General

Our present isn't nearly as wireless as our past promised our future would be. (Oh, it does too make sense.)

For example, planning to mount a TV on the wall or a projector on the ceiling? Be prepared for a mess of wires to go with it, what with the cable box, Blu-ray player, game console, Apple TV, and other goodies you'll want to connect.

Ideally, you'd be able to wirelessly beam all your video sources to your video destination, with little to no lag and HD fidelity intact. And you can, with today's deal.

For … Read more

A few months back I wrote about a dirt-cheap T-Mobile USB aircard that sold out in mere minutes. I know a lot of readers were frustrated that they didn't get a chance to get one.

Thus I'm happy to offer a Cheapskate exclusive: the refurbished TruConnect USB Card 3G modem for $29.99, plus $5.99 for shipping. It sells new for $79.

Not to be confused with TruConnect's MiFi, which I've written about before, the USB Card is designed to plug into a laptop for on-the-go mobile broadband. You can share that broadband with other … Read more

When it comes to freebie photo software, savvy users typically look to favorites like GIMP and Paint.net.

Those are great tools, no doubt about it, but why not score a commercial product if you can? Especially if you have the chance to get it for free?

For a limited time (the site says 98 days are left, but I suspect that's a mistake), Download Crew has CyberLink PhotoDirector 2011 (Win) free of charge. This program has a list price of $99.95.

PhotoDirector 2011 comes from the company behind PowerDirector, a top-rated video-editing tool. It's an all-in-one … Read more

The iPhone 5's screen may not be huge, but it's definitely a little nicer for watching movies than the old screen.

Consequently, you may want to rerip some of your movies to take advantage of the extra screen estate. Just one problem: your old DVD ripper doesn't support the new screen resolution or aspect ratio.

Here's one that does -- and it's free. For a limited time, you can get uRexsoft's iPhone DVD Ripper (Win) free of charge.

True to its name, the utility copies DVDs to your PC and converts them to iPhone-friendly … Read more

Well, yesterday was kind of a train wreck, huh? Believe me that I get just as frustrated as you when a vendor suddenly jacks up the price on a product, as TigerDirect did yesterday on the Vizio sound bar. It's worse than a sellout, because it smacks of bait-and-switch tactics (even though the company's own promotional e-mail showed it at the higher price, so that accusation doesn't hold water).

Anyway, I still feel bad about it, which is why I'm giving you five -- count 'em, five -- deals today. Without further ado:

1. Wal-Mart has … Read more

This is an update of a deal I've posted before.

Most HDTV speakers sound pretty crummy. In their defense, there's just not a lot of room for cones and whatnot inside those skinny LCD and plasma panels. But it's disappointing! Here you spend all this money for a beautiful screen, and your ears pay the price.

One affordable way to improve the audio situation: a sound bar, which is a speaker/receiver combo that sits above or below the screen and does the work of two or more standalone speakers.

While supplies last, TigerDirect has the refurbished … Read more

Apple may have just priced itself into a corner.

At least week's product launch event, the company unveiled a new, fifth-generation iPod Touch with a slightly larger screen, better camera, faster processor, and so on. Starting price: $299.

Meanwhile, the rumor mill continues to churn about an iPad Mini that could appear as early as next month, potentially obliterating Amazon's Kindle Fire and other competitors in the 7-inch tablet market (much as the current iPad has dominated the 10-inch market).

Indeed, many have speculated that a $249 iPad would spell doom for the Kindle Fires and Nooks of … Read more

There was quite the hullabaloo last week regarding Amazon's new Kindles.

Turns out that the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Fire HD tablets were all "Special Offers" models, meaning they'd display ads on their lock screens and main home screens.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos neglected to mention this when announcing the prices for all these Kindles, causing a minor uproar in the hours that followed -- especially when Amazon reps said there would be no way to opt out. Then, barely a day later, Bezos and Co. reversed course and gave Kindle Fire customers the option of … Read more

Need a good desktop-publishing program? For my money, nothing compares to Serif PagePlus X6. At $99.99, it's a fraction of the cost of Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress (which, against all logic, still sell for hundreds and hundreds of dollars). And it's nearly as capable as both.

For a limited time, you can get Serif PagePlus X6 for just $49 -- oh, and six other programs, too.

It's all part of Avanquest Software's PC SuperBundle, which includes $379' worth of Windows software for that same price.

I'll come right out and say that PagePlus is … Read more