SquareTrade

Leap Year Sales catch some decent air.

We know you're thinking an extra day in February is just The Man's way of making you put in extra hours at the office, but it's also a handy excuse for big box stores to put things on sale. 

Best Buy doesn't have much other than the Vaio/Inspiron sale from three weeks ago and a bogus "$700 Off" home theater package that requires a $200 Geek Squad buy-in to save money on a TV that's already on sale elsewhere.  Circuit City, on the other hand, has a handful of electronics deals we like... such as a Philips DVD Player (non-HD, no-Blu) going for only $30... or $50, if you're lazy and don't mail in the rebate.  They've also knocked 33% off the price of the Garmin c340 StreetPilot GPS, or there's the TomTom ONE going for $167... down eighty bucks from normal. 

CC's desktop computer bundles and laptop sales are pretty joke-worthy ($30 off a $1000+ comput er just doesn't do it for us), but they are offering free 1GB memory cards with certain digital cameras, and some truly great deals on DV camcorders.  We particularly like the $270 they chopped from the price of the Canon HV20 HD Camcorder, putting it down to $730.  Not bad for a best-in-class device. And that's how you discount something.

Speaking of which, you can get 20% Off your SquareTrade warranty for any of these things (or anything else) from now through March 2nd... and that's on prices that were already about half what Circuit City would charge you.  That includes Accidental Damage coverage, too, if you want it.

Just use Coupon Code: MARCHSALE on our checkout page.  And do it while you're at work, too, just to stick it to The Man.  He deserves it.

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80GB PlayStation 3 gets bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4.

At the risk of coming off prejudicial based on a few earlier articles, we've got to say that the Sony PlayStation 3 is making a bit of a comeback.  It used to be the fifth-place finisher in a three-way race, but now they're pulling decent numbers with the retooled 40GB model, and they're gearing up to relaunch the 80GB model... metal gearing, that is.

That's right, word comes today from our friends at IGN that a new 80GB PlayStation 3 will come bundled with the long, long, long-awaited Metal Gear Solid 4 sometime in Q2 2008.  MGS 4 was already expected to be a huge system-seller for Sony, but it looks like they're definitely going to pull out every stop in order to catch up to the Xbox 360's install base. 

One of the major - and valid - complaints about the PS3 has been a lack of truly stellar games, but with Metal Gear Solid 4 arriving within the next four months, they could well be on the way to turning that tide.  Combined with Sony winning the format war and the PS3 being a Blu-Ray DVD player on the side, this could turn out to be a winning formula.  Oh, and we hear they'll finally get dual shock controllers, too.

It'll retail for the standard $500 that Sony typically asks for 80GB consoles these days, and it's eligible for a SquareTrade warranty.  Solid Snake, however, isn't.  C'mon, the guy's pushing sixty and running around a war zone in spandex.  Would you insure that?

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SquareTrade's Report on Xbox 360 Failure Rates.

After taking a good sample of SquareTrade warranties, we can report a 16.4% failure rate for the Microsoft Xbox 360.

These numbers represent 171 claims made on a sample group of 1040 Xbox 360 warranties purchased between April 1 and July 31, 2007, shortly after we began offering warranties on gaming consoles.  All claims were normal-use mechanical or electrical failures from non-commercial units.  No accidental damage issues were included.

PLEASE NOTE: this report only tracks this test group for a period of 6 to 10 months after warranty purchase (ending January 31, 2007).  Once this same test group is tracked for 24 or 36 months, the fail rate is certain to go up.  Our data shows that failures spike in the third month after warranty purchase but remain fairly steady after that, with only incremental drop-off until the eighth month.  This pattern is fairly consistent with all electronics failures. 

Also, after Microsoft's well-publicized warranty extension, it is possible some of our warranty owners are not reporting failures to us, but going directly to Microsoft.  If so, our 360 fail rate is skewing lower than is entirely accurate.

The sample group includes all three Xbox SKUs available at the time; 

•    27 Elites, the 120GB flagship model.
•    57 Core models, the basic package.
•    956 Premiums, the standard 20GB model.

Splitting out the Premium model results in a slightly higher fail rate: 17%.  The low volume of Core and Elite warranties/claims (one claim on an Elite, eight on Cores) in the sample group does not make them acceptable statistical candidates on their own. 

Out of the 171 claims, 102 were "Red Ring of Death" (RROD) general hardware failures.  This represents roughly 60% of all claims, and 9.8% of all warranties in the sample group.  It's believed that overheating is the main cause. 

Of the other 69 claims;

•    18% were disc read errors.
•    13% were video card failures.
•    13% were hard drive freezes.
•    10% were power issues.
•    7%  were disc tray malfunctions.

These would NOT be covered by the extended Microsoft warranty, and are therefore more reliable numbers. Overheating (without a Red Ring error), controller connectivity, and undetermined errors made up the balance of claims issues. 

In July 2007, Microsoft announced hardware changes to fix the Xbox's overheating problem.  It is unlikely any modified Xbox 360s were a part of our sample group.

Also in July, Microsoft extended their warranty to three years for RROD issues ONLY, with a $1 billion fund set aside to cover repair/replacement costs for "any Xbox 360 console that experiences the “three flashing red lights” error message."  We have referred our warranty owners with RROD issues to Microsoft since that time (and offered pro-rated refunds) while continuing to service all other 360 failures within our 5-day turnaround window.  Microsoft's turnaround is reportedly anywhere from one to three weeks.

SQUARETRADE
Analytics Team

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Apple bumps the iPod Shuffle to 2GB.

Okay, so maybe we got it backwards yesterday.  Amazon's not giving out free 1GB Apple iPod Shuffles with every iPod Touch to boost Touch sales... they're doing it to make room for the brand-new 2GB Shuffles.

That extra gig runs an extra $20, so you'll have to shell out a whopping $69 for the new Shuffle and $8 to protect it for 3 Years with a SquareTrade iPod warranty.  Or you could give AppleCare $39 for 2 Years.

Oh, and least we forget, we're chopping 20% Off all warranty prices from now through March 2 for everyone who uses Coupon Code: MARCHSALE on the checkout page.

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March Madness gives you 20% Off all warranties.

Between Basketball and St. Paddy's Day, there's a lot of crazy to like about March.  So you can bet we're gonna get in on some of that action ourselves.

From now through March 2nd, we'll help you kick off the month right by giving you 20% Off every SquareTrade Warranty, for any eligible item, even if you add Accidental Damage or extra years of coverage.  And let's face it... it's not like we weren't already giving you a 5-Day Service Guarantee and a fixed-or-cash policy at about half the price of a Best Buy or Circuit City warranty.

Just use Coupon Code: MARCHSALE on our checkout page, and make sure you've fully stocked on green beer.  It's going to be a wild one. 

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Amazon passes out Free iPod Shuffles with Not-Free iPod Touches.

Bam!  Unlike Palm's stingy swag, Amazon just busted out a nice piece of Free by offering a complementary 1GB Apple iPod Shuffle with every 32GB iPod Touch purchase.  They'll even let you pick the color.  If you think that's still a bit weak, consider that we've never seen a legitimate "Free iPod!" offer before that didn't involve signing up for a bunch of stuff.  And then never getting the iPod.  Curse you, lying internets!

So why are they doing this?  Our guess is to move some iPod Touch stock, which isn't doing as hot as its iPod brethren... though we seriously doubt it's prelude to dropping the SKU entirely, given how much play the 32 GB got in the JobNote a month ago.  But any way you slice it, you'll get 3 Years of protection with a SquareTrade iPod warranty on the Touch over 2 Years with AppleCare, for the same amount of money.  If you're talking the Shuffle, you can get 3 Years from us for $6.  Apple wants $39.  Your choice.

This is Amazon, so the offer's good until they take it down.  Which could be a month from now or sixty seconds ago.  They're a tricky bunch over there.

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Sony Cyber-shot W300 puts insane 13.6 megapixels in your pocket.

Been itching to photograph God?  Didn't think 12.1 megapixels on the Sony Cyber-shot DSC W200 could really do him/her justice?  Worry no more!  The Sony Cyber-shot DSC W300 just got a release date, and brings a ridiculous amount of image definition to the point-and-press camera with 13.6 megapixel shots and an ISO up to 6400.

You might ask why you need that much megapixelage in a pocket-sized camera when, technically speaking, anything at 7 or 8 megapixels is publication-quality.  Or you might start to wonder about all the noise that'll creep - nay, gallop - into your shots in anything less than broad daylight.  Possibly the W300 has compensated by including the W200's Super HAD (Hole Accumulated Diode) CCD design, allowing more light to pass to each pixel to increase sensitivity and reduce noise, but we haven't seen a full, official spec list yet.  That said, we do know it'll have the Super SteadyShot optical image stabilizing technology, 3x optical zoom, face recognition and a 3-megapixel burst mode.

It's dated for May, tagged at $350 (about fifty more than the W200), and eligible for a SquareTrade digital camera warranty with optional Accidental Damage coverage.  Check out the widget in the sidebar for an instant quote, and don't forget to make God say "cheese."  Hopefully she/he won't blink.

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Free Swag with Palm TX purchase not worth the price of Free.

Okay, so we like Free, and you like Free, but that's no reason to just go crazy with the Free all the time.  For example, you can - right at this very instant -  buy yourself a Palm TX handheld PDA for $300 and net yourself some bonus gadgety swag... but would you really want to?

Fair where fair's due, the Palm TX is a pretty good PDA, probably one of the best on the market.  You get a bright, sharp 4 inch screen and 100 MB of storage for music, video, contacts and appointment schedules, the ability to remote-connect to your computer and even subscription-based streaming TV, in a sleek, WiFi/Bluetooth-enabled package.  The thing is, for a hundred bucks more, you can get a ton more memory, a touchscreen, and phone functions on a number of other devices, not the least of which being the iPhone.

Ah, but that's there the swag comes in.  If you're teetering on the edge of buying a TX, what's more likely to tip you in but... a stripped-down el cheapo companion PDA!  For Free!  Yes, Palm's offering the (also) three-year-old Z22 PDA with every TX purchase, plus free ground shipping, plus $100 off all AudibleReady gear.  Considering you've just theoretically bought the TX, the Z22 - you can organize, you can look at pictures, that's it - can really only serve as a gag gift for someone you don't entirely like.

Palm's offer closes at the end of February.  If you've already got a phone and simply need to get organized, you could do a lot worse than the Palm TX, and much worse than getting a SquareTrade warranty for it, maybe even with Accidental Damage coverage.

The Z22 that comes with it?  That might make a nice chew-toy for your Cocker Spaniel.

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LG P300 ultra-portable laptop ships worldwide (except for U.S.).

Oh LG, why do you hate America?  Here we are, exporting all our Freedom, and you can't even throw us one little laptop.  You think it's easy being the world's policeman?  But no, the South Koreans got their LG P300 ultra-portable laptops in December, and now Europe is slotted to get them next.  We'll be third.  Third! 

When they  do deign to release them stateside - guaranteed, but unscheduled - we may finally know love as it was meant to be.  The P300's options range from cool to supercool, starting with choices ranging from a 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor to a 2.2GHz processor, anywhere from 120GB to 250GB hard drive NVIDA GeForce graphics (8600M GS with 256MB VRAM or 8400M GS with 128MB VRAM), all behind an LED-backlit 13.3 inch screen. And yet, Vista is the only OS on offer.  Strange.

It won't out-thin a Macbook Air or a Lenovo Thinkpad X300, but at 32 mm tall and 3.6 pounds heavy, you won't have much problem hefting this thing around.  Though it might be prudent to have a SquareTrade laptop warranty on it, given the estimated $2400 price tag. 

Maybe the exchange rate will work in our favor when they finally bring them over...?

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Sony Bravia Ultra Thin HDTVs dated and tagged.

And now we're starting to see prices and ship dates for those ultra-thin Sony Bravia HDTVs they flashed at us back at CES.  Unfortunately, most of them are in Yen, but it shouldn't be long before we get our dirty hands on them.

What we're showing you here is the 46" Bravia F-series with its super-awesome wall stand, which seems to defy the very power of physics itself.  Still, considering it's only 7.4 cm wide and judging by what we see in the picture, its center of gravity is low and all towards the back.  Sorry to take the magic out of it.  This model and its 40" brother are 1080p with a 3000:1 contrast ratio, three HDMI outputs, one Ethernet, and two S-Video, and break out at roughly $3700 and $2700.  There's also a 32" 768p version that prices in the mid-$1800 range.  They go live in Japan on March 25.  You may now weep.

Too much?  There's also got the smaller (and 6-inch thick) M1 series ranging from 16 inches to 2 0 inches, with 1366 x 768 resolution and two 1080p HDMI inputs each running at about $1000 and $840, respectively, also starting March 25 in Japan.  But it'll be worth the wait if they hit U.S. shores with all the different color variations available.  Naturally, we had to show you the pink one.

And once they hit our glorious shores, they'll all be eligible for a SquareTrade HDTV warranty, with an option to add extra years of coverage if you want.  Try out the widget in the sidebar to get an instant quote, and then cross your fingers.  Sony has to give these to us before too long.  We've all been very good.  We swear.

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