Deal of the Day #2 - 12/31/08

Hello All,

Newegg is selling a Toshiba 40" 1080P LCD HDTV for $750 shipped to your door.  You can find the deal here.

Use coupon code EMCBCDADC to get $50 off the current price of $799.

If you are like me and the kind of person who wants something yesterday, before I actually knew I wanted it, Best Buy has it for $749 right now as well.  You can find it here.  The sale price at Best Buy probably runs through the weekend, but I do not know that for sure.

The newegg posts are questionable, but the hard core nerds at avsforum seem to like the TV.  You can find that here.

Personally I like Toshiba's and have two myself.  I would buy this TV if our 34" Philips died.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/31/08

Hello All,

Amazon has a deal to get a free remote for a PS3 with the purchase of a game and a blu-ray movie.  You can find the deal here.

The deal runs until 1/15/09.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/28/08

Hello All,

B&H has the Canon XS with two lenses on sale for $500 shipped to your door.  The two lenses are both from Canon a 18-55IS and a 75-300.  The camera is currently out of stock, but they are taking orders for this deal and shipping it in the future.

This camera is a 10MP camera that is basically a tweaked XTi.  The XS has live view, the Digic III processor (allowing for better battery life), and auto ISO, which the XTi did not have.  

You can find reviews here, here, here, here, and here.  It is a frequently reviewed camera.

You can find this deal here.

The XSi is a slightly better camera, (3" LCD on the back, and spot metering), but for over $200 more to create this deal with the XSi I would say the XS is a better way to go and allows you to spend money on cases, memory cards, extra batteries, and all of the other accessories you will need for any digital camera.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 12/27/08

Hello All,

For the one or two PC gamers that might look at this site, Steam is having a sale until January 2nd.  You can see the whole sale here.

Highlights include:

• BioShock for $4.99
• AudioSurf for $4.99
• Portal for $4.99
• Ultimate Doom for $0.99
• Team Fortress 2 for $9.99

BioShock is the best game I have played in some time.  Portal was really fun for the couple of hours it takes to solve it.  Without a doubt worth $5, that is less than a dollar an hour of play time.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/27/08

Hello All,

Gamefly is having a year end sale on video games, with free shipping.  These are all used games, but they come with the cases and instructions and are guaranteed to work.  You can see the details and the list of games here.

Games of note at the time of this posting

• Grand Theft Auto IV - 360 - $19.99
• Unreal Tournament III - 360 - $9.99
• Rock Band (Game Only) - Wii - $24.99

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/26/08

Hello All,

Sony is having a 15% off sale on all of their factory refurbished merchandise until 12/27.  I would act quickly as the best stuff will likely sell out fast, or they could end the sale early.  Of note are TVs and car stereos.

• TV outlet
• Car Stereos
• GPS
• DSLR

You can get a Sony 32" TV for under $400 shipped to your door, and a Sony car stereo with auxiliary inputs (for your ipod), and it plays MP3 and WMA cds, for $59.  The GPS is a 4.3" for $85 and the DSLR is a Sony A100 with a lens for under $400.  

I screwed up yesterday and did not grab the extra battery for our DSLR.  The battery in it died and we were forced to use Laura's moms point and shoot.  It was painful.  Once you use a DSLR you will not go back to point and shoots.  I cannot emphasize this strongly enough.  It is like riding a spree after driving a Ferrari.  They both get you from A to B, but that is where the similarities end.  Buy a DSLR, you will be happier than you knew was possible.

I am on vacation or I would post links, and calculate more prices.  If you are at work, you are probably slacking so you can do it yourself.  If you are at home then you have all the time in the world to figure it our yourself :-).

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/23/08

Hello All,

Dell is again having a sale on video game consoles.  The deal runs until 1/2/2009.

• Xbox 360 Arcade
• Xbox 360 Pro
• Xbox 360 Elite
• Ps3 80GB
• PS3 Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Bundle
• PSP 2000
• PSP Limited Edition Pack

Use code P8KJNT4LV44T9S for 15% off.  They all have free shipping, but taxes are taken.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/22/08

Hello All,

Lots of good deals on video games, right before Xmas. All deals are good until Saturday the 27th, unless otherwise noted

Best Buy

Call Of Duty: World At War - $34.99 - Good deal, great game
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - $34.99

Get a $50 Gift Card with the combo purchase of a Xbox 360 Pro or Elite Gaming System AND a wireless controller

$10 to $22 Off EA Sports Games

All Guitar Hero III & Aerosmith Guitar Bundles $49.99

$10 to $22 Off EA Sports Games, prices as listed
FIFA Soccer ’09 - $37.99
Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09 - $37.99
NHL ’09 - $37.99
Madden NFL ’09 - $37.99
NBA Live ’09 - $39.99
NCAA Football ’09 - $39.99
NASCAR ’09 - $29.99

Reward zone members Only:
Free $10 Gift Card with the purchase of Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) - $39.99
OR Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PS3/360) - $37.99

Circuit City
Guitar Hero Decades Bundle w/$10 gift card - $49.99

Toys R Us
Sunday & Monday Only
Buy 1, Get 1 50% off (All Platforms):
Saints Row 2
de Blob

Until 12/24
Buy 1, Get 1 50% off (All Platforms):
Call of Duty WaW
007 Quantum of Solace
Guitar Hero World/On Tour

Deal of the Day - 12/18/08

Hello All,

Sellout.woot has a nice refurbished DSLR for cheap. You can buy it here. This camera is 6 mega pixel, has in body image stabilization, and has gotten solid reviews. You can see them here, here and here.

You will need to get a lens for it, but you can find them here and here, they are very reasonable. I would get the first one as it has a greater zoom range.

You would be hard pressed to spend under $300 and get better pictures from any camera, much less a like new DSLR.

I want to give a shout out to loyal reader Jason, for pimping this deal to me.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 12/14/08

Hello All,

Dell is also offering deals on other stuff, aside from just video games. All include free shipping. You will likely have to pay taxes, but these are still great deals.

• 15% off GPS units of $199.99 or less via code 6?54QT$2NJ0SF5
• 20% off GPS units of $200 or more via code 9G69QQ4?5CK018
• 15% off MP3 players of $149.99 or less via code L9NM75SFZVRRSC
• 20% off MP3 players of $150 or more via code B1D1Q8HJ31GZ29
• 10% off handhelds, tablet PCs, and phones via code DJTNC9J4R?XCWT

Of special note for you high end TV buyers out there

• $700 off the Sony Bravia 52" 1080p LCD HDTV via code T4969NFBQ77PB4, dropping it to 2100.
  

You can find anything Dell sells from here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/14/08

Hello All,

Dell is selling video game consoles cheap again, just in time for Xmas. They are offering 20% off 360s and Ps3s, and throwing in free shipping.

Use code ZCFLR1BTX5Q1D$

This code is good until 12/17 or earlier if Dell decides enough people have used it.

You can find the Dell consoles here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/10/08

Hello All,

A woot-off is going on over at Woot.com. Lots of stuff for sale, as fast as they can sell it.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 12/6/08

Hello All,

Google has new holiday discounts with Google Check-Out. The basics are that you get $5 off orders over $30, $10 off orders over $60, or $20 off orders over $120.

You can see the full details here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 12/6/08

Hello All,

Abes of Maine is selling the Kodak Z1015IS for $237.95 shipped to your door. You can use code LOYALTY10 for an additional $10 off. There is an alternative deal with the code DINE200. This code gives you a $100 gift card for select restaurants.

You can find the camera deal here.

This camera is a compromise, but a good camera all around. It shoots HD video, has a 15x zoom, and a 10MP sensor. You can do a lot of things with this camera, but it is no DSLR. On the plus side, HD Video is a nice feature.

Reviews are few and far between but you can find some info here, here, and here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/6/08

Hello All,

Abes of Maine is selling the Nikon D80, with a lens and a free 4GB memory card for $756.95 shipped to your door. You can use code LOYALTY10 for an additional $10 off. There is an alternative deal with the code DINE200. This code gives you a $100 gift card for select restaurants.

You can find the camera deal here.

I went back and forth for a couple months between the D80 and the XTi. I choose the XTi because is was about half of the cost at the time, and it has several anti-dust features including the vibration mechanism. The D80 is technically a better camera, and you can use older Nikon lenses on it, as it has an auto focus motor in the body. This allows you to buy great 35mm lens that are older and less expensive, and get incredible pictures.

You can find reviews of the D80 here, here, and here.

One last pitch for this camera, my friend Bob has it and loves it.

The convenient size of SD Cards might ultimately trump the fact that I wholly trust CF and I am still not sold on SD. Not sure about that one yet.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/3/08

Hello All,

Dell is selling a 80GB PS3 for $322.99. You can find it here.

You need to use the following coupon codes to get it to that price:

• CTV2$2HX963145 - 15% off
  
• TP5NV0VMFJ9BCZ - 5% off

If you miss out on this deal, other PS3 deals should be coming down the pike. Sony just released a 160GB model, and new 80GB models that have games bundled with them. This however is a pretty decent deal if you want one for sure for Xmas '08.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 12/1/08

Hello All,

Fast and Furious from here on out.

New 37" Toshiba HDTV, $609.95 shipped to your door. Find it here.

It has all of the features you want, and none you don't.

For your reading pleasure, here are two articles about HDTVs you should read before you buy one. I like the first one better :-).

1. 10 Things you need to know about HDTVs
   
2. How to buy a HDTV in BF or anyday
   

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 12/1/08

Hello All,

For a change up, here are some magazine subscriptions cheap. I have been described as hard to shop for in the past, but Consumer Reports does not pay for itself, and I read it, so I think that is an easy one. Road and Track is another magazine I read, and it does not pay for itself :-). So in summary, magazine subscriptions can be a good gift for a hard to shop for person. You can find the deal here.

I will take Popular Mechanics for $5.

**Update**
I found some more codes, and magazines here.

• Maxim with code: TURKEYMAX
• Maximum PC with code: TURKEYMPC
• Vanity Fair with code: TURKEYVF
• Car and Driver with code: TURKEYCD

You can also use code TG20 for 20% off most other magazines.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 12/1/08

Hello All,

More deals for Cyber Monday. Toys R Us has a couple good deals on some video games. You can see the complete list here. A couple stand out:

• Guitar Hero Wired Controller for the 360 - $9.99
• Smarty Pants for the Wii - $19.99 (This is a fun trivia game)
• Scene It for the 360 - $19.99 (A movie trivia game for the 360)
• BioShock for the 360 - $19.99

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 12/1/08

Hello All,

Today is Cyber Monday, a huge on-line shopping day, with many special deals aimed at on-line consumers. Since you are reading this blog, this audience is you. I will start you off lite, here are all of Amazon's video game deals. Sadly, they are by far the best deals on video game today.

One deal sticks out from all of these, and that is the limited edition Pink Ribbon DS lite for $99.99. You can find it here. DS Lites are always $129.99, so this is a great deal for anyone looking for a DS Lite.

More to come,

John

Deal of the Day #3- 11/21/08

Hello All,

Wow is this cheap. A new Nikon D200 for $800. If I was not already into Canon, I would buy this. The D200 is a great camera, and for under $1000 this is an incredible deal. You can find a review here. I would post more reviews, but if you are thinking about this camera, you should just buy it. This is $300 cheaper than I could find it anywhere else.

Update: thanks Jon
You can actually find it here.

Act fast these won't last long.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 11/21/08

Hello All,

Meijer is selling a Panasonic 32" TV for $463 shipped to your door. This is a brand new LCD TV with a QAM tuner, and a HD tuner built in. You can use code meijerjhalf to save on shipping. You can find this TV here.

The web site says the deal runs until 12/31/08, but I bet they run out of stock long before then.

You can find reviews here and here. A leading consumer magazine also thinks very highly of this TV, but that magazine will remain nameless, as I don't think they like being named. No one else uses their name anywhere, except newspapers and TV from time to time.

Update: It is sold out already. I will check back to see if it comes back in stock. Amazon has it for $530 if you really want it. A good price, but not a give away like $460.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/21/08

Hello All,

Shutterfly has a sale until the 24th, here are the details.

• Give a personalized Pandigital(R) frame preloaded with up to 50 of your favorite photos from your Shutterfly albums. Receive 20% off frames for a limited time.
• Save an extra 10% on photo books when you buy two or more.* Cross everyone off your holiday list with just one photo book.

Offer ends November 24, 2008.

Enter code SAVEONBOOKS in your cart. They also offer free shipping on orders over $25, for that use code SHIP25 in your cart. You can find shutterfly here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/19/08 - Woot Off

Hello All,

Woot.com

Deals on different items until, they sell out, all day long. Great deals can be had but you need to pay attention and move quickly. It is days like today I am glad I have dual monitors.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/18/08

Hello All,

Costco has a crazy deal on a Sharp 42" 1080P TV, from now until December 15th, or until supplies run out.

The TV is $799, plus $50 if you do not have a Costco membership. The nice thing about Costco is that they bump the warranty on all TVs they sell out to two years, so you are actually getting something for your money, not just the privilege of shopping there, like other "clubs" offer. You can find this deal here.

Reviews for this TV are few and far between, but a leading consumer magazine found it to be middle of the road. For $799 though, you would be hard pressed to find a better TV for the price.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/17/08

Hello All,

Today only, Amazon is selling a Xbox 360 bundle for $300, and it is a deal. You get:

• Xbox 360 Pro Bundle
• Lego Indiana Jones
• Lego Batman
• Kung Fu Panda
• MS 1600 Point card

All of these products together would be $370 in a store. You can find it here.

As I said it is today only, so act fast if you want one. As a reminder, only 3 more days until you can stream HD movies to your 360 for free :-).

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/16/08

Hello All,

I will make this short as I had the big post yesterday. Best Buy is clearing out MacBooks for $996.99. This is brand new, but in store only. As of this posting both Madison stores have them in stock. You can find this deal here.

Here are the specs:

• 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor
• 2 GB of Ram
  
• 13.3" Wide screen display
• 160 GB Hard drive
• DVD Burner (Super drive)
  

For a comparison, Apple is selling the same model refurbished for $3 more. Usually refurbished Macs from the Apple store is the cheapest way to go, and have the full 1 year warranty. You can see that here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/15/08

Hello All,

With the new Apple laptops out in stores, there are good deals to be had on the past models. MacMall has good deals on many of the older laptops. Here is my recommendation for a great all around laptop.

• 15.4-inch MacBook Pro Glossy Screen, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 2GB Memory, and 20oGB Hard Drive for $1499 - $200 rebate = $1349, with free shipping. You can find this here.

For a less expensive option, but still a solid performer, this MacBook is a nice option.

• 13.3-inch MacBook, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz, 1GB, 120GB, and Combo Drive for $1094 - $150 instant savings - $75 rebate = $869, with free shipping. You can find this here.
  

Here is a comparison between the two laptops.

Feature	MacBook	MacBook Pro
Processor	2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo	2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
Screen Size	13.3"	15.4"
Ram	1 GB	2 GB
HardDrive	120 GB	200 GB
Video Memory	144 MB	256 MB
DVD Burner	No - DVD Read Only	Yes

They both have firewire, bluetooth, built-in cameras, wireless networking cards, Ethernet jacks, CD burners, Front Row with remotes, and come with the 10.5 Leopard operating system. The MacBook pro is faster, will play video games or any graphic intensive operation much better, and has the very bright and crisp LED backlight which also increases battery life. I would buy the MacBook Pro myself, as it has a bigger screen and has a much better video card. There are other configurations at MacMall, I just picked these as they were two good deals, and at very different price points. The other models are not bad, these are just my picks. General laptop advice is as follows. Buy the screen size you want, and the fastest processor you can afford, the other stuff (ram, hard drive) is upgradable down the road.

Last but not least, for you travelers out there is the MacBook Air. This is a crazy cheap deal on an Air.

• 13.3-inch MacBook Air, 1.6GHz 2GB RAM, and 80GB Hard Drive for $1249 - $100 rebate = $1149, with free shipping. You can find it here.
  

This laptop does not have a CD-rom drive, and has a lower power processor. It is designed for minimal size and weight, and long battery life. You can read about them here, they are very small.

One last note for these deals, any of the laptops featured above include a free Epson printer and Parrallels 4 after mail-in rebate through November 30th.

Later,

John

Operating Systems - Thoughts and Observations

Hello All,

I am often asked about computer operating systems. There have been many flamewars over the subject, and I am not trying to start another one. I am just going to try to keep this simple and applicable from an end user perspective.

First off, for full disclosure, I am a Mac user at both work and home. I work in IT, and Mac is my operating system of choice, and the one I recommend for everyone who can afford it, and values their time and productivity. You can stop reading here if you only wanted the short answer, continue on if you want the good the bad and the why.

Windows
Windows has a lot going for it. It is almost everywhere, over 90% of the desktop market, with its prevalence comes familiarity to almost everyone, and it is cheap. You can get a new laptop that runs Vista for $500 at Wal-Mart, anywhere in America. You can get a desktop that does the same thing for probably $350 at Wal-Mart. There is a ton of software available for Windows, and it is far and away the only one to use if you want to play video games on your computer. We truely live in a Windows world.

The negatives that come with that are many. Here are a couple biggies:

• Virus writers target this operating system
• Spyware and Malware target this operating system
• Windows is not as secure as either Linux or Mac
• You must run a firewall, anti-virus, and spyware remover at all times
• You have to pay for almost everything you want for Windows

You can get around some of these issues, but not easily and not if you are not an IT guru. Even if you are an IT guru, the prevention and upkeep take time, and time is money. I can think of a million things I would rather do than remove viruses and spyware from a machine for two hours.

So to recap, you have market dominance, abundance of software, familiarity and low cost offset by viruses and other bad stuff.

Linux
Linux is the up and comer. Since Vista's release and subsequent flop both Linux and Mac usage have increased. I like Linux. I want to see it win, but unless you buy it pre-installed on a machine, or install it on a wired Ethernet connected desktop, it is not for everyone. I recommend it for people who want many of the Mac features without the cost, however the cost savings comes back to haunt you as a time investment, and time is money. For everyday people Linux is just not there. I hate to say it, but it is not. If you can have someone set it up for you, then it is a viable alternative, but most people want Windows, and do not want Linux, which makes it an even harder sell. Since I have been pointing out the bad parts to Linux above, here are the good parts:

• It is free
• There is free software to do anything you can image
• You do not need to worry about viruses
• Spyware is not an issue
• It works great on old computers
• It is very Mac like, without the Mac cost
• It is improving very quickly; many versions are updated significantly every 6 months

For the majority of the world, Linux does everything you need it to, every day, and does not break. You can do anything on the Internet, play mp3s, work on Word and Excel documents, import and edit pictures, you can even play games. I like Linux. The biggest strike against it for me is that all of the Linux Admins I know use Windows or Mac at home. No Linux Admin that I know uses Linux on their home PC. That is a big blow in my mind. All of the Mac guys use Macs at home, and Windows guys use both Mac and Windows.

If you have a desktop that is not connected to the Internet via wireless, and can get over the fact that Linux is not Windows, you can be very happy with Linux. I do not think that is most people.

Mac
As I said off the top, Mac is my operating system of choice, and the one I recommend. It does cost more. It is different than Windows. It does stink for playing video games. That is about it for negatives though. Here are some of the many advantages of Mac:

• Very few viruses, you do not currently need to worry about them or run anti-virus software
• No spyware
• Minimal driver issues, video, printers, cameras, mp3 players, you plug something in and it works
• Lots of free software
• Very intuitive, and Apple provides free support of topics online
• Tons of cool features, specifically time machine, quick view, spot light and front row
• You can run Windows, if you need to, on all of the new Intel hardware
• One year of free face-to-face support and training at any Apple Store
• One year of free phone support

Learning the new operating system will take a little time, but with the great Apple stores, you can go take a class on it for free if you do not want to teach yourself. The Microsoft Office suite, Word etc, is not the best on a Mac, but it works, and you can easily open and share files with Windows users.

I like Mac OS. I recommend it to anyone. If you have more time than money, Linux is a good option and can handle almost anything you throw at it. If you have some time, some money, and like the status quo, Windows is a vaiable option, just remember you need to pay for anti-virus, spyware removal software, and probably Geek Squad to fix your machine when you come up with the total cost of the machine.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 11/14/08

Hello All,

Yugster is having a Yug Down today. This is basically a Woot knock off site, having their own Woot-off. I have yet to buy anything from Yugster, but they have some decent stuff. More watches and cheaper electronics than Woot, and less refurbished stuff. Shipping is variable as well, but it is pretty much the same thing. Head over and check it out here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 11/14/08

Hello All,

RedOctane is selling a bunch of Guitar Hero games for cheap. If you have not played Guitar Hero you either are a musician and do not get it, or live in a cave. If you are the former, get over it, you have more talent and this is just a Simon game to real music. It is not really playing guitar, obviously. If you are the latter head down to Best Buy, Circuit City, or wherever and try it out, it is surprisingly fun.

I was very anti-guitar hero when it came out partly because I thought it was lame, and partly because I have no rhythm and sucked at it. After playing a bit I now like it, although I still mostly suck at it. It is fun to rock out, even if you cannot really play an instrument or have next to no musical ability. Enough about my lack of skills, on to the deal. This one is fully endorsed by my wife, and by Amish people, they both love the GH.

• PS3 - Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit w/bonus Les Paul Wireless Guitar $189.99
• PS2 - Guitar Hero 3 Bundle $39.99 (use coupon SAVE20)

Continuing deals:

• 360 - Guitar Hero World Tour with 2 wired guitars $59.99 (use coupon WORLD2X)
  
• PS3 - Guitar Hero III Wireless Bundle $59.99
  
• 360 - Wired Funky White Guitar $24.99
• PS2 - White Wireless Guitar $29.99
• PS2 - SG Light Wood Wired Guitar $19.99
• PS2 - SG Black Wired Guitar $19.99
• PS2 - SG Red Wired Guitar $19.99

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 11/14/08

Hello All,

Half-Price Books is having a sale this weekend, and although books are not really my thing, I know some of you read paper. They also sell DVDs, and video games so this makes the cut.

You can find a scan of the coupon here. The deals are as follows and good in-store only:

• 20% off any one item today and Saturday
• 50% off any one item on Sunday

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/14/08

Hello All,

Just when the deals were slow, woot comes through for me. Today only, woot is selling a 2GB SD/micro SD card for $7.59 shipped. You can find this here. That by itself is not a great deal, and if you only want one of these, Newegg has that deal beat here, with the same thing for $5.99 shipped. However if you buy the maximum of three of these from woot, you are only paying $12.77 which is a good deal for 6GB of SD cards.

The SD cards work in cameras, the Wii, the original PS3, GPS units, all over the place. The micro SD cards work in SmartPhones, regular phones, and some MP3 players. Make sure your device has one of these ports, but your phone or MP3 player has upgradable memory, micro SD is likely what it uses.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 11/13/08

Hello Again All,

Here is a bit better deal than the last one. Snapfish is offering a free 20 page 8x11 Photo Book, all you have to pay for is $7 for shipping. This offer ends on November 16th. You can see the deal here, and what you are buying here. For the record I have not watched Opera, and I do not watch Opera, but her show seems to get a lot of exclusive deals, which I will take advantage of when I can.

My wife just got two of these books for free from Shutterfly and she is very happy with them. They are basically professional photo albums for the 21st century. My friend Erin made one from her wedding pictures so she could show people the pictures, but did not have to lug around a huge photo album. I thought it was a great idea, so I am sharing it with you. To me these books are great because it makes you look like you both have time and are creative, and neither of these things actually need to be true.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/13/08

Hello All,

It has been a bit of a slow week on the deal front, but I will see what I can dig up in the next couple of days. In light of this, here is a deal, but a kind of weak one for my site. The wife was harping on me to post something so this is what I could find.

From now until November 18th iTunes is offering movie purchases for $5. These are full movies, not just a rental. The only thing that is not great about this deal is the selection of movies.

• Terminator 2
• Total Recall
• The Last Action Hero
• Red Heat
• Air America
• Basic Instinct
• St. Elmo's Fire
• The Karate Kid
• Air Force One
• A Guy Thing

The Karate Kid is good, but I would not pay $5 to own it. You can probably tape it on TBS right now if you want it. I liked the Last Action Hero, but it is a bit cheesy. Basic Instinct is something, as well as Total Recall is something. Terminator II is probably the best movie in the lot, but again it is probably on cable right now.

Anyway those are all decent deals if you are in need of a cheap movie and do not want to leave the house.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #5 - 11/7/08

Hello Again All,

Lots of deals today. It seems like things are ramping up in light of the less than stellar economy and the proximity to Xmas. Good for us.

Wal-Mart is having a very limited sale tomorrow morning starting at 8am. It is basically a black Friday sale, but on a Saturday and before Thanksgiving. The only caveat is that the prices are not guaranteed in WI for some reason. Stupid fine print. Anyway, on to the deals, or potential deals for most of us.

• PS3 80GB w/$100 gift card - $399
• PSP + Ratchet & Clank w/$30 gift card - $199
• PS2 console w/$30 gift card - $129
• PS3 games Warhawk, Motorstorm, and Resistance - $19.82 each
  
• Sanyo 46" 1080P TV - $798
• Compaq Laptop - $298
• Sony 2GB Mp3 player - $49
• Samsung 7MP Camera - $89

You can see the details here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 11/7/08

Hello All,

Deepdiscountdvd is selling all Blu-ray discs for 25% off from now until 11/23. Any one of these will work for the discount

• DVDTALK
• GREEN
• SUPERSALE
• USATODAY
• NYTIMES
• LATIMES
• SOUTHSIDE
• PRICEGRABBER
• SAVE
• DD1109
• PRICESEARCH
• SUMMERSALE
• ESPN
• YAHOO
• JIM
• WGN

You can find their Blu-ray selection here. Deepdiscount has free shipping on everything, making this a sweet deal.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 11/7/08

Hello All,

A bit of an unconventional deal, but I know there are a lot of people who like the Xmas lights.

Home Depot is offering a $3 coupon toward LED lights with the trade in of old lights, and they do not even need to be working. This deal is Saturday and Sunday only, and a limit of 5 per person. I have included the image of the ad below.

LEDs look different than regular lights, they are 'colder'. However they use almost no electricity, are more durable than glass bulbs, and you can string dozens of sets together and not even get close to blowing a fuse. The energy savings is nice too.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 11/7/08

Hello All,

Gears of War 2 was released at midnight today, and is one of the most highly anticipated games to come out this year. If you have been living under a rock, you can find out about it here. So far the reviews have been glowing. You can find them here.

Now that you know about the game, and see that it is a good game, the next step is buying it. I am going to see if Best Buy will price match Circuit City. Circuit is offering a free 1600 MS point card with the purchase of Gears. The card is worth $20. Pretty much everyone else is offering a $10 gift card or money off. Here is the round up of deals.

Amazon

• Free Gears of War 2 (or $10 LE) when you order the Amazon GOW2 Lancer
• Free $10 gift card with Regular edition

Best Buy

• Free RC Tank with Gears of War 2 Limited Edition

Circuit Ctiy

• Free XBox Live 1600 point card with Regular and Limited Edition

Newegg.com

• Regular edition $53.99 - Limited Edition $66.99

Toys R Us

• Free $15 gift card (Regular and Limited Editions)

Walmart

• Free $10 gift card with Regular and Limited Edition

And if you need a 360 too
Costco

• Xbox 360 Pro Console Bundle $390

1. Xbox 360 Pro 60GB version (comes with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda)
2. 12 month XBL Gold membership
3. Extra Wireless Controller
4. Your choice of Gears of War 2 or Call of Duty: World At War
5. Voucher for 3 free XBLA Downloads (PacMan CE, Poker Smash, and Catan)

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/7/08

Hello All,

Once again Dell has a discount deal on Xbox 360 systems. Use code PWXNZVNDRWWX1P to get 15% off any of the three systems. This is good through today only.

You can find the elite, the premium model, here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/6/08

Hello All,

Buy.com is selling a Nokia 500 GPS unit for $99.99. This unit has all of the really important features including

• text-to-speech - the unit says turn on Main Street as opposed to turn in 500 ft
• Bluetooth integration
• a 4.3" LCD screen
• All required connectors including car charger and car mount

The unit uses Navteq maps, which is the best map provider for North America, and is used by all of the major web based map software from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

I found reviews here and here, and a video demo here.

We bought the Garmin Nuvi and love it. You can see my detailed post on the unit we have and GPS in general here. I would recommend the Nuvi unit over all others, however this unit has the same features, and is less than half of the price. In thinking about that, it is $100, how can you go wrong. One note though, Buy.com says they have limited stock, so beat feet if you want to pick one up.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #5 - 11/3/08

Hello All,

A picture deal just in time to get those costumes and shenanigans printed out for all the world to see. Shutterfly is offering many deals on prints, and other products. You can find the deals here.

The sale runs through November 5th, so act fast if you want something.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 11/3/08

Hello All,

Not to leave out PS3 owners, or laptop owners, here is a 320GB Western Digital laptop hard drive for $79.99 shipped. You can use this to upgrade the hard drive in your PS3 to store more pictures, videos, music, games, anything you want. You could also use it in your laptop but that is pretty conventional.

This drive has almost universal great reviews, which is why I am recommending it. Upgrading your PS3 is simple to do, but you need to back up your current drive before you upgrade. You can find detailed upgrade instructions here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 11/3/08

Hello All,

NewEgg has a couple of deals on older 360 games that are pretty fun to play, and worth picking up if you have not checked them out.

Perfect Dark Zero, found here, $9.99 shipped. Reviews here.

and

Kameo, found here, also $9.99 shipped. Reviews here.

I have both and would recommend both.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 11/3/08

Hello All,

Also from Best Buy, if you buy any two of the following you get a $20 gift card.

• Wireless Controller // Pink, White, or Black $49.99
• Xbox LIVE Gold 12 Month Subscription Card $49.99
• LEGO Batman $49.99
• PURE $59.99
• WALL-E $39.99
• Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise $39.99
• Scene It: Box Office Smash Bundle $59.99

The first two together are decent deals, but if you wait they can both be found cheaper separately. You can find this deal here.

For a right now deal, this is not bad.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/3/08 - GEARS!!

Hello All,

To start off the week of November, here are some video game deals. They will give you something to do as the cold weather starts to set in.

First off, Circuit City is selling Gears of War II with a Microsoft points card with 1600 points on it. The points card is worth $20, making this a sweet deal. You can find it here. The game does not go on sale until Friday the 7th. As an alternative, Toys R Us is offering a $15 gift card for a future purchase on this game if the points do not thrill you. You can find this here.

One last thing to note. Circuit City is selling the original Gears for $30. You can find that here. If you have not played it I strongly recommend it. It is a very fun game.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 10/27/08

Hello All,

Frys is selling the JBL OnStage II in black for $58.00 shipped to your door. This is an iPod speaker dock and charger with remote control. You can find it here. It is on sale through the 1st, but will probably sell out before that time.

You can find reviews here, here, and here. As usual, the last review is the most detailed, but is also the longest.

I have a Logitech myself that I like a lot. The one advatage with this model over my model is that this one is more compact, which is better in most indoor environments. The advantage mine has is that it has batteries in it, so it is fully portable. You can read about the iPod dock I bought here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/27/08

Hello All,

Sears is selling a Samsung 40" 1080P LCD TV for $799.99. This is a great price on a brand new 40" TV, from the leading maker of LCD TVs. You can find this deal here. It looks like this deal runs until 11/1/08, but I am not sure on that.

You can find reviews for this TV here, here, and here. I am speculating that this TV is the LN40A550, just with a special model number only for Sears stores.

If you do not want to wait another month until Black Friday, this is great TV deal. TV prices will likely be lower for the Christmas season, but with those prices you have lines, screaming and head aches. Things to keep in mind when making a purchase.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/26/08

Hello All,

Circuit City is selling the Sony A300 with a second lens, and a carrying case and extra battery for $649.97. You can find this deal here.

Sony has the best cameras for the value on the market. The A300 has the following features:

• 10 MegaPixel
  
• Live view
• In-Body image stabilization
• Dust Reduction System
• Swiveling LCD, for use with the live view

This is a really great value for the money, and this camera will work with Minolta compatible lenses, giving you a decent selection of older lenses to choose from.

You can find reviews of the camera here, here and here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 10/24/08

Hello All,

NewEgg has some video game deals, all with free shipping. You can find them here, at the bottom of the page. As a reminder, check out gamerankings.com for reviews and scores before you buy a game. I can vouch for Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Halo 3, and GTA IV. They are all fun games. I would skip the GT5 prologue as the full version of GT5 should be out in the first quarter of 2009.

• Nintendo Super Mario Galaxy Wii Game - $37.99
• Sega Mario & Sonic: Olympic Games Wii Game - $37.99
• Nintendo Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Wii Game - $37.99
• Microsoft Halo 3 Xbox 360 Game - $39.99
• Sony Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Playstation3 Game -$42.99
• Sony Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Playstation3 Game - $42.99
• Sony Gran Turismo 5: Prologue Playstation3 Game - $29.99
• Rockstar Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360 Game - $37.99

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/24/08 - Act Fast

Hello All,

Dell is again selling video game consoles cheap with a discount code. This is an act fast as the codes only work so many times, and I do not know how many times Dell will allow them to be used. Here are the prices, with the discount. You will have to pay taxes and for shipping, probably adding about $15 to the final cost. You can find all of the systems here.

• Xbox 360 Arcade - $170
• Xbox 360 Pro 60GB - $255
• Xbox 360 Elite 120Gb - $340
• Nintendo DS Lite - $111
• Sony PSP 2000 - $145
• Sony PS3 80GB - $340

The coupon code NC383L9N3B4M45 applied at check out will knock the prices down for you. Rumor has it that the code will work for most electronics on their site, but I have not checked this myself.

If you are interested in the Xbox 360 Elite, you can use code 9VZC3829M7GXC9 to drop the price to $330.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/22/08 - Act Fast

Hello All,

There is a Woot Off going on over at woot.com today. That means they are selling a lot of items, as fast as possible. They are sold one at a time, and replaced immediately after the last one has sold out. You can read more here. Do not read that now though, just go to the web site and buy some cheap stuff.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #5 - 10/21/08

Hello Again,

Wal-Mart is again running their PS3 bundle deal, offering one of the only ways to get a deal on a new PS3 that I know of. You get all of the following for $468, plus tax, but it is a limited time offer with no clear end date on the deal.

• 1 - 80GB PS3
• 1 - New PS3 Game of your choice, from a selection
  
• 1 - Blu-ray Movie of your choice, from a selection
  
• 1 - Sony Blu-ray remote
• 1 - $75 Walmart gift card

All of these things usually would cost you $550, so this is a savings of about $80. Not to bad.

You can find the deal here.

One last thing, Best Buy matched this deal in the past, although your mileage may vary on that.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 10/21/08

Hello Again,

Wow, I guess all I need to do is say that there has not been much lately, and it rains deals. Amazon is selling my favorite combination camera and camcorder in one unit for a sick low price of $368.32, with free shipping. This is a camera that usually sells for close to $500, has a 10x zoom, shoots 720p High Definition video, and has image stabilization. It is the best all in one unit on the market, and this is the lowest price I have ever seen for this unit.

You can find it here.

You can find reviews here, here, here, and here. The first review, CNets, is not great. I have seen 16x20 stills from this camera, and they look awesome. I do not know what CNet did, but I do not agree with their review, aside from the comfort issues. Play with one before you buy one, or use a small tripod to hold the camera. This is more comfortable anyway. The only thing I can think of is that Canon released a firmware update since this review, but I do not know how CNet got such bad results.

One other great thing about this camera is the loyal following it has. Here is one web site that is dedicated to this camera and this camera alone.

I have been working on a huge video round-up, but it is not yet complete. This post is a small sample of that posting. Stay tuned for more details.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 10/21/08

Hello All,

GameFly is again offering their free shipping sale on selected used games. Here is the list, sorted by console, and increasing price.

Briefly looking over the list Devil May Cry 4, and NIGHTS supposed to be good. I have both Metroid and No More Heros for the Wii, and would recommend them. As always, check the reviews here, and you will not be as likely to buy a stinker.

Later,

John

Xbox 360

Lost: Via Domus $9.99
NFL Tour $9.99
The Club $9.99
NBA Ballers: Chosen One $9.99
Timeshift $12.99
Condemned 2: Bloodshot $14.99
Devil May Cry 4 $14.99
Alone in the Dark $14.99
Simpsons Game $14.99
Universe at War: Earth Assault $14.99
MX vs ATV Untamed $14.99
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars $14.99
Bully: Scholarship Edition $15.99
Army of Two $17.99
Assassin's Creed $17.99
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men $17.99
Virtua Fighter 5 Online $24.99

Wii

Blast Works $9.99
Winter Sports $9.99
Baroque $12.99
NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams $12.99
Alone in the Dark $12.99
Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed $12.99
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law $13.99
Simpsons Game $14.99
Bomberman Land $14.99
No More Heroes $17.99
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption $26.99

Playstation 3

Haze $9.99
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition $12.99
The Club $12.99
Clive Barker's Jericho $12.99
Lost: Via Domus $12.99
NBA Ballers: Chosen One $12.99
Devil May Cry 4 $17.99
Assassin's Creed $17.99
Army of Two $18.99
Unreal Tournament III $16.99
Condemned 2: Bloodshot $17.99

Playstation 2

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law $7.99
Manhunt 2 $9.99
Simpsons Game $12.99
Jackass: The Game $12.99
Alone in the Dark $12.99
Stuntman: Ignition $12.99
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters $16.99
Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon $17.99
Baroque $17.99

Deal of the Day #2 - 10/21/08

Hello All,

This is not so much of a deal, but many sources have said that Wiis are now generally in stock at Wal-Mart. I went to the Beloit store with my mother and noticed they had three in stock. This is the most Wiis I have seen in the wild, ever. If you are still in the market, I would check there first. As an alternative you can always use this site as well.

http://wiitracker.com/

I do not believe the in-store stock is accurately reflected by that site.

I guess the economic downturn is good for something.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/21/08

Hello All,

It seems that the good deals have been fewer and farther between. I believe that will change, shortly, but for the time being the pickings are pretty slim.

However there is good news in the home cleaning front. Amazon has dropped the price on refurbished Dysons. The DC07 is now down to $149.99 and the DC14 is $179.99. I know many people that have purchased refurbished Dysons, and all of them are very happy with their vacuums.

This is the cheapest I have ever seen these vacuums. They are awesome. I have one and will buy one again when ours finally dies. It has been going strong for four years now.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 10/13/08

Hello All,

One more for today. Adorama is selling a Canon 28-90 lens for $59.95 shipped to your door. I have this lens and it works pretty well as a general purpose walk-around lens. It is a step up from the lens that comes with the XT, XTi, and XSi, minus the IS that comes with the XSi lens. This lens has a greater zoom, which is nice when you are walking around outside, taking pictures.

You can find it here.

You can find a review of this lens here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 10/13/08

Hello All,

Wal-Mart is selling Lego Star Wars for the PS3, 360, and Wii for $19.82. You can find it here.

You can find ratings here for the PS3, 360, and Wii. I have the PS3 game, it is fun, and this is cheaper than I got it for.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/13/08

Hello All,

This one is only good today and tomorrow, but it is a good deal none the less. Snapfish is offering up to 50 4x6 prints at $ .01 each, and then only $ .09 for each one after that. You can find this deal here.

Use coupon code FALLPENNY08 at checkout.

Here is a great primer on getting the best results when using photo printing places.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/10/08

Hello All,

ToysRUs has good deal on a product that I did not know they sold. They are selling EEEPCs for cheap. A 4GB with XP for $269 and the 2GB with Linux for $199. You can find the different options here. They are smaller machines that have better battery life, but are only really good for web browsing and email. They are very popular though, and have gotten rave reviews. You can see them here, here, and here. General info can be found here.

As one note, this is a serious YMMV deal. I was at a ToysRUs and they had all the machines listed on their web site. The 4GB one is listed as sold out online though, so you might not be able to score one without going to the store and getting a bit lucky.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/9/08

Hello Again All,

It has been a slow week for good deals. However there are two for today, to try to make up for the long drought.

Woot is selling a brand new Westinghouse 37" 1080p HDTV for $574.99, shipped to your front door. You can find it here. Amazon is selling the same thing for only about $400 more, shipped to your house. The only tiny downside to this TV is that you need a box hooked up to it to get HD. This is not an issue unless you plan on hooking an antenna to it, as you cannot. But for the vast majority of you cable and satellite users who need boxes anyway, this just decreases the price of the TV and removes something you will not use anyway.

***Remember that is for today only, or until they sell out.***

The Canon XSi deal from last week, just got better. Dell is selling the camera for $700, and with a coupon, drops the price to $620, with free shipping, and includes the IS lens. That is cheap. The cheapest I have ever seen that camara. You can find the camera here, and the coupon code is SZT8CS0RVR2HMJ. That coupon is good until October 16th.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/1/08

Hello All,

Dell is selling the Canon XSi with a lens, cheap. As cheap as I have ever seen it. They are selling it for $640 with free shipping. It is listed for $700 but when you use coupon code "SZT8CS0RVR2HMJ" to your cart it drops the price to $640. You can find it here.

*** Coupon ends October 7 or after 500 redemptions ***

This works great with the SanDisk rebate, so you can get all set-up and taking great pictures for under $700.

If you need reviews, you can read this and this, but it is a great camera.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/30/08

Hello All,

A great deal on a laptop. Office Depot is selling a new Gateway M-6827, 15.4" wide screen laptop for $500 after rebate. You can find this laptop here.

Here are the specs

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0GHz CPU.
• 15.4-inch wide screen LCD
• 3GB DDR2 RAM
  
• 160GB hard drive
• Dual layer DVD burner/player
• 802.11g Wireless, 56K modem, and 10/100 Ethernet
• Integrated Webcam
• Windows Vista Home Premium
  

I cannot find any reviews for this model at all, but the hardware looks good, and 3GB of ram should be more than enough for Vista.

This deal ends Saturday the 4th of October.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/30/08

Hello All,

Two quick ones for you this morning. Woot is selling 2, 4GB USB flash drives for $19.99 shipped to your door. You can find them here.

Their other site, sellout.woot is selling a 1GB MP3/WMA/FM Radio/Voice Recorder for $11.99 shipped. You can find this here.

Both of these are one day only, or until they run out, so act fast if you want one.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 9/29/08

Hello All,

The crazy memory card sale is back on again. Adorama is selling SanDisk memory cards cheap, and with the mail in rebate, they are super cheap. You can find all of the sizes, types and prices here. You will have to click on SanDisk on the right side, the click search.

These are very fast cards at cheap card prices. I like SanDisk a lot. They have lifetime warranties on their cards, and they come with card readers and recovery software for all of these I believe. The SD 4GB for sure, as I bought three of them the last time they were on sale.

Note: The rebate ends on October 11th.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/29/08

Hello All,

I missed some video game deals from yesterday. These run through Saturday the 4th of October, and most places will price match if you like Best Buy or Circuit more or less than the place that has the sale.

Circuit City is offering a deal, with a PSP purchase and you get a free game (Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee or SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo) or UMD (Silent Hill). Get one of the games, UMDs are dead. You can find a review of the PSP here.

Target has a couple of good looking games for cheap.

• Battlefield: Bad Company (PS3/360) $39
• LEGO Indiana Jones (PS3/360/Wii) $39
• Call Of Duty 4 (PS3/360) $39 - You should buy this one if you do not have it, it is awesome
  
• Madden NFL '09: All Play(Wii) $39

Toys R Us has a deal for a Wii and Mario Kart. If you buy a Wii console and Mario Kart at the same time, you get two free Wii Wheels.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/29/08

Hello All,

A bit boring this morning, but a necessity. Woot is selling a refurbished Dyson DC14 for $254.99 shipped. You can find it here.

The advantage with this unit over the Dyson units Amazon was selling is that this one has all of the attachments, for hard floors, stairs, etc. We have this vacuum and it is great. It has worked like new for over four years now. All you have to do is bi-annually clean the washable filters, that is it.

If you do not believe me, this guy took it to a whole new level of Dyson love. He has videos and everything. They work better than any vacuum you have ever used.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/28/08

Hello All,

Best Buy has a good deal on the Sony DSLR A300 with two lenses, the 18-70 and a 75-300. This is a great camera for someone who just wants to buy a DSLR and a couple lenses and use them. As I said before the Nikon and Canon are better for people who want to do artsy fartsy stuff, the Sony is more of a general purpose camera.

You can find this deal here.

You can find reviews for this camera here, here and here (note: the A200 and A300 are almost identical, the 300 adds the live view, everything else is the same). The two nice features that this camera has that many at this price range do not are Image Stabilization and Live View. I do not think live view is a big deal, or a feature to look for, but many people do, you can see a detailed review of it here. Image stabilization though is for real, and a great feature.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/28/08

Hello All,

Amazon again comes through with a really sweet deal. They are selling the Xbox 360 arcade, with Lego Batman, for $199.99. These two items would usually cost you $249.99 together, a nice $50 savings. You can find this deal here. This deal runs until October 9th.

If you want a more full featured Xbox 360, this is a great starting point. Also at Amazon you can add the 120GB drive to this package for $139.96. You can find this drive here. This brings your grand total up to $339.95 for a Xbox 360 with 120GB of space, a 256MB memory card, five arcade games, and a full Lego game. This is in comparison to the next model up in the Xbox line, the Xbox 360 Pro, which costs $299.99 and only has a 60GB drive, no games included, and no memory card. You can see a comparison of the three systems here.

The only real disadvantage of this system is you either need to have, or add items to it to get it fully functional for on-line, HD play, where the two models above the arcade, the Pro and Elite, include everything you need to get online and play in HD. For the arcade you need to add an Ethernet cable, around $10 if you do not have one already, and ideally an HDMI cable, which the standard 360 does not come with, also for around $10.

If you can find it, and want a 360 with everything, the easiest way possible, the discontinued Elite bundle is the way to go. It has all of the features of the current Elite, but includes two full games, Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. You can see this one here, but it is hard-ish to find these days.

I am often asked what system I prefer of the 360, PS3, and Wii. Each one has strengths and weaknesses, but overall the 360 is my preferred system. It is the cheapest, does a wide variety of activities - games, video playback, picture playback, and they are fighting with Sony for dominance, so it keeps making both better. The PS3 is a close second, very close, the only issues one way or the other are the 360 will soon support streaming Netflix movies from your couch to the TV, a huge plus, and the PS3 has a web browser, nice but not as nice as the Netflix deal. The Wii is only great for kids and for parties, I never play it when I am alone. You can read about the Netflix deal, and improved upcoming 360 functionally here.

If you do not have a netflix account, email me and I will send you a deal where you get one month free and I get free rentals myself. Usually netflix only offers two weeks free for new subscribers.

Lastly if you want to play online, this combo pack is a great value. It is not yet out, but it includes a lot for a little price.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/24/08

Hello All,

Amazon is having a big sale on Blu-Ray movies. You can find the list here. Of note are the following

• No Country for Old Men - $19.95
• The Shining - $14.95
• Pan's Labyrinth - $18.95
• Bullitt - $13.95
• Evil Dead II - $13.49

There are 95 movies on sale. You can find ratings for movies here and here.

IMBD has two cool pages that I really like, here are the Top 250, and the Bottom 100. There have been a lot of bad movies made in the last 20 years.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/23/08 - Woot Off!!!

Hello All,

Woot.com

Deals on different items until, they sell out, all day long. Great deals can be had but you need to pay attention and move quickly. It is days like today I am glad I have dual monitors.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/23/08

Hello All,

Two TV deals for this morning. One for a 40" one for a 46".

The Sony KDL-40V4100 can be found at buydig.com for $1085 with free shipping. You can find this TV here. You can find a review for this TV here. I used to own an earlier version of this TV and really liked it. I only sold it because we upgraded to a 46" Samsung and the wife made me sell it.

The V series is right in the middle of Sony's offerings. They sell TVs with the following designations M, N, V, W, Z, and XBR. These TVs increase in features from left to right. The W adds a 120Mhz panel, which as I have said before is a gimmick. If you stroll into your local big box store and you can tell a difference between a 60Mhz and 120Mhz, and it is not because the panel is better I would be very surprised. I do not know of any TVs that use the same panel though and offer 120Mhz and 60Mhz in the same TV. Bottom line though, it is the source that matters most, 120Mhz cannot make a really compressed TV feed look any better, or any smoother.

Amazon is selling the Samsung LN46A550 46" LCD TV for $1274.14 with free shipping. You can find that here. The reviews of this TV are good, and Samsung is the leader in LCD TVs. You can find reviewers here and here.

We have the last years model of this TV and really like it. It is a mid range Samsung as well. They show the level of the TV with the first number after the A in the model. This is a 550, the 650, and 750 have more features than this TV. One thing that I really like about our TV, and this TV is the matte screen. The next models up have the glossy screen, but you can get a mirror effect with that screen and I did not like that when I saw it in the store.

These two TVs are more of a mid range TV, and what I bought for our living room. I still stand by the Westinghouse as the best entry level TV on the market. That title would go to Olivia but they just filed for bankruptcy and I would be worried about the availability of parts if they go belly up. Olivia has better panels in there TVs, so if you want to roll the dice on the thing breaking, it is a "better" TV. However if it breaks, you have a really expensive piece of plastic.

Lastly, if you have not read it, this is a good piece to get you started.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/22/08

Hello All,

Wii games for cheap. Circuit City is selling Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game only for $29.99. You can find this deal here.

It got decent rankings, not great. You can find them here. You can find the set list here. There are a total of 41 songs, so you are paying under $0.75 a song, which is cheap.

-- Update --

I forgot to mention that the XBox 360 and PS3 versions are also discounted to $39.99 each. You can find them by clicking on the systems above.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/20/08 - Free Music

Hello All,

You can download one free album, up to $10.00 from a Sony artist over at Amazon when you use coupon code 9F8BJLTG at check-out. You can find Sony artists here, then search for them at Amazon.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/20/08

Hello All,

Sellout.woot is selling 4 VTech Cordless phones, with a built in digital answering machine, for $54.99 shipped. They are $190 at Amazon, you can buy them from woot here.

Reviews of these phones are lacking, but for $12.50 a phone, and they are new, how bad can they be. I am a Panasonic phone guy. We used them at Best Buy when I worked there back in high school. Those phones took a beating and continued to work. I would probably buy these myself, but it is hard to justify double the cost.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/19/08

Hello All,

This is a two deal for the price of one post. They are both video game related deals.

1. Circuit City is offering a $10 gift card with pre-orders of several highly anticipated games.
   
   These games include:
   
   • Gears of War 2 -Xbox 360
     
   • Fable 2 -Xbox 360
   • LittleBigPlanet - PS3
     
   • Resistance 2 - PS3
   • Call of Duty World at War - 360, PS3, Wii
     
   • Fallout 3 - 360, PS3, PC
     
   • Far Cry 2 - 360, PS3
     
   • Pure - 360, PS3
     
   • Dragon Quest IV - DS
     
   • Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning - PC
     
   • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 - PC
     
   • Sims 3 - PC
     
     I am looking forward to Gears 2, Fallout 3, and Resistance 2. Fable could be good too, but that genre is more difficult to do well, and the development team is promising everything for that game, so it will likely disappoint.
     
     I do not know when this offer ends. You can find all of the pre-orders here, I will not link to each and every one as I am lazy.
     
     
2. Toys R Us is offering a $20 gift card with the purchase of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Xbox 360 or PS3. The links go to the reviews for the different systems. The 360 version got slightly higher ratings.
   
   This deal is in store only. I am also not sure when this expires.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 9/18/08 - Act Fast - Wii

Hello All,

Frys.com is selling a Wii with a charging station for $279.98. You can find it here.

I have that charging station and I paid $30 for it, it is well worth the money you save on batteries. The Wiimotes eat AA batteries like a fat kid eats Twinkies.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 9/18/08

Hello All,

I am not sure if this deal is still working or not, but it is a great deal if you are interested.

The Nike web site is selling the new Apple iPod nano 8GB MP3 Player for $149. If you use the coupon codes BACKTOSPORT and FALLFREESHIP the price falls to $119.20 with free shipping.

These are the brand new models, and they are new. You can see them here. You can see a reviews here and here.

If it works or it is dead, let me know in the comments.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/18/08

Hello All,

Think Geek has a coupon code that work until the end of the month of September.

8EBB is the code and it takes $5 off $25 or more and $10 off $50 or more. Thinkgeek has some cool stuff, and an interesting newsletter.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/18/08

Hello All,

Crutchfield is selling an HD car stereo with CD for $99.99. It is a Dual XHD6420.

You can find reviews here and here. You can find the stereo here.

If you can get your order to total $100 or more, add coupon code 3A825 to your cart to drop the price by $20. There is a $50 mail-in rebate which drops the price to $29.99. Add $6.99 for shipping bringing your total to around $40, depending on what you add to get over $100.

This stereo has an integrated HD Radio tuner, AM/FM radio stations. It also plays CDs, MP3 CDs, and WMA CDs. The rebate ends September 29.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/17/08

Hello All,

Sources close to me tell me that Sears is selling the Canon Rebel XT for $260 with the kit lens. This is Canon's entry level DSLR that retails for over $400 new if you can still find them. If you wanted to get your feet wet with a DSLR but do not want the drop the $600 or more dollars that an entry level DSLR costs, this would be the time and place to do it.

You can find reviews of the XT here, here, and here.

*** As a warning this is in-store only, and with very limited stock ***

I think it goes without saying, but if you really want one, you probably will need to call stores outside of Madison. We here in Madison are blessed or cursed with two things that are not found everywhere in the US. Those things are a strong economy and a lot of tech savvy folks. If you try Sears in smaller towns, or Milwaukee where there are a lot more people and more Sears, you might still be able to find one.

I used this strategy to find a HD set top box at a Janesville Radio Shack a couple years ago. HD set top boxes were going for way over $200 at the time and Radio Shack was clearing them out for $90. All five or six stores in Madison were sold out, but Janesville had two left. I drove down and bought them both. Just something to keep in mind when looking for electronics deals.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/17/08

Hello All,

Blu Ray players are the cheapest I have even seen, and the first time I have seen them for much less than $400.

Abt is selling the Panasonic DMPBD30K for $262.24 with free shipping. You can find it here. The Amazon rating is high, you can see that here. The Cnet review can be found here and a more detailed review can be found here.

Amazon is also selling the Sony BDP S300 for $229.00, you can find that here. The reviews are pretty good, you can see them here and here.

Read the Cnet reviews at the very least before you buy one, so you know what you are getting into; there are issues with less expensive Blu Ray players and firmware. I do not think they are show stoppers, but know that you have more work to do with the cheaper Blu Ray units.

If you do not want to read, but want a Blu Ray player, buy a PS3, it is the best Blu Ray/DVD/Multi Media/TV Web Browser/Photo Viewer on the market. For $400 you cannot go wrong, and it upgrades itself via the internet.

The only real deal on a PS3 right now is this, and admittitly it is not much of one.

If you sign up for a Sony Credit Card you can get $100 off a PS3. You can see the details here. They are offering the 80GB PS3(one that does not play PS2 games) for $399, here.

Again, this is not a great deal really, but it is the cheapest way you can get a PS3 right now. I would not be surprised if there is another price drop on the PS3 before Christmas, to combat the Xbox 360's price drops, but I do not know that it will happen either. There have not been any rumors one way or the other, but the 360 did just sell the most consoles in Japan, which makes Sony and Nintendo mad. I do not know if it makes them price cuttingly mad, but Xbox has never done well in Japan, so that has to hurt the two Japanese companies a bit.

Later,

John