Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.
Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.
Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.
Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.
HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.
HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.
HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.
GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.
Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.
Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.
Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.
Second Life is becoming more and more of a mirror of the real world. Real estate, relationships, sex and commerce. Where there's commerce, there are lawsuits. The 3D virtual world now has its first, not-so virtual, copyright lawsuit. Kevin Alderman, owner of SexGen, is suing an avatar (virtual game character) named Volkov Catteneo.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Tom said 12:10AM on 8-18-2007
Such a short attention span, I doubt that the last postest to this even read the article. There is a lawsuit over the copyright of Virtual property. If this person created it, then no one else can profit from it without his permission. that is LAW. It is the same as if you Drew a comic and posted it online, some one sees that comic, downloads the pic, and then turns around and starts selling it to other people and making a profit of it. That is Stealing and violating the original persons copyright IF the person feels so inclined to follow up with a lawsuit. Some things people simply dont care about, but every time you take a picture and repost it, or use it as an avatar on a Message board, you run the risk that some one who made that picture, will get upset and excersie their right
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webby said 7:08PM on 8-23-2007
What the hell is this now?
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joi said 9:26PM on 9-04-2007
Would this not be classified under the "Intellectual Properties " laws??
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Keanu said 6:47PM on 9-18-2007
It's about people not having lives playing second life (which is a bs comment) or that it's a "game". The problem is that a person invented a product, that many people have bought and will buy. He makes large sums of Lindens which I'm sure he's traded in for American dollars. Some jerkoff comes along, steals your product info, slaps a new name on it and sells it like they came up with the design is crazy. Yeah I'd sue him. If he stole something of mine and caused me to lose business, yes I'd sue. It's not like it was a similar product, it's the exact item renamed.
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Jeffery Feingold said 12:53PM on 9-09-2007
I do have some fear about this. What I've seen called a SexGen bed uses freely available public pose scripts and poses. The creator of the Sex Gen bed is saying the copy cat stole his code.
So it seems either the copy cat used free code instead of the original scripts or the SexGen creator used free code to start with.
This is the first lawsute but not the first time someone accused someone else of stealing.
A diffrent example would be one guy hired a builder to make a fantastic replica of a populare World War II gun and used it for a finished working weapon that owes it's popularity to the code.
Others have made replicas of exactly the same weapon.
So this guy just presumes every replica is a prim copy of his. He just can't believe this weapon can be reproduced by so many diffrent builders.
Same issue I think. It's not even that hard to make a sex bed. They have been around for a long time. Mostly using the same free scripts.
Maybe there is an issue with the name "SexGen" seeing how it is unique but I seriously doupt any code theft happend here.
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Drew said 6:46PM on 11-15-2007
Hasn't Microsoft made a booming business out of taking an idea that wasn't theirs and making it their own? Whats the difference?
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art said 11:31AM on 11-20-2007
If he can prove in court it's his creation and nobody else's, he should sue. Just because it's a game or a virtual world doesn't make it less of a crime. It's intellectual property. As the article says, the case is rooted in basic copyright infringement law. However, if he can't legally show it to be his exclusive creation, then he's trying to cash in/take credit where it isn't due.
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