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>> Well, hello there, welcome to the Holiday Help Desk. I'm Tom Merritt. This is the show where we answer your questions about holiday gift guide buying. Joining me is Brian Tong. >> That was a very pleasant introduction. I felt-- >> I was trying to be all Bing Crosby, welcoming you into our desk. >> It was soothing. I want a cup of hot cocoa now. >> Of course Deborah off the arrow is here as well. >> Deborah. >> From shopper.com. >> Happy holidays. Happy holidays. >> We're going to be taking your calls and answering your questions, finding you deals, helping you with your tech gifts, all that kind of stuff. >> Oh, yeah, absolutely. Remember to call in. We have our phone lines open. 1-888-900-CNET. That's 2638. Also, you can e-mail us at holidayhelpdesk@cnet.com. This is Show Numero Siete. >> Siete of? >> 22. >> Manta Dos. >> I did it yesterday. I'm doing it today. I'm doing it tomorrow. I'm feeling the Holiday Help Desk love. >> More to go after this one. >> That's good. >> We're doing it every day for you, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Pacific right here at live@cnet.com, until December 23rd, all the way up right before Christmas Eve. So Christmas Eve eve, we'll still be doing a show. >> So Brian Cooley and Molly Wood, we continue to rotate, if you don't know already, except for me who is here three days in a row. But other than that, we'll be rotating. >> We have on the line with us a winner of prizes. Because we are giving away prizes every day. >> That's the only reason why I'm here. >> You don't get to win them, though, Brian. >> But if I put up a fake address and name and enter in the contest, I can win the prizes. >> Who's going to pick it up, though? >> I don't know. >> Yeah, you can't perpetrate fraud on CBS Corporation. It's just not going to work. >> You're right. You're absolutely right. >> And this person did not have to perpetrate fraud. Congratulations, Sidney. >> Sidney. >> From Cincinnati, Ohio, on the river. I hear you've got some great news regarding your Vizio 32-inch HDTV. >> That's the one. >> We've opened your mic now. I know you were probably trying to talk. >> I was trying to talk. I was amazed I won this TV. >> Yeah, tell us what happened, though. What time did you get the call? Did you think you were going to win? >> I actually got an e-mail about 1:30 or so in the afternoon Eastern time. And I responded like 15 minutes later. It was just amazing. And not at all what I expected to happen. Typically, anything I enter, a gazillion people enter. But gosh, my name came up, and I'm thrilled. >> Congratulations, Sidney. Have you been watching Holiday Help Desk as well or were you just posted on Crave? >> No, you know, I check CNET frequently because I'm trying to stay technically on top of things so that my kids don't really put me to shame. But my TV was doing it by itself. It's pretty antiquated. >> I'm glad we could help you replace it and give you something new. >> Oh, I am thrilled, and I'm just going to encourage everybody to jump on and enter, because you never know. >> That's true. >> We'll be giving away another prize later on in the show. >> That's right. Well, what we have here, obviously our prize giveaway, if you go to crave.cnet.com. Every day, we have a giveaway. Today, what do you think? What would you want if you were somebody? >> Sidney, what should we give away? >> Yeah, what would you want? >> What should you give away? >> Yeah. >> Gosh, the other thing on my kids' wish list is just a dynamic computer. >> A computer maybe around $500? >> Yeah, yeah, something that's kind of family-friendly. >> Well, Sidney. >> And isn't going to fall apart right away. >> You and others would now be happy to know that our giveaway today is a $500 gift card at newegg.com. >> So you can pretty much get anything you want. >> You could, you could. And you can even apply that to whatever you needed. >> Yep, and Newegg, obviously they have every electronic under the sun. The contest obviously will continue to go on until 4:00 a.m. Pacific. 7:00 a.m. Eastern time is when you can enter. December 3rd is, what is it, yeah, today's December 3rd, that's the last day to do it. But go there, pop in your entries. I don't know how many people have entered in the contest up until now. But for the TV set that you won, was there around over 7,000 entries? >> Yes, 7,206. >> Wow. So now you can feel like 1 in 7,000. >> I do. I feel pretty remarkable. You guys have really helped me clear up my Christmas shopping list. >> Fantastic. >> Well, we're happy to help, Sidney. Congratulations, and thanks very much for chatting with us today. >> Thank you. >> All right, congratulations to Sidney. And don't forget to enter yourself. Also, even if you don't win, you can save some money. Deborah is here with some Shopper deals for us. What do we got going on today? What are some of the places folks can save? >> Well, actually, instead of talking specifically about deals, there's an area on Shopper that not many people know about. And it's a great way to save additional money under coupon codes. So if you go to shopper.com, up in our blue banner area, what we call the header, over to the right under quick links. And if you click on that, you'll see specific categories that you can find special promo codes and coupons for a lot of holiday gifts. One in particular that I found as I was scrolling down earlier was a 15% off a radio control helicopter, which, by the way, over the holidays, my brother and my boyfriend each went to Penney's and bought one and loved it. They've been playing with it every day. So games and electronics, computers, all categories, automotive, health and beauty, the coupons and the promo codes there are really great at this time. >> All right, yeah, if you love to clip coupons, there you go. Nothing easier than heading shopper.com. You don't have to pull out the scissors. >> Nope, print them out, look at them. >> Also, joining us as he is every day during the Holiday Help Desk run is CNET's own cheapskate, Rick Broida. How's it going, Rick? Welcome back. >> Hey, thanks. Glad to be back. Glad to be helping today. >> Yeah, I'm glad you're feeling better. Do you have a deal that hasn't run out yet? I know your deals tend to run out pretty quick after you post them. >> Yeah, that's been the theme the last couple of weeks. But no, today we've got a 12-inch Acer Netbook that I believe is still in stock, amazingly. And what's amazing about it-- >> Oh, what's amazing about it. >> What's so amazing about it, Rick? >> He's not on that Acer right now. That's not why his laptop froze. We'll try to get Rick back to tell us what's amazing about that deal. Yeah, we can show you the deal. It's a 12-inch Acer Notebook for $249.99. >> Yeah, the big thing of it is most netbooks are around 10 inches. And this is a 12-inch netbook. So that's probably, you know, going to be one of your killer standout features. >> 250 bucks for a 12-inch laptop? I mean, forget about calling it a netbook. >> Yeah, it's just a 12-inch laptop. So that's a killer deal. >> It's an ultralight almost. >> Super ultralight. >> Ultralight laptop. All right, so are we going to try to get Rick back on? >> I'm dialing. >> Yeah, we're dialing. While we do that, let's take some calls. 888-900-CNET, 888-900-2638 is the number you can call. And we will do our best to help you with your holiday shopping questions around technology. I mean, I don't know, you could probably handle some of that Louis Vuitton bags. >> If you want holiday fashion tips. >> Deborah maybe can-- >> Deborah might be able to help you too. >> But thankfully, that's not what Doug is asking about. Doug is on the line from New Jersey. You don't have a question about Louis Vuitton bags, right, Doug? >> No, I don't. >> All right, you know, let's just go to the next call, just go to the next call. No, no, no, Doug, what's going on? >> Hey, you know, I've got a 24-inch external display, one of those Apple displays. And it's [inaudible]. I got it secondhand on Craigslist for a song. So it was really worth it. >> Oh, one of those big cinema displays, right? >> Well, yeah, it's a 24-inch. It's nice quality. I'm a photographer by trade. So it really helps to get those colors, and, you know, so I wanted something like that. And I didn't want to pay the $1,000 premium almost that Apple charges. So I figured a secondhand one would be good. Anyway, so I have a stuck pixel, almost dead center in the middle of this thing. It's stuck on red. And I'm trying to figure out how to fix it. I know on some screens you can massage it out, or, you know, press on it with your nail, but these Apple displays have that glass panel on the front, so it's really hard to get at it. So I'm not sure if you guys have any tips on trying to get at that stuck pixel. I'm trying to get rid of that. I don't know if that's possible. >> Yeah, when I heard your question, the first thing we were talking about is, well, you know, there's a way that you can actually massage it or kind of do this tap with it, a little additional pressure. Did you know that the screen was actually going to come with the dead pixel at all? Or it kind of popped up on you? >> No, I think it popped up on me. And I guess I could accuse the guy of, you know, sending me some, you know, tainted material. But honestly, I've had it for a few days, and I don't know if it just popped up coincidentally, so I really can't prove anything. >> Now, the thing is, if it is indeed a stuck pixel and not a dead pixel, because once it's dead, really you're stuck with it being dead. But another method, I'm not going to really recommend this to you, but I pulled up some information of other ways to kind of help with stuck pixels. And one method is actually plugging in your monitor, and essentially putting it in like a drawer or somewhere really enclosed so that it gets really hot to help to essentially kind of fill the-- >> Loosen up the LCD. >> Yeah, loosen it up, loosen up the LCD essentially. They do mention how it is kind of, you know, dangerous. And normally it's done more easily with a laptop, obviously because it's a smaller unit. I don't know if that's really your last resort to try and get it really hot inside that drawer. I know it's a very kind of home-baked hack. But if it's really your last resort and it's in the dead center, and it's 24 inches, and you have some enclosed space, and I can build up heat in a 24, you know. >> Did you try the massaging already, Doug? >> You know, I did try for a minute, and then I realized, you know what, this has a glass panel on it. It's so rigid, there's no way to really massage it. >> You can't push on that, yeah. >> I did go to this one place. It's called jscreenfix.com. And it gives you this little [inaudible] that you run. And it has--it brings up a popup window that has quickly rotating pixels, all these different colors, and you're supposed to put it over that spot for 10, 15 minutes, and it's supposed to get rid of it. But that didn't really do anything. >> Yeah, I've never had much success with those either. I haven't even tried the massage thing before with a pixel. I don't know if that works. The only other course of action you'd have would be to somehow try to get Apple to pay for it. I assume that the guy didn't sell you an AppleCare on the display or you would have already tried that. >> Yeah, and I think--I checked online with AppleCare, and I think they only take care of dead pixels. And even then, only so many. Like it has to have seven or ten or more. >> Exactly. They're very picky about that. Sometimes if you are really nice to even an in-store manager, they might be able to help you. But since it was purchased secondhand, they're probably not going to help you in that way since it wasn't purchased directly from their store. >> Unless the person had bought AppleCare on it and transferred that. Because AppleCare sticks with the device. >> Yes, yes. >> Right. >> Right, yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we tried to give you a few ideas. I'm sorry about that. It's a bummer. >> Not at all. I appreciate it. Happy holidays to you guys. >> All right, thanks a lot, Doug. >> Thanks, Doug, thank you. >> Appreciate that. Let's move on to Sam in LA. Is that Louisiana or Los Angeles? >> Louisiana. >> All right. >> Los Angeles. >> All right. In the Louisiana section of Los Angeles, Sam, what's your question? >> Hey, so I've had a Canon PowerShot camera for the past probably four or five years or so. And I'm just looking to get a gift for my wife from myself for the holidays is a new camera. The main problem we're having, I mean, it takes pretty good pictures. The main problem is that it just takes so long in between pictures. It like has to, you know, recharge itself before it will shoot off another picture. So what do you guys recommend for new cameras out there? >> Yeah, you need something that's a little faster on the shutter speed, it sounds like is what you're saying, right? >> Yeah, exactly. >> And you said 300 bucks? >> Yeah, I mean, you know, if we can get away cheaper. I just want it to come with the standards that are out there. >> Yeah, it just depends on how much you want to spend. Most of the good snapshot cameras, which is what you're looking for, compact cameras, are around $300. Our favorite one is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1. It's waterproof and shockproof, which is just kind of a handy extra for you as well. But Lori Grunin likes it. She gave it our editor's choice rating back in August, and says it's a good rugged camera, well designed, good performance. I'm trying to find out what she thought of the shutter speed on it particularly in the review. But you get the capability to set a minimum shutter speed from one second to 125th of a second. >> That's pretty sweet. >> So it's going to be an improvement for you. And Deborah, were you able to find any bargains out there in this area? Because the Panasonic Lumix is around $290, $295 is probably the cheapest we found. >> Okay, I'm seeing $279. Is this the Lumix DMC or is this the-- >> DMC-TS1. >> Oh, TS1. No, I think you're pretty close on pricing. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And then you can just look at the rest of the best compact digital cameras at reviews.cnet.com. We keep them all on a list like that and kind of compare the other ones. The PowerShot S90's not bad. Samsung DualView TL255 or 225 isn't bad either. They're both--the Canon PowerShot's a little bit more expensive. DualView is a little cheaper. But really overall, best compact camera we like is the Lumix. >> All right, thank you. I'll check it out. >> Cool, all right, cheers. >> All right, thank you. >> All right, thank you, bye. >> Thanks for calling in from Louisiana town. >> Great. >> Louis. >> Are we going to sing? >> No, no, no, I was not. >> All right, going to take a quick break. Coming up, we will be talking to Michael from newegg.com.
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>> All right, guys, thanks for coming back. Are we all back here? Everybody here in one piece? >> Nope. >> Nope? >> Not here. >> Not here? Why not? >> Totally not here. >> Okay, phone's back up at 888-900-CNET, 2638, again. Send us your e-mails at holidayhelpdesk@cnet.com. We're going to be able to answer those. >> We have two lines open right now. >> Two? >> So don't let Jamie get bored over there. >> She's working hard. >> She's so not bored. But call anyway, 888-900-2638. While you're calling, let's chat with Michael Amkreutz from newegg.com. We talked to Michael just before Black Friday. Did you survive, Michael? Did you make it through? >> One of the most fast, action-packed days that I've seen in the entire year. >> I imagine it was. Now, what were some of the bigger sellers for Newegg at that time? >> Well, there was really a broad assortment of products that went out our door. But there's three products I really wanted to highlight that did exceptionally well and far beyond our expectation. One is this new Canon T1i digital LSR. And this one's pretty cool. It's a 15-megapixel camera. But it also has full HD video capability. So kind of a crossover type product. And we could not keep it in stock. We got a couple of pieces left, phenomenal price on this product, and just real functional across the board. Another product which was really exciting for us, a smaller category for us, but really fast growing, by Cuisinart. It's the Brew Central coffee maker. Now, you might think, you know, who's going to buy a coffee maker during this holiday period? But it did exceptionally well. It makes up to 14 cups of coffee in one shot. You know, ultra fresh, real, real nice product, did well. Last, but not least, kind of new, kind of on the edge of technology, the LG Electronics 47-inch flat panel, the LH85 series. This is kind of a unique product because it has built-in 1080p wireless video transfer capabilities. So you don't have to deal with the clutter of all your cable connections to your set-top box, your Blu-ray player. It has this cool little media box from LG that you hook up to all your components. And then up to 30 feet away from this box, you can install this flat panel television. And it will automatically receive full 1080p completely wireless. >> Yeah, that's one of those problems that everybody's trying to figure out how to solve, is get that video moving around my place. >> Yes. >> There's lots of technologies to do it, but there's so many different services, and DRM gets in the way, and do I want to be running wires, do I want to be running wireless? It's good to see some more options there. Hey, I want to thank you, Michael, and the folks at Newegg for giving us the $500 gift card that we're giving away today. >> Oh, you're very welcome. >> And we wanted to ask, if whoever wins this gift card, you got any tips for them, any special deals or things you think are a bargain that they could help spend that 500 bucks on? >> Well, you know, the beauty of being an online merchant is that we are constantly bubbling with excitement. You know, Cyber Monday, Black Friday, this was just the beginning. We are getting ready for Green Monday. And between now and Christmas, there will be at least a half a dozen or so exciting sales events that this customer, the winner will be able to use this $500 on. And the deals range from, you know, every single category. And I think just picking through it, every person is going to be able to come up with something that's really going to appeal to them. >> So you, like me, are not eligible to win the $500. But if you did, what would you buy? >> Well, you know, I really would love to buy one of these Canon T1is. This is just so cool. You know, I have an older style, DV style digital video camera. I have a point-and-shoot, also a Canon SD1200. And, you know, buying one product that bridges both these things, one, you know, limits the amount of clutter I have around the house. I get one device that I can interchange lenses on, put a zoom lens on it, which now applies to my video camera, which is kind of cool. I would spend it on that. The T1i is around 700 bucks. And I would apply the 500 towards that. >> Now, we've got a bunch of people in the chat room throwing a question out. They wanted to know, what's Green Monday? >> I can't say any more about that. You would have to check back in the middle of December, that Monday that falls right in the middle of December. >> All right, okay, he's trying to keep the interest buzzing and brewing, huh? >> We're keeping it close to the desk. Appreciate that. >> You know, there is a number of these sales events. And, you know, all of our competitors, they kind of look at, these days, how to best exploit it and funnel up the best deals for our customers. So there is some secrecy around that. I don't want to give away all my secrets. >> All right, maybe next time. We'll try you again. Thank you, Michael, so much, for hanging out with us and talking to us about what's going on at Newegg. >> All right, thank you guys for having us. Have a great holiday. >> All right, we'll check back with you in a couple of weeks. Maybe he'll divulge the secret then. >> Excellent. Now, if you guys are lucky enough to win that $500 gift card, you might be able to do something with it, maybe like check out an MP3 player. Donald Bell has one that you might want to look at. >> Hey, I'm Donald Bell, Senior Editor for digital audio and MP3. And today, we're taking a first look at the Microsoft Zune HD. This is a touchscreen portable media player that comes in 16 gigabytes for $219 and 32 gigabytes for $289. Stores are stocking both capacities in either black or silver. But you can also find engraving options in other colors from Microsoft's Zune Originals online store. Now, anyone watching this video is bound to be wondering how this thing stacks up to Apple's iPod touch. So let's just cut to the chase. Why would somebody buy a Zune HD over an iPod touch? I think the most noticeable advantage of the Zune HD is its screen quality. Microsoft really stepped things up here by putting a gorgeous, 3.3-inch widescreen formatted OLED screen that knocks the snot out of the touch. Granted, the screen real estate is technically a little smaller, but the colors and contrast are unreal. If I was stuck on a plane and wanted to watch a movie, I would choose the Zune HD in a heartbeat. Plus, Microsoft is now offering low-cost movie rentals for the Zune HD. The second advantage the Zune has over the touch is a radio tuner that supports both HD broadcasts and standard FM radio. If you like the idea of listening to your favorite radio broadcast, no iPod is going to offer as many stations in as high a quality as the Zune HD. Plus, if you hear a song you like, you have the option to tag the song and download it later, which is pretty cool. The last feature the Zune HD can really brag about is subscription music integration. If you buy a Zune and really love hearing new music, you can sign up for a Zune pass subscription that allows you to download and sync all the music you want for $15 a month. Included in the plan are 10 free MP3 purchases a month, which are yours to keep, even if you cancel the subscription. Plus, you get unlimited song and album streams from any computer when you log onto zune.net. Long story short, the Zune subscription service is one of the better values out there. And no other device does a better job of integrating, streaming and downloading subscription tracks than the Zune HD. A few other things worth mentioning, the Zune now has a web browser. And it's pretty awesome, definitely comparable to the touch. Photos look great on the OLED screen. There's also a new category for apps, where you can find any games or utilities downloaded from Microsoft Zune marketplace. At launch, they've got a handful of games and a promise of more to come, including apps for Twitter and Facebook. And with that, we come to the Zune HD's real Achilles' heel when it comes to competing with the iPod touch. People are just nuts these days about apps and games. There may be a day when the Zune gets a Pandora app or a wine-buying guide or maps. But until then, I think people are going to have a hard time choosing a premium media playback device over a do-everything gizmo like the touch. It also doesn't help that the Zune can only be used with its own Zune software, which is a PC-only program. That said, if you're a big music fan looking for one of the richest music playback and discovery experiences you can get on a portable device, the Zune HD is it. And there's one more thing. Everything you see on the Zune can be output to your HDTV. For another 90 bucks, you can get an AV dock with HDMI out in both analog and digital audio outputs. Plug in your Zune, and all of your music and videos can be thrown onto the big screen, controlled by included remote. It's pretty cool, and yet another thing you just can't do with any iPod. So there you go. That's the Zune HD in a nutshell. It's a beautiful product that still isn't destined for mass appeal, but will definitely find an audience of people who want the very best from their music and videos. For CNET.com, I'm Donald Bell. >> All right, Zune HD, a great product. >> There you have it. Good stuff there. Thank you, Donald Bell. And keeping in the MP3 player world, Angel is on the line. >> Hey, Angel, welcome to Holiday Help Desk. You've got an MP3 player question, I understand. >> Yeah, I sure do. How are you guys doing, first of all? >> Oh, we're doing great. >> Excellent. >> Thanks for calling. >> Wonderful. Yeah, I do have a question. My family is very tech-oriented, and I'm trying to get my brother a good present for Christmas. But we're kind of in a tight budget. I got him as my Secret Santa. He has really high expectations, so, you know, with such a low budget, it's kind of hard to go. We have a $50 budget. And I saw this MP3 player by Emerson that seemed to have everything. But I wasn't--I couldn't find a review on CNET. And I just wanted to know what you guys thought about it. >> Well, Emerson and Coby both are budget MP3 players. And honestly, we have reviewed them in the past and been very unhappy with them. They just haven't had good audio quality, poor functionality, poorly made. So I don't know the recent ones, if they've changed anything, but my guess is if they had, we would have reviewed it and put it up. So I'm thinking to stay away from that. But you probably need a cheap MP3 player to take its place. And you're still looking for something in that $50 range, right? >> Yeah, the key thing that he asked for was for a speaker, a built-in speaker, which you don't see that too often on most MP3 players. So I was a little unsure of that. >> Yeah, so I don't know about the built-in speaker thing off the top of my head. I know that SanDisk makes our favorite budget MP3 players. You can get the SanDisk Sansa Fuze right now for $34.99, SanDisk Sansa Clip+ for $44.79, and no more than 50 bucks. But they don't have speakers. >> They don't have it yet. They don't have built-in speaker. I mean, the great thing about the Sansa Clip is it has an FM tuner built into it. And it's literally the size of about maybe two quarters stacked next to each other. The fidelity and the sound quality is great, too. And it's an editor's choice, one of our top, you know, picks. But with a built-in speaker, I'm not sure anything off the top of my head. >> Under $50. >> Under $50. >> That has a speaker, right. >> The $50 price range. Gotcha, cool. Well, I'll probably look into the Clip then either way. I know he might be a little bit disappointed, but hey, you know, there's always next Christmas, right? >> You know, you can just tell him that CNET gave it an editor's choice. And it should be good enough for him if it's good enough for us. And tell him to enjoy his $50 Sansa Clip. >> Now, why does he want the speaker? >> You know what? I asked him, and I think--he's in high school. It's his senior year in high school. So I think he just kind of wants to show off his music. I don't know. I don't know what the kids are doing nowadays. >> I want to thank surfing the web in the chat room who pointed out the Creative ZEN Mozaic is available for 50 bucks. And I'm trying to--I don't see--it does have a speaker, yeah, a powerful built-in speaker, it says, according to the review on Newegg. So yeah, that might work for you. And although it's not one of our higher reviewed ones, it's a decent MP3 player. So, you know, you've got to weigh like do I want to get like the best MP3 player I can find, but it disappoints him because it doesn't have a speaker, or get him one that's good and have that speaker for him. And then you've got to decide if you want to hear that speaker going off all the time. >> Cool, all right. Well, I think that's what I'm looking for, guys. Thank you so much for all your help. >> All right, thanks for letting us chat with you today, Angel, appreciate that. You had an e-mail. >> We want to take care of e-mails so you guys know that we do actually answer those as well. This one's from Chad. Chad asks, should I buy an iPod just because his wife already has one in order to keep it in the family or should I go to the Zune HD? One feature I know I want is to output video from a device to an HDTV. Thanks. And this one's from Chad. So we have a couple recommendations. Off the bat, our saw our Zune HD video. And the great thing about that, you do, first of all, for both of these devices, you're going to have to purchase some kind of dock. Now, on the iPod side, most of the time, you know, there's third party docks that you can go into on an HDTV, if you're talking about an iPod touch specifically. With the Zune HD, you have their dock. I believe it's around $99. But the beauty of it, and I've seen it in action, I've been able to play with it, the interface mimics exactly the interface on the Zune HD device. So that's really slick. A lot of times with these third party HD video docks for iPods, the interface is a little clunky. It's not an Apple product that you're going to be able to navigate the way that you want. So, you know, from an experience standpoint in usability, I would lean towards the Zune HD. And, you know, just because you want to keep it in the family, if you really want that video exporting feature to an HDTV, I would point you in that direction. >> It's what it's meant to do. >> Yeah. >> They designed it to do that. >> Yeah, and I know even with some iPod docks, I think there's one from a company called DLO. Theirs is around like $200, $250. So even from a price standpoint, that's going to maybe help you decide which side you want to go to. >> All right, on the line from Pennsylvania is Kim. Welcome to Holiday Help Desk, Kim. What can we help you with? >> Hey, I've been looking at a, now I can't remember, kind of a central video camera for my son. He's 14. He knows how to use the Mac applications for editing. But I see the Flip for, you know, close to $200. But then I see other digital camcorders close. So I don't know what to look for that's going to be the simplest, yet versatile, for him. >> Yeah, it's interesting. The Flip is really popular. We like it. We gave it--what did we give it, an eight out of ten? So four stars. And it's a good solid--the Flip UltraHD is a good solid budget camcorder. It doesn't do everything you might want it to do, but it is one of the leaders. However, there's also that Kodak Zi8 pocket videocamera, which we also liked. And depending on where you shop, you might find that one cheaper or the Flip cheaper. I don't know if Deborah can weigh in on what's leading the bargain race between those two right now. >> Well, let's see now. I've got the Flip up here. The Flip Video Minnow HD, and I'm seeing price ranges from 155 to 228. The 155 is actually a great price from Amazon Marketplace. And the other was, let's see, the Kodak, what did you say, Tom? >> Zi8. >> The Zi8. Okay, and that's ranging 149 to 179. >> Yeah, we actually kind of talked about this a little bit yesterday with the pocket camcorders. Before deals, the Zi8 is already $50 cheaper. One nice advantage of it is it has an expandable card slot to put in more additional memory. And that specific model supports 1080p video. Again, you're not going to get the best true 1080p out of a pocket camcorder. But currently, the Flip's highest video quality [inaudible] is a 720p. So that might be another reason for you to look at the Zi8 right now. >> Will both of these go in--are they the right format to go easily into a Mac? >> Yeah, you'll be able to--what will happen is you'll typically plug them in as if they were like a USB drive and then be able to drag and drop the video files over onto your Mac and then bring them into an application like iMovie. >> Right, right, okay. >> Yeah, my wife uses a Flip for video, and it's on her Mac as well. So it should work fine. Now, the other one to look at is the Creative Vado HD. It's not as good of a camera, but it's got a few more features. And it's a little cheaper. You can find it on Amazon for 104 bucks. So, you know, throw that into the mix if you want to look around. It's got a screen on the front, which the Zi and the Flip don't have. So it's something to consider. It's no flash memory slot. And Mac users, this is the killer for you, you've got to manually copy the video files to your computer. It doesn't have a syncing thing. But it's a decent one. And you can get it for pretty cheap. >> Okay, excellent. Well, more work to do. >> Yeah, exactly. We've now complicated your decision for you. >> We're giving her a few more options. >> That's okay. At least I know what to look for. It's the hard thing, there's so many terms and things. It's like ahh! >> All right, thanks a lot, Kim, appreciate that. We've got to go. We're over time. >> We already got to go? >> Before we wrap up, though, it's time to announce who's taking home the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1. That was the prize we were giving away yesterday. >> Oh, man. >> Digital camera. The winner is--ready? Jay Monroe, 44. >> Jay Monroe, 44. >> Congratulations, Jay Monroe. You should be receiving an e-mail from CNET shortly. And remember, there's a big fat $500 e-gift card from Newegg at crave.cnet.com right now. So just go there and search giveaway if you'd like to be entered to win for tomorrow. >> That's right. I will be back here tomorrow with Ms. Molly Wood. Rick Broida will be here again, our cheapskate. And Jeff Fay, Director of Mobile Electronics at crutchfield.com will also be here to talk about more deals that they're offering. So we'll see you again 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, 1:00 p.m. Pacific, same CNET channel, same CNET time. We'll be here. >> Talk to you. >> See you.
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