Hasta La Gadget!

We’ll admit that we never took Best Buy as the kind of company to sell its own wireless service, but you know what Best Buy does sell? Laptops with unlocked WWAN modems, and to that end, the retailer’s Best Buy Connect offering seems to be a pretty attractive one. Monthly plan pricing is about what you’d expect from anyone else, and you’ll be able to choose between two-year, one-year, and contract-free packages for the same price — the only difference is how much subsidy they’ll throw in for you upfront. On a two-year deal, you’ll get $275 off the compatible laptop of your choice, which compares favorably against all of its competitors — AT&T at $150, Verizon at $200, and Sprint at $250 — while you’ll pay $60 for 5GB of data, $40 for 500MB, or $30 for 250MB (only available without a contract). Sure, you might not attract the glitz, glamor, and curious stares that a high-fashion name brand like Verizon might… but seriously, who are we kidding? Data is data, and if this works well, it sounds like a square deal. Hit up the source link for all the details.

[Thanks, Christian]

Best Buy Connect wireless service is official, offers contract-free plans originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Best Buy  | Email this | Comments

We’ve been hearing wind of a new mobile broadband service coming next month from Best Buy for a few days now, and it looks like the company went ahead and spilled the beans in its own Sunday flyer. The service offers a variety of tiers ranging from a contract-free 250MB per month for $30 all the way up to 5GB monthly on a 24 month contract for $60 a month. Interestingly, 5GB monthly contract-free costs the same $60 monthly — you just get the $35 activation fee waived. At this point we don’t know what the hardware looks like, but we’re told Sprint is providing those bits and bytes wirelessly and that this new service will work with 4G. The employee news image after the break indicates that Connect will be launching on July 11 in all but 75 of the company’s stores. Sometimes living out in the country is a drag.

Update: We got a note from Shaun indicating that there will actually not be any modems offered by Best Buy for this service, rather it will only be offered on GOBI-equipped laptops. Additionally, Shaun indicates the service will not work with 4G, but that’s contrary to some earlier intel we received, so hopefully BBY goes ahead and clarifies all this soon enough.

[Thanks, Jameil and Tyler]

Continue reading Best Buy Connect mobile broadband service launching soon

Best Buy Connect mobile broadband service launching soon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Best Buy selling some new hard drives may not exactly sound like news, but it is when the drives in question are Intel’s X25-M and X25-V SSDs, which just so happen to be the first SSDs that Best Buy has ever stocked on its store shelves. Those should now be available at some 800 Best Buy stores across the U.S., although you’ll still have to go online if you want anything other than the 40GB or 80GB models. Let’s just hope this push into retail is soon followed by some more consumer-friendly prices.

Intel’s X25-M and X25-V SSDs now stocked on Best Buy’s shelves originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  AnandTech  | Email this | Comments

We’ve been keeping a close eye on AMD’s big laptop comeback over the last couple of months, and in addition to gaining steam with HP, Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo, it appears AMD’s also gotten Sony back into its court. Both Fry’s and Best Buy are now carrying AMD Athlon II X2-powered machines, and as you may expect, the prices are quite tempting. Conversely, the Intel-based lineup ranges from $699 to $799, but until we get our hands on one of these ourselves, there isn’t exactly a fair comparison to draw at this point. You can hit the source links for the complete specs, but the 15.4-inch EE Series with 4GB of RAM / 320GB of storage and a Blu-ray player is going for $650 while the 17.3-inch EF with a 500GB hard drive for $720. Both also have integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics, but regardless, the move certainly bodes well for AMD’s newest processor / graphics, since it appears that Sony hasn’t used AMD in its systems since 2005. We guess a welcome back hug is in order.

Sony selling AMD powered VAIOs for the first time in years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Fry’s, Best Buy  | Email this | Comments

Turns out all our snooping was spot on with this one. We first spotted a simpler, cheaper Nook making its way through the FCC late last month, and then only last night we got tipped off to a $150 price point for the e-reader sans cellular connection. Now Best Buy has confirmed the whole thing with its listing of the BNRV100 model, which comes in over $100 cheaper than Barnes and Noble’s original ($259), although Best Buy has seen fit to give that a price trim as well. We like where this is going, especially if it triggers B&N’s competitors to lower their own fees.

[Thanks, Paul]

Update: Barnes and Noble has now gone fully official with its new $149 Nook. The 3G version has taken a price drop to $199 as well, matching the pricing indicated by Best Buy. B&N is today also outing its firmware version 1.4, which allows the free use of AT&T wireless hotspots everywhere.

Continue reading $149 WiFi-only Nook confirmed, 3G price dropped to $199 (update: official)

$149 WiFi-only Nook confirmed, 3G price dropped to $199 (update: official) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 07:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Best Buy  | Email this | Comments