SquareTrade

More Plasma HDTV Super Bowl Deals.

Well, it's nice to see somebody's making an effort.  If Best Buy won't step up to the Super Bowl HDTV  Sale plate, how about Fry's Electronics?  Sure, they have the most annoying commercials in the known universe, but what matters that to our greed?

Just a little poking around on Fry's website (which is about on par wi th their commercials) revealed two very nice sets that will present you with a character-defining choice.  First, you've got the Samsung 50" 720p Plasma HDTV.  It's got Samsung's patented anti-burn-in technology, three HDMI ports, and a filter system to counteract bright environments.  It's fairly huge, and the picture looks pretty damn good.

Then you've got a Panasonic 47" 1080p Plasma HDTV, with twice the resolution of the Samsung, an anti-reflection coating on the screen and a built-in SD card slot if you want to show your digital photo slideshow in Hi-Def. 

Both normally go for $2000, and both are currently priced at $1400. 

Really, it's your choice on whether you want a bigger picture or a sharper one.  But either way you go, you can still get a SquareTrade HDTV warranty on it, for a lot less than Fry's or anyone else will charge.  And if you get it on or before February 3rd, you can get 33% Off on your warranty, too.  Just use Coupon Code SUPERBOWL on the checkout page.

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Garmin Nuvifone revealed.

Okay, we knew this was in the works, but it caught just about everybody by surprise last night when Garmin uncorked its upcoming iPhone-like handset, the Nuvifone, without nary a hint or warning that an announcement of any kind was forthcoming, for anything.  And while we admire their anti-guerilla marketing technique in the age of teasers and spoilers, Garmin's first (and only) smart phone is shaping up to be gadget worth your time.

What we're seeing so far is essentially Garmin transferring it's GPS touchscreen technology to an iPhone-sized case, shoving in all their normal GPS functions, then adding phone, media player (MP3s and MP4s), camera and web surfing features on a home-grown browser.  An iPhone, basically, only with a few uniquely Garmin touches.  Such as real-time traffic, weather, stock, and fuel price reports, a handy "where'd I park?" feature, and location-tagged photos.  It'll also be the first Garmin to perform Google local searches (stomping right on Apple's firmware 3.1.1.), all from its iPhone-sized 3.5" screen.  There will be voice prompting on directions, but no word yet on whether it'll have text-to-voice (which is the difference, for those who don't know, between "Turn Right Here" and "Turn Right on Market Street").  Garmin's release photos strongly suggest it'll flip between portrait and landscape views just as easily as a... well, you know.

The Nuvifone is targeted for a Q3 release, and it'll be eligible for a SquareTrade cell phone warranty when ours it finally arrives.  We'll hopefully find out who's carrying it and how much it'll cost by then, too.

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Deal of the Day: a Super Bowl-Ready Panasonic 42" Plasma HDTV.

Day three of Circuit City's Super Bowl-themed Deal of the Day series, and finally they've rolled out a Plasma.  That's a good thing, because usually it's LCDs that get all the love.

Today, however, is a new day, and Circuit City has kindly lopped $400 off the price of the Panasonic 42" Plasma HDTV (model TH-42PX75U).  It's a 720p entry-level set, which means it's not the top resolution and there's no anti-glare screen, but that doesn't matter if your lighting arrangement is decent.  Everything we've read on the model says it's a good picture quality, particularly for the money... and it's always nice to see a plasma panel of this size going for a cool $1000.  CC's still running their 36 month no-interest financing as well, if you're interested.  It's up for the whole of today, and gone tomorrow.

And just for laughs, here's a quick comparison.  Circuit City's 3-Year Advantage Plan for this Plasma costs $250.  We just used the widget in the sidebar to get a quote for a 3-Year SquareTrade HDTV warranty: it's only $120.  Same warranty, only ours works better.

Of course, if you use Coupon Code SUPERBOWL on our checkout page sometime on or before February 3rd, you'll get 33% Off that $120.  Just sayin'.

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New Gateway Desktop releases with Dual Format DVD player.

 It's true we sometimes forget they're still making computers you can't fit inside a manila envelope, but we've always liked us some Gateway no matter what size they come in.  And it so happens they're dropping two new desktops on us today: Big and Na' So Big.

The latter is the Gateway GT5662, an AMD quad-core machine with a 500GB hard drive, 3GB of RAM and a ATI Radeon HD 2400XT graphics card, and that's probably good for what you need if you only want to spend $750 to type some emails and surf some web.  But then there's the Gateway GM5664,  which is very much more a multimedia computer.

How much more?  Well, apparently, somebody at Gateway didn't get the memo (or else it's time to liquidate those soon-to-be obsolete dual-format DVD players), because the GM5664 sports a Hybrid-SuperMulti optical drive that plays both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, as well as your standard issue DVD-RWs.  The CPU bumps up to a 2.3GHz AMD Phenom 9600, which you'll need if you really want to use the 1TB hard drive and its internal analog/digital TV tuner.  All together, it runs $1150, which is only about $150 more than the last dual format DVD player we looked at.

Both are eligible for a SquareTrade computer warranty.  It's true Gateway's warranty is one of the very few warranties that's a little cheaper than ours, it has to be said that ours is the best rated warranty on the market, period.  Also, their service agreement specifically doesn't cover "normal wear and tear," whereas ours specifically does.  Feel free to compare the two, prices and all.

But hardware-wise, we bow our heads.  Now if we could only get them to ship those babies without Windows Vista...

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Circuit City's Deal of the Day: LG 42" LCD HDTV.

And they're at it again.  Circuit City's still chopping prices on random HDTVs for one-day only sales, and today's special is $300 off on an LG 42" 720p LCD HDTV.  Oh sure, they say it's $400, but that's on the MSP.  They sell it for a hundred bucks under that.  The upshot is the thing will run you $1000.

Now, it has to be said that this isn't a top-of-the-line set... a better (and bigger) HDTV went on CC's chopping block just yesterday, for $500 off.  There's no way to know if tomorrow's daily deal might be better, but we've definitely seen better from Circuit City.  If, however, this television is right in your price range and you're not interested in a level of detail that lets you examine Denzel Washington's skin pores, you'll find the 3-Year SquareTrade HDTV warranty is equally affordable... much more so than Circuit City's. 

And if you use our 33% Off Coupon Code on or before February 3rd, it really becomes no contest.

That just leaves us with one pertinent question: Where are thou, Best Buy? 

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Panasonic Lumix TZ5: Big Camera, Small Package.

Right on the cusp of PMA and following Canon's vastly encheapened PowerShot line, it looks like Panasonic's stepping things up for their already excellent Lumix TZ line of digital cameras. 

Sure, you've got the Lumix TZ4 8 megapixel shooter and its 28mm wide-angle lense with 10X optical zoom running at $300, but take a tip and pony up an extra $50 for the TZ5.  That gives you all of the above, 9.1 megapixels, a superfine detail 3" screen (half an inch more than the TZ4 and twice the dpi), and something we don't really see in a point-and-press: the ability to shoot 720p Hi-Def video.  That's right, Panasonic's taking their camcorder know-how and crammed it into a itty-bitty camera.  We like.

They didn't stop there, either.  Panasonic's finally hopped on the optical image stabilization train with the TZ5, then threw in intelligent motion-sensing ISO, smart face detection for up to fifteen people in a single frame - about twice the going rate - continuous autofocus (no more half-pressing the shutter) and an intelligent exposure system that auto-corrects under or overexposed pics. 

And if you want to make sure all that fun stuff stays in good working order for years to come, feel free to do a little comparison shopping and see if a SquareTrade digital camera warranty is the best deal around.  It is, but don't take our word for it.  Read a few reviews, get an instant quote with the sidebar widget, and then check out our competition (incidently, those are the same guys who handle Best Buy and Circuit City's warranties).  We'll wait right here.

Actually , we'll probably go get ourselves a new camera while you're off doing your due diligence.  We thought the TZ3 was nice, but guess what just jumped to the top of our list.

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Great HDTV Deals for Super Bowl Sunday.

Well, we continue to find ourselves disappointed thus far with Best Buy's HDTV sale offerings, so we've pointed our browsers elsewhere and found many, many wonderful things.

Circuit City, for example, in addition to their other television sales, had brought back the Deals of the Day that were so popular last holiday season, only now with a Big Game twist.  Today's big deal: an Olevia 47" 1080p LCD HDTV.  We don't think this is the same 47" Olevia that took Wired Magazine's Best LCD award (over Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, et al), but even though the model numbers don't match up, the specs do.  And Circuit City's knocked $500 off the price, leveling it out at $1100, which really is a super deal.

Not content with that alone, we also found something in the "Size Matters" category.  Overstock.com has a 72-inch Toshiba CinemaSeries DLP HDTV, a projection television that will pretty much wins out in the More Power category no matter who your neighbors are.  Brand new, this sucker runs $4800.  Overstock's letting them go for $2650. 

Naturally, you'll want to make sure those sets are working for a while.  You can put a SquareTrade HDTV warranty on them for less than just about any retailer would charge, particularly if you use Coupon Code SUPERBOWL to knock 33% off your warranty's price.  It's good for any HDTV warranty purchased on or before February 3rd.

Downsides: that 72" probably wouldn't make it to your home before kickoff on Sunday (though you could still get the warranty on it with the coupon, no problem).  The Olevia?  Available for in-store pickup or free delivery, with 36-month interest-free financing.

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Best Buy's late HDTV sale.

Well, it's nice to see that Best Buy is finally getting in the game. 

A quick peek at their Midwinter Sale page - specifically, the 'too late to make it into the flyers!" page - and you'll find about a dozen LCD and Plasma HDTVs on sale in an attempt to one-up Circuit City's more robust sale.  The Best Buy sale has the benefit of including a few Plasmas - like $400 off the Panasonic 50" 1080p Flat-Panel Plasma HDTV - which Circuit City does not.  However, you won't find a discount much over $500 here... though that does put a good Toshiba 1080p 47" LCD down to a very affordable $1500. 

Also very affordable: a SquareTrade HDTV warranty, which is thirty bucks cheaper on that Toshiba than Best Buy's warranty (and better reviewed, too), and that's before you use Coupon Code SUPERBOWL to knock 33% Off your warranty's price.  Assuming you use it on or before February 3rd.

Despite all this, we still can't help but feel Best Buy's holding back, though we're not quite sure what for.  Are they really expecting people to panic-buy an HDTV mere days before the big game?  And of course, their lack of a free autographed football could be a deal-breaker. 

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Sony releases the Mylo 2.

Hey, want to spend $300 on a pocket PC that does everything a top-end smartphone does, minus the phone part?  Sony's just released the slick-looking Mylo 2 for immediate preorder.  First units ship in just three days. 

Don't get us wrong, we're sure the new update to 2006's PDA works just fine, and the new Mylo adds the 1.3 megapixel camera that its predecessor was lacking. The music and video media playing and web browsing is all there, like it should be.  You can put a SquareTrade warranty on it for not a lot of money, and even protect it against Accidental Damage if you want.  We're just not sure that the Mylo 2 - which only has 1GB of internal memory, no touchscreen or GPS (or even GPS Lite map functions) - is really enough versus all the possible alternatives. 

If, on the other hand, you text more than you call, and you don't mind paying Skype to call non-Skype people, and you don't have an iPod or PSP, and you really like getting McDonald's Wi-Fi network access for free, then don't let us hold you back.  Owning a Mylo 2 is your God-given right.

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Cheap new Cannon cameras are worth it and more.

There are just so many new digital cameras dropping at PMA this year, we don't really know where to start, so we'll boil several days of gob-smacking coolness down to just two things. 

First off, Cannon decided to kick the legs out from under the el cheapo point-n-press camera market by releasing a bunch of high-end cameras at low-end prices.  No joke.  We'd expect something like the Canon PowerShot A590 IS to run somewhere in the $300 range... it's an 8 megapixel with 4x optical zoom lens and optical image stabilization, which is enough to bump up the price, but it's also got an interchangeable lens - telephoto, wide, and close-up.  All this, and it's expected to retail at $180.  Incredible.  If you don't want converter lenses and have a steady hand, the Canon PowerShot A580 drops the price down to $150.  Expect these around March.

Meanwhile, over on the SLR front, things are just getting ridiculous. Who in their right mind needs at 14.6 megapixel camera?  YOU do, sailor!  Pentax has reconfigured their old K10 mainstay into the K20D DSLR, a beast of a camera running off an all-new sensor, with six preset shooting options, a huge amount of in-camera development options and a special high contrast function for bright settings.  That's good, because at 14.6 and a top 3200 ISO (expandable to 6400) we've got to figure there's going to be some grain creeping into the snaps you take in anything less than broad daylight.  Still, it's got a custom noise reduction settings, and Pentax is claiming higher resolution than even 35mm film, so we'll have to see.  At $1300, this one is not a budget camera.  Unless you're Sir Richard Branson, and you want to take a really cool "Earthrise" pic.  It'll be out around April.

So, it'll be really inexpensive to put a SquareTrade warranty on the new PowerShots, and vital investment protection on the Pentax, especially with Accidental Damage coverage.  Every other camera in the world will pretty much fall somewhere in between. You can get an instant quote with the sidebar widget to see if the price is right for you.

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