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I tried that. https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/p... [Just search for Alcatel Go Flip Phone]

I was very specific when I told the rep that I don't need a super computer in my pocket. Texting and calling more than sufficiently does it for me, and even then, I ignore most my calls since they're either unknown #s or clear robocalls. They can leave a message if it's important.

Anyways, the phone was GOD AWFUL. It calls, and texts, sure. The moment I had 20 texts saved into my phone for a single contact, it would take SECONDS to load the actual conversation, sometimes up to 30 seconds if there was enough conversation going on to begin with. I would need to actively delete my texts for it to run decently, which isn't ideal. Did I mention the camera was worst than even my very first phone from like... 13-14~ years ago.

The phone cost $100, and I'd say it's not worth that. $25 would make sense, as it's literally a fucking throwaway phone with how poorly it runs.
Maybe it's on me for purchasing a cheap Chinese phone with cheap Chinese software (the EULA on the phone itself is ridiculously poorly translated). I just got myself a Samsung A5 instead after about half a year. Does the job, nice camera on it. It's a smartphone I guess, I'm not paying any more on my monthly bill so whatever.

My 2 cents. Might've gone off-topic a bit though... Sorry about that.

> Well they sure as shit don't fit on a USB flash.

Ahemmm. $45 pesos^H^H^H^H Canadian dollars gets you a 64 gigabyte USB flash drive http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/pr...? That's somewhere around US$ $30 or $35. It'll easily hold a 53.3 gigabyte file. Just don't use FAT32 format, with its 4 gigabyte file-size limit.

Just compare it to the zenbook.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/pr...

I think Apple is giving up on the Mac.

ATSC PVRs already record the raw bitstream received from the broadcaster. what you're describing can be bought for around 70$
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/pr...

Windows Media Center serves the same purpose in my living room.

Click these links and tell us what you found:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/S...
http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/S...

As you said, one describes the computer, the other is a job. How are they the same thing?

Click these links and tell us what you found:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/S...
http://www.bestbuy.ca/Search/S...

As you said, one describes the computer, the other is a job. How are they the same thing?

But the standard price is $130, any do poor people really play knockoff consoles?

The price may be $130 in the US, but it's $149.99 from BestBuy Canada (you know, where the Wii Mini is being sold), making the Mini 2/3rds the regular price.

I can certainly see a market here for this, particularly for use in cottage country. Often in such situations, cottages aren't equipped with Internet connectivity, and parents may want a cheaper version of the console they already have at home to allow their kids to play the games they already own while at the cottage. Many of these places still have standard definition TVs as well -- you don't go away to the cottage to sit around and watch movies (we don't even have a TV at ours, but I certainly know many people in our cottagers association who do).

I guess we'd have to see how sales go after the holiday season. I won't be running out to buy one, but with a 33% price difference I can see price conscious families who want a second console (or their first if they don't own one already -- strange how new children keep popping up in this world...) may be attracted to this as a nice Xmas gift.

Yaz

I can go to Best Buy, Walmart, Target, or tons of other places an buy an iPad; but right now the Nexus 7 isn't available in stores so it couldn't begin to sell the same numbers.

Fact-checking fail. I bought a Nexus7 just this weekend from my local computer shop. I even got to play with a demo unit before buying. Also,
Walmart appears to carry them as well. Oddly, Bestbuy in the US does not list it, but Bestbuy Canada does. I'll resist speculating on why. Anyway, it absolutely *is* available in stores.

Anecdotally, the manager I spoke to when I bought mine said that while they've been getting shipments every week, they pretty much sell out within a few hours of arriving. While there aren't exactly people camped out to get one, it sort of sounds like the only thing limiting sales at the moment is the rate that they can produce the things. I expect they will do just fine on volume.

Your point about profitability is well-taken, though. I realize Google's margin on these things is razor-thin. If Android tablet manufacturers are going to make a long-term go of it, they're going to have to figure out how to get the customers who are in the $500-700 (iPad) market, not just the ones in the $200-250 market.

You're doing it hopelessly wrong.

She has totally different criteria than you. Numbers and specs mean nothing. Anything on the shelf will be powerful enough and have enough RAM, etc. for a normal person.

The real question is: Will it make her happy?

Take her to a big shop with lots of laptops and see which one she fondles. Feel the keys, pay particular attention to the trackpad buttons. Pick it up and see if it feels solid. If it seems reasonably well built then that's the right one.

I would also do some up-front research on battery life for the models carried by the particular store you're visiting, then be ready to steer her towards the ones with 6+ hours of rated battery life. For some reason, they all make it extremely difficult to compare models based on expected battery life (stores don't seem to expect their customers to care about battery life, often the saleschimps don't even know when you ask them). I know, it's an estimate only and won't apply if you're watching blu-ray movies while converting video and d/ling the Library of Congress in the background, but it still gives the user a better idea of how long they can expect to be able to use their machine for email, youtube and FB. The extended battery laptops may not be available in pink, but for a casual, on-the-couch, email and you-tube watching laptop, a longer battery life = much more satisfied casual user.

A couple of contenders in the 17" division right now are the DV7-6C50CA or 6C70CA for 17-inch models. (sorry about the Canadian links, but they should give you a model number to google...) Acer used to have a 'Timeline' series, that was known for long battery lives, but they discontinued it a while back...as far as I know, HP is the only ones making 17-inch notebooks with extended battery runtimes right now. Dell makes (made?) some 15-inch ones in their Inspiron lineup, and HP, Samsung, Lenovo and Toshiba have each had some of their 15-inch models offer extended battery life, but that's from research done almost six months ago, so now it's hopelessly out of date in the laptop world...:S

FWIW, I went this way when helping my Dad buy his last two laptops, and as a result he thinks I'm a 'frickin computer genius' :) Neither of his laptops went over $700 CAD in price point, either, which is a good thing because the replacement was necessary because of a spill on the first...all over the keyboard :( It still fires up and runs fine, but the keyboard is borked (and yes, we've tried to clean it up), so he uses it as his desktop with an external keyboard. Still, for a $650 machine, I was impressed that it would run at all...

You're doing it hopelessly wrong.

She has totally different criteria than you. Numbers and specs mean nothing. Anything on the shelf will be powerful enough and have enough RAM, etc. for a normal person.

The real question is: Will it make her happy?

Take her to a big shop with lots of laptops and see which one she fondles. Feel the keys, pay particular attention to the trackpad buttons. Pick it up and see if it feels solid. If it seems reasonably well built then that's the right one.

I would also do some up-front research on battery life for the models carried by the particular store you're visiting, then be ready to steer her towards the ones with 6+ hours of rated battery life. For some reason, they all make it extremely difficult to compare models based on expected battery life (stores don't seem to expect their customers to care about battery life, often the saleschimps don't even know when you ask them). I know, it's an estimate only and won't apply if you're watching blu-ray movies while converting video and d/ling the Library of Congress in the background, but it still gives the user a better idea of how long they can expect to be able to use their machine for email, youtube and FB. The extended battery laptops may not be available in pink, but for a casual, on-the-couch, email and you-tube watching laptop, a longer battery life = much more satisfied casual user.

A couple of contenders in the 17" division right now are the DV7-6C50CA or 6C70CA for 17-inch models. (sorry about the Canadian links, but they should give you a model number to google...) Acer used to have a 'Timeline' series, that was known for long battery lives, but they discontinued it a while back...as far as I know, HP is the only ones making 17-inch notebooks with extended battery runtimes right now. Dell makes (made?) some 15-inch ones in their Inspiron lineup, and HP, Samsung, Lenovo and Toshiba have each had some of their 15-inch models offer extended battery life, but that's from research done almost six months ago, so now it's hopelessly out of date in the laptop world...:S

FWIW, I went this way when helping my Dad buy his last two laptops, and as a result he thinks I'm a 'frickin computer genius' :) Neither of his laptops went over $700 CAD in price point, either, which is a good thing because the replacement was necessary because of a spill on the first...all over the keyboard :( It still fires up and runs fine, but the keyboard is borked (and yes, we've tried to clean it up), so he uses it as his desktop with an external keyboard. Still, for a $650 machine, I was impressed that it would run at all...

You're doing it hopelessly wrong.

She has totally different criteria than you. Numbers and specs mean nothing. Anything on the shelf will be powerful enough and have enough RAM, etc. for a normal person.

The real question is: Will it make her happy?

Take her to a big shop with lots of laptops and see which one she fondles. Feel the keys, pay particular attention to the trackpad buttons. Pick it up and see if it feels solid. If it seems reasonably well built then that's the right one.

I would also do some up-front research on battery life for the models carried by the particular store you're visiting, then be ready to steer her towards the ones with 6+ hours of rated battery life. For some reason, they all make it extremely difficult to compare models based on expected battery life (stores don't seem to expect their customers to care about battery life, often the saleschimps don't even know when you ask them). I know, it's an estimate only and won't apply if you're watching blu-ray movies while converting video and d/ling the Library of Congress in the background, but it still gives the user a better idea of how long they can expect to be able to use their machine for email, youtube and FB. The extended battery laptops may not be available in pink, but for a casual, on-the-couch, email and you-tube watching laptop, a longer battery life = much more satisfied casual user.

A couple of contenders in the 17" division right now are the DV7-6C50CA or 6C70CA for 17-inch models. (sorry about the Canadian links, but they should give you a model number to google...) Acer used to have a 'Timeline' series, that was known for long battery lives, but they discontinued it a while back...as far as I know, HP is the only ones making 17-inch notebooks with extended battery runtimes right now. Dell makes (made?) some 15-inch ones in their Inspiron lineup, and HP, Samsung, Lenovo and Toshiba have each had some of their 15-inch models offer extended battery life, but that's from research done almost six months ago, so now it's hopelessly out of date in the laptop world...:S

FWIW, I went this way when helping my Dad buy his last two laptops, and as a result he thinks I'm a 'frickin computer genius' :) Neither of his laptops went over $700 CAD in price point, either, which is a good thing because the replacement was necessary because of a spill on the first...all over the keyboard :( It still fires up and runs fine, but the keyboard is borked (and yes, we've tried to clean it up), so he uses it as his desktop with an external keyboard. Still, for a $650 machine, I was impressed that it would run at all...

I'm not sure where companies come up with these numbers. If you can sell a full netbook for $229, there's no reason that tablets should cost over $400. The only thing they have that's more expensive is the touch screen, but they are missing a lot of parts too. Flash memory is expensive, but it's not like they are using high end solid state drives in these things. And most of them only come with 16-32 GB, which isn't all that much. They should be able to sell these things pretty cheap. If you can get Chinese knock-off tablets for under $100, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to get a nice tablet at the $200-$300 price point.

Neither had I, and then this happened.

Why is it not allowed to be a TV? 720p TVs are cheaper than large high-resolution monitors. From this week's Best Buy flyer:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10117350&catid=23244&logon=&langid=EN

Is $300 higher than you have in mind? Isn't this exactly what you are asking for?

Example: daughter wants to see Twilight. OK. Fine, we all make compromises for the people we love.

Tickets: $11 adult $8 kid. So: $30 tickets.

child, wife and self insist on popcorn, drinks, etc. I've memorised the price: $24.15

So, one afternoon movie experience: $54.15.

Also: transportation: 2 adults one child on subway. $2.75 per adult, 75cent child, each way. Total: $12.50. Add that on.

$66.65 to go see a movie.

x12 months = $799.80

I can wander down the street to that shithole of a Best Buy and get a 32" LCD HDTV for $469.

That would leave plenty of money to rent videos.

And I wouldn't have to deal with the mouth breathing retard behind me yapping through the whole fucking movie.

And when you glare at him and tell him to shut the fuck up, he feels ENTITLED to continue flapping his insolent stupidities.

I hate going to the movies. The movies are fine, and fun. The audiences make me ill.

RS

Haha. I am holding in my hands the box for my Panasonic RP-HJE240 headphones ~$40.

Frequency Response: 6Hz - 23Hz

I have a friend with some nice BOSE headphones (don't know the model), but they stack up pretty nice against them. The BOSE are nicer, but not by nearly as much as you would think.

I plug these into my Create Zen Vision:W and the sound is VERY nice.


Sidenote: Anyone know where to get a replacement screen for a Create Zen Vision:W? :(

Why be happy about a game being released, exclusively for the most expensive console with the lowest market share?

Why be happy about a game being released, exclusively for the most expensive console with the lowest market share?

No, it's $499. Everyone likes to fudge $100 this way or that, but the models are basically $500 and $600

Try this Ipod Nano at future shop 219$ (or BestBuy.ca)

Same Ipod nano at BestBuy.com at 149$

Not at all !

Goods are allways at higher price in Canada.

Look at cars, even if no border tax exist for foreing company to import car in Canada (or in the USA) all car have better price and better warrenty in the USA than in Canada. Go to jeep.ca or toyota.ca and try to build a car and then compare it with jeep.com ou toyota.com for a 30k car in the USA you will buy 36K in Canada (plus taxes).
Samething for everything from Apple, you got 10% to 30% of foreing charge when you buy in Canada.

And don't try to buy it at Amazon.com, they don't send thing like that in Canada, you must buy at Amazon.ca.

Try this Ipod Nano at future shop 219$ (or BestBuy.ca)

Same Ipod nano at BestBuy.com at 149$

Even if the Can$ is higger thant the US$ price a cheapper in USA, That's before taxes, and the overall business etablishment price is lower in Canada.

If that is what you found, you found a really excellent deal on the mac or a really crappy deal on the HP.

This is as close as I could find for comparison. You can get the HP cheaper on Buy.com or somewhere else but these are both listed on bestbuy so it's a good comparison. The HP is better (twice the harddrive space, bigger screen, etc.) than the Apple and $200 cheaper.

If you wanted to go with an Acer with an AMD turion (I like AMD and find Acers better than HPs, personally), you would get even more for less. These prices are closer than they used to be, but Mac will always be more than the equivalent in a non-mac computer, unless you get suckered.

If that is what you found, you found a really excellent deal on the mac or a really crappy deal on the HP.

This is as close as I could find for comparison. You can get the HP cheaper on Buy.com or somewhere else but these are both listed on bestbuy so it's a good comparison. The HP is better (twice the harddrive space, bigger screen, etc.) than the Apple and $200 cheaper.

If you wanted to go with an Acer with an AMD turion (I like AMD and find Acers better than HPs, personally), you would get even more for less. These prices are closer than they used to be, but Mac will always be more than the equivalent in a non-mac computer, unless you get suckered.

My next printer is going to be a cheapo B&W laser printer. http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_i d=0926INGFS10057725&catid=21196&logon=&langid=EN&t est_cookie=1 100$ It can be the linked one, or the next cheapest one I'll find in the store.

These are the three big-name electronics retailers in Canada:

Future Shop
Best Buy
The Source

Not one of them seems to carry it. What's that all about?

Mod fanboy down

This is why Most Retailers Have it at $699.

Granted SonyStyle still has it at $659, but that just means they're screwing over their retailers when people go to price match and the retailers have to sell bellow cost.

I got my Wii yesterday, and I was *shocked* that it doesn't include any way of connecting it to the net. WTF! You need to buy an external adapter to connect it the net. F**king ripoff Nintendo.


Obviously a troll, but I wanted to share this anyhow.

The Wii, at $280CDN has built in wireless. To get wireless for an xbox360? How about $130CDN. That's almost HALF the cost of a hole Wii console that comes with 1 Wiimote, 1 nunchuk, built in wireless AND A GAME!

Please, don't talk about the Wii as a ripoff troll.

* And for those of you who want to argue that the xbox360 has built in ethernet, and the wii doesn't. All I have to say to that is, at least they're charging a reasonable price to add it!

I got my Wii yesterday, and I was *shocked* that it doesn't include any way of connecting it to the net. WTF! You need to buy an external adapter to connect it the net. F**king ripoff Nintendo.


Obviously a troll, but I wanted to share this anyhow.

The Wii, at $280CDN has built in wireless. To get wireless for an xbox360? How about $130CDN. That's almost HALF the cost of a hole Wii console that comes with 1 Wiimote, 1 nunchuk, built in wireless AND A GAME!

Please, don't talk about the Wii as a ripoff troll.

* And for those of you who want to argue that the xbox360 has built in ethernet, and the wii doesn't. All I have to say to that is, at least they're charging a reasonable price to add it!

Fewer people own Charging kits for proprietary battery packs (XBox 360). Personally, I have 2 chargers and a bunch of NIMH AA's, since I have a digital camera (Canon A620) and a couple other devices which use them. And it's $5 cheaper to buy a NIMH charger with two sets of batteries.

While I would agree with you if you're going for a larger screen, I did find a nice 27 inch http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon =&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10063717&catid=23239 Toshiba High-Def flat panel tube TV at Best-Buy the other day. Sure it was 499.99, but if you're not looking for a large 50+ inch screen and still want to get into Hi-Def since you need to replace the 25/30 incher you have now this would make a nice Hi-Def set to take home.

I've always found the "until *most* of the content is HD" argument specious at best. I bought my 51" Toshiba Rear Projection (51HX83) set a few years ago simply because of HD. I found that most of the shows in prime-time on all the major networks (usually what Joe Sixpack watches) are in HD and all the cool PBS-HD and Discovery-HD content rounds out the HD conent spectrum enough that I seldom have the need to watch standard def anymore. Sure I pay a bit more on the cable bill for the priveledge of having the HD-PVR, but I didn't spend a few grand to watch Standard Def.

I do agree with you in respect to the players; they need to come down in price. Once they do, I think you'll find more people will get into HD, especially since it's gotten quite cheap and there's quite a bit of programming out there now. Until then I guess I'll have to wait to get Stargate SG-1, Smallville, NCIS, etc... on HD-DVD. ;-)

Pete...

You can buy OSX at Best Buy for awhile now.
Tiger OS X

computer services you.

BestBuy's Geeksquad charges $129.99 canadian to throw RAM in your computer.

Installations:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/subclass.asp?catid=& mfr=&search=KWS&orgCategory=&Keyword=installation& Category=-2&MatchExactPhrase=&SubCategory=0&logon= &langid=EN&more=true&page=0&newcategory=20008&sele cteddept=20008&searchresultsdeptlist=-2,20001,2000 2,20004,20008,20006,20003,-3

It is deffinately not sensitive. I currently work at Best Buy Canada, while looking for a real job. There is a known issue that the button is not lined up perfectly with the pad underneeth.

I bet if you took apart your PSP and left those 4 buttons off when putting it back together you'd see the sensor pad is off centre of the hole for that one.

What's weird is listening to the sales staff offer the PSP on their PSP

Um, he did say he was in Ottawa, Canada. iPods start (20 GB) at about $380 Canadian, which with taxes is $437.

It may be cheap and sexy, but it's hard to find apps for. Best Buy, for example, carries no Mac software.

Actually, my local Best Buy does carry some Mac software titles. Heck, even the Best Buy (Canada) website has a Macintosh software section (a quick search of the US webstore likewise brings up some Apple software titles).

No Games. Sorry.

No need to appologise for your ignorance. Now if you had said that the Mac has fewer games, I'd have to grant you that. But to say there are no games? How about Halo? Or how about Rise of Nations? Or what about Unreal Tournement 2004? Age of Empires II? Age of Mythology? Civilization III? Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic? And let's not forget Doom 3 (currently available for pre-order). And a whole lot more.

If there are two things that characterize gaming on Mac OS X, it's that typically the games come out later on OSX than on Windows, and that there isn't the sheer mass of games available as there is on Windows. Still, that is a long way from "no" games -- typically all the best games from the Windows world make their way to the Mac OS X world in short order.

Yaz.

I've had a few friends that have wanted to join me in playing this game (yes, it's quite good). They can't find it anywhere. Obviously supply is better in the US, but in Canada it's quite hard to find

Future Shop

Best Buy

A beowulf of crap is just a bigger pile of crap.

Face it, if you strip the cost of windows xp home off of This computer It's only about 800 CAD, that's gotta be aroun $700 US, and it comes with a DVD burner.

• Memorex 50-Pack 4X 4.7GB DVD-R
• 
  Best Buy Canada: $49.99 CDN = $40.61 USD
  Best Buy USA: $49.24 CDN = $39.99 USD

• Fuji 50-Pack
• 
  Best Buy Canada: $24.95 CDN = $20.246 USD
  Best Buy USA: $28.29 CDN = $22.99 USD

• Memorex 50-Pack 4X 4.7GB DVD-R
• 
  Best Buy Canada: $49.99 CDN = $40.61 USD
  Best Buy USA: $49.24 CDN = $39.99 USD

• Fuji 50-Pack
• 
  Best Buy Canada: $24.95 CDN = $20.246 USD
  Best Buy USA: $28.29 CDN = $22.99 USD

When I heard that name I couldn't shake the image of Hugo Weaving's, (Agent Smith in the Matrix), voice saying that to Neo all the time.

In fact every time I see Hugo, like in the Lord of the Rings, I still hear him saying that...
"Mr. Anderson!"

Anyway, I'm glad to see that Best Buy is finally being recognized more for their money grabbing. Being an independent computer consultant, I'm tired of the Compaq/HP pushers filling the market with crap.
Further, the Geek Squad is now eating into my profits from service.

Irregardless, I for one welcome our new overlords. I've simply switched purchasing from OEM vendors to purchasing from Best Buy, Staples, Future Shop and so forth when rebates and discounts make it profitable.

What I dislike the most is that it's such a GAME.

Here is how you play and what you get:

1. Comb the flyers weekly, (both online and mailbox versions).
CircuitCity.com
FutureShop.ca
Staples.ca
BestBuy.ca
BestBuy.com
LondonDrugs.ca
OfficeDepot.com
RadioShack.com
(Please add more, I'm sure there are many)
2. Compare prices from Ebay, factoring in landed costs like shipping and duty.
3. Compare reviews and comments on items you are thinking of buying.
Tomshardware.com
Zdnet.com
4. Try to take advantage of 150% buyer protection by pitting store against store.
5. Now go and purchase what you can at the lowest possible price.
6. You will now get sales pitches, reams of paper receipts and mumbling twitchy eyed sales people running about checking the validity of your homework.
7. Don't forget to use any Airmiles, Reward Cards etc. to get even more discounts.
8. Before you leave the store, make sure you have everything you'll need to make a proper rebate.
9. Immediately test the product(s) you buy.
10. Do any returns ASAP.
11. If you do a return, make sure you go back to see if it's on the bargain table :->
12. Immediately fill out and make copies of your rebates, receipts and UPC codes.
13. Check everything for accuracy and dates.
14. Call help lines if you are missing any critical items or are unsure of anything in the rebate process before hand.
15. Immediately mail in rebates and keep postal receipts for your records.
16. Goto 1.

What you get is a product for a price you should have gotten right from the #$%king beginning.
Welcome to the rat race of buying and selling.
There are no winners, just lots of wasted time making paper for bureaucrats, lawyers and accountants.

Maybe we are just living in The Matrix.