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It looks like Amazon’s decision to file a lawsuit against New York’s new tax policy on online stores may back fire on them as the Texas Comptroller’s Office is investigating the probability that the online store may actually owe the Texas government millions of dollars in unpaid taxes. If you will recall, in its case against the New York tax policy, Amazon argued that it should not pay the NY government any taxes because it doesn’t have a “physical presence” in New York.

The same reason is now being used by the Texas government as it found out that Amazon has a “physical presence” in the area. Apparently, Amazon has operated a distribution center at 2700 Regent Boulevard in Irving from 2006 to 2007. This was pointed out by the Dallas Morning News when it called Amazon to ask why it is not charging sales taxes to its online customers.

Amazon has not yet issued a statement confirming that it actually owns the distribution center. But if the presence of an Amazon flag outside the building is any indication of ownership, then Amazon may indeed own the distribution center.

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Everyones favorite love-to-hate retail chain is now celebrating their grand re-opening with 15 current locations and a new one to top it off. While 13 of those are located in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico will also share in the joy of everything that CompUSA has been lacking to offer in the past.

If you remember back when the CompUSA demise first came about, they were being snapped up by Systemax, who is better know as the owner of Tiger Direct. Sadly the Tiger Direct retail locations have not been know for a stellar in-store experience, which is reminiscent of the CompUSA’s of the past. Hopefully the re-grand opening, which is promising “lower prices’” a “new wider selection” and “amazing new deals” will prove to be better than they were in their past life.

Via [Engadget]

You know what they say in Texas, “Go big or go home!” Well it seems that the Longhorns were not content letting the Miami Dolphins have the largest HD set in the world. Texas’ new scoreboard is built by South Dakota-based Daktronics Inc., coming in at 55 feet tall and 134 feet wide with a cost of $8 million. It is nearly as wide as the field itself and will be, for a short time, the largest high-definition display in the world.

“Oh man, that thing’s big,” said wide receiver Quan Cosby. “At night, we don’t need the lights, it’s so bright.”

“When they first starting building it, I thought it was going to be half the size that it is,” said defensive end Tim Crowder. “When they kept adding more and more, I was like `How big is this thing going to be?.”

“The guys are talking about trying to hook up an Xbox to play games,” Crowder said.

Read [SI.com]

Welcome to a new segment on Gadgetell called Head to Head where we take everyday things, and match them up against each other.

Well, Dell officially just declared retail-war on Apple by launching their first store at NorthPark Center in Dallas, TX (an Apple Store location).  Luckily, we had a chance to head over there, several times actually, to take in the atmosphere and put it Head to Head with the Apple Store.  Check out the commentary below divided up by Design/Layout, Atmosphere, Customer Service.

Design/Layout - We all know how Apple Stores are laid out.  They have that cutting edge look to them; white, black, silvers, and wood.  So what about the Dell store?  Dell actually did a nice job with the store…but we have many complaints.  First, the laptop computers are all lined up on a glowing blue counter-top against the wall on the right side of the store.  Now if this actually drew any attention to the laptops then this would be a good design.  Instead, the blue kind of repels you.  It’s actually kind of junky looking.  Being the sticklers that we are, we also noticed that laptops were turned in all different directions from people playing with them.  When we moved a laptop in an Apple Store and walked away, a representative was already straightening it out again.

Read on for more of the Head to Head.

The store features a bunch of at home/office scenarios for the customer to try out.  When you walk in, they’ve got their gaming scenario right there...front and center decked out with their new 30-inch monitor (3007WFP) and the bad-ass XPS 700.  I won’t bore you walking through the other scenarios (gaming, digital photography, digital video, home office, home theater), but there is a complaint.  All of these are set up in aisles, making it seem like a Best Buy-type place, definitely not as spacious as an Apple Store.

Atmosphere - The feeling that you get when you walk into an Apple Store has been un-paralleled by anyone else… so naturally, Dell is going to have a hard time doing it.  Starting from the outside of the store, the sign was a bit bizarre.  It was a cloudy blue sign that looked like it was lit up, only not.  I would expect to see more of a bold Dell logo instead of a faint one.  One thing that we really liked was the 3 LCD TVs that were stacked on top of each other in the window.  It gave the store the cutting-edge look that they’re bound to be going for.  Once you walk in to the store, you first notice the gigantic, wall-sized Dell logo in the back of the store since it’s glowing blue (just like the laptop counter).  The designer definitely didn’t hold back on the blue, did they?

Like I mentioned above, the space was very limited on the left side of the store (the scenarios took up too much precious space).  Each scenario had a divider between them that really cut off your view of the entire store.  We would suggest removing the dividers and giving it more of an open-air feeling.

Customer Service - Apple’s got the Genius Bar, Dell’s got the Dell On Call...bar.  Awkwardly placed in the back of the Dell Store is the store’s tech support desk.  If you’ve got any type of software or hardware issue, you can bring your computer in there and they’ll diagnose the problem...and we’re assuming this is covered by your regular warranty that you can buy with your computer.  The representatives in the front of the store seemed to be knowledgeable on most things, but since the pricing of things like the LCD TVs isn’t listed, even the sales guy had to look it up for me by picking up a Dell Direct Store Weekly Specials pamphlet.  Get to know the merchandise guys!

In our famous pictures found here, you can see that they simply have too many sales people standing around.  If you’re just going to stand there, then you’re going to scare people away.  Go stand on the sides of the store or hang out in the On Call room in the back.

And finally, you knew we had to touch on the no-inventory thing.  Dell decided not to carry any inventory in their stores, so if you’re planning on walking out of the store with a new computer, you better hit up an Apple Store.  Dell has done well with their direct model, so they’re sticking to it.  If they’re not going to sell you a computer then may we suggest some sort of workstation (like they used to have in old computer stores) where you can customize and order your machine?  Just our two cents.

Of course we were going to be hard on Dell, after all, they are the new guys on the block in the mall.