January 22 - 3:35pm EST   The collapse of Circuit City in the US may not only cast doubt on the future of its Canadian retail chain The Source but could shift many stores towards Best Buy. Circuit City's Canadian subsidiary InterTAN says all 765 The Source stores are being put up for auction this week and that buyers could pick up some or all of the stores for their own purposes. Proposals from buyers are due as early as Friday and could result in a decision shortly afterwards. [full story]

December 26 - 2:50pm EST   Southern California-based Visual Land's V-Touch VL-875 multimedia player is being sold on Boxing day, Friday, at Future Shop, a major Canadian electronics chain store owned by Best Buy. The 8GB gadget, which bears a striking resemblance to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, sports a 2.8-inch, 240x320 resolution resistive touchscreen and is part of Visual Land's VL-805-series of personal multimedia players, which are differentiated by their onboard memory capacities, ranging from 1GB through to the current 8GB example. [full story]

September 25 - 12:30am EDT   Some placeholder SKUs in Canadian retailer Future Shop's computer system could be a clue to impending Mac revisions, according to a screenshot supplied by an anonymous employee to MacRumors. A total of twelve spots entitled "APPLE MAC PLACEHOLDER" exist in the system, six each for English and French, all numbered accordingly. Futureshop and Best Buy have typically been privy to past Apple releases, most likely due to the close nature of their relationship. [full story]

April 10 - 11:15am EDT   Dell this morning revealed that Canada would be the next to see the fruits of its retail initiative. Beginning late this week, the company will sell several of its desktop and notebook models in multiple large retailers for the country, including Best Buy, Future Shop, and Staples. The exact mixture of systems will vary by store but should include the Inspiron 530, its slimline 530s equivalent, and the XPS 420 for desktops; notebooks will include both the Inspiron 1525 as well as the XPS M1330 (pictured) and M1530. [full story]

March 7 - 11:05am EST   Canadians who bought an HD DVD player now have a trade-in option for the obsolete format, Future Shop claims. A new deal from the retailer is offering any owner of an HD DVD player a $100 discount on the purchase of a hybrid player that can play both their existing titles as well as the surviving Blu-ray standard. This chiefly includes either the LG BH200 or its fellow Korean rival the Samsung BD-UP5000, the store notes. No distinction is made between the value of different HD DVD players. [full story]