Marcster

Of those three brands, Acer is held in the highest regard. Emachine and Soyo are basically "generic". Acer, Samsung, Viewsonic, Dell, LG, Benq, HP, Lenovo -- those are the "top shelf" brands.

Brad, you're the man! At first glance, this will be one of my stops. Still waiting to see what Office Depot & the rest of the Staples ad holds...

Last year I bought a hard drive & TomTom LE through BestBuy.com (on Thanksgiving) for the Black Friday price... Much better than waiting in line. http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Yes/nod.gif I might try to pick up a Sandisk Fuze the same way (Radio Shack and Best Buy have 'em on sale this year).

Beat the rush -- The Quickfire is available for $29.99 right now at Radio Shack in Green/Silver. Orange/Silver, or (all) Silver, with your 2 year upgrade. That's with no rebate shenanigans! http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Mil-Positive/yesssmileyf.gif Go here: http://radioshackwireless.com/template/simpleautocontent.aspx?r=radioshack&pageid=2769&refcode1=RSK_0501_001_wirelessphonesandplans Choose "AT&T upgrades" from the link on the left. These phones might be available in your local Radio Shack store too (call first) -- they carry some, but not all of these phones locally. Radio Shack's prices on all of their cell phones typically beat AT&T corporate stores -- for phones that are $79.99 after a $50 rebate at AT&T, they'll be $49.99 at Radio Shack.

No, that would break rule #4. See above.

Home Depot and Lowes both send out the work to outside contractors. Cut some of that overhead buy going to an independent carpet store or find an independent installer.

TomTom units have at least 10 color profiles that you can choose from, and you can download more. Or create your own (you can create a new profile on your computer) -- want to make bodies of water purple? Go for it.

The POI list is very important -- otherwise you have a web-enabled phone and don't mind using Google to search for an address, but even then, it can get really old to have to hand-key addresses for restaurants, hotels, sporting venues, etc. that you want to drive to. Even 6 million isn't perfect, BTW. There are still things that are missing.

Nextar isn't nearly as popular as TomTom, Garmin and Magellan. I'd pass, unless it was $45. There really isn't any reassurance that they'll be releasing map updates. 1.6 million POIs is nowhere near the 6 million available on most GPS units. That leads to a lot of tedious searching for and then hand-keying in the addresses for where ever you want to go.

Nextar isn't nearly as popular as TomTom, Garmin and Magellan. I'd pass, unless it was $50. There really isn't any reassurance that they'll be releasing map updates. 1.6 million POIs is nowhere near the 6 million available on most GPS units. That leads to a lot of tedious searching for and then hand-keying in the addresses for where ever you want to go.

Here's an Acer 8.9" with Windows XP and 160GB hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220441 (nice price at $349!) That Dell is not compatible with the coupon code, so yeah, you'd be looking at $399. However, the small screen and diminutive keyboard make them best suited for surfing the 'net and that sort of thing, not exactly for typing papers or light gaming, unless you hook up an external monitor and full-size keyboard.

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Congratulations/clap.gif

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Yes/gdyeahthat.gif But be prepared -- even at TJ Maxx, they're still $159.99.

Article about the Starbucks offer... http://www.kirotv.com/news/17885256/detail.html

It's under the Control Panel.Go here: http://forums.gottadeal.com/profile.php?do=editsignature

I recommend getting a DVD recorder and using your existing VCR -- dub them over that way and you won't need the VCR anymore. Think of it this way, once you have them dubbed over, you won't need the VCR anymore.

We go to my MIL's. She does it family-style (take some and pass).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmark_holiday http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/LOL/felizo1.gif

1st generation Zunes were closed out at rock-bottom pricing.

And another player to recommend would be the Sansa FUZE: 2GB for $79.99, 4GB for $99.99, or 8GB for $119.99. It has a MicroSD card slot so you can easily expand for more storage! Compatible with Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody To Go, Napster, & eMusic. Plays music, videos and photos... Guided tour: http://go.shopsansa.com/content/fuzegt For more storage, the Sansa VIEW goes up to 32GB: http://go.shopsansa.com/content/view I have a little Sansa Clip (4GB) and I think it's great. Speaker systems are available for both the FUZE and the VIEW.

I think the real debate over GPS units is between TomTom and Garmin. From personal experience (I've used both), I think TomTom is more accurate, and has more information on the display than Garmin, but the Garmin might be slightly easier to program. Our listing agent has a Magellan that requires you to enter the Zip Code (not the city/state) of any address you want to visit (unless it's already in the POI list). That's a pain when the address you have might be from an ad that says "100 Main St., Anytown, PA", or the address given to you from a friend, "I live on 233 Elm St. over in Columbus." You would have to go to USPS.com and look up the Zip Code - an extra step. Her Magellan is ancient, they might have changed the system since then.

You're quite welcome! http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/Marcster2005/Smileypad/Happy/birthday_kangaroos.gif

Threads Merged. ----- I've added all of the latest GPS units that we know will be on sale for Black Friday (so far). The discounts aren't as deep as they were last year...

Around here they advertise in on the back page of the coupons inserts in the Sunday paper.

Maybe it's a Pennsylvania thing, but the grocery stores I frequent have apple cider year round. The price is higher when it's not on sale (during the Fall season), but it is available.