In a move that rivals online payment leader PayPal and sidels up next to (and possible out-runs at launch) Google Checkout, Amazon has announced the launch of their new online payment system aptly named: Amazon Checkout.

The kicker that makes this service have longer legs out of the gate than Google’s offering is that every single one of the approximately 81 million people that have shopped on Amazon, can take their already entered (and stored) payment information and seamlessly transfer it over to be used on any other sites that participate with the Amazon Checkout system.

That means that if Nieman Marcus, Sears, Target and any other major online retailer decided to participate, instead of youneeding to re-enter your shopping information on their site, you simply fill up your cart and hit “buy”, just like you have been doing on Amazon already.

Nice touch really, I’m excited to see where this goes and am very happy to see more folks competing with PayPal.

Thanks NYT!

From Dealsea

Amazon has 60-Pack of chips for $25.20. Buy 2 (120 bags) for $50.40 - $15 off with promo code CHIPDSCT (Exp 7/11) = $35.40 with free shipping.

When I am in the market to buy something, reviews are a critical thing for me… the more the merrier. This is true to the extent that I won’t even shop at an e-tailer that doesn’t provide reviews or represents them poorly; and I find myself more inclinded to shop at stores that do make the reviews of products more predominant and easy-to-find (like Newegg). It just makes it easier to browse and find other products you might like.

Got an email dropped in our inbox today that introduces us to reevoo: “an independent company that collect and publish genuine reviews, to help you decide what to buy (and what not to buy)”.

While this might not be cutting edge in review compilation sites, what caught my eye was the Hall-of-Shame-esque lists that reevoo has come up with by reviewing the reviews (brain-twister) coming in on products. You can read more about these retarded products on thier “Decide What to Buy” blog, here’s an example:

An egg tray that only holds five eggs and a dishwasher that doesn’t wash standard size plates are among a list of badly-designed household appliances currently on sale in the high street.

The hall of shame also featured a television which won’t turn off unless the plug is pulled out of the wall socket, a children’s outdoor slide - in bright yellow - which attracts thousands of bugs in summertime making it impossible for kids to play on and a washing machine that won’t wash cotton or synthetics at less than 60 degrees.

And just to further shame those products into the hall of face, here’s a list of some retard-products:

1. Bosch KGU30605 Fridge - the egg tray which only holds five eggs instead of the standard six.
2. Zanussi ZWF14581 Washing Machine - The default temperature when you choose cotton or synthetics is always 60 degrees. But almost all synthetics are labelled 40 degrees or less.
3. LG 37LF66 Television - that doesn’t turn off.  You have to pull the plug out of the wall to turn the TV off.
4. Easy Store Large Slide - the bright yellow colour attracts thousands of bugs in summertime.
5. Kenwood DW12CFE Dishwasher - Normal sized plates stacked as design suggests in the bottom tray stop the spray arm spinning, and thus the top layer does not get washed. Trays are non removable so the dishwasher won’t run without the top tray in. Hard to fit standard sized dinner plates.

For more information on how reevoo works or how you can know to trust their reviews, check out their FAQ. They do pride themselves on only providing reviews from shoppers who have purchased the item based on the information from their partner sites… so that’s pretty slick (sorta like Consumer Reports, but you get to see the actual repsonses).

Overall, looks like another handy research-tool to keep in your belt when you are in the market for a new expensive item.

Jens Eckels sent in some badass news that for the week of June 8-14, Wal-Mart will be issuing $100 Gift Cards for anyone buying a Blu-ray Player. In addition to that announcement Wal-Mart is announcing super-low prices, some as low as $15, on Blu-ray titles to choose from if you decide to pickup some titles along with the new player.

Wal-Mart is also adding vendors to it’s existing Blu-ray player lineup including Magnavox, Samsung and Panasonic. No news specifically if buying a Sony PS3 will count as a Blu-ray player to get the $100, but I have to imagine it would… it is the preferred player because it’s like $399 ($350 in some places with bundles) and an entire gaming system, UPnP A/V stream device and Blu-ray player.

Until we see $99 Blu-ray players with awesome performance, I don’t see any reason not to get a PS3.

Thanks MSNBC!

I saw this today when I was directed to the feedback page to leave feedback on the seller that I just bought a Herman Miller Aeron from (great experience). At first it caught me off guard, my gut reaction being something like “Feedback has been limited?! WHAT?!”

but then I thought about it, and remembered a few other Aeron auctions I had seen where the poster of the auction had actually had the (IMO) audacity to add something equivalent to:

All auctions are final. Positive feedback is expected. No feedback will be given to buyers until positive feedback is received.

and it dawned on me why this change is so good… it weeds out the shit-bag-sellers on eBay that bully buyers into leaving positive feedback even when they don’t want to, for fear of ruining their own reputation.

I know I had a perfect feedback record, but not that many feedbacks… so if I leave negative feedback for some asshole vendor that has 10k+ feedbacks, it won’t do anything to him, but his negative feedback to me as retaliation would wreck my reputation.

When I originally heard the news that eBay was going to make this change I thought it was a bad idea, but now after seeing it in action I think it’s a great change.

So for buyers that are prompt with their payment and good customers, you can expect them to have a high score. As is typical with eBay, you should always be wary of people that have less than 10 feedbacks because they are either brand new or suck balls, and that still applies here.

Todd Swarthout sent in a link to a pretty cool new site from Microsoft: Farecast.

The idea behind Farecast is very similar to Kayak or Mobissimo where you specify your departure and arrival city and then use all these nice AJAX-ey controls to fine-tune your search results on the fly.

The difference with Farecast is that it also uses historical information for the cost of the flight you are looking up to predict where the fare will go in the near future (up or down), gives you a level of confidence it has in it’s decision, and then issues a suggestion to you like Wait (don’t take the trip on those dates) or supports you decision to buy those tickets.

As you can see from the screenshots above, I spec’ed out a flight from Phoenix to Paris and the Farecast suggestion was for me to wait, because apparently the cost of that flight has jumped around a bit in the near past almost close to $500; so waiting might be a good idea for me.

If you have any favorite travel sites you use, let us know!

Let’s face it… you jumped the gun and got an HD-DVD player and now you hate your life. If you got that player from Circuit City within the last 3 months however, they are quietly offering a trade-in program to re-apply the full purchase price to that of a Blu-ray player.

Not too shabby… thanks Engadget!

Ars Technica is reporting that an M$ mole has given them some inside knowledge. The soon to be obsolete HD-DVD add-on of for the Xbox is dropping from $119.99 to $49.99. You may ask why buy now? Well, if you couple the price drop with the fact that you can get 5 free HD-DVD’s by mail, your essentially getting 5 HD quality movies for under $10 each plus a free external CD/DVD/HD-DVD drive that you can use on you PC. Plus who knows, you can probably cash in on everyone dumping their hd-dvd’s and pick them up for a song.

UPDATE: Let the deals begin… Kmart has it on sale for $49.99

Brad Agdern sent in a pretty kick-ass little link from the Newegg site, that being a “Products with Gifts” search page.

For shoppers that don’t normally shop on Newegg sometimes they offer products that when purchased, come with additional free-bees… this search lets you look for ONLY products with free-bees.

NICE!

Stephen just sent in some kick ass 1-day news over at Amazon. They have Lost, Season 3 on Blu-ray on sale for $39.99 just for today.

If you like Lost, hop on that!

From Dealsea

Dell EPP has new offers on Dell XPS M1330 Notebooks. [Comments]

1. Click here, customize as:
   • Uncheck “Dell Bluetooth Travel mouse” option [-$25]
   • Choose one of three free Security Softwares
   • Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD [add $0]
2. Add it to cart, click here to get 10% off code and apply it
3. Price: $1374 - 10% coupon - 8% auto discount = $1138, or 4% less w/DPA

• 3.97lb, 13.3″ widescreen LED Display with VGA Webcam, 1280×800
• Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
• 3GB, 250GB, CD/DVD Burner, Bluetooth, Fingerprint Reader
• 128MB Nvidia 8400M GS Video Card, 3 year warranty

CC is having a mega-clearance sale on many games across the XBox, GameCube, PSP, Nintendo DS, Gameboy Advance, and PS2 - Every game is $8.96. Each stores inventory is not the same so, YMMV.

Click below to see the full list:

XBox
Area 51
Black Hawk Down
Blitz: The League
Burnout Revenge
Cabelas Outdoor Adventure
Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness
Chaos Theory
Chicken Little
College Hoops 2K6
Combat Elite
Conflict: Global Terror
DDR Ultramix 2
DOA Ultimate Collection
Dragonball Z Sagas
Driver Parallel Lines
EA Sports Fight Night Round 2
Far Cry Instincts
FIFA Soccer 2005
FIFA Street
FIFA Street 2
Flatout
From Russia With Love
Full Throttle
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
Ghost Recon
Godzilla: Save The Earth
GTA: San Andreas
Gun
Half Life 2
Halo Triple Pack
Incredible Hulk
Indigo Prophecy
Karaoke Revolution Bundle
Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes
Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King
Madden NFL 2005
Mark Ecko’s Getting Up
Matrix Path Of Neo
Mercenaries
Metal Slug 4 & 5
Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition (Non-Player Choice)
Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks
Moto GP Ultimate Racing
MX vs ATV Unleashed (Players Choice)
Nascar 2005: Chase For The Cup
NBA 2K6
NBA Live 2005
NBA Street 3
NCAA March Madness 2005
Need For Speed Underground (Players Choice)
Shrek Superslam
Sid Meier’s Pirates
Sims 2
Spiderman The Movie
Splinter Cell (Players Choice)
Spongebob: Lights Camera Pants
SSX On Tour
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic II: Sith Lords
Terminator The Redemption
Test Drive: Eve Of Destruction
The Incredibles: Rise Of The Underminer
Tiger Woods 2005
Time Splitters
Tony Hawk Underground
True Crime New York City
Warriors
WWE Wrestlecrap 21

Nintendo Gamecube
Batman Begins
Chaos Theory
Dragonball Z Sagas
EA Sports Fight Night Round 2
Fantastic Four
Great Juju Challenge
Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
James Bond: From Russia With Love
NBA Street 3
Scooby Doo: Unmasked
Seaworld

PSP
Darkstalkers
FIFA Soccer
Gretzky NHL
NBA Street Showdown
Need For Speed Underground Rivals
Spiderman 2
Tiger Woods PGA
Tony Hawk Underground 2 Remix
World Soccer Tour

Nintendo DS
Advance Wars
Asphault GT (DS) - $5.96
ATV Quad Frenzy
Burnout Legends
Dig Dug: Digging Strike
Dragonball Z Supersonic Warriors 2
FIFA Soccer 2006
Finding Nemo
Goldeneye Rouge Agent
Great Juju Challenge
Gulty Gears Dust Strike
Incredibles Rise Of The Underminer
King Kong
Lunar Dragon Song
Madden 2005
Madden 2006
Meteos
Metroid Prime Pinball
Monster Truck
Need For Speed Underground 2
Pac N Roll
Pac Pix
Pokemon Dash
Polarium
Scooby Doo Unmasked
Spongebob Yellow Avenger
Spyro Shadow Legacy
Star Wars Episode 3 Revenge Of The Sith
Texas Hold Em
Tiger Woods 2005
Trace Memory
Ultimate Spiderman
Urbz: Sims In The City

Gameboy Advance
Backyard Baseball 2006
Backyard Basketball
Backyard Skateboarding
Barbie Let’s Ride
Barbie Pegasus
Bratz: Rock Angelz
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
DBZ GT: Transformation
DBZ: Supersonic Warriors
Disney’s Cinderella
Donkey Kong Country 2
Donkey Kong King Of Swing
Dr. Mario Puzzle League
Drill Dozer
Driver 3
Dynasty Warriors Advance
Ed, Edd N Eddy
Fantastic Four
FIFA Soccer 2006
Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls (1/2)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy IV
Finding Nemo/Monsters Inc 2 in 1
Goku 1 & 2 Compilation (Legacy of Goku)
Grand Theft Auto
Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
Harvest Moon: More Friends Of Mineral Town
Hello Kitty
Hot Wheels Dual Pack
Incredibles
Incredibles Rise Of The Underminer
Kim Possible 3
Kirby And The Amazing Mirror
Legend Of Zelda Classics Series
Legend Of Zelda: Link To The Past/Pitfall combo pack
Lizzie McGuire 3
Madden 2006
Mario Golf: Advance Tours
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Mario Party Advance
Mario Pinball Land
Mario VS Donkey Kong
Metroid Classics Series
Metroid Zero Mission
Monster Truck
Ms. Pacman
Need For Speed Most Wanted
Nightmare Before Christmas
Pac Man Pinball
Pandora Tommorow
Pokemon Pinball
Pokemon Ruby
Pokemon Sapphire
Polar Express
Power Rangers Dual Pack
Reshef Of Destruction
Scooby Doo Unmasked
Seaworld
Shrek Superslam
Sigma Star Saga
Sims 2
Sonic Battle
Spongeball Squarepants: Battle Of Bikini Buldge
Spongebob Dual Pack
Spongebob Squarepants Bikini Bottoms & Breakin Da Rules Dual Pack
Spyro Superpack
Star Wars Attack Of The Clones
Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World
Sword Of Mana
Tales Of Phantasia
That’s (Not) So Raven… (only because Scotty Flamingo would debate that)
Tony Hawk American Sk8land
Tony Hawks Underground/Kelly Slater Surfer 2 in 1
Trollz: Hair Affair
Ultimate Enemy
Wario Ware Microgames (aka the first one)
World Championship Poker
Yoshi Topsy Turvy
Yu-Gi-oh! 7 Trials Of Glory

PS2
187 Ride Or Die
Area 51
Backyard Basketball
Backyard Football
Batman Begins
BIA: Earned In Blood
Black Hawk Down
Blitz The League
Bode Miller Skiing
Cabelas Outdoor Adventure
Chaos Theory
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
Combat Elite
Conflict Global Terror
Conflict Vietnam
Curse Of Darkness
Def Jam Fight For NY
Dragonball Z Sagas
Driver Parallel Lines
Dynasty Warriors 5
EA Sports Fight Night Round 2
Eye Toy
Eye Toy Antigravity
Fantastic Four
FIFA Soccer 2005
FIFA Street
Flatout
Ford Mustang
Ford Racing 3
Friends Trivia
Frogger: Ancient Shadow
Full Spectrum Warrior
Full Throttle
Gauntlet Seven Sorrows
Ghost Recon 2
Great Juju Challenge
Gun
Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire
Haunting Ground
Incredible Hulk
Incredibles Rise Of The Underminer
Indigo Prophecy
James Bond: From Russia With Love
Karaoke Revolution Volume 3
Legends Of Wrestling
Madden 2005
Mark Ecko’s Getting Up (both regular and LE)
Matrix Path Of Neo
MGS 3: Snake Eater
Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition (Non-Players Choice)
MLB 2005
MLB 2K5
MLB 2K5 World Series Edition
Monster Hunter
NASCAR 2005: Chase The Cup
NBA Live 2005
NBA Street 3
NCAA March Madness 2005
NFL Street 2
NHL 2K6
NHRA Championship Drag Racing
Nicktoons Unite
Nightmare Before Christmas
Racing Italiono
Radiata Stories
Rainbow Six Lockdown
Resident Evil Outbreak 2
Rugby 2006
Scooby Doo Unmasked
Seaworld
Silver Buckle Stables
SSX On Tour
State Of Emergency 2
Super Monkey Ball DX
Tenkaichi
Terminator The Redemption
Test Drive: Eve Of Destruction
Tiger Woods 2005
Time Crisis: Crisis Zone
Time Splitters
Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland Collector’s Edition
Torino 2006
True Crime New York City
TY 3
Ultimate Spiderman
Urbz: Sims In The City
Warriors
We Love Katamari
Wild Arms 4
World Championship Poker 2
World Poker Tour
World Series Of Poker
World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International
World Tour Soccer 2006
Xenosaga 2

From Dealsea

Extended while supplies last. Lenovo has Thinkpad Z61t Notebook for $599 - 10% off eCoupon code “USP1PAYPAL” when you pay with Paypal = $539 with free shipping. No blank space is allowed when you enter the code. And code is case sensitive. [Comments]

Choose memory: 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) [$0.00]

• Intel Core Duo T2400 (1.83GHz, 2MB L2, 667MHz FSB), 14.1″ WXGA
• 1GB, 80GB, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, Wireless ABG, 1 yearr warranty

From Dealsea

Additional $50 drop! Lenovo has Thinkpad T60 15.4″ WXSGA+ Notebook for $799 (If you see higher price, you need to clear your browser’s cookies and cache) - 13.333% off eCoupon code “USPSAVEDEC” = $692 with free shipping. Register your account first before checkout in order not to lose the coupon discount.

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.0GHz, 4MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
• 15.4″ WSXGA+, 1GB, 60GB (or 80GB +$10), CDRW/DVD
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 128MB, Integrated fingerprint reader
• Wireless ABG, 6 cell Battery, 1yr warranty

From Dealsea

Buy.com has Acer AL2216W 22″ LCD Monitor for $200 with free shipping.

New customers coupon: $5 off $100; $10 off $200

From Dealsea

Amazon has Canon PowerShot SD800 IS 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD display for $200 with free shipping.

NOTE: I got this camera, and love it.

Brad Agdern just sent in a cool bit of news for folks that aren’t privacy aficionados. If you don’t mind Microsoft monitoring your computer usage for 3 months (I’m not sure of how detailed the monitoring is… but my guess is that it covers everything you are doing, sites you browse to, files you open, etc.), then Microsoft will send you 1 free software “gift”. The options are:

• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit DVD)
• Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
• Microsoft Money Plus Premium
• Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008
• Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008

You can click here to get started with the application process, and the offer expires 12/31/07 and only lasts while the allotted pieces of software for the program are available (not sure how many they were giving out). So if you don’t mind being monitored, go for it.

Robert Heron just sent in this juicy bit of information… get prepared for liquidation sales from CompUSA during the holidays, looks like the company sold to a restructuring company and the first order is to close the remaining 103 stores. CompUSA will be running complete inventory liquidation sales throughout the holidays, likely making a mint and waving goodbye to everyone.

This was the only store I used to shop at back in the day (early 90s?) and it always had the games and equipment I wanted… sad to see it go, but Newegg has long replaced it for me.

VE3D had the scoop on a game blow-out sale, for all platforms, that Amazon was having. Some games, mostly the PC games, are heavily discounted down to about 50%, but there are plenty of games for the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii that look tasty on the list.

My quick picks for you guys (this list only includes sure-fire hits… there are plenty of good in-the-middle games in these lists too):

PS3

• $20 - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• $45 - F.E.A.R.

XBox 360

• $50 - Halo 3

PC Games

• $20 - Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Adventure Game)
• $30 - World in Conflict (Real Time Strategy)
• $20 - F.E.A.R.
• $10 - Quake 4 (If you liked Doom 3, Q4 is very cool)
• $20 - WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos (Still a great RTS, a little old-school though)

Sorry, nothing for the Wii. I didn’t see any great ones on that list, but there are a handful of OK ones depending on what you want.

Laurence Hartje sends in a note that Boy Genius is reporting that starting November 24th, Wal-Mart will not be discounting the price of the 80GB PS3, but instead allowing you to pluck 10 Blu-ray movies off the shelve (under $30) to take with you when you buy one.

They also mention this is in addition to the 5 free movies you get by mail as part of the “buy a Blu-ray player” promotion the BR camp is running.

So now what? Do you get the $200 HD-DVD player and 10 movies, or the $400 PS3 that is also a Blu-ray player and 15 movies?

I love competition!

Just got this in the mail. Amazon is running a $199 deal which includes a Toshiba HD-A3 ($169 by itself, or $99 from some retailers fufilling the $99 A2-backorders earlier) and 10 HD-DVD movies you can choose with the order. The HD-A3 doesn’t do 1080p, but should serve it’s purpose as a value HD-DVD very well.

Ted Regulski just sent along this smoking link to the NeoGAF forums for a Kmart coupon of 20% off any purchase that basically brings all the major consoles down to the following prices:

• Playstation 3: $320
• XBox 360: $280
• Wii: $199

Apparently the coupons are fine to print out and use, take note of the dates on the coupons as well:

A user confirmed using it here. This holiday season is going to be an orgy of HDTVs and gaming consoles… everyone get ready to burn up the little nest egg you were saving because these companies want your cash

From Dealsea

Bestbuy has Westinghouse TX42F430S 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV for $990. In-store pickup is available.

Chris Hunkele just sent in the mother-load for Black Friday 2007; a site that includes the scans of all the fliers that will be going out for Black Friday deals.

Do you hate yourself? Do you have too much time in the day? Do you like bear-fist-brawling rednecks for $99 HD-DVD players even? GOOD! Then here are the fliers that will be going out with the brick-to-the-head-worthy deals for you to read, then line up outside your favorite store 12 hours early all through the night to get:

Store Name	.ZIP Format	.PDF Format
Ace Hardware	Download	Download
Circuit City	Download	Download
Harbor Freight	Download	Download
Kmart Thanksgiving	Download	Download
Old Navy	Download	Download
Sears	Download	Download
Target	Download	Download

Update #1: Julie hooked us up with a great video giving the new opening times for a lot of the Black Friday stores: