HD Deals: "Band of Brothers" Blu-ray, Less than $50

If you haven't watched Band of Brothers on Blu-ray yet, you're missing out. And for less than $50, this is the perfect opportunity. More chances to fatten up your BD collection* after the jump.

Bose Unveils the SoundLink Wireless Music System

The announcement is short on specs, but today Bose pulled the sheet off of their new speaker designed to stream music from your PC. The set-up uses opts, rather surprisingly, for an RF USB dongle for its wireless capabilities. That seems like an odd choice when other similar systems have had so much success with Wifi or even Bluetooth. The speaker itself has an integrated rechargeable battery that will last up to three hours (those are spec sheet hours, not real world hours, mind you) and will play nice with iTunes and Pandora. It’ll be available on August 27th for $549, which is considerably more for similar products like Squeezebox, but hopefully they’ll make up for that price difference with fidelity.

The two best things in the world under one roof

The Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles hosts what might be the only place that combines the two greatest passions of the world's most serious connoisseurs: vinyl records and barbecue. Territory BBQ + Records merges a shack-style barbecue joint with a vinyl-only record store--and surprisingly, it delivers on both.

The record store isn't large; it's only about the dimensions of your average bedroom. But like many of the best record stores, what it lacks in size it makes up for in quality. The racks are packed with classics of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. As I flipped through the stacks, I found album after album I recognized and, in an earlier time, loved. Many of them I probably hadn't laid eyes on for 30 years.

HD Deals: Free Vudu with Mitsubishi TVs

We spend a lot of time reading and researching home theater gear, so we see our fair share of good deals on gear. From now on, we’re going to share those deals* with you. Today we have a free $150 version of the wonderful Vudu box and $50 worth of movie credits when you buy a Mitsubishi TV. Take the jump for more deals.

Verizon Fios TV Adds Facebook, Twitter

Verizon must think we don’t get enough social-media updating via our computers or hand-held devices, with its new plan to bring those types of services to our TVs. Just announced today, Verizon FiOS Tv has worked with social media giants Facebook, Twitter, ESPN and a handful of other video sites (no YouTube yet) to bring an application store to its TV menu. Now, subscribers to its TV service can update their statuses, look at their friends’ photos, watch internet video and find out the latest Tweets of the stars of the show they are currently watching. But unlike most app stores we have seen from Apple and Palm via the iPhone and the Pre, Verizon’s TV Widget Bazaar store is very limited and will not have the high number of downloads users would be used to. Something that will probably change if this is successful. So, for Facebook and Twitter mega-fiends this might be something worth changing services over, but for the rest of us moving from the couch to our computer desk doesn’t sound too painful. Does it?

New Gear: Insignia’s Portable HD Radio

 
HD radio is still playing catch-up to terrestrial and satellite, and they’re hoping the first portable rig will be a step in that direction. You can go to Best Buy tonight and buy it for $50 with no added subscription fee. The Insignia NS-HD01 isn’t jam-packed with eye-popping specs (10 station preset, built-in rechargeable battery, 3.5mm output, full color display, 1.5” LCD screen) but it is the first of its kind, which makes it noteworthy. Check the shelves and you’ll also find a grip of accessories, like an arm-band and a car cable. Of course, if you don’t live in an area with a lot of HD stations, it’s basically just a portable radio, but for $50, it probably beats the heck out of the old Walkman you’ve been clinging to.

The Insignia NS-HD01

Blockbuster streaming coming to some Samsung BD players and HDTVs

There has been a lot of talk lately about all the various boxes that now stream Netflix's on-demand service, but Blockbuster is apparently eager to remind us that big red isn't the only game in town. Starting in the fall, owners of certain Samsung Blu-ray players and connected HDTVs will have access to Blockbuster's online catalog content available for rental and purchase. Since the model is different than the Netflix service, which many Samsung devices already support, it should be a nice compliment. And hey, more content options are always better, especially if they don't require getting up and hucking it to the video store. Now if only they could find a way to stream Sour Patch Kids. Take the jump for the list of effected devices.