Archives for October 2015

15.6-inch ASUS F555LA-AB31 Win10 1080p laptop for $350

The value frontier for Windows 10 laptops is not just the crappy Celerons with 2GB RAM! There’s a pretty good bang for the buck offer on a 15.6-inch laptop with a 1920 x 1080 non-touchscreen display for $350. It is the ASUS F555LA-AB31, with a 5th-generation (not Skylake) Core i3-5010U 2.1GHz processor, which ranks a fairly reasonable for the price (and being a laptop) #695 at cpubenchmark.net.

Other specs include 4GB RAM, 500GB hard disk (albeit at 5400rpm), a DVD burner (not always a guarantee anymore with laptops), WiFi 802.11ac, a mix of USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, and both HDMI and VGA outputs. The sale, with a limit of up to five per customer, is available at Amazon, sold by Amazon actual.

October 18, 2015 Filed Under: 15-inch laptops Tagged With:

New phone at Virgin Mobile: 4.5-inch Huawei Union for $80

Once upon a time there was a drought of new smartphones at Virgin Mobile, as Sprint was trying to digest all the different prepaid companies it accumulated. Perhaps the color-matched red of the Radio Shack stores is doing well with the red of Virgin Mobile, or perhaps their own Sprint prepaid is not doing as well as they had hoped. Regardless, speculation aside, there’s yet another new phone shipping from the VM website.

As usual, it is no-contract, but locked to Virgin Mobile. It the 4.5-inch Huawei Union for $80 with free standard shipping. It has the latest Android Lollipod version (5.1), which is pretty good considering some flagships that cost almost an order of magnitude more are still behind.

The main specs of the Union are:

  • 4.5-inch 854 x 480 display
  • Android 5.1 out of the box
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8GB on-board storage (consumer-usable amount is less – as usual)
  • microSD card
  • 1.1 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor – currently ranks #959 at notebookcheck.net – this includes ALL PC and mobile processors
  • 4G LTE, Bluetooth, Mobile HotSpot features
  • detailed specs at PhoneArena
October 18, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , ,

10-pack of 0.5 oz Sprite Science Glass Bottles with Eye Droppers for $7

IF you are looking for a glass eye dropper, for eye drops or any other medicine, or perhaps expensive liquids (such as authentic maple syrup), there is a nice sale at Amazon. For $7, you can get a 10-pack of Sprite Science 0.5 oz (15ml) Glass Bottles with glass eye droppers. They have an amber color scheme. They average 4.4 out of 5 based on 19 customer reviews.

October 16, 2015 Filed Under: shopping

20% off at Jet.com with coupon (ends 10/19/15)

Jet has a new 20% off coupon to celebrate its 3-month birthday. Use coupon code SURPRISE20 to get 20% off your order. Coupon expires 10/19/15. Maximum discount with this coupon is $50 (in other words, purchases up to $250). Free shipping with orders of $35 or more, otherwise there’s a flat $6 shipping fee. Limit one coupon use per household.

jet_birthday_coupon

October 16, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

October 18-20: earn 5X Walgreens Rewards with $10+ store purchase

If you are part of the Walgreens Rewards program, for three days only (Sunday October 18 through Tuesday 20th in 2015), you will earn 5X Rewards points if you make an in-store purchase of $10 or more. You have to use the coupon for this offer, which is on the top-right corner of their Weekly Ad for the October 18-24 week or you can clip it online or via their app. This is essentially 5% on the purchase price.

walgreens_extra_points

October 15, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 Collectible DVD set (Character Profile Book, Adama’s Dog Tags) for $20

If you are a fan of Battlestar Galactica, the 21st century re-imaging by RDM, and you like to collect the collectibles, the Season 4.5 DVD set bundled with a colorful Character Profile Book and Commander Adama’s Dog Tags is on sale for $20 at Amazon.com. The seller is Newbury Comics with the order fulfilled by Amazon, so if you’re a Prime member you get free 2-day shipping. Everybody else gets free S&H with the usual $35+ order minimum. Limit TWO sets per customer.

PS: back in its day (in the 2000s), they were still doing 20+ episode seasons on cable. Battlestar was typically airing in two half-seasons. So many of the DVD sets were half-seasons. Later on, they would have bundles for full seasons and of course the full series. So if you see “4.0” or “4.5” it means they are half-seasons.

October 14, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Limited Time & YMMV: $4 Bistro Boxes and Wraps after 2pm at Starbucks

For a limited time only, Starbucks stores have a special promotion after 2pm local time. You can purchase their bistro boxes or wraps (most of them are typically $7+) for just $4. This offer is good for everyone, no Rewards card or coupon needed. The promotion in the store did not have a specific expiration date, and I have no way of knowing whether all or some of their stores are participating, so this is a YMMV.

October 14, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With:

[DEAD] 10000 mAh Aukey External Battery (5V, 1A) for $7

This is sold-out as of 10/16/15, and it’s unknown whether it will return… Check the product listing if you want to see whether it returns later on…

[Read more…]

October 14, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Targetted: 10% Cashback at Radio Shack (BofA)

If you have a Bank of America credit card, check your latest “BankAmeriDeals”. You may be eligible for a new cashback promotion at Radio Shack. You have to manually opt-in if you are eligible before you can use it. The offer is 10% cashback on purchases at the Radio Shack website or their brick and remaining mortar scores (a lot of them are owned by Sprint, so their fates are inter-linked now).

The maximum cashback is $15 under this offer, in other words, it phases out on purchases above $150. Offer ends 11/20/15. Needless to say, you have to pay with the BofA credit card that this particular offer is linked to.

Here’s a screenshot of the offer (after you accept it) that has all the details highlighted by an internet magic marker 🙂

radioshack_bofa_10percent_back

October 13, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

[DEAD] 3 lbs Bencheley Peppermint Tea for $9.34 total

This was too good of an offer to last long. As of 10/15/15, the price is $20+, still not a bad price but definitely nowhere near as good as $9~ :)…

[Read more…]

October 13, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With:

Oct 13-19: 25% off any Frappuccino with code

For Starbucks Rewards members, the promotions continue. A new email touts their latest promotion, promo code 133 (you have to show this to the barista) will get you 25% off any hand-made frappuccino blended drink (the iced/frozen ones, not hot ones). This offer can be used only once per customer between October 13-19 in 2015 at participating Starbucks stores.

25off_frapp_coupon

October 12, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

Win10 Skylake Desktop Deal: ASUS M32CD for $430

If you are looking for a brand new Windows 10 desktop computer using the brand new Skylake i5 processors and want to stay under $500 even after sales tax, Amazon has a potentially great deal for you. For $430, you can get the ASUS M32CD Desktop. As of the time of writing, it is in-stock.

UPDATE 10/14/15 – the REVIEW has just began!
+ Part #1: Unboxing – what’s included in the box?
+ Part #2: Turning it ON for the FIRST TIME – Surprise: No trialware!
+ Part #3: The Specs
+ more coming soon
+ if you have any questions or things you want me to check, please leave a comment at the review posts over there!

Below I highlighted the different ports from the back of the desktop (this is using the Amazon gallery picture, since mine hasn’t arrived yet)

asusCD32desktop_back_ports

So what makes this interesting?

  • Intel i5-6400 Skylake processor – ranks #252 at cpubenchmark.net – pretty good for the price!
  • this is the entry-level of the Skylake i5 line-up but they are all 4/4 (Cores/Threads) – see Wikipedia)
  • 8GB DDR 3 1600MHz RAM
  • 1TB 7200rpm
  • DVD burner (Super Multi)
  • Intel Integrated 530 HD Graphics
  • HDMI and VGA ports (no DVI)
  • all USB formats includes: USB 3.1, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 4.0
  • keyboard and mouse included
  • and more
October 11, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

BluRay Deal: Battlestar Galactica 35th Anniversary for $8

Richard Hatch fans. Okay, not just him, but fans of the original Battlestar Galactica. A version of the movie-pilot (125 minutes commercial-free runtime) of the series is now on sale, in the 35th Anniversary Blu-ray edition, for just $8 at Amazon.com, same price as the DVD version.

Check the reviews if you are looking for a specific version/edit of this (yes, there are multiple). Multiple versions are on the same review page, so to find the reviews for this particular anniversary blu-ray, use this link that pre-filters for it. There are forty reviews for this particular version out of a total of 280+ for all versions.

October 11, 2015 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

Power-hungry users: BLU Studio Energy 2 with 5000 mah battery (unlocked 4G LTE) for $180

If you are a fan of GSM and 4G LTE and battery life is your #1 priority, there’s a brand new smartphone coming out with a 5000 mah battery (that’s right, five thousand mah). It is a refresh of a previous model, but now with 4G LTE and improved specs. It is the new BLU Studio Energy 2. And a reasonable price of $180, unlocked without contract requirements.

Having said that, the rest of the specs are in the mid-range, it has 1.5GB RAM, 16GB on-board, microSD (up to 64GB), 5-inch HD AMOLED (which probably suggests 720p), and an unspecified 1.3 GHz quad-core processor (other Blu phones use MediaTek). It is a dual-SIM phone and comes with Lollipod out of the box.

The price at the moment is $180 at Amazon.com (no contract!). The shipment estimate, as of the time of writing is “Temporarily out of stock”.

October 10, 2015 Filed Under: android Tagged With: , , , ,

3-port Aukey Quick Charge 2.0 42W USB wall charger for $12 w/coupon

The previously mentioned $6 USB travel charger is a pretty good deal if you don’t need Quick Charge 2.0, but if you need it, we got you covered too. For a limited time, Aukey Direct on Amazon is offering coupon code 2GXWZ585 ($11 off discount) on the purchase price of their 3-port Aukey Quick Charge 2.0 42W USB wall charger. The current price is $23 minus $11 = $12. It is fulfilled by Amazon, so if you are a Prime member, you get free shipping.

NOTE: only one of the three ports is Quick Charge 2.0 (the orange port). The other two (green) are AI power but not Quick Charge.

NOTE #2: the review average over there is not reflective because there are three different products cross-linked on the same product page. About half of the 280+ customer reviews are for this model. There’s no automated way to calculate the average, but you can filter for this particular product – here is the filtered list of reviews.

October 10, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , ,