Hasta La Gadget!

Best Buy’s gadget repurchase program has become official during the Super Bowl, courtesy of a silly commercial starring Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber. The ad’s actually a lot less cringe-inducing than it might have been, though the content of the program still doesn’t seem to make much fiscal sense to us. You have to buy into it at the time of purchasing a gadget — that requirement is set aside until this Saturday as a sort of grace / enticement period — and Best Buy depreciates at a very aggressive annual rate, arguably cutting more of your trinkets’ value than the incumbent options like online auction sites. Skip past the break to see the two gentlemen at opposite ends of their careers selling their souls to the almighty dollar, along with Best Buy’s full press release and Buy Back Program details.

Continue reading Best Buy Buy Back becomes official, free through February 12th

Best Buy Buy Back becomes official, free through February 12th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The evidence for a Motorola Xoom launch on February 24th just became that bit more compelling, courtesy of this here Best Buy ad. It promises Moto’s Android tablet will be in stores a couple of weeks from now, decorated with a daunting $799.99 sticker. That price agrees with one of our earliest leaks on the matter, purportedly from Verizon’s own systems, so all the pieces seem to be falling into place for a pretty exciting end to February for Android fans. This flier also has some data tariffs on it, starting at $20 per month for a 1GB allowance and stretching up to a 10GB limit for $80 (identical to VZW’s pricing with the Galaxy Tab). Doesn’t really sound like the most appealing proposition we’ve ever heard, but maybe if those prices remain static once the Xoom gets its 4G upgrade, we could learn to love them.

Update: Motorola’s official Xoom portal just went live, presumably as its Super Bowl ad finally aired.

Best Buy ad prices Motorola Xoom at $800, affirms February 24th launch date originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re already fatigued of reporting launch dates for devices announced at this year’s CES — it seems like each one has had at least four different potential release points — but when you get one of Best Buy’s official Facebook pages blabbing about when the Moto Xoom and HTC Thunderbolt will be arriving… well, you sum up the strength to do it one more time. Contrary to earlier insider leaks pinning the Xoom to a February 17th launch, Best Buy is now promising to have the vanguard of the Honeycomb tablet revolution on February 24th. That’s exactly a week later than our earlier info, so perhaps somebody somewhere decided to push things back a bit. We have no doubt, however, that Motorola is nearly ready with its slate — there have been plenty of them spotted around the Super Bowl this week. In the meantime, HTC’s LTE-equipped 4.3-incher seems to have finally settled down on Valentine’s Day as its time of reckoning, a day after the similarly sized Inspire 4G hits AT&T.

Motorola Xoom coming to Best Buy on February 24th, HTC Thunderbolt on the 14th originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Of course, shortly after the that $800 Motorola Xoom price point hits comes another, slightly more manageable number from someone who apparently has access to Best Buy’s internal paperwork. 

Anroid Central, who also broke the news about the $800 Verizon price, got its hands on a memo from Best Buy putting the Xoom’s pricing at $699.99. Still pricey, sure, but down $100 from what we saw over the weekend.

Thing is, that $799.99 price from Verizon was the minimum advertised price, meaning the company can, theoretically, charge less than that, it’s just not allowed to go around bragging about it.

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s starting to look like things just might be starting to maybe, possibly line up for the white iPhone 4. We saw some inventory shots from Vodafone Germany ourselves yesterday, and now Mac Rumors has turned up a shot of it own that appears to show both 16GB and 32GB versions of the phone in Best Buy’s inventory system in the US. What’s more, these listings also show a specific in-stock date of February 27th and, for what it’s worth, the model numbers match those that first turned up in Best Buy’s system when it was originally taking pre-orders for the difficult-to-manufacture phone. Of course, we still won’t be fully satisfied until we start seeing some actual boxes with white iPhones in them, but here’s hoping we won’t have to wait too much longer for that to happen — Apple still hasn’t pushed back that “spring 2011” date, after all.

[Thanks, Micah ]

White iPhone 4 purportedly turns up in Best Buy’s inventory system, launching February 27th? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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