Tag: shopping

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Best Buy offers $50 gift card for people who buy iPhone 5C on two year contract

best buy iphone 5c sale giftcardWell. We don’t see sales on Apple gear very often.

Best Buy is offering up a special on the iPhone 5C. When purchasing the phone BB will supply a $50 gift card which can be used at time of purchase. If purchased on a two year contract, this will effectively cut the price of the phone in half.

It’s difficult to tell if this tells us anything about lagging 5C sales, or if BB and Apple are working together on moving units. As with previous iPhone releases, it’s not surprising that demand is strongest for the newest handsets, and even though the 5C is “new”, most Apple savvy folks will know it’s pretty much just a repackaged iPhone 5. Apple can be somewhat secretive about individual device sales though, so it’s difficult to know if the 5C is selling any worse than the 4S did when the iPhone 5 was released.

If you were looking for a sale on a mid-range iPhone though, this is one of the best deals around.

iPhone 5C on BestBuy.com

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Blue Microphones now offering Amazon exclusive colors for SnowBall USB Mic

blue microphones snow ball usb mic colors purple amazon somegadgetguyIf what was holding you back from buying a Snowball was the limited number of color options, Blue Microphones might just have the trick for you now.

Available today, the Snowball comes in a variety of colors, now on offer in Black, SIlver, Purple, Green, Pink, White, and Blue. Now while recording your podcasts or voice overs, you’ll have something a little more colorful to look at.

$99.99 out the door for those of you wanting to improve your home recordings, and Blue’s reputation here is pretty much second to none.

Blue Microphones’ Snowball on Amazon

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Review: Toast Wood Cover for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

toast in portland wood phone case cover galaxy note 2 somegadgetguyI like finding quirky, new, and unique accessories for personalizing our technology. Toast in Portland is one of my favorite finds this year. Using wood and leather surfaces which are laser cut and engraved to precisely fit our phones and our personalities.

Let’s take a look at how I turned my Galaxy Note 2 into a wooden phone!

For more info check out: http://ToastMade.com
My interview with Toast CEO Matias Brecher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x1YOTRaFg0

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Etsy Find: Tablet Stand – Birch – Bent Plywood

Tablet Stand - Birch - Bent Plywood etsy

I’m a sucker for clean, fashionable gadget accessories and bags. Geek is chic, and we’re seeing some really cool ways to incorporate technology into our daily lives. If you can add in things like natural fibers, leather, or wood I’m sold.

Scouting the Etsy, I stumbled onto this simple piece from Ciseal, a bent wood tablet stand. It’s simple, attractive, unadorned, and very clean looking. Also, happily, it’s not custom built for any one specific tablet, looking like it’ll handle just about any iPad sized slate.

The $80 price tag might be a bit steep, but if you’re into supporting you’re local craftsman, and you want something which looks a little nicer than the overseas plastic we can get for cheap, it could be worth checking Ciseal out.

Tablet Stand – Birch – Bent Plywood

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Google updating Wallet, Send money to other Wallet users, store Loyalty Cards

google wallet updateThe dream of mobile payments, tapping a phone to a store kiosk to pay for your shopping. Google’s been slowly pushing into this consumer relationship with Wallet. Storing your credit card information, and utilizing NFC to tap & pay at select retailers.  This hardware functionality has progressed very slowly as cell carriers have been trying to push a competing standard called ISIS, which uses a different kind of security which is incompatible with Google’s offering. Pretty much means we consumers get left without a working solution. Any time there’s a “format war” it’s bad for the industry (remember HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray). As it stands now, only 29 phones have proper NFC tap & pay functionality. I’m sure you notice a disturbing lack of Verizon and AT&T handsets on that list…

We’ve heard little news from the Wallet team over the last several months, but it looks like Google has been busy working on a Wallet expansion. Rolling out soon to Android users in the United States, Wallet is about to learn a few new tricks.

Google opened up the ability for Wallet users to send money to other Wallet users through GMail, and now that’s coming to the app. In a clear shot at services like Paypal, transfers from a linked bank account are free, and a 2.9% fee will be attached when sending money with credit or debit card.

In addition to payments, Google is also expanding the scope of Wallet to take some of the strain off of your physical non-digital wallet. If you’ve got a stack of store Loyalty cards, you can leave them at home now. Wallet will store and track your cards, coupons, and points alongside your purchases. Having used similar services, it’s nice just pulling up the card on my phone instead of having a bunch of filthy, peeling, plastic tabs on my key ring.

The Wallet update will roll out this week.

More info on the Google Commerce blog.

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Bring AT&T LTE compatible handsets to StraightTalk.

straight talk lte sim card 4g somegadgetguyThe prepaid phone market is getting really hot. As consumers shop various plans and services, prepaid solutions might be just the ticket for some shoppers. This has historically meant having a “last generation” experience, using a 3G service while the big boys trotted out real 4G LTE data. This is starting to change however, as AT&T has rolled out AIO nationwide utilizing their LTE network, and now StraightTalk is getting into the game too.

Starting now, you can bring an AT&T compatible LTE phone to StraightTalk and utilize LTE access. It will require a new SIM card to activate, but it looks like plan pricing will remain the same as their previous Faux G offerings, unlimited plans starting at $45 a month. Now while ST offers unlimited data, it’s been reported that heavy users will be throttled, but considering the price of this service, that’s not horribly surprising. Might still want to read up on those terms of service before porting your number over.

If you’re buying a new phone, and you’re not able to bring your own from another carrier, the two handsets current sold through StraightTalk which support LTE are the Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5. Neither particularly exciting in this current market, but if you’re shopping a new phone plan, prepaid might be something worth checking out.

(via StraightTalk)

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Amazon to finally receive second batch of Google Chromecast HDMI streamers?

google chromecast in stock amazon somegadgetguyChromecast is an incredible little gadget. For $35 dollars you get a fantastic stream-to-TV experience in a gadget little bigger than a USB flash memory drive, and controlling your TV with your phone or tablet feels like the future.

I got mine at launch, but since then they’ve been a little tricky to get a hold of. When a store stocks them, the $35 price tag all but guarantees they’ll sell out quickly. If you’ve been wanting to schnag one on Amazon to take advantage of Prime free shipping, you’ve largely been out of luck. The best we’ve seen for the last several weeks has been “Out of Stock” with no time estimate on when they’ll have more.

Well, looking up the little wunder-gadget this morning, the time estimate is now “Usually ships in 7-10 days”! Hopefully this means Amazon is due to receive another proper shipment soon, and those of you who were hoping to shop one there can now finally push the button.

Happy hunting!

Google Chromecast (Amazon)

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Ask GadgetGuy: Why SHOULDN’T I buy an iPad Mini right now?

ipad miniRoss from Facebook asks:

Hey Gadget Guy… tell me why I shouldn’t buy an iPad Mini, and what I should buy instead, and why it’d be better. I don’t want to admit to drinking the apple-flavored kool-aid, but I love my iPhone, and wanna get a pair of tablets for me and my special lady friend… yeah, we gotta get 2 because we can’t share. hehe…
Thanks!

No worries on “drinking the kool-aid”, I’d be daft to say Apple doesn’t make fine products. The Mini is in an interesting position at the moment however, and buying one now, might not be the best move.

It’s old hardware. It was old-ish hardware when it was released, essentially a shrunk iPad 2. This brings up numerous support questions, like whether it will receive two full proper updates of iOS, as the iPad 2 is most likely done with major updates this year. That and I would fully expect we’ll see an iPad Mini refresh this November. Plus for hardware almost three years old, it’s really expensive compared to the current crop of Android Mini tablets.

And to answer your question about what else to buy, I’d start by looking at the Nexus 7.

Nexus 7 - hero - press siteFor $100 less you get a MUCH nicer true HD 1080p screen, in proper widescreen (so if you watch movies, you don’t lose half your display to letter-boxing). Remember the current Mini isn’t a “Retina” device.

Other things like stereo speakers and NFC might be a wash, but it’s much more current technology.

It’s not out yet, but the LTE variant of the Nexus 7 will likely sell for about $20 more than the least expensive, WiFi only iPad Mini. Ouch.

In conclusion, depending on what you want to do with a tablet, an iPad Mini today would still be a fine purchase. It is a sexy little tablet. However, if you can hold off, treat yourself to more of a Thanksgiving present, you’ll probably get a better “bang for buck”.

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