2008: Year of the LCD HDTV

My headline is certainly more accurate than this article in PC World.
In the above article, dated Jan. 2006, a Samsung rep brags that price of 40" LCD TVs dropped to "only" $3000; the insinuation being "go buy one now!".

Well, if you did, you were one of the lucky few...who had to prep their homes for "Cribs MTV", that is. Now nearly two years later, a brand-name 40" LCD HDTV can easily be had for $1300 (a 56% price drop). Admittedly, that's a long time to wait for prices to drop, so perhaps even more remarkably, the prices of name-brand 32" LCD HDTVs (720p) have dropped more than 20% in the past two months! Before Thanksgiving, Sony, Sharp, Philips and Samsung 32" LCD TVs were going for ~$900; anything under $850 would have been a steal. Now every mainstream retailer from Amazon to Circuit City to Best Buy has name-brand 32" LCD TV's for less than $750 and deals can be found for sub $700 units. If picture quality isn't critical for you, 32" off-brand (Westinghouse, Insignia, Olevia, etc.) sub-$600 prices are easy to find. Off-brand 19" and 26" HDTVs can be had for less than $400...matching the prices of CRT (tube) TVs from just a few years ago...

The widespread adoption of LCD TV's in the U.S. is now imminent. Up until recently, the 40"+ sized TVs were the big sellers...early adopters had money to burn and they didn't want "small" screens. But 2008 will be the year of the meat-and-potatoes buyer: those people that have an eight-year-old CRT (20"-30") TV in their living rooms and simply want an upgrade and don't want to empty their savings accounts. By next Christmas, that promises to be a given and average consumers should be happily carting away 32" HDTVs for $400.

I love the Kindle*

* If that seems like a strange sentiment from a thrifty techie, that's because it's not my sentiment. JL was kind enough to blow $400 of his own hard-earned cash and waste enough of his own precious time to provide the following review. Note that the following in no way represents the opinion or viewpoints or thrifty sensibilities of this blog.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I love the Kindle. I'm an avid reader, and the fact that I can download a book as soon as I hear about it is pretty sweet. The price is pretty steep at $400, and could be a deal breaker for those on a budget or for anyone who has somebody in his or her life who nags over finances. However, as a single dude with disposable income, I don't really care. In fact, I ordered the Kindle as soon as it showed up on Amazon's website, before I had even done a shred of research.

Perhaps the most endearing feature of the Kindle is its standalone nature. Unlike my iphone, ipods, PDAs, and just about every other personal electronic device I've ever owned, I'll probably never, ever synch my Kindle to my computer. It comes with a USB connector for downloading audiobooks (seriously though, who the fuck listens to audiobooks?) and other miscellaneous media, but I don't intent to use it. I'm sure people will be hacking this thing in order to make it do all sorts of crazy stuff, but as an e-book reader, it's a standalone device, which I think is awesome. Thanks to its long battery life, I keep my Kindle in my backpack, and pull it out to read when I feel like it. It may seem insignificant, but the fact that I can treat my Kindle exactly like my paperback copy of Fight Club is priceless.

Amazon's in-device Kindle store is very good, and much like the main website, it compiles your previous online book purchases in order to make recommendations for you. The store features the usual search features that you would expect, and you can read book samples and reviews before purchasing a title. No surprises there. After you click buy, it takes about a minute or so for the book to download straight to the device. Think of it as itunes for print media, which I think is exactly what Amazon is aiming to create. Connectivity is through Sprint's wireless network, so coverage area and download speeds have been great. In order to conserve battery power, I only enable wireless connectivity when I want to browse the store or purchase something.

The interface isn't as intuitive as the iphone's, but it's still simple enough. It feels pretty good in your hands, although I have accidentally pushed buttons and turned the page on occasion. The QWERTY keypad is pretty easy to use, but the keys are skewed in a weird semi-swirl pattern for some inexplicable reason, which contributes to the Kindle’s already strange aesthetic. There's a small rollerwheel above the keypad that's used for selecting and clicking menu items. As far as the display, it actually does look pretty much like paper. The e-ink technology is pretty damn impressive, and I don’t strain my eyes after reading for hours. I would have loved a touch screen, but maybe I'm just spoiled by my iphone. And speaking of iphones…

In response to all of the negative reviews that the Kindle has received (mostly from people who have never even seen one in person, no less), I have this to say. This thing is not an iphone. It's not a blackberry. It's not a PDA. It's a fucking BOOK! And as a fucking book, it functions nearly flawlessly. I would rather stab my eyes out with wasabi-covered chopsticks than read an ebook on the tiny screen of my iphone. And I will never want to carry a Kindle-sized device around with me all day for use as a phone and PDA. For all those retards who say "I can't fit the Kindle in my Pocket! It's worthless!", I say "Fuck you, Dragonmaster! You're a freak who's never been laid, and that's because you carry a paperback fantasy novel in the back pocket of your size 47 stone-washed jeans!"

There are also people who fear that Amazon is trying to destroy our way of life (I'm not exaggerating here) by replacing bound books with electronic gadgetry of the devil. But if you think about it, the transition from paper books to portable electronic books is a relatively painless one. This is akin to the transition from the walkman/discman era to the ipod era. It’s replacing one device with another device of similar size and shape that serves the same purpose, only with more data than before. This is less revolutionary than the introduction of the walkman itself (which ushered in the era of portable music), yet more revolutionary than the advent of ebooks (because no one wants to read Atlas Shrugged on a fucking computer screen). It’s simply a logical progression in media technology, much like the progression from CDs to digital music downloads. Paper books will probably always exist, albeit in smaller numbers. So to all of the old fogies out there, Amazon isn’t trying to destroy your way of life. But things do change. Get over it.

R.I.P. CDs

CDs and DVDs are useless. At least as it pertains to computing. It’s one of those things that is self-evident, but not entirely obvious...yet. After all, every desktop and notebook computer sold today has an optical drive built in. I believe that 2008 will be the year where that will begin to change.
The other day I was in an older colleague’s home office and was amused to see a stack of 3.5” floppy disks. These disks have the capacity to store one digital photograph and no capacity to store an mp3 file. How quaint.
Upon my return home, I saw a stack of CD-Rs and CDs on my desk. How quaint.
The fact is that CD/DVD drive in my notebook is dispensable. The only things I have used the drive for lately are: ripping CDs and installing software. Now with music and movies and software available for download, the need for an optical drive in computers is questionable. I used to burn CDs, but that was when burning CDs was an economical way to store and transfer data. Now that 500 GB hard drives are available for under $150 and flash usb drives are available for $12, CD burning is anachronistic.
Desktops will probably have optical drives pre-installed for some time, but in notebooks where space, weight and power consumption also argue against the presence of an optical drive, the DVD/CD drive may go the way of the 3.5" floppy drive. look for sleek, compact notebooks from Apple, HP and Dell with NO CD/DVD drive...

The iMac was the first mainstream computer to forgo the floppy disk drive. Fittingly, a new Apple product may be the first mainstream device to dispense with an optical drive: Apple subnotebook rumored for January 2008

$79 iPod nano

The one knock against Apple products is that they're expensive. But one of those "best-kept secrets" is that Apple's refurbished items are often a decent deal. Prices and deals vary depending on availabliltiy, but recent deals on iPods at Apple's online store are pretty good: $79 for a last-gen 2 GB nano, $99 for a 4 GB nano. iPod shuffles are on a fire sale at $39. That's pretty good, considering that a pair of Apple's earbud headphones (which come with the shuffle) cost $29 alone.... The best part is that while the goods are refurbished, they have one year warranties and are supported like-new by Apple. So if their is someone on your holiday shopping list that wants the greatest, but not necessarily the latest, check out Apple's refurbished iPods. Or you could go with a Zune.

(More) Remote Backup / Online Storage

Oops. Looks like I overlooked two other favorites for online storage and backup. Carbonite and Mozy are two of the excellent and popular back up services available. Mozy offers 2GB for free and unlimited storage for $4.94 / month. Carbonite offers unlimited storage for $50 / year. Again, a small price to pay for data insurance. Automatic backup service from both Mozy and Carbonite are available for PCs. Carbonite's Mac support is forthcoming.

From:Lifehacker: Online Backup Final Round, Mozy vs. Carbonite

Palm Centro drops October 14th, 2007

It's got a touch screen, QWERTY keyboard, e-mail, IM, texting, EVDO, calendar, etc. etc. It's just another mediocre smart phone...except for the price: $99*. That's the upshot.

*After $100 mail-in rebate. Requires new activation, two-year service agreement and purchase of $25 data plan or higher.

Remote Backup / Online Storage

In September 2006, I lamented the sad state of online storage options:
"...Mac users get ONE gigabyte of storage for $100/year at .Mac or FOUR (4) gigabytes of storage for $200/ year. Xdrive.com will give you 5GB of remote storage for just $120 and backup.com will give you 5GB for $500..."

A quick glance shows that online storage is a much more appealing option now and should definitely be part of everyone's backup plan.

.Mac still costs $100 / year, but Apple now offers users 10 GB of online storage as part of the package. Backup.com now offers storage plans as low as $4.95/month...Still not super inexpensive, but if you look at it in the context of insurance, it's a good deal. Renter's insurance for a modest apartment runs ~$100 / year. Now with a service like Backup.com, you can insure the survival of you priceless items (i.e., photos) for ~$60 / year...not bad.

Xdrive gets the ThriftyTechie endorsement, however. 5 GB of remote storage for FREE. You can't beat that. Additional storage is available for a fee.

A year ago, online storage was a tough sell, now it's a no-brainer. Back that thang up.

Power to the People

Computers once filled entire rooms. Now they fit in our pockets. How a generation formed our tech landscape. (Steven Levy/Newsweek)

Nice article. The last 30 years have been amazing. Here's to hoping the next 30 will be even more amazing...

Pocket More Green With 'Green' Hype

Pocket More Green With 'Green' Hype (by Dan Gross / Newsweek) is a refreshing bit of skepticism about green initiatives in the business realm.

Although businesses' environmental interests often coincides with their business interests (i.e., saving resources and minimizing waste often saves money), it is becoming more common for businesses to tout their "green" credentials to distract attention from their other less savory actions...

In short, "seeming green" isn't the same as "being green". Example: Leo DiCaprio seems green with his new movie and his love of hybrid cars... but the irony is that your average truck-driving Joe who lives in an apartment (and not a 10,000 sq. foot mansion) is most certainly greener than any jet-setting hollywood star...no matter how green he may seem.

Be Green. Save Green. The first step to doing this is to avoid being duped. Think critically and don't always believe the hype.

Vudu Economics

Video rentals have become more and more convenient over the years. In the stone ages (i.e., the early 1990's), renting a video meant making a trek down to the local video shop – a Blockbuster if you were lucky. Netflix revolutionized video rentals in the late 1990's using a typical web 1.0 business model: bring in customers via the web, use snail mail to deliver the goods. As a result, people could rent and return DVDs much more conveniently; only a trek to the mailbox required. The business of sending videos through the mail was a simple concept, but it was indeed a killer app. With no late fees and a buffet-style ordering protocol, millions of subscribers found that in addition to being convenient, Netflix was economical too. It was a no-brainer to use Netflix.
Now with the power of Web 2.0 the trek for video rentals is becoming shorter and shorter...just a few steps to a remote control or computer. Services such as Amazon's Unbox and Apple's iTunes deliver content on demand to your computers. Cable companies deliver movies straight to your TVs. But these services all have faults: Cable's on-demand selections are limited only to specific recent releases, Amazon's Unbox and Apple's iTunes don't send movies to your TV's.
Enter Vudu. By all accounts (see links below), Vudu is a well-executed device and service. The upshot:
- movies available for rental (~$3) or purchase (~$20)
- movies can be searched by genre, title, director, etc. in a well executed, easy-to-use interface
- movies start playing instantaneously in better-than-DVD (but not HD) quality
- requires high-speed internet connection

Sounds great, right? Killer app, right? Well, no. And it's not because of the limited movie selection, which is a problem that can be fixed. The problem is an economic one: Vudu costs $399 up front just to get started. That's about 2 years worth of Netflix or about 100 movie rentals at your neighborhood shop. Suddenly the trek to your mailbox or to the corner video store doesn't sound so bad, eh?


Vudu according to Gizmodo
Vudu according to NY Times

Sell your used gadgets

One of the great things about selling used stuff on eBay is that everyone wins. The seller makes some money, the buyer saves some money, and less stuff gets sent to the landfill. The bad thing about eBay is that if you're not a long-time user, you don't have a good eBay rating built up. And if you don't have a good rating built up, you won't get many bids on what you're selling. Even if you have a good rating, selling stuff on eBay is a project: write an essay about your merchandise, take pictures, upload pictures, set pricing, choose options, set shipping and handling, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Enter Second Rotation. If you have an electronic gadget you no longer want, send it to Second Rotation. Second Rotation will then send you cash. The only catch is that Second Rotation takes a cut, so you won't get as much as if you sold it yourself. On the other hand, you save yourself some time and maybe a couple of aspirin...

hard drive prices

Western Digital 500 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive: $114.75 at Dell
Note: Just bought one for myself. Somehow there was an "instant" rebate and a sale and the grand total including shipping, tax, etc. was $110. Not bad.

Free Stock Photos

This sounds straight-forward enough. Free stock photos from Free Range. If you are a photographer, you can also get paid by submitting photos to Free range and having them used.

25 Gadgets That Actually Save Money

It's not always high tech stuff that saves time and money. The Simple Dollar

Where does the money go?

Interesting data from the US Bureau of Labor statistics shows that $2194, or 5% of the average households' annual budget, was allocated to tech spending in 2005. Interestingly, this is more than household outlays for health insurance and apparel. Also interestingly, this represents a 25% decrease in spending from 1999. Talk about bang for the buck! We all benefit from more services and more powerful devices, but for less money... You gotta love tech.

Not surprisingly, the vast majority of tech spending — more than 75% — is for subscription services. Telephone, Internet, Cell Phone, and Cable / Sattelite TV.

iLife '08: for procrastinators

iLife 08 wowed me, and here's why:

It made me glad that I procrastinated on organizing my thousands of iPhotos and that i procrastinated on learning iMovie.

I knew that organizing my iPhotos was a time sink so I just never got around to it. Ditto to using iMovie. Although intuitive, I could see that it would take hours upon hours of diddling to make even a short movie.

From what I've seen, I'll be using iMovie for the first time as soon as I buy iLife 08 (even though I've owned the older versions for over 5 years) and I'll be able to organize my iPhotos in the matter of an hour or two instead of half a day.

It may not be a killer app, but the time savings and modest price make it a vicious app.

Tech Zeitgeist

Well it’s 7 years after the year 2000 so maybe we’re just a wee-bit late...but just only.

The past few weeks have seen the introduction of the Transformers movie and the iPhone. These technological masterpieces are the things that people have hoped for in the past and have just now come to fruition. These things – along with hybrid cars, the Nintendo Wii – are the things that people will literally wait in line for. Amazingly, all these things which were not long ago part of the realm of science fiction, while not cheap, are remarkably accessible. Technology: where the proof is in the pudding; and the pudding is delivered.

Am I overstating things? I don't think so. Think about the things that people went mad over in the last few decades: The Beatles, Cabbage Patch Kids, etc. Tech is now. Now is tech.

Good deals on cables

One of the biggest retail rip-offs are cables. I'm talking HDMI cables, USB cables, Firewire cables, etc. I would think that most people know not to buy these cables at retail outlets such as Staples, Best Buy, Circuit City, and the like. But this simply isn't the case, since they still are able to sell them at 1400% or 1500% markup. That wasn't a typo. Cables can routinely sell for $20-$40, but fortunately they can be found for much much less at places like eBay and Firefold. If you need a cable, do some research on the web and you can score 75% off.

An inconvenient falsehood

Ostensibly, the hybrid car would be a thrifty thing. Gas is expensive, hybrids save gas, therefore hybrids save money. Right? Maybe. While it's indisputably true that hybrids burn less fuel than a comparable conventional car, what wasn't as clear were the environmental and financial benefits of owning a hybrid car.


One of my major initial questions have been answered over the past 6-7 years: How long do the batteries last?

Apparently a long time. Some people had feared that the huge hybrid batteries would have to be replaced every 3 or 4 or 5 years making hybrids of dubious environmental value; substituting one consumable (gas) for another (Nickel hydride batteries) isn't necessarily of environmental benefit. But Toyota reports that nary a Prius' battery has had to be replaced for "wear and tear". Hybrid powertrains and batteries are now of proven durability and are clearly beneficial to the environment.


Hybrids were also of dubious financial benefit for the owner, gas savings notwithstanding. Back-of-the-napkin calculations reveal:

Assuming a hybrid civic (or prius) gets 55 mpg, $3 gas, and driving 15,000 miles per year: $820 is spent on gas for the hybrid driver. Assuming a conventional civic (or corolla) gets 35 mpg, $3 gas, and 15,000 miles per year: $1285 is spent on gas. Therefore, over a period of 5 years (with $3 gas), the GAS dollar savings only amounts to about $2400.
And keep in mind that's with $3 gas. If gas is $2.75 or $2.50, the dollar savings would be even less.
Meanwhile, last time I checked, hybrid models still cost $3000+ more than an equivalent conventional model... so hybrids probably cost MORE money. If there are savings over 5 years, they would be minimal.


An interesting phenomenon was the outsize influence and attention paid to hybrids by hollywood celebrities and the press. As everyday vehicles, hybrids were a blip on the auto sales chart. Because of their dollar cost, hybrids competed not so much against other cars, but against environmental charities... (Should I give $1000 to greenpeace this year or should I spend an extra $3000 on a Prius?...)

Today, despite the expiration of US tax credits on the popular Prius, it probably pays in the long-run to buy a hybrid both for financial and environmental benefits. But the point is exaggerated in this Toyota Prius commercial. I think Toyota overplayed their hand here. They now have a very convenient truth in their Prius: It's great for the environment and you pocketbook. But by being overzealous, they have contributed another piece of false advertising.

Thoughts on Apple's "Thoughts on Music"

Steve Jobs posted a surprising, but not shocking treatise on music DRM (Digital Rights Management) on Apple's website on February 6, 2007.
Much has been made of Steve Jobs/Apple's recent treatise of DRM'd music. Specifically, many pundits (ahem, Molly) seem to be wary of Apple's denouncement and are taking a cynical stance on it; it's hard to believe that Apple would be taking a pro-consumer stance on this issue.

I personally believe Mr. Jobs/Apple's declaration against DRM at face value simply because the consumers' interest and Apple Inc's interests are aligned in this instance.

Thanks to CNET's Buzz Out Loud podcast
, we know that consumers benefit from un DRM'd music. No need to explain anything further here.

What is a little less obvious is that Apple would ALSO stand to benefit from repealing DRM at this stage in the game. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Being "trapped" in Apple's fairplay isn't the main reason for stellar iPod sales:
Over the past few years the vast majority of iPod sales were to first-timers. Furthermore, the vast majority of repeat iPod buyers only have a few dozen DRM'd tracks on their iPods. The conclusion that Apple has reached at this time is that they DO NOT NEED DRM to be successful in the PMP market. Apple's near-monopoly is not due to their DRM scheme at this time. People aren't "locked in" to Fairplay. They're "locked-in" to the iTunes' and iPod's convenient interface. Sure, Apple's market share will drop, but it will drop DRM or not; there's no place to go but down when you're at 80% market share. Besides...Apple has other ways to lock consumers into iPods: hook-ups in many new cars, numerous accessories, NIKE + iPod, etc.
By dropping DRM, the iPod platform opens up and becomes more inviting to people on other platforms...people who made the mistake of purchasing a Dell DJ or Rio player, for example.

2. People aren't stupid - DRM is restraining iTunes music sales. People still buy CDs to rip onto their computers because they don't like buying DRM'd music. The stats bear this out: fewer than 2 billion digital tracks sold while more than 20 billion tracks sold on CD in 2006.
Apple currently holds the proverbial large slice of a small pie. Apple wouldn't even mind getting a smaller slice if the digital download (dd) market increases in size. Let's say hypothetically that the dd market increases to 10 billion tracks sold annually and Apple "only" captures 5 billion tracks of sales. Apple would benefit from $250 million in gross margin in this scenario (assuming they net 5 cents / itunes track). That's a number even a company the size of Apple can not ignore.
At this point in time, the easiest way to grow the dd market (and iTunes sales) is to drop DRM. Apple is keenly aware (as noted in Stevo's recent keynote) that iTunes competition isn't Napster or Zune. It's Amazon, Target, and Wal Mart's CD sales. Dropping DRM is the competitive advantage that iTunes needs at this point.

There are a few other reasons for Apple to drop DRM, but the above are a few key points that behooves Apple to drop DRM for their own benefit...as well as the benefit of music lovers everywhere.

Power drain

Cnet gives a brief rundown on power consumption of a few common household appliances.

Here's a summary:
Assuming $0.10/kwh:
42 inch flatscreen TV: 5hrs on per day - $18 - $90 per year depending on the model.
Tivo: $30 per yr
Wireless router: ~$5 per year
refrigerator: ~$50 per year
washer $15 - $50 per year

Kodak: we make cheap ink!

I've been waiting for awhile now for someone to break the HP/Canon/Lexmark stranglehold on world-wide inkjet ink supplies. While everybody is griping about high gas prices and Exxon's record-breaking profits, the really expensive liquid in our lives goes un-noticed: printer ink. Gas is $2/gallon. What's printer ink at? $1000/ gallon?
Well there's very good news coming our way. Printer ink prices are coming down, and we don't have to invade a middle eastern country to do it.
Kodak is unveiling a new line of printers ranging from $150-$300. The big news is that the printer cartridges will range from $10-$15, or about half the cost of HP/Canon/Lexmark's inks. Depending on how much you use your current inkjet printer, the Kodak printers could be a good buy. For me, it will make sense to simply dump my current hp printer and buy a Kodak. The new printer will pay for itself in about 18 months with the savings from the lower priced inks.

Don't buy that new gadget

...unless you really need it. Just because it's the latest thing doesn't mean it's the greatest thing. An article at Yahoo Finance/the street addresses this topic:Do You Need a Better Mousetrap.

iPhone

The rumors were right and yet they were wrong. A video iPod, iPhone, and ultraportable laptop were all anticipated from Apple. But I don't think a single person expected that they would all be built into one slick device. In summary the iPhone is:

true web browser & true e-mail

iPod w/ music, photos, movies, TV

phone & text messaging

Aside from the true web browsing, all of the above are already available for other smart phones (e.g. Windows Mobile), so it isn't such a big deal right?
Well maybe, maybe not. The rationale behind the iPhone's design is solid, but let's see how well it really works. If it functions as advertised, the interface would add value to all of the above functions. If this is the case, it will be a home run.