Posts tagged Best Buy at Switched

Posts with tag Best Buy

Best Buy's Blue Label Laptops Built According to Customer Feedback

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 8th 2008 at 2:28PM

Hey guys / gals, check this out. Best Buy is practically admitting that it is just now starting to "gather insights from customers and work with manufacturers to design products that address [consumers'] needs." In a rather odd release, the big box retailer is announcing two new laptops that'll be exclusive to its store: the 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 and the 13.3-inch HP Pavilion dv3510nr. According to the release, these laptops were created and inspired by feedback from Best Buy customers

The Toshiba will feature a 1.2-inch thin frame, WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, 5.5-hours of battery life and an $1,199 price tag. The HP (shown after the break) will include a LED-backlit WXGA display, up to 4-hours of battery life, inbuilt webcam and precisely the same retail price.

Eventually, Best Buy is hoping to expand the Blue Label series to other product lines, though there's no word on where to find these elusive input cards that it's supposedly using to pick and choose wares.

Continue reading Best Buy's Blue Label Laptops Built According to Customer Feedback

MacGyver and Steven Seagal Launch New Geek Squad Service

by Dan Reilly, posted Sep 17th 2008 at 5:47PM

On Monday, Best Buy tech-help division Geek Squad launched its new Black Tie Protection service, which covers home theater, mobile tech, gadgets, and more, in addition to computers. Naturally, the electronics retailer decided that it needed some star power to kick off its new product, so it invited three celebrity "icons of protection": Tanya Roberts of 'Charlie's Angels' and 'That '70s Show', MacGyver (aka Richard Dean Anderson, and Steven Seagal), a musician who's made some martial arts movies (or is it the other way around?).

Since Best Buy is the exclusive provider of this service, the celebs showed up at a Manhattan store in three black SUVs escorted by the incredibly intimidating Geek Squad members in their Geekmobiles, black and white VW Bugs that are the official cars of the service. Anderson arrived first on the orange carpet, yelling "hello New York!" to the crowd of media, fans, and bewildered pedestrians walking on Broadway. Roberts came second, looking great at age 52. And finally, Seagal's SUV showed up and the martial artist got out of the wrong side of the car, said hello to the host briefly, and walked quickly inside. Some onlookers looked disappointed, but then it was time for the Q & A.

Flanked by Best Buy and Geek Squad employees, the three "protectors" sat on a small stage with lighting so hot that two of them asked for it to be changed before anything started. While this may sound like diva behavior, we can attest that it really was hot as hell up there, especially if you were wearing a suit like Anderson's. Poor Mac was getting sweaty by the end. The brief Q&A session mainly featured a female audience member telling both Anderson and Seagal how much she enjoyed their work without asking a question. Awesome.

Luckily for us, we were given a few minutes to talk with Mr. Seagal – you'd call him that too if you were standing right next to him – about tech, music, and his current work. Check out the interview after the break, as well as our gallery featuring more pictures and quotes of the stars. Something, um, may depend on it.

Continue reading MacGyver and Steven Seagal Launch New Geek Squad Service

Best Buy To Sell iPhone 3G Starting Next Month

by Chris Ziegler, posted Aug 16th 2008 at 9:12AM

And now for the irony: it'll be no better a buy than what you can find at ye olde Apple or AT&T store. Best Buy officially becomes the first third-party retailer in the US to sell the iPhone in an official capacity -- 3G or otherwise -- when it launches the iPhone 3G in some 970 stores plus an additional 18 dedicated Mobile locations on September 7 for the same $199 and $299 price points found elsewhere.

Quoth Best Buy Mobile's CEO, "We had a lot of work to do, obviously, to get in a position where Apple and AT&T would feel good about Best Buy Mobile carrying it, and that's what we've done in the last 18 months." In other words, this has been a pretty persistent effort to score the third-party exclusive essentially since the original model was announced, and it's just now paying off. There's no indication on how the addition of Best Buy to the US sales mix will affect production or distribution, but at least there'll be one more place to try to find some frickin' stock. [From: Yahoo News]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Best Buy to Sell Gadgets in Airport Vending Machines

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 11th 2008 at 12:05PM

Best Buy Putting Gadget Vending Machines in Airports

Best Buy is paving the way for employee-free retail by installing gadget vending machines in airports around the country. Travelers will be able to pick up a host of electronic devices including cell phones, digital cameras, headphones, and various power adapters from the machines for what are sure to be absurd prices. The Best Buy vending machines will be operated and stocked by Zoom Systems, the same company that has put iPod- and Sony-gadget-vending machines in varied places such as the Dallas-Fort-Worth Airport, the Las Vegas Hilton, and Macy's.

The first batch of machines will be installed on September 1, in airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco. They're sure to come in handy for the forgetful traveler who is always leaving behind important accessories, but we're not sure how comfortable we would be buying an expensive piece of equipment like a digital camera from the same machines that are always eating our dollar bills when we want a Snickers bar. Even so, Zoom Systems offers a 60-day return policy, in case you, say, accidentally press the wrong button and buy the wrong color iPod.

On the plus side, a vending machine can't steal your very personal photographs. [Source: AOL News]

Dr. Dre's Headphones Bring the 'Beats' for $350

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 12:42PM

You can't put velvet in these earcups and call 'em nice headphones! As Mr. Chappelle would likely attest, there are no better headphones in which to drop the beat into than Dr. Dre's "highly anticipated" Beats. The master of chronic himself has slapped his all-but-forgotten name onto a set of cans (which we covered a few months ago), and is now ready to introduce 'em to the world.

Starting on July 25th, the crunk-inducing headphones -- which Switched reviewed back in January -- will be available exclusively at Apple and Best Buy (both online and in-store), though the buying experience would likely be way more gangsta if checking out at BeatsByDre.com. Still, for $349.95, we'd recommend looking at more respected names in sound, but if your street cred is sitting at rock bottom, you may have no other choice. Thug life, fool. [Source: Business Wire]

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Hands-on With Monster's Dr Dre Beats Headphones

Best Buy Snaps Up 17 CompUSA Leases

by Joshua Topolsky, posted May 1st 2008 at 6:03PM

Apparently, not only is CompUSA rising from the dead like a horrific, zombified corpse, but now its guts are getting bought up and replaced by another retail behemoth. According to reports, Best Buy has just paid $13.5 million for 17 CompUSA store leases, ranging in time from three to 14 years and totaling 453,000 square feet. If the nightmare of CompUSA wasn't enough to haunt you in your sleep, the news that its now-defunct locations will be replaced with essentially more of the same should shake you to your very core. We imagine the Best Buy victory rap will be making the rounds again, you can jog your memory after the break. [Source: Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal]

[Thanks, Brian]

$399 Windows Eee PC Now Available at Best Buy

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 8th 2008 at 10:12AM

Wal-Mart seems to think that consumers don't want to buy cheap computers (earlier this eyar, the retailer pulled the $199 Everex gPC from store shelves and forcing consumers to go dig through its Web site to order one). Fellow big-box retailer Best Buy, however, has a different opinion. The home electronics powerhouse has just made picked up the recently released Windows XP version of the $399 Eee PC, which is now available both via its website and for in-store pickup.

We've reported on the low-cost Eee PC many times before, including word just last week that this XP flavored version was coming. That was good news for many who were looking for a cheap ultra-portable but wanted the familiarity of Windows. When we reviewed the laptop in February we found it to be capable and compact, if not quite a powerhouse. (What do you expect for $400?) The addition of Windows XP to the device should make it an even more appealing -- though slower -- option for many, though the faster version with a larger screen coming later this summer may be an even better choice ...

From Engadget

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HD DVD Responds to Bad Press Day

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 13th 2008 at 6:00PM

Yesterday was a bad day for HD DVD. We've already declared HD DVD dead in the water, but not everyone has come around just yet. Yesterday both Best Buy and Netflix helped bury the Toshiba-backed HD DVD coalition. Netflix announced that it would begin exclusively carrying Blu-Ray discs, and Best Buy will continue to carry HD DVDs and HD DVD players, but will "recommend" BluRay to customers.

The HD DVD Promotional Group released a press statement in response to the two major setbacks:

"We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."

Obviously, some of the spark and fight has left the group when the best they can come up with is Blu-Ray hasn't pushed us off the shelves yet.

From Engadget

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Some Digital Photo Frames Sold at Best Buy During Holidays Contain Virus

by Will Safer, posted Jan 24th 2008 at 1:28PM

Best Buy's Insignia Digital Photo Frame

If you bought a 10.4-inch Insignia-branded photo frame with model number NS-DPF-10A from Best Buy during the holidays, then beware: The device may come with a virus that can infect Windows-based computers.

Best Buy has taken all the remaining Insignia-branded frames off its store shelves and has discontinued producing them. According to the Insignia Web site, "this is an older virus which is easily identified and removed by current anti-virus software." The company is also providing telephone support for any consumers concerned they have one of the infected frames at 1-877-467-4289.

(Note: Insignia is a brand name created and owned by Best Buy to create several lines of consumer electronics products for distribution through its stores. This is similar to store brands of other types that consumers typically see in everything from grocery stores to auto parts dealers.)

This isn't the first time a consumer electronics product comes installed with a little something malicious that the consumer wasn't counting on. GPS maker TomTom found out the hard way in late 2006 that a batch of its GO 910 units were infected at the factory level with a virus. And even the beloved iPod hasn't been immune, with an incident also in late 2006 where a collection of its 5.5-gigabyte MP3 players sprung up with a virus that was inserted at the manufacturing point. (That virus only infected Windows machines, as well.)

How does this happen? Typically, it's not the work of some nefarious factory employee who wants to sabotage a product line. Instead, the people who work at these manufacturing points are just as susceptible as the rest of us to mistakenly downloading a virus onto their work computers. This virus then replicates itself and ultimately makes its way onto one of the computers that is tasked with setting up the consumer electronics products destined for store shelves.

Both Apple and TomTom stated at the time that they were reviewing their manufacturing processes to prevent this from happening again and issued warnings and advice to consumers, just as Best Buy and Insignia are doing now.

Best Buy has not issued a recall of the photo frames. Since the flaw is (apparently) easy to correct, we don't think a panic is forthcoming -- or necessary.

From ComputerWorld.

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Best Buy's Geek Squad Finds Child Porn on Janitor's Computer, Janitor Arrested

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jan 16th 2008 at 10:22AM

Best Buy's Geek Squad isn't exactly known for respecting people's property. This time, however, instead of us catching them, they caught a guy with child porn.

A middle school custodian sent in a hard drive back in August of 2007 to recover lost data. Upon performing their usual search (and invasion of personal privacy), the Geek Squadders at a Twin Cities location found over 800 images of young girls between the ages of 7 and 15 in various states of undress and performing sexual acts. The Geek Squad promptly turned the evidence over to the police. The police eventually obtained a search warrant and -- upon execution -- found more evidence in the janitor's home.

While we would like to say that this guy is sick and deserves whatever punishment he gets, we are disturbed by the conduct of Geek Squad employees who seem to make it a habit of going through customer data. Whether or not the data is illegal and leads to arrest, warrantless searches by non-law-enforcement personnel is disturbing on an ethical level and we're pretty sure unconstitutional.

From Consumerist

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Best Buy Caught Faking Low Nintendo Wii Supplies

by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 13th 2007 at 10:26AM

Nintendo's Wii console has been very hard to find for a long time now -- so long that some are calling shenanigans. A lot of folks think that Nintendo is artificially creating news and demand by keeping supplies of its little white console low. Those claims have never been substantiated, but now we have some proof that some other players are getting in on the game. The Consumerist has is reporting that Best Buy employees are clearing out their Wii inventories by broadcasting that they're down to a single Wii console -- over and over again.

The report was filed by a witness at the Princeton, New Jersey Best Buy. The witness saw an employee parade around holding a Wii over her head while another employee announced "Julie is now walking through the store with our last Nintendo Wii! If you're looking for a Nintendo Wii, please look for Julie!" Someone in the store grabbed the box and bought the console, of course. 30 minutes later, another employee did the same thing, with another Wii held aloft for all to see. The witness claims he overheard the store's managers discussing the scheme and planning to send Julie out a third time forty minutes later.

This isn't the first time Best Buy has been caught doing something shady: Earlier this year, some branches of the chain set up a second, secret version of the Best Buy Web site, which was accessible only from within the store and had higher prices than the public Web site, presumable to keep people from getting lower in-store prices. The discount chain has also been accused of tricking people into signing up for subscriptions to MSN, as well as selling a hard drive that contained only bathroom tiles.

From The Consumerist

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Best Buy's $200 Black Friday PC and Other Cheap Computers

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Nov 12th 2007 at 3:25PM

Shopping on Black Friday requires a certain amount of masochism -- struggling through the crowds, punching mothers in front of their children to get that cheap plasma TV -- it's dangerous business.

If you decide to brave the battlefield at Best Buy this year, you'll be rewarded with an opportunity to grab an eMachines PC with a 17 inch LCD monitor for the super low price of $200. Don't expect the world though. The PC is rumored to be powered by an Intel Celeron running at 2.66 Ghz (meaning no efficient and powerful 'Core' for you), comes with 512 megabytes of RAM (which is the bare minimum for doing just about anything on a computer these days), has a measly 80 Gigabyte hard drive, and it has no DVD burner.

Don't get us wrong -- $200 is still a heck of a price, but you could get so much more, or at least more interesting for a tad more cash. For instance, Wal-Mart is selling their own $200 PC without monitor. The gPC, as it's called, runs Linux instead of the resource-hungry Vista and uses an ultra low-power (and carbon-neutral) processor from Via. Or, how about the diminutive and cheap Eee from Asus which is also powered by Linux (noticing a trend here?). Priced from $200 to $400, these little laptops let you get all your basic computing tasks done by focusing on web applications.

Or, if you're in the market for something truly different, head on over to Laptop.org and you can get yourself one of the OLPC XOs (also Linux powered). These tiny, innovative convertible laptops are meant for kids in developing nations, but for a limited time you can order one for yourself as long as you're willing to pay for two. The second one gets sent to a child in the third world on your dime. In that case, $400 gets you a technological marvel, a piece of history, and a warm, fuzzy feeling.

From Engadget

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Circuit City Shopper Cuffed for Refusing to Show Receipt

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 4th 2007 at 4:41PM

If you shop with any frequency at giant chain stores such as Circuit City, Best Buy, Home Depot or even Bed, Bath & Beyond, you've probably grown accustomed to showing a security person your receipt and allowing him to inspect the contents of your bag as you leave the store.

For most of us, this inspection is routine and nothing more than a nuisance. But, have you ever stopped to wonder if this is even legal, or that this search of your bags is essentially an accusation of theft? Well, this past weekend, an Ohio man decided to refuse the search of his bag at an area Circuit City and soon found himself behind bars.

Though he tells the story in much more detail on his own blog, here's a synopsis of what happened to Michael Righi of Brooklyn, Ohio. This past Saturday afternoon, he dropped into Circuit City and bought a surge protector and a copy of Disney's 'Cars' video game for the Ninetendo Wii. When Righi was told by the door person that his bag needed to be inspected and compared to his receipt, Righi refused with a polite "No thank you" and kept walking outside, where his father was waiting behind the driver's seat of his car. The security person and manager ran out of the store and blocked the car's exit from the parking lot. When neither could tell Righi which U.S. law gave them the right to search his bag, Righi asked to be let go or he would call the police himself. They refused and Righi called the police. When the officer showed up, he inspected the bag and saw nothing had been stolen. He also asked Righi for his driver's license. Since Righi was not driving his father's car, he refused to give up his driver's license, but was happy to give his name and address at the officer's request. Not amused, the officer arrested Righi and booked him for 'Obstructing Official Business.'

Righi is now fighting the charges. He plans to involve the ACLU and is even taking donations on his site to help fund his defense. You need to read Righi's full account of the events before you come to any conclusions, but we think it's fair to say that he definitely stirred the pot. Sure, this bag search is definitely an invasion of privacy, and now that we think about it, it really is kind of like accusing us loyal customers of theft. The police officer may or may not have had the right to request Righi's license, but once you refuse an order from a police officer you kind of have to expect you'll end up in the clink – right or wrong. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this case.

From Slashdot

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Thieves Begin Tracking Gadget Shoppers

by Tom Conlon, posted Aug 28th 2007 at 4:26PM

According to Consumerist, shoppers in Canada's Mississauga, ON, region are on alert after several consumers were robbed shortly after making big-ticket purchases at electronics stores. Police say criminals are staked out at these stores where they lay in wait for a person to buy an expensive item. The thieves will then tail the shopper to his or her next destination, wait until the shopper leaves the car, then break in and rob the items the victim had just bought.

These Canadian hooligans sure are creative -- though definitely a non-confrontational bunch. Here in the good ol' United States, a similar post-purchase rash of thefts occurred when the rare and expensive PlayStation 3 was launched last year. Only, that time there were a lot of blades, blood and hospital visits involved. That's America, baby.

From Consumerist

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Wait Until After the Holidays to Buy a New TV, Analysts Say

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 28th 2007 at 2:18PM

If you've been thinking about getting a fancy new HDTV, you might want to wait unitl after the holidays to make your purchase -- at least that's the advice several analysts have given to the New York Times. Over the past couple of years, flat-panel prices have plummeted (and subsequently) so have profits.

As a result, retailers are focusing less on the affordable brands (Vizio, Norcent, Olevia) and more on pricier name-brand models (Pioneer, Sony, Sharp). Best Buy, Circuit City and even Costco are not only pushing higher-end models with the latest features like 1080p and HDMI 1.3, but also high-profit additions like extended warranties and professional installation

The relentless push for higher profits will likely let up after the holidays. Many retailers also have large post holiday sales events. So if you're in the market for an HDTV, wait until Dec. 26th. In the meantime, you can always check sites such as dealnews.com to find the latest promotions that may in fact exist before or after the holidays.

From The New York Times

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