Best Buy Makes A Holiday Connection

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 7/19/2010

MINNEAPOLIS — As it has in summers past, Best Buy is providing a sneak peek at a slew of CE candidates for Santa’s holiday satchel.

While last year’s largely private-label selection was based on value, this year’s fourth-quarter picks — which run the gamut from portable health and fitness devices to wireless speakers and IPTV — reflect Best Buy’s central product focus: connectivity.

Highlights from the retailer’s stocking stuffer assortment include:
• the FLPR universal remote attachment for iPhone and iPod touch from New Potato Technologies, which allows the Apple devices to control TVs, cable and satellite boxes, DVRs, DVDs and receivers (suggested retail: $80);

• the Wi-Fi-enabled Insignia Infocast, described as a Sony Dash for moms, which has an 8-inch LCD touchscreen with 800 by 600 resolution for accessing Web content like Facebook, Photobucket and The Weather Channel, and more than 1,500 apps from Chumby Industries (suggested retail: $170); and

• Gaiam’s first-to-market audio yoga mat, which connects to portable media devices so practitioners can listen to music or instructional programs as they work out (suggested retail: $40).