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

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/16/08

Hello All,

GameFly is selling used games with free shipping, as they periodically do. The games are guaranteed to work, and they have games for all platforms.

Of note is Grand Theft Auto IV for the 360 and Ps3 for $34.99. It is a great game. No links to ratings required, it is awesome. Half-Life 2 the Orange Box is also very fun, and worth the $24.99 for it. It is only available for the Ps3, here. For the Wii there are two stand out games, Metroid for $26.99 and No More Heros for $19.99. Metroid does not really need any reviews, or at least it should not. No More Heros can be summed up here. I love Yahtzee, he is hilarious.

Act fast, the quantities are limited and the best deals go quickly. You can find the store here. Free shipping is in effect until 9/22.

For reference game ratings can be found here, although Yahtzee above is all you really need.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/16/08

Hello All,

MacMall has a sale on the JBL On Stage II iPod speaker and dock system. It is on sale for $39.99, about $20 less than you can find it elsewhere. It is closer to $50 when you get it shipped to your house, but still a good deal. You can find reviews here, here, and here. In the last review note that the rating would be higher at a lower price, well $40 is a low low price; they rated it when it was over $100.

If you look on Amazon, you can find it in black for only a few dollars more if the color is a big deal to you. I just bought the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 for the house and I really like it. It is kind of big, but it sounds really good and the remote does everything so you do not need to touch the iPod at all. The only real advantage the one I bought has is that it has batteries in it so you can use it as a boombox for your iPod for around 10 hours. The JBL is wall powered only.

You can find the JBL on sale here and if you want the Pure-Fi you can find it here. Unfortunately the Pure-Fi has jumped in price since I bought mine, and it is now $100, I got mine for $79. Given the $50 difference in price and the only real advantage being the batteries, which I will likely never use, I would get the JBL if I had to do it all over again.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 9/15/08

Hello All,

A bit of an unconventional Deal of the Day, but it is a great deal and I love ours, so here it is. Amazon has a 72 hour sale on remanufactured Dyson vacuum cleaners. We have the DC14, which is $500 new, and has a bunch of attachments, but is the same basic vacuum.

I am not going to post any reviews for this cleaner, but I will give you my personal stamp. This vacuum is awesome. When ours finally breaks, we have had it over four years now and works like new, I will buy another one. It picks up a ridiculous amount of dirt, even if you use a different vacuum first. Yes, I did this when we first got it. I needed to justify the $500 I just spent on a vacuum, and it did it, it removed a lot of dirt from a "clean" carpet.

As a full disclosure kind of thing, Consumer Reports does not love this vacuum. I think it is mainly because of the cost, but I do not remember. The Dyson is light, well built, the attachments make sense and are easy to use, and everything is designed well. For the money I think Consumer Reports likes the $300 Kenmore. I used it, but liked this one better.

Bottom line, I love ours, everyone I know that has one loves theirs. I cannot believe I wrote this much about a vacuum.

You can find them in the different color options, here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/15/08

Hello All,

Circuit City is selling God of War 2 for the PS2 for $9.99. It got very good ratings, you can find them here. It is a $10 video game, new, and it is #15 all time for the PS2, if you do not have it, buy it.

You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/15/08

Hello All,

Frys is selling a Toshiba Satellite L305-S5884 15", 2 Ghz Core 2 Duo Laptop for $599. It has 3Gb of ram, a 250 Gb hard drive and Vista installed on it.

You can find reviews here and here.

You can buy it here. It is a limited time deal, so move fast if you are interested in this machine.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 9/12/08

Hello All,

This is a really good deal, again from Newegg. Newegg is selling the Canon SD1100 IS for $169.99 with a 2Gb memory card and a case with free shipping. You can find that here. The price shows up $179.99 but it drops to $169.99 with the coupon code EMCAKBCAH.

You can find reviews for this camera here, here and here. The synopsis from all three is that it is a very good and easy to use pocket camera.

I recommended this camera before, when it was $40 more than this deal, and did not come with a memory card or case.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/12/08

Hello All,

Short and sweet on this one. Newegg is selling Madden 09 for the PS3 for 49.99 with free shipping. You can find it here. Reviews of the game are the highest for any of the consoles it is available on. You can see them here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/12/08

Hello All,

My friend Mark recommended this monitor deal if you need computer monitor.

Buy.com is selling the 22" Samsung 220WM for $269.99 with free shipping. There is a rebate on the monitor that drops it down to $229.99 to your door. You can find that deal here. Reviews are sparse but you can find the customer ones on Newegg here.

I have a 20" Samsung that I love. I paid $220 for it and would recommend Samsung as well. They make really nice LCD displays.

Later,

John

More thoughts on TVs

Hello Again all,

I am wordy today. Here are some more HDTV things to think about, as if the situation was not complicated enough :-).

• AVsforum is great. However, they are a bunch of snobs and whiners too
  There is good info in there without question, but you need to temper the bad. If you compare any TV that is under $2000 the best TVs they will look like crap. The question is do you want to spend $5000 or more for a TV. For most people the $1000 TV looks great and they will not notice the differences, or think they are worth the extra $4000 or more for a "better" TV. It is like car reviewers and daily drivers. Of course the Camry is boring and bland. Lets see you get two kids into an Audi R8. Hell lets see you pay for a R8 with a regular job that does not involve selling drugs. AVsforum is great to find problems with a TV. It is great to get calibration settings for a TV. However if you read it long enough you will either be broke, or will never buy anything. Know that and use it for what it is, Do NOT use it as the word of the Lord.
  
  
• There are very promising technologies right around the corner
  LCD is good, but it is not the best ever. The blacks are not very good, the backlights could be better, and they use a bit of power, amongst other things. I am not saying do not buy one, I am just saying that the LCD you bought will not last 20 years like the last tube TV you bought. OLED is out right now, but sell a kidney expensive. It is awesome, but it is not ready for prime time yet. SED looks very promising as well, but has some legal issues and is not yet out. There are other technologies currently available but very pricey including DLP with lasers, and DLP with LEDs and LED backlit LCDs. In the upcoming years all of these technologies will get better and cheaper. Thinking of all of that, I would not buy a high end TV today. I recommend going for a good value TV from a name brand. The 42" Westinghouse will not outperform a Sony XBR, but you can buy a lot of beer for your friends with the extra $1500 you have in your pocket, and it still looks really good. For further reading here is an article on TV technologies.
  
  
• Do not buy into the hype
  There are a lot of features to hype in TVs these days, but most are all hype. 120Hz is all hype - the source matters infinitely more than how fast your TV can show you the picture. The dynamic contrast ratio is all hype - there is no standard for the measurement so anyone can claim anything they want. Focus on things that matter such as the number of HDMI ports (get 2 at the minimum for a main TV, less is ok for the bedroom or kitchen), Picture in Picture (if you want it obviously), size, and tuner capabilities (ATSC and QAM for example).
  
  
• Buy a name brand TV
  What do I mean by this you say, they all have names on them. I mean buy a TV from a company you have heard of before. Sony, Toshiba, JVC, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Philips, etc. The big boys cost a bit more because they have a support network. You can read more about this here. The basic take is that Olivia, Vizio, Polaroid, Insignia, etc are throw away TVs if they break outside of warranty. You cannot get parts, and you would not pay to ship them back to the factory to get them fixed. Westinghouse is kind of a tweener. I had good luck replacing a Westinghouse I bought from Best Buy. There are parts available to Best Buy as well, so you do not have to ship the TV across country at a big hit to your wallet. I bought another Westinghouse if that tells you anything about my worries about their TVs. I would not buy an Olivia, I would not buy a Vizio, and I would not buy a Polaroid.
  

Overall I recommend HDTVs to anyone. They are much clearer than what you are using now. It is like color vs black and white, there is that big a difference.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #7 - 9/11/08

Hello for the last time today,

Ok, I am now totally out. The makers of Guitar Hero have a $20 off coupon at their on-line store and free shipping on orders over $99.

With this coupon you can get:

• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith X-plorer Bundle (Game+Guitar) for the Xbox 360 for $58.85 shipped after coupon. Click here.
  
• PS2 Guitar Hero III Wireless Bundle for $48.85 shipped after coupon. Click here.
  

The coupon code is SAVE20.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #6 - 9/11/08

Hello Again,

Ok, seriously it will stop relatively soon. Buy.com has a new Westinghouse 37" 1080P TV for $599. You can find the TV here. That is the cheapest I have ever seen a 1080P 37" TV. You will likely not notice the difference between it and 720P unless you sit on the TV, but that is beside the point. It is a 37" for the price of a 32", and that makes it a deal. I could not find any reviews, but old models seemed to have some issues with HDMI handshakes. The Buy.com post says these were fixed with this model.

The only down side to this TV is that it does not have a tuner built in. If you have cable or satellite this does not matter at all, but I wanted you to know anyway.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #5 - 9/11/08

Hello All,

OK, it is really raining today. Amazon has a great deal on the Canon XSi. They are selling the XSi in black with two lenses for $727 with free shipping. This is the XSi with the kit lens, a great general purpose lens, with image stabilization, and a 75-300 telephoto lens as well. That lens is not awesome, but for $50 in the package price, you cannot beat it.

To get this deal you need to add the camera and the second lens separately, not the package they offer. So the camera here, then add it to your cart, then the lens here, and yahtzee, you have the low low price. You need to select the free shipping option to get this deal.

For a complete camera review, and what you fully need, see my older post on the topic, here.

Later,

John

Mac Laptop Rumor

Hello for the last time today,

This is only a rumor, but sources point to October 14th as the day the new Mac laptops will be announced. So if you are in the market for a mac laptop, wait a month if possible. The current ones will drop in price, and the new ones might be worth the wait for the upgrade.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #4 - 9/11/08

Hello Hello Hello,

It is raining, it is pouring, the deals they are a many. Yeah it does not really work, but I tried.

Free file hosting! From now until the 15th of September File Savr is offering free lifetime file hosting (until 2038 actually, but that is a long time). It is normally $10 a month. There is 10gb limit per upload, with a 250gb per account max. Sign up here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 9/11/08

Hello Yet Again avid reader,

This one is also mostly for the two ladies of the blog. Amazon has half year subscriptions to magazines for a dollar an issue. You can find the listing here. The only man subscription is Popular Mechanics, the rest are all aimed at women. It makes sense, they read, but still just an FYI for any of the guys looking for a deal. It could be a nice little surprise gift for the little lady though.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/11/08

Hello Again,

BestBuy is selling a brand new Westinghouse 42" TV for $749.99. The TV is 1080P, has all of the tuners, and is a solid TV, great for the money. You can find a few reviews here, here, and here. If you were not sold just on that, you also get a free portable DVD player when you buy this TV. You can see that here.

For the nerdiest of the nerdy info on TVs I love avsforum. They have everything on every TV out there. For this TV you can find the thread here. As a warning, there are only 174 pages to read through :-).

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/11/08

Hello All,

Lots of little deals today. We will start off with free stuff, because freer is better.

iTunes, (that is for you Jon), has free HD TV downloads. You must have the new iTunes 8 to get these downloads, but that is free too, and can be found here.

1. To find the shows open iTunes
2. click on the iTunes store on the left side of the screen
3. click on TV Shows on the upper left side
4. Scroll to the bottom of the TV Show window
5. In the middle you will see FREE ON iTunes
6. Click on any of the shows you want

You must have an iTunes account for this, but they are free, and worth it anyway.

The free downloads include the following shows:

• Battlestar Galactica
  
• The Office
  
• Heroes
  
• Monk
  
• Life
  
• 30 Rock
  
• Lipstick Jungle - for the two ladies that view this blog, I love you both

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/9/08 - Act FAST!!!

Hello All,

Hot Topic is selling Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360s for $199. These are brand new, and that is $200 off. The Halo edition is the 20Gb model in Green. For comparison, the next model up right now is $100 more, and all you get is 40Gb more hard disk space. For that same price, $199, you can get the Xbox360 Arcade, but it does not come with a wireless controller, a play and charge kit (rechargeable battery and charger) , a headset, or a hard drive, which severely limits the usefulness of the system.

You can find the deal here. This will likely be extremely limited, so move fast if you want one.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/9/08

Hello All,

A twofer today. Two laptop deals depending on your preferences and what you are willing to pay.

1. Sellout.woot is selling a refurbished 17" HP laptop for $704.99 shipped to your house. This machine has a T7100 Core 2 Duo processor, a screaming video card, is very upgradeable, and, wait for it, has XP installed on it :-). HP is selling the same machines refurbished themselves for only $900. Three other nice features include, it supports 4Gb of ram, it has a HDMI output to hook up to a HDTV, and it has a higher native resolution, i.e. a better screen, than most laptops. It comes with only 1GB of ram, but that is cheap and easy to upgrade, and with XP you do not really need to upgrade. You can find this bad boy here. PC World reviewed the line and liked them, you can fine the review here. Since it is Woot, it is one day or until they sell out, so move fast if you want one.
   
   
2. Office Depot has a Gateway 15" Laptop for $580 after rebate. This is a brand new T5750 Core 2 Duo laptop with 3Gb of ram. It has Vista on it but aside from that the specs are solid. You can find this machine here. The rebate expires on September 13th, so you have a bit more time with this machine, assuming they do not sell out.

I like deal number one better myself, as it has a better screen, and a ridiculous video card. I also like XP better than Vista. Deal two is better for true portability.

Later,

John

Camera Thoughts and Recommendations

Hello All,

A lot of people I know seem to be in the DSLR market and have asked my opinion on the topic. Here are some general thoughts about DSLRs and some general advice on this purchase.

1. No matter what, you will take better pictures with a DSLR
   The sensor is bigger, the cameras turn on faster, they take pictures faster, they focus faster, the flash works better, you are less likely to get any red-eye in the pictures, and the batteries last longer. There is even more that DSLRs do over regular point and shoot cameras, those are just some of the simplest advantages. The biggest single deciding factor for me in getting a DSLR was all of the times I tried to take pictures with our little canon, and they did not turn out, and all of the memories I missed. Many life events do not happen again, using a point and shoot limits what you can capture.
   
   
2. DSLRs are flexible and upgradeable
   You can buy a new lens and transform your DSLR into a new camera. This seems obvious, but I figure I should throw it out there. Zoom lenses, Macro (up close), Fish Eye, and more.
   
   
3. Shots in low lighting are hard for even a DSLR, get image stabilization
   I was not a believer in image stabilization at first, but now that I have used it and seen the results I am sold. It works great indoors on fixed objects. Motion indoors is not so good, but for everything else it works great.
   
   
4. Take a while to play with a camera before you buy it
   This one is huge. Seems small but it is huge. Go to a big chain that sells the camera you are looking at and play with it. Since you are there you should see if they can match the price you found on-line. They probably cannot, but it is worth a shot.
   I was set to buy a Canon XT, but when I played with it, I did not like how it felt in my hands. The XTi was modified and I liked how it felt better, so that is what I bought. This is huge as you do not want to be holding an uncomfortable camera for hours on end, you will end up not using it.
   

There are my general thoughts, now on to buying advice. For a basic DSLR for someone on a budget, the Sony DSLR-A200 with the 18-70mm lens is my pick. It has image stabilization in the body, anti-dust shake, and is 10 MP. This camera with lens can be found for under $500 without even trying. Here it is from MS Live search for $470 with free shipping. You can find reviews all over the place. Two basic reviews, here and here. A middle-level review and a high-level review. You can also get this camera with a long zoom lens in a kit as well. It is more money but you can find that on this site. It is about $100 more, but well worth it if you are going to have a DSLR and be serious about taking pictures. If you buy it from Abes of Maine you can use coupon code DORM, and get an additional $10 off the price.

For a middle level DSLR get the Canon XSi. It is what I would buy if our XTi stopped working. I am a bit biased toward Canon, as I like how their pictures look, and we have canon lenses already. This camera is a bit more money, $699 retail, than the Sony, but has a better image stabilization option, and as I said, I like how the pictures look better. You can find this camera with a lens here. It is not really a middle level, it is really entry level, but price wise it is middle entry level. Here are the basic review, middle review, and high-level reviews of this camera.

I do not really know enough to recommend a high level camera, but if you buy an expensive Nikon you will not go wrong. It is the iPod argument. iPod dominates the MP3 market. The reason is they are not only the best, they are the easiest to use. If you want a MP3 player you would be crazy not to get an iPod. If you look at high-end camera stuff, like people who take pictures for a living, they almost all use Nikon. Nikon makes big boy cameras. Buy a full frame Nikon and you will be happy.

Closing thoughts
I used to recommend the Nikon D40 for the entry-level camera. It is a good camera, and very inexpensive. However it does not have dust reduction, and with a DSLR dust is an issue. Dust will get in you camera, and spot your pictures. It is not a matter of if; it is a matter of when. If you can live with that, or want to process the dust out of the pictures using the computer, the D40 is a fine way to go. If you never plan on switching lenses, the D40 is a fine way to go. If this is you, you should ask yourself why you are buying a DSLR, but it is your choice. The dual lens kit can be found for $560 and the single lens kit for around $430. This camera is slightly easier to use than the Sony, and has more lenses available for it, but the lack of dust reduction kills it.

Good luck to all in your camera purchases. The XSi is what I would get without considering cost. The A200 would be what I get thinking of bang for the buck. One last piece of advice, if you are getting a new camera, or lens for a trip, buy them early so you know how to use them and can play a bit before you leave and the pressure is on.

-- Update --

I forgot to mention what else you will need to get a fully functioning camera. You will likely need a memory card, a lens filter, a case of some type. I recommend getting at least a 4Gb card for a DSLR, and I like the Sandisk Extreme series. You can find a past post on good deals on memory cards here.

A UV lens filter is basically cheap insurance for your lens. Lens scratches are very bad, and ruin a lens, if you scratch a lens filter, who cares, you are out $10, buy another one. I buy mine from Amazon, just make sure they are the right size for your lens.

Lastly a good case is very nice. We have two, a big one for everything, lenses, tripod, charger, everything, and a little one for just the camera and one lens. The big one is here, the little one is here. I really like the little case, it is the prefect size to carry just the camera and give it some protection.

-- Update 2 --
A special thanks to Jon for the comments. In light of his comments I fixed the iPod spelling in this post. I have not read, or done any extensive research on UV filters. Using my logic and that alone it would seem that some glass with a bit of coating on it is some glass with a bit of coating on it. If anyone happens to have a more expensive UV filter it would be interesting if we could do a double blind test and see if there is any difference. If no one does for a Canon I will just buy a cheap one for Jon and assist him with the testing.

For a clarification. I do not think you should get your advice from the local experts then buy online. I do not have a problem with it, but I do not advocate doing that either. I meant that you should play with it at a big chain. They can compete with the on-line prices if they want to, the little guys likely cannot. I am all for the little guy, you usually get better service and they usually know more than a chain. The only reason I buy on-line and push the on-line purchase is that salesmen have an agenda. Maybe not all, and maybe not the little guys, but for the most part they do. They know the mark-ups on the different cameras and how much they will make if they sell you whatever. Sometimes this influences what they tell you, and possibly what you buy. If you buy on-line after doing the research yourself you take that out of the equation. Jon alluded to this in his post. All in all an excellent comment, keep up the good work.

One last thing. I was trying to figure out how I would tell someone what to buy with regard to cameras and I came up with this analogy. These three cameras are like cars. The Sony is a Toyota Camry, the Canon is a BMW 5 series, and the Nikon is a Mercedes S500. All will get you from A to B, and do a much better job than the crapbox Chevy Cavalier you have been cruising in for the last couple of years. The differences are in the extras. The Toyota does the job, and well, but you are not going to take it to the track, and you are not going to turn heads. It is fine transportation but that is all it is. The BMW you can do all that, but you can turn some heads and it will work on the track. The BMW also has bells and whistles coming out of everywhere, lots of things the Toyota will never have and the Mercedes will get around to installing sooner or later. The after market pieces for the BMW are wide and varied as well. Toyota upgrades are few and far between. Lastly the Mereceds is old and established. It does everything well and has a rich tradition and following. You can get more add-ons for this car than you know what to do with. You pay a lot for all of that, but for some it it worth it.

So there you have it, my attempt to clarify the camera differences using cars.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/7/08 - #2

Hello All,

Timbuk2, a maker of very durable and trendy bags, is having a big sale on their bags. They have various bags at up to 65% off. You can find the sale here. The sale runs until the 22nd of September, so you have two weeks left to pick up a new bag.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/7/08 - #1

Hello All,

The Discovery Store is selling Planet Earth & When We Left Earth on DVD for $80 and Blu-Ray for $100. This is $70 off the regular prices and for a limited time, although I do not know when the deal ends. Planet Earth is incredible. It is mind blowingly awesome. If you like nature at all, you have to own this series.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/6/08

Hello All,

It is that time of the year again, football time. As a result, lots of HDTVs are being pushed out the door. Here are three good deals, all in one little post.

The first one is the infamous "Today Only"

The rest have undetermined end dates.

1. Woot is selling a 37" Refurbished Magnavox HDTV for $549.99 with $5 shipping. It has gotten good reviews, one of which you can find here. It is 720p, has all of the HD tuners built in that you want, and is a big TV for a cheap price.
   
   
2. 6ave.com is selling a brand spanking new 32" Sharp 720p TV for $568, with free shipping. You need to use this coupon code: AFL5, to get the $30 off. The TV has gotten good reviews on Amazon, you can find those here.
   
   
3. PC Connection.com is selling a 26" Refurbished Westinghouse 720p HDTV for 329.99 with free shipping. Amazon reviews of the TV can be found here.
   
   
4. Bonus, two extra posts for FREE. I tell you three, I give you five. That is just the kind of guy I am :-).
   
   a. New Ipods will be coming out on Tuesday. That means the current models will drop in price by a lot, usually $50 or more. So wait until next week to buy one.
   
   b. The Xbox 360 price drop is official, you can now get a basic 60GB Xbox 360 for $300, and a bare bones one (arcade) for $199. I like my 360 a lot, and play it the most out of the 3 game systems in the current generation, (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360).
   

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/2/08

Hello All,

Sears is selling the Canon, PowerShot A590 IS for $119.  You can find it here.  You can find reviews here, here, here and here.  This review is for the prior model, but I really like that site. 

Having now played with IS in person I am a believer.  It steadies your hands to give you better shots in low light, which is where a lot of pictures are taken.  Almost any indoor picture is in low light.  This camera also does movies, and takes 8MP pics.  The only knocks, and they are minor are its slightly larger than many cameras in the market, and it uses regular batteries, so it eats them faster.  The plus with batteries is that you can carry a lot of spares, and you can buy them anywhere, so that one is a push depending on how you feel about it.

This is today only, and in-store only.  The two Madison Sears had them when I checked this morning.

As an add-on you will need a memory card for the camera.  Woot is selling two, 2Gb for $11.49 today.  If you want a better card, you can get the SanDisk ones, detailed here, but there are rebates involved to get them that cheap.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/1/08 - #2

Hello All,

BestBuy is selling a nice Toshiba 46" 46RV530U LCD TV, today only, for $1299. This is a good deal, however Circuit City is price matching the TV, and you can use MS Live to get 12.5% back, dropping the price of the TV to $1138. You can see this here.

That is an incredible price for a really nice TV. You can read reviews here, and here. This is the larger brother of the 42" Toshiba listed a couple of posts below.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/1/08

Hello All,

One day only, today, and in store only.

Office Depot is selling a Gateway 15.4" Core 2 Duo laptop for $480 after instant rebate and mail-in rebate. It has 3Gb of ram, 250Gb harddrive, wireless, and more. You can see it here.

The only negative thing with this laptop is Vista, and I hear it is not that bad. This machine is big and fast though, and for under $500, a great deal.

Later,

John