Today is the launch of a new payment service from Google called Google Checkout. And WeaKnees is there!

Customers can now choose to pay for WeaKnees products through Google Checkout by clicking that option at the checkout screen. Here’s a screenshot:

see a larger image

Clicking the Google Checkout button takes you to your account on Google’s site, or to a sign up page for the account. Here’s an example of what I got when I did a checkout:

see a larger image

It’s a pretty cool system. In typical Google fashion, the interface is quick, sparse, and comfortable. Try it out!

See some Google info about Google Checkout.

After much, much work in Photoshop, we’ve added a new page to our website showing and describing each key on the Harmony 880 remote. The bottom line is that literally any key can be customized with any function (or macro) but we list the default for each for use with a TiVo DVR.

We really think this remote is excellent and we highly recommend it for any user with an A/V receiver in their system. And for the time being there’s a $50 rebate on the remote.

We have just posted a new page listing all of the rebates available for products we sell:

WeaKnees Rebate Page

We’ll try to keep them all listed here and up-to-date.

Maybe it’s because everyone is getting these as gifts around this time, but we’ve been getting lots of requests for the tips pages. They are here:

TiVo 30 Second Skip

Sort your Now Playing List (primarily for older units that can’t sort by pressing enter)

Season Pass Tips

That’s the list of what we’ve got so far!

For years we’ve shipped most of our packages out via FedEx, with smaller ones going via United States Postal Service. Now, the big change is, for about the last six weeks we’ve shipped most of our boxes out UPS. Cables and remotes ordered alone with free shipping still generally go out USPS.

The change was primarily based on price. We were offered better rates with UPS, and consequently we’ve been able to reduce our express shipping charges to customers significantly. We still offer free ground shipping of everything we sell (that gets painful with the new 5LNB DirecTV dishes) but now our overnight, 2-day, and 3-day rates to customers are about 20% lower.

In addition, since UPS integrates the ground and express shipping charges, we’ve simplified our shipping process here. One truck arrives, and tracking numbers are more uniform. So far so good.

The other big shipping news here is that we’ve started shipping to Canada. TiVo recently supported using their TiVo DVRs in Canada, and we’ve had an increase in questions from potential customers in Canada. To be sure, there’s no rush of Canadians flooding us with orders, but there are some at this point. The two big drawbacks here are: 1) the rebate for TiVos only includes TiVos purchased for use in the US and 2) shipping isn’t cheap. We’ve been shipping all packages destined for Canada via the USPS, which works fairly well, and is far less expensive than using FedEx or UPS for international shipments.

Lets hope TiVo extends the rebate to our neighbors north of the border - why would Canadians be any less valuable as customers than US residents?