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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mitch said 10:07AM on 8-13-2008
"Of course, the disc was a proprietary format, which means that it could only be used in Kodak's disc players."
There was no Kodak disc film player. It was just another format, like 110 film, 35 mm film, etc. The film was made into regular prints, like any other film, but there was nothing to play.
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Thomas said 10:22AM on 8-13-2008
That should have been disc-compatible "cameras," not "players."
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Jeannie G said 12:12PM on 8-13-2008
I had a disc camera as a kid and I loved it! Compact, simple, never any problems. And what's wrong with those negatives? One circular disc of negatives was far easier to organize than all of the 'strips' I got with my 35 mm. I went back to it for a while after I couldn't afford to fix my expensive 35mm. Now my Sony CyberShot has a stuck lens. Give me back my Disc. So the pictures weren't fantastic, at least it worked and I took a ton of them.
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Linda Borden said 2:11PM on 8-13-2008
i had this camera and i really liked it but you couldnt enlarge the pics as 3x5 it was fine
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Christine said 2:22PM on 8-13-2008
I had a disc camera and I loved it! I was disappointed when you could no longer get film for it. :(
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Michael said 4:50PM on 8-14-2008
Kodak has made several attempts to pull consumers into a proprietary product with the same results. Abject failure. When will they ever learn.
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Jim said 7:09PM on 8-19-2008
I had a disc camera and loved it. It could fit in a shirt pocket or hiking jacket. It was great.
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JeremyAGeorgia said 11:16AM on 9-02-2008
The disc camera was a fine camera. It was great for amateur photography. It was one of the first completely automatic cameras that was widely available and inexpensive. Back, then many film cameras still required you to wind and load them, and fixed focus cameras were still pretty common. The disc camera was extremely simple to load. The film quality wasn't as good, but it was fine for most casual uses. It looked better than most of the cheap cameras that didn't have autofocus. It took better pictures than most cameras that used 110 sized film.
The disc camera failed, not because of a poor design or having no market for it. It failed because it naturally became obsolete. It enjoyed quite a few years as a popular format. Electronic cameras got more advanced, though (and cheaper). Kodak also came out with a full-size film format (Advantix) that was almost as easy to use and load. Finally, the digital camera made all film formats less popular -- not just disc.
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Sarah said 11:18AM on 9-02-2008
OMG I had forgot I owned one of these when I was about 11. I loved that camera, for a kid it was a godsend cause it was so easy to use & never broke ( would probably still work today if I had the disc lmao ) but I always had a problem finding the disc's for them.
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JA said 2:21PM on 9-02-2008
The design was approved based on film/print samples using "select" (i.e. the best) sections of the production web (film). Actual production film had, on average, much larger grain, thus the crappy prints.
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