Play.com £5 sale

So play.com are having a sale with a lot of items for £5. Unfortunately, all they've managed to do is highlight the myriad problems that afflict them. For example:

• They won't ship electronics to Ireland, so a whole category is ineligible for purchase.
• The exchange rate on this sale is almost £1 = €1.49 as opposed to the more realistic £1 = €1.24 (source: xe.com)
• Some of their items have increased in price for the sale! This fondue set was £3.99, now £5.00! Only, at power ci- I mean, play.com!
  

So, caveat emptor. They are still a reasonable bet for your purchases but not totally without problems.

N.B.
I see boards have picked up on it as well. Boardsie lindtee suggests using http://www.dvdbargainalerts.co.uk/ to compare prices for DVD's and I concur. The storewatch section is particularly good. Thanks, lindtee!

Expansys deal

Expansys are doing a deal for MoDaCo users until the end of September, get €10 off when you spend over €25 or better still get £10 off when you spend £20! Great if you're thinking of grabbing a cheap slingbox. More information at the MoDaCo forums.

Thanks to eagle-eyed boardsie Random.

Midweek Madness

FREE SHIPPING FROM BOFFER

Use the code FREEBOFFER for free shipping all this week.

THREADLESS SALE

All Tees are $12 at Threadless.*
* Just don't order too many or you'll be hit by customs.

THE HUT SHIPPING NOW 99P TO IRELAND

Exactly as it says.

Komplett Weekly Offers 26/08/2008

Weekly offer time!

Razer Copperhead Tempest Blue, 2000dpi Laser Mouse, USB

€ 49.01

-9%

My €0.02

Seems to be a normal to good price. I prefer the logitech models myself, speaking as a proud MX Air owner. Well, not proud. Happy.

Logitech diNovo Media Desktop Laser,Ultra-thin, Bluetooth 2.0, US-Layout

€ 139.00

-5%

My €0.02

I have the Notebook version of this. I really wanted the Bluetooth version but wasn't willing to spend over €200 on a glorified keyboard and mouse. The diNovo Edge on the other hand...

Canon Pixma MP610

€ 129.00
-0%

My €0.02

Cheaper than pixmania at €145.96 and dabs at €133.49.

BenQ 24" G2400W, Black, 1920x1200,5ms, 1000:1, VGA/DVI/HDMI

€ 319.00

-5%

My €0.02

I've actually been considering 24" monitors myself lately. I think this one has been around for about 1 year already. I'd love to review it... hint, hint!

Spotlight: Pixmania

No offer today, just a closer look at one of the online retailers who have changed how we buy those wonderful devices that provide our entertainment.

• Pixmania have been operating an Irish division since 2006 but launched pixmania.com in early 2001
  
• They made their name selling camera brands like Pentax, Nikon, Kodak and Olympus
• Later they branched into other product lines, starting with televisions
• They operate 16 showrooms across Europe with the nearest one being in London
• To comply with WEEE, they offer free in-store take back at Dixons, Currys and PC World
• They also trade as DSG International and Fotovista
• The first time you order something they may randomly ask for proof of identity, a photocopy of your passport will suffice
• If your equipment is faulty, they will repair it and pay your shipping fees
• People often wind up here when searching for pixmanis (sic)
  
• They are adding new lines such as jewelery, home wares, garden, toys and beauty products

Looket, I mean look at this...

Looket 3.5 Inch Touchscreen Sat Nav with UK and Irish Maps

While browsing through hotukdeals listings I came across this bargain price GPS. "Hmmm" I mused. "That's from the Misco UK site. I wonder if Misco Ireland do the same model at a similar price?" I didn't have particularly high hopes as the usual formula is UK price + Currency conversion fee + Irishness tax. On this occasion however, we enter the twilight zone as the same model can be had for as low as €53.66. Shock!

The good news:
So cheap. It's a GPS for less than €60.
Seems to be upgradeable.
Accessories are included.

The bad news:
No USB. If you want connectivity, it's serial all the way.
It's not the best spec.

Introducing Boffer!

If you've been less than impressed with the weighing scales, backpacks and barometers iBood has been serving up lately then you'll pleased to know there's a new kid on the block. Boffer is filling a niche that more closely resembles the one occupied by woot, with ultra-reduced prices, dirt cheap shipping and freebie giveaways. available to many European countries. Crazy descriptions of the products, low prices and the occasional gem... what more do you want? One to keep an eye on.

It's Terabyte time!

Yes, it's getting to the point where the terabyte external drives are coming in at below €120. Roll on the petabyte drives, that's what I say! In the meantime, have a look at what's on offer right now.

Komplett

Western Digital Elements 1TB
€115.00

Dabs

Seagate FreeAgent Desktop 1TB
€121.94

Pixmania
Trekstor DataStation duo 1 TB
€139.00

EH? Why isn't that in Komplett's weekly bargains? At €115 they are certainly giving the impression of being the cheapest, although when you factor in shipping it is probably the same as Dabs offering. Well, that's our measure for the time being. Laters!

Komplett Weekly Offers 18/08/2008

Another week, another quartet of deals. Or are they?

Samsung HT-THX25 Home Cinema HDMI 500W

€ 199.00

-20%

My €0.02
Not as good as this one, but €100 cheaper.

Archos 605 30 GB WiFi

€ 229.00

-8%

My €0.02
Ah, the Archos 605. What's the point of wifi if you have to buy the browser separately? As for prices, expansys are on a par while dabs are €15 cheaper.

Sennheiser Headset PC 350,10-26000 Hz, 3m cable, In-Line Volume

€ 129.00

-10%

My €0.02
Couldn't tell you. Try reading some reviews.

Creative I-Trigue 3000i, 2.1 Speakerset,incl. iPod dockingstation

€ 89.00
-10%

My €0.02
€71 at dabs.

Komplett Weekly Offers 11/08/2008

A little late but still available. Komplett me.

Samsung 20" 2032MW, TV-tuner,Widescreen, Teletext, 1000:1, 5ms, Black

€ 254.01

-7%

My €0.02
Tough call. It doesn't seem to be cheaper anywhere else but 20" in general are a good bit cheaper than 250. PC World for business sell it ex VAT for 227.

Corsair Powersupply 650W Black, ATX/EPS,120mm Fan, 8xSATA, SLI

€ 79.00

-7%

My €0.02
Looks like a good price for the TX series. Beats Dabs'.

Cooler Master Transparent side panelfor Mystique 631/632 Black

€ 24.01
-0%

My €0.02
Er, it's a transparent panel for modders. If you know what this is, you'll know it's essentially worthless but might want it anyway.

PRESTIGIO HDD External Data Safe II 2.5" 80GB SATA USB 2.0 Brown Leather

€ 39.00

-20%

My €0.02
Well, on the good side it's only forty euro.

Slingbox classic for €97.19

The original slingbox is going for a song. Well, €100 anyway. Which is not bad when you think about it. The slingbox is essentially a PVR without a drive: it takes an input from your cable/camera/satellite box and converts it into compressed video. The only difference is that instead of writing it to a disk, it writes it to your local network or the internet where you can pick up and record the channel on any modern PC. My only concern is that the remote control software supplied won't allow you to remotely (really remotely, like Kuala Lumpur) change channels on many newer devices but if you are using analogue inputs that shouldn't be a problem. And even when it all goes digital in 2012, you can still use a sky digital box with it.

Kudos to expansys for flogging their old but good stuff on the cheap.

Wii at iBOOD, can you do better?

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that iBOOD had a Wii for sale this week and that it sold out in about 10 minutes. The price was €214.95 with shipping of €12.50 making a total of €227.45. Not bad, but you would have to had to be quick to grab this... very quick. Then there's the matter of the 2-5 weeks until iBOOD deliver.

So can you do better on the high street? Zavvi do reasonable deals and if you are in the UK you could pick one up for the equivalent of €230. For €240 in the republic, I believe they will throw in an extra game too (from an in-store list, not any recent or AAA game).

1080p TV for less than €600

POLAROID TFU-43743B LCD Television

The good:

• 5,000:1 contrast ratio
• VGA Input
• HDMI Input
• 1080p resolution
• €599
• DVB-T
  

The bad:

• No DVI input
• No MPEG-4 decoder

Polaroid make TV's now? I'd take it as a sign that 1080p TV's are approaching a more reasonable cost level but I wouldn't be rushing out to buy it.

Acer Aspire One A150L, £234.99 ex shipping

The blurb:

• The Acer ASPIRE One Experience
• Linpus™ Linux® Lite operating system
• Intuitive and specifically optimized software interface
• Intel Atom processor, specially designed for low-cost UMPC's
• Built-in WiFi connection and 120GB HDD

The lowdown:

• Processor: Intel Atom N270 1.6Ghz Processor (533 MHz FSB, 512 KB L2 cache)
• Memory: 1GB
• HD Capacity: 120GB
• Display: 8.9" WSVGA (1024 x 600)
• Graphics Card: Integrated
• Operating System: Linpus Linux Lite
• Optical Drive: None
• Networking: 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO, xD)
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• External display (VGA) port
• Headphone/speaker/line-out jack
• Microphone-in jack
• Ethernet (RJ-45) port
• DC-in jack for AC adapter

Only an 8.9" screen vs the Wind/Advents 10" but it looks great, has a comparable spec and is much cheaper.
Play do it for £249.99 including shipping but of course they won't ship electronics to Ireland.
Shipping works out at... not sure. Waiting for a response from the sales team.

Not-so-smart consumers

No Takebacks: 5 Most Screwed-Up Tech Buys

Really, they should have known better. Haven't eBay capitalised so well on their acquisition of Skype in 2005? Oh, you didn't know? Maybe that's because they've done bugger all with it.

Don’t Be Pound Wise but Penny Foolish

An article from December 07, probably written after an honest review of the Christmas blitz.

Three mobile broadband

Number one result for "awful purchase", or at least it should be. I've heard more complaints about Three Ireland than any other broadband provider and many even appear to be legitimate. There's a huge forum thread on it as well as a "company x sucks" site [actually this seems to have vanished, legal pressure?] and no shortage of cranky Irish bloggers.

Komplett Weekly Offers 04/08/2008

Ah, it was salmonella. Haven't heard of that for a while, what with kids today and their e-coli's and superbug whatnots.

Samsung HT-TX250 Home Cinema HDMI 600W

€ 299.00

-14%

My €0.02
It's ok I guess. Ibood couldn't do any better.

Sony Bravia 32" LCD-TV KDL-32P3000--DVB-T--

€ 537.00

-9%

My €0.02
A few people have complained of buzzing from this model. Also, I'm pretty certain it won't work with Irish DTT because it has no MPEG-4 decoder. Cheap enough though, if only the shipping wasn't so rough...

BenQ 24" G2400W, Black, 1920x1200,5ms, 1000:1, VGA/DVI/HDMI

€ 319.00

-9%

My €0.02
Apart from some people moaning about TN panels, this looks like a decent buy. Dabs have it for 338 and Misco want 336 so if you want it, go for it!

HIS Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3,PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDMI/HDCP

€ 140.00

-10%

My €0.02
Now even cheaper than two weeks ago. Ok, that was a Sapphire card and this is a HIS, but hey it's a 4850 at the end of the day.