Want to get a jump on your holiday shopping or find a couple of insane bargains to keep for yourself? A few retailers are offering what they've dubbed "Black Friday-style" price cuts for tomorrow -- Saturday, November 8th. Walmart's got a sweet 15.4-inch Compaq CQ-139WM (with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive) laptop for $298, in addition to a PlayStation 2 bundled with a $30 WalMart gift card for $129, and a PlayStation 3 with a $100 gift card for $399. Over at Kmart they're offering up a rad 32-inch Sylvania LCD HDTV for $439.99 (they usually go for for $550). They also have several deals for Sunday, November 9th, including the Wii Fit for $89.99. Is it safe to assume that every Friday (not to mention Saturday and Sunday) until Christmas will be "black"? For the full, mind-blowing rundown, hit the read links.

[Via CNET, I4U News]

Read - Kmart
Read - Walmart Backs Main Street

Back in July, we heard that Sylvania (of all companies) would be bringing a few more netbooks into the world, and sure enough, that g netbook MAGNI that was hinted at earlier this year will be making its red carpet debut in time for the holidays. Based on information gathered in an interview with Paul Goldenberg, Managing Partner of Digital Gadgets (the company that sells under the Sylvania brand), the 10-inch netbook will be nothing more than a rebadged MSI Wind with a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, an Intel Atom CPU and your choice of either Windows XP or Ubuntu Remix. Pricing and battery size details have yet to be determined, but given how easy it is to search for both of those tidbits in relation to the Wind, we'd say you've just found a great use for your deductive reasoning skills.

We won't say it got picked dead last in kickball or anything, but Sylvania's G Netbook Meso certainly isn't the class king. The ho hum netbook was recently reviewed over at Laptop Mag, and while critics did applaud the Ubuntu Netbook Remix operating system and relatively great battery life, the 512MB of RAM hindered performance. Additionally, the design was harshed on quite heavily, eventually leading to a perfectly middle-of-the-road 2.5 out of 5 stars. Be honest, though -- did you really expect anything different?

When Westinghouse launched its 40-inch LCD HDTV / DVD combo unit earlier this year, we really began to think of just how nice it'd be to broaden Blu-ray's appeal by shoving a drive into a new set for those looking for simplicity. Enter Funai -- the company currently responsible for the lowest priced standalone BD deck on the market -- which is reportedly aiming to loose an LCD HDTV with built-in Blu-ray player on the North American market next summer. The company typically brands its wares with names like Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson, so we wouldn't expect the highest-end stuff here. That said, we're glad to see someone taking this very necessary step, even though you won't catch us recommending 'em to anyone but the technologically challenged. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

[Via CrunchGear]

We still can't get over the fact that Sylvania is selling a netbook, but all weirdness aside, the unit deserves the same hands-on attention given to most all of its biggest competitors. According to initial reports, the 8.9-inch Sylvania G Netbook Meso sports an atypical (albeit appreciated) matte display, an expectedly cramped keyboard and a smooth-as-butter trackpad. Need proof? Hit up the read link for a smattering of hands-on shots and a brief video.

We weren't expecting much out of Sylvania's followup to its random Cloudbook rebrand, but some specs on the new netbook just hit the wires, and they're pretty respectable -- especially if this thing comes in at the $299 price target. Sure, it's still ugly, but you'll be getting a 1.6GHz Intel Atom, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB disk, and an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 screen with an integrated webcam with either XP or Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which is a pretty hot deal -- you listening, ASUS?

It looks like the number of netbook hold-outs just keeps on dwindling, with Lenovo and Sylvania now entering the fray, and Intel coming back for another kick at the can. While details are light on Lenovo's offering, the company is reportedly looking at launching it as soon of September of this year, and it'll apparently be targeting both consumer and enterprise markets with it. Sylvania, on the other hand, is going squarely after the average user with its new "g netbook MESO" (pictured above), which it'll apparently be offering in addition to its recently announced Cloudbook iteration. This one is said to boast an 8.9-inch display, along with the usual 1.6GHz Atom processor, an 80GB hard drive, a built-in card reader, a webcam, and your choice of Windows XP or Ubuntu Netbook Remix for an OS. No word on a price just yet, but the lack of SSD would seem to suggest it'll be on the lower end of things. Lastly, we have word that Intel is already hard at work on the third version of its Classmate PC, although the company apparently isn't going any farther than to say that it'll have a "new look and feel," and that it'll get both hardware and software upgrades. And really, is there anything more you need to know than that?

Read - Out of the Box, "Sylvania to enter expanding netbook market"
Read - DigiTimes, "Lenovo to launch netbook by the end of September" [Via Electronista]
Read - Crave, "Third-generation Classmate PC on its way"