For many fans of gadgets, games and electronics Best Buy is the place to go shopping when you need to scratch the gadget itch. What some don’t realize is that Best Buy owns and operates some other very popular retail locations around the world.

Best Buy announced today that it has agreed to buy 50% of Carphone Warehouse for a cash amount of $2.1 billion. The purchase will allow Best Buy to open retail stores in Europe and provide Carphone Warehouse with the funds to pay down debt and offer new services.

Best Buy has made an announcement that it truly does feel bad for all of those that bit the bullet and made a decision in the high-def video format war, before it was over. People wanting high-definition video last year and early this year had a tough time making a decision between Toshiba’s HD DVD and the Blu-ray formats, and some chose the wrong one.

Now that Toshiba has stopped making the HD DVD formats and studios have stopped creating HD DVD formatted movies, the players are almost useless and Best Buy is recognizing this by offering a $50 store credit to all that purchased an HD DVD player from Best Buy before February 23, 2008. Some will automatically receive the checks from Best Buy, but if you don’t get it by May you can call them and request it at 1-888-BEST-BUY.

Now there is another place that will take your old game console, if it’s collecting dust in some closet. Best Buy is willing to take it off your hands. One thing though. And it’s odd…This new service won’t let you just drop off your old hardware at the local store. You have to ship it off to them.

Has there been a week recently when China-made products have not been in the news? Normally it’s tainted food and toxic lead. Now it’s a malicious virus-infected digital photo frame. Computer Associates identified it as Mocmex , “a nasty worm that has a great deal of intelligence” and “a nuclear bomb of malware”.

It’s a malicious self-propagated worm that has been steadily spreading worldwide with variants of over 67,500 kinds. That’s cause for some concern. It was first identified as a Trojan horse that collected passwords from online games, but after further study, it’s able to get around more than a hundred antivirus vendors as well as Windows security layers. Now it could potentially collect personal and private data.

Recent decisions by the likes BlockBuster earlier last year, Warner Brothers last month and Netflix just this morning are only further cementing the future of the next single high definition video format. Widening the gap today is retail giant Best Buy which has announced that they too will be supporting Blu-ray over HD DVD as the preferred format for the future.

Best Buy says they will continue to carry HD DVD products in their store as well, but will be showcasing the Blu-ray products as the emerging single format for high-definition video going forward. This move could help many consumers who are undecided about the future of video formats to make a decision and possibly make purchases that they’ve been holding out on. We also imagine that this will make life a whole lot easier for Best Buy employees working on the floor answering customer questions about which format to choose.

Best Buy is getting all set to unleash its digital converter boxes on the shopping masses as America counts down towards the government mandated DTV transition occurring in 2009. It will have in stores on Feb. 17 the new Insignia Digital-to-Analog Converter for Analog TVs - also known as the NS-DXA1.

The NS-DXA1 is pricing at around $60 at Best Buy, but coupons being made available from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) knock $40 off of that. These boxes change “over-the-air broadcast signals to a readable analog format for TVs that rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts for content as opposed to receiving programming through a cable or satellite subscription.” They measure 8.5- x 6-inches and are eco-friendly.

According to some leaked information from a Best Buy employee, the retailer sent out an internal memo that the 80GB Playstation 3 is scheduled to be “going closeout”, which basically means they will sell what’s on shelves and not stock anymore. The internal communication states that this is expected to take place as soon as January 28.

It’s been apparent that the 80GB model of the PS3 hasn’t had the selling power of the smaller and cheaper models, but since the removal of the 60GB models this leaves the shelves with nothing that is backwards compatible with PS2 games. It also limits consumers to the scaled down PS3 without the memory card reader and fewer USB ports.

How do you know the analog television era is truly coming to an end? When retailers announce publicly they are no longer going to carry these products on store shelves. Such is the case with an announcement today from Best Buy.

Best Buy, the largest CE retailer across the land, has “pulled all remaining analog television products from store shelves and will only sell digital video tuners in the future.” It will also take part in a national coupon program to help people purchase digital converter boxes for existing analog televisions.

Best Buy announced today the release of its Best Buy Digital Music Store. This new service will give music lovers yet another option in the increasingly competitive digital music domain.

The new digital music service is powered by the RealNetworks Rhapsody 4.0 music service, and features both a permanent download store and a subscription download service.

This announcement is great for consumers who will now have even more options for purchasing digital music. Best Buy has a long road ahead of them …