If the latest Internet rumor is true, Best Buy Mobile is going to be the only place – besides Sprint stores – you will be able to pick up the hot Palm Pre. It seems that the boys in blue will have an exclusive for 60 days. While this is simple just a rumor, it isn’t unrealalistic and might work in Sprint’s favor.
The $299 Internet-Connected GPS from Best Buy’s “Insignia” house brand features a cool built-in cellular connection, allowing you to harness the power of Google to find stores, restaurants, cheap gas, and more while on the go. However, the lackluster UI and relatively high price tag hold back an otherwise awesome combination of GPS and data services.
As I recall we had an issue a few months back with another big box store but someone just caught Best Buy also using HDMI cables and comparing them to component cables. Consumerist just found another example. While this is obviously a massive fraud it might have been the only way the Best Buy folks could think to stream the same signal from the Blu-Ray player to both TVs – besides, obviously, using two Blu-Ray players.
Target’s upcoming CrunchDeal on seven cross-platform titles may not be of interest to you, but this one from Best Buy might be for the PS3 owners in the audience. Sorry Wii and Xbox 360 owners, but you’re SOL on this one.
If you like buying stuff from Best Buy but you can’t stand actually entering the stores, you might soon be able to just sit in your car and wait for them to bring your in-store pickup purchases out to you as though it were a lukewarm bag of Chili’s Chicken Crispers.
We already know that these two phones are Sprint-bound in January but BGR is reporting that Best Buy stores will see the Sprint Treo Pro 850 and a pink version of the Samsung Instinct in the near future. A pink version? That’s their answer to everything!
Time to run like crazy to your local Best Buy. Turns out that from now until December 31st, you like can get a iPhone for about $10 less then from the Apple store.
Best Buy isn’t immune to the economic crisis and had a very rough last quarter. The country’s largest electronic retailer watched same-store sales fall 5.3% over last years and net earnings take a 77% face plant. Best Buy did see a net sales increase but that was due to new store openings. Blue-collar terms? They aren’t doing so well, haus.
The company is offering 4,000 headquarter employees buy-out packages and face a rough future. While it is unlikely Best Buy will end up in the poor house with Circuit City, the retailer has some cost cutting to do.
Best Buy announced today that they are going to start selling Smartphone software applications from their in-store “Mobile Genie” system. They also announced that Handango’s In-Hand client will be custom branded for Best Buy, and automatically downloaded into each device so customers can continue to purchase apps with Handango and Best Buy after they leave the store.
In addition, some Best Buy outlets will be selling “Mobile App Packs” featuring games pre-loaded onto Micro SD cards, eliminating the need for over the air downloads.
Ok, wait a second.
Here’s the little brother of the TV deal we posted yesterday. Yes, it’s a Dynex and yes, former Geek Squad employee Alex commented in the previous post that he found the Dynex brand of TVs to not only be “GARBAGE!!!” but also “PURE GARBAGE!!” – all caps and five total exclamation points.
However, both the 42-inch TV and this 26-inch TV have gotten around 4.5 out of 5 stars by their owners, which seems to indicate that Dynex fixed what was wrong with earlier units or 125+ reviewers got extremely lucky. Either way, hooray for cheap TVs!
Dynex 26-inch 720p Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD HDTV [Best Buy]
How were the crowds at your local Best Buy, Circuit City and PC Richards yesterday? Good? Great? Grim? (My local Best Buy was pretty crowded yesterday, to say nothing of the mall itself; parking space was at a premium.) To be sure, if there’s one item these retailers hope to sell this holiday season it’s HDTVs. Lots of them, preferably. Like it or not, but HDTVs have become the great bellwether for this terrible economy: if retailers can sell a few of them all may not be lost. But if Best Buy & Co. has boxes upon boxes of them stored “in the back” it could be a sign that consumers are hoarding cash and aren’t going to spend their way out of this recession. Then we’re reduced to fighting each other with pointy sticks.
Turns out you actually DON’T really have to sit in the cold hoping to get a magic ticket so you can buy Best Buy’s Friday doorbusters because a bunch of stuff that’s available in the stores is also available on Best Buy’s website. Most notably, you can get a 52-inch Samsung 1080p LCD TV with professional installation for $1,499, a 50-inch Panasonic 720p plasma TV for $899, and the Magellan Roadmate 1212 GPS for $79.
Actually showing up at your local store will still get you some good exclusives, though, like an HP notebook with free printer for $349, a Toshiba Satellite notebook for $379, a Dynex 32-inch LCD HDTV for $399, and, most importantly, Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey on Wii for $9.99. The stores open at 5 AM, the online stuff is available now.
Best Buy Friday Doorbuster Specials [BestBuy.com]
Best Buy had some sort of Black Friday VIP contest going on where the chain invited people to send in their best Black Friday essay. I know. The winners get a $1,000 Best Buy gift card, a trip to a store in a limo, the opportunity to buy up to four “doorbusters,” and so on.
I’ve picked out a few excerpts that may interest you.
Fresh off the his and hers Dodge Rams CrunchDeal comes a similar deal for his and hers Microsoft Zune players – if you live in Canada, that is. Pick up a manly 16GB Zune at $179 from Best Buy Canada (online only) and you’ll have a soft and sensual 4GB lady Zune added to your cart for free. Not bad… not bad at all.
Microsoft Zune 16GB Portable Media Player [BestBuy.ca via Electronista]
Just so everyone knows, Geek Squad is ready to take even more of your hard earned money by offering game system setup for you. The overpriced geeks will setup user accounts and set parental controls for the low, low price of $29. That’s for in store setup though and as always, Geek Squad is set to charge you an extraordinary amount for in-home setup just so lazy people don’t need to read the instruction manual.
How hard is it to setup user accounts? My goodness, the console guides you through the process, but whatever, Best Buy doesn’t make people buy these setups.
Round of applause for Best Buy, which aims to educate you all about the upcoming digital TV transition. (Remember the big day: February 17, 2009.) The lastelectronics retailer left standing will hold a series of workshops at 25 of its stores to “educate consumers about the transition to digital television broadcasting and help them choose the best solution for their television needs.”
Here, let me save you (or someone you know) a trip to one of these workshops. (Remember, I have a certificate in this stuff.) If you watch TV via cable or satellite you’re fine. If you’re still watching TV using the old bunny ears—I doubt many of you guys are—then you need a digital converter box, which are free through a government-subsidized program. That’s it. You don’t need to buy a fancy new TV to watch TV come February 18.
Break out your credit cards, if you still have them! Black Friday is right around the corner so we’ll be seeing leaked ads all over the place for the next few days.
Today’s is a big one, Best Buy. Though BlackFriday.info highlights an $899 50-inch Panasonic Viera. Nine-hundred for a 50-inch TV may seem like a good deal till you realize it’s only a 720p model. If you’re already resigned to spend a grand on a TV it might as well be a 1080p one, right?
I did spy with my eye, however, that Best Buy has Transformers on Blu-ray for only $10. Now that’s a deal, especially if you consider that it won some Blu-ray award a few days ago for best sound.
It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 might almost be here. BGR has some shots of Best Buy’s internal stock showing a December 7th in-stock date and an unlocked selling price of $799. That’s a lot of coin, so we can only assume that it’ll be the greatest phone in the history of cellular telephony, right?
Get thee to Best Buy as soon as possible if you want to pre-order a BlackBerry Storm, which, as we all know, is the first BlackBerry with a touchscreen. A crisp $50 bill and a smile is all that’s required to pre-order this, Verizon Wireless’ “we’re cool, too!” device.
There’s the small issue of not knowing exactly what the final price will be when it’s released later this month—speculation puts it at between $199 and $299. I, for one, hopes Verizon charges something outrages, like $800, just as a goof.
Presumably all you have to do is inquire about the device once in the store.
