1. Capsule Hotel
Say you’re in Union Square. It’s 4am and you’re drunk. Far too drunk to figure out how to get back home. Well, why not go and crash in the capsule hotel at Best Buy for $US15? And when you get up, you can make a quick video-game impulse purchase to help nurse your hangover with.

2. Pay by the hour video games
Best Buy has tons of huge, beautiful TVs. They also have boatloads of video games and consoles. Why not use all that gear? If they set up Xboxes on those big TVs, they could charge people by the hour to play on them late at night. Say, from 11pm-6am. I’m sure they’d make a boatload of cash from semi-drunk people paying $US20 to kill each other in Call of Duty before going home after the bars.

3. Food
Of course, you gotta have food late at night. Might I suggest a make-your-own sundae bar? Just make sure you’ve got enough serviettes on hand to keep all of your nice products from being covered in sticky fingerprints.

4. Skee-ball
Everybody loves skee-ball!

5. Karaoke
Again, this would be a great way to showcase your TVs as well as the big musical-instruments section that this new flagship Best Buy is going to have.

6. Hot Tubs
Look, if you want to get people into your store late at night, you’ve gotta offer incentives. And there are few better incentives than a hot tub on a cold night. Combine this with #2 and I’d practically live there.

7. A Bar
Why only settle for people shopping after they’ve been out drinking when you can sell them their drinks as well? Do you know what the profit margins are on booze sales? Enough to make you rethink being an electronics retailer, that’s what.

It’ll be open 24 hours during the week (while only staying open from 11am-7pm on Sundays, for some reason) and it’ll have concerts. Concerts already lined up include Lamb of God, Peter Erskine and Friends and Anthrax. Oh, and Bon Jovi will be there on opening day. Awesome? [Racked, Thanks, Ponies]

How imminent? Well, If you believe earlier reports, there is a good chance that the launch could take place as early as October 25th. [Crackberry via MobileCrunch]

I’m guess the qualifier is that it’s 30% of the computers at retail, not including biz or education, but still, that’s a crazy amount of computers.

Generally, a Best Buy’s monstrous collection of HDTVs display repetitive, lame video clips and advertisements. But one artist convinced a Manhattan Best Buy to hand over all of their HDTVs for a digital gallery.

This abstract collection of video paintings by Borna Sammak was created through the heavy post-processing/layering of found footage from sources like Planet Earth.

But how did Sammak secure the Best Buy gallery, especially during regular business hours? He simply asked the manager while hinting at increased foot traffic.

Needless to say, Best Buy could transition itself from faceless retailer to hip uncle status if more locations supported local and experimental film like this through digital community outreach programs. Let’s make this happen, BB! [popsci]

The Windows 7 netbook, which’ll be a Best Buy exclusive when it first goes on sale, has a fairly standard spec set, up until a certain point: A 1.6GHz Atom processor, 120GB HDD and 1GB of RAM are nothing to get too excited about, but the 12-hour claimed battery life, built-in 3G support and GPS unit, well, thanks Nokia for not making this as boring as it could have been.

The inventory shot doesn’t just point to a $US600 price—approachable, maybe, but not exactly low—it indicates that stock was showing up at Best Buy as early as September 25, lending credence to the idea that this might be a Windows 7 launch product, meaning you’ll be able to get your hands on it as soon as October 22nd. [Phonearena via BGR]

Nokia has had trouble getting some phones subsidised by U.S. carriers in the past, so I’m a little concerned here. Because ridiculous price aside, the Booklet 3G has some kick-ass specs: Windows 7, 1280 by 720 (720p) screen, built-in accelerometer, SIM card slot and integrated OVi maps, claimed 16-hour battery life and HDMI.

Other essentials include 802.11n Wi-Fi, 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, 120GB hard disk and 1GB RAM — there’s no Nvidia Ion love.

If you prefer not to deal with the Geek Squad, Nokia will still be selling the Booklet 3G online. But neither company has coughed up any more info on when it will be available (possibly October 22), or how much it will cost. In Europe, it’s €575 (AU$952) before-subsidies. We’ll have to wait and see. [Phone Scoop via Electronista]

It will also be able to download over 1100 newspapers from Newspapers Direct, and support the open ePub book format. And while the Kindle’s CDMA connectivity ties it to Sprint, the DR800SG’s Qualcomm Gobi chip means it should work on overseas HSDPA networks.

The DR800SG should hit Best Buy stores next month, but we won’t know what it looks like, or full specs (ink technology, resolution, memory, etc), until later today. Stay tuned. [New York Times]

When you think about it, it’s amazing that the Wii has motored along for three years at $US250. But it’s clear that Nintendo has to do something. The 120GB PS3 Slim is $US300, the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite is $US250 with rebates, and 250GB bundles for both are strongly rumoured to be around the corner.

My Wii just kind of sits in the corner all lonely these days. If you don’t have one, is the new price enough to make you pick one up? Or will you just hold out until 2011 for the next-gen Wii with HD graphics? [Engadget]