^M00:00:01
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>> Hello, everyone. Welcome to the
Holiday Help Desk. I'm Molly Wood. He is
Brian Tong across the desk from me.
>> Hello. Yes.
>> We're excited to welcome back Debra
Ofierlo [assumed spelling] of shopper.com. I
kind of want to put a little -- I just can't
help it -- Ofierlo. I want to put a spin on
that. That is a name right there. That is a
good name.
>> Thank you.
>> We will be answering your calls. We
will be answering your holiday shopping
questions for the next half hour here on the
Holiday Help Desk like we've been doing
everyday day for how many days now?
>> Well this is my third day in a row.
So I've been doing it for quite a while.
>> Oh, you are tired.
>> No. I'm alive. I'm good. This is
show number eight guys. The total 8 out of 22
obviously Brian Cooley and Tom will be coming
in to help us out. Every weekday from now
until December 23 so you can watch them live as
you are now or you can watch them on demand
later and we're really just trying to take all
the questions that we can.
>> Yeah. There's like a million ways
to reach us at least. You can e-mail us at
holidayhelpdesk@cnet.com. The phone lines are
open right now. That's 18006 -- no that's the
cnet one. 1-888-900cnet 2368. I always try to
get out the buzz out loud one because I'm
sitting in the buzz out loud studio so it just
happens inside my brain. 888-900cnet. I think
we've got like a line open. So if you want to
call in do that now. You can also join us at
our chat room at cnet.com slash live slash
holiday help desk and you know ask whatever you
want. That's what we're here for.
>> That was actually three ways not a
million. I just wanted to put that out there.
>> Wholly literal man.
>> All right every weekday you guys get
a chance -- don't hate me -- you're going to
have a chance to enter our daily holiday give
away. Just go to our web site it's
crave.cnet.com. Look for the give away posting
and you can also a lot of times find it on the
front of cnet.com under our more stories today.
The prize is the Altec Lansing inMotion Classic
iPod Speaker. So you guys check this out. It
goes for around $125 but this is a killer iPod
docking speaker system that uses that is
compatible with both the iPod and the iPhone.
Right now we've what 2500 comments. So 2500
entries. Your odds s are pretty good. I mean
some of our TVs got up to over like 7000
entries.
>> Yeah. And you know I'm just saying
even though it's not a TV it's definitely still
worth going for because I think those little
iPod speakers are so -- I'm compliantly hooked
on the handiness that is the little iPod
speaker.
>> Now just if you want to know about
the quality of this, cnet editor Donald Bell,
he says that the classic lacks a little bit of
low-end umph but it sounds remarkable for its
size.
>> Remarkable.
>> Remarkable.
>> Excellent. But we're going to start
as always before we get to your questions or
anything we are going to start with our shopper
deals [inaudible]. Oh, you know what? We're
getting -- I'm sorry. I'm staring blankly at
the camera because I'm getting input that we
actually have.
>> We like to try to bring on our
winners to show you guys the fact that people
actually do win this free stuff. It doesn't go
directly into our pockets.
>> Unfortunately.
>> We have Jason from Maryland. Jason,
are you there?
>> He's on. Oh, yeah. There he is. I
got it. Jason are you there?
>> Yes, I am here.
>> Jason.
>> Hello.
>> All right so you kind of have a
little unique story of how you acquired this
winnable prize. Tell us what happened.
>> Well, I actually I was -- I hadn't
really visited cnet very much prior to now
but --
>> Okay. We might hang up right now I
think. Let's kill this line.
>> No. No. Wait I think there's more.
>> Oh, okay.
>> Let's here him out.
>> Okay.
>> And I ended up seeing an article on
cnet on the Google news aggregator and I
clicked on that and I was fiddling around and I
came across the give away of the day and this
is you know when you guys first started doing
the daily ones. And now I've got it -- I
subscribe to the feed so that everything cnet
posts shows up in any Google reader. And I
check back everyday and I've actually tried to
win everything.
>> Nice.
>> Wow.
>> So you're saying you one the camera.
That's excellent too. So it's kind of like
crack. Like we give you a little give away and
now you're hooked.
>> Yeah. Actually.
>> That's what the c in cnet stands
for.
>> But, Jason, don't you feel you
should give people the opportunity to win other
prizes instead of trying to hog them all.
>> I don't see why.
>> I'm with you there. I'm just trying
to sound nice.
>> And actually long time cnet
listeners and viewers will know that our
holiday help desk is kind of notorious for
repeating prize winners. We have given like
the same people prizes year after year.
There's no reason you shouldn't keep coming.
>> Excellent.
>> I wasn't even sure I could comment
on things now at this points but I guess I can.
>> You totally can. Well, welcome to
the cnet family, Jason. We're really happy to
have you.
>> This is a great way to bribe someone
to join the family.
>> I know, exactly.
>> All right. Jason, thanks for
calling in and congratulations. And he was the
winner of the Panasonic Lumix that we were
giving away a couple of days ago. So very
cool.
>> Nice camera too.
>> All right.
>> And now we're going to get to the
deals. We have Debra as usual on the
shopper.com deal hot line.
>> Hello.
>> What's hot today?
>> I'm looking for sweet deals. Sweet
deals.
>> Oh, you guys. You're so talented.
>> One.
>> Two.
>> Three.
>> Sweet deals.
>> This could be fun. I like this.
>> This could be. This is fun.
>> All right. So what we've got is
actually if you weren't online yesterday
checking out our show we talked about coupons.
And I decided to touch on that again and take
you up to our quick links area to our coupon
codes because there actually was a article in
the paper today about how big the coupons
online have become for this year over last
year. And if we look at shopper.com we've got
categories galore. Babies, kids, clothing,
computer, electronics.
>> You're got babies on shopper.com?
>> Wow.
>> Coupons for those categories.
>> How many babies do you sell?
>> Do Angelina and Brad shop on
shopper.com because I think they might find a
nice deal on a Nigerian baby.
>> That's a really easy way to get a
baby.
>> So one of the shortcuts here -- I'm
going to get there eventually.
>> Sorry.
>> Sorry about that.
>> One of the shortcuts there once
we're on that page is I like to go in and
select on popular stores. I'm not sure if
everybody knows can go by store. And if you go
down and choose Best Buy I notice that they
have some great coupons happening right now and
one of them is I think is a 99 cent deal on
shipping with a promo code. And I'm not sure
what the exclusions are or the specifics but
the idea here is coupons are big. People can't
as you mentioned yesterday Brian they can't
clip them out but they're certainly collecting
them and using them and it's a big, big deal
that year.
>> That's what I've been hearing too.
And people are layering coupons on top of
rebates on top of other kind of specials and
there's like that eBates.com website I think
where you can actually sign up and you can get
rebates on different on participating
merchants. It's really -- that was something
that I didn't see. That's a whole new trend in
shopping.
>> There's a lot of like manufacturer
rebates stacked on top of actual retail store
rebates and they give them to you.
>> Right. And since you mentioned that
we do have a rebate section and if you go and
take a quick look at that as well you can mouse
over where you see the little rebate sign and
it will tell you how much the rebate is, when
the expiration date is. It's very easy to
navigate.
>> Nice. And I see at the top of
shopper.com you'll see quick links and those
include top 100 rebates -- yeah -- deals and
then coupon codes which are, yeah, right.
>> Right.
>> There you go.
>> Thank you.
>> Awesome. Well, thank you Debra.
And well of course, as long as we're talking
about deals we would be remiss if we did not go
directly to our own cheapskate hunter Rick
Broida.
>> Cheapness.
>> With like the cheapness. It's like
they have the cool hunter and the ghost hunter
and you're like the deal hunter.
>> Or the cheap hunter. Yeah.
>> The cheap hunter is better because
otherwise you get sort of a deer hunter thing
and that's just a little -- that's dark.
>> Yeah. That's not good.
>> Yeah. So anyway how are things in
the lair and what kind of deals do you have
today?
>> Hey. That's where he lives all
right?
>> Yeah. He lives in a lair. Like
Batman. That's awesome.
>> You wish shall you lived in a lair.
>> I do wish I lived in a lair.
>> With bats?
>> You know, I'm kind of sad today.
>> Oh, know.
>> What can we do for you Rick?
>> You want to know what -- well okay.
So I found this pretty smoking 26-inch LCD
monitor for $184.99 shipped out the door.
Done. No rebate. None of that. None of that
nonsense. Posted it up this morning. And it
was gone inside of I think about 5 minutes.
It's not only frustrating for all the readers
who got very excited about this only to go and
discover that it's not there anymore. But it's
frustrating for me too. So I apologize to
everybody when that happens. It's really kind
of out of my control but a certain vendors who
shall remain nameless I'm going to restrain
form posting a lot more deals from there at
least during this busy holiday day shopping
season.
>> Good to know. Well, that's seems
the always be kind of a concern. And I
definitely you're really good I will say about
updating your blog as soon as you see that
something is sold out. And I think that's
really useful for people you know when they
show up there they can find out I think you had
four the other day and you know all but one was
sold out within -- it's just -- you have kind
of a slash out effect.
>> Yeah. It's the cheapskate effect.
No. I did find a replacement that I posted up
a little while ago.
>> You did? Okay. So is that the Xbox
360 wireless N adapter?
>> Exactly. Which is crazy over priced
at the Microsoft list price of $99.99. I
wouldn't buy it on a bet. But New Age has got
it for $79.99 which is at least a little more
reasonable. It's you know if you're going to
get one you know don't pay 100 bucks for it
that's nuts.
>> And that shied too, right? That's
just 80 bucks free shipping.
>> Yep.
>> So what is your cheapskate opinion
on this idea of eBates and rebates because you
said it's sort of a little nonsense like I know
it can be a hassle but in this day of being
able to layer deals do you think it's kind of
worth it sometimes?
>> Oh, yeah. Definitely. I mean you
know you got to find the deals where you can.
I know a lot of people are -- a lot of people
hate rebates the actual mail in kind. If it's
something where you can kind of automatic and
do things online instead you know by all means
check it out but I'm all for layering coupon
and the more discounts I can pile on the
happier I am.
>> And then is there a certain time of
day you put these posts up like are you -- can
you look for a new deal everyday at 11:42 a.m.
Pacific or are you just --
>> I would say that on average about
10:00 a.m. Eastern time is usually when my
posts go up. And again I'm hitting it first
thing in the morning unfortunately by the time
you guys out in California wake up it's well
stuffs just gone. So I apologize for that.
>> So we're lazy and out of luck.
>> Yeah. You know get up early for a
change. That's why.
>> Get up when it's still dark out.
Okay. No problem. Well, thanks, Rick we will
try to drag our lazy butts out of bed for your
deals because they are pretty much worth it.
I'm not going to lie.
>> All right thanks guys.
>> Okay. Thanks. We'll talk to you
soon.
>> All right. I guess we're going to go
maybe check out some calls.
>> I think we should. Yeah. I think --
>> Okay. Let's do this. We'll jump
here we have a Lee from Los Angeles. Lee, how
are you doing today?
>> Great. How are you?
>> Do good. Doing good.
>> I wanted to know I'm looking for a
laptop to do Photo Shop work on. And it's so
confusing and I'm trying to do it on a budget
and don't know where to go what to get.
>> Now, what is your budget around?
>> I'm trying is to keep it around
$1000.
>> Okay. One thing that you can do is
on our -- I don't know how much you've checked
out our website but if you go to cnet.com in
the left-hand corner we have laptops. And on a
scale of 1 to 10 do you know how much are you
really looking for this laptop to really be
like desktop replacement or just to be able to
be to do a little bit of Photo Shop work?
>> Preferably I guess a desktop
replacement.
>> Okay.
>> Now, there are laptops that can fall
in the range of desktop replacements. We have
the section here on our website and we have
five that are recommended by Dan Ackerman. Now
not all of these are going to necessarily be a
$1000. We do have the Gateway NV7802U and
right now the price is around $640. It's in
our list of desktop replacement laptops.
That's going to be a lot lower than $1000. I
think a key thing though also is that if you're
looking for you know a laptop that's really
going to be able to hang with Photo Shop the
key thing is max out the RAM as much as you can
because if you're doing a lot of high-end
graphics you really want to load that bad boy
with RAM. I don't know if you guys have
anything you've found on laptops around a $1000
or anything you might want to chime in on.
>> There is one that we actually just
recently reviewed this new Sony Vaio the
VGN-NW270FS which is I know a catchy name. But
it's seems like a relatively powerful laptop
and it's a really good price. It's like $699
right now at Best Buy from what I can tell. It
has Blu-ray built in so it's definitely thin
and light for its size. It's core two duo.
2.2 gigahertz with 4 gigs of RAM built in and I
would say if you're only spending $699 upgrade
that to 8 for sure if it will take it. It is
running Windows 7. You know it's not -- it
looks like it doesn't have dedicated graphics
but it looks like it might be integrated
graphics but it looks like a pretty decent
performing new Sony Vaio. So that might be one
to check out.
>> And than also I mean I'm not saying
call tomorrow but Dan Akerman is going to be in
the house tomorrow. He is our laptop guru
editor. So if you have a few more questions
you know because he's looking at this stuff.
>> I've been on the forums.
>> Yeah. Because he's here constantly
like checking out all the latest laptops and
reviewing them so he might be able to help you
out tomorrow if you call in as well.
>> Yeah. And laptops prices are
definitely coming down so it might be one of
those thing where you just want to find one
where you price one find one that you're
interested in that might be about 1300 now and
just watch for that price to get lower because
honestly the closer we get to Christmas the
lower those prices are going to go. And I
think you're probably -- you're going to be
able to find something good. So hopefully that
helps you out. It looks like we've got to take
a little break now. So we're going to do that
and then of course when we come back we'll have
more calls.
>> More calls and fun. Okay.
>> Singing.
^M00:14:24
[ Music ]
^M00:14:30
>> If you think all batteries are the
same, consider this. These Duracell batteries
were given to the Mattel Children's Hospital
UCLA because when it comes to kids and healing
you're not just powering a toy, you're powering
a smile. Duracell trusted everywhere.
^M00:14:45
[ Music ]
^M00:14:48
>> Everywhere you look new gadgets are
popping up. To get the real story on them
there's really only one place to go cnet.com.
Discover something new at CNET.
>> Last FM now on Xbox live. Discover
new music and explore endless personalized
radio stations. Find out more on
www.lastfm.com/xbox.
^M00:15:17
[ Music ]
^M00:15:21
>> All right. Welcome back everybody.
On the line today joining us from
Charlottesville Virginia we have Jeff Faye
[assumed spelling] from crutchfield.com. Are
you there? Hey, Jeff. Do we have you or did
we lose you on Skype? We've been having a
little bit of Skype difficulty with Jeff today.
>> Jeff, don't leave me. I want some
free stuff.
>> I know. Well, I don't think he's not
going give us free stuff; is he? He's the
director of mobile electronics at Crutchfield
which sounds very promising to me.
>> It always is.
>> Although possibly not the director of
awesome broadband at his house. So we're going
to try him again while we -- we'll see if he's
there. I hear noises.
>> This is Jeff.
>> Hey, Jeff. Are you there?
>> How are you?
>> Do we have you. Good how are you
doing.
>> Great.
>> So you are the director of mobile
electronics at Crutchfield. Start off by
telling us a little bit about crutchfield.com
for four listeners we probably have who don't
know about your stuff.
>> So Crutchfield has been in business
for over 35 years. We were really founded as a
mobile electronics company first but we
branched out into home audio and television and
into personal audio into just about any
category you can think of in consumer
electronic. And we've always really been about
answering customer's needs and helping the
do-it-your-selfer really understand and be able
to hook up their own electronics at home
without having to have a degree in this stuff.
>> A little bit more helpful than the
just plain old shopping, hopefully.
>> You know that's kind of been our
hallmark. We actually won the Biz Rate Circle
of Excellence for an unprecedented ten times in
a row. We've won it every year that they've
had the award available.
>> Did you invent that award? No. I'm
kidding. I'm kidding. How is the shopping
season going for you so far? Black Friday?
Cyber Monday? Did you see you know a big up
tick in -- it sounds like online shopping
overall was definitely up.
>> Yeah. You know it's been great.
It's been better than expected. And so the
message we want to get out there is that we've
actually blown through a lot of deals that we
thought we would have all the way through the
holidays and the inventory is getting lower on
some of those awesome deals that we have out
there.
>> Oh, really. So you're having the
same problem as our cheap scape blogger
basically. Things are going faster than
expected. Well, do you have any deals left? I
see there's actually like a sale on Bose which
seems to never happen.
>> You know that's the great thing.
Because we have such great relationships with
our manufacture partners we have deals that
nobody else has and we're trying to create more
and more every day to meet the demand.
>> So anything in particular you can
tell us about now. Like a really great deal
that's going on right now on the site that
people should run out and get before it sells
out?
>> Yes. We've got a piece that was
actually reviewed on cnet about 2 years ago
this JVC Bongiovi piece. It's a CD head unit.
It's a KD-S100. And it has Bongiovi acoustic
engineering inside that makes it perfect to
upgrade your stereo and keep your factory
speakers and it's $129. It used to be $650
installed dealer options. So it's a great
product.
>> Wow. I'm kind of stunned by that
price drop.
>> Yeah. We have a JVC HD radio. And
you know one of the things that we do for our
customers is we give them master sheets on how
to install all of this stuff by themselves but
we also provide kits and harnesses and all the
adapters that they need to put in their car.
And we actually have an HD radio KDHDR20 for
$99.99 from JVC. It's iPod ready and it's a
great value.
>> Wow. I was shopping for one of those
a few months ago and that is a pretty good
price. Any surprises that you've seen this
season. Anything that you -- other than things
going faster than expects. Are there certain
things that people are buying that you weren't
expecting?
>> You know actually we've seen a lot of
people buying in-dash navigation has been a big
hit for us this year and last week we saw some
incredible numbers. One of the crazy ones that
we put together is actually an Eclipse 726e
with $100 gift card from crutchfield.com as
well as a free Blu-ray player. So we're trying
to create a promotion that allowed somebody to
get something great for themselves by also get
a gift and the opportunity to get something
else for themselves.
>> And then give something away. A free
Blu-ray player.
>> Right.
>> It is a little bit you know we've
been hearing so much about how phones are going
to totally replace personal navigation devices
so it's kind of surprising to see those in-dash
ones doing well. It's still kicking.
>> Yeah. The key there I think is the
big screen the great user interface and that's
really the most important. It's that
at-a-glance being able to see it quickly.
Another great deal we have in the portable NAV
is the of course we carry Garmin and Maggellon
but the Tom Tom XXL540S is great for maybe an
older consumer that maybe wants a bigger screen
than just an iPhone or smart phone screen.
It's a 5 inch screen with text to speech for
$199. That's a fantastic deal.
>> Wow. That is. That is actually
remarkable.
>> It's quite nice; isn't it?
>> It's quite nice. Yeah. An in-dash
GPS device is not dead after all. All right.
Well, I think thank you, Jeff, so much. We
really appreciate you coming on. Good luck
with the rest of the season and keeping stuff
in stock. I guess that's the kind of problem
that everybody is hoping to have this year.
>> We've got about 1500 deals at
crutchfield.com and I think there's something
for everybody there.
>> All right.
>> Excellent.
>> Thanks so much, Jeff and it looks
like we're going to take one call before we
take a break.
>> Let's go jump over to line one.
Mike, how are you doing today?
>> Good how are you?
>> Doing good. Doing goods. Thanks for
hanging on and waiting us out. How can we help
you out?
>> Yeah. I used to have a rear
projection TV with picture in picture and I
loved being able to play the console game while
my wife watched a DVD or whatever.
>> You would play in the corner or the
big screen.
>> I would play in the corner.
>> Oh, man. I would say hey wifey just
watches the small corner I got the big screen.
>> Wifey. That's nice. You're not
getting married soon.
>> There's a reason why I'm not.
>> Anyway sorry back to your question.
>> Anyway I have had a hard time trying
to find a TV around 50 to 55-inches that has
the picture in picture. And I was wondering if
you guys knew of any TVs in that size range
around the $2000 range that has picture in
picture?
>> Yeah. It's kind of interesting at
least from what I have remember and what I have
seen lately picture in picture is not a feature
their throwing in as often as they used to but
we did find something and as usual Debra is
here with some shopper information and some
prices. What screen did you find? And this is
a great screen too so we'll talk more about it
exactly.
>> Well, all right. Let me just talk
about -- well first of all the CNET editor
rating is a 4 on this and the pricing is
ranging from about 19 pardon me 1600 from Abe's
of Maine up to 2300 from New Egg. So somewhere
in the middle is Amazon.com Marketplace at 1900
and it's an excellent TV with picture in
picture.
>> Yeah. This one is a Panasonic TC
this is a 54-incher the TCP54G10. There's also
the Panasonic TC50G10 but this series is
excellent. I have one of my friends that just
recently purchased one of these guys but in
Panasonic's line they have kind of one higher
than the G10 is just right below it and the
image quality this is a plasma screen has been
rated very highly as well and this does fit
into your budget at least with the 50 even if
you're just looking for the 50 the price
ranging that we have here from shopper is
anywhere from $1200 to $1600 so and Panasonic
is one of the leaders in plasma now that
Pioneer has left the game. So you're going to
be getting a great set either way if that's
what you kind of looking for.
>> Was that 720 or 1080?
>> This is a 1080P display as well.
>> Okay.
>> So that means you need to take
advantage of video games on 1080P and your
lovely wife not your wifey your lovely wife can
watch DVD in the little corner box.
>> I don't know if it has picture in
picture but it's the sister or brother version
of that is the Panasonic TCP50V10 and we gave
that an editor's choice so all no matter what.
>> That's a high level.
>> That's the higher level up. But that
one's $2,099 from Amazon.com right now. So
that's just a great family across the board.
Great family of televisions. All right.
>> Excellent.
>> Mike, I hope that helps you. We're
going to take a quick break again. We're
tired. We get tired and when we come back
we're going to do more of your calls and
e-mails. Don't worry we're going to get to
you. Just keep hanging on.
^M00:24:03
[ Music ]
^M00:24:10
>> If you think all batteries are the
same, consider this. These Duracell batteries
were given to the Mattel Children's Hospital
UCLA because when it comes to kids and healing
you're not just powering a toy, you're powering
a smile. Duracell trusted everywhere.
^M00:24:25
[ Music ]
^M00:24:28
>> Everywhere you look new gadgets are
popping up. To get the real story on them
there's really only one place to go cnet.com.
Discover something new at CNET.
>> Last FM now on Xbox live. Discover
new music and explore endless personalized
radio stations. Find out more on
www.lastfm.com/xbox.
^M00:24:55
[ Music ]
^M00:25:00
>> All right. Guys welcome back to what
I like to call to haladay help desk.
>> Oh nice.
>> So you know.
>> Well we're kicking down the sweet.
>> So hal us and we'll take care of you.
All right. We're going to jump to the phone
lines. People are waiting patiently. Robert
from Kentucky. Robert, how can we help you
out?
>> I have very techy uncle and I was
thinking about getting him an iron key flash
drive. Is it worth the price?
>> Is it worth the price? Well what
size capacity are you looking for, first of
all?
>> May be 2 to 8 gigs.
>> Okay. Now when you get up to 8 gigs
at least on shopper.com the main thing first of
all I should talk about the main appeal to the
iron key flash drives is it's you know security
on their 128 bit as encryption but it's I guess
it's a government level security. I don't even
I'm going to be honest don't know what this
really is but FIPS142 Level 2 validation. I
don't know if that is supposed to be like
extremely secure but it's a government secured
level on a flash drive.
>> So I guess the question really is
does your dad work in the government. I'm
sorry, your uncle.
>> No.
>> No. So is there a reason that you're
really -- I mean it's probably -- it's
certainly worth it in the sense that it's the
most secure USB flash drive you're going to
buy. The question is do you needs that
security. I mean if you're uncle is mainly
going to be sort of taking I don't know minor
not so important files back and forth between
work and home it might not be I don't know you
might not have to go all the way there. I will
say that it has a very good user rating.
>> Yeah. Now pricewise if you're
looking at the 2 gig flash drive and you want
to be under $100 our shopper.com pricing ranges
from $77 to $91 so you're going to get well
under $100 that's not going to you know really
be an issue it's really a matter of is this
level of security how high of a priority is it
for your uncle.
>> All right.
>> Okay. So if you check out
shopper.com type in iron key drive you'll be
able to see all the pricing and the different
capacities. Okay.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Okay. Excellent. All right let's go
jump around. Let's go here to line 5. Dave
how you doing from North Carolina?
>> Doing goods just like -- Molly I love
you. My wife thinks that I shouldn't but I do
anyway.
>> That's cute.
>> Dave.
>> It's her job to think that.
>> Does your wife love me?
>> And Brian you're a fine human too.
>> And Brian you're super.
>> You know what? Have your wife tune
in so you can tell me what she thinks about me
okay.
>> I'll get back to you on that. But
I've been a long time watcher and I'm you know
just tickled.
>> I'm very excited to here that. Thank
you.
>> My son is a Mac guy and he has a one
of last year's Mac Books and I'm a PC guy and I
had no idea what to get him. And I'm looking
for an accessory like in the $100 range.
>> What type of stuff does your son like
to do?
>> Oh, let's see. You know he does
music and he does you know surfs a lot and he
watches DVDs and videos and that kind of stuff.
So he's pretty flexible.
>> You know always talk about when --
does he have a mouse for his laptop? We always
talk about when someone has a laptop one of the
top things that is really nice to actually have
is a mouse.
>> It is. Yeah.
>> I think he does. I think we actually
got him a mouse with his laptop. That was a
whole long year ago. I don't remember these
things. But yeah. I think he does have a
mouse for his laptop.
>> Well if you want to be kind of not as
exciting but still something more functional
you know one of the features in the laptop is
built in time machine back up. And a lot of
people still don't back up their stuff. Now
these days especially during the holiday season
external hard drives are extremely cheap.
We're talking about like a terabyte drives that
are around $100 and they work on both Mac and
PC platforms. You might even be able to share
and use that drive yourself. From a fun
standpoint if he's doing like if he really
wants to get into video and goof around you
know one of those portable hand-held pocket
camcorders they're around $100 you know. Buy
them and shoot video for fun. Pop them in your
Mac and then start editing video because that's
you know one of the things to be able to just
play with multimedia the easier way. That
might be something that kind of elevates how he
uses the computer instead of just like here's a
mouse here's a hard drive. How about something
that you can do new creative things with?
>> Also speaking of creative there's
this I think these are awesome. There's this
sight called geleskins.com. G-e-l-a-skins.com
and they do custom like skins for laptops and
iPhones and other kinds of phones and stuff and
they are super cool looking. I mean it's just
a really neat way to dress up a laptop and then
if he's at artistic if he's got a great photo
or you have a great photo you can actually
create your own. You can add your own art work
and do your own gelaskin. So it might be
something where you find one that you think you
would like or maybe even just say like I got
you a -- you could do this. I printed out the
card and here you can make your own gelaskin.
I just think it would be really neat.
>> This company is awesome. They're
based out of Canada if I recall right and they
kind of contract individual artists and then
what's kind of cool also whether it's your
phone or your laptop it also they give you a
desktop file a phot image file so you can match
your desktop to the actual skin on the laptop.
>> That's kind of cool.
>> How cool is that? I mean this is I
just think this is a really great way to
customize a laptop and actually make him look
like you know hipper and a little more unique.
>> And then one other thing if you want
to style it up just with the protective case
one of these shells that I love and I have and
it's a little close to me but Incase and Spec
make these hard shell covers. You can add
color to your laptop. They're around $40 to
$50. They're made out of polycarbonate plastic
so it will protect your laptop from general
bumps and scratches and a lot of times you
throw your laptop when you're traveling into
those gnarly plastic airport bins.
>> Right.
>> You know this will protect it throw
it in there and it also adds a little style. I
can't tell you how many times people have asked
me like where did Brian get his laptop case.
>> I was just going to say these things
are really -- because they look like a see
through shell that looks like it's part of the
laptop and so every time he takes one on a
video people are like where did Brian.
>> Candy coated it. It's sweet like
candy.
>> Right and who makes those.
>> Spec products is one company. And
Incase is the other. So I would check out
those two companies.
>> Yeah. I think cool cases are also a
cool accessory.
>> Yeah.
>> Anyway I hope that helps. And thanks
for watching.
>> All right thanks a lot guys.
>> Call me back and let me know what
your wife thinks, Dave.
>> Yeah. I'll get right on it.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that.
>> Goodbye.
>> Happy holidays. Let's do one more
call here. One more before we got to go we
have I think it's Jenna on line 4. Are you
there?
>> Yes, I am.
>> Hi. Is it Jenna?
>> It's Jaina [assumed spelling].
>> Jaina. Hello. That's a very unique
name. I like that. Jaina. What is your
question for the holiday help desk, Jaina.
>> I am trying to find my mother a
phone -- I mean a camera. And she has used
mine before but mine is a Canon SD400 and the
screen is a little bit smaller but after you
take the picture about half the time whatever
she is taking a picture of it will just
disappear before it will take the picture. So
it has a really slow speed on that so she's
wanting a small camera that most of the reviews
won't tell you what type of delay that has on
them. So she's wanting one that she can blow
up the pictures you know a little bit bigger a
little bit bigger LCD screen.
>> Right.
>> It has to have image stabilization
because every picture she takes is blurry. And
she -- I need something that's a little bit
quicker. My dad's been looking at some of the
Nikons. But there's just so many of them out
there that I just -- I'm just over loaded with
information and can't figure out which one
would be best for her to get.
>> It really gets exhausting when you're
shopping for digital cameras. I know this
problem too. We do have though and you're in
luck because Lori Grunin who is our main
digital camera reviewer is absolute death on
speed. That is one of her -- she really is
interested in cameras that have a short shutter
delay, that take pictures quickly, and that
have good performance. She has actually put
together a collection of what she calls small
and speedy digital cameras which you can find
if you go to reviews.cnet.com and can click
digital cameras. It's right there on the front
page right now. But I can tell you that it
looks like a good option for you might be the
Fujifilm Fine Pix f200exr. It's a little bit
expensive. It's between -- you're probably
going to find it for about 280 maybe just under
$300 online but all the way up to 400. But
it's just a solid camera. It's got a decent
size and it definitely has a very big LCD's on
the back which is really nice. They say she
says it's easy to use. It's got great photo
quality and like you said it's speedy. It
actually has new sensor technology that's meant
to kind of improve and this is really important
low light performance because I think that's
where people get those blurry pictures.
They're taking photos inside the house and
they're taking them at parties and there's not
enough light and the flash can't really make it
work and they get kind of get blurry there and
it's 12 mega pixels though. [inaudible] And
that's where a lots of the blur comes from.
>> What's your budget around if you
know?
>> Well, actually with a lot of us
pitching in together we're trying to get her
one we want to try to stay under $150 if we
can. We could go up to $200 I guess but is
there anything comparable?
>> Well, there is.
>> That's a little bit less money?
>> We also have from our gift guide
there's the Canon Power Shot A480 and this one
now this one is going to be a little bit slower
but what they like about it is it's extremely
easy to use. It's about is $129. And it's got
a pretty decent size LCD I think it's 2 1/2
inches and what they like about it is it's just
it's dead simple to use and it's 10 mega
pixels. So she's going to be able to kind of
she's going to be able to blow those pictures
up as big as she wants. She does say that it
takes that the performance is slow though
that's going to be the one problem.
>> Yeah. I mean honestly when you're
going into a price range around the $100 to
$150 your not going to really get the top
performing from a speed standpoint but these
camera still take excellent pictures for a
price.
>> They really do. I think that's the
amazing thing. Ten mega pixels for $120 it's
almost worth the wait if it's a little bit
slow.
>> Yeah. I think that's a great mega
pixels because mine doesn't have hardly near
that much. I like my camera but I know she
won't wasn't be able to put up with the one
that I've got.
>> You could also look at the Kodak Easy
Share M1093IS. It is in that small and speedy
category and that one right around $150. It
looks like about $152. And that one so that
actually might be a good option for you because
it's right in the price range, it's small and
speedy, and that's the key. And those Kodak
Easy Shares you know Kodak. You can trust
Kodak. I mean come on. That's also ten mega
pixels so that one looks like a good choice for
you.
>> That's a great camera by the way. My
boyfriend has that. Loves it.
>> Oh really?
>> Yep.
>> Oh. There you go. Independent
conformation. I'm calling it. That is the one
for your mom.
>> Okay. The Kodak M1093IS is that what
you said?
>> Yes. That's the one. And you can
find the full review at cnet.com but it looks
like it's got a very good rating from our
editors 3 1/2 stars and right now it's coming
from Amazon at $152.
>> Well that's awesome. You know I'm
been watching you all every day on this show
and you all are so helpful to everybody because
everybody is so confused.
>> There's just too much out there.
>> Sometimes we're more confused than we
look but that's why you know.
>> You look a little more can confused
sometimes.
>> Who answered this line? Who allowed
this call to get through?
>> You call us back tomorrow. We love
you.
>> I love talking to all of you.
>> Jaina you got me good. I got to give
you cause for that stinger, all right?
>> Ouch. All right, Jaina, thank you
very much. Have a happy holiday. I hope your
mom likes her camera.
>> Thank you so much. Bye.
>> Oops. I cut you off too soon because
I'm rude. It was an accident. I was just
clicking. But we got to get going we are
getting the waved off. But before we wrap it's
time for us to announce who won that $500 gift
card on newegg.com. This is going to be fun
shopping. The winner is I love this kind of
winner name. Jpd63 junior.
>> What was that?
>> Jpd63 junior is our winner.
>> There we go. So congratulations.
You'll be receiving an e-mail shortly from cnet
but you got to goods. $500 gift card.
>> Yeah. You are going to be buying
some good presents hopefully not only for
yourself but we'll understand.
>> Yeah. There you go. All right.
Tomorrow it's going to be Tom and Molly here in
the house and Dan Ackerman laptop reviews
editor will also be helping out from the NYC
and if you guys can get your calls in make sure
to give us a call we'll be here began 1:00 p.m.
pacific time, 4:00 p.m. eastern time. We'll
see you guys next time.
>> Bye
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