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)
estee said 5:21PM on 1-26-2009
If violent games do not cause violence! Why all the concern about Joe Camel?
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Hello Bob said 6:49PM on 1-26-2009
The problem with cigarette ads is that a cigarette is something easily attainable. It's something real that people see every day. When you play a violent video game, most people can recognize that that's fantasy. You don't see people going on shooting rampages daily and it doesn't seem real. It's the people who can't figure out that the pixels on the screen aren't real that go nuts.
Master Shake said 2:08AM on 1-27-2009
Joe Camel is a perfect example of how the US government works these days - and the ban had NOTHING to do with children smoking. It was a non-issue that could be used for politicians to look like they were doing something, while in reality they did NOTHING.
DarkLight said 5:51PM on 1-26-2009
You can't say yes or no, it really depends on the person.
A well educated person, will understand that violent games are outright fiction and that that stuff should not be even thought of doing in real life.
OTOH, for a crap-minded teenager (who are not uncommon today), a violent game will definitely be, if not directly a bad influence, at least an encouragement to do what he was already thinking of doing
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Mari said 3:05PM on 1-27-2009
Video games can be a negative influence, but there is a line between a video game being a bad influence and parents being inattentive. It's not just politicians, some parents just don't want to own up to short comings. If parents cared half as much as they acted like they did the second they had a soap box they'd do what mine did. They didn't just buy us a video game or let us buy a video game without researching it and they also took the time to talk to us and knew us well enough to tell what we were mature enough to handle. Meanwhile the same parents I see griping about this sort of thing the most are the ones who let their kids rent or buy things like Resident Evil or Silent Hill (their ten year old kids) without so much as looking at the cover or, God forbid, the rating system.
And there is the real issue, there is a rating system. Most stores don't carry games that don't have them and I don't know of any store that would sell a game with a "mature" warning on it to a small child. For all the complaints I hear about this I never once have run into one of the many panic stricken parents and found that they actually had a clue what the game was about, the genre, or, dun dun dun, what it was rated.
I'm not saying everything in games is fantastic good times, and some things are just morally wrong. But I do find more fault with parents and politicians that want to go after something in order to look tougher than they are or look more involved as a parent than they are.
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Tesh said 8:17PM on 2-02-2009
Oh please I play games "24/7" and i have never in my life even thought of hurting a fly. Those who assume that games are a bad influence are close minded and know nothing... Come on... Oh and plz dnt take this too personally.
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splendid said 11:44AM on 6-26-2009
Personally, I don't find anything wrong with video games. Each media has bad and good influence in its market. Like TV, there was a time when TV addiction was the common problem in the household and now it's video games. I've read an article which gave me new perspective on some good effects of video games specially in the times of crisis: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1421576
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skatechick91 said 1:49PM on 10-23-2009
So are there any Positive effects about violent video games?
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