AllThingsD » Geek Squad

Google Zeitgeist: Cirque du Soleil and Free Google TVs

John Paczkowski — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:54:31 +0000

Quite an Oprah moment at Google (GOOG) Zeitgeist today. A source who’s attending the event–which is being held in Paradise Valley, Ariz., this year–tells me that the 600 attendees got a doozy of a parting gift: Google TV, three months of Dish service, a Bravia TV and complimentary Best Buy Geek Squad installation. Wouldn’t want Aaron Sorkin, Jerry Yang, Carlos Slim et al messing around with cables and boxes and such. Must have been quite a scene: “And if you’ll all look under your seats, you’ll find your personal geek.”

The gift bags (crates?) also included some comfort for the sole: Havaianas flip-flops.

Oh. This year’s entertainment? The amazing and amusing stylings of Cirque du Soleil. Maybe this year’s theme was Flexibility.

UPDATE: Looks like it’s three months of Dish service, not six.

Can Big-Box Merchants Fix Your Computer?

Charles Passy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:00:52 +0000

Back in the old days–say, 2006–when we needed a computer repaired, we turned to the shop down the street. These were tech-minded guys who seemed to have too much time on their hands, but who could still never fix our busted laptop soon enough.

Now, the local shops face big competition. In 2008, Office Depot Inc. (ODP) rolled out its Tech Depot service at its stores nationwide. “Let our techs get your PC to operate at peak performance,” the company touts, saying that it can handle everything from basic software installations to major repairs and upgrades. Staples Inc., (SPLS) the office-supply retail chain, expanded its EasyTech computer services to all of its stores in 2007.

And electronics retail giant Best Buy Co. (BBY) is seeing its seven-year-old joint operating agreement with the Geek Squad, a technology-service provider that focuses especially on computers, continue to flourish. Its national service center, Geek Squad City near Louisville, Ky., receives about 1,500 repair and other orders daily.

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Best Buy: Our Sales Staff Rocks; So We’re Cutting Salaries

Eric Savitz — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:47:16 +0000

There are the things that you say. And then there are the things that you do.

Electronics retail giant Best Buy (BBY) has supplied a fine example of the difference.

What They Said:

Here’s an excerpt from a release Best Buy issued yesterday on some recent store openings:

“The company’s Blue Shirt employees are the core of Best Buy. As a people-powered organization, Best Buy invests heavily in discovering and training employees in customer service, product knowledge and financial acumen. As the store employees are closest to the customers, the company relies on them for their innovative ideas and feedback to enhance customers’ shopping experiences. Whether an individual’s passion is to be the best salesperson on the floor, a Geek Squad Agent, home theater installer or the next CEO, Best Buy fuels employees with the knowledge and resources to achieve their personal ambition.”

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AT&T Offers Rival to Best Buy's "Geek Squad"; $119 to Set Up Your New PC

Tiernan Ray — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:43:46 +0000

Is AT&T (T) ready to take on Best Buy (BBY)? The phone company announced today that it will offer a technical support team providing in-home service for “virtually any home technology or entertainment need.” (Makes one chortle, just a little, to think about the “entertainment needs” AT&T might service in one’s home.) The offering is obviously competition for Best Buy’s Geek Squad technical support operation.

AT&T says it will help consumers configure computers, set up networking, install home theaters and mount TVs. “ConnecTech” as it’s called, will be available in the 50 States. On its Web page, ConnecTech lists prices ranging from $69 for basic troubleshooting of your PC or home network support to $179 for someone to come to your home for the same.

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Best Buy: Now Everyone Wants an Army Of Geeks

Eric Savitz — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:17:34 +0000

Best Buy (BBY) has a nice niche with its Geek Squad, providing tech-savvy service people to help customers set up large-screen televisions, home theater systems, wireless networks and other high-end consumer electronics goods. It’s such a nice niche, in fact, that now everyone wants to do it.

Citigroup analyst Kate McShane raised the issue this morning in launching coverage of the electronics retailing giant. She rates Best Buy a “Hold,” and specifically focuses on the the rise of Geek Squad clones. That would be good news for geeks, not so good for Best Buy.

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Zune to Be Forgotten?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:00:40 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Pull Those Engineers Off OS X 10.6 and Put Them on the Clock Radio …

John Paczkowski — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:36:01 +0000

Good thing Forrester Research (FORR) doesn’t run Apple (AAPL), because if it did the company would be well on its way to insolvency.

In an astonishingly unimaginative report called “The Future of Apple Inc.,” Forrester attempts to divine the products Apple will be peddling five years from now. “Apple will aim to become the hub of the digital home, offering eight key products and services to connect PCs and digital content to the HDTV-stereo audio-visual infrastructure in consumers’ homes,” Forrester explains. “To fulfill this strategy, we predict that Apple will launch new products, re-engineer the Apple Store, and expand into in-home installation services.”

Sadly, the speculative product and services roadmap Forrester has devised seems more a roadmap to ruin than anything else, and a laughable one at that. Among the products the company sees Apple developing by 2013:

A network-enabled “clock radio”
An AppleSound universal music controller
A digital picture frame
A “Genius Bar” that makes house calls just like the Geek Squad.

Huh. So Apple, after reinventing the desktop UI, the digital media player, and the phone, will set its sights on the lowly clock radio and picture frame. Really? If Apple’s product dev team pitched Forrester’s clock radio idea to CEO Steve Jobs, he would probably hurl them one-by-one into rush-hour traffic from the roof of 1 Infinite Loop.

WSJ Online Videos: Online Trolls, Geeks, Queen and a Cuban Blogger

Kara Swisher — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:03:00 +0000

Here’s some videos you might have missed from WSJ Online.

The first is about Web “trolls,” who plague politicians’ Web sites by posting negative comments and links; the second looks at the Geek Squad of Best Buy; the third is about Queen Elizabeth II’s new YouTube site; and the fourth looks at a blogger who posts critically while also living in Havana, no easy task.

Internet Trolling

Geek Squad

YouTube Save the Queen

Cuban Blogger

Andy Jordan on the Geek Squad!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:24:28 +0000

The WSJ.com’s Tech Diary video blogger Andy Jordan tags along with one of the members of Best Buy’s “Geek Squad.”

“I’m an actual geek!” he tells one of his customers. Printer disaster! Too-hot laptop. Clip-on tie, white socks and black shoes! Fun!