Gizmodo: radioshack

Oh Snap! Guess What I Saw!

Rosa Golijan — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:07:11 EST

Seriously, folks: Guess what I saw in this oddly catchy commercial for the Shack, because I can't figure it out. All I know is that Biz Markie is excited about something and that there's a squirrel DJ.

Ok, maybe the part about this commercial being catchy isn't such a great thing. Excuse me while I crawl back under a rock where I'm safe from things like this seasonal torture. [Thanks, OMG! Ponies!]

Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack

Jason Chen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:20:00 EST

A Consumerist reader was scammed into giving a donation to Livestrong that he didn't consent to, as he found out when he got home and discovered an unauthorized donation on his receipt.

Here's the quick version: employee asks for a Livestrong donation, guy declines, employee charges him for a donation anyway. The customer has been calling and asking for a refund, but all Radio Shack personnel keep telling him to waste gas driving back to the store to get his dollar back.

Yes, it may just be a dollar, but it's called a donation for a reason. Make sure to check your receipts when you exit the Shack, it smells like RS employees are getting some sort of kickback for getting Livestrong donations. [Consumerist]

Leaked RadioShack Black Friday Ad Comes with Wordplay

Jack Loftus — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Shack Friday! Get it?! Instead of Black Friday? You still there? Is this thing on? Anyway, the RadoShack Black Friday ad has leaked to the Internet, and with it a number of purported "deals" and discounts on popular electronics. [CrunchGear]

Radio Shack Officially Becoming "The Shack", Celebrating With Two 17-Foot Laptops

Sean Fallon — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:07:00 EDT

Rumors that Radio Shack was going to rebrand themselves as "The Shack" appear to be true. In fact, the switchover is officially slated to begin tomorrow.

To celebrate the event, as rumored in Remainders a few days ago, The Shack is holding a "Shack Summer Netogether" from August 6th-8th involving two 17-foot laptops placed in Times Square in NYC and Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. Equipped with webcams, the two gigantic screens will stream live video and audio to each other from 3000 miles apart.

Will dropping the archaic "Radio" from their title help to boost a sinking franchise? We shall see—although it doesn't seem like Radio Shack has a prayer of becoming hip. It's kind of like your grandfather getting an earring or something. Check out The Shack Facebook page for some promotional vids. [The Shack / Thanks Joe!]

RadioShack Makeover: "The Shack" Coming Soon?

Jack Loftus — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:45:00 EDT

As RadioShack refocuses its image to encompass more cellphone sales than radio parts and other somewhat, shall we say, dated merchandise, there's apparently some renaming coming soon to go along with it.

Basically, word on the street and on Wikipedia (it must be true!) is that "The Shack" signage and other marketing could be gracing storefronts later this year.

Thoughts? I'm weird, so the first thing I thought of was a clam shack. I'm also hungry. [Engadget, Wikipedia]

Tandy TRS-80: The Budget Computer

Mark Richards and John Alderman — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:30:23 EDT

Even back then, there were computers for people who couldn't afford the more expensive stuff. Take this Tandy, which costs little more than a upgraded Netbook today. From Core Memory, photographed by Mark Richards and written by John Alderman.

TRS-80 Model 1 (and Model 100)
Year created: 1977
Creator: Tandy Corporation
Cost: $399 ($599 with monitor)
Memory: 4KB ROM
Processor: Z-80

Despite Apple's marketing message of personal empowerment and freedom, they weren't giving away those Apple IIs. A computer—especially one with a price tag of $1,300 or more—was beyond the comfort range of most people in the country, and few parents considered such a thing necessary to child development. As far as business went, it would be a while before a "killer app"—a must-have application—would be developed for machines available at an affordable price.

The TRS-80 was in part an antidote to this. If parents were convinced of a computer's necessity, but their pocketbooks couldn't support an Apple, then $399, or even $99, was worth considering. For a business that wanted to experiment with computing, that was a reasonable asking price.

The system was developed by the Tandy buyer Don French and Homebrew Computer Club leader Steve Leininger, who was quoted by Creative Computing magazine at the time as saying he had rejected a company plan to sell a computer kit because "too many people can't solder." This was an interesting admission from the company that owned Radio Shack, famous at that time for selling electronics parts to hobbyists. Nevertheless, the TRS-80 was actually rather sophisticated. Four kilobytes of RAM were matched with 4K of ROM holding Radio Shack's proprietary version of BASIC. The silver-and-black color scheme—even more than a beige box—evoked a kind of futuristic proletarian chic. Like other, similar systems, the TRS-80 used a cassette tape player as a storage device.

The early portable TRS-80 Model 100, designed by Kyocera and released in 1983, was evidence that, by that time, beige was winning the color war. Rugged and able to start up immediately, the Model 100 as utilitarian and much-beloved by traveling reporters.

Core Memory is a photographic exploration of the Computer History Museum's collection, highlighting some of the most interesting pieces in the history of computers. These excerpts were used with permission of the publisher. Special thanks to Fiona!

The above photographs were taken by Mark Richards, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Fortune, Smithsonian, Life and BusinessWeek. The eye-candy is accompanied by descriptions of each artifact to cover the characteristics and background of each object, written by John Alderman who has covered the culture of high-tech lifestyle since 1993, notably for Mondo 2000, HotWired and Wired News. A foreword is provided by the Computer History Museum's Senior Curator Dag Spicer.

Or go see the real things at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

It's Official: Palm Pre Coming June 6th for $200

John Herrman — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:02:08 EDT

Sprint has formally announced that the Palm Pre will be available on June 6th for $199.99 on a two-year contract, after rebates. Interestingly, that's two days before Apple's next big event and probable product launch.

Also announced were the stores that'd be carrying it: far from a Sprint Store exclusive, the Pre will be sold in Best Buy, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart from launch day (a Saturday, oddly enough). You'll have to opt for an Everything Data plan or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plan (both of which start at $70) to get one, and you'll have to send off a $100 mail-in rebate to knock the price down to the advertised $200, but otherwise, no surprises here.

Update: From Palm's Twitter feed:

@marek_k: @palm_inc Any international release dates yet? (Europe) [Not yet]

In case the presence of Tweetspeak caused you to instinctively look away, that just means that they haven't made any announcements for availability outside the US, but that they probably will, eventually. [Press Release]

Sprint to Offer Palm Pre Nationwide on June 6

Digital-age-defining Palm webOS phone is built for consumers and businesses alike, powered by America's most dependable nationwide 3G network, with the best price plan value

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced pricing and nationwide availability for the highly anticipated Palm® Pre™ phone, offered exclusively from Sprint. Palm Pre will be available nationwide on June 6 in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Running on the new Palm webOS™ mobile platform, Pre brings together your important information from where it resides – on your phone, at your work or on the web – into one logical view.(1)

For those who juggle life circa 2009 – bouncing from conference call to car pool schedule, from doctors' numbers to doctoral thesis data, from social calendars to social networking – Pre marks a new wireless crossover standard. Before Pre, you had to compromise when selecting a wireless phone. To get the business features you needed, you had to sacrifice the personal entertainment features you wanted. Pre consolidates your important information – professional, social and personal – into one revolutionary device using an operating system that redefines the experience of living and working wirelessly.

"The argument that you need one phone for work and another phone for play, or that you have to make compromises between business and lifestyle productivity, is over," said Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint. "With Pre, compromises of the past are history."

Palm Pre will run on America's most dependable 3G network and come with Sprint's industry-leading, value-oriented Everything Data plans that offer savings of up to $1,430 over two years vs. comparable AT&T and Verizon plans for smartphones and PDAs.(2)

"The Palm Pre takes full advantage of Sprint's Everything Data plans," said Avi Greengart, research director for Consumer Devices at Current Analysis. "The Pre has been expressly designed for multitasking among multiple web pages and applications. It also builds on Palm's heritage in PDAs by managing your digital information – whether that's on a corporate server or on the web."

"The Pre's dynamic 'activity cards' approach to handling and navigating multiple applications is a great advance, but the core breakthrough is the integration of information across multiple applications on and off the phone," said Andy Castonguay, director of Mobile & Access Devices Research, Yankee Group. "With social networking and messaging being so important to consumers, the device's new ‘Palm Synergy' functionality – which gives Pre the ability to automatically pull friends' contact details, messaging addresses and personal calendars from different applications online and on the phone – will greatly simplify people's ability to communicate with their friends and colleagues the way they want."

Pre: A New Kind of Phone

The new webOS platform introduces Palm Synergy™, a key feature that brings together your personal and professional calendar, contacts and e-mail into one centralized view, making transitions between work and personal life smooth and easy to manage.

With Palm Synergy, users get:

* Linked contacts – With Synergy, you have a single view that links your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook(3), Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they're the same person and links the information, presenting it to you as one listing.
* Layered calendars – Your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
* Combined messaging – Synergy lets you see all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with text messaging. You can also see who's active in a buddy list right from contacts or e-mail, and start a new conversation with just one touch.

Palm webOS lets you keep multiple activities open and move easily between them like flipping through a deck of cards. You can move back and forth between text messaging and e-mail, or search the web while you listen to music. You can rearrange items simply by dragging them, and when you are done with something, just throw it away by flicking it off the top of the screen.

Finding what you need is also easy with universal search – as you type what you're looking for, webOS narrows your search and offers results from both your device and the web.(4) WebOS crushes the barriers to true mobile computing.

"Pre is truly a new phone for a new web-centric age," said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer. "We're a mobile society, and we want our people, calendars and information to move with us. With Pre's exquisite design and the unique webOS software, running on Sprint's fast broadband network, we're changing the perception of what a wireless phone can be."

Pre comes with a charger in the box, but for anyone tired of plugging a cord into their wireless phone, Palm introduces the Touchstone™ charging dock, the first inductive charging solution for phones, available exclusively for Pre. Simply set Pre down on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. Pre is active while charging, so you can access the touch screen, watch movies or video, or use the speakerphone. Set Pre on the charging dock when you're on a call, and the speakerphone automatically turns on; when you take a ringing Pre off the dock, Pre automatically answers the call. Other mobile operating systems allow multitasking, but Palm has developed an intuitive method of switching between "cards," which resemble clicking different tabs on a Web browser. New applications can be launched easily using the "Launcher" software button at the bottom of the home screen, and users navigate between different applications.

With nearly every wireless device today you have to exit one application completely before you can use another. That's not what people are accustomed to; think of your PC and all the applications you can have open at one time.

Pre: The latest NOW Network milestone for Sprint

Pre also lets you access feature-rich Sprint content on the Sprint Now Network, including exclusive applications such as:

* Sprint Navigation(5)
* Sprint TV
* NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live

"Sprint's Now Network brings you America's most dependable 3G network, the largest push-to-talk community, and in selected markets Sprint is the only national carrier bringing 4G to life in 2009,"(6) Hesse said. "The Now Network is more than just a physical network – it's also data plans that are all-inclusive, eliminating fear of data overages and a perfect fit for Palm Pre users."

Sprint's networks are now performing at best-ever levels, and Sprint's high-value Everything data plans consistently beat AT&T's and Verizon's comparable plans in savings by hundreds, even thousands, of dollars over two years. With the revolutionary launch of Ready Now, which Sprint pioneered, customers leave the store educated, comfortable and confident about the phones they're about to take home. As a result of these measures and more, Sprint customer satisfaction indices – from first call resolution to billing satisfaction, from customer care response time to service and repair – have all significantly improved during the past year.

Pricing and Availability

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year service agreement on an Everything Data plan or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plan. An array of compelling accessories also will be available for Pre, including the Palm Touchstone charging dock. The Touchstone™ Charging Kit, which includes the Touchstone charging dock and Touchstone back cover for Pre, will be available June 6 for $69.99. The Touchstone charging dock and Touchstone back cover also are available separately from for $49.99 and $19.99, respectively.

More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre.

Radio Shack Employee Punches Out Customer Over Return

Sean Fallon — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:29:06 EDT

If you frequent Radio Shack, here is a tip for you—they take their return policy (or lack thereof) very seriously. Apparently, trying to return something can get you punched in the face.

At least, that's how one Radio Shack employee in Eau Claire Wisconsin handled an irate customer trying to make a return. How the incident played out is unknown, except that the customer asked to speak to a manager and that's when the 52-year old employee's fists started flying. I'm not sure if fistifcuffs are part of store policy, or the pent up frustration of a middle-aged man scraping by as a clerk in an electronics store. Either way, make sure to read the fine print and save the receipt before making a return at Radio Shack. [JSOnline via Fark]

4400 Radioshacks Now Accepting Old Gadget Trade-Ins

Mark Wilson — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:40:00 EDT

In what sounds like a clever way for an electronics retailer to battle the recession, Radioshack has started taking trade-ins for in-store credit.

Before, the retailer accepted mailed-in used gadgets through their web trade-in program. Now all 4400 Radioshacks will take these items at the store itself (iPods, consoles, laptops, monitors...the list goes on, assuming it mirrors what Radioshack will take through the web).

Since it's common for mail-in electronics buyers to downgrade the status of your item upon receipt (thereby paying you less money than you anticipated), Radioshack's new plan seems like a safer way to trade in older stuff you haven't been using. [AP via Kotaku]

DIY Laser Communicator Sure to Create Wannabe Geek Super Spies

Jack Loftus — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:00:00 EST

This handy DIY laser pointer communicator requires little more than time, an old laser pointer, some parts from your local RadioShack, and, of course, a tuxedo.

Here's the PDF file (eyes only!) you'll need to get started on what actually sounds like a pretty neat little 15-minute project.

Basically, the audio signal from the attached microphone varies the power output of the laser. This, in turn, causes the laser's brightness to fluctuate in a way that follows the shape of the sound wave.

At the other end, where your super spy friend awaits his kill order for those pesky neighborhood revolutionaries, a solar cell (or photo-resistor) helpfully converts the oscillating light signal back into the husky, absurdly fake Scottish accent you've applied to your voice in yet another lame, cliched attempt to mimic Sean Connery. [MAKE]

The RadioShack Catalog Archive, 1939-Present

John Mahoney — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:20:00 EST

Joel from BBG dug up a great find this morning—the Radio Shack Catalog Archive, which archives the offerings of the tinkerer's temple turned cheap cellphone store starting from the grand ol' age of 1939.

Within you will find pages filled with tubes, insulators, connectors, sockets, coils, Hammarlund condensers—all that went into the 30s' 40s' and 50s' basement ham radio and space alien communcation projects. I also think I've spotted every component from my dad's old stereo system—the one I spent my youth knob-twiddling and staring at the backlit moving needles. Why don't stereo's have needle-gauges anymore? That makes me sad.

Dude's collection is pretty impressive, but if you have any old catalogs laying around that can fill in his early 40s and 50s gaps, I am sure he would be happy to hear from you. [RadioShack Catalog Archive via Boing Boing Gadgets

RadioShack Black Friday Deals Revealed

Mark Wilson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:25:00 EST

While the lines wrap around Best Buy, extending into the oceans and back around Best Buy again, a lone electronics store will sit in the dark of night with little fanfare but definitely a few good deals. And especially if you'd like to save big money on small, often quirky electronics, RadioShack is a pretty good place to be at the break of dawn. You know, just don't stand there all night or anything ridiculous.

Notable Deals:

SanDisk 8GB Sansa Fuze - $69.99

Motorola H375 Bluetooth Headset - $9.99

Belkin Tunebase FM Transmitter for iPod - $49.99

Memorex 7-in-1 HD DV 5MP Camcorder - $79.99

TomTom One 125 GPS - $99.99

Wind-Up LED Flashlight 2-Pack - $9.99

Spykee Micro Robot - $9.99

For the full list, hit the link. [Back Friday]

Radioshack Offers Gift Cards for Old, Broken Gadgets

Mark Wilson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:22:00 EDT

Similar to offers we've seen from companies like Costco, the RadioShack Online Trade-In Program will swap your old gadgets for gift cards. You search their database for your gadget and offer the best quality assessment that you can, and they provide a mail-in sticker that you print. If all goes well, they'll send you a gift card 10-14 days after the unit is received. But remember, that's only if all goes well. So assuming worst case scenario, what are your totally broken gadgets worth?

3G iPod (10GB)
$3.23

1st Gen Zune
$5.81

Palm Treo 650
$3.69

Xbox 360 Premium
$9.65

DS Lite
$4.25

Wii
$15.85

PlayStation 3 (60GB)
$23.48

Needless to say, if you've trashed all of your electronics, you may be able to unload them and score a few bucks in the process. [RadioShack]

Knight Rider KITT GPS Now Available

Sean Fallon — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:30:00 EDT

Just a few days after the new series premiere, RadioShack has announced that it scored exclusive rights to sell Mio's Knight Rider GPS in the US. I already have a GPS unit, but the geek in me wants to buy this thing just to hear William Daniels tell me where the nearest McDonald's is. The KITT GPS is available now for $270. [RadioShack via CNET]

Dealzmodo: RadioShack Selling Samsung Instinct For $100 During Labor Day Weekend

Sean Fallon — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:30:00 EDT

If you are interested in getting your hands on a Samsung Instinct, RadioShack has announced that they will be offering an exclusive $100 price on the phone to celebrate its launch across their 4,400 stores. The Instinct is easily Sprint's best phone, but it is available only to new Sprint users who sign up for a Simply Everything Plan ($$$).The deal starts on Friday and runs through the Labor Day weekend. [MobileBurn]

RadioShack Flyer Indicates Xbox 360 Price Cuts on Elite, Arcade Systems

John Mahoney — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:45:00 EDT

The Xbox 360 price cut rumors we've been hearing for September look to be gathering even more steam, as this RadioShack ad shows drops to $399 for the Elite system and $199 for the Arcade. That's down $50 on the Elite and $80 on Arcade, making your choices a nice smooth progression of Benjamins—$199/$299/$399. The drops are rumored to hit early next month. UPDATE: We've also just heard from the folks at setteb.it, who have news of an official 60GB upgrade to the 20 GB Xbox 360 system at the same price, €270 in Italy. [Joystiq]

New Vex Robotics Kits: Smaller, Cheaper, Chattier, Wireless-er

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:30:00 EST

Remember Vex, the RadioShack robot platform that was going to change the face of home android-army construction? After a spell out of the limelight, it's back with some cool upgrades: the RCR Mini platform is half the size (and at under $100, a third the cost) of standard Vex, and works alone or with the larger set if you want to mix 'n' match. The Wi-Fi Control System lets you wirelessly control hundreds of robots via any computer—Linux machines included—and allows the robots themselves to communicate with one another, so be careful how well you arm them! Pricing and availability details will come out later, but the first hands-on opp will be at Toy Fair, so stay tuned. [Vex Labs]

RadioShack Black Friday Ad Surfaces

Charlie White — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:40:39 EST

The Black Friday ads are leaking fast and furiously now, with RadioShack's deals making their appearance early this morning, too. But wait a second. What's that? A Canon SD1000 7.1 megapixel digital camera for $179.99? That's no big deal, we saw that camera for five bucks less than that already. We did see a SanDisk 2GB SD Memory Card for $14.99. Check out some of the other deals that RadioShack's listing, maybe something might interest you.

Blank Media
Memorex 50 Pack Of 16X DVD-Rs - $9.99
Memorex 50 Pack Of 16X DVD+Rs - $9.99
TDK 100 Pack Of 52X CD-Rs - $9.99

Cell Phones
Motorola BlueTooth Wireless Headset - $9.99
Motorola Noise Canceling Bluetooth Wireless Headset - $59.99
Motorola Prepaid Wireless Go Phone - Free w/Activation
Plantronics Ultra Comfortable Bluetooth Wireless Headset - $29.99
Samsung Red A737 Cell Phone - Free w/Activation
Sprint UpStage II By Samsung - Free w/Activation
TracFone Prepaid Wireless Phone - Free w/Activation
Virgin Mobile Bluetooth Enabled Prepaid Wireless Phone - $29.99

Computer Accessories
Cyber Acoustics 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - $12.49
Gigaware USB PC Headset - $9.99
Gigaware Webcam Twin-Pack - $14.99
iHome 2Go Speaker - Free w/iPod Purchase
Labtec Wireless Mouse And Keyboard - $9.99
Logitech Cordless Notebook Mouse - $9.99
Mad Dog 2.5" USB Hard Drive Enclosure - $9.99
Mad Dog 3.5" SATA/USB Hard Drive Combo - $24.99
Mad Dog 3.5" USB Hard Drive Enclosure - $19.99
Mad Dog Notebook Cooling Pad - $9.99
RadioShack Surge Protector Value Pack - $9.99

Computers
Acer 14.1" Widescreen Notebook PC w/Intel Celeron M530 Processor / 512MB / 80GB - $399.99
HP 15.4 Notebook w/AMB Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor TK-55 / 1GB / 160GB + 7-MegaPixel Digital Camera & Printer - $799.99

Digital Cameras
Canon SD1000 7.1 MegaPixel Digital Camera - $179.99
Casio EX-Z75BK 7.2 MegaPixel Digital Camera - $129.99
HP 6.2 MegaPixel Digital Camera w/Printer - $149.99
Kodak Ultra-thin 7.1MP Digital Camera - $99.99
Olympus FE-280 8 MegaPixel Digital Camera - $149.99
Optimus 8 MegaPixel Digital Camera w/Free 256MB SD Card - $99.99

[Blackfriday.info]

FCC Fines Retailers $96,000 For Selling Analog TVs

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:57:47 EDT

Radio Shack, HH Gregg, FYE, Fred Meyer Stores, Ultimate Electronics and Boscov's all got smacked with fines totaling almost $100K because they sold analog TVs that were not properly marked with a warning sticker saying that they would basically stop receiving signal (at least, not without a cable box or other kind of assistance) when the digital switchover hits on Feb. 17, 2009.

According to Ars, the warning-sticker rule went into effect on May 25:

Any company selling analog-only TV sets [must] display a prominent "Consumer Alert" in "a size of type large enough to be clear, conspicuous and readily legible" that is located on the set itself or immediately adjacent to it.

Although the total fines levied were not terribly high, the per-TV charge is a stiff $8,000.

As you may have read here, Best Buy got wise to this whole thing and decided to stop selling analog TVs altogether. Maybe that was just easier than training thousands of "blue shirts" to put warning stickers on the right TV sets. [Ars Technica]

Hype Sheet: Radio Shack is Wrong on So Many Levels

Brendan I. Koerner — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:15:36 EDT

The Pitch "Penelope" is not a happy camper. Seems that she's had it up to here with her boyfriend's vinylphilia, and she appears to have issued an ultimatum in advance of her latest business trip: either the records go, or I do. How will the conflicted Romeo respond? Why, by magically using a couple of Radio Shack cables and a new laptop to digitize his entire LP collection—in, uh, three or four days (a generous estimate based on the size of Penelope's suitcase). The result? Our male protagonist is definitely gettin' some tonight, based on Penelope's winsome reaction to the booming iPod dock awaiting her return. "With our help at Radio Shack, you don't just buy stuff," the narrator declares during the outro. "You do stuff." Wait, is the Shack really trying to pitch itself as a customer-service mecca? And are their ad folks really that ignorant about analog-to-digital transferring? Why, yes—yes they are.

Rip-Off Of The movie version of High Fidelity, though John Cusack's character had the good sense not to toss his vinyl for a woman's love—a tradeoff that can only end in tears. (I'll confess, though, that Penelope is a few degrees hotter than Iben Hjejle.)

The Spin Radio Shack is trying to mimic Home Depot's strategy—that is, portraying itself as a project-solving center rather than just another off-the-shelf retailer. I guess they've come to realize that the cellphone game isn't the future, not least of all because wireless carriers' stores are eating their lunch. Hence the shift to helping you not only purchase electronic goods, but also figure out what combination of gadgets you need to accomplish specific tasks. And, hey, who better to help you out with a long list of irritating questions than a helpful Radio Shack salesman? Because we all know what a joy it is to ask a Shack employee something other than, "Can you please sign me up for the most overpriced cellphone contract possible?"

Counterspin If you're going to market your expertise, it's advisable to demonstrate that expertise in your commercial, no? Yet the Shack totally botches this one, starting with the timing problem. Loverboy here has, at minimum, 2,000 records in his apartment. Assuming each record has an hour of music, that's 120,000 minutes of music he's gotta digitize, a task that would take him over 83 days of nonstop work. Doesn't look like his girlfriend is packed for a three-month trip, does it? On top of that, um, doesn't Radio Shack's solution (new laptop plus cables plus iPod dock) strike you as a wee bit 2004? What, they don't carry anything along the lines of these? Finally—and this really gets my goat—no self-respecting vinyl junkie stacks his LPs from floor-to-ceiling, as is shown in one of the ad's first frames. Though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the Shack doesn't keep it real.

Takeaway These are trying times for Radio Shack, with Citigroup recently recommending that investors sell the company's stock. So you've got to applaud the Shack's brain trust for recognizing that stay-the-course isn't the best strategy right now. But, seriously, do they really want to emphasize the part of their business—customer service—that is notoriously abysmal? Perhaps if the current "Do Stuff" campaign was accompanied by a true reinvention of the Shack's approach to sales—say, by doing away with commissions, or not trying so hard to push cellphone plans above all else—then there'd be something there. But judging by my last few visits, that's simply not the case—Godspeed to anyone who tries to buy a heatsink at the Radio Shack on W. 125 Street in Manhattan. (Stock response to every heatsink question: "I have no idea.") Factor in the annoying technical ignorance and anti-analog bias of this commercial, and you've got a real clunker for the ages.

Hype-O-Meter 1.5 (out of 10). Half-a-point for Penelope's undeniable hotness—anyone know if she's appeared in anything else? But aside from that, wow, the Shack is on the schneid.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.