Shopkick makes its debut at more than 187 Best-Buy stores.

In partnership with a start-up called Shopkick, Best-Buy has started last month an in-store mobile couponing system in 187 of its stores with plans to have it in place in 257 stores by October 1.The system borrows a page from the playbook of geo apps like Foursquare and Gowalla and then take it a bit further. Instead of having users checking in as they would with those services,
Shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with its app installed in their phones, walks into a store. The main difference being that Shopkick doesn't use GPS like other location-based apps to recognize when a person with it in their phones, walks through the doors. It uses a custom hardware app system created and installed in partner stores. The minute you enter a Best Buy location, your phone recognizes it and you get points and a message that there are deals available at this location. You can also use it to scan items and get more points and other potential deals according to Techcrunch. What that means is, it eliminate drive-by check-ins and also allow users to do more interesting things like scan items with your phone, look for deals and earn points or "kickbucks" redeemable at in various ways including discounts at the store, Facebook credits, or songs download from Napster. The app is free and people interested to sign up for it, can do it at Shopkick.com

For more, see techcrunch.com

Best Buy and SEARS offer free delivery and set-up for large screen TVs.

To entice people to make the purchase of that big screen TV, Best Buy is offering a free delivery and set-up for TVs priced at $999 more. This new offer comes on top of another incentive from Best Buy of free recycling of your old TV. There is no indication on how long this offer will last, but chances are that given the current economic conditions, it is going to be around for awhile and even expended to others products, or adopted by others retailers.
The latest seems to be already the case with SEARS offering a similar program for certain large TVs.

For more, see WSJ.com

Android HTTC Hero to debut October 11 on the Sprint network.

It has been announced that the third Android run smart phone called HTTC Hero, would arrive on October the 11th on the Sprint's network.
Beside the fact that the new phone is not not supported by T.Mobile which has been the only carrier offering the previous two Android versions, the G1 and the myTouch3G, the real surprise may be the decision by Sprint to offer the new phone at $180 ( with a rebate and a two years contract.)
According to PCmagazine, the HTTC Hero is an noticeable improvement to the first two models with a 3.2- inch multitouch screen, a 5-megapixel camera, WI-FI capability and a speedy 528- MHz Qualcomm processor among others things.
On top of all that, the new phone is eligible for Sprint's popular Everything plan and will have access to all of Android apps like ShopSavvy, Pandora and Flixter.
The HTTC Hero will be available at Best Buy and Sprint stores when it goes on sale October 11.

For more, see PCmag.com

New models hit the pocket size projectors or microprojectors market.

Since last year, a wave of microprojectors also known as pico projectors, have the market place. They are pocket size gadgets that can play a video on an iPhone or some handful other smartphones and transform almost any surface to a 60-inch screen.
The first one to hit the market was the Optoma Pico PK 101 by a company called Optoma USA.
One year after its introduction, the Optoma now retails at most places for $229 except at Best Buy who has it listed at $299.
After all the buzz garnered following its introduction, now there are two new entrants in this niche market.
One of them is the Cinemin Swivel by WowWee Technologies and the other is the 3MPro1020 by 3M.
Both these two new devices are a significant improvement from the Optoma Pico and they are both hitting the market this month and strikingly enough, they both retail for $350.

For more, see NYTimes.com

Best Buy ramping up its computer cleaning service.

Embolden by the growing demand of its consumer tech-support service through its Geek-Squad team and a gain in market share in the electronics retail field, Best Buy is pushing hard its computer cleaning service. The clean-up in question here is the one that consist of getting rid of all the non essentials pre installed softwares that come with a brand new PC and that can slow it down. Best Buy has been offering the service for some time, but now it has started to bring more publicity to it. To convince customers, it has started in some stores in California, to showcases how two same PCs, one with all the preloaded softwares and one without it, perform side by side.The service is available at most Best Buy stores for $30.
But like most of you already know, you can do that yourself by going to the Start tab, control panel, double click on the add or remove icon, scroll through the program you want to remove, highlight it by clicking on it and then hit remove.