Guys Upstairs - Tech

Happy Thanksgiving! With that said, we all know that the day after is one of the most awaited days for gadget shoppers since it’s Black Friday. Usually associated with ridiculously cheap and possibly even free items, how does this year’s Black Friday size up?

There are several resources for a complete list of Black Friday deals. Some stores are offering sales prior to Friday and most places have the same prices online so you can shop from the comfort of your room.

A quick list of some deals courtesy of Gizmodo:

Cameras and Camcorders
Walmart
Samsung 10.2MP Digital Camera with 3x Zoom
Price: $69
Savings: $100

Sears
Samsung 8.2MP I85 Digital Camera
Price: $129.99
Savings: $311

Sam’s Club
Samsung SC-DX103 DVD Camcorder
Price: $179.92
Savings: $120

Computer Peripherals/Monitors
Best Buy
Western Digital 1TB My Book Home Edition External Hard Drive
Price: $150
Savings: $100

Amazon
Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse
Price: $46.99
Savings: $53

Samsung 2233BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor
Price: $214.31 (w/ $30 mail-in rebate)
Savings: $230

Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive
Price: $199.99 (w/ $30 mail-in rebate)
Savings: $150

Newegg
ASUS 22” Widescreen LCD Monitor
Price: $129.99
Savings: $90

Gaming
CompUSA (part of Pink Friday)
Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition
Price: $99.99
Savings: $200

Project Gotham: Racing (Xbox 360)
Price: FREE
Savings: $50

Dell
XBOX 360 Arcade With 7 Games Including Rock Band 2
Price: $199
Savings: $200

GPS Systems
Best Buy
Garmin Nuvi 260W GPS System
Price: $190
Savings: $110

Amazon
Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS Navigator
Price: $150
Savings $180

Walmart
Garmin Nuvi 200 3.5” GPS Navigation System
Price: $97
Savings: $323

K-Mart
Nextar X3-03 Text-To-Speech GPS System
Price: $79.99
Savings: $190

HDTVs
Best Buy
Samsung 40″ Class 1080P LCD HDTV
Price: $799.99
Savings: $800

NewEgg
Toshiba 32” 1080p HDTV
Price: $579.99
Savings: $320

Target
Westinghouse 26” 720p HDTV
Price: $300
Savings: $700

HDTVs: Big (42” and up)
Best Buy
Samsung 42″ 720P Plasma HDTV
Price: $699.99
Savings: $300

Samsung 46″ Class 1080P LCD HDTV
Price: $1,099.99
Savings: $1,200

Panasonic Viera 50″ 720p Plasma HDTV
Price: $900
Savings: $500

Circuit City
Samsung 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV (Doorbuster)
Price: $1099.99
Savings: $500

Samsung 50-inch Plasma
Price: $899.99
Savings: $500

Sharp Aquos 52″ 1080p LCD HDTV
Price: $1499.99
Savings: $800

NewEgg
Sharp Aquos 46” 1080p HDTV
Price: $999.99
Savings: $1,300

Walmart
Samsung 46” 1080p HDTV
Price: $1,098
Savings: $800

Samsung 50” Widescreen 720p Plasma HDTV
Price: $798
Savings: $1,200

Amazon
Pioneer PDP-5020FD 50-Inch 1080p KURO Plasma HDTV
Price: $2,382.06
Savings: $1,618

Pioneer PDP-6020FD 60-Inch Class KURO Plasma HDTV
Price: $3899.93
Savings: $1600

 

Home Entertainment
Best Buy
Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player
Price: $200
Savings: $99

CompUSA
NEC NP200 Projector
Price: $299.99
Savings: $350

NewEgg
Onkyo 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver with HDMI 1.3
Price: $149.99
Savings: $150

Sears
Sony BDP-S350 Blu-Ray Disc Player (doorbuster)
Price: $179.99
Savings: $120

Office Max
Epson PowerLite SF SVGA Projector
Price: $399.99
Savings: $200

Walmart
Magnavox Blu-ray Player
Price: $128
Savings: $107

Laptops
CompUSA
Sony Vaio TT, 256GB SSD, 11.1”, Blu-ray
Price: $999.99
Savings: $6,000

NewEgg
Acer Aspire One 8.9” Laptop
Price: $249.99
Savings: $50

Staples
HP Pavilion 15.4″ Dual-Core 2GB RAM 120GB HD Notebook (Free HP Printer included)
Price: $399.98

Office Depot
HP G50-112NR 15.4″ 3 GB RAM 160 GB HD Notebook
Price: $349.99

Circuit City
HP Pavilion 15.4″ Laptop (Intel Dual Core T3200, 2GB, 160GB HD, Vista Home)
Price: $399.99

Macs
MacMall
Macbook 13”, 2GHZ
Price: $1,180
Savings: $119

Macbook Pro 15”, 2.4GHz
Price: $1,799
Savings: $200

Macbook Pro 15”, 2.5GHz
Price: $2,249
Savings: $250

Macbook Pro 17”, 2.5GHz
Price: $2,549
Savings: $250

Macbook Air, 1.8GHz SSD
Price: $2,320
Savings: $179

iMac 20”, 2.6GHz
Price: $1,370
Savings: $129

Memory (Flash Drives/Memory Cards)
CompUSA
Transcend V20 USB Flash Drive (64GB)
Price: $79.99
Savings: $100

Circuit City
SanDisk 4GB SDHC Memory Card
Price: $12.99
Savings: $18

SanDisk 8GB SDHC Memory Card
Price: $19.99
Savings: $25

Office Max
SanDisk 4GB Cruzer Micro USB Readyboost
Price: $9.99
Savings: $70

SanDisk 16GB Cruzer Micro Jump Drive
Price: $39.99
Savings: $70

Networking
Amazon
Ooma Core VoIP Phone System with No Monthly Phone Service Bills
Price: $198
Savings: $52

Staples
Netgear Wireless-N Router
Price: $49.98
Savings: $58

Sears
Nextar 7″ Digital Photo Frame (doorbuster)
Price: $37.99
Savings: $62

Miscellaneous Goodies
NewEgg
Computer Tool Kit (90 pieces)
Price: $24.99
Savings: $25

Sony Wireless Stereo Headphones with Transmitter (doorbuster)
Price: $29.99
Savings: $30

PCs
Best Buy
Toshiba AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Notebook Computer (3GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive)
Price: $380
Savings: $200

CompUSA
Allio 32” All-in-One HDTV PC
Price: FREE
Savings: $1,424

iBUYPOWER 524GT A64×2 Gaming Computer
Price: FREE
Savings: $659

iBUYPOWER 908TB C2B Gaming Computer
Price: FREE
Savings: $705

Walmart
HP Pavilion Desktop w/ 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, 19″ LCD Monitor
Price: $398
Savings: $692

Portable Players
Amazon
SanDisk Sansa View 32GB
Price: $199.99
Savings: $150

CompUSA
Microsoft Zune (4GB) MP3 Player
Price: $49.99
Savings: $150

Circuit City
Samsung 8GB MP3 Player
Price: $79.99
Savings: $80

Sony Walkman 8GB MP3 Player
Price: $79.99
Savings: $90

Belkin Tune Cast FM Transmitter for iPod
Price: $25
Savings: $25

Walmart
RCA 8GB MP3 Player
Price: $49.99
Savings: $70

Venturer 8” Portable DVD Player
Price: $49
Savings: $40

Printers
CompUSA
HP OfficeJet Bluetooth All-In-One
Price: $59.99
Savings: $90

Office Max
Samsung CLP315 Laser Printer
Price: $99.99
Savings: $250

Staples
Brother MFC3360C All-In-One Printer (requires rebate)
Price: $29.98
Savings: $100

Software
Office Depot
Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007
Price: $69.99
Savings: $80

Staples
Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 (requires rebate)
Price: $59.99
Savings: $90

Dell
Norton 360 2.0 All-In-One Security Software
Price: $9.99
Savings: $60

Office Max
Dragon Naturally Speaking
Price: $39.99
Savings: $60

 

BFAds.net offers a nice list of ads from all the stores that are offering deals and includes a search feature as well as a section that compares online deals that the stores are offering to what you can get by going to a brick and mortar store. Slickdeals has a dedicated section of their forum specifically for Black Friday, including a spreadsheet that has a list of items for sale so you can easily cross reference multiple stores for a line of items (it’s really well put together - you should download it).

I already purchased a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint 32MB cache SATA hard drive from Newegg for 94.99 with free shipping. It’s not listed as a Black Friday deal for Newegg, but it’s currently one of the best prices for one of the best 1TB hard drives out there.

[Gizmodo]

Times Square will be getting an additional large billboard starting today. One Times Square is now occupied by Walgreens and they plan to market themselves to the best of their abilities. I must say that they will be achieving that goal very well as One Times Square is one of the most well known buildings in the world and is televised very frequently.

D3 LED, LLC is responsible for putting together the 340 foot high, 17,000 square foot sign that goes around three sides of the building. A total of 13 60-inch plasma displays and more than 12 million LEDs were used to create this massive billboard. The fascinating thing about the design is that the LEDs are spaced further apart the higher up on the building they are and at the street level the LEDs merge into the plasma displays that surround the store entrance. D3 LED is no newcomer to digital billboards - they have created numerous ones in Times Square, with a 7,880 square foot widescreen HD display for JVC going live Dec. 2 (it’ll only have 1.2 million LEDs).

The resolution of the display is supposedly 20 times that of a normal HDTV, and the color range exceeds normal TVs and even color printers. It will also be extremely bright for increased visibility - it produces 8,000 nits of brightness (1 nit = 1cd/m2) compared to the 200 of a normal LCD display. Behind the scenes of the display are 32 built in computers transmitting 150GB of uncompressed data every 30 seconds. The power bill for this will be huge since it consumes on average 250KW.

[NYTimes]

Jerry Yang, the CEO of Yahoo, has stated in a company memo that he will be stepping down. He will be holding the position until a new CEO is selected, but will plan to remain actively involved as an executive and board member. Jerry Yang has held the position after taking over for Terry Semel in what has been a rough year and a half. The stock price for Yahoo has been in constant decline and Yang has botched more than one large deal.

Taking the position of CEO in June 2007, Yang developed a plan to help Yahoo compete against Google. There have been several major cuts in staff, including an Oct. 21announcement that 10% of the 15,000 staff would be let go. Microsoft made an offer for the company in February with a bid of $31 a share, much higher than the stock price of $19.18 at the time. After months of negotiations in which Yang wanted a much higher price, Microsoft withdrew their offer in May. Following the Microsoft fiasco, he made a deal with Google to display ads next to Yahoo search results. This was supposed to bring in $250 to $430 billion in the first year, but Google backed out earlier this month after pressure from regulators with concerns about antitrust issues. It has been said that without the Google deal Yahoo would have to strike a deal with Microsoft or merge with AOL. Yahoo and AOL have talked about a merger for months and with Yang stepping down Microsoft may be looking to make another deal.

Yahoo stock jumped more than 10% today, with a high of $12.40.

[NY Times]

Mmmm….spam, don’t you just love opening up that tin can and…wait, not that spam? While spam filters now are doing a decent job of filtering out a majority of e-mail spam, there is still much that can get through. McColo is a web hosting company that was a breeding ground for spammers. Companies that dealt in counterfeit pharmaceuticals and child pornography (hopefully not both at the same time) used the San Jose based hosting company. After the two internet service providers for McColo cut off their web access on Wednesday, the volume of junk e-mail dropped drastically.

Computer security experts are critical of the timeliness of the response and felt that action should have been taken sooner. There has been plenty of evidence in the past that pointed to McColo and its clients and their involvement in e-mail spam. Shutting down McColo could prove to be a double edged sword since the spam will be more disperse. When the majority came from McColo, it was relatively easier to protect networks.

[Washington Post]

Image courtesy of Ars Technica

I remember as a kid making models of various objects using paper and glue, but Mcor Technologies has taken that a step further with their Mcor Matrix. The Mcor Matrix is a 3D printer that does not use lasers and plastics like most that are currently available. The core materials are paper, adhesive, and a cemented tungsten carbide blade. The adhesive is a special water based PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) adhesive that will be offered by Mcor Technologies along with the blades. The paper will be supplied by the user and can be as low cost as 20 lb paper. The vertical resolution is based on the paper thickness and will be 0.1mm with 20lb paper although thicker paper will allow the process to be faster at the cost of reduced resolution.

There is also the option to make colored parts with colored paper. The machine reduces waste by selectively putting more adhesive only on the cross-section. The part profile is then cut with the blade. The finished parts appear similar to wood and post processing can include hardening with cyanoacrylate adhesive, sanding, and painting. The cost of producing parts is drastically reduced by up to 40 times less than current methods due to the use of low cost materials. The Mcor Matrix is scheduled to be released in Q1 2009 in the US. The maximum build (316.33 oz.) of the printer costs under $135.

[Hack a Day]

This morning Alienware released a teaser image stating that they will unveil something new. That product turned out to be the M17 Extreme Gaming Notebook Computer, “Aggressive Performance at an Equally Aggressive Price.” This is Alienware’s first 17-inch Notebook with Intel Mobile Quad Core and ATI Crossfire X.

The base setup uses the Intel Core2 P8400 2.26 GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB), 2GB DDR3 at 1066 MHz, 160GB hard drive, and the 512 MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870. There are a few recommended systems, “For the Wallet”, ”For the Win”, and “Ultimate Gamer.” The notebook can be configured with up to the Intel Core2 Quad/Extreme, 4GB DDR3 RAM, dual ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, 1TB Hard Drive space using Raid 0, Blu-Ray reader. Security features include fingerprint reader as well as facial recognition software. The M17 also has the option of having an illuminated keyboard in one of three colors - Astral Blue, Fusion Red, or Terra Green.

Pricing starts at $1,399 for the base configuration, $1,999 (For the Wallet), $2,899 (For the Win), $4,199 (Ultimate Gamer). The last one should probably be renamed to “Ultimate Spender.”

[Alienware]