Best Buy Connect no longer accepting new activations, service to end June 1st (update: confirmed)

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Remember Best Buy Connect? If so, you'll soon have a few more megabytes of humanized DDR3 freed up, as it appears that the retail giant is ready to put the kibosh on its own branded mobile broadband service nearly two years after it was first unveiled. According to the internal memo shown in the above screenshot, new activations are no longer allowed effective immediately, and the service for legacy customers will be cut off on the first of June.

So why the change of heart? Apparently Connect is the victim of a reshuffling of priorities, and the company determined that it "can achieve greater growth by delivering mobile broadband support in ways other than an exclusive Best Buy-branded service." Of course, this is bound to upset more than a handful of folks who have been relying on Connect for their data needs, and the retailer isn't leaving them completely in the dark: to help smooth out the transition, all Early Termination Fees will be waived, and all customers will receive a $125 or $150 gift card via email to curb the cost of moving to a different carrier. WiMAX Connect users, additionally, will also be given the option to switch over to Clear service. We're still awaiting official confirmation from Best Buy -- as of this moment, the official website remains up and running as if it's none the wiser -- but we'll update as soon as we hear more.

Update: Best Buy has now officially confirmed that the service will indeed be shut off on June 1st.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Best Buy Connect no longer accepting new activations, service to end June 1st (update: confirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Star Castle finally finds a home on the Atari 2600, gets a redesigned cartridge

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Halo may have made its way to the Atari 2600, but wouldn't porting a retro game to this '70s-era console be more appropriate? MAKE Magazine has the skinny on former Atari dev Scott Williamson's port of the Cinematronics shooter Star Castle. Though Atari execs decided the title was too complicated to bring over in the '80s, Williamson took it upon himself to make that transition possible. The result of some serious coding is 8K of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM's worth of good ol' space war. But he didn't stop there -- he redesigned the cartridge with a transparent casing and LEDs that flash during gameplay. Click through to the source link for the full step-by-step.

Star Castle finally finds a home on the Atari 2600, gets a redesigned cartridge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Buy Connect no longer accepting new activations, service to end June 1st

Image

Remember Best Buy Connect? If so, you'll soon have a few more megabytes of humanized DDR3 freed up, as it appears that the retail giant is ready to put the kibosh on its own branded mobile broadband service nearly two years after it was first unveiled. According to the internal memo shown in the above screenshot, new activations are no longer allowed effective immediately, and the service for legacy customers will be cut off on the first of June.

So why the change of heart? Apparently Connect is the victim of a reshuffling of priorities, and the company determined that it "can achieve greater growth by delivering mobile broadband support in ways other than an exclusive Best Buy-branded service." Of course, this is bound to upset more than a handful of folks who have been relying on Connect for their data needs, and the retailer isn't leaving them completely in the dark: to help smooth out the transition, all Early Termination Fees will be waived, and all customers will receive a $125 or $150 gift card via email to curb the cost of moving to a different carrier. WiMAX Connect users, additionally, will also be given the option to switch over to Clear service. We're still awaiting official confirmation from Best Buy -- as of this moment, the official website remains up and running as if it's none the wiser -- but we'll update as soon as we hear more.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Best Buy Connect no longer accepting new activations, service to end June 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments


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Jennifer Hudson Exits Courtroom in Wake of Disturbing Photos


A day after taking the stand in the murder case against William Balfour - and breaking down when a photo of her mom was presented - Jennifer Hudson couldn't handle being in the same room with the man accused of killing her relatives.

Jennifer Hudson on Dateline

Witnesses tell TMZ Hudson excused herself from the legal proceedings when prosecutors pulled out crime scene photos of Jennifer's seven-year old nephew Julian, who was allegedly shot by Balfour in a fit of rage.

He is also on trial for murdering Hudson's mother and brother.

David Otunga, Jennifer's fiance and the father of her son, remained inside the courtroom after Hudson departed and, insiders say, jotted down notes about the crime scene. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Jennifer and her family.

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Some Users In China Reporting They Are Able To Access Facebook, Despite Ban

greatfirewallA sign of a crack in the Great Chinese Firewall? Internet users in China today are reporting that they are able to access Facebook in the country: some say they can access the site through mobile Internet connections and iOS apps; others are reporting access using HTTPS connections on their computers. The social network has been having problems in the country as far back as 2009, when the site was "punished" for allowing a Uighur activist to post details of an upcoming protest.

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Yes, the Sprint Galaxy Nexus is a Nexus; no, you can't build it from AOSP

Sprint Galaxy Nexus

With the Sprint Galaxy Nexus finally seeing its release today, it's worth a reminder of where, exactly, it stands in the world of Nexus and the Android Open Source Project. And Google's Jean-Baptiste Queru has done exactly that this weekend.

The short version is that, no, you can't compile a pure AOSP build for the Sprint Galaxy Nexus directly from Google. That's because there are licensing issues with some files for CDMA devices that keeps the code from being released under AOSP. And because compiling without those files would leave you with a phone that doesn't quite work (if data and voice are important features, anyway), it remains not quite as open-source as GSM Nexus devices. That's just the way it is.

This isn't new, of course. It's what got folks all sorts of frustrated earlier this year when Google changed up the AOSP documentation and everyone went off half-cocked about whether Verizon's Galaxy Nexus was a real Nexus, or whether Google still supported CDMA devices or whatever.

To recap: Yes, the Sprint Galaxy Nexus is a "Nexus." Yes, it's supported by Google. Yes, it'll likely get newer versions of Android more quickly than other devices. (And maybe even more quickly than GSM versions.) Is it something to stay up nights worrying about? Nope.

Source: +JBQ

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