Sony Ericsson has finally put a firm US release date on their XPERIA X1 smartphone. Fans of the WinMo 6.1 powerhouse can breathe a sigh of relief, as rumors of it’s release slipping into next year were entirely unfounded. The unit will be released on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Head on over to your favorite retail center on November 28th and battle it out with parents looking for a Wii in order to obtain this $799.99 smartphone. The company offers no word regarding a subsidized version for any US carrier.

Rumors have been swirling around the Internet that Sony is going to be joining EMI to bring DRM-free music to Apple’s iTunes Plus service. The service is a higher-MP3-quality DRM-free option that exists within the Apple iTunes store. Thus far EMI is the only major label involved with the service, so the addition of Sony would be a major incentive for other labels to jump onboard. Still, this is currently just a rumor so stay tuned.

Walmart and Kmart are enticing consumers to get a jump on their holiday shopping by holding a series of "Black Friday-style" sales well before the Friday after Thanksgiving. The price cuts go into effect tomorrow, Saturday, November 8th. Walmart is offering up a 15.4-inch Compaq CQ-139WM laptop with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive for only $298. They are also selling a PlayStation 2 bundled with a $30 Walmart gift card for $129 and a PlayStation 3 bundled with a $100 gift card for $399.

Over at Kmart, they are offering up a 32-inch Sylvania LCD HDTV for $439.99 and starting on Sunday, Wii Fit will be available for just $89.99, balance board included. Get shopping!

An independent research study has issued their results regarding the attachment rates for each video game console. An attachment rate is taken to be the amount of games sold per console per person. After 23 months on the market, the PS3 and Wii are virtually tied, with 5.3 and 5.5 games sold per system, respectively. During that same time, the Xbox 360 was hanging high at 6.6 games sold per system.

The Xbox 360 does have the benefit of being the first kid on the block, being released a good year before the other two. However, they’ve always had an excellent attachment rate. Whereas, a good portion of Nintendo Wii owners may have never bought anything besides the pack-in Wii Sports, which would bring down their number considerably.

Sony has prepared a new audio format specifically for use with compact disc, Blu-spec CD. It takes advantage of Sony’s Blu-ray technology to press high-quality compact discs that can still be played in garden variety CD players. The electronics giant has yet to reveal how the tech works but one assumes they will issue a press release as they get closer to releasing some discs. Sony plans on releasing 60 classics on Blu-spec CD in December. The prices will range from ¥2,500 (about $25) to ¥4,200 ($42).