Deal of the Day - 9/9/14

Hello All,

Happy iPhone 6 day!  In only a few hours it will be announced.  On to the deal at hand.  Woot is selling a refurbished roku 3 for $67.99 shipped to your door.  This is $100 regularly and a great deal at this price.  If you have kids the PBS kids channel is great, and totally free.  Netflix, HBOGo, Youtube, and loads of other channels are on the unit or available to download for free.  It works with both iOS and Android and is not tied to one platform or another.  It is the best streaming device available right now.  Grab one if you do not have one already, you will thank me.

You can read about the Roku 3 here, here, and here.  You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 9/1/14

Hi All,

Happy Labor Day.  There are sales all over the place right now, one specifically to watch is Best Buy is selling iPad Minis for $199, which is $100 off and the lowest price I have ever seen for a new iPad mini.  Note, this is the first generation mini, not retina, and 16GB, but an incredible deal for a new iPad.  If you have not used or read about iPads, I don't know how you are reading this blog, but you can find reviews here, here, and here.

You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 8/26/14

Hi All,

Today only, get a great deal on a Samsung ILC camera today, the NX1000.  This would be a great camera for anyone who is looking for something better than their point and shoot, but not ready to spend the money on a full DSLR.  As a bonus it has wifi built right in so you can upload photos right from the camera, or connect to the camera from your phone or tablet and edit and upload from there. You can read about the camera here, here, and here.

You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 5/2/14

Hello All,

Many people will tell you print is dead, but I still enjoy it.  It is becoming increasingly rare that you are forced to focus on one item for a long period of time, print makes you.  If you are like me and enjoy focusing on only one thing from time to time, then this deal is for you.  DiscountMags is selling subscriptions to some very popular magazines right now, and as a bonus, it works for renewals.

You can find this deal here.

Since I probably will not find a deal tomorrow, a big Happy Birthday to the best brother-in-law in the world.  Look forward to seeing this weekend Craig.

John

Deal of the Day - 4/22/14

Hello All,

Happy Earth Day.  Once again it is time for a woot-off.  Woot,wine.woot, home.woot, tools.woot, sport.woot, accessories.woot, and kids.woot are all participating today. Good luck landing the BOC.

Later,

John

Deal of the day - 3/19/14

Hello All,

Three posts in a row, man when was the last time that happened.  Today only Amazon is selling certified refurbished 8.9" Kindle Fire HD for $129.  The tablet comes with a full one year warranty just as a new one does, it is just a new one does, but it is $170 less than new pricing.  In case you do not know this is basically an iPad for a little over $100.  The iPad is a superior device, but it is not four times the device, which is what it would have to be for this price.  The Kindle Fire has some nice parental controls for limiting screen time and access to apps.  The only negatives I see are the ads and that it does not come with a power adapter.  Wow, no power adapter, sneaky way to reduce the price.  The ads do not seem to be very intrusive, but still ads are annoying on something you pay for.  Two strikes against it, but for the cost still a great value.

You can find reviews here, here, and here.

You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 3/18/14

Hello All,

Canon is having a St. Patrick's day sale with up to 30% off on refurbished DSLRs.  Here is a listing of the cameras.

Entry Level/Beginner

• EOS Rebel T3 Black EF-S 18-55mm IS II Lens Kit Refurbished: $305.99
• EOS Rebel T3i Body Refurbished: $339.99
• EOS Rebel T3i EF-S 18-55mm IS II Lens Kit Refurbished: $407.99
• EOS SL1 Body Refurbished: $431.99 
• EOS Rebel T4i 18-55mm IS II Lens Kit Refurbished: $489.59 
• EOS SL1 18-55 IS STM Lens Kit Refurbished: $539.99
• EOS T5i 18-55mm IS STM Lens Kit Refurbished: $611.99
• EOS T5i 18-135mm IS STM Lens Kit Refurbished: $755.28

 Mid Level/Prosumer

• EOS 60D Body Refurbished: $518.39
• EOS 60D EF-S 18-135mm IS Lens Kit Refurbished: $690.62
• EOS 7D Body Refurbished: $839.44
• EOS 7D EF 28-135mm IS Lens Kit Refurbished: $951.44
• EOS 7D EF-S 18-135mm IS Lens Kit Refurbished: $1007.44

Note - the 7D cameras come with a free tutorial DVD and a 8GB memory card

You can find them here.

Many of you just want me to tell you what to buy.  That is always a complicated question that involves knowing many things

• Your budget
• What you want to shoot
• How often you think you will use this
• Do you think you will get into photography
• Do you want to shoot video

There are more, but that is a decent starting point.  Since I cannot ask you those questions, here is a quick response.  Any of them will be great but the 60D with the 18-135 is $200 less than brand new, and the T3i and T4i are about $300 less than new prices.  I would buy one of those 3 myself.  Laura and I have bought Canon refurbished from Canon almost exclusively for the past couple of years and we are very happy with them.  They ship fast, work great, and look new, but for hundreds less.  They also have a full 1 year warranty, same as a new camera. 

We bought a refurbished 7D from Canon and like it, but don't love it.  It is a great camera, but we like our 40D and 5DmII better.  I am sure if we just used it more, we would get used to it, but we are more comfortable with the older Canon interface and usage.  We picked it over the 60D because of the better construction, but we have not needed it as we are gentle on our cameras. It does feel great in your hand though, more solid and well built than the 60D.

Good luck,

John

Deal of the day - 3/17/14

Hello All,


Happy St. Patrick's Day.  Once again it is time for a woot-off.  Woot,wine.woot, home.woot, tools.woot, sport.woot, and kids.woot are all participating today. Good luck landing the BOC.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 3/10/14

Hi All,

Amazon is selling several Logitech gaming devices at a significant discount today.  Sources close to me tell me these headphones are incredible.

You can find these deals here.

Bonus - March is National Reading month and Amazon is also having loads of deals for that.  You can find them here. 

Bonus Bonus - Google is celebrating the 2nd birthday of the play store and is giving away some cool stuff like a free copy of Big and free mp3 of I love it.  You can find this here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 2/27/14

Hi All,

Today there is a great deal on an android smart phone, the Moto X.  Verizon is selling it for $.01 with a two year contract or $329.99 without a contract.  The Moto X is a great phone with some revolutionary technology and great battery life.  As an iPhone user this voice search with this phone and the automatic driving mode are very impressive, and make me envious.  Additionally It is also not as big as a surfboard, which is hard to find in the android market these days.  You can read about the phone here, here, and here.

You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 1/29/14

Hello All,

Happy New year.  Let's get the deals rolling.  Canon is selling 3 of their midrange lenses for 50% off.  These are factory refurbished and look and perform like new.  We have purchased several canon refurbished 

products and been pleased with all of them.

 

70-300mm IS - $260 - $550 new at Amazon

You can find reviews here, here, and here.

and real world samples here.

55-250mm IS - $120 - $250 new at Amazon

You can find reviews here, here, and here.

and real world samples here.

75-300mm - $80 - $160 new at Amazon

You can find reviews here, here, and here.

and real world samples here.

They are all solid lenses and offer great value.  We have the first two, and they are solid lenses.  

 

Good luck,

John

Deal of the Day - 11/4/13

Hello All,

First off, Happy Birthday to my mom.

Ok, now on to the deal.  Amazon is selling many of their Kindles for 15% off today to celebrate the new FAA regulations.  You can get this deal today only.  Here are the prices

• Kindle Fire HDX 7" - $195
• Kindle Fire HD 7" - $118
• Kindle (E Reader, non paperwhite) - $59

I would recommend either the HDX or the basic Kindle, depending on your needs.  If you want to spend about $120 on a tablet you should look at the Hisense Sero 7 Pro not only can you add additional storage to it, it has a lot of bang for the buck.  If you are a high powered user you should buy the Nexus 7 over the Kindle Fire HDX, but you already know that if you are a power user.

Use code ThnksFAA at check out to get the best prices.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/29/13

Hello All,

Is has been a while, but here are two quick deals.

First up, a canon camera with a case and memory card for under $50.  Canon is selling factory refurbished A2200 cameras for $45.49 with free shipping.  It includes a 4GB memory card and a case.  This would be a great basic camera for anyone.  I bought one of these for my mother last Christmas and she loves it.  You can read more about the camera here, here, and here.  You can purchase it here.

If you want something with a bit more speed or zoom, Canon is selling many more models here.  With the stock currently available I would buy the ELPH 500 for my own use.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 7/11/13

Hi All,

Apple is giving away a lot of free apps and games this week as part of their 5 year anniversary celebration.  The free stuff runs through the end of the week.  To get a good list, and overview, read this.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 6/7/13

Hello All,

Today and tomorrow, Best Buy is selling a Nook Simple Touch ereader for $49.99 shipped to your door.  This is a great price for the top rated ereader currently on the market.  This ereader has the newest EInk technology and a responsive touchscreen.  It also has a SDHC slot that you can add up to an additional 32Gb of more space for additional books or magazines.  The only real negative is it is not a kindle, and the kindle whispersync service and kindle shopping experience are far superior to the nooks experience.  On the plus side though, there are no adds, and you can check out books from the library for your nook.

Additionally you can hack it to turn it into a generic android tablet, then run kindle or anything on it.  I was not able to make it work, but I have not tired very hard either.  You can find directions for that here.

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


Lastly, I want to recommend Calibre for managing your ebooks.  It is like iTunes for your ereader, but better and easier to use.  You can buy from any store and use Calibre to convert the books to your devices format, and best of all it is free.







You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 10/30/12

Hello All,

Steam is having a Halloween sale on lots and lots of games.  Good deals to be had, but they end on 10/31 at midnight so time is running out.  You can find the deals here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 8/3/12

Hello All,

Today only, Woot is selling a Sony Android tablet for $265 shipped to your door.  This is a great price for a nice Android tablet.  This tablet has 32Gb of space and is upgradeable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).  It also has a SDHC slot that you can add up to an additional 32Gb of more space.  There are additional features if you have a PS3 or PSP.

You can find reviews here, here, and here.

You can find this deal here.

Later,

John

Deal of the Day - 7/25/12

Hello All,

Once again it is time for a woot-off.  Woot,wine.woot, home.woot, and kids.woot are all participating today. Good luck landing the BOC.

Later,

John

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 - 5/22/12

Hello All,

Once again it is time for a woot-off.  Woot,wine.woot, home.woot, and kids.woot are all participating today. Good luck landing the BOC.

Later,

John