While other home improvement retailers struggle to cope with the slumping housing industry, Home Depot already has plans to win the retail wars this holiday shopping season. The home improvement giant will be offering a gift card with rectangular plastic that doubles as a DVD. The initiative, which starts next month, will feature 25-minute how-to videos like how to install a faucet or how to hang a ceiling fan. "Consumers know that in-store demos are the cornerstone of our brand so this is not a promotion; it's a strategic offer that we're making to our consumers with no up-charge," said Manish Shrivastava, president of Home Depot Incentives.

Pre-paid cards are, according to the National Retail Federation, a $76 billion industry. Circuit City was one of the first retailers to introduce the idea of the interactive gift card last year.

Parents who saw AT&T's Smart Limits program as an end to their problems with extravagant phone bills will need to start monitoring their kids again. AT&T suspended the service on Saturday due to a problem it discovered with its phone restrictions, according to a USA Today story.

As we told you a few weeks ago, the Smart Limits service enabled parents to place limits on their kids' cell phone usage. Parents could control the amount and usage of air minutes, text messages and even downloads, as well as when their kids could make and receive calls. Part of the service allowed emergency calls to 911 to override any restrictions parents had placed on the phones. However, while the user could make the emergency call, spokesman Michael Coe said a 911 operator wouldn't be able to call back if the conversation was disconnected for some reason. Coe added that the user could still call the 911 operator back, and that this scenario has not yet happened to their knowledge.

AT&T is currently contacting users about the problem and crediting their accounts, but the company has not given an indication of when the service will be reactivated. Until then, start taking those phones away again.--Kevin Manahan