General

After a week pockmarked with unfortunately timed sellouts, I want to send you into your weekend with enough deals to make your wallet beg for mercy.

1. The cheapest Blu-ray player ever. We've been rewatching "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy around these parts, and I just upgraded from the DVDs I'd purchased years ago to the Blu-ray editions. No. Contest. If you want the best picture and sound, by a mile, there's still nothing better.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, Newegg has the refurbished Magnavox MBP5320 Blu-ray player with Wi-Fi for $19.99 shipped. … Read more

Whenever I envision the perfect smartphone, it has one key feature: a kickstand. (Bet you thought I was going to say freeze-ray. That's no. 2 on the list.)

Why the deep-seated longing for a pop-out propper-upper? Because my phone is my constant companion, used for everything from reading while I eat breakfast to watching movies on long flights to showing recipes while I'm in the kitchen. (That's right, I bake. Got a problem?) Unfortunately, it's always lying down in the job. I need a way to hold it up so I can keep both hands free.… Read more

Wow, the only thing worse than having to write an apology post for the previous day's early sellout is when the apology post itself suffers the same fate! Apparently users have an insatiable appetite for fast, high-capacity storage -- especially when it's dirt-cheap.

Today's deal can't really sell out, because it's digital, though the promo price may expire at any time, as may the coupon code -- though I'm pretty sure the latter is good through the end of the month.

Do you like action games? Then you're in for a treat: GameFly … Read more

If you're anything like me, you have an iTunes library you've amassed over the course of many years, one that includes everything from ripped CDs to Amazon MP3 purchases to song downloads from any number of outside sources.

In other words, it's a messy collection, with duplicates, missing album art and tags, and so on. There are plenty of utilities out there promising to clean things up, but most of them will cost you.

Not today. Until tomorrow, you can get Leawo Tunes Cleaner (PC/Mac) absolutely free. There's a slightly obnoxious catch, but ultimately it'… Read more

Much as I love services like Pandora and Songza for streaming music, sometimes you want to hear exactly the songs you want to hear -- hence on-demand services like Rdio and Spotify.

Of course, most of those services cost around $10 per month. If you like the idea but not the price, Sony has a deal worth considering: a one-year Music Unlimited subscription for $59.99. That's 50 percent of the regular price and the equivalent of $5 monthly.

Even better, if you're a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you can get the Music Unlimited plan for $41.99.

Sony'… Read more

A couple weeks back I suggested that Kingsoft Office Free 2013 might just be the best Microsoft Office alternative you can get, especially if you need only the core elements: word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Kingsoft offers a Pro version, of course, one that includes more goodies. A one-year license normally sells for $29.95, but today only, Giveaway of the Day has Kingsoft Office Professional 2013 (Win) absolutely free.

Let me note right here that this version has just a few key benefits over its free counterpart: a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) editor, support for macros in the … Read more

The world's fastest-selling Android phone just got a little savvier. CNET How To is bringing its very best, unpublished advice to our newest e-book, "Mastering the Galaxy S4."

New to Android? We've got you. Google maven? You'll find plenty of hidden tips here, too. We've tapped through every last feature, button, sensor, shortcut, and blaster (seriously) to bring you the tips and tricks that help you master your S4.

CNET brought you a guidebook before, but for the S4, we've kicked it up a notch. … Read more

Sometimes it's hard being the Cheapskate. I don't mean the rigors of finding awesome deals on a daily basis, though that certainly can be a challenge. (What? Another tablet?!)

No, the tough part is when a frustrated reader e-mails me because the product he ordered hasn't arrived after three weeks. Or, even worse, it arrived in poor condition. And the company that sold it to him won't help or even respond. Although I have no control over these kinds of situations, and can't offer much in the way of assistance, I feel terrible for indirectly … Read more

You know what my iPad doesn't have? A DVD player. So how am I supposed to watch all the great movies in my DVD collection? I'm talking "The Rock," "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Incredibles," "The Matrix," and so on. (It's true: I have awesome taste in movies.)

No doubt Apple, Amazon, and Google would love for me to buy their digital versions of all my platter-based movies, but I already bought them once. Do I really have to spend $10 to $15 to buy them again?

Not today. Movie-discovery … Read more