In stores now, Rocketboost announcement makes the rounds on the 'net.

The new line of RocketBoost-enabled products hits brick and mortar stores this week.  Best Buy issued their press release full of executive quotes and the usual light-on-details value props.  Crunchgear, Engadget, I4U, and others dropped their cursory mentions that, perhaps not surprisingly, didn't offer much more detail.

A few points worth clarifying for those totally unfamiliar with Best Buy brands, and their wireless efforts:

1. Rocketfish is a Best Buy "exclusive brand" (aka private label).  Their products are sold in Best Buy, Canada's Future Shop, as well as a few chains in the UK and East Asia.
2. Rocketboost is a brandname from Best Buy, signifying the use of a new wireless audio solution, which readers of this site know is the 2nd generation solution made by Portland, OR-based wireless audio semiconductor firm, Avnera.  The Avnera solution includes a protocol and API layer, called AAL (for Avnera Audio Link) which ensure devices seamlessly interoperate with one another.
3. Rocketboost is not built with the same wireless solution as their RF-WHTIB kit.  That was based on Avnera's first gen, stereo-only, point-to-point-only system.  Rocketboost is a much more capable, and sophisticated audio "networking" system.
4. Rocketboost is open to other makers, so consumers can expect to see devices from other brands that can work with one another – sending low-delay, high-fidelity audio all around the house.  Best Buy is banking on their retail floor dominance to offer such a solution to help consumers roll their own network, and in doing so, can compel other brands to support the standard that Best Buy has made its own investment in, and will continue to champion.

As early comments on the blogs indicate, perhaps Rocketboost's values are not apparent in the early going... or maybe it's seen as a bit too niche and utilitarian by the journalists to get the masses excited. Regardless, the folks who are looking for a wireless audio solution that marries legacy equipment with new technologies can read the coverage posted here a couple weeks ago upon the products' dotcom launch.

Hopefully it will give would-be buyers the extra insight needed to figure out how these products can work in their homes.

Sony @ IFA. A cautionary tale about out of touch marketers

5:45PM Sony now covering new Sony Readers already announced, but pretending that Europeans don't know anything about them. An odd approach that's being met with a lot of uneasy seat-shifting by the journalists in the room.

via Live from Sony IFA 2009 press event.

Ha!

Link to Engadgets live blog from Sony's IFA press event

Should be some Sony ALTUS discussion coming in the next couple minutes.

Live from Sony IFA 2009 press event.

Second generation FREETALK Wireless Stereo Headset available at Skype.com

Completely updated design, the Freetalk Wireless Stereo Headset is on sale at Skype.com now.

If you were feeling lucky, perhaps you took a shot at one during Engadget's recession antidote yesterday:

Today we've got a FREETALK Wireless Stereo Headset along with a Skype voucher that'll net you free calls for three whole months. The World Plan voucher will link you up anywhere in the world that Skype supports, and coming off of a trip to Central America, we can certainly say it comes in handy (and works well, to boot).

Unless you were the winner, you're gonna want to head to Skype.com to pick yours up.

Another in a long line of Avnera-enabled headsets, I think this one's travel-friendly folding design gives it a clear differentiator to my personal favorite, the Plantronics .Audio 995.

iPhone 3GS "unveiled" last week on Jimmy Fallon

Nice clip of engadget managing editor, Josh Topolsky, on Jimmy Fallon doing one of those clever new clandestine advertisements... I mean, it is entertaining as Fallon's guests are interested gadget voyeurs demographically speaking, but it's still gotta be in someone's marketing budget right? Endgadget's (who did the same thing when the Pre was announced) most likely... perhaps ingratiating themselves to the industry's newsmakers to ensure the best tips and leads continue to come their way by the likes of Palm and Apple. Or perhaps, it's NBC + Engadget + Apple all saying it's a win-win-win and so, go for it? I really dunno.

The long and short of the piece is that the new iPhone 3GS has some long awaited features that almost all other phones could do for, in some cases, years. Like video, cut and paste, search... but it does them in enhanced "apple-rific" ways. Video cam... wee... but it lets you edit the vids too, and post them straight to youtube. Cut and paste... whoopty... but it preserves formatting for html pastes and leverages touch interface sweetly. Search your entire phone... ta-dah... but it brings the thoroughness of Apple's desktop Spotlight feature, and it lets you search mail out of the server in brilliantly quick fashion... try it, it's very slick.

Admittedly, the second two of these features are available on standard 2.5G and 3G iPhones with the software update... but the rest of the 3G"S" is all about the natural progression of a hardware platform. More, better, faster, same price. It's still basically a computer people!

So, no one should be cynical, disappointed, or overly jubilant about the 3GS. Just accept it as the next iPhone, and still the smartphone with the most incredible software that keeps it's user experience one step ahead of the pack.