Best Buy on Friday reported weaker than expected revenue for the five weeks ended December 31st, 2011. The company noted $8.4 billion in revenue, which was flat compared to the same period last year but included a comparable store sales decline of 1.2%. The company’s international segment generated $1.9 billion in revenue, a 1.7% decrease and a 4.3% drop off in store sales. Its domestic segment generated $6.5 billion in revenue, which was up 0.4% from the same period last year but it also represented a ...

SIMPLE Mobile recently introduced two new international calling plans. Customers can now opt to sign up for a $10 unlimited international long distance plan or a $10 pay-as-you-go option. The $10 monthly unlimited plan allows customers to place calls to more than 50 countries including to Canada, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. The $10 pay-as-you-go option can be used to place calls to any country in the world at low per-minute rates, and the full list is available on SIMPLE Mobile’s website. The car...

Apple recently posted a support page with information about the international rollout of iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud. iTunes Match is now officially available in 17 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States. However, 9to5Mac points out that users in other countries such as Brazil have noticed that iTunes Match is working. Apple also provided infor...

Samsung on Thursday unveiled two new dual-SIM smartphones, the Galaxy Y Duos and the Galaxy Y Pro Duos. A phone with two SIM card slots offers a number of benefits; it’s perfect for two people hoping to share a single phone in emerging markets, but it’s also great for business travelers that want to use one account for personal matters and a second as a business line. The Galaxy Y Duos runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and has a processor clocked at 832MHz and a 3-megapixel camera. The Galaxy Y Pro D...

AT&T recently launched its new “AT&T Call International” VoIP application that, exactly as its name implies, allows its customers to place international phone calls from their AT&T’s phones using a Wi-Fi connection anywhere in the world. AT&T’s per-minute VoIP rates are cheaper than its international roaming plans and, judging from AT&T’s product page, calls placed to wireline phones appear to be more affordable than those placed to wireless phones. Customers ...

Spurred by the iPhone 4S launch, several analysts expect sales of Apple’s iPhone lineup to explode during the fourth quarter of this year. “The timing of the 70 [international] launches could have some impact on sales ahead of the launch, the US/International split, and hence, our estimates look conservative,” UBS analyst Maynard Um said in a recent note to investors. “A similar 27.5 percent U.S. / 72.5 percent international split from this quarter would imply 42.5 million units in CY4...

Google updated its Translate application for Android devices on Thursday with support for 11 additional languages as part of a major update. The application will now translate and speak English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish. Google originally launched the conversation feature of Google Translate in January of this year and subsequently added support for Japanese in the wake of the country’s earthquak...

Beginning on September 18th, AT&T will offer a new $25 GoPhone prepaid plan that will include 250 minutes and unlimited messaging. Starting on the same day, customers can opt to sign up for a new $10 international long distance plan that offers 250 minutes of calling to more than 50 countries. The minutes for both plans expire after 30 days. GoPhone customers will also be able to roam in Canada at a rate of $0.39 per minute. Text messages in Canada will cost $0.25 per message sent and $0.20 per message re...

Following first-quarter earnings that sent investors and the media into a tizzy, analyst coverage of RIM has been fairly monotone. The consensus? The company is doomed. Sure, there’s been an odd half-hearted vote of confidence here and there, but the majority of analyst coverage we’ve seen has been negative and investors are exiting en masse. In a 45-page report published last Tuesday, however, analysts at Macquarie Capital Markets paint a different picture of RIM’s business. Despite produ...

On Tuesday AT&T officially announced that its customers can now sign up for a $50 unlimited GoPhone plan that includes unlimited text, talk, and web for $50 per month. AT&T’s GoPhone option does not require a contract and it also allows customers to text Mexico, Canada, and 100 other countries at no additional cost. AT&T’s new pricing is a considerable drop from the original $60 per month GoPhone option, which just provided unlimited talk and text.Read on for the full release. (more...

Not content with two press releases, Apple has just announced that the iPad 2 will be hitting over 10 countries this week, starting with Japan on April 28th. On April 29th, the iPad 2 will be available for purchase in Hong Kong, India, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and in the UAE . The iPad 2 with Wi-Fi will then be available in China starting on May 6th. Hit the break for Apple’s full press release. (more…)

Despite leaked information that Sprint and Google would launch Google Voice integration services on April 26th, multiple sources have confirmed that the service is already being rolled out to users. Sprint and Google announced the partnership last month, and the new service will allow Sprint users to access calls and text messages, or place calls through Google Voice’s Web interface using their Sprint number. Alternatively, users can opt to have their Google Voice number replace their Sprint number on ...

Intel gathered by blog Android Central indicates that Sprint and Google will make their Google Voice partnership ready for prime time on April 26th. The venture, which was announced last month, will allow Sprint customers to seamlessly integrate their current wireless number with Google’s Voice service. Calls and texts sent from your mobile device will be logged by Google Voice’s online system, and calls can be made from the browser using the service’s VoIP feature. International calls mad...

Apple’s iPad 2 goes on sale Friday in 25 countries around the world, and early reports from Australia are showing monumental lines for Apple’s latest tablet. AFP quotes an Apple fan as having waited over 53 hours in line for the iPad 2 launch in Sydney, Australia, with hundreds of people waiting behind him. In addition to Austrlia, people have lined up across the globe and most are only hours away from bringing one home from the store — if inventory holds up. The list of countries where the iPad...