SquareTrade

Samsung Combo HD-DVD Blu-Ray Player Releasing in January.

Every time you think you're out, they pull you back in.

Just around the time you'll be paying off all your Christmas bills, a new toy is hitting town.  Those of you biding your time during the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war will now can safely occupy neutral ground with the Samsung BD-UP5000 1080p HD-DVD Blu-Ray Disc Combo Player.

It's one of the first combo DVD players coming out, and one of the best-reviewed so far.  The best part is it renders the format wars entirely moot, and you can currently get this one for $200 off its MSRP of $1000.  For that kind of money, you'll probably want to slap a SquareTrade DVD player warranty on it.  After all, how may VCRs did you go through back in the day?

Amazon says they'll be available on January 15, 2008, but you can pre-order yours right now.  Or, alternatively, you could just go buy a 40 GB PlayStation 3 for $400 and find one of the many HD-DVD players hovering in the $200 range.  It all depends on how much you value your shelf space.

Special Two-Day HDTV Warranty Sale!

For two days only, you can get 33% off a SquareTrade HDTV warranty on new or used televisions, no matter whether you bought them from a store, an online retailer, or eBay, so long as you got it in the last thirty days.  Depending on the condition you bought it in and the options you decide to add, you can keep your four-figure toy protected for up to four years for 2/3 the normal price.  It's good to be the Santa.

And that's on a warranty that's already 40% less than what you'll find at retail stores, with a 5 Day Service Guarantee that you won't find at retail stores.  We fix it or reimburse your purchase price in five business days, or your warranty and the service are free.  Think we're joking?  Check out our reviews.

Just use coupon code TVSPECIAL on the checkout page to get the discount.  This offer is only good from 11/30 to 12/1, so move fast. 

Need an HDTV?  It so happens that both Best Buy and Circuit City have sales going on at this very moment. 

HDTV sale, HDTV warranty, HDTV insurance

Cheap HDTV Sale at Circuit City!

And while we're mentioning it, Circuit City's taking a big chunk out of select HDTV prices.  We're showing you a Samsung 50" 720p HDTV here that's only $120 off, but you'll find Samsung, Sony, and Panasonic televisions that knock anywhere from $500 to $1300 off.  Free shipping and delivery, too.

They aren't all top of the line, and some of them are a lot more television than you really need, but scout around and you'll likely find a good match for your budget.  And starting tomorrow, we're having a special two-day 33% Off sale on SquareTrade HDTV warranties (up to four years of coverage), so the timing's pretty good all around.

Best Buy Holiday Sales roll on: Televisions, Cameras, Computers.

The doorbuster deals may be gone for now (and it was perhaps the most thrilling six seconds of our entire lives), but your major electronics retailers aren't even pretending that the holiday shopping season only runs from Black Friday to Cyber Monday anymore.  It goes 24/7 now.

To prove the point, Best Buy's advertising a heady mix of online-only and in-store deals.  They're offering 10% off on select HDTVs, and while that doesn't sound like much, keep in mind these are four-figure items.  We located a nice on-sale 65" Mitsubishi 1080p HDTV for only $2000 (the next size up is about a thousand bucks more), and a Samsung 50" 1080p HDTV for $1530, and that's a good price in anybody's book.

Ah, but it doesn't end there.  You can also pick up your choice of HP Elite desktop computers for $185-200 off when you buy HP desktop bundles, which includes widescreen flatpanels and inkjet printers.  Which you'd have to get anyway.  You can also get 10% off select add-ons like wireless keyboards and wireless routers.

It hardly seems worth mentioning, but they're also pushing a 5-15% off sale on digital cameras and camcorders.  Dig down a bit and you'll find more interesting camera deals, like a JVC camcorder with a 30 GB hard drive for only $500 (that's $150 off the top). 

Our 20% Off coupon for a SquareTrade warranty (with or without Accidental Damage coverage) on any or all of the above is still good, too. 

Courage, America.

HDTV sales, Digital Camera sales, Computer Sales

Samsung's quiet Blackjack recall is officially False, but Blackjack problems are True.

It's always the little things that get you, isn't it? 

There's been a rumor over the last few days that Samsung has been executing an under-the-radar recall of the i607 Blackjack for units sold between November 2006 and February 2007 due to persistently dropped calls and poor reception.  The source of the problem is the wee internal antenna, which is coming loose or   breaking off entirely over time due to some strange wear and tear going on inside the phone itself.  Samsung has now released an official statement saying Yes, this is an actual problem, but No, there isn't really a recall.  They've chosen to deal with it on a case-by-case basis.  Wimps.

So, here's the deal.  If your Blackjack i607 has started behaving like a drunken sailor on his third straigt day of shore leave in Amsterdam, open the battery compartment and check the ID sticker for the date in YY MM format in the lower right side.  If it's between 06 11 and 07 02, call Samsung's Exchange by Mail hotline at 1-800-801-1101 and see if they won't give you a replacement phone.  Good luck finding anything in writing on their website, though, outside of their standard warranty agreement.

If Samsung doesn't pony up that new phone and you've got a SquareTrade cell phone warranty on that Blackjack, call us and we'll take care of it.  We tend to honor warranties where others won't.  If you've got a warranty with us and Samsung does replace your phone, be sure to call us to get a refund on the unused portion of your warranty and get the new one covered.

Samsung also mentions that they have "implemented some design changes to fix these issues and there have been no issues with call performance with all new hardware manufactured from and after March 2007."   Let's hear it for stronger glue!

Blackjack warranty, Blackjack insurance

Cyber Monday Deals: Circuit City, Xbox 360, iPod Sales, Oh My.

Any survivors out there?  Well, if you can still type with broken fingers and crushed spirits, feel free to use your office's precious bandwidth to scout out a few really good deals still in effect on the internet.

First and foremost, Circuit City is offering a 10% discount on any and all purchases over $249, but for in-store pickups only.  Hope that's not a reflection on their normal shipping charges.  PayPal is also giving you 20% cash back if you do business with any of their PayPal-friendly etailers, like Overstock.com, Ritz Camera, Toys R Us and HP.

Wal-Mart's extended its evil Cyber Monday deals through the whole week, and there are several choice items up for nicely discounted grabs.  Our favorites: a TomTom One GPS Bundle for $162, an HP 7 MP digital camera with printer and 1 GB memory card for $188, and a super-special Xbox 360 Premium package with two games bundled and a third for free (you choose from a list that includes Game Of the Year contenders Halo 3, Mass Effect, and Bioshock), a messenger bag, and an extra wireless controller, all for $399.  The Xbox is a today-only deal.

Best Buy's advertising a sale on all their Apple iPods, but really, it's pretty weak stuff.  Your iPod Nano sale price: ten bucks off.  Your iPod Touch sale price: fifteen bucks off.  Your iPod Shuffle sale price: four bucks off.  Rah.  We're much more excited about their $100 off TomTom GPS sale, which drops the price of the TomTom One even below Wal-Mart's, only it applies to every TomTom model. 

And then there's us: you can get a three-year SquareTrade warranty on all this stuff for 20-35% Off its normal price (which is already about 40% less than Circuit City or Best Buy's warranties), even if you add extra years of protection or Accidental Damage coverage.

Stay strong, folks.  It's not even December yet.  Just wait until you have to go find a tree.

iPod warranty, holiday savings

Amazon Customers Vote for Crazy Black Friday Deals.

While you ponder the wisdom of lining up for the newly-announced Best Buy Black Friday doorbusters, like a $229 Toshiba laptop with a Canon printer (we expect every store to have about ten of them) that's probably worth about that much, we feel it's our civic duty to tell you there's a less bone-breaking alternative. 

Amazon.com's keeping up their own tradition of virtual doorbusting with a slightly adjusted version of last year's voting system.  Basically, they're going through six rounds of voting on three items, and anyone who votes becomes eligible to get the goods at a ridiculously low price.  We're talking a Nintendo Wii for $80, a Panasonic SD-1 Hi-Def camcorder for $300 (about a third its normal price), HP Pavilion laptops for $300 (less than a third its normal price), and more.

The thing is, you have to vote to get the deal offered, and check back to see if you're getting that deal offered to you.  And if you do, and you buy something like, say, the Samsung 46" 1080p LCD HDTV for $714 (about a thousand bucks under blue book), then feel free to head over our way and get the SquareTrade warranty for it.  Depending on what it is and how much you took it home for, you might even have the option to add Accidental Damage coverage, or extra years of protection.

Not to mention the 35% Off holiday coupon that activates this Thursday, which is a pretty good deal, too.

Sure, sure, we know you really want to do the whole "running with the bulls" thing when the doors open Friday morning.  But for those who get the horns instead of the steak, now you've got some back-up.

Wii warranty, HDTV warranty, laptop warranty

New 3G iPhone Model Rumored for 2008.

Oh, don't look so surprised.  This is Apple, folks.  They release a new model of everything on a yearly basis, and you know it.

So the current rumor is that the new SKU for the Apple iPhone will be a 3G model available sometime in May, as leaked by Telefonica Spain.  Are we finally getting a high-speed iPhone?  Maybe, maybe not, but it definitely sounds like Apple's way of addressing the pain point that's kept the iPhone from really putting all its muscle to good use.   

Well, when it does show up, we'll have your SquareTrade iPhone warranty all ready for you, complete with optional Accidental Damage coverage.  If history is any judge, we'll still be just about the only people who do.

No word yet on how else a new 3G iPhone model might differ from the current 4 and 8GB models, but why should that stop anyone from guessing?  Let's start the rumors now: Haptic touch response?  GPS support?  T-Mobile plans?  Hey, this is fun!

new iPhone, iPhone insurance

SquareTrade Holiday Coupon for your Black Friday sales.

Anyone brave enough to survive the Black Friday wars deserves a reward.  And with all the fantastic deals on electronics this season, odds are you're going to want a warranty to protect those gifts you're passing out to those loved ones.

We've got you covered both ways. 

From November 23rd through January 6th, 2008, you can get an additional 35% Off your SquareTrade warranty, no matter where you shop.  Just use the coupon code WARRANTYSANTA on our checkout page. 

It's open to the first 5000 people who use it; after that, it drops down to a 20% Off discount.  You can buy the warranty in someone else's name, or buy it yourself and transfer it later in just a few minutes - and at no charge - to keep the surprise intact.

Sure, you could buy an overpriced, underwhelming warranty from the retailer, or you could get the ONLY warranty provider rated 5 Stars by its own customers, along with a 5-Day Service Guarantee and the ease of online management.  We even let you customize your warranty so you get the coverage you want, whether it's protection against Accidental Damage or extra years of coverage.

So by all means, buy your electronics at Amazon, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, eBay, or wherever you like... then login to SquareTrade.com, and get the best warranty around from us.

SquareTrade December coupon

Cheap Asus laptop gets its Linux on.

We've gotten our first good look at the Asus Eee PC laptop, and it might just be the perfect definition of "slow and steady wins the race."  Just don't make us say that name five times fast.  Bad words start coming out of our mouths.  More than usual.

Budget laptops can be a mixed bag, but with the Eee you're getting a 2-pound laptop with a 4GB solid state hard drive for only $399.  Even the keyboard feels sturdy - that's a major coup against its competition.  How did Asus cut the price down while keeping the quality up?  Simple... they didn't go with Windows, instead opting for a modified Xandros Linux operating system that works just fine.  Or even better, depending on who you ask.  There are other models that come in 2GB and 8GB, and Asus says Window-ready models are coming, but for the money, this one will probably do you just fine.

You're not going to be running super-cool video games and HD movies on it, but if you want a solid, inexpensive laptop to surf the web and perform normal computer-like tasks, this could be exactly what you're looking for.  Just don't forget to get an equally solid, inexpensive SquareTrade laptop warranty, and maybe even add a few options to cover all that unpleasant Accidental Damage from handling.

Oh, and Buy.com currently has free shipping on these suckers, too.

Asus warranty, laptop warranty, laptop insurance, cheap laptop, budget laptop