The Best Buy Black Friday ad has leaked out and offers price cuts on many items including appliances (sorry no $3 toasters) and other electronics like video games, HDTVs and laptops.

Most often, when searching for Black Friday deals, you don't think to look at major appliances. But this year Best Buy has 20-50% off many appliances, including a new Samsung washer and dryer set at half price. Other appliance discounts include refrigerators, Dyson vacuums and more.

Another Black Friday bargain at Best Buy is video games, specifically just released games and console bundles.

The laptop price wars continue and retailers aren't waiting for Thanksgiving to offer great Black Friday laptop deals! After Walmart fired the first shot with a pre-Black Friday Laptop deal last weekend, Best Buy is responding with its own Black Friday computer deal -- priced at just $250.

Starting on Wednesday November 11, Best Buy will be selling an Acer laptop for $249.99. This low priced laptop is, according to an email from BlackFriday.info, "their lowest-advertised-price laptop ever."

Best Buy just confirmed that the $250 laptop will be the Acer Extensa EX5230E-2177 which comes with a 2.2 GHz Intel Celeron 900 processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive complete with Windows 7 (Full specs).

A laptop like this won't see you through many gaming sessions but will work fine for browsing the web, managing your digital pictures, watching YouTube and doing schoolwork.

As an added bonus, Best Buy is also including six months of antivirus protection with every computer sold through the end of December and will throw in a year's subscription to Napster with any Dell laptop purchased at Best Buy.

To take advantage of the deal, visit your local Best Buy on Wednesday November 11, or go to BestBuy.com.

Think your ever-prepared colleague who's already bought and wrapped all her gifts has an impressive jump on the holidays? Consider this: electronics mega-chain Best Buy started prepping for Black Friday, the official, chaotic start to the holiday shopping season, in August.

That's when the company sends out a Black Friday "Toolkit" to each of its stores, summarizing the company's ticketing and security procedures, according to company spokesperson Scott Morris. The Toolkit is followed by several autumn "rehearsals," which simulate the day's events, he said.

And now, with the big day just weeks away, the company is tanned, rested and ready, and looking forward to what it hopes is a bright spot in a dark retail year

Here's the latest salvo in the battle for ultimate control over our children. Best Buy is selling a GPS device that will tell you where your child is every minute of the day.

In a sign that child-tracking devices have gone mass-market, it's the first store brand with such an offer. Best Buy is marketing it under its house brand name, Insignia.

It is designed to fit into a backpack and will send a text message back to parents whenever the child has moved outside a "designated" area, such as their school, after-school program, or babysitter's backyard.

The device surely is being aimed at parents with school aged and older kids, since they're the ones presumably who can wander out of eyesight. I can't imagine there being much of a concern of babies escaping, although you never know with parents these days.

The price for this false sense of control? Only $99. Cheap, considering some of the other options out there. That's a house brand for you.

Windows 7 is finally available for purchase, which also means that if you purchased a new computer since June 26, 2009 it's time for you to get your free upgrade to Windows 7.

If you haven't already requested your Free Windows 7 Upgrade from the manufacturer you purchased your computer from it only takes a few minutes and you should have your free Windows 7 upgrade shortly.

To get your free upgrade to Windows 7 you will need to request the Windows 7 upgrade disc from your computer's manufacturer before Jan. 31, 2010.

Here are the links to most major manufacturer's programs; but be prepared, some will charge you for your free Windows 7 upgrade.

• Lenovo
• HP
• Dell
• Gateway
• eMachines
• Toshiba
• Asus
• Compaq
• Averatec
• Acer
• Samsung
• Sony

The free upgrade to Windows 7 isn't the only deal to be had for upgrading to Windows 7. Students can purchase Windows 7 home or Windows 7 professional at a discounted price of $30 with a valid .edu e-mail address.

That's not all. If an upgrade isn't what you're looking for Microsoft is highlighting several deals on Windows 7 computers. Most notably, Best Buy is selling a Windows 7 PC Home Makeover bundle valued at more than $2,000; which includes a desktop, 18.4-inch monitor, laptop, netbook, router and Geek Squad setup for just $1,200.

Windows 7 has earned favorable reviews and is generally considered a good upgrade option even on older hardware. Before upgrading you should find out if your computer meets the Windows 7 system requirements.

When it comes to buying new technology like MP3 players, cameras and HDTV's; unless you know what you're looking for, finding exactly what you want can be a difficult task. One made no easier by the differing technologies and abbreviations that fill product descriptions these days, but thanks to TwelpForce, a virtual help desk on Twitter, you can get answers to all of life's electronic questions.

TwelpForce is made up of 2,100 Best Buy employees across the nation who take time to answer questions on Twitter about anything from HD video cameras and HDTV's to Xbox 360 headset recommendations. Thanks to the large number of Best Buy employees who answer TwelpForce questions, some even off the clock, responses are swift, smart and numerous.

For many people Christmas is a time to give generously to friends and family, but if you haven't been saving throughout the year it can be easy to rely on credit cards and overspend; leaving you with a big bill come January. Thankfully, you still have a few months until Christmas so there's time to get your gifts without going broke.

While you'd be better off if you started saving in March, Spend On Life has pulled together 10 ways to avoid Christmas credit card debt, which it estimates will net you $750 toward Christmas gifts in the next two-and-a-half months.

The day after Thanksgiving is both the best shopping day of the year or the worst. Combine a store offering its lowest prices all year with a crowd of anxious, cash-strapped consumers who've been standing in line for many pre-dawn hours, and you're asking for trouble.

Last year, we saw how quickly things can get out of hand, when a Walmart customer was trampled to death in Valley Stream, New York, during a Black Friday sale. There isn't any hard data on the number of injuries on Black Friday, but sadly, that wasn't an isolated incident, even for Walmart: Shoppers at the retailer have been hurt in stampedes near Grand Rapids, Michigan; another in Columbus, Ohio, reportedly took an elbow to the face. Black Friday rarely seems to pass without some scuffle or incident.

If you were one of the thousands of shoppers who purchased a new computer since June 26 and are expecting a free upgrade to Windows 7 you may find yourself paying to get that "free" upgrade.

Mouseprint.org dug through the fine print of the free Windows 7 upgrade offers and found out that while the actual Windows 7 license is free you could pay $11-$17 in shipping, handling and other fees.

During their investigation, Mouseprint found that the following manufacturers are charging at least some of their customers for a free Windows 7 upgrade.

• Compaq - $12.99 for the first kit.
• HP - $12.99 for the first kit.
• Lenovo - $17.03
• Sony - $14.99
• Toshiba - $11.25/$12.99

Where did you buy your last cell phone? From a service provider or mass merchant? There are a growing number of stores trying to woo your mobile business by offering a bit more variety.

Best Buy has opened six Mobile stores in the Dallas market. It's not the first such concept; Best Buy partnered with the British Carphone Warehouse chain to test the concept in select markets three years ago. New York has been up and running since 2007, and the effort has been considered successful enough to expand.

Expanding into Dallas pits two similar concepts against each other; RadioShack operates three Point Mobl stores in the area and has headquarters in nearby Fort Worth. The move is the retail equivalent of storming the opponent's home field. Best Buy already has Mobile stores in its hometown of Minneapolis.

Psst. How'd you like to get a 52-inch Samsung flat-screen TV for $9.99? Hot off the back of a truck? No way. How about from BestBuy.com?

If you popped onto Best Buy's Web site overnight that's the price you would have found instead of the actual price of $1,699.99. Word got around fast and the item became a hot-seller -- showing up as "sold out" by morning. Some customers commented about ordering several at that new low, low price.

But, alas, Best Buy replaced the missing digits -- adding another $1,690 to this seemingly amazing offer. And shortly thereafter, the TV and the comments apparently were pulled from the site altogether.

So what about all those people who ordered at the special price?

No dice. You're not getting the TV, not for that price.

"It was an unfortunate human error," Best Buy spokeswoman Susan Busch told WalletPop. "As you probably noted, the erroneous info was quickly taken down. We are not processing orders for the TV at that price. We apologize to our customers for any confusion or inconvenience caused by this pricing error."

Busch said she didn't know how long the erroneous price was online or how many orders were placed at that price.

Talia Ran, 23, an executive assistant in Washington, D.C., got a call from her brother -- who notified everyone he knows -- at 5:32 a.m. alerting her to the price. She doesn't have much room for such a big TV in her apartment, but for 10 bucks she'd find a spot.

Even though she realized the price was a mistake, she said still hoped her order would slip through.

"I kind of hoped they would forget about me and send them anyway," Ran said.

Then she got an email canceling her order.

"I know there isn't any legal recourse but there has to be something that Best Buy can do to ease our loss," Ran said. "I would think they would want to do something to honor the commitment made between the consumer and Best Buy when we clicked 'continue with purchase.' At the very least shouldn't Best Buy feel compelled to offer the same TV for a discounted price to those who did order?"

It might seem unfair, but Best Buy and most online retailers have error policies buyers agree to (usually without reading the terms) before making a purchase.

Here's an excerpt of Best Buy's policy: "Errors will be corrected where discovered, and Best Buy reserves the right to revoke any stated offer and to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions including after an order has been submitted and whether or not the order has been confirmed and your credit card charged."

A few years ago, Amazon.com was sued after canceling 6,000 orders for a $1,000 TV mistakenly priced at $99. Amazon won because the error was considered unintentional and shoppers agreed to the terms of its error policy before making their purchase.

At a recent holiday product preview in New York, representatives from Best Buy showcased the chain's biggest and brightest Christmas toys.

Unfortunately, I am legally restricted from discussing some of the more exciting new gizmos (here's a hint: have you ever wanted to talk to your cat?), but I can gladly report that there are new computers and televisions aplenty, and that some of this year's consumer electronics will blow your mind.

However, one of my favorite new toys isn't even being offered in most Best Buy stores. Coveroo, a San Francisco-based company, has developed a system that enables users to pick an image and laser-etch it on their cell phone faceplates, all in less time than it takes to get a latte from Starbucks.

This fall, it will be offering the service in four Best Buy outlets: Virginia's Fair Oaks Mall, Minnesota's Mall of America, Illinois' Woodfield Mall, and West Hollywood, California.

What happens when the nation's leading consumer electronics chain partners with the original hard drive recorder? Best Buy streaming direct to your TV.

The retailer announced a partnership with TiVo to sell hard drive recorders with Best Buy-owned or branded content. And before everyone erupts thinking that means advertisements, Best Buy has the Napster music service to broadcast and will probably stream movies soon, too.

The company does admit to using the partnership to "use TiVo to offer advice and guidance on products like HDTVs and digital cameras and provide ways to buy these products via the television remote control," reports the New York Times. Here's hoping that it's not in the form of ads, but specially-produced programs that customers can choose to view, or not.

There's the possibility of embedding TiVo technology into Best Buy-branded Insignia TVs or DVD players. It's the kind of thing techies thought TiVo would be doing all along.

All this could offset revenue lost from declining disk sales, both CD and DVD. For TiVo, it's a chance to finally get a mass audience to appreciate the brand rather than simply using whatever hard drive recorder comes from the service provider.

It's hard to believe, what with TiVo being synonymous with the technology, but sales have fallen pretty dramatically. This may just give the company that started it all a fighting chance.

I love it when a major consumer products category stands up and declares that fully half the population is an important part of the customer base. In the case of consumer electronics, every year or so we get an industry initiative that claims to focus on women, as though women just figured out that TVs and iPods are fun.

Earlier this week, the electronics industry hosted a forum in New York to showcase new products, announced the launch of two women-focused initiatives, and hosted a panel discussion about buying habits. There were press releases and fanfare surrounding the launch of a new professional organization called the Women in CE, the unveiling of new Website and blog called Techlicious, and just prior to the expansion of Best Buy's efforts to better understand and embrace the fairer sex.

The day of reckoning is close; come June 12th the analog airwaves will no longer be graced with the witty banter of sitcoms, daytime soaps evening news shows.

Instead stations nationwide will finally make the long talked about, and oft delayed, switch to digital television. If you haven't already taken the steps to make sure you don't see static next Friday, you better get moving.

A quick reminder: If you get your television from a cable or satellite operator or your existing TV has a digital tuner, you won't need a converter box and can return to your regularly scheduled programming.

To find out what consumers who aren't ready should do in the next week, WalletPop spoke to Nick DeVita, a manager at a Best Buy store in New York.

One of the most common questions he has heard from customers, aside from "Why?" is, "What's the difference in the converter boxes?"