best

Thinking of buying a new cell phone sometime in the next few weeks? How about the next few months? Before the calendar strikes 2014? If you're willing to part with a few bits of information, Best Buy will give you a $50 gift card when you buy a new phone -- even if it's not for another 11 months.

Interesting, no? I've seen retailers offer gift cards for purchases made within a small window, but never anything quite like this. All you do is give Best Buy your existing and active mobile or landline number and your e-mail address, … Read more

"Windows or Android?"

It seemed like an innocent enough question.

But for one moment, I wondered whether Amy Poehler would waft through her local Best Buy during the Super Bowl -- while being paid a lot of money to do it -- and avoid anything that might have been designed in Cupertino.

Still, the more she came on to the gorgeous, virginal men in the blue polo shirts, the more it was clear that this was an amusing fantasy. Poehler was there to make women feel good about gadgets. And sex.

There was, indeed, a more than subliminal … Read more

Microsoft's Surface Pro has made its first appearance on a retailer's site other than Microsoft's.

That would be big box retailer Best Buy, which is already boasting that the new Microsoft tablet will go on sale at midnight February 8 at a store in Union Square in New York City.

Best Buy lists the two available models, 64GB and 128GB, priced at $899 and $999, respectively. Neither product comes with the $129 Type Cover, which is a 5.75 mm-thick mechanical keyboard.

Microsoft is also offering a $119 Touch Cover pressure-response keyboard.

The tablet comes with 4GB … Read more

In the first quarter of today's Big Game featuring big people doing big things to each other, Amy Poehler will be trying to do big things for Best Buy.

Unlike the players -- who will probably be tied 3-3 in a dull defensive battle when Amy appears -- Poehler has one shot to give the Best Buy brand a shot in arm. Or perhaps a shot at redemption.

Best Buy has been crossing some turbulent oceans recently, so securing the services of one of America' funniest actors is a pleasant coup.

The company has released a sneak preview (embedded … Read more

MacBook Pros equipped with a Retina display are not exactly priced to move. Best Buy and Amazon are trying to change that.

Best Buy, for example, is now selling the 128GB version (model MC975LL/A) of the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro Retina for $1,549.99, $150 off the regular $1,699.99 price.

Need 256GB of solid-state storage with that gorgeous Retina screen? That model (MD213LL/A) is now $1,799.99, $200 off the regular price of $1,999.99.

The pricier 15.4-inch models with 256GB and 512GB solid-state drives (MC975LL/A and MC976LL/A, respectively), also … Read more

The latest in Android smartphone software is Android version 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. But getting your hands on it isn't as easy as hitting the update button on your current smartphone.

Only a handful of current Android smartphones support Jelly Bean, and there are only a few new smartphones shipping with the software preinstalled.

But don't let that discourage you. As CNET's Brian Bennett pointed out in a recent blog post, there are some great Jelly Bean options out there that you can buy right now. Here are CNET's five best options.

Subscribe:… Read more

Want to know where to get the best Tex-Mex in Austin? Or how about the locals' favorite bookstore in San Francisco? Well, Foursquare will let you know what it thinks.

The check-in social network rolled out its "best of" guide today based on more than 3 billion member check-ins and tens of millions of user tips, likes, and dislikes. The guide shows the top places users checked into in 2012 in 30 cities across the U.S., such as New York, Atlanta, and Honolulu.

"There are plenty of lists of great places out there -- some are … Read more

Even by Oppo's high standards the BDP-105 is an extraordinary Blu-ray player. Sure, it's loaded with up-to-the-second features -- 4K upscaling, 2D-to-3D conversion, and a high-quality USB 2.0 digital-to-analog converter -- but what really makes the Oppo special is the sound. Pop the cover and look inside and you'll see why. Most of the 17-pound component's chassis space is devoted to the audio circuitry. That's nice, but the audio advantages will be completely irrelevant if you connect the BDP-105 to your receiver with a HDMI cable (the digital-to-analog conversion would then be handled in … Read more