Cheap LCDs to Blame for CompUSA Store Closing?Cheap LCDs to Blame for CompUSA Store Closing?

Manufacturers of cheap flat-panel TVs, like Vizio and Olevia, could be partially blamed over the recent closing of 128 CompUSA stores and 70 Circuit City stores. Obviously, the low prices of the off-brand LCD flat panels have put a lot of pressure on the "premium" flat-panel manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic to drop prices to compete. The price drops all around have squeezed the margins and hurt the brick-and-mortar retailers like CompUSA and Circuit City, in turn partially causing some of the recent closings. The general consensus at yesterday's U.S. Flat Panel Display Conference was that there are too many brands on the shelves and that the discounts need to stop. Maybe it's just a hunch, but I don't think that opinion will be too popular with the consumers. –Travis Hudson

Microsoft: Google Poops on Copyright

In a speech made yesterday to the American Association of Publishers, associate general counsel for Microsoft, Tom Rubin, called out Google (and its Book Search) for not respecting copyright. Alleging that "Google's track record of protecting copyrights in other parts of its business is weak at best," he asserted Microsoft's Live Search (Books) does protect copyrights.

Archos 204 Debuted, But Europe Only

Following on the heels of the pudgy Archos 704 Wi-Fi, this Archos 204 is a PMP for people who actually want the word "Portable" in that acronym to mean something.

Like the 704, the 204 has a hard drive (20GB) storage, and can play back MP3, WAV, WMA, and JPG photos. Unfortunately, this one plays only audio and is in Europe only for 179 Euros. Otherwise, we'd recommend either the iPod or the Zune (if it were released) over this one. – Jason Chen

Magellan Makes Maestro Line Official, First GPS with Voice Command

Magellan confirmed those leaked Maestro GPS systems today, giving them better prices than we had initially reported. The top of the line Maestro 4050 will be the company's first GPS to support voice commands and sell for $699 when it drops in May. The 4040, which loses the 4050's voice command and real-time traffic features, but keeps Bluetooth and text-to-speech will go for $499, whereas the entry-level 4000 will debut in April (along with the 4040) for $399. Personally, I'd wait till TomTom makes their SMS-capable unit official before committing to any of these systems. – Louis Ramirez

Creative iPod Speaker System

Creative has added a couple more iPod accessories to their repertoire of MP3 player speaker systems. It is interesting to see Creative, the pioneers of everything anti-iPod, to finally give in and release some iPod speaker systems like every other damn company out there. The PlayDock i500 (pictured) has a subwoofer, remote and can charge the iPod. The TravelSound is a smaller version of the i500 and can be battery powered. Is this a sign of Creative waving the white flag? Slow down, Apple haters, I was exaggerating and speculating. The Zen music players aren't too shabby. –Travis Hudson

HTC Shipping Yahoo Go on All Smartphones. Chairs Last Seen Fleeing at Microsoft

HTC, the undisputed leader of Windows Mobile smartphones, has just announced a partnership with Yahoo. The deal? To load Yahoo Go—a weather, news, stocks, sports, widgets, flickr, and internet app suite—onto HTC's phones. With Microsoft already embedding Live! onto Windows Mobile 6 phones, this partnership seems interesting.

Will users with HTC phones be using both Yahoo Go and Live! Or will one be removed in favor of the other? In any case, we're sure Microsoft, including Balmer, isn't too happy with HTC loading a competitor's software onto the devices at the OEM level. – Jason Chen

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-G1: Look Mom, No Wires!

Sony today launch their latest Cybershot camera, the DSC-G1. At first glance it seems to be an ordinary point-and-shoot with a handful of extraordinary features: camera-to-camera wireless capability (actually not that groundbreaking, but it's a first for Sony); and a rather spanky search system, which allows you to look for photos with the same face, same color or same compostion. There's also a mahoosive 2GB internal memory and larger-than-normal LCD screen to play with. It'll cost you, though - $600 - and it's on sale from next month. Full specs are after the jump.