Shopping for smarties.

Here are some tools to shop for deals on electronics from Cnet's webware:

12 online tools for price-conscious shoppers.

Preach On!

Here's a sermon...errr....article from the Wall Street Journal which is timely given these troubled time's: Cutting Monthly Bills? Turn To The Web.

 

Gadgets: Recession Proof

David Pogue's latest article Many Ways to Plug In to Tech Savings begins states:You might think of high-tech gadgetry as something that drains your bank account — but it can save you money, too. A lot of it.

Amen. Pull back on discretionary spending by all means, but don't pull back on capital expenditures which will yield a return on your investment.

Cheapskate

The cheapskate blog from cnet could otherwise be called dealz, dealz, dealz!

Rick Broida scours the web for cheap gadgets. Just remember: the cheapest isn't always the best value.

Hulu: It's not ready for prime time.

There's been some hype about the new video site Hulu. It's exciting because like YouTube, all the videos are searchable and FREE. Unlike YouTube, the content is from the major TV networks and major movie studios. The concept is tantalizing: This FREE service could potentially usurp cable and Netflix. But alas, it's not quite there yet. The graph above summarizes Hulu's shortcomings, despite the fact that (or maybe because it is?) FREE.

This isn't a full review, but in summary Hulu:
- offers FREE movies and TV shows to view on a computer
- links to other sites that do have the video you're looking for even if Hulu doesn't have it.
(e.g., searching for 'LOST' and 'One Tree Hill' gives you links to the ABC and CW sites, respectively.)

- The video quality is sub-DVD resolution and does not look good connected to an HDTV
- searching for 'Iron Chef' returns links to 'Top Chef'.
- searching for the Russell Crowe classic 'The Gladiator' leads to about 8 links to the not-exactly-classic 'American Gladiators'
- searching for 'The Titanic' leads to 'Wildboyz: Thailand 2'


In short, searching for stuff on Hulu is hit or miss...or miss completely.
To those using Hulu now, I say: Good Luck!

(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

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.

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...

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.