My 10-year-old son bought this computer game for himself yesterday:

I just wanna know if there’s a multi-player mode so I can pretend to be Willie Williams.

We all know how U2 feels about corporate sponsorship…or at least used to. In the past, we didn’t have “Budweiser - the official sponsor of the Vertigo tour,” right? U2 did their best to communicate that their relationship with Apple wasn’t them “selling out.” Then again, they had direct control over who they partnered with.

As folks know, National Geographic is the distributor for U23D. Given the costs involved in this production, it was only a matter of time before some company came on board to help “sponsor” the production. It was announced today that Best Buy is the “Official Presenting Sponsor and exclusive consumer electronics partner for U2 3D in the United States.”

What this means to fans….
If you are a member of Best Buy’s Membership Rewards Loyalty Program, you’ll have access to preview nights for U23D showings in 25 cities in the US prior to the film’s formal release on January 23.

Looking into the future, one could only put two-and-two together that Best Buy will soon be selling the 3D electronics for your home and will probably cut a deal (if they haven’t done so already) in offering U23D as a home video release.

U2’s long-time artistic contributor and U23D director, Catherine Owens, was quite clear during her press conference at the Cannes Film Festival last year that U23D would not be released to the home DVD market until the technology was available to fully experience the 3D quality of the film at home.

There must be some U2 fans over at Samsung as they’ve showcased at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 3D capable plasma televisions and a upconverting top box product called TriDef 3D, which comes with handy 3D glasses and everything!

Who thought that the technology would catch up so quickly? Who wants to make a new year’s prediction that we’ll have U23D at home within the next 12 months? (I’m not a betting woman, and I haven’t any clue what the odds would be on that!)

Nike has announced that they are creating a special edition shoe called the “Dunk SB,” inspired by the U2 song “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

The design features a combination of black patent leather and red velvet. You can view a photo here at eukicks.com.

I’m all about the song–don’t get me wrong–but of all the U2 tunes to base a shoe on, I might have chosen one less…bloody.

The lucky fan in New Zealand who “caught” the kite Bono released during the song “Kite” has put the item (and the two helium balloons) up for auction. But before your moral compass goes off, Claire Keam says she’s planning to donate proceeds from the auction to charity.

See the auction on Trade Me

The auction is due to close on December 5th.

Call me silly, especially living with an audiophile - but I just discovered that Maxell is selling specialty earbuds that would match the U2 iPod. Boston-area retailer Newbury Comics had them in their newspaper ad today for the low-low price of $13.88 - online they range in price upwards of $25 plus shipping.