And on the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to the Music Lover:

I’ve already written about the Mint Digital Music Station 220 here before at RTL; it remains one of my favorite little things ever. It can dock and charge up your Apple iPod or iPhone while playing tunes that are on it. And if you’re anything like me, you probably have a sizable MP3 collection that resides on your main PC.

You’re in luck. With the Mint USB wireless transmitter, you can listen to whatever streams on your PC directly on the Mint 220 up to 45 feet away via their Mint Di-Fi™ technology - which means honestly that your music will stream over the air without any loss of quality whatsoever. Read the rest of this entry »

And on the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to the Computer User:

Combined with marathon gaming sessions and many hours of Adobe Photoshop, a good, comfortable mouse is definitely something that’s on each and every geek’s list at one time or another. Enter the Microsoft Blue Track Explorer Mouse. And Microsoft delivered a blue LED (yummy!) enabled mouse that can track movement on just about any surface. Table top, glass, your flannel shirt, that week old pizza slice… it’s all game for the new blue LED tracking dubbed BlueTrack™.

Yeah, I bet Bill Gates thought of that one by himself. Read the rest of this entry »

February 17, 2009. Most people with a television know what that date means. It’s the day that analog television stops being transmitted and makes way for digital television. Are you ready for that switch? Have you gotten your coupon yet?

Have you visited Best Buy yet?

Best Buy has made several resources available to help people understand what’s happening with this transition. I’ve got press documents I can send you, but the major points are these:

-Beginning in early 2006, Best Buy began providing consumers with in-store and online information about the DTV broadcast transition including brochures and a dedicated page at BestBuy.com/DTV.

-In October 2007, Best Buy was the first CE retailer to exit the analog business, pulling all analog tuner products from store shelves.

-Best Buy has launched a dedicated hotline – 877-BBY-DTV9 – where consumers can call and speak with a trained home theater specialist to ask questions about the DTV transition and to learn about their options to get ready for the switch.

-Customers will also be able to redeem their DTV coupons and order converter boxes through this hotline if they are unable to get to a Best Buy store.

-Best Buy store employees across the U.S. have received training on the DTV broadcast transition and the options available to consumers. Store employees in positions that are most likely to assist consumers with DTV broadcast transition inquiries have participated in an additional series of in-depth training sessions since June 2007.

Hurry up… February will be here sooner than you’d think.

Anybody remember the whole Betamax vs. VHS battle? Sony, the chief backer of Beta, wasn’t as nice as Toshiba and the retailers are pertaining those that purchased the Toshiba and Microsoft backed HD-DVD.

This time, some said that HD-DVD was doomed from the beginning with the Sony PlayStation 3 serving as their “trojan horse” to get into millions of homes and help push Blu-Ray over HD-DVD’s popularity. Meanwhile, earlier released Blu-Ray players were having problems playing such recently released and Blu-Ray profile updated titles like Pirates of the Caribbean.

With that said, just under a month ago, Toshiba finally pulled the plug on HD-DVD and a lot of people are looking at their last movies coming out, or have came out. Terminator 2 will be the last real release - I think there’s a Veggie Tales that’s being touted as coming out a bit later, if Paramount doesn’t stop that from being released as well.

So what to do… what to do.

Seems like Best Buy got your back. Yeah… that Best Buy.

Until December 31st, 2008, if you purchased a HD-DVD player and/or HD-DVD attachment (think: Microsoft XBOX360 HD-DVD add-on) before February 22nd, 2008, you’re eligible for a $50.00 that Best Buy will be proactively mailing cards to some of its customers and expects to distribute more than $10 million in gift cards. Also feel free to hit up the Best Buy HD-DVD trade-in program.

This offer starts March 21st.

Even though I avoided this battle for the “next generation” of video, this might be helpful for quite a few of you - I’m still enjoying my Betamax

Let’s face it. Not everybody can use or even wants an iPod. Shock. Horror.

It usually means that you have to install iTunes in order to sync up your music, and if you’re not careful you will download the Quicktime + iTunes download as well. The current iPod out of the box does not have the ability to listen to FM radio nor can you use stereo Bluetooth headphones. Sure, you can download YamiPod instead of iTunes. You can get the Jabra A125s Bluetooth Adapter for the iPod to enable stereo bluetooth/a2dp headset compatibilty.

Enter the Insignia 4gb Pilot. It plays video, mp3, has a built-in FM receiver and supports stereo bluetooth from the very beginning. And it’s about 20 bucks cheaper than the iPod nano. Sports a 2.4 inch screen, has support for Real Audio’s Rhapsody music store.

Oh yeah… it also accepts SDHC chips as well. So slam in another 8gb SDHC card for even more memory for songs.

So why not pick one up for your Apple hating significant other for Christmas. And the cool thing, if you need to, buy it online, choose in-store pickup, and Best Buy will have your order ready in 45 minutes or so.

Last minute holiday buyers rejoice…

Ok, it’s finally under one week to go for Christmas and you’re probably wondering what to get your bothersome significant other that either has an iPod already, probably works in an office, or just doesn’t have a lot of room in that closet they call an apartment.

In a series of quick reviews for “Last Minute Gadget Gift Ideas”, one per day until Christmas Eve, hopefully you’ll find that one object that you just might have overlooked.

Via Best Buy’s in-home brand named Insignia comes the first gift idea. It’s their small-ish 75W shelf CD/DVD/HD Radio system, model number NS-HD2114. At first, it’s bright green box arrived and I thought that it was entirely too light and probably going to be made quite cheaply to be honest.

I was wrong.

Read the rest of this entry »

Who knew that BestBuy actually had a blog named Ask A Blue Shirt!?

Anyway, I have two teenage nieces and shopping for them this holiday season has never made my age and overtly geek qualities more apparent. Sure, I’m hip… I have the iPhone, a Nokia N810, an Insignia MP3/HD-Radio/DVD shelf system with USB ports and not one Tamagotchi or Teletubby or pocket protector in sight, so I’m cool…

I’m cool. No matter how many times I keep repeating it, apparently I’m not

Got some hard to shop for teens on your list and you just might want to take a read of WOW the un-WOW-able: Advice from Drake Bell.

National Geographic and Philip Norelco have hooked up to what basically each and every unshaven man should go run and check out before they become more caveman like.

Not like having whiskers is a bad thing, but I’ve seen some rather incomplete beards on some men over the age of 25. Simply put… you can’t grow a full beard or mustache, use a better shaver. Or use a magic marker and fill in the bare spots.

Ok, ok… the official Conquer Your Neck, Conquer The World contest verbiage. I’ll stop my rant about being unshaven cavemen…

unga bunga.

The new Philips Norelco Arcitec gives you a great shave, even on the neck. Conquer your neck and get ready to conquer the world, because Philips Norelco is sending one grand prize winner on a trip for two to Alaska, Belize, or the Galápagos. Trip includes guided tours with a National Geographic expert and exciting adventures on land and sea. It could be you!

And enter the official Conquer Your Neck, Conquer the World contest while you’re at it. Good luck. I insist that you all enter.

Wordpress is usually awesome. 5 minutes later, it’s up, running. Updates are even easier.

Why can’t Windows and other operating systems be that good on updates? Anyway… due to an unforeseen update issue with Windows and a few programs I tend to actually like and use for creating graphics, et al… until I solve what’s up, I’m stuck on what was to be the next version of removethelabels and postponing until later in the year, if not next year… which is really just a month away.

Otherwise… business as usual. Odd posts here and there. And a late as HECK review on a bluetooth keyboard from Rocketfish.

With all of the terms out there… HDMI, 1080i, 1080p, 720p, Interlaced, Progressive, DVI, and just about any other combination of letters, numbers and other cool things you can think of I don’t think there’s an AlphaDogHyperButtonOfEnjoyment yet usually leads to one conclusion… memorize or be confused.

Welcome to the world of HDTV. Seriously… it’s a confusing world at times and guess who wants to help out with that?

Best Buy, that’s who. And they want to ensure that your HDTV experience equates to “HD Done Right”.

A quick copy/paste job:

Consumer confusion has also created in-store sticker shock. Half of survey
respondents (52%) are only budgeting for the HDTV, not accounting for the
cost of other necessary HD components.

The HD Done Right campaign was designed to address consumer pain points
regarding HDTV, and educate consumers on the four parts necessary to create
a full HD experience: HD-ready TV, source, sound and installation. There
are some great tools at AskABlueShirt.com.

So… that means that when I was looking to buy a television that would support the highest resolution for the Sony PlayStation 3 and I didn’t know about all of the cables that I didn’t have in the boxes and I had to make more than three trips to different stores could have been cut short to just one trip to Best Buy…

Where’s the angry face on this keyboard…

Check it out guys… who knows. You might learn something.

A Covad insider this week tells us there’s a rumor circulating the halls at the CLEC that Best Buy is considering a purchase of the company. “I do know that this has been an ongoing interest and that at one time Best Buy walked away from negotiating and then came back with a new offer — so far it looks good and is going foward,” says the source.

Best Buy recently acquired DSL provider Speakeasy for $97 million, something we discussed not long ago in a conversation with Speakeasy CEO Bruce Chatterley. While the acquisition seemed strange to users, Best Buy runs the unit under their Best Buy for Business unit, allowing the companies to offer bundles of voice, data and managed services. Speakeasy had already started targeting the small business market out of survival necessity.

We contacted Covad for public comment on the possible acquisition and were told that “as a matter of course, we don’t respond to rumors.” Obviously, this should be filed under gossip for the moment, but if we hear more, we’ll keep you posted.

Update: We’ve since had several insiders tell us that Best Buy is primarily (and perhaps solely) interested in acquiring Covad’s VoIP operations.
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