len_mullen

I usually just stand in line in warm clothes. This year, though, if the pickins are good, I'll head out with a chair (I have two chairs I was going to throw out at the end of camping season) and my mp3/4 player (it plays movies).

Next year will be the year of the LCD tv. LCDs are inexpensive, use less energy, and are about to get very good. Two new technologies will put LCDs under everyone's tree: 1) the refresh rate will double (Toshiba already sells 120hz sets). This will make the sports nuts happy. Replacing fluorescent backlighting with LED backlighting will dramatically improve image quality -- so much for laser projection sets. The third development will be that 1080p will become the standard -- less jaggies. Everyone knows this so the vendors will need to compete on features and price. Good for us , of course. And this year's technology will need to be cleared out, so maybe you can put a 42" lcd in the garage PCs will be hot again next year. Vista machines are worth buying this year -- but none of the machines worth buying were offered at BF prices. Next year I expect Vista laptops and desktops to be the rage. Big LCDs, big disks, fast cpus, memory, and video cards are getting cheap. Readyboost devices are in freefall. Vista sales are not meeting expectations. We are going to see some amazing Vista computers on the shelf next BF. Big change will be that laptops will finally run games well as AMD leverages their ATI purchase and Intel teams with nvidia. My kids got vista desktops this year, so we will be looking at excellent laptops next year. Finally, a Digital SLR in every stocking. It really doesn't cost anything to make a good digital camera. Now that we all have point'n'shoot cameras and the early adopters are broke, the DSLR makers will give us all amazing cameras. These same folks will deliver the first useful solid state video cameras next year -- but not for BF (64g solid state drives are under $1000 now). And I need a GPS that listens to me -- "take me to Disneyworld." See you all next year!

Marc, I think you messed up. I had planned to get a TT and a 2100t from staples then return one. I was only able to get the 2100t. I've been using it for a week and I don't know how you can beat it for $100. As a GPS it tickles me. I switched from 2d to 3d and back. Great options. When I approached a complex exit, I appreciated the lane view of the highway. I like the speech to text too. Yesterday I activated my traffic updates. Free for life? Wow! On my way home tonight, I was warned three times of traffic problems and rerouted around them. It may be slow and the keys may be small, but I don't notice. I'm just enjoying my new co-pilot. Thanks for hosting this thread. It was a lot of help to me.

For me, it was worth it. I decide to go out on BF if there is one store that, if I get in on time, will make my day a success. This year, that store was Staples. I got up at 4:00 and arrived at the store at 4:30. I got in line with ~30 others. The manager started handing out vouchers at 5:30. When I got one for a $100 gps (navigon 2100t), it was worth it. The $80 500g usb drive, thumb drives, DVDs, and 11.4" digital frames were all icing on the cake. Best part -- I was back in bed by 6:30!

I shopped Staples first this year. I was amazed at how well they handled BF. I arrived at the store at 4:30 expecting to sit in my car for an hour. There were already 30 people in line, so I joined them. At 5:00 the employees arrived. A manager came out and thanked us for our patience and promised to be out shortly with the tickets. She came back out about 5:30. Thanked us again for our patience and distributed the tickets. Shortly before 6:00 she came out again, thanked us for our patience, and explained that people with tickets for TVs should use the two leftmost registers, people with tickets for GPS devices should use the two rightmost registers, and that everyone else should use the middle registers. As we entered the store, she thanked each of us. I grabbed a few items and headed to the rightmost registers. I was in my car by 6:30. The experience was pleasant and very well organized.

I arrived at Staples at 4:30. I expected to sit in my car for an hour, but was surprised to already see ~30 people in line. I hopped in line and waited for the fun to begin. The manager arrived at 5:00 and announced he would be out with vouchers in a few minuted. I was concerned that I might miss out -- plan B was to hit Radio Shack. There were 19 2100t vouchers -- I got #17. Then came the TTs -- there were only 12 and i wasn't even close. The manager walked away with 3100 vouchers. So, fate and a late start selected my GPS for me. I had to open it right away. After a minute or so, a map popped up showing me a couple hundred feet from my road. I added my work to my favorites and looked at some POIs. I had no problem entering data. The user interface is intuitive. It was sluggish entering a destination as it tried to 'autocomplete' my entries, but I got used to that quickly. The traffic card was right in the box. I'm looking forward to being re-routed around traffic jams on my daily commute. I don't know how this can be beat for $100. The couple behind me in line were TT users looking for a second GPS. It was great to be able to talk to someone with so much hands on experience with a TT. He got a 2100t as well.

The frames show videos as well, so wide screen is probably for that.

They will be better, cheaper, and bigger next year. I'll probably get another one This is my third.

I'm going to arrive at Staples just before 5:00am. If I judge the line to be too long, I'm off to RS. If RS has a line, it's back to bed I think GPS prices are going to be flat between now and Xmas.

I have always BF'd at Staples and buy most of my tech toys there. In the past, they have been up front about the BF deals and helpful during reconnaissance missions. This year the manager is 'not even sure if they will have the items in the leaked ad.' He has no idea how much merchandise he will have on hand and most of the BF items are not even on display. The Navigons were on the display counter but powered off -- defective units, he said. If I buy the Omnitech 11.3" frame sight unseen or have to compare two GPS devices *after* getting them home, that is just me dealing with their tactics. If the manager is unhappy about this, I can't help that. I don't understand the secrecy surrounding BF. If I were trying to sell lots of great merchandise at great prices, I'd want everyone to know that I had plenty of the right stuff at the best prices. When the merchants are coy, I think they are probably hiding the fact that their prices are not the best or that they don't have enough merchandise. I don't do Walmart for this reason. Next year, I may pass on Staples too.

I guess we all agree. This is not good -- I'll have to get up earlier. I'm Staples bound. I plan to get a 2100 and a tt-one. If you are undecided, buy both and decide later. Don't feel bad about taking merchandise off the shelf -- if Staples had made these available for examination before BF we would not need to go this way.

You're a coward, Marc, but I agree with you. I like the real time traffic enough to pay for map updates. Besides, next BF we may be waiting in line for the next generation of GPS hardware. I think market forces will lead to free/cheap/third party map updates for all -- even if the maps are sponsored by Google Same for expanding the POIs.

I haven't seen one that does not, but there are too many to say for sure that they all do. Google the models for features and see what you see. If you cannot find information for one, post the model/ad here and I'll see if I can.

There are not two LCDs in the box -- just one LCD and two interchangeable frames that are mounted to the LCD. My pandigital came with a wood grain and a black frame. For all these frames, I highly recommend a little scouting. Image quality, package construction, and user interface vary widely. If the frames are not yet out for display, buy extras and return the ones you don't like to be sure to get the BF price.

Minor mention of the Navigon 2100 on the Short List. Was this compiled before you saw the review on gpslodge? Reading the review and visiting the experiencenavigon site, I think it has more going for it than free traffic service (which covers a wide area around the 68 cities). I'm going to grab one of these and a TomTom. If the traffic feature works as advertised and the user interface is even tolerable, I think the Navigon 2100 is the deal. Text-to-Speech and Reality View are icing on the cake. Who can't afford to make a $100 mistake?

I think the 7" frames are the smallest that look good, but I can see smaller frames on a desk. The 7" frames are ~$50 -- I got one at Staples for that price last month. Offciemax has a Pandigital 5.6" frame for $30 (after rebate; maybe hard with a gift). The 11" frames are striking and will be <$100 at RS and Staples. I think these are the sweet spot right now. Resolution is different than size. Just as important, but different. When I got my Pandigital last year, I was disappointed with quality of the images I was loading from my (older) digital camera. The photos I scanned and images from a newer, higher resolution camera looked much better. If you are going to load images from a camera, check the resolution of the camera -- it should be as high or higher than the resolution of the frame. If you want to gift one of these, load it with images ahead of time. While geeks like the cool technology, others are intimidated by *any* technology. Shifting the focus from the frame to the images will make this a better gift for technophobes.

I found it right here on this site. Go to... http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/BlackFridaySales/Store/RadioShack Search the page for photo and click the camera beside Digital Photo Frame with 11.3" LCD Display. That will bring up... http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/black-friday-3538-DigitalPhotoFramewith113LCDDisplay.html which is kind of generic, so I went to RS and asked to see the 11.3" frame that would be $100 on Friday. This is the frame I was taken to. If I search the RS site for the part number in the scan, I find... http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2911612&cp which is a 10.4 frame. This *may* be the frame I was looking at. I didn't have a ruler and this is the right price and manufacturer. It looks the same. The image was big and beautiful. If the 11.3 number is incorrect, I won't complain...much.

Sage advice, emdiva. I was at my local Radio Shack and Staples stores tonight and learned that 1) RS has two 2100's in the store. These do not have the traffic bonus. They will not have any in for BF due to a problem with the packaging. 2) Staples is being coy about everything BF and talking down the 2100. In fact, all Navigon units in the display case were unpowered -- manager said they were defective. He said that GPS would be distributed first come, first server via voucher. He was such a thorn that I am going to buy a Navigon and a TomTom and return one later.

There are never lines at my RS. I usually hit it after Staples and always get what I want. I stopped in there tonight and was told they have a *lot* of these. The girl said there was no limit on quantity. The frame looks amazing. It's high resolution, the colors were nice, and the frame was attractive. The controls were intuitive and it comes with a remote. I'll get one or two. Here is a web site with info on the frame... http://smartpartsproducts.com/content/index.php The RS frame is SP113MW. Watch the video. These have nice features. Staples had an SP15MW on display that was not working properly. I don't know how this reflects on the technology or the brand, but it looked as bad as the RS frame looked good.

I just asked this at my Staples. I was told they would not adjust to BF prices and would not match other BF prices.

I'm thinking about this one... http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/black-friday-3538-DigitalPhotoFramewith113LCDDisplay.html

you're welcome

I think the Post-BF prices for GPS will resemble the BF prices. If I don't get out BF, I think I will be able to do well on Monday or as Christmas gets closer. There isn't much to a GPS. They have been priced to their value (it's worth $1000 for some people to never be lost). Now they are a commodity and going forward their price will be tied to a reasonable profit. Good for us.

it's the diagonal of the part that displays the picture.

I got the pandigital 7" frame at Kohls last BF. I think it was $80 and they gave you 10% off if you used the Kohls card and $10/50 spent, so it ended up being ~$60. I got three and gave two as gifts. I had compared the frames for features and image quality and found this superior -- the Optimus frame was not as nice and the image did not look as good to me. I liked this frame so much that I bought another for $49.99 at Staples last month. We have it loaded with still images running a slide show. It sits on a piano in the dining room and I cannot pass through the room without stopping for a few seconds. Hundreds of pictures of our kids growing up. I'm going to put a compilation of our home movies on the other. No sound, just the clips. I'm stopping into RS this week to check out the 11.3" frame. If it looks good, I'm in. It's important to use high res images for best results. Digital images from a few years back are not good enough to play on these frames. Images from our 7m camera or scanned from stills look great. My frames run on AC as well as batteries. We use AC. They take lots of media types. We use 1g sd cards. These cards are not for everyone. I see people who think they are a TV -- turn them off except to watch. You really want to run them 7x24 (it costs pennies a year to run these). Good luck!