Check out our hot-off-the-press Careers page! It’s plastered with awesome opportunities, from entry-level positions to managers and more!

If you live in Minnesota and are looking to work for the coolest company ever (okay, maybe not the coolest, but we’re probably in the top five), find the job opening that amplifies your skills/experience and start the journey toward your new career today!

If you don’t live in Minnesota, move here — it’s a great place to live.

Huis Ten Bosch Theme Park in Japan is partnering with Sharp to construct a “5D Miracle Tour” attraction comprised of 156 Sharp 60-inch HD displays. They are PN-V601 LCD models. It could provide you with constant business for years! We’re kidding, of course, but you have to admit that it looks pretty cool!

Although we usually stick to ShopJimmy happenings and TV-related news and technology on this blog, every once in awhile we stumble across something that we just have to share. This is one of those things.

Google has developed an application that can translate spoken words and sentences to different languages. Not only could it make traveling so much easier — ¿Umm, dónde está el baño? — but it may potentially reduce the chasm between cultures. Sure, we’re getting a little ahead of our skis, but you have to admit that this is pretty cool. Watch the video below. It starts off a little shaky, but some plain ol’ enunciation produces some exciting results.

The holidays are right around the corner. If that comes as a shock to you, then congrats — you’ve successfully managed to miss the holiday commercials that started airing in October and retail store decorations (I’m not naming names. Cough, Hallmark, cough.) that went up sometime between the 4th of July and Columbus Day.

Anyway, if you are desperate for gift ideas, consider this…

No, that’s not merely a framed picture of Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the “Toy Story” series. It’s a framed TV. While it’s not a new concept, it may add that needed design element to your friend or relative’s family room. HOWEVER (yes, it’s worth all caps), the company hawking these frames, Frame the TV (clever!), definitely aren’t giving them away. These custom manufactured TV frames start at $429, which is exactly $228 more than what a new, Emerson 32″ LCD TV will cost you during Wal-Mart’s “Black Friday” sale.

A sincere THANK YOU to all of our veterans, from all of us at ShopJimmy!

A few days ago, the gadget-loving geeks and part-time detectives at Engadget uncovered a delicious, yet unconfirmed tidbit: a mysterious hacker unlocked the master key that prevents high-definition content — DRM-protected material like movies and anything streamed to devices that support HDCP (the encryption technology developed by Intel) — from illegal duplication and distribution (for instance, burning an on-demand movie from your HDTV to a DVD).

Yesterday, Intel just confirmed Engadget’s suspicion.

However, according to Intel’s company spokesman, don’t expect to thumb through high-quality, pirated movies in your neighbor’s DVD collection. Regarding the master key, Intel’s Tom Waldrop said, “For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon — make a computer chip.”

This news, once again, entertains a larger, ongoing issue: digital privacy and the veritable uncertainty of our personal information on the web. While we all know Google is watching and tracking a certain amount of our web use, we — the web team at ShopJimmy — are doing everything we can to ensure that your personal and financial information does not fall into the hands of a teenage hacker all hopped-up on Mountain Dew in his parent’s basement. We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) technology — used by all respected e-commerce sites — during the checkout process to make sure your information is safe.

We also don’t keep any of your payment information (i.e., credit card numbers) on file. It makes us sleep a little better at night. That, and I guess in Adam’s case, his legally-purchased copy of Dear John.

Have you ever watched an internet video and, at 30 seconds, wondered, “This is kind of cool, but pretty weird. Why am I watching it?” Then, at a minute or more, you ask yourself, “This is getting weirder. Why am I still watching it?”

This is one of those videos. I’m not sure what’s going on in the background, but the concept is cool, I guess. Dubbed “LCD Bending,” it’s the process of pressing a finger on a LCD TV that’s turned on.

Oh, and by the way, to the creator of this video: we’ll gladly take that TV. :)

We received this TV in one of our loads this week…

And if you missed it, here’s the original Anger Management post.

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Samsung has officially started its 3D TV marketing onslaught. The company plans to release 17(!) 3D products in 2010.

So, the question arises…

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Earlier today, Google launched its real-time search, which adds real-time results (Yahoo Answers, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.) in your search query.

Then, the genius Google geeks launched Google Goggles. I could explain it, but I’m too busy wishing I had an Android phone to test this new app. Instead, check out the demo below:

For many small businesses, increasing profit margin is a difficult task in today’s economy. “If retailers in general operate under a thin profit margin, then small retailers operate under an ultra-thin profit margin,” says Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Retail Federation.

One way to combat dwindling profit, however, is analyzing your credit card processing. “Swipe fees”–the percentage a credit card company charges per sale–can cripple a small business’ revenue (see diagram).

Credit Card Interchange - Source:GAO

And the problem? These fees are steadily rising. According to David Robertson, publisher of payment-industry web newsletter The Nilson Report, merchants paid over $62 billion in “swipe fees” in 2008, up from $16 billion in 2001.

At ShopJimmy, we spent a good chunk of this past summer researching our credit card processing system and requesting quotes from a variety of companies. Our findings? It’s important to regularly check your fees, request quotes, and negotiate with your processor to find savings. “There is a lot of competition in the business, and competition offers the opportunity for merchants to really shop around and see what is the best deal or the best service they can get,” says Jamie Savant, a partner at the Strawhecker Group, a payments-industry consultant.

During our research, we found BCS Worldwide. It’s a local (St. Paul, MN), family-owned company with a great reputation for low fees, quality customer service, and a good “corporate social responsibility” track record. Click here to learn more about BCS Worldwide and apply for a quote!

Click on Intrepid TV Repair's logo to visit their website!

In our quest to keep this blog fresh and informative, we’re starting something new! Every few weeks, we’ll showcase a technician or electronics repair company who continuously provides great service to their surrounding community. We’ll highlight technicians from across the country. It’ll be like a “stamp of approval” or endorsement, but ShopJimmy style. For our inaugural post, we’d like to introduce Intrepid TV Repair from Steelton, PA.

Intrepid, founded in 1995 by Jeff Dougherty, specializes in the repair of all high-definition displays and TVs. To maintain their technical expertise and keep up to date with electronic innovations, all Intrepid technicians regularly attend training for a variety of manufacturers. “I’ve always had the dream of owning my own business,” said Dougherty. At ShopJimmy, we’ve partnered with Intrepid for almost two years and can validate the professionalism and knowledge of Intrepid TV Repair and their technicians.

Supposedly, Jeff also moonlights as a comedian, but we can’t confirm that…