Komplett Weekly Offers 29/09/2008

Samsung 22" LCD Syncmaster 226BW TCO03,1680x1050, 2ms, 3000:1

€ 234.99

-10%

My €0.02
Hmm. Good quality panel, but a little too old for my liking, with questions over colour bleed. I'd prefer the 2253BW for the same money, shipped.

D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N WirelessGigabit Router, 802.11n (draft 2.0)

€ 95.00

-21%

My €0.02
Expansys have increased the price to €136 and dabs are still not competitive at €103. Reality appears to have restored itself after the aberration in July.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB SATA232MB 7200RPM

€ 113.00

-19%

My €0.02
Seagate? No thanks.

Sennheiser Headphones HD 515, 14-26000Hz, Cable 3m, 255g

€ 52.01

-12%

My €0.02
Yeah, whatever. Have you ever seen Ferrari sell a cheap car?

Dellicious mouse, €52.43 including shipping

Logitech MX Revolution

Cordless Laser mouses

Overview Smarter, faster, and fully-loaded, the MX™ Revolution gives you powerful new controls that will streamline the way you work. Logitech´s innovative MicroGear™ Precision Scroll Wheel lets you fly through long documents at hyperspeed, or switch to precise click-to-click scrolling for navigating lists, slides, and image collections. Toggle between open documents with the convenient Quick-Flip thumb wheel, or search the Web by highlighting a word or phrase and pressing the Search button. Hyper-fast scrolling: Fly through long documents at hyperspeed. Shift to precise click-to-click scrolling to navigate lists, slides, and image collections. SmartShift™ technology: MX™ Revolution detects your current application and automatically applies the scrolling mode that best fits the task at hand Document quick-flip: Move effortlessly between documents. Cut and paste between applications, compare documents or check email. One-Touch™ search: Highlight a word or phrase and press the search button to instantly display results from your favourite search engine Rechargeable Li-Ion battery: Never worry about replacing batteries. A 4-stage battery level metre lets you know when to recharge Cordless laser: Full-speed USB wireless technology and state-of-the-art laser engine deliver absolute precision and control.

System Requirements PC Windows® XP Windows Vista™ (requires Internet connection) Available USB port CD-ROM drive Mac Mac® OSX 10.2.8+ Available USB port CD-ROM drive Internet connection * Logitech Control Center 2.1 or later is required to enable advanced mouse features such as scroll wheel fine-tuning and One-Touch Search.  LCC is compatible with both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs running OS X. Package Contents Logitech® MX™ Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse Recharging station AC power cord USB micro-receiver Logitech® SetPoint™ software CD User's guide

In English

This is a good mouse and dell are selling it about €20 cheaper than anyone else.

Play.com, up to 85% off

Of course, your mileage may vary. Usual electronics restrictions and free shipping apply.

DVDs from €4.49


CDs from €4.49


Books from €4.49



Games from €11.49

Komplett Weekly Offers 22/07/2008

K time.

OCZ nVIDIA SLI DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT,XTC, w/two 2048MB, CL5-4-4-15

€ 75.00

-12%

My €0.02
Hey the Yanks get this for $82, and $52 after a rebate! WHY? No fair, but that's life eh? Actually, 75 is not a bad price at all if you don't want to gamble on ebay.

Canon Pixma MX850 31/24ppm printer/copier/scanner/fax USB

€ 237.00

-3%

My €0.02
Yay, a printer. Defile the corpses of some dead trees, and get ink all over you hands to boot. As this printer goes, it is cheaper than the alternatives.

Western Digital Passport Elite 250GB Titan, USB 2.0

€ 93.00

-6%

My €0.02
Passport Elite... wtf? Oh it's a 2.5" external hard drive? Nonsensical nomenclature aside, what makes this better than this Toshiba? Or WD's own Passport Essential for that matter?

MSI Radeon HD 3870 x2 1GB OC GDDR3, PCI-E, 2xDVI-I/Tv-Out/HDCP/HDMI

€ 184.00

-29%

My €0.02
Again? Did Komplett buy all the stock of these in the country or what? Old, but still good and better value than Dabs.

Looks like a solid week for Komplett. In ither good news, the new local branch is ready to open any time now. Here's the address:

Komplett.ie
2. Unit 287, Block G
Blanchardstown Corporate Park 2
Ballycoolin
Dublin 15

GMap link

Technomate 6900 HD SUPER

With January 2009 looming around the corner, we move ever closer to a world of Digital Terrestrial Television. But all those people who bought Freeview-ready TVs to be "ready for the future" are in for a shock: the vast majority of them won't work in Ireland. There have been a few DTT trials around the country (mainly Dublin) that worked on the old equipment but these have now ended and there are new trials in places. These use the more modern Mpeg-4 AVC standard also known as H.264, x.264 and Mpeg-4 part 10. So, if you want to receive terrestrial channels after jan '09, you have a couple of options.

• Buy a TV with DTT and Mpeg-4 decoding built in. (Expensive)
  
• Buy a seperate box for DTT and Mpeg-4. (Probably not too expensive but who knows?)
• Buy a combo satellite and DTT tuner with Mpeg-4.

You may have guessed which one I'm going to recommend.

The Technomate packs a whole lot of functionality into it's shell, it can pick up channels from DTT and satellite sources, decode SD and HD channels, and download program info from the internet. It probably does more but I'm already sold! For the interested, you can view the specifications here:

2 High Definition Tuners: DVB-S/DVB-S2 Satellite & DVB-T Terrestrial Compliant (MPEG-2 / MPEG-4 / H.264)
576i & 576p, 720p & 1080i supported
1 Smart Card Reader & 2 Common Interfaces (2CI)
HDMI & Component Output (YPbPr) with Hardware Upscaler to Improve Picture Quality
Very Fast & Detailed Hardware Blind Search (power scan)
Ethernet Communication Port
eSATA Port
2x USB Ports (Front + Rear Ports)
PLL type RF-Modulator (Ch. 21- 69) and UHF tuning function
10,000 TV & Radio Channels
USB 2.0 PVR Ready via USB External Device
USB PVR Features: Rewind/Forward, Slow Motion Rewind/Forward, Timeshift (Pause Live TV) & Record Scrambled/Free-To-Air (FTA) Channels & Record current channel and playback a recording at the same time
Music player & JPEG viewer via USB 2.0
Fast Software & Channel List download via USB 2.0
2 Scart Outputs with RGB Support
Fully Featured VFD text Front Panel Display
Super Sensitive tuner for very weak signals
Dolby Digital Optical S/PDIF
Dolby Digital by HDMI
S-Video Output
Less than 1 second channel change
DiSEqC 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3 (USALS) compatible
Auto Navigation system – select as many satellites as you want to search
On-screen display with true full color resolution
Enhanced 16 Favorite channel groups
Channel control by: Favorites, Lock, Skip, Move & Delete
Channel sort by: All, Alphabet, Transponder & CAS
Parental, Installation & Receiver Lock
Multilingual OSD Menu: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Czech, Romanian, Persian
Fast & Easy-To-Use Menu System
Extended EPG and program reservation on EPG
Teletext & Subtitle by OSD and VBI
Last channel memory function
Factory default channel list
Various games
Software & channel list upgrade via RS-232C: PC to STB, STB to PC, STB-STB and USB
Zoom function on Pause & Live channel
Multi picture display
Support for multiple language broadcasts
SCPC & MCPC receivable from C/Ku band satellites LNBs supported: Universal, Single, Single S & C band wideband LNBs
Multi TV Standards supported: PAL G, I, K, M
4:3 & 16:9 Screen Formats
90-250V AC 50/60 Hz
LNB Short Circuit protection onboard
Software & channel list upgrade via RS-232C: PC to STB, STB to PC, STB-STB and USB
Dimension 390mm x 262mm x 67mm
Available in Silver or Glossy Black

Komplett Weekly Offers 15/09/2008

Where have I been? Deutschland! The Germans say hi, by the way. Oh, and you you know those mini satellite boxes that come in the aldi/lidl travel kits here? They cost about €30-€40 in Saturn (a retail chain like dixons or currys). My brain nearly imploded. Anyway, on to the Komplett!

Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM

€ 51.00

-7%

My €0.02
Did I mention that I'm sick of the sight of 500GB drives? Yes, I think I did. Cheaper than dabs but with postage blah blah blah NEXT!

Western Digital My Book2 HomeEdition 1TB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 148.00

-12%

My €0.02
Huzzah! Now take out the unnecessary Firewire and make it cheaper.

PowerColor Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2,PCI-Express 2.0, SCS (HeatSink), DVI-I

€ 30.00

My €0.02
Thirty bucks, eh? Why can't they do this one in AGP?

Acer One A110 Aw Atom N270 1.6GHz 8.9"512MB 8GB NAND HDD Wifi Linux Blue

€ 289.00

-10%

My €0.02
Walk into any PC World and pick this up for €269.

Tchuss!

Komplett Weekly Offers 08/09/2008

Acer 24" Wide AL2423WD, Silver/Black,2500:1, VGA/DVI(HDCP), 1920x1200, 5ms

€ 335.00

My €0.02
Hmm. Weren't you selling a BenQ 24" for €319 a few weeks ago, komplett? Two weeks ago if I'm not mistaken. Has there been a monitor famine in the meantime?

Nintendo Wii bundle: Wii Sports Pack with NYKO Wireless Sensor bar

€ 274.00

-8%

My €0.02
Yay! The Wii has finally come down to a sensible price! I'm lying, of course. Why exactly would I want a third party sensor bar? And pay extra for the priviledge? Pass.

LaCie Rugged 160GB, 5400RPM, USB 2.0, Firewire

€ 99.00

-17%

My €0.02
It's rugged. Want rugged? This is rugged. I don't particularly want rugged.

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3, P45, Socket-775,ATX, 2xGbLAN, DDR2, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16

€ 97.01

-8%

My €0.02
Oh thank god, something I can actually price-match. Wow, it's cheaper than dabs!

Would a 28" monitor fit on your desk?

Please note: the motorbike is not included.

This is in fact a rare and strange beast, a 28" monitor with full 1080p HD capabilities. No TV tuner, just HDMI and VGA to get the signal in.

So without further ado:

28" Hanns-G HG281DP Widescreen Monitor

• 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) Optimum Resolution
• 16.7 Million Colours
• 800:1 Contrast Ratio
• 3ms Response Time
• 500 cd/m2 Brightness
• Viewing Angle (H/V): 170°/ 170°
• One HDMI Input (Comes with a HDMI to DVI lead)
• One Analogue Input
• 2 Integrated 2.5W Speakers
• 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty

28" is an unusual size for a monitor. 23" and 26" are popular for televisions but 22" and 24" are normally where the action is on the PC scene. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just... odd. And it seems to be astonishingly good value.

Aria PC: £267.84 + £40.75 (!!!)

Overclockers UK: £258.49 (time-limited offer) + £22.00

PC World Business: €424 (ex VAT)

So for the price of a 24" you could have a 28", not too shabby. Reviews seem generally positive too. Will this be the first of a long line of 28's, or just another mad venture by HannsG/Hannspree? Only time will tell...

Do I iBOOD or do I Boffer...

VS

The eternal question for those in a world without woot (but with woot shirt). Do I go for the Dutch or the, let's face it, English. UK my arse, that's no Scotsman telling dodgy jokes.

Anyway, as I sit here mulling over the next twenty minutes I think to myself: "If a great bargain appeared and I missed it because I was on the other site, how annoyed would I be?". How indeed. The answer is surely somewhat or possibly even quite.

But just because both sites have the potential to create the perfect environment for producing a most lusted-after item from my list (which I assure you has no tangible form per say, beyond it's manifestations in my increasingly unpleasant personality) there are more factors to consider. The pedigree for instance. While Boffer has shown a great knack for quirkiness, they have yet to show that they can deliver performance when selling items of a greater scale. Whereas iBOOD occasionally forget to ensure that a given offer really is the internet's best offer, they have been known to come up trumps on big ticket items.

So how do I reconcile these two very different yet ultimately harmonious schools of consumerism? Casting a look at yesterdays offer sheds no clues at what will come tomorrow: iBOODS wifi enabled Archos media center (complete with loathsome optional browser) and Boffers cheapy PC repair kit typify the gulf that divides them and does nothing to make me think some serious mould-breaking is in the works.

iBOOD or Boffer...

Whoops, almost eleven. Gotta go.

The diNovo Edge, available to you right now

This is not a keyboard. This is a work of art.

No, really.

I quite like Logitech's stuff in general but what I really want is one of these. As I mentioned last week, I am already the owner of a diNovo Cordless Keyboard for Notebooks. Now, it's fine. It looks well, doesn't have too many superfluous buttons, is very light and doesn't eat batteries. But it doesn't impress me as much as it should. I don't feel I'm hitting a €60 piece of equipment with my fingertips when I use it. I want something a bit more solid. And rechargeable in a cradle. With Bluetooth. And LEDs.

Well, anyway, if you're on the lookout for an ubercool keyboard in a reasonably sane price-range the diNovo Edge is tough to beat. So, who is selling it and how much?

Komplett: €163.00 + €12.50 = €175.50

Expansys: €144.99 + €23.90 = €168.89

Atom: €145.97 + €10.50 = €156.47

Dabs: €133.53 + €13.50 = €147.03

Wait a second, who are Atom? And how are they cheaper than expansys and komplett? One to watch methinks. They've earned an entry in the tag cloud.

Komplett Weekly Offers 01/09/2008

Monday morning again, eh? Let's do this.

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-Ray Player

€ 244.00

-9%

My €0.02
Personally, I would avoid Blu-Ray players. Pixmania do this one for €209 if you are keen.

Western Digital My Book StudioEdition 500GB, USB 2.0, eSata, Firewire

€ 112.00

-14%

My €0.02
500GB... YAWN!

Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO M9400 14.1" T7300 2.0Hz 2048MB 120GB Vista Bus

€ 759.00

-5%

My €0.02
I couldn't find this exact model. But a lower spec'ed model was selling for ~€900 on elara.

Samsung 32" LCD-TV LE32A552 --Full HD--

€ 757.00
-0%

My €0.02
Err, dunno. Seems to be popular in Belgium. Some nice features I guess but really quite expensive for a 32" TV.