New Macbook Pros and MacBook Airs

Hello All,

New Apple products were announced yesterday and here is my take.  Unless you are a gamer, photographer, or into heavy image editing or manipulation, get a Macbook Air.  Apple reduced the price of the 13" model, the one you should buy, down to $1199.  This machine is lightweight, quiet, and has between 5-7 hours of battery life.

The 13" Macbook Pro is also $1199, which is a heck of a deal for the money.  Compared to the Air you get a faster machine, a DVD drive, a larger hard drive, but a much heavier machine.  If you want the portability though, the Air is impossible to beat, and if you do not want the portability you should buy an iMac and get a faster machine for about the same price.

If you are any of those people I listed to start this article I would recommend a 15 or 17" macbook pro.  Either the 2011 model on clearance, or the 2012 models are both solid, depending on your budget. MacMall is blowing out 2011, 17" models right now, but the rest of their prices on last years models are nothing special.  I would check Apple Refurbished before you make a purchase, here is the link for MacBook Pros, and for MacBook Airs.

Lastly, check with the local college if you have any affiliation.  They usually have a fair number of the last years laptops for a big discount, and you get a free printer/scanner/copier when you make an educational purchase.

Good luck,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 9/30/09

Hello All,

The tubes were again right and the Wii is now $199.99 at most places. You can find it for here at that price anytime.

I like my Wii but the wife has used it way more than I have. It is a decent party system, but I rarely turn it on to use by myself.

Later,

John

iPod Update

Hello All,

I probably should have posted this earlier, but better late than never. Apple is having a special event Tuesday September 9th. They will likely be announcing a whole new line of iPods. If you have not gotten an iPod but are close to picking one up, wait until next week. The current models will drop in price, and the new ones might be worth paying full price for, who knows.

More as I hear it.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 8/28/09

Hello All,

Microsoft has met Sony's price drop with a price drop of their own. The 360 has fallen in price just like the PS3 did before it. The new pricing is as follows.

• The 360 Elite is now $299 down from $399
• The 360 Pro is now $249 down from $299
• The 360 Arcade did not change and remains $199

If you want one, Amazon has the best deals right now. If you buy the Elite you get a year of free Xbox Live service, and if you buy the Pro you get to choose a free copy of Halo 3, Fable II, or Halo Wars. The best deal, while supplies last, is this one though. The 360 Elite, with Halo 3 and Fable II for $299.

Xbox Live is advertised as $50 a year, but you can find it for around $30 most of the time. The two games with the last bundle are worth about $80 together, making it a better deal. They have also removed the free HDMI cables with the newer bundles and it is still included in the Halo 3 - Fable II edition, saving you about $10 more dollars.

Now the dilemma. The PS3, Xbox360 and Wii can all be had for under $300. The Wii for me is still the least desirable of all three, and for me has been used the least. The wife last night commented about it being a waste of our money. I do not think that, but it gets the least amount of usage of all three systems in our house. Although I love the 360 and have played more games on it than the other two consoles combined, the PS3 is the best value. It does more outside of playing games (Blu-ray player, Internet Browser, Picture Viewer, it supports almost every audio and video codex out there), and on top of that the controller is wireless and includes rechargeable batteries in it. The 360 is the better game console, but there is more to the race then the game aspect, and Sony is starting to catch up to the 360 on the game front. The 360 needs to either drop in price again, or add more features to compete at the $299 price point.

I think the first one to have a DVR add-on will really dominate the market. The PS3 already is selling one in Europe, how long before they sell one here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #3 - 7/9/09

Hello All,

Apple released updated laptops about two weeks ago, and consequently the old ones came down in price. If you do not need the speed increases or the sd card reader built in, you can get a great deal on a new, but last generation laptop.

If you work or go to the UW, you can get a 13" Macbook Pro, an iPod and, a printer all for $899 plus taxes. Find that here.

Here is a similar, although not as good, deal for people that have nothing to do with education.

It is a slippery slope, but if a 13" will not work for you, here are some Apple recertified laptops for cheap, directly from Apple.

Thanks Hans for the post idea.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day #2 - 7/9/09

Hello All,

Yesterday the Kindle 2's price fell from $359 to $299, a big drop and a step toward making the kindle a purchase for a wider audience. The biggest advantages of the kindle over other ebook readers is that it has free wifi anywhere in the world and you can buy new best selling books for $10. I am not much of a book reader, ADHD makes it hard to focus and all :-), but this is pretty attractive even to me. The iPhone does enough of this for me personally so I will not jump yet, but I think the kindle is the next iPod. For a while iPods were really expensive and not very big, now almost everyone has one and they are very inexpensive. You are actually weirder to not have an iPod these days than you are if you do. That point will come in a few years for the kindle.

You can find the kindle here.

Later,

John

iPhone Updates

Hello All,

Today was the first day of the Apple World Wide Developer Connection (WWDC) and there was a lot of news. There are all new laptops, a new operating system, and a new version of the Safari browser. This dear readers is all good news, but not the big news. The big news is two fold.

1. There is a new version of the iPhone operating system, 3.0, that is coming out on June 17th.
2. There is a new iPhone, the 3GS, coming out on June 19th.

Here is a quick rundown of the two biggest announcements.

The iPhone 3.0 operating system

• It is a free update for all iPhone users and $9.95 for all iPod Touch users
• Improved Safari web browser
• Copy and Paste
• Landscape mode in email, text, and notes
• Complete iPhone search
• Voice Memos
• Improved calendar app

You can find all the updates here.

The iPhone 3GS Update

• Same size and shape as the 3G phone
• Faster processor 2x or more, depending on the application
  
• Improved camera, 3 mega pixel, with video
• Faster 3G network support
• New 3D video support
• Improved battery life
• Voice control for many applications

The 8GB 3G is now $99, the 16GB 3G is $149. The new 3GS will come in 16GB and 32GB at $199 and $299.

The only bad news involves AT&T. If you are like me and got your 3G iPhone when they first came out last year, you will have to wait until December or so to get the upgrade prices. If you cannot wait that long you will have to pay an $18 upgrade fee and either $399 or $499, depending on the size of the phone you want. This is better than people with recent new contracts. They will be hit for $599 and $699, depending on the phone size.

Overall I am pretty excited about the new phone, but I am disappointed there is not a better upgrade path. If you can wait 6 months why would you not wait 6 more and see what Apple comes out with in June of 2010. AT&T would be better served to keep people like me on the hook for another two years then allow me to wait and see. This will without question piss off a lot of their customers, and that is not good for business. I am half way through my contract, why not lock me in for another two years. A lot can happen in a year with regard to technology. There could be a better phone out than the iPhone in another year, or at least close to as good and AT&Ts service leaves room for improvement. So maybe people wait for their contract to end and then they leave. That is a risk AT&T runs with this strategy. I know I switched solely for the iPhone, I would switch away if there were a better phone out there.

Later,

John

For more Apple coverage check out this, this, and this.

Deal of the Day #3 - 4/30/09

Hello All,

REI is clearing out all of their '08 Crumpler bags. These are mainly 'old' colors. Anyway you can find a very nice 4 Million Dollar Camera bag for $30. We just bought one and the wife really likes it. We paid more though, as we are suckers. You can save a bit more money if you opt for store pick-up, as they offer free shipping to an REI store.

You can find all of the crumpler bags 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

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 #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 - 9/6/08

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

Xbox 360 Rumor - Update

Hello All,

Last post for today. It looks as though the 360 price drop is a sure thing. Here are pictures of upcoming ads for Kmart and Radio Shack showing the new prices.

So wait until after September 7th to buy your new 360 and you will save an extra $50 on a great video game system.

For more details on the systems and differences, you can find my original post here.

Later,

John

Xbox 360 Rumor

Hello All,

This is not actually a deal of the day post, more of a heads up and wait to buy post. This rumor has been duplicated at several different sites. There will be another Xbox 360 price drop in early September, so hold off on buying a 360 until then. Here is the low down on the price drop.

• Arcade (no hard drive, but comes with a memory card and some games, console is in white)
• Current $279 to $199

• Pro (60GB hard drive, console is in white)
• Current $349 to $299

• Elite (120GB hard drive, console is in black)
• Current $449 to $399

Now you may ask which one should I buy? Tough question. Microsoft has this page to help you with the differences. I bought the elite myself when it came with two games, the current elite bundle does not come with games. The space is nice as Xbox will be updating the 360 this fall to allow you to play games off the hard drive for much faster load times. You can also store pictures and more on the 360. I would buy the elite myself, but the pro is a solid value if you do not mind deleting things and making room on the hard drive.

Later,

John