Cool Tech Reviews

Downloads free of annoying Digital Rights Management (DRM) shackles seem to be popping up all over and now classical music buffs can join the party:

Classical music lovers like myself are finally getting some respect in the digital world. One of the oldest companies in the music business, Deutsche Grammaphon, now a division of Universal Music Group, announced it was making a catalog of 2,400 classical albums, including 600 that are out of print, available for high-quality, DRM-free download from the DG Web Shop starting Nov. 28.

The link isn’t live yet, but the format will be a near-CD 320 kilobits per second MP3 and the price is very reasonable:

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I was a little late getting over to Super Warehouse for Cyber Monday, but that’s OK since their sale goes through 11/30 or longer in some cases. Some sample items:

• Acer Veriton M261-UC4300P Desktop only $358.99. 1.8 GHz Celeron, XP Pro, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB drive.
• Lenovo ThinkPad R61e 7650 Notebook, 1.86GHz, only $579.99 SHIPPED. Celeron, 15.4″ WXGA, XP Pro, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB drive. 
• $50 Off + Free Shipping - HP 530 Business Notebook only $617.99. Intel Core Duo T2300E 1.66 GHz, 15.4″ WXGA, 1GB RAM, 80 GB drive, loaded with Vista Business.
• V7 NAV700 Automobile Navigator GPS only $212.99. 4″ WQVGA color LCD touch screen.
• Coby DP882 8 inch Black Digital Picture Frame only $123.99. 8 inch TFT LCD color display. Takes SD, MMC, xD, and CF memory cards. This photo frame also plays MP3 and WMA Audio files and plays most MP4 and AVI Video files from Digital Cameras.

You may be familiar with the ShopNBC shopping channel but they also have a online store and are running a Cyber Monday sale though it seems to primarily be on jewelry, watches, and clothes. Still, there are some tech items and you get free shipping from ShopNBC on any purchase using your PayPal account.

Laptops:

• Acer AS4315 14.1″ Intel Celeron 1.73GHz Notebook Package (including printer and wireless router) for $699.99 plus a $100 rebate.
• Acer TravelMate 14.1″ Intel Celeron M 1.6GHz Notebook Package (including printer and wireless router) for $799.99 with an additional $100 rebate.
• Toshiba A215 15.4″ AMD Athlon 64 X2 1.8GHz Notebook Package (including printer and wireless router) for $974.99 with another $125 off in rebates.

DLP TV:

• Mitsubishi 57″ 1080p DLP HDTV, RCA DVD Player & TV Stand for $1799.00 plus a $100 rebate.

There’s much more on the site, but the emphasis seems to be on packages and bundles with mail-in rebates, so evaluate your need for the extras carefully.

Circuit City has a variety of bargains available in its 3 day Cyber Monday sale, but don’t expect super discount doorbuster specials. Examples:

Laptops:

• Acer Aspire AS5100-5023 15.4″ Widescreen Notebook PC with AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium reduced by $210 to $639.96.
• HP Pavilion dv6449us 15.4″ Widescreen Laptop Computer with AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and Vista Home Premium reduced by $210 to $739.99.
• Gateway M6817 15.4″ Widescreen Notebook PC with Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 2 GB RAM, 250GB hard drive and Vista Home Premium reduced by $200 to $799.96.

Plasma TV - Hitachi 42″ Plasma HDTV Model #: HIT P42H401 reduced $300 to $1099.99.

External Hard Drives - Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 750GB External Hard Drive reduced $60 to $219.99.

There’s much more and note that they are offering %10 off on some items if you choose to pick them up at a local Circuit City store instead of having them shipped to you.

Wal-Mart is famous for their instore Black Friday doorbusters, but you may not realize that they have a large online operation which has Black Friday specials as well. This year both online and instore had a calendar of special sales starting on Monday Nov. 19 and continuing through the end of the month. They will have Cyber Monday and Beyond Online Specials starting Monday the 26th and lasting through Nov. 30, but right now following the link takes you to the two day post Black Friday sale and here are some of the online bargains.

Plasma TV - Philips 50″ Plasma HDTV with Digital Tuner, 50PFP5332D for $1397.00 which is at least $100 less than anywhere else I have seen.  You can get free shipping by having them send it to a local Wal-Mart store and picking it up yourself.

Digital Camera - Kodak 7.1 MP EasyShare ZD710 Digital Camera w/ 10x Optical Zoom & Image Stabilization for $149.00.

There are a variety of LCD TVs as well. I’ll be interested to see what they come up with for Cyber Monday.

Toshiba is running a holiday sale on their laptops that runs through November 30.  First, you can save $150 when you customize a Toshiba Satellite notebook PC by using coupon code CRNBRY150 at the Toshiba online store. Then when you get to the website you will find that they are already offering the following on customizable Satellite and Qosimo notebooks:

• Free printer, carrying case, and mouse (after mail-in rebates)
• Free sales tax (i.e. they pay it)
• Free shipping
• Savings of up to 20% on the price. (All but the newest models seem to be 20% off.)

Since Toshiba makes solid laptops, these seem to be good deals and if you select your model carefully the savings is about what you would see on Cyber Monday specials elsewhere.