So last night my iPhone buzzes me and let’s me know I have a new email from American Express. I figure it is just another Skymiles statement tied into my Delta frequent flyer account that I get every month. But luckily before quickly hitting delete, I see XBox 360 in the subject line.

So I decide to actually open it and I find out something surprising. American Express is going to issue me a credit just for synching up my Amex account with my XBox 360. Now I am sure there is some malevolent connection between the two to allow them to both do market research on me but let’s face it, these two companies already know all the bad stuff about me.

Microsoft knows how many hours of my life are spent online gaming already and my AmEx card knows where I blow my disposable income. Registering the two together isn’t going to ruin me by any means.

Activision announced pre-order bonuses late last week for their upcoming titles ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time’ and ‘X-Men: Destiny’. Depending on which retailer you choose to reserve your copy (or copies) from, you’ll receive a different and unique bonus item for each game. Web-headed fans will receive a bonus in-game suit, while X-Men players will get an exclusive X-Gene to further develop their arsenal of mutant abilities.

For those pre-ordering Spider-Man from Best Buy, you’ll get the Big Time suit – based on the outfit from the comic series of the same name. Gamers who reserve via Amazon.com receive a code to unlock the alienesque black and white Future Foundation Spidey suit, and lastly anyone pre-ordering with Gamestop will receive a whopping four alternate costumes from the Identity Crisis storyline.

The bonus codes for ’X-Men: Destiny,’ on the other hand, unlock more than just a fancy change of pants. Pre-order unlocks for this title grant you access to otherwise unavailable mutant X-Genes:  from Best Buy come the powers of the unstoppable Juggernaut; Amazon offers Emma Frosts diamond-clad telepathic abilities, and codes from Gamestop will unlock the plamsa-blasting X-Gene of Havok.

Check out the videos below for exclusive footage of these bonuses in action. ‘X-Men: Destiny’ hits shelves on September 27th of this year, with ‘Spider-Man: Edge of Time’ coming shortly after on October 4th.

If you’re one of the people who loves the Android OS, doesn’t want an iPhone and is a bit short of cash, this story might just be what you are looking for. Best Buy has announced a special one-day sale that will put any of the three versions of Google’s latest own-branded smartphone in your pocket for free.

That’s right, free as in free beer. Who doesn’t love that?

The T-Mobile Nexus S, Sprint’s Nexus S 4G and the AT&T version of the Google Nexus S can all be had for zero dollars from now through midnight tonight, Central Time. To take advantage of this you will, of course, need to sign up for a two-year contract.

However, it might be worth it. Google’s Nexus S smartphone features Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 16GB of internal storage, dual cameras, a 4-inch WVGA display and an integrated NFC chip.

In the case of Sprint’s version, it also features a 4G WiMAX radio. Although, you may suffer a bit in the battery life area with that one.

For all the scoop, Best Buy’s full press release is after the jump.

If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the chance to get your first experience with Apple’s latest slab of goodness or if you’re just tired of your iPad version 1.0, this announcement is for you. Apple, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless have all confirmed, via press releases, that tomorrow is the big day and the iPad 2 will be on sale.

Starting at 5PM local time, those of you with cash or credit card in hand can head on over to your nearest Apple, AT&T, or Verizon Wireless retail store and purchase the 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB iPad 2 in white or black.

If you go the AT&T route, here’s your data plan options:

• Monthly statements: $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2GB. If you exceed your monthly data allotment you will be billed $14.99 for another 250MB on the $14.99 plan or $10 per 1 GB of overage on the 2 GB plan. You also get a free month of service with this plan.

• Credit card billing: $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2 GB. If you exceed your monthly data allotment you may choose to purchase another 250 MB on the $14.99 plan or an additional 2 GB for $25 on the 2 GB plan.

How long will it be before we stop using the word laptop? And really, who wants a Netbook? Well, if these recent comments by Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn are taken into consideration, we might have to get used to the word, and to using, an iPad instead.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dunn remarked that the iPad “had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%.” That’s a pretty impressive number when you consider that Best Buy doesn’t even sell iPads in every one of its stores.

If you think about it it sorta makes sense though. For myself and many of my colleges, a laptop is a second computer that they use on the road. Or, they have a laptop for the kitchen or the living room for the kids and still rely on a desktop computer, or in my case an iMac, to get the real work done.

The iPad is the perfect casual computer that can fulfill most of the roles of the traditional laptop. You can browse the internet, check your email, watch movies and TV shows, read books, play games and much more all while using a cool and innovative device. Couple that with the ridiculously long battery life of the iPad when compared to most laptops and I think you’ll start to see why this is happening.

The iPad can almost completely replace the laptop for most people. And once Best Buy is featuring the device in all of its 1093 stores, which it’s expected to do by September 26th, you can bet we’ll see that number rise even higher.

We’re all pretty big fans places and things where technology and Hollywood meet, so we felt it was pretty necessary to bring attention to this brand new mobile app from Best Buy. It’s called Movie Mode, and it’s a new way to enjoy films in the theaters, starting with this Friday’s release of Despicable Me.

The app syncs directly with the audio of the film, and will enhance the experience by giving you a little something to do during the end credits, aside from waiting for the expected post-credits sequence. From a Best Buy:

Available as a free download, Best Buy Movie Mode comes to life via “The Minionator,” created as part of an exclusive collaboration with Universal Pictures and tied to the July 9 release of its must-see RealD 3-D CGI feature “Despicable Me” produced by Chris Meledandri.

“The Minionator” is Movie Mode’s first film enhancing experience and offers fans a deeper connection to “Despicable Me” by translating for audiences what the film’s mischievous little yellow characters, the Minions, are saying. The app acts as a translator during the 3-D theatrical end credits for the special language of the Minions. The app will also translate the Minion language throughout the entire movie on Best Buy’s exclusive “Despicable Me” DVD released later this year.

Transformers: War for Cybertron has had a recent outpouring of information lately. New characters, Pre-Order Exclusives and box art reveals.

First, let’s hit on two new playable characters that will be joining the game’s roster. Ironhide is the oldest of the Autobots. While his age makes him the slowest member, he is also the meanest and war hardened of the group. He is the definition of the Soldier class for multiplayer play. Warpath takes a page out of Ironhide’s gameplan and kicks it up with pure muscle with a massive cannon as his primary weapon.

Autobots aren’t the only ones getting reinforcements. Barricade, a scout class Decepticon that transforms in to a car, may be one of the fastest characters in the game, even outrunning many of the jet based characters. Along with Barricade, Decepticon Skywarp has been added to the game. This Scout class jet, much like Starscream, has cloaking abilities to reign down heavy damage on the unknowing Autobot forces.

As we reported before, Gamespot and Amazon will offer exclusive multiplayer characters Demolisher and Shockwave. Best Buy has joined the fray and added their own exclusive preorder bonus, Jazz. Check out the videos of all three of these exclusive characters below.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is set to hit shelves June 22 for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Check out all the screen shots and trailers below.

While most folks like to sleep in after consuming mass quantities of tryptophan and sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving day, some crazies (myself included) are up at the crack of dawn the next day, waiting in line at the local electronics and DVD store to fight the masses and get the best deals.

Luckily, with the invention of the Internet comes some sly dogs who have posted most of the great Black Friday deals online, mere days before the epic sales. Thanks to sites like BlackFriday.info and GottaDeal.com, we can now sit back in the luxury of our homes to check out some of the great deals we plan on taking advantage of this Friday.

Of the many, many deals going on that day, we’ve decided to break down a few of our favorite picks for the holiday sale, just for you, our loyal readers. One of the best picks, by far, is Best Buy’s Samsung Blu-Ray Player with Netflix and Pandora support for $149.99. If you’re looking to finally upgrade to Blu-ray, that would be the machine to start with.

Once you’ve got the Blu-ray player out of the way, why not grab some good Blu-ray discs? If you don’t want to leave the house, Amazon has got some great deals including Chuck: The Complete First Season for $20.99, the Batman Anthology for $51.99, and even Ocean’s Eleven and Twelve for $9.99.

Switching over to video games, Best Buy seems to have some of the better deals (even the “best”), but only if you’re able to get to the store before noon on Friday. You can pick up Brutal Legend, Left 4 Dead 2, and Dragon Age for the Next Gen systems for only $34.99.

These are just some of the great deals going on Friday, and we hope you’re able to get out to the stores (or not) and take advantage of some of these great sales. Happy Thanksgiving!

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are joined on this milestone episode by comic and video game expert John Carle and, as usual, dive into a whole bunch of new topics. This time around the guys discuss Joss Whedon’s bid to buy the Terminator franchise, XBox’s new Live Rewards program, the epic Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band war, Best Buy’s foray into video on demand and the merits of various Michael Caine movies.

Of course, the guys also made some more great pics this week including John’s pick of the great new demo for Left for Dead 2, Matt’s pick of a very special episode of Batman: Brave and the Bold and Chris’ pick of the 1992 Oliver Stone movie Natural Born Killers.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques or offers of sponsorship, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter and at Facebook, MySpace or via email.

Thanks for listening.

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