There is a catch, of course, but it’s all quite par for the online shopping course. To take advantage of free shipping with ThinkGeek, you’ll need to place a minimum order of $25. If you do that and enter FIREFLOWER in the coupon code area, then you’ll get free shipping to the contiguous United States. They haven’t said when this offer is expiring aside from saying it’ll expire “soon.” You cannot stack coupons on top of this.

The other offer is the free t-shirt at ThinkGeek. To get the free Legend of Penny t-shirt, you’ll need to place a minimum order of $40. That’s really not that much more than the $25 you’ll already be spending to get the free shipping, so you might as well do it. And yes, this will still qualify for the free shipping. You just have to enter the same FIREFLOWER promo code. Just bear in mind that the Legend of Penny shirt will only be offered “while supplies last.”

The post Daily Deals: ThinkGeek Offering Free Shipping and Free Shirt appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

That’s the notion being put forth by Larry Downes of Forbes Magazine. Despite the slow bleed out from other electronic competitors, Best Buy actually saw its market share drop with a corresponding 40% drop in stock value last year. WSJ said that the “worst is yet to come” for Best Buy.

But why is that? One idea put forth has to do with customer service. You can generally categorize customers in one of two groups. There are the self-service types who know exactly what they want and don’t need any help. These are the folks that may rather turn to online shopping, or in the case of my local Vancouver area, a store like NCIX. Then, there are the folks who do want some customer service and guidance. The trouble is that Best Buy isn’t providing “customer service,” according to Downes. It’s “anti-service” because the associates are too busy upselling, suggestive selling, and cross-selling. That’s “in lieu of actual training on either the products or effective sales.”

And let’s not forget about the Apple Store. Best Buy has run out of that unique selling proposition, it seems, and it’s just going to be a slow and gradual death with customers leaking out to other channels. What do you think? Is Best Buy joining Circuit City to the pits? What can it do to attract customers again? Or will it be deemed “too big to fail” and get a government bailout?  What’s your experience at Best Buy?

The post Bye Bye Best Buy? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

I wouldn’t say that I use it terribly often, but Google Goggles is an amazing little app. I take a picture of something — almost anything — and it will recognize what it is. If it’s a product, I can then do a quick online search for reviews and pricing information. eBay wants to do the same thing with its mobile apps.

eBay CEO John Donahoe announced at the Innovate eBay new developer conference that the company plans on rolling out image recognition technology in is mobile offerings before the end of the year. Once again, the core concept mirrors that of Google Goggles. You’re out in the world, you take a picture of something you want, and the eBay app starts searching through its online marketplace for similar products that you can bid on and buy.

Since this is eBay, the image search will be geared more toward buying products and related products. As such, snapping pictures of clothing and furniture may work a heck of a lot better (assuming they’ve got the algorithm nailed down) than with Google Goggles. The latter doesn’t recognize apparel all that well, for instance.

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