Hasta La Gadget!

The latest entrant into the ereader market has two powerful new allies: Best Buy and Verizon. iRex, once a provider for a Barnes & Noble-branded device, is set to hit Best Buy shelves next month, ready to mix up the decidedly sparse ebook market.

The company is rolling out the DR800SG, a $399 device that features an 8.1-inch touchscreen and unlimited Verizon 3G wireless access. The reader has access to Barnes & Noble’s ebookstore and Newspapers Direct’s 1,100 plus papers. The device can handle HSDPA data and, unlike the Kindle, is up for some serious ePub action, which means you’ll have Google Books at your disposal.

UPDATE: More details and photos of the iRex available now at pcmag.com.

Get ready to add another big time e-reader partnership to the list: iRex is set to announce later today a deal that will bring its latest DR800SG E-Ink slab to Best Buy with unlimited Verizon 3G data on board. The $399 e-reader with 8.1-inch touchscreen arrives as rumored with the ability to wirelessly download digital books from Barnes & Noble’s e-bookstore in addition to over 1,100 newspapers from Newspapers Direct — it’ll also handle any books downloadable in the ePub format. The 3G goodness comes via a Gobi radio from Qualcomm — right, that means HSDPA data too, allowing owners to download data while traveling abroad. Take that Kindle. The DR800SG is expected to arrive in US Best Buy stores next month. We’ll be going hands-on with it later today where we’ll have plenty of pics and the full suite of specs.

Update: iRex has dropped a picture onto its home page. Is that stylus to scale?

[Thanks, Tom]

Filed under: Handhelds

iRex DR800SG e-reader brings global 3G downloads — Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Verizon partnerships originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A funny thing happens when a major new handset’s released on a big carrier: matching accessories come along for the ride. Cases, chargers, armbands, screen protectors, you name it — anything to get you to double your spend before you walk out of the door with your multi-hundred-dollar phone. Of course, those accessories frequently aren’t perfectly synced with the phone itself — they ship a few days beforehand or after the fact, so stuff like this is bound to happen. In this particular case, the upcoming Instinct HD is getting some silicone protection ahead of time courtesy of Best Buy, which should go well with those invisibleSHIELDs you picked up a few weeks back. Meanwhile, the phone itself is expected just a handful of days from now, so at least it’s not totally insane to start stocking up on accessories now.

[Thanks, Matt G.]

Filed under: Cellphones

Instinct HD gear starts turning up at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First there was an alleged Toys R Us ad, and now we’ve caught wind of what’s claimed to be a Best Buy spot showing the Nintendo Wii getting that long-desired $50 price drop, down just below the two Benjamin mark. Easily Photoshopped image? You betcha, so we’ll just have to play wait-and-see as the evidence seems to mount up — it’s been a long time coming, after all, we wouldn’t be that surprised given the oncoming holiday season and the recent downward trend in demand.

Filed under: Gaming

$199 Nintendo Wii spotted in Best Buy ad? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re sure that none of our stunningly attractive, gadget-expert readers would ever think about walking into an electronics retailer and asking the opinion of the teenagers in blue shirts and name tags. But, we also know that there are plenty of other folks out there who do, and when they do they’re told to buy Samsung HDTVs a whopping 58 percent of the time. There’s certainly nothing wrong with Samsung sets, but there are certainly plenty of options out there, too. These numbers come from the always quotable J.D. Power and Associates, which also found that salespeople are becoming less likely to recommend LCD sets over plasma sets, which goes against the industry trend. We’d never hope to be able to get inside the head of one of those doing the recommending, but as always we would recommend reading a few reviews and going to the store to see what you like best — after you ask to turn down the lights and use the right cables, of course.

[Via PC World]

Filed under: Displays

58 percent of salespeople recommend Samsung HDTVs, 100 percent like big commission checks originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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