Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to buy cheap electronics at Wal-Mart. The items in question are the $18 - $29 Durabrand DVD players sold in the US and the UK, which were recently recalled. 1.5 million of the units recalled to be exact, due to 12 reported cases of overheating.

They caused some property damage, but no injuries, but now, they have more reported cases of the same problem, so they’ve upped the recall to cover 4.2 million devices. The original recall was only for the silver units sold, but now it also covers the pink and purple DVD players sold between January 2006 and July 2009.

Wal-Mart is recalling about 1.5 million Durabrand DVD players because of a potential for the device to simply burst into flames and ruin your day. Wal-Mart received 12 complaints about the DVD players overheating and in five of those cases, the overheating resulted in a fire that damaged property.

That’s not the kind of movie night you want right? Even if you were watching Backdraft. The DVD player in question is imported from China and sold at Wal-Mart stores from January 2006 through July 2009 for $29. The DVD player came with a remote and is silver with a U-shaped opening at the top to insert the DVD. If you spot this culprit in your home, call Wal-Mart immediately.

Wal-Mart is upping its electronics game, filling the void left by Circuit City’s closure. If you’re counting, that’s about $11.1 billion in annual revenue waiting to be made. Wal-Mart is rolling out new sections for Apple and Nintendo in some of its electronics departments this week.

They are also adding higher-end Sony and Samsung televisions, expanding Blu-ray equipment and is even getting the Palm Pre next month. Wow. Does this mean under $1000 macs? That would sure make Laptop Hunters happy.

Today the iPhone arrived at that place where workers get trampled by angry Black Friday crowds. There’s bad news and there’s more bad news. The bad news is that you can probably still get trampled by an angry mob in search of rolled back prices. The other bad news is that rumors of a $99 Wal-Mart iPhone were incorrect.

Wal-Mart will sell the iPhone for only $2 less than the regular price with a two-year contract: $197 for the 8 GB model, or $297 for the 16GB model. The ad should read “Save just a little money. Live just a tad better.”

So, you’ve been waiting for the iPhone to hit Walmart, so you can stock up on paper towels, buy a DVD and throw an iPhone in your squeaky cart all at once. Well you’re in luck assuming you didn’t get killed by greedy shoppers during black Friday. Looks like Apple will begin selling the iPhone at Wal-Marts on December 28th.

Wal-Mart employees are apparently already receiving training on iPhone activation. Today Boy Genius Report claims that Apple may be reintroducing the 4GB iPhone to be sold at Wal-Mart for only $99 with a two year contract. They aren’t completely confident about the report, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the Walmart training materials pictured above have been seen so that suggests there is some truth to it.

Some guy from Michigan spotted this sweet looking guitar at his local Wal-Mart so he snapped a pic. It’s a mysterious new controller for Guitar Hero for the Wii called the Rage. It may or may not be all the Rage.

No one seems to know anything about it and there’s nothing on Google either, which seems a bit odd since it looks so sweet and all. According to the box, it’s super realistic and this baby even has light-up LEDs on the fretboard. The $54.78 price tag isn’t all that awesome, but it’s different if you’re looking for a new fake guitar.

Wal-Mart has brought its huge retail muscle into the DTV conversion game set to happen in Feb. 2009 by unveiling at its 3,400 stores a converter. The price you ask? After the $40 digital converter box coupon you can get from the government, the cost is a mere $9.87.

That is right - just under $10 (converter box prices at $49.87 without). That is a slap in the price face of Best Buy, which is selling its boxes for around $20 with the coupon. Wal-Mart is pimping a box done up by Magnavox for its offering, whereas Best Buy is going with its private label brand.

Taking a look at this new online shopping tool Help a Chick Pick you at first glance think it might be another splashy Web start up. Turns out that isn’t quite the case - the site is a new offering from retail super giant Wal-Mart.

Help a Chick Pick, and the newly relaunched Help a Guy Buy, are attempts by the retailer to appeal to a more Web savvy user base. Wal-Mart describes these sites as being able to “customers not only identify the gift profile of their significant other, but the perfect gift, at the perfect price, to complement it.” They of course point you to Wal-Mart listings.