Top Black Friday travel gear deals

by Scott Carmichael on

With just over a week until Black Friday, now is the perfect time to start planning your shopping adventure. We sat down with the founder of one of the largest Black Friday deal sites to talk about the deals this year, and how stores deal with the inevitable leak of their top secret ads.

Brad Olson runs Blackfriday @ Gottadeal.com, and he’s been dealing with the shopping event since the first ads started leaking out back in August. Since then, it has been a never ending task to keep readers updated with the latest bargains, and add them to his handy deal database.

After the jump, you’ll find our interview with him, and the top twenty travel themed bargains from the currently leaked or published Black Friday deal listings.


Gadling: Have you noticed any stores taking a more liberal approach to their ads being “leaked”? I know some (like Home Depot) are very strict, but do others actually encourage the ads to go out in public as soon as possible?

Gottadeal: Overall stores have been more liberal with their Black Friday ads in the last couple of years. The peak of the legal threat nastiness was more in 2006-2008, but since then I think stores have realized that having their ad leaked early isn’t the end of the world and can actually benefit them.

Gadling: Any big trends this year for shoppers? It seems like there is no real “hot” gadget this season in electronics or toys?

Gottadeal: As for trends this year, it’s probably electronics again. People want deals on HDTVs and Blu-ray players. iPods are always popular, especially with a deal like Walmart’s with a free $50 gift card.

Gadling: Will you be out shopping on Black Friday, and what will you be looking for?

Gottadeal: I will likely be home again. I’m usually up all night Thursday night updating the site with what BF ad items people can buy online at the sale prices, and I usually do that non-stop until around 7 in the morning, and then while everyone is out shopping I get some much-needed sleep, lol.

And here are twenty of the best Black Friday travel gear deals. Some of these deals link directly to the store product page – and you will not see the low Black Friday price until Black Friday!

  1. Best Buy – $159.99 JVC Everio GZ-MS230 Dual Flash Camcorder
  2. Best Buy – $149.99 Compaq 10″ Netbook 1GB / 160GB
  3. Office Depot – $279.99 15.6″ Lenovo Celeron laptop 2GB/250GB
  4. Best Buy- $129.99 Garmin Nuvi 1300LMT 4.3″ GPS with lifetime free traffic and maps
  5. Gander Mountain – $99.99 Garmin Nuvi 1300 4.3″ GPS
  6. Kmart – $79.99 7″ Dual screen car portable DVD player
  7. Kohl’s – $37.99 Prodigy Hudson 5-piece luggage set (early bird)
  8. Office Max – $74.99 TomTom Portable One 130 3.5″ GPS
  9. Pep Boys $49.98 Magellan Roadmate 1440 GPS
  10. Radio Shack – $4.99 Targus travel 4 port USB hub
  11. Sears – $9.99 music travel pack FM transmitter, mount, charger (early bird)
  12. Sears – $99.99 Samsung C20 Camcorder (early bird)
  13. Sears – $109.99 Sony Bloggie HD camcorder
  14. Sears – $9.99 Capri 21″ Carryon upright luggage (early bird)
  15. Target – $19 30″ Embarq rolling duffel bag
  16. Target – $49 RCA 7″ portable DVD player (4 colors)
  17. Walmart – $99 Flip UltraHD Camcorder (early bird)
  18. Walmart – $29 Philips 4GB MP3 player (early bird)
  19. Walmart – $49 Philips 7″ portable DVD player (early bird)
  20. Walmart – $198 eMachines 15.6″ Celeron Notebook 2GB/250GB (early bird)

These are obviously just a very small selection of some of the bargains you’ll find on Black Friday. For an overview of all the deals that have been published so far, head on over to Black Friday @ Gottadeal.com.

Traxo: all-in-one mileage, points and status tracker

by Scott Carmichael on

Last week, we took a look at ten ways to prevent your hard earned miles and points from expiring. From that article, we received a tip to check out another new online mileage tracker – Traxo.

Traxo describes itself as “an automatic, intelligent new system for organizing, managing and sharing all of your trip details”. What this means to us travelers, is that the site automatically monitors your miles and points on over 40 different sites. The system knows how to access almost every major airline, hotel chain, online travel agency, rental car company and credit card reward program – and once entered into their site, you’ll have a single point of reference for all your accounts.

Best of all, the site does more than just display your account balances – it also tracks your current membership status, informing you how far you are from the next tier. It also collects all your (upcoming) trips, and its social features can share (parts of) these trips with authorized friends and family members. Other handy features can alert you when miles or points are going to expire, giving you plenty of time to find a quick way to add some new activity.

Of course, as with all sites that “scrape” from your accounts, you need to be well aware that there may be risks involved, but the Traxo privacy policy seems quite adequate.

The site is easy to navigate and accounts can be added very quickly. Best of all, the service is free of charge. To take it for a spin, head on over to Traxo.com.

Scosche Industries announces first line of Samsung Galaxy Tab accessories

by Scott Carmichael on

A mere 48 hours after the Samsung Galaxy Tab Internet tablet hit retail stores, Scosche is ready for customers looking for accessories. Their lineup includes an insane 28 different products – including a variety of cases, covers, screen protectors, chargers, headsets, Bluetooth stereo headphones and a car mount.

We’ve always been pretty impressed with the quality of their products, so customers in the market for a way to accessorize their new Tablet won’t be disappointed.

Cases start at a very reasonable $24.99 for a clear polycarbonate case, up to $44.99 for a leather or carbon fiber textured folio case. Later this holiday season, Scosche will also release a flexible Bluetooth keyboard designed for the Galaxy Tab or other compatible device.

Click here for the entire lineup of products.

Review: Skooba Design Weekend Warrior duffel bag

by Scott Carmichael on

This morning, Skooba design unveiled (yet another) new line of luggage – and one of the highlights is their new Techlife Weekend Warrior duffel bag. Skooba is no stranger to innovative new bags, after designing one of the very first checkpoint friendly laptop bags, they’ve clearly learned a thing or two about what travelers look for in a bag.

The Weekend Warrior is a hybrid duffel – part laptop bag and part weekend bag. The bag has everything you’d expect from a good laptop bag – including a removable padded laptop sleeve, room for chargers and USB keys as well as an ID card pocket.

But that is where the comparisons with a laptop bag end – because once you’ve stored your laptop, you can also pack some clothes, toiletries and a pair of shoes.

Now, I’m not a big fan of PR photos in a review (like the one at the top of the article), so I decided to pack the Weekend Warrior with the kind of stuff I’d take on a 2-3 day trip. In the bag I packed the following:

  • 13″ laptop
  • Gadget power bag (chargers, battery packs and cables)
  • Memory card and USB device bag
  • Toiletries zip-loc bag
  • Amazon Kindle
  • Livescribe Echo smartpen in case
  • Moleskine notepad
  • Livescribe mini notepad
  • Joey bags
  • Blackberry and Palm (spare phones)
  • Headphones
  • Small laptop charger
  • 1 pair of shoes
  • 2 t-shirts
  • 3 shirts
  • 3 pairs of socks
  • 3 pairs of underwear
  • 1 bottle of water
  • Bluetooth mouse

Yeah, I know I pack like I’m going on a 6-month mission. All these items fit the bag just fine, with a generous amount of unused space, which is perfect for packing gifts or other junk you pick up on your trip.

The side pockets are designed to hold shoes – but I do need to point out that they’ll really only work for shoes up to a size 9 or 10 – people with large feet will need to use the main compartment for their footware. Still, with all the stuff in the bag, a second pair of shoes would fit just fine.

Size is obviously an issue when you are traveling, as airlines think it is funny to banish slightly larger bags to the airplane hold. Packed with all my items, the bag measured 24x11x12, putting it just within the permitted sizes. Because the bag is not built around a rigid frame, even if you do overpack, you’ll still easily be able to fit it in a bag sizer or stuff it in the overhead compartment.

Even though the Weekend Warrior does what many rolling bags can do, not everyone likes rolling suitcases – others may have the need for more room than the Weekend Warrior has to offer. For travelers with a rolling case and the Weekend Warrior, you’ll be happy to know that the back of the duffel has a strap for attaching to the handle of a rolling bag.

I’m impressed with the bag – it builds upon the smart design features of other Skooba bags, feels well made, and is much lighter than a rolling suitcase. Every pound you can save means more available weight for your belongings. The bag itself weighs just 49 ounces.

The new Skooba Design Weekend Warrior bag is available today. It comes in charcoal/red, charcoal/blue and charcoal/abyss black. The bag retails for $119.95 with a small laptop sleeve or $124.95 with a large laptop sleeve. Orders over $50 ship for free when you apply coupon code FREERIDE.

Stockholm hotel starts cellphone check-in and room unlocking trial

by Scott Carmichael on

Swedish lock maker Assa Abloy may not be the first to develop a cellphone based hotel room key system, but with their live trial this month, they are the first to actually get a system in place.

Their technology allows hotel guests to check-in to the hotel, and use a special mobile phone to unlock their room. The system relies on a Samsung mobile phone with a built NFC chip, which uses the same kind of technology found in RFID credit cards.

During the trial, select customers of the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm will be given one of the phones, and after four month test period, the results will be evaluated.

The idea of completely keyless entry is interesting – but I’ve also had very good results with ATM style room key dispensers, especially since they can provide a key in under 30 seconds. As with all mobile phones, I’d hate to arrive at night, only to discover the the app has crashed, or that the battery has died. After the jump, you’ll find a video clip showing the system in action.

[Via: Engadget]