

Dockers Luxelon Polo sweaters and crew are marked 55% off and the entire stock of dresses are reduced by 50%. Men’s Levi 505, 514, 527, 550, 559 and 569 jeans are all on sale for $32.99.

This is not a store known for electronics, but there is a selection and they too are on sale like the Discovery Kids Digital Camera for $28.88 and the Sharper Image key chain for a mere $9.88.

The total list of jewelry that is on sale is too much to list but the ½ carat diamond 14k gold over sterling silver bracelet, earrings and necklace are only $79.99 each. The ½ carat diamond ring set in 10k gold is on sale for $149.99. The one carat diamond bridal ring is at $799.99 for one day only. 

Free with any purchase from the selection of JC Penney Black Friday Deals, there is a Disney Snowglobe added to your shopping bag.

The Walgreens Black Friday Sales are active on November 27, 2009 the entire day. In most places this is a 24/7 drugstore and more. Since they never close the deals start at midnight. If after your Thanksgiving dinner is over and you wish to start early, Walgreens is open and ready for your shopping pleasure.

There is a misconception that this is only a place for film developed and a prescription filled. Walgreens has developed over the years into the modern version of the old dime stores from years ago. There is a little of everything there. With 6,479 stores covering 49 states, odds are there is one near you.

Besides drugs, these stores offer food items, health and beauty products along with electronic equipment. As part of the black Friday sale there is a Maylong 4.3” FD-420 GPS navigation for Dummies on sale for $79.99. If a TV is on the shopping list, then the Thursday sale item is the Venturer 15” LCD Digital TV for $99.99 and on Friday the Digital Prism 7” Portable LCD TV for $79.99.

For the children there are numerous toys and games that are always available and instead of fighting the crowds at the bigger retail stores for those seasonal items, Walgreens has a fine selection. On Friday there are selected items on sale at no cost. These include 100 light set with clear or multi color for the price of $0.00 along with a 4 foot inflatable penguin or snowman. These are part of the B1G1 promotion. 

Walgreens Black Friday Sales is more than just a place for the one item you forget at the big retail stores, plus there is never a long line at checkout.