A photo has leaked of a Best Buy ad that offers an iPhone 3GS free with 2-year activation. The ad says the offer will only be available on Monday, August 22nd. As Business Insider notes, this could be part of a storewide sale of phones, or it could be a way to clear inventory and make room for the iPhone 5. [image via TechnoBuffalo]

Intellectual Ventures is suing a group of companies for patent infringement. Companies being sued include Acer, Adata Technology, Asustek Computer, Best Buy, Dell, Elpida Memory, Hewlett Packard, Hynix Semiconductor, Kingston Technology, Logitech International, Pantech and Wal-Mart. According to TechCrunch, the patents deal with memory technology and methods.

When a thief runs away with a stolen good, generally employees are not supposed to physically attack them. Especially when companies could be sued for assault. Fifty-one year old Montana Best Buy employee Roger Kline was recently fired after he grabbed a hold of a thief that was about to walk out of the store with two computers and thew him to the ground. Clearly Kline is morally right for doing that, but Best Buy ended up firing him. [Gizmodo]

The Motorola Xoom 3G will be available for pre-order this Thursday February 24, 2011 for $800 at Best Buy. Some of the accessories you can buy that complement the device include a portfolio case ($40), a charging dock ($50), a stereo speaker dock ($130), and a Bluetooth keyboard ($70). [Best Buy via Engadget]

The HTC Thunderbolt mobile phone will be coming to Verizon and Best Buy retail locations on February 24th. It will run on Verizon’s 4G LTE network and is rumored to be at a $200 price with contract. Just as a refresher, specs of the Thunderbolt are: 4.3-inch WVGA screen, 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, mobile hotspot capabilities, Android 2.2 operating system, 32GB microSD card, HTC Sense 2.0 user interface, Dolby/SRS surround sound, Skype, built-in kickstand, 720p HD video recording and DLNA streaming multimedia support.

A Best Buy retail store in Grand Rapids, Michigan has accidentally slipped on the release dates for the HTC Thunderbolt and the Motorola Xoom tablet. The HTC Thunderbolt is expected to arrive in stores on February 14th and the Motorola Xoom tablet on February 24th. The page has been deleted since. [Droid Life]

A leaked Best Buy document reveals two new AT&T text messaging plans. Going forward AT&T will be offering 1,000 text messages for $10 per month and $0.10 for each additional message and unlimited text messages for $20 per month. The $5/200 and $15/1500 text message plans are expected to go away. If you are already on one of these plans, it is likely that you can keep them or switch to one of the aforementioned plans above.

We are still gathering details about the Best Buy “Buy Back” program, but BoyGeniusReport has provided some insight about what to expect. Consumers can participate in the Buy Back program by paying $59.99 at the time of buying a phone. Then between 1 and 6 months of owning the phone, you can trade in the device back to Best Buy for 50% of the phone’s full retail value.