OTHER TECH

WAL-MART Overall grade: C If you're ready to go and fight it out with the craziest bargain hunters known to man, then strap on your pads and check out the Wal-Mart deals. I suggest stretching first. Magnavox Blu-ray player $128 It's the cheapest BD player on the block. You might literally have to fight someone to get it. Or, you can upgrade to the Samsung player for $200, but once the Magnavox players are gone, those might be hard to come by, too. 50-inch Samsung Plasma HDTV $798 They're not bragging about it being 1080p so it's safe to assume that it's not. It's big and cheap, though, which is what sells units on days like this. I suggest this deal if you're sort of wealthy and you're building walls of TVs like in the party scene from Less Than Zero. Assorted Blu-ray Movies $15 The selection includes Iron Man, Transformers and Indana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hey, you're going to need something to play in your new, cheap player. Iron Man is definitely the stand-out there so be prepared for it to be sold out. LEFTOVERS You'll notice that there's not a section for Target and that's because they didn't have a single HD deal worth mentioning, which is odd since Blu-ray and HDTV seem to be the big draw this year. But, I'm sure many of you will still be searching through the papers on Thursday, looking for stuff that I've missed. That said, if you see a big guy with a beard Friday morning with an arm full of SD cards and a copy of Iron Man on BD, be nice to him, because he's me.