Become.com is excited to announce that yesterday it raised $17.5 million investment from TPG (Texas Pacific Group), one of the largest private equity and venture capital firms in the world. Everyone here at Become.com is thrilled with the deal and the opportunity to continue to grow our business into the most enjoyable shopping experience on the web for our customers. This investment gives us the necessary resources to strengthen our core technology and the ability to explore new ideas within our site. We'd love to hear back from our shoppers/readers/visitors on how we can improve our site. We are always eager to find new ideas and improvements, so leave us a comment!

You can find the official press release here.

Brent

Posted by Brent at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The new Summer/Spring 2008 A.P.C. collection has just arrived, and although I’m a big fan of A.P.C.’s high ready-to-wearability factor, this season’s collection makes it hard for me to justify paying top dollar for it versus simply purchasing similarly made items from H&M or Forever 21. Sure the pieces are freakishly enticing with its smart use of neutrals, ultra-feminine silhouettes, and just overall prettiness, but when I decide to shell out the dough for designer duds, I would expect to be compensated with the subtle details that regular cheap imitations and reiterations don’t posses.

One might argue that A.P.C. isn’t the type of brand you go to if you’re looking for quirky details and embellishments, but despite the fact that their aesthetic focuses on clean, classic clothing, I still feel that with their top notch design team and price tags, they should deliver.

Still, I’m a sucker for their goods, so I’ll still be browsing and most likely stalking for sales, but until then I may have to turn my attention away and go to other contemporary brands and their more economical counterparts for the season.

Jill

Posted by Jill at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

First of all, happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

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It’s finally here! The planets have aligned and brought us peace and harmony on earth. Okay, well maybe I’m being a bit too dramatic, but my joy for the arrival of Super Smash Brothers Brawl is hard to contain. It really is everything we’ve all been waiting for. For the uncultured of you out there, Smash is a game (perhaps THE game) where players can take their favorite cute and fluffy Nintendo characters and beat the living snot out of each other for fun and profit. It has been heralded as one of the best tournament games ever made, and between its three incarnations it has most likely sucked away a large portion of many gamer’s lives.

The real question on everyone’s minds is how does Brawl stack up to Melee. The answer sort of depends on the player. The first question I must ask is, “Do you know what a wave dash is, and how often did you use it?” The second is “Are you comfortable learning new things?” Brawl changes the game quite a bit. The glitch known as Wave Dashing (a complicated series of moves that sent the player sliding wildly across the stage allowing them to avoid the cool down time on most abilities) is a thing of the past. The new characters (including names such as Wario, King Dedede, Solid Snake, and Sonic the Hedgehog) have styles of play very different from Melee. Even some of the classic characters have had their game changed quite a bit, some becoming far less effective while others becoming minor gods (all glory to our overlord Marth).

The real kick in the pants for this game is the online play. For those of us with friends spread all over the country, the idea of online play was a wonderful addition. So far the actual experience of this has been broken and frustrating. Games (if you can find one) take a very long time to actually begin, and often are hindered by sever lag. This is without mentioning the shockingly foolish friend codes which just seem to be punishing us for the crime of having friends. Why Nintendo can’t get their act together in the online gaming market is beyond me, but it really hurts the overall enjoyment of Smash.

The bottom line is that, despite the online problems (which in reality will probably be fixed), this is the game that will reside in that shiny blue glowing slot in your Wii for some time. There is nothing that will come out in the next year that can top this one. So go dig up your old Gamecube controllers (or pick up some classic controllers) and pick this title up for some 4 player havoc and a general good time.

Oh, and my friend code is: 0817 3444 0313

Feel free to leave yours in comments for so me Pocket Change smash action.

Kris

Posted by Kris at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s barely even spring, and sunny weather footwear are out in full force in department stores and online retailers everywhere. Last time we brought you summer dresses part one and deux, this time we bring you an even more enticing array of eye candy, er, or should I say foot candy?

Here are some of my top flat sandal picks. Next time heels!

All sandals from shopbop.com. Background images from Lula Magazine Issue #6 Spring/Summer 2008.

Jill

Posted by Jill at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For all you die hard sports fans out there, is there any other better time of the year? The heavily anticipated NCAA basketball tournament is right around the corner, about to fill our hearts with awe-inspiring performances from Cinderella teams and drive us crazy with the inevitable bracket busters. The two weeks of March Madness is the definition of what sports are all about. If the college ranks aren't your cup of tea, you also have the conclusion of the NBA regular season. We have never seen such a close conference race as we've seen this year in the Western Conference. Every team in the Western Conference has a legitimate shot at making it to the NBA finals. The Houston Rockets are on the verge of recording a 20-game winning streak. You have surprise teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Hornets looking like they are ready to compete for a title, and you have the gold standard of the San Antonio Spurs to still deal with. With so many exciting story lines in the NBA, how could you miss a minute of the action.

Now you're probably saying to yourself, wow, I'll probably have to get at least a couple TV's just to keep up with all the action. I always say there's nothing wrong with watching 3 or 4 games at once, so I say go for it. Also, do yourself a favor, get a DVR to make sure you can record all the historical magic.

It can't get much better than that, can it?.... Well, you're wrong. The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and you can smell the freshly cut grass. To a sports fan, that only means one thing. BASBALL SEASON! Every year at this time, millions of fans renew their loyalties to their beloved teams in hopes for a World Series title. I know for a FACT, that this is the year the Dodgers will finally pull it out (OK I might be a little biased). And just to top it off, the sport's Gods decide to throw in St. Patrick's Day at the beginning of all this just as a reminder that your life is about to get that much better in March. So happy March to all you sports fan out there and I'll see you in April when all my PTO is gone.

Brent

Posted by Brent at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)