Best Buy | Foilball.com

Posts tagged "best buy"

After E3: Xbox 360 vs. PS3 Price Fight

Now that Microsoft’s played part (if not all) of its hand and rolled out a smaller, cooler, quieter Xbox 360, how do things stack up against the competition?

Our latest build-it-yourself chart (see our pre-E3 chart here) won’t tell you what to buy, since that depends what you’re after, but it will give you a sense for who’s overcharging (though I will say–sneak preview–that after years of high upgrade prices, Microsoft’s finally carried its fully-loaded Xbox 360 down from the mountain).

Not listed here: Microsoft’s confirmed $199 Xbox 360 budget-class model, coming this fall, probably without wireless and a smaller hard drive (or no hard drive at all).

Note that prices for systems and components were grabbed from Best Buy, accessed June 22, 2010.

Hard Drive: The PS3 hard drive can be user-swapped for any 2.5-inch SATA drive (e.g. a 500GB drive retails for $70 to $90) while the Xbox 360 remains proprietary, capped at 250GB, and Microsoft-locked.

Wireless: As noted in the chart, the PS3 employs internal 802.11g wireless, while the Xbox 360 now also includes internal wireless more or less gratis (the external USB dongle cost $100) and at the hypothetically faster 802.11n spec.

Controller: the PS3 controllers charge internally, while the Xbox 360 comes with a pair of standard AA batteries. Microsoft’s “Play & Charge” kit, which includes the charger cable and NiMH battery pack, costs $20.

Video: the PS3′s HDMI connection adheres to the 1.3a spec, which yields higher data transfer speeds, a new expanded color format called “Deep Color,” automatic audio syncing (lip syncing), and Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio support. the Xbox 360 supports the older HDMI spec 1.2. in practice, the only functional difference given current TV and broadcast limitations would be the Dolby/DTS-HD spec, and then only in relation to lossless, uncompressed audio situations, such as Blu-ray video playback. For more on this, see here.

Online: the new Xbox 360 comes with Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Silver membership, which essentially allows you to create a Gamertag and message friends. if you want Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, and online multiplayer support, you’ll have to upgrade to Xbox LIVE Gold, which costs $50 a year, e.g. $250 for five years. the PS3 currently offers online services including competitive multiplayer at no additional cost, though a premium service dubbed “PlayStation Plus” is in the offing.

Acronyms: RJ45 is shorthand for Ethernet. CVBS stands for “Composite Video, Blanking, and Sync” (the lowest quality video cable, only a step above coaxial RF). YPbPr is shorthand for Component Video, and refers to the discrete green, blue, and red video plugs (component is the second-highest quality video cable, next to HDMI). For some reason Microsoft only includes the CVBS cable in the new Xbox 360, where it used to include both HDMI and YPbPr.

Disclaimer: I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Remember that the above chart doesn’t gauge the “soft” value of features like Xbox LIVE or PlayStation Home, or how having a network of friends clustered on a given system influences purchases.

Summary: the playing field for all-in system purchases from a component-driven standpoint just leveled out dramatically.

Follow me on Twitter (@game_on)

After E3: Xbox 360 vs. PS3 Price Fight

Related Websites

Be the first to comment - What do you think?
Posted by - June 29, 2010 at 5:00 am

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: best buy, external usb, usb dongle

Google providing in-stock information about nearby products

Google is launching a product search feature for certain smart phones that allow you to see whether an item is in stock nearby.

If you have an iPhone, Palm WebOS phone or any Android smart phone, just go to Google.com and do a search for an item. Select the “more” link and then select “shopping.”

Within the shopping search results, you’ll see a blue dot next to the item if it’s in stock at a participating retailer nearby. Participating stores include Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, or West Elm.

You can then follow an “In stock nearby” link to the seller’s page, where you can see if it’s in stock or has limited availability. I tried this for Wii Fit Plus and got a listing of mostly Best buys throughout the Bay Area where the game is in stock. unfortunately, the nearest store to me in San Francisco was the sixth entry. but it works if you’re willing to scroll through the list a little.

You’ll need to enable the location feature on Google and you have to be in the U.S. for this to work. but it’s a nice little addition that can help you track down items without having to wonder if they have it. Google will need to get more retailers on the program and it looks like they’re trying to get more of them on board.

Posted by: Ryan Kim (Email) | March 11 2010 at 11:06 AM

Listed Under: Google

Google providing in-stock information about nearby products

Related Websites

Be the first to comment - What do you think?
Posted by - March 12, 2010 at 1:00 am

Categories: Technology Tags: best buy, stock information

Devour phone less fulfilling than Droid

SAN FRANCISCO — its name suggests that it will eat the competition for breakfast, but despite a sprinkling of positives Motorola’s new Devour smart phone left me hungry for something more.

With the user-friendly Android operating software, the Devour lets you surf the Web, check e-mail and update your Facebook status with relative ease over Verizon Wireless’ network. The phone ($100, after a rebate, with a two-year contract) is available through Best Buy and will start selling from Verizon this month.

Unfortunately, the phone’s features are less aggressive than its name. a seemingly cramped touch screen, unimpressive camera and weird keyboard layout made me prefer its more full-featured, pricier cousin, the Motorola Droid ($200, after a rebate, with a two-year contract), which is available from the same wireless carrier.

At first glance, the Devour’s solid-feeling, brushed aluminum body and slide-out keyboard radiate user-friendly vibes. The phone’s face has just one mechanical button — a nifty touch-sensitive square at the lower left that can be used for scrolling down lists and Web pages and selecting things.

In addition to running the Android software, the Devour comes with Motorola’s super-social Motoblur software, which displays content such as e-mails, Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and news in little on-screen “widgets.”

Like the Droid, the Devour is a husky hunk of a handset — it weighs 5.9 ounces, making Apple’s 4.8-ounce iPhone look like a flyweight.

has a smaller screen than both, however — 3.1 inches diagonally compared with 3.7 inches on the Droid and 3.5 inches on the iPhone. This is the same size as Motorola’s first Android phone, the Cliq. But because the Droid raised the bar when it was released in November, this now seems irritatingly small by comparison.

Once I tired of trying to tap out messages using the on-screen keyboard, I slid open the physical keyboard and found it nicely spaced, with easy-to-press raised keys.

Sadly, its layout made it hard to type e-mails and insert common characters such as commas and the “at” symbol. instead of using the area on either side of the space bar for character keys, the Devour breaks up the standard QWERTY format and devotes this real estate to letter and character keys.

And a separate key that lets you access symbols and other special characters is awkwardly placed on the bottom far right of the keyboard. This made me, a righty, feel all thumbs.

I was also unimpressed with the Devour’s 3-megapixel camera. many photos looked washed-out. and although it has a number of simple photo-editing options, such as the ability to adjust the color of your images, I was miffed to see that it doesn’t include a flash or zoom. at least there is a good amount of space to store your photos and other media, because the handset comes with an 8-gigabyte microSD memory card.

I was surprised by the Devour’s external speaker, which was quite clear for listening to music or watching videos aloud.

I wasn’t as thrilled with the dedicated volume buttons on the side of the phone, however: They’re next to a button that activates voice commands, and I kept hitting that when I tried to lower the volume.

The Devour is proficient at standard smart phone tasks, and it can certainly handle basics such as surfing the Web, checking e-mail and updating Facebook and Twitter. if you’re hankering for a slab of smart phone that is more advanced, however, chances are you’ll find the Droid more satisfying.

Devour phone less fulfilling than Droid