Gadling’s Black Friday 2008 deals roundup!

by Scott Carmichael on

Welcome to Black Friday 2008! You either love it, or you hate it. Those that love it, will be camping outside their local stores on Thursday afternoon, those that hate it will be sitting at home, watching the news on TV and laughing at those camped outside their local store.

Either way, Black Friday is traditionally when the silly season of deals starts. It is when you can forget all about the malaise in the world, and get back to being the spend-happy consumer all the retailers want you to be.

I’ve made you a handy list of products that I consider to be substantially cheaper than usual days, but as always, it pays to research! Just because 350 other people are fighting over that GPS unit, does not make it a bargain. People do stupid things, and being tricked into thinking something is cheap is one of them!
Luggage deals

There are some good luggage deals to be found this year, but most of them involve the kind of luggage you use if you only take one trip a year.

Most major stores have at least one 6 piece luggage set on sale this Black Friday. Walmart currently has the best deal going, with the 6 piece “Protege spinner” set.

If you are able to brave the cold and the crowds, and make it to the Walmart doorbusters, you’ll be able to snag one of these sets.

Of course, luggage is not always the hottest seller, so when everyone heads to the electronics department to buy a flat panel TV, you might just be able to quietly make your way to the luggage department and grab your deal.

If you are a fan of high quality luggage, then head on over to Tumi.com, where you’ll find their annual 40% off sale.

GPS deals

GPS devices have been one of the hottest sellers around the Holiday season for several years. Just be sure you don’t get tricked into buying a unit you don’t want.

Before you settle for one of the really cheap units, ask yourself what exactly you need in a GPS receiver. Keep in mind that the cheapest deals will only cover the United States, and most of them will have a pretty limited selection of “points of interest”.

A cheap GPS receiver may seem worth fighting for, but when you realize that $20 more can get you a device with 4 times as many points of interest, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Some stores are offering GPS units from cheap “no-name” Chinese companies. I’d suggest staying away from these units as support may be hard to find, and it is often impossible to find map updates.

One of the cheapest decent GPS deals this year is the $79.99 Magellan Roadmate 1212. This device is part of the Best Buy doorbuster deals, so be prepared to stand in line to snag one. The device features 6 million points of interest. The 1212 usually retails for around $129. Of course, Best Buy only guarantees a minimum of 5 units per store, so the TomTom ONE 125 posted earlier this afternoon might be a better option.

Memory card deals

Memory cards are almost not worth the trouble on Black Friday. In 2006, a 2GB SD memory card sold for about $30, but they have dropped well below $5 now. Save yourself the hassle, and just order what you need from one of the cheaper online retailers like Newegg or Amazon.

Laptop computer deals

Completely random and unproven statistics of my own, show that more people get injured on Black Friday fighting over cheap laptops than any other product. Of course, the idea of saving $100 makes a little bit of pain worthwhile to some people.

Despite the crappy economy, really good laptop deals are hard to find this year. Best Buy is once again where you’ll find the best deal. The HP G50-104NR is a special Best Buy deal for a dual core laptop with 2GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive. The package includes a Canon 3-in-1 printer for $349.98. Of course, this is another product where each store receives a minimum of 8, and you will need a ticket in order to get one.

In my experience, you’ll need to be in line by 7pm Thursday to have any chances of winning a ticket. Once you have your ticket (usually handed out around 4am), you can leave the line and head back to your warm car. The ticket will tell you how long you have to redeem your item. Just remember that Best Buy has a nasty habit of overselling, and I know several people that were unable to redeem their ticket, despite being inside the store on time with a ticket in hand.

There are surprisingly few Netbook deals this Black Friday. Dell is offering their Insprion Mini for $299, but with a tiny 4GB SSD drive, I’d suggest paying about $50 more for a better machine.

Portable DVD player deals

Portable DVD players are perfect for long car trips, or for flying with kids on an airline without personal TV screens.

Just like with GPS units, I highly suggest staying away from the really cheap b-name units.

Circuit City is offering the highly rated Sony DVP-FX820 for $149, but a 20 second search shows this same unit at Amazon.com for just $139.

K-Mart has the one of the cheaper deals of the season, this Venturer 7″ DVD player sells for $49.99 after a $30 mail in rebate. If the rebate is not enough to scare you away, then the 90 day manufacturer warranty might do the trick.

If you want a reliable unit, from a decent store, then this 7″ RCA unit for $49 at Target might be just what you need. My experience with Target is that they usually have quite a good amount of inventory for each store.

Things to watch out for!

Needless to say that this Black Friday might be a tad more aggressive than previous years. Unless there is a deal you really want, stay away from the big box electronics retailers.

I’d also like to remind you that Circuit City is having some issues with over 155 of their stores. The stores that are in liquidation will not be participating in the nationwide Circuit City Black Friday deals. If you do make your way to one of the stores holding an “everything must go” sale, make sure you have online access to Amazon or any other shopping site, as these liquidation sales are a prime target for people who don’t do their research. Even at 30% off, you’ll often find the deals cheaper online.

Stay away from deals involving rebates (one of the countries largest rebate processors just went bankrupt), and stay away from anything with a free gift card, when a retailer goes under, gift cards are usually wiped out. If you can, use a credit card that offers additional warranty, or extended return rules. Of course, also be sure to use a mileage earning card!

Before you leave for the store, do your research, and print out any deals you want to try and grab. I suggest using bfads.net, where all the deals are in one handy place.

Most importantly, make sure you have fun, remember that there is more to life than a really hot deal, and that the closer we get to Christmas, the larger the chance is that retailers will drop prices even more.

Big in Japan: 5 tips for eating veggie in Japan

by Matthew Firestone on

From beef, chicken and fish to horse, jellyfish and whale, the Japanese are fierce carnivores that love their meat raw, red and occasionally bloody…

Of course, this can present something of a problem for vegetarians in Japan, especially since fish stock is a classic cooking staple that can appear in the most seemingly meat-free dishes – we’re looking at you, miso soup!!

Fret not however as it is in fact possible to eat cruelty-free meals in Japan. And, you can still enjoy the high level of quality that makes Japanese cuisine justifiably famous the world over.

So, without any further adieu, here are some author-tested tips for eating veggie in Japan:

1) Learn to love the convenience store. You don’t have to look very far in Japan to find a convenience store, which is a good thing as these one-stop shops are packed with non-meat goodies. You’ll certainly want to stay away from the pre-packaged dinners, though salads are decidedly meat free, along with most chips, cookies, crackers and candies. With that said, shrimp-flavored snacks are popular with Japanese kids, so give a product a pass if it’s got smiling crustaceans on the packaging.

Keep reading as the list goes on…

Here are some more tips for eating veggie in Japan:

2) Find the local Indian restaurant. Indian food in Japan is surprisingly popular, which means that you can find a local curry house even in small cities and towns. Although a good number of dishes are meat based, they’re fairly easy to avoid, especially since Indian restaurants [generally] stock English menus and [generally] employ English-speaking staff. When in doubt, ask for dal, a hearty stew of spiced lentils, or saag paneer, a blend of Indian-style cheese and braised spinach.

3) Dust off your cooking skills. If you’re either staying in a hostel, or living in your own apartment or guesthouse, you can easily continue your veggie lifestyle by self-catering. If you want to pack on the protein, extremely high quality tofu is available at supermarkets everywhere in Japan, and it’s much, much tastier than your average North America garden variety. Miso paste, which is sold in small tubs, can quickly spice up a pan-fried block of tofu, and you can top off your dish with fresh bean sprouts and bamboo shoots alongside a bowl of brown rice.

4) Slurp down some soba, but skip the soup. Soba, a high-fiber buckwheat noodle that is as delicious as it is healthy, is available in shops all over Japan. Unfortunately for vegetarians, soba is often served in a fish stock made from dried tuna flakes. However, you can always order zaru-soba (ざるそば), which is simply cold soba noodles served with spring onions and a soy-based dipping sauce.

5) Sample some authentic shōjin-ryōri (精進料理). While Buddhism might have lost its hold on the younger generations, there are still some remnants of this ancient Asian religion, particularly on the menu. At a good number of temples throughout Japan, you can sample shōjin-ryōri, which is traditional Buddhist cuisine that is completely cruelty-free, and designed to be both physically and spiritually invigorating.

Got any tips for eating veggie in Japan? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media project **

So how well do these digital boarding passes work?

by Grant Martin on

Digital boarding passes in this eco-friendly, high-tech world are the next new big thing among the big airlines. Continental, American and Northwest are rolling out service to airports all over the country, and if you haven’t got a kiosk at your local airport, there is probably one on the way.

In concept, the system is pretty simple. When you check in online, instead of printing off your boarding pass you’re given the option to receive it digitally onto your phone or PDA. In addition to saving paper, the big advantage is that those on the go without a printer can just flash the barcode (it’s actually a matrix code) at security and at the gate then not have to worry about the slip of paper.

In actuality, the system still needs some time to get going – or rather, the airport employees still need some time to adapt.

This past Friday on the way to New York‘s LaGuardia airport I was given the chance to try out a digital boarding pass on my iPhone. After the jump I’ll tell you how it went.In the two weeks that I had been away from Detroit, McNamara terminal incorporated the barcode system into their gate and security checkpoints. Forgetting that the system was in place when checking in for my regular New York bound flight that Friday, I was surprised to find that e-boarding was an option, so had to give it a try.

From my desktop terminal at work, getting the boarding pass was easy. I went through the normal online check in procedure and instead of clicking “Check in and print boarding pass” I selected the e-boarding pass option and hit continue. The software then asked me for my carrier (AT&T), device (iPhone) and mobile phone number, digested them and sent me a text (SMS) message containing an online link to the pass. Opening that page with Safari gave me a one-page boarding pass with the QR code and gate information which I took my merry way to the airport.

Walking up to the security checkpoint at McNamara terminal, I cheerfully greeted the TSA agent with my iPhone and driver’s license extended.

“Oh…. one of those,” she said. The agent reached in front of her to a device just smaller than a breadbox, flipped a switch on the back of it and a red light illuminated at the top. Gesturing to me, I flipped my phone face down on to the window and let it sit. Nothing happened. Gently I waved the phone back and forth.

“Stop that,” she scolded me, and asked me if my backlight was on. As she poked at the machine a bit I turned the phone back to me and zoomed in on the QR code. Then I flipped it back over to the red light and it immediately accepted it. The agent silently gave my ID back and ushered me into the security line, where after a brief wait I found myself pushing my belongings through the X-ray. But what to do with the boarding pass that I was supposed to show the metal-detector wielding agent?

I waved my phone at him as my belongings were swallowed by the monster.

“Put it anywhere, just don’t keep it on your body.”

“It’s got my boarding pass,” I muttered, probably too quietly.

“Put it anywhere, just don’t keep it on your body.”

Okay. I tossed it in the vanishing bin and walked through the X-ray.

“Boarding pass?”

I told him it was on my phone and shrugged. The agent visibly rolled his eyes and paused.

“I’ll…. just need to pat you down.” He felt the pockets of my sweater and my jeans, turned me around and patted my lower back. Then he sent me on my way, ushering for the next passenger to pass under the magnetic arch.

Since I was a little late for my flight, I reached the gate only twenty minutes before departure. By that time the boarding zone was nearly empty and the gate agent was attending to a few stragglers. Walking up to the gate I showed her my iPhone with the QR code still zoomed in. She didn’t bat an eye, gestured to another red light and I flipped my iPhone over the top of it. The machine blipped happily, like a child who has just eaten a grilled cheese sandwich, and passed into the jetbridge, one sheaf of paper saved.

In summary, the system is works fairly well and I can see it being fairly useful some day when I’m in a hurry on the way to the airport. The small drawbacks I can foresee, which largely have to do with phone battery life, can be planned around, and in the worst scenario you can always get a paper copy. Once the TSA and airline staff are all up to speed on procedure, I think that the technology will really gain traction.

Gadling’s 10 days of gadget giveaways – day 8 – Peek personal email device

by Scott Carmichael on

Welcome to day 8 of Gadling’s Gadget Giveaway. The prize for today is for a Peek with 6 months service.

This tiny email device was another winner in the Gadling top 25 travel products of 2008 and allows you to send and receive email and text messages anywhere within the United States (within the T-Mobile coverage area).

Peek was recently crowned the best gadget of 2008 by both Time and Wired magazine, and is even featured in the Oprah gift giving guide this month.

The prize includes the Peek personal email device valued at $99, as well as 6 months of prepaid service (regular price is $19.95/month). Even if you don’t win, Peek currently has a limited time promotion where you can purchase your very own device for just $79.95!

Don’t forget to enter our previous giveaways, and to come back tomorrow and Friday for the final 2!

  • To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us about your most embarrassing email ever sent or received.
  • The comment must be left before Wednesday December 3rd at 5:00 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • One Prize Winner will be randomly selected to receive one Peek personal email device with 6 months of prepaid service.
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
  • The total value of this prize is $220.
  • Click here for the complete official rules of this giveaway

Photo gallery – Virgin America flight 8001 – inaugural Gogo Wi-Fi flight

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday I wrote about the fun I had on board Virgin America flight 8001. This inaugural GoGo Wi-Fi enabled plane was also the celebration plane for the launch of Youtube Live.

Of course, when you mix free Champagne, live broadcasts of Youtube celebrities and Internet access, you end up with one happy party plane.

Check out the gallery of shots I made of the flight, and you might get a bit of an idea just how much fun we had (don’t worry, I’m keeping the photos of the afterparty to myself).

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