sracer

Both the Hitachi and RCA seem to be nice. Be careful of the "LED" reference on the Hitachi. It is an LCD TV (with LED edge-lighting). The RCA supports 1080i whereas the Hitachi only does 720P. I plan on trying to snap up the RCA as a 2nd monitor (and TV). If I get skunked out of one, I'll try for the Hitachi @ Radio Shack.

ok. So when they stopped handing out snow globes is when Black Friday went "mainstream"? The elitist attitude of the OP is repeated by other people in other niche hobbies.... and with that, the implication that the definition of "going mainstream" is anybody who joins in after I do. The whole sentiment is pretty silly. And blaming retailers for the added exposure is even sillier. As if none of the Black Friday campers brag about their scores to anyone who will listen. How many times do friends and family have to hear about the $50 computer or $75 entertainment system before they join in?

I find it ironic that someone using the Apple app store icon as their avatar is complaining about ANYTHING going "mainstream". LOL When exactly was that time when you remember that "only the most hardcore" knew Black Friday as Black Friday?

Fair play? They should do one ticket person period.

When to show up depends greatly on the location of the particular store. Here in the middle of Arizona (Prescott), if you aren't on line by 2pm Thanksgiving day then you will NOT be getting any doorbuster item. (That is if the previous 6 years are any indication)

Last year's BF "bargains" were the weakest since the last recession. Despite any spin about the recession being over, all true indicators are that the recession is deeper than last year with no signs of bottoming out. Given that, I expect the deals to be even weaker this year than last. Retailers know that when the economy is bad, there is little to no "coattail effect" on doorbuster items. Bargain hunters get in, get the doorbuster only, and get out. As for the non-doorbuster bargains, those prices are no more special than their regular sale prices. That's my prediction and I'm stickin' to it.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is that with the nook you can take your nook to any Barnes and Noble store and freely read any ebook (while you are there in the store). That's a nice little bonus above the Kindle.

So, did anyone else pick up the TomTom 125SE GPS @ Sam's Club for $57?

I did, though it wasn't Delstar when I picked it up on BF... it was an Augen. I ended up returning it within an hour. I was fully aware that it ran Windows CE. I'm a software developer of 30+ years and a mobile platform developer for 10. I've worked with various versions of WinCE and Windows Mobile. The WinCE on this netbook is the absolute worst that I've seen. They've included 3 media players. Although it claims to have wifi capabilities, it does not support encrypted (WEP, WPA, etc.) wifi. As I expected, it has a very basic version of Pocket Internet Explorer. It had trouble with any website more complex than the classic Google search webpage. My expectations of the device were absolutely rock-bottom... I was interested in experimenting with the "office suite" that comes preloaded. This device fell short of my expectations.

As someone who lives on computers (software developer of over 30 years) my own personal experience mirrors the consensus everyone here.... that there are no clear-cut better or worse machines. I've had higher end HP dv9000 die within 6 months. I've had numerous Dell machines go casters-up as well. The only consistently good machines that I've seen have been the BF specials (regardless of maker)... eMachine, HP, Compaq, Acer, Gateway, and Toshiba. All that those systems needed were a RAM upgrade. Obviously YMMV.

It is safe to say that considering that wide variety of first-hand experiences, that it is going to be difficult to narrow things down. Having said that, here are my impressions... Nikon. Stay away from low-end inexpensive Nikons. I've seen serious pincushion and fisheye problems with their lenses. As you move up their product line, the cameras improve significantly. Polaroid. Seems to get praise rooted in brand nostalgia than due to the technical merits. Definitely a case of you-get-what-you-pay for. Kodak. Pretty inconsistent across models. Some are decent, some are horrendous. Panasonic. Not the first name that comes to my mind for digital cameras, but their Lumix series is surprisingly good. IMO, the best deal is: Panasonic ZS1 10MP for $199 @ Costco.

Nice. Getting in line here at 9pm will guarantee a 100th spot in line.

If we're going to play the game of semantics, then it would be NOTEBOOKS not laptops. But that is silly. The reason why I pointed it out was in the context of the comparison spreadsheet that was posted a few posts prior to smooth3d's claim. That spreadsheet includes those WinCE smartbooks. There is no differentiation in the spreadsheet between notebook, laptop, netbook, and smartbook. Someone examining the spreadsheet and hearing the claim that all notebooks support flash/java might incorrectly assume that those WinCE devices were included.

Not true. The two Windows CE-based notebooks available on Black Friday cannot play flash or java games.

No they can't. Try it. It may be on a per-store basis, but try lining up now and you will be told that you can't do that.