Customer ServiceeRegister
The Gadgetress ~ TV, mobile and Internet: Covering technology's monthly bill

Archive for the 'Free+Win+Deals' Tag

« Previous Entries

Best Buy cuts iPhone price till end of 2008

December 19th, 2008, 10:23 am by

It’s true! Best Buy officials just confirmed to me that it is shaving $10 off the price of the Apple iPhone, at least until the end of the year. 

In addition, customers who purchase an iPhone can get double Reward Zone Points (another $10 or so) and free e-mail set-up, said a Best Buy spokesperson.

This brings the price down to $189 for the 8 GB iPhone, and $289 for the 16 GB version. In the scheme of things, $10 doesn’t seem like such a big savings when you think about the phone’s monthly fees.

But Apple rarely discounts its products. Best Buy won’t say whether it is eating the discount. “Our prices fluctuate,” says Justin Barber from Best Buy PR.

People are already talking it up on other blogs so perhaps this will help lift Best Buy out of its current economic slowdown. 

The deal ends December 31.

Wal-Mart is also rumored to not only start selling the iPhone, but also offer it at a lower, more permanent price of $197 and $297.

From the web:

Related on Gadgetress:

Posted in: Cell phones • iPhone • • • • | 15 Comments »

Hey kids: Invent a game, win $10k and a publisher!

December 4th, 2008, 6:48 pm by

Winning $10,000 is always nice but the cool thing about this contest is that the winner’s game will be published by Electronic Arts as a free web game. 

The ”Invent-A-Game Challenge” is open to kids in the U.S. between 5 to 19 years old. Entry seems simple — come up with an idea and submit it to this web site, www.bkfk.com.

The competition is sponsored by Best Buy, Electronic Arts, The United Inventors Association and By Kids for Kids.

Now, what will it take to win? Some hints on the web site: It’s looking for “designs similar to, but not limited to” puzzle games like Tetris and Bejeweled; run, jump, avoid and adventure games like Super Mario Brothers and Fancy Pants Adventure; and strategy games like Billiards and Besieged.

All entries must be received online by March 31, 2009. 

Besides getting his or her game published, the Grand Prize winner also wins a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond, trips to Best Buy and EA headquarters, and a $100 Best Buy gift card.

More details at www.bkfk.com.

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Cyber Monday may be fake, but deals are out there

December 1st, 2008, 9:06 am by

Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, is a marketing event made up by the online retail industry. The origin comes from the belief that shoppers like to go out shopping on Black Friday and the weekend. But come Monday, they’re back at work and hunting for deals online.

This year, online sales haven’t been doing so well. So, retailers are really hoping for a lot of Cyber Monday action. According to the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org, which coined the ‘Cyber Monday’ term, 84.6 million consumers plan to shop online from home or at work today, up from 72 million in 2007, says a Reuters news story.

—————————-

Are you shopping on Cyber Monday?
View Results

—————————- 

Over at Aliso Viejo’s Buy.com, a handful of Blu-ray DVDs are in the $15-range. Spider-man 3 is down to $9.99. Plus, at its own Cyber Monday store, there’s a 1 TB hard drive for $99.99 (after $30 rebate),  an 8 GB Kingston Technology microSD card for $18.88, and a Brother plain-paper fax and copy machine for $18.29.

Amazon.com continues to have ‘Gold Box’ deals all day long, plus it too has a special Cyber Monday store. (Ooohh, buy a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for $1,959.58, and get the Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player for $50!).

Just got this deal in my inbox from Walmart.com: Good through Friday, Dec. 5: A Samsung 10 MP camera with 2 GB memory card and case for $99 (though Walmart’s e-mail says it’s $79); a Compaq laptop plus printer for $498 and an Xbox 360 Guitar Hero bundle for $269. Plus, Walmart.com lets you ship-to-the-store for some items so shipping is “free.”

More tech sites that have done round-ups of the online deals today:

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • | 7 Comments »

Paypal ‘sponsoring’ Buy.com’s pre-Black Friday sale

November 24th, 2008, 12:01 am by

Buy.com will have its usual Black Friday sale on the day after Thanksgiving. But the Aliso Viejo Internet retailer is also prepping for what it expects to be its biggest day of the quarter so far: the day before Thanksgiving. It’s teamed up with online payment company PayPal to provide additional discounts.

Are the dot-com deals coming back? 

“To get to those prices at 85 percent off, we’re having partners come in and help,” said Jeff Wisot, Buy.com’s vice president of marketing.  ”On the day before Thanksgiving, PayPal is sponsoring that sale.”

Now… don’t get too excited. The only PayPal-sponsored deal Wisot shared with me was a $20 MP3 player that will include a $10 instant rebate if you use PayPal’s online payment service. Fifty percent is a nice discount, but I can’t imagine how good a $20 MP3 player can be in the first place. Let’s hope the PayPal savings goes beyond cheap electronic trinkets.

But back up. The Wednesday before Black Friday is a big shopping day?

“It’s an enormous day for us,” Wisot said. “It’s the biggest day of the quarter to date.”

__________________________________________

Are you planning to shop online BBF (Before Black Friday)?
  • Add an Answer
View Results

That is, it’s the biggest day of the quarter before Black Friday. Because of competitive reasons, Wisot won’t say if Wednesday sales have trumped Black Friday’s or the following Monday’s in prior years. And he’s not completely sure why people shop before Black Friday sales are available. But he has a few theories. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: news • • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Eat cheaper: Sale on Restaurant.com vouchers

November 20th, 2008, 3:06 pm by

Deal spotting: I’m in the midst of trying Restaurant.com for the first time because of this incredible deal posted on FatWallet offering an 80 percent discount on the company’s gift certificates. Use FatWallet’s link to get to the site and then type the code “SURPRISE” to get 80 percent off your purchase. The special deal ends today.

I just tried it and the code works. As for Restaurant.com, we’ll have to see. The  Arlington, Ill., company has a strange business model. It sells discount coupons to local eateries. Restrictions vary based on the restaurant.

Example, at Cask ‘n’ Cleaver in Orange, you would pay $10 for a $20 coupon off $35 purchase. Restrictions are the coupon can only be used Sunday to Thursday and dine-in only. Alcohol and beverage are extra. Also, for all restaurants, you’re supposed to use a coupon only once a month per restaurant. I bought one for Cask ‘n’ Cleaver, and paid $2. (My co-worker, Fast Food Maven, wrote about the site last year.)

While I’d often perused Restaurant.com for information — they offer menus to many restaurants — I never bothered to buy a coupon. It just felt odd to pay for a coupon. But the FatWallet deal did me in. I got a $100 coupon for a local steakhouse for $8 (instead of $40). Now, hopefully I’ll bother to go to see if it really works out.

For those wondering, the issues with the company vary. In FatWallet’s forums, comments mention the unreliability of the site when trying to order and that restaurant owners don’t get a cut of the money (!!).  Over at XPBargains, commenters remind users to read the fine print. But for the most part, people do say Restaurant.com works. I’ll post an udpate after I’ve actually experienced the whole process.

I know this isn’t a typical Gadgetress post, but in keeping with the Alt+Save theme, plus it’s an online site, I figured, why not share the bargain with readers?

More on deals:

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • • • | Comments Off

NTI software having a 50% off sale

November 20th, 2008, 10:20 am by

Spreading the word: If you’re in need of any backup, media-burning or multimedia creation software, Irvine’s New Tech Infosystms Inc., a.k.a. NTI, is having a Thanksgiving blowout sale and discounting everything at 50 percent off.

I’ve mentioned this company before. It’s a small Irvine firm that has occasional sales. Its back-up products have been around for years. 

Software products include NTI Backup, NTI Shadow 4, NTI Backup Now 5, NTI Media Maker 8 and for Mac users, NTI Dragon Suite. More are listed on this page: www.ntius.com/products.asp.

Just use the coupon code HOL50.

More deals news:

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • | Comments Off

Whoa! Another reason buy electronics at Costco

November 19th, 2008, 2:30 pm by

**Update, 11/20: One reader spotted a deal. See below in bold**

I’m already well aware of Costco’s generous 90-day return policy for computers and other electronic equipment, but I didn’t realize its online prices may be cheaper than they appear. 

I just spotted this page, which says: 

Electronics manufacturers sometimes ask that retailers not display a price if it drops below the manufacturers’ minimum advertised price. At Costco, we never sell anything at the manufacturers minimum advertised price. 

Because of this, we may show you a price on the item page but when you add it to your cart, the price may be lower. Be sure to always add the item to your cart to see costco.com’s lowest price. 

I never add an item to my cart just to double check the price unless the darn product says it won’t show me the price otherwise. However, this will definitely change the way I shop online for electronics at Costco.  

By the way, I just tried adding several items to my cart  but had no luck finding a lower price. If anyone finds one, let me know.

If you’re a Costco deal hunter, don’t forget to check out the upcoming Black Friday deals at BlackFriday.info.

**UPDATE, 11/20** Thanks to Jose in Anaheim who discoverd this unadvertised deal on the Nikon D300 camera. While the item does say “Add to cart for price,” down below the item, the price is listed as $2,539.99 plus an instant $300 off. That brings it to $2,239.99. But add it to your cart and the price drops to $1,999.99 — another $240 off. Here’s a screenshot (click to enlarge):

One other addendum, I agree with the second sentence of this reader’s comment.

More deals:

Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • | 3 Comments »

Contest alert: Canon looking for pop stars. Know any?

November 5th, 2008, 2:00 pm by

In this new age when anyone can be a pop star, anyone, apparently, can also start a contest to find America’s next star.

Canon U.S.A., the digital camera/scanner/printer company, just announced its version: the “So you want to be a pop star?” contest.

Let’s start with the prizes. Three finalists will get a trip to New York City, a pair of tickets to a local radio station’s holiday concert, a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS Digital Elph camera, makeovers, singing and dancing lessons and a meet and greet with “international pop star” Leona Lewis (Leona who? Oh.) The ultimate winner will also get $5,000.

But to even get a chance to be a finalist, you’ll have to invest some time and money into creating a 30-second video showing why you should be selected as a finalist. Submit it to powershot.com. The contest will accept entries until Nov. 30.  Three finalists will be selected and each will get to create a more professional 60- to 90-second video. Then it really becomes a popularity contest where the public votes on a favorite. The winner will be announced Jan. 5.

Now, whether those folks will actually become pop stars, that’s a whole other contest called reality sinks in.

Related contests/deals stories:

  • RadioShack offers gift cards for your old electronics
  • Free Wi-Fi for iPhone users is back, really!
  • 1 PC, multiple users, plus headlines that will save you money
  • Cox wants to give back to O.C.’s women-owned businesses
  • Avery giving away royalty-free art
  • Hulu.com offering LIVE presidential debates tonight
  • Alt+Save Weekend: Save money, win stuff this week

    • Posted in: Uncategorized • • • • • | Comments Off

    « Previous Entries
    SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline