I was just shopping on Newegg and decided to purchase some more RAM for my computer. I added the item to my shopping card, hit purchase, entered my Credit Card info and hit Finish.

I had forgotten that I had enabled the frustratingly stupid “Verified by Visa” check-out security process in the past… I somehow always manage to forget my password and lock myself out… Visa remembers every past password you’ve used and won’t let you reuse one.

After failing to login to the Verified by Visa service and getting kicked out to select a new password, I decided this bullshit was too much trouble and just cancelled the transaction. A dialog popped up warning me:

If you cancel this login process, your purchase will not be complete.

I didn’t care, this was too much hassle to order some freaking RAM. So I hit “OK” and cancelled the whole operation. At that point, the Verified by Visa service forwarded me to my “Order Summary” page:

… wait, I thought the transaction failed?

Oh well, I’ve bought from Newegg in the past and am familiar with the follow-up “We were unable to charge your credit card” emails, so I figured this was just a fluke and waited for that email.

Instead, I got this email:

While I’m happy I’m getting my RAM now, I’m trying to figureout what that useless Verified by Visa service actually does at this point.

For anyone looking for a Netbook, a hell of a deal for the Lenovo S10e — $50 cheaper (~15% discount) than the regular price from Newegg.

From Dealsea:

1. Go to http://www.lenovo.com/cpp
2. Enter “familyandfriends” as passcode
3. Click the following: “notebooks” > “ideapad” > “view S series”
4. Under “IdeaPad S10 High capacity battery”, select “view models”
5. Under either Black or White, select “customize”
6. Add to cart
7. Enter eCoupon code “USENETSALE” at checkout
8. Total price is $298.45 with free shipping

Specifications:

• Intel ATOM Processor N270 Single Core ( 1.60GHz 533MHz 512KB )
• Genuine Windows XP Home Edition
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz
• 10.2 ” WSVGA AntiGlare TFT with integrated camera 1024 x 600
• Industry Standard Touchpad
• 160GB 5400
• 6 Cell Lithium-Ion
• Broadcom 11b/g Wi-Fi wireless
• One Year Warranty

This is a common scenario for most nerds.  You have a gadget on the mind.  It might be a monitor, a video card, a phone, or in my case a notbook.   You do the research, memorize the specs, model names, prices, and they you wait for a reason to bite.  That reason ranges from waiting for a new model release to justifying its usage, but almost always that reason is cost. 

So months go by and I am hounding the deal sites ready to pounce on a Atom based 10″ netbook as soon as the prices get reasonable. 

Out of the blue I stumbled upon a deal for the MSI U100-279 for a mere $384 after a $50 mail in rebate.  Now im not a big fan in general of mail in rebates, but that was one deal I could not say no to and I bit.  

We’ll save the story of how Buy.com managed to charge me twice for the device for another day.  So I get my Netbook and promptly submit the barrage of paperwork required.  This process involved filling out an incredibly buggy online form, then submitting the original UPC, the printout from the web form, and packing slip. 

The waiting game begins.

Several months later it occurs to me that those greasy chumps owe me 50 bones.  I look up the status of my rebate and am inform that that status is “Rejected” and that there are no re-submissions permitted.   I double checked my photocopies of my submissions to ensure I obeyed all the rules.  A quick visit to google showed that I was not the only sucker in this scam.

This is ridiculous MSI.  I love the netbook, but ingrain this in you mind- MSI does not honor their rebates!

Lenovo is offering additional 10-25% off on ThinkPad notebooks and other products with eCoupon “USPTHREEDAYSALE” thru 2/12. [Comments]

• NEW! 25% off ThinkPad T series Laptops
• 15% off ThinkPad R, X, Tablet, W Laptops
• 10% off ThinkPad SL Laptops
• 15% off IdeaPad Y Series & U Series Laptops
• 15% off ThinkCentre and ThinkStation Desktops
• 10% off Lenovo Monitors & non-Lenovo Branded Accessories
• 20% off Lenovo Branded Accessoriess

Upcoming offers: starts 2/13

• Thinkpad X61s Ultra-portable Laptop $969 – eCoupon* = $649 (Qty limit = 1,000)
• Thinkpad X61 Tablet $1,179 – eCoupon* = $799 (Qty limit = 1,000)
• *Please check our site for the eCoupon code when offers start

So your nephew/daughter/significant other/best friend wants a Wii for Christmas, but every store is already sold out and probably will not have anymore in stock before you need it for that gift?  You might try Walmart.com.  Reuters is reporting that starting today Wamart.com will have thousands of Wiis in stock and available to be shipped in time to be gifted.

Nintendo’s Wii has emerged as one of the few hot products this holiday season, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc will offer “tens of thousands” of the hard-to-get video game consoles on its website starting on Monday.

Walmart.com said it will offer the Nintendo Wii console for $249.24, and a “value bundle,” which includes the console and other items like an extra set of controllers, for $329, while supplies last.

The Wii has emerged as one of the most sought-after gifts this holiday season, which has otherwise been lamented for a lack of new and hot products.

On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving which marks the start of holiday shopping, the Wii was the most searched-for product on the Yahoo Shopping site. It was also the most popular product on eBay, with 3,171 of the consoles selling for an average price of $349 that day.

As of Friday night, the Wii console was sold out on Walmart.com, bestbuy.com and circuitcity.com. Bestbuy.com listed the sold-out Wii for $249.99.

Walmart.com also said that it will offer, beginning on Monday, certain Wii video games at a price of two for $30, and certain accessories, like the Nintendo Wii Racing Wheel, starting under $10.

Wal-Mart has been gaining market share and clout in the U.S. recession as cash-strapped shoppers seek out its low prices.

On Thursday, it reported a stronger-than-expected 3.4 percent rise in sales at its U.S. stores open at least a year, after it slashed prices on food and toys to lure shoppers.

Walmart.com spokesman Ravi Jariwala said the online retailer has worked with Nintendo closely throughout the year and seen strong sales of Wii products on its website, helping to secure the latest supply of the popular console.

 
From Dealsea

Adorama has SanDisk Memory Cards on sale. Buy 3 of each product for $90 - $70 rebate (Exp 1/17) = $20 with free shipping. [Comments]

• SanDisk 8 GB Extreme III Compact Flash Card (SDCFX3008GA31)
• SanDisk 8 GB, Extreme III SDHC Card (SDSDRX38192A21)

Looking around the internet today I’ve come across a few good deals that I though everyone might be interested in. Here are a few of the better deals I’ve found:

For the Xbox 360 gamers (thanks X3F)

• Halo 3 – $37.99
• GH: Aerosmith bundle – $49.99
• Gears of War – $19.99
• Gears of War 2 with free 3 month Xbox Live – $59.99
• Pure with free $10 gift card – $39.99
• Select E or E10+ games – free $10 gift card
• Free $10 Gift Card with CoD: World at War, Gears of War 2 or Prince of Persia
• Guitar Hero III bundle – $29.99

For the Playstion 3 gamers

• Fallout 3 – $42.90
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare GOTY Edition – $39.99
• Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe CE – $39.95
• LEGO Batman – $25.95

For the Wii gamers

• Wii Music Game + $10 Circuit City Gift Card -  $49.99 and Free Shipping.
• Guitar Hero World Tour – $35.90
• Wii bundle with 4 games – $399.99 and free shipping

Amazon.com has so many good deals I’m not going to try and post them all.  CAG has a nice listing of all of them here.

I found most of these deals on either CAG or GottaDeal.com. You can check out the rest of the posted deals here.

Dealsea has summarized all the known ads thus far, here are the good ones:

• HDTV Deals of Black Friday 2008
  
• Costco Black Friday 2008 Ad
  
• Amazon Black Friday 2008 Ad
  
• DELL Black Friday 2008 Ad
  
• Best Buy Black Friday 2008 Ad
  
• Target Black Friday 2008 Ad
  
• K-Mart Black Friday 2008 Ad
  
• Circuit City Black Friday 2008 Ad
  

Happy shopping!

As someone in the market for an X300 or whatever the revised X300 becomes, I was really impressed with the sale price of the X300 (normally $2200+) of around $1400.

Lenovo has up to Extra 15% off Thinkpad Notebooks valid through Oct. 24.

• Use eCoupon code “USPYPWWPOCT” in cart to see extra savings

• Lenovo new IdeaPad S10 10.2″ Netbook from $399 – 10% code = $379
• ThinkPad T400 14.1″ Notebook from $849 – 15% code = $722
• ThinkPad T500 15.4″ Notebook from $899 – 15% code = $764
• ThinkPad T61 15.4″ Notebook w/ NVIDIA 128MB Video Card from $859 – 15% code = $730
• ThinkPad X61s 12.1″ Ultraportable Notebook from $1029 – 15% code = $875
• ThinkPad X200 12.1″ Widescreen Notebook from $1099 – 15% code = $934
• ThinkPad X300 13.3″ LED 64GB SSD Notebook from $1414
  Customize $1889 option, choose “Lightweight Travel Bezel [-$225]”
  from $1664 – 15% code = $1414
• see All Lenovo 2 day sale

Frys has 3 Xbox 360 Pro 60GB Console Bundle for $350 + $6 shipping.

• XBOX 360 Pro 60GB + 4 Games + Black Wireless Controller
• XBOX 360 Pro 60GB Console + 5 Games (Online Only)
• XBOX 360 Pro 60GB Console + 5 Games (Online Only)

Dell Home has some video games on sale. Free shipping $129+. [Comments]

• Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) $60 – $25 coupon “24LVPRK0T8ZS9?” = $35
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3) $60 – $20 coupon “SBFTVHQS0B76FH” = $40
• Madden NFL 09 (PS3) $61 – $25 coupon “$BF6K8D$QHRXSC” = $36
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle (PS3) $99 – $40 coupon “RSS0N0WK52L125″ = $59

• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360) $60 – $20 coupon “1W4N38WM$5MQW6″ = $40
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle (Xbox 360) $99 – $40 coupon “XX?M9LLKGTK8SP” = $59
• GRID (Xbox 360) $60 – $25 coupon “LQK$VG4B??GPWH” = $35

• Crysis: Warhead (PC)$30 – $10 coupon “SMSVQ8LNKKZSW6″ = $20

Frys has Intel Core 2 Q9550 Quad Core Processor Retail (2.83GHz, 4×3MB, 1333MHz FSB, LGA775 Socket T) for $280 + $5 shipping

– Pretty badass deal, Newegg has this CPU for $320. To get a quad-core, high performance chip in your box, $285 is completely reasonable.

Introduction

Over the past few years I have burned through a couple of digital cameras, demolishing them to a pile of plastic and circuitry because of my active and outdoor lifestyle. I was ecstatic when I came across this camera, and picked it up on Amazon for a trip to Hawaii. This is a compact frame 10.1 megapixel camera sporting a nice 2.7″ display with 28mm-102mm 3.6x zoom. It is 3.7 x 0.8 x 2.4 inches and weighs in at 6.1 ounces and packs a multitude of features.The biggest ones of all being:

• Water Proof to 33ft
• Shock Proof for a fall from 6.6ft
• Crush proof to 220lbs
• Freeze proof to 14°F

Features and Specifications

• Face Detection
• “Shadow Adjustment Technology”
• Digital Image Stabilization
• ISO 80-1600
• Manometer (depth meter)
• VGA, 30fps movie mode, including underwater movie mode.
• 2cm Macro mode with LED illumination
• Self Timer
• XD memory cards (micro SD with supplied adapter)
• Water replant coated lens

Software

The built in shooting guide offers your photographer novice 29 quick select modes like “Night scene, Behind Glass, Sunset and Fireworks”. While the camera does not have as many as manual modes as a DSLR, you do get options for ISO, exposure level, and white balance. One other nice little feature is voice recording, which after taking the picture records a short audio clip that you can use for voice notes about each picture. One feature I was no so fond of was the Panorama mode, while being a good idea it fell short in execution. After setting the camera to panoramic mode you depress the shutter button and are prompted to move the camera left of right, and the camera will automatically snap the shot when you reach the end of the last frame and it will stitch it and save to the memory card. But the limitation is the size of the picture file, so your final stitched picture will only ever be as wide as a 10.1Mp file (3,648 pixels). You wind up with lower quality picture in the end and are better off just using photoshop or Windows Live Photo Gallery for its great stitching function.

Hardware

The large 2.7″ display is bright enough to be fully visible in broad daylight. While the mediocre 3.6x optical zoom might leave you not being able to get “close enough” the mechanics are all contained within and covered with a retracting metal shutter, so there is no lens to get snagged and broken off. The rechargeable battery life is very nice, I was able to snap over 180 pictures on a single charge. Start-up time is a decent 1.5 seconds from power to shutter. The camera is designed to be held in the right hand with the shutter/power buttons and mode wheel easily accessible with only 1 hand use. All of the doors protecting the various slots and ports are sealed with a rubber gasket, and have to potential to fail and be breached by water even by a grain of sand, so make sure you are not opening and closing the doors out in the field.

What’s in the Box

• Digital Camera
• Wrist Strap
• Lithium Ion rechargeable battery LI-50B (925mAh)
• Battery charge
• MicroSD to XD adapte
• AV Cable
• USB Cable
• Olympus Software Cd
• Basic Manual
• Advanced Manual

Conclusion

Overall I am very happy with the camera, it makes a great pocket multi-use camera suitable for many occasions. And hopefully it will be the last one I buy for a while.

Cost

If you watch the sales you can pick it up on amazon for just under $300. MSRP is $379

Areas of Improvement

• The data cable is not a standard usb-mini to usb, but a micro-av to usb. This makes getting the pictures off the camera say at a friends house somewhat troublesome. Why doesnt the industry standardize already!?
• Ability to charge the camera via the usb cable

Gallery

Video

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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