Daily deal – big MP3 player sale at Amazon.com

by Scott Carmichael on

My daily deal for this sunny Saturday, is for a big clearance of MP3 players over at Amazon.com.

You won’t find any iPods on sale, but there are some other very interesting deals, like 50% off the previous generation Slacker wireless music players.

There are also several players under $10, which would make great stocking stuffers, if you are one of those shoppers that likes to stock up on deals well before the seasonal madness begins.

Be sure to read the reviews of a player before clicking the “buy it now” button, because not all the products on sale are, how do I say this, “decent”….

As always with Amazon, products shipped directly from the Amazon warehouse ship for free on purchases over $25, and members who subscribe to Amazon Prime will get free 2 day shipping.

Airlines Touting Brazil as New Hotspot

by Josh Lew on

South America’s destinations are hard to travel to. For people with samba fever outside of a few major hub cities (like Miami), a trip to Brazil means at least one connecting flight in the US. Anyone who plans to spend time outside of the major cities of Sao Paulo or Rio will have to catch another flight once they arrive in the metropolises. These extra flights can add up.

Soon, it will be easier (and cheaper) to get to Brazil’s cities from the US. And just in time for the Southern Hemisphere’s summer. American Airlines is offering flights to the northeastern city of Salvador beginning in November. AA is also planning on providing service to the nearby coastal town of Recife. Delta is taking it a step further, offering flights to the Amazonian city of Manaus from Atlanta beginning at the end of the year. American is offering introductory rates for people traveling from major east coast cities like Boston and New York. Prices average $425 one-way if purchased before December 2nd.

10 tips for smarter flying


Daily deal – up to 50% off outdoor gear at Amazon.com

by Scott Carmichael on

My daily deal for today is for a large clearance event at the Amazon.com outdoors store. With summer slowly coming to an end for many of us, Amazon clearly need to make room in their warehouses for Halloween costumes and Christmas toys. Their loss is your gain, because there are some very nice deals to be found.

Some of the highlights include this heavy duty flashlight for $5.50, this highly rated Teton backpack with internal frame for $57.17 or this Columbia 3 person tent for just $51.58.

There is something for everyone in the discount aisle, including some pretty sweet discounts on Victorinox Swiss Army knives.

All purchases over $25 ship for free, and as always, Amazon Prime members can benefit from free 2 day shipping on most products.

For an overview of all the deals, check out their various discount departments:Cycling and wheeled, Camping and hiking and Exercise and fitness

Amazon’s Kindle: Where are all the guidebooks?

by Justin Glow on

This weekend, I broke down and bought a Kindle — Amazon’s eBook reader. The benefits are obvious: the ability to store over 200 books in the on-board memory (with an expandable SD slot), E Ink for paper-like, easy-on-the-eyes reading, and instant access to thousands of titles from Amazon.com.

While the concept of an eBook reader is not new, the Kindle’s brothership with the world’s largest book store makes it revolutionary.

In short: this thing is a book-loving traveler’s dream. No longer will you have to carry around multiple books on your next trip. If you’re traveling within the U.S., simply use the Kindle’s built in Sprint EVDO Internet access to order new books instantaneously; if you’re traveling abroad, the Sprint connection doesn’t work, but you can still order the book from any computer connected to the Internet, and transfer it to your Kindle via the included USB.

But there’s one market that is bizarrely void of any Kindle coverage: guidebooks. Imagine the possibilities — no longer lug around a thick, heavy Lonely Planet: Wherever. With the Kindle, you can buy your destination’s guidebook from all the top publishers — Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, Moon, whatever — for a fraction of the cost, and store them in one small, light, easy to use gadget. Plus, the Kindle gives you the ability to search for phrases in your entire library, so pulling up all the information from every guidebook on Ulaanbaatar, for instance, is only a few button clicks away.

How come guidebook publishers aren’t taking advantage of this?

University student dies in the Amazon

by Abha Malpani on

23-year old Madrileño Pablo Barbadillo Maestre went to the Amazon in south eastern Peru to research for his thesis on the ethnoecology of big reptiles. He disappeared a few weeks ago and yesterday his body was found covered with bites from insects and animals. They identified him from the passport they found on him.

The cause of his death is still unknown but the guess is that he could have been attacked by tribes in the Amazon; however there is no evidence of violence.

This rings home because 1) he was a young student not afraid to travel alone in the wilderness of the Amazon 2) although he is said to be found in a remote area of the jungle, he had been there previously and was familiar with his surroundings. We can assume he was well prepared for the trip.

It could have been anyone. I wonder what he did wrong? I wonder if he could have avoided it? What protection items should he have taken with him that he didn’t have already? What lesson can we learn from this?