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If you're going to Best Buy to take advantage of your well-deserved Blue Label laptops, you might want to check out the Klipsch home audio speakers.

Starting Wednesday, the speakers are being sold exclusively at Best Buy--and at discounted prices. Like the Blue Label laptops, the new five-model Klipsch Icon V Series was manufactured and priced according to feedback Klipsch received from Best Buy employees and customers.

The new lineup consists of two floorstanders, plus a bookshelf, center channel, and surround models. All share the same patent-pending technology to reportedly deliver rich, full-bodied sound performances from cabinets that are … Read more

It's taken the computer industry a little while to fully embrace the charms of the under-sized Netbook, although with big players such as Dell and Lenovo on board, as well as major retails like Best Buy and Amazon, these small laptops are more popular now then anyone could have anticipated.

We've even finally come to an industry wide agreement on what to call these products, which were originally dubbed mini-notes, sub-notebooks, mini-laptops, etc., before we all settled on "Netbook."

In perhaps the final step towards mainstream acceptance, the eagle-eyed gang over at Laptop mag just spotted … Read more

If you visited Best Buy's Web site today, you might have noticed the promo for "Blue Label Laptops" at the bottom of the home page. Click on it and you'll be shown two new laptops, the Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 and the HP Pavilion dv3510nr.

The two products are the first developed under Best Buy's new Blue Label program, in which the retailer polls customers to develop a feature wishlist and then partners with manufacturers to develop products that deliver those features. Of course, the resulting products are then available exclusively at Best Buy.

It's … Read more

HP's entry into the new Best Buy Blue Label lineup is a fixed configuration within the recently announced 13.3-inch Pavilion dv3500 series.

The $1,199 HP Pavilion dv3510nr will incorporate an Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor; 4GB of RAM (and 64-bit Windows Vista to take advantage of it); 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics; and a 320GB, 5,400rpm hard drive. As with other Pavilion dv3500s, the dv3510nr includes a backlit keyboard, DVD burner, Draft-N wireless, and Bluetooth, as well as an HDMI port and an eSATA connection.

The Pavilion dv3510nr's price tag includes several nice … Read more

On Monday, we reported on some rumors that Best Buy would offer the RIM BlackBerry Bold (in addition to AT&T) after the Boy Genius Report site posted some screenshots of the retailer's computer system showing an October 26 in-stock date for the smartphone.

Well, it seems BGR has uncovered more information that suggests Best Buy will also carry the RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, the Palm Treo Pro, and the T-Mobile G1.

According to the story, the red BlackBerry Pearl Flip and the Palm Treo Pro will be available on October 26, though you can actually buy … Read more

Perhaps you're like me and starting to wonder if the RIM BlackBerry Bold is just a mythical creature like Bigfoot--spotted in the wild a number of times but yet to be captured, or in the Bold's case, released. The smartphone was announced way back in May for AT&T, but we have yet to hear about an actual availability date. Oh, and trust us, we've asked RIM numerous times for just a teeny tiny hint and have been met by the same answers: "this fall" or "very soon."

We do think the … Read more

The fate of Circuit City is very much in doubt. After months of poor performance and even worse management, the company reported its second-quarter earnings on Monday for the month ending August 31, and let's just say that Circuit City is in deep trouble.

According to the company, it incurred a net loss during the quarter of $239 million on $2.3 billion in revenue. During the same quarter in 2007, the company lost almost $63 million on $2.6 billion in revenue. In the past six months, Circuit City has lost over $400 million--almost four times as much as it lost during the same period in 2007.

"Clearly, the performance of the company is unacceptable to all of our stakeholders, and it is imperative that we take the right steps to accelerate our turnaround," stated James A. Marcum, chief executive officer of Circuit City Stores. "The management team and the board of directors are conducting a comprehensive review of all aspects of our business to determine the best methods of delivering substantially improved financial performance and maximizing shareholder value.

"We recognize that this will require that we intensify our efforts to correct problems in our business. In particular, to be successful, all of our actions must start with improving the customer experience in our stores. As we move forward, we intend to improve how we operate, strengthen our market position, and build a stronger future for the company."

Here's a clue, Marcum: sell the company to the highest bidder as soon as possible and get out before it's too late. It's your only option.… Read more

Offline, vendors recognize the importance of moving products as close to the would-be consumer as possible. Retailers, fast food chains, and other vendors therefore build physical locations all over the world, seeking to be physically proximate to potential customers.

Online, we still somehow believe that it's acceptable to build one store (e.g., BarnesandNoble.com) and expect the world to beat a path to the vendor's door.

Best Buy doesn't think so, and is doing some exceptionally interesting work with San Francisco-based Mashery to effectively replicate and extend the local shopping experience online.

The key to it all is the API (application programming interface), as The New York Times describes, which "lets Web sites make their content easily available to other Web developers, who can import it, display it on their own sites and mash it up with other material."

In Best Buy's case, this means making its product catalog available to the world. No big deal? Consider that this essentially opens up a Best Buy store on every niche Web site on the planet (that chooses to use the Best Buy Remix API, of course). Perhaps I'd like to provide detailed information about scanners that I want to sell. Best Buy's Remix lets me leverage its catalog (along with product reviews and more).

The next phase for Best Buy? Open up its shopping cart, as well, so that each of these corner stores becomes not only a place to browse but also a place to buy Best Buy products, taking a share of the sale in the process. Best Buy everywhere...even more than it could hope to achieve offline.

Best Buy, however, isn't alone in this. Mashery is also working with MTV, which suggests the following services with its API as a starting point:… Read more

Best Buy's acquisition of Napster is likely to mean RealNetwork's Rhapsody music service will wave goodbye to more than just one of its biggest partners.

Rhapsody of course powered Best Buy's digital music store. Two music insiders told me on Thursday, while I was reporting a story about whether Apple is wise to get into music subscriptions, that the Napster acquisition will almost certainly mean Best Buy will sever it's relationship with Rhapsody. This means that RealNetwork's CEO Rob Glaser would no longer have the muscle behind him to demand electronics companies make their players … Read more