Best Buy Brings A Glimpse Of The Future To Digital Downtown

Outdoor Exhibit Brings the Future of Consumer Electronics to Wall Street [The following is a release from Best Buy and Digital Download]

May 21, 2008

Best Buy will offer attendees at Digital Downtown, New York's Consumer Technology Showcase, a glimpse of the future of consumer electronics at its Best Buy Live! exhibit at the World Financial Center Plaza, June 12-14, 2008. The event, which showcases 30 leading brands before the city's financial community, is being organized in association with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) ®, producer of International CES®. "This year's Best Buy Live! exhibit showcases products that will change the way consumers interact with technology; they are not necessarily products that you can buy at a Best Buy today," says Jim Lawrence. Senior Manager, Event Marketing. Best Buy Co. Inc. "This is our vision of the future of consumer electronics and, as such, we will be providing consumers with their first-ever views of what's coming and how it will improve their lives." Best Buy Live! will be making over 50 stops nationwide. Digital Downtown will be the roadshow's only Manhattan showcase, on the dramatic World Financial Center Plaza, overlooking New York Harbor and the Hudson River. Among the consumer technology "firsts" that Digital Downtown and Best Buy Live! will be showcasing include: Wireless power. A desktop automatically turns on and powers up a range of consumer devices, without plugging them in -- from a desk lamp to an iPod. Videogames without controllers. Stand in front of a 3D camera that reads all your body movements, allowing you to rid yourself of a videogame mouse or wand and play the games without any controller at all. Electronic mindreader. A cranial-neural transmitter taps your brain at 16 contact points and reads very basic thought patterns and instructions. Soon to be another videogame interface, this headset may have long lasting benefits for the handicapped. The computer wall. Have your entire computer screen live and projected up to 77" diagonal on any wall of your house. Your wall becomes the computer. Your fingers begin the mouse. Sort all your digital photos by hand on screen or twirl through Google Earth with your fingers. Digital download central. Experience a range of new and higher-quality ways to download music and videos online or off cable. This demonstration illustrates the range of ways that consumers will soon be accessing their content anywhere, anytime. Best Buy Live! has been an annual showcase for the retail giant out on the streets nationwide since 2001. This will be the first time the roadshow will focus on future technologies rather than recreating the Best Buy store experience. It will be showcased at NASCAR and PGA events prior being installed at Digital Downtown in June. "This year's exhibit reinforces the message that Best Buy is the voice of authority when it comes to technology. We are keeping the consumer in touch with the latest developments so that they can make the right choices and understand the possibilities of what is here and what's coming," says Best Buy Live Marketing Manager Rob Smith. Best Buy Live! will be a featured exhibit at the Digital Downtown consumer technology showcase on the Plaza outside the Winter Garden, the architecturally acclaimed "lobby" of the World Financial Center, the corporate home of American Express, Merrill Lynch, Dow Jones, Deloitte & Touche, New York Mercantile Exchange, Fidelity Investments and Mass Mutual. The Winter Garden is within easy reach of over 350,000 workers in Lower Manhattan and 15,000 residents of nearby Battery Park City and Tribeca. Digital Downtown is being organized in association with (CEA, the producer of the International CES®, along with Martin Porter & Associates, Brookfield Properties, owner of the World Financial Center, and Consumer Technology Publishing Group/NAPCO, publisher of Dealerscope, Custom Retailer and E-Gear Magazines For more information about Digital Downtown visit www.digitaldowntown-nyc.com.

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