What Does Digital Mean To You?

There is a cool website out there called "Demystifying Digital", making sense of today's digital. Helps those from a run around mom to mrs. techy. http://www.demystifyingdigital.com/

PROTECT YOUR GPS!

GPS's are not only hot for the purchase, but also are a hot item on the black market of stolen items. Thieves are smashing in windows and snatching the GPS right from the window or glove compartment. Okay, so you bring it with you in your purse while shopping. You may save your GPS from getting stolen, but a thief will see the mount and think the GPS is just in the glove compartment or under the seats. Smash and grab. Okay, so you take the mount off the window. Nope, the suction cup mounts leave a ring on the window where the mount was, leading a thief to believe you took that off the window too. So what do you do? Don't install the window suction cup mount. If you can, get a dashboard mount. Usually they're small and hard to see when nothing is attached to it. It may cost youa few extra bucks up front to have it installed properly, but that's better than having your new $500 GPS stolen a week after you bought it.

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GPS MADE EASY!

GPS systems are the hottest thing this Holiday Season. So what do you buy? What features do you look for? When you find the long list of features, what do they mean? A GPS is definately one item you need to see and try in person, not just buy online after reading reviews. There are so many little things that you may or may not like when operating a GPS.

The three big names in GPS are Garmin, TomTom and Magellan. There are also a number of different types of GPS units; handheld, boating, automotive, aviaton and portable, to name a few. Portable is different from handheld. Although the newer GPS's are built with rechargable batteries and can be carried around for a while, time varies from system to system, anywhere from 2-10 hours. For this writeup, lets just concentrate of automotive/portable GPS units.

If you see a GPS for $150 and another for $600, there is a big difference between the two, and not just the price. You get what you pay for with GPS systems. Spending more isn't always the best way though. Are you buying for your husband? Is he a guy that likes gadgets? If so, get as many extra features as you can! If not, who cares if the GPS uses your phone to make calls or can store up to 200 high res photos, why would you need that anyway???

Here are some features that you will see on most GPS Units for sale today. I'll try to explain them is easy terms:

Screen Size: Sizes are measured from corner to corner. Units come in sizes from 3.5" to 7+", but mostly 3.5" and 4.3" are used right now. You'll often hear the 4.3" screen referred to as 'Wide-Screen'. I would suggest the larger size screen, easier to read and use.

Touch Screen: 8 years ago, this was the wave of the future. The future is here, and just about everything has touch screens now. The GPS units only have one button on the case (Power), all other features are accessed by pressing the screen with your fingers. This goes back to the screen size, if you have large fingers, it will drive you crazy when you "fat-finger" a button. Get the larger screen.

Text-To-Speech: The way GPS Units prompt you to turn varies on each unit. Again, the more you pay, the more you get. If the unit does not have Text-to-speech, you will hear a command like this, "Turn right in 500 feet". Text-To-Speech prompts this, "Turn right on Main St." More detail. You can also increase the speech volume and some GPS's allow you to replace the voice. If you don't like the default voice, download an English Man's voice. How about a deep Southern women's voice. Almost too many to choose from.

Automatic Route Calculation: Very helpful feature. If you miss a turn, a new route to your destination is promptly automatically calculated. Some systems are much faster than others.
POI's - "Points of Interests" This is a very cool feature. Find gas stations, restaurants, lodging, tourist attractions, ATMs, emergency services, etc. Looking for a Starbucks along the route your driving? The POI feature allows you to enter in what you're looking for and lets you know if there is one on your route. Depending on the unit, some will call for your, give you the distance off your route, and automatically recalculate to include that POI as part of your route. When buying a unit, check how many POI's come loaded. This varies from unit to unit.

Digital Entertainment System: More and more units are coming equiped with an MP3 player. Just pop in an SD card and listen thru your radio. This is one of those 'special' useless features. Most cars these days have mp3 players built in. If you get a large screen built in GPS, you can also get a DVD/Video screen on it.

LCD TFT Display: Liquid Crystal Display, This is the same technology you see in LCD TVs, just in a smaller display.

Bluetooth Capable: You've heard of bluetooth phones, right? Same thing. This is actually a great way to add an in-car hands free phone system. If the GPS unit is bluetooth capible, it will 'read' your phone and use it to make and answer calls thru it's microphone and speaker. The GPS also shows you caller ID. Some systems allow you to copy your contacts over to the GPS.

Preloaded Maps: You only have to worry about this if you plan to travel outside the US. All units come with the United States (if bought in the US), preloaded. The costlier the GPS, it will more than likely have maps of Canada, Hawaii, Puert Rico, and perhaps Mexico.

From now until Christmas Eve, Keep an eye out for sales. These will go on sale every week. The odd thing about GPS's, you can find the identical item in two different stores, at two hugely different prices. So shop around!

Ladies Love Clark!

Many of you may have heard of Clark. Clark Howard is a nationally sindicated Consumer Advice radio show host out of Atlanta, GA. Clark and his crew find the best deals available for flights, but mostly offer advice on how NOT to get ripped off and get the most bang for your buck. Before you look for a new mortgage, replay to an email telling you that you've just one a million dollars, check with Clark. Listen to him one day and you'll be hooked. Check Clark out at http://www.clarkhoward.com/. If he's not on a local am radio station near you, you can listen online at that same address. Or, call toll-free 1-877-87-CLARK

Paypal Holiday Cash Back Promotion

Use your PayPal account to make purchases on participating merchant websites by selecting PayPal as a payment option during the offer period, and receive 20% cash back, up to $50! No brainer ladies. Easy money. What's the catch? None that I can see so far, and the list of stores participating is a decent list:

Barnes & Noble, Blue Nile, Dell, EastBay Sports, ebags.com, Electronic Arts, eToys, Guess, GbyGuess, HP, Newegg.com, Overstock.com, Ritz Camera, Wolf Camera, Boaters World, eAngler, OuterBank Outfitters, Camera World, Photo Alley, ShopAtShark, InsanitySauce, Sierra Trading Post, Skymall, Smartbargains, and Toys R Us.

The offer period for each merchant may vary. To find the most current list of participating merchants, go to http://www.paypal.com/holiday.

Cyber Monday is Here!

What's better than Black Friday? Cyber Monday! No need to get to the store by midnight Thanksgiving night. No bumping into people in crowded isles, and no need to go to the store to find that they only stocked 3 pieces of that one item you wanted at the great advertised price. Now you can do all that online! Okay, you can't bump elbows with perfect strangers, and it beats the hell out of driving across town to struggle to find a parking space, before finding out Best Buy is out of that one item and won't take rain checks.

Overall, I'm not very impressed with this year's Cyber-Monday. Not the big deals I thought we'd see. Mostly, you'll find free shipping or 10% off electronics. Really? That's all they've got?
Here's a couple samples of the deals:

Circuit City: Cyber-Monday 3 day sale. Take an additional 10% off for shopping online! sounds like a great deal! Not so quick. save 10% on purchases of $249 or more, and only on instore pickups. Sale ends Tuesday. Enter coupon code PVAB4Q7AAT during checkout. I always tell shoppers, stay away from Circuit City. High prices, difficulties with rebates, and some of the worse customer service you could imagine. But, if you have to go there, beware, stay on your toes, stay away from their Firedog people and double check your rebates.

NEWEGG.COM: If you're not familiar with NewEgg, get familiar. Great deals throughout the year, but now has some great deals on electronics and computers for Cyber-Monday. Got a Paypal Card? Get an addition 20% off/Cash Back with the PAYPAL HOLIDAY CASH BACK PROMOTION (Terms).

STAPLES: Free shipping on all purchases today. 50% off all Edge products.

Beginning of Something Great!

I've been asked for years, What kinds of camera do I get? Where do I buy it? What is a CCD? Do I need one? Well, that's what I'm here for. I've been answering these questions for the women in my life, from my mother to my wife, since I can remember. Every so often I answer these questions for a guy that had the courage to swallow his pride for a moment and pull out the "Ladies Lookout Guide." It's tough, but those that are willing to do so will reap in the rewards of buying exactly what they need and saving a bundle doing it. Don't go to the local Best Buy and ask some kid working on commision what you should buy, come here.