Archive for best buy

Best Buy to Purchase Napster

Music Services

Best Buy today agreed to pick up Napster for $2.65 per share or about $121m. What is interesting here is Best Buy has been using Rhapsody for their own branded music store going as far as requiring manufactures to change their packaging to include the “Best Buy Digital Music Store” branding. (The reason why Creative no longer sells at Best Buy is because they refused to change their packaging and get on board the BB music store.)

This news is a bit disappointing for me since I was never really a fan of Napster and currently subscribe to Rhapsody and Zune Marketplace. It’s not that Napster is a bad music service, it’s just Rhapsody has a better catalog and has the best recommendation engine in the game. But I guess the good news is you will still be able to use Rhapsody Subscription on most of the players sold at Best Buy, it’s just not going to be bundled. Also note that it has not been officially stated as to what will happen with the Rhapsody / Best Buy partnership, but I am assuming the obvious.

[Press Release via PaidContent]

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Why Doesn’t Best Buy Sell Creative?

Creative

best buy creative Why Doesn’t Best Buy Sell Creative?

Back in Q4 or 2007 Creative players diminished from Best Buy’s store shelves and finally disappeared. It was left to mere speculations of low profit margins, the need to push their in-house brand, and Creative’s own lack of enthusiasm. None are the case.

Best Buy launched its digital music store powered by Rhapsody not too long ago. They asked manufactures to be Rhapsody certified, similar to being PlaysForSure certified, so that all players will fall into one of three music services: Best Buy Music Store (Rhapsody), Zune Marketplace, or iTunes. Creative failed to comply with the request and was thus dropped from Best Buy retailers.

So who is to blame? Do you point the finger at Creative for non compliance or do you point the finger at Best Buy for forcing this compliance. That is up to you do decide by voting accordingly with your purchasing power.

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Brands

abi Editor's Choice

SanDisk Sansa Clip+

The Clip+ has a fantastic little form factor; somewhat cheap in build quality but very rugged. The interface is simple and relatively straightforward. The features on the Clip are more or less average, however it supports the alternative Rockbox firmware which provides tons of additional options (gapless playback, Replaygain, playlists, Last.fm scrobbling, etc). Read the full review or go ahead and buy it.
Cowon J3

The J3 is a fantastic PMP with a very nice AMOLED screen and tons of features. It sports Cowon's trademark BBE sound enhancements, and offers a customizable user interface with strong support by our user community. You can usually find it at Amazon for the best price - and don't forget to check out our review.
Microsoft Zune HD

Sure, many of us are not big fans of the walled garden, but there are a lot of great things going on with the Zune: sturdy hardware, ultra easy to use user interface, and a media player that is worthy of Editor’s Choice. You can check out our Zune HD review or stop by our Zune forums for the latest info and gossip.
Phonak Audéo PFE

Phonak Audéo PFE offer outstanding clarity and precision; natural, dynamic mids and treble, and decent bass for a single armature in-ear phone. They handle dense, complex music very well. The PFE work well with most acoustic and some electronic music genres, but bassheads might have to look at other alternatives. They're great for sports as well, since they fit very securely. Check out our review.
Hippo VB

The Hippo VB (Variable Bass) offers a serious subwoofer for on the go, right in your head. They don’t just deliver generous quantities of punchy, textured bass, but good audio quality over the whole frequency range with decent clarity and exceptional soundstage. Exchangeable bass ports let you customize their sound to your liking. Read our in-depth Hippo VB review.
Soundmagic E10 / E30

The Soundmagic E10 and E30 are basically right in the middle between the Phonak PFE and Hippo VB - not too analytical sounding, not too bass heavy. The E10 provide a bit more bass, the E30 a bit more clarity. Both come with a very fair price tag considering the sound quality they deliver - a great choice for the audio aficionado on a budget. Read our E10 and E30 reviews for more info.