Daily gear deals – $220 Netbook, cheap HD camera and iPhone accessories

by Scott Carmichael on

The star of today’s lineup is the Acer Aspire ONE AOA150 refurbished Netbook. Outfitted with a 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of memory and a 120GB hard drive. Normal retail price is $299, but it is currently on sale at Tiger Direct for just $220. The unit is refurbished, but usually this is not visible in any way. Available from Tiger Direct. Shipping is just $2.

The Kodak ZI6 pocket digital HD Camcorder goes on sale every other week, today’s price is just $99, but this does mean you’ll be getting a refurbished unit. At about $80 under retail, this is still an awesome deal. Available from Amazon and comes with free shipping.

Looking to listen to your iPod/iPhone in the car? Then check out this (horrible looking) charger dock/FM transmitter. The product will not work with the second generation iPhone/iPod Touch, but other versions of the popular player will work just fine. The unit even includes a USB charger port for charging other device. On sale for just $16.99 + free shipping!

Another sale which may interest iPod and iPhone owners is this huge lineup of Kensington accessories. Many of their most popular products are on sale for as much as 50% off. One of the highlights is this pocket battery pack, which we reviewed here last year, on sale for just $27.99

Daily deal – Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for $99 with 2 year AT&T data plan

by Scott Carmichael on

Well, that was fast. Remember when I posted my predictions in tech for 2009? One of my entries was “subsidized notebooks with combined data plans”.

We are just 11 days into the new year, and Dell has already made me look good by making one of my predictions come true. As of today, you can order a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for just $99 if you purchase it along with a 2 year AT&T mobile broadband subscription.

Your $99 will get you a very small computer, just over 2lbs, with built in wireless Internet access on the AT&T3G network (where available).

The Inspiron Mini 9 is a 1.6GHz Intel Atom powered Netbook with 512MB of memory and an 8GB SSD drive. The base version offered in this deal does not come with a webcam, and once you configure the machine with more memory, a larger SSD drive and Bluetooth, the final price comes to about $185. Still, a hot deal, as it includes an integrated AT&T 3G modem card tucked away inside the machine.

The easiest way to describe the deal is that you can order the Mini 9 from the Dell website, and as long as you activate the AT&T 3G modem, you are eligible for a $350 mail in rebate.

The AT&T 3G service costs $59.99 a month, and you have to activate it within 4 weeks of receiving the laptop. The mail in rebate period expires on February 12th.

If you’d prefer a similar deal, but with a slighly different computer, check out the Acer Aspire One at your local Radio Shack. The Aspire One has 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. The base price of this machine is $449, but just like with this Dell deal, you can purchase it in store for $99 when you commit to a 2 year AT&T data plan.

Daily deal – Acer Aspire One ultra portable notebook – $399

by Scott Carmichael on

My daily deal for today is a bit different from my other “hot” deals. The Acer Aspire One is an ultra portable notebook (the new name is “netbook”) and on the inside you’ll find an Intel Atom processor, 1GB of ram, a 120GB hard drive and Windows XP. On the outside, you get a nice 8.9″ display, a fairly spacious keyboard, a webcam and a memory card reader.

The deal itself isn’t extremely hot, but it is being sold at one of the only stores that actually has this new machine in stock, plus it is currently the best value for money of any Netbook on the market (in my personal opinion of course).

The Acer Aspire One (model AO-A150-1570) costs just $399, and while that may be more than some of the regular sized notebooks on the market, it does offer a great value for money compared to other ultra portables. If you are lucky enough to live anywhere near a Microcenter store, you can take a closer look at one in person, and buy one right away, or you can place an online order and the machine will ship in 1-3 business days.

If you plan to do some comparison shopping, be aware that there are two different versions of this computer; one is in stock at several other (online) stores, and costs $379, but it only has 512MB of memory and just 8GB of hard drive storage, plus it runs a special version of Linux instead of Windows XP. At just $20 more, you’ll understand why the version I am posting here is such a “hot” deal – until the next model Netbook comes along of course.