Archives for April 2016

OTA DVR: Mediasonic Homeworx HW180STB for $20

If you want to dabble in OTA DVRing, the Mediasonic Homeworx HW180STB is currently on sale for $20, in new condition, at Amazon by Amazon actual, with a limit of ten units per customer during this sale. The usual free shipping terms apply (Prime or $49+/$25+ orders). It averages 3.6 out of 5 based on 1350+ customer reviews, and has 660+ questions answered.

This is a close relative to the HW150PVR OTA DVR, which I have been using for a couple of months now. I have plenty of notes on it that will turn into a review soon, but in the meantime, you can get a feel for it with a useful text and pictures only unboxing (no video, no audio).

To cut a long story short if you are trying to make a quick decision, if you were comfortable (or at least could survive) programming VCRs (yes, V-C-R), then you will be fine with this. If you are used to TiVos and cable company DVRs and iOS and Android app level of user experience (or expect this user interface level from other devices), you may be frustrated and disappointed with it. This is best suited for spot duty, maybe a few shows per week, it’s not really an industrial strength DVR 🙂

April 14, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Starbucks Rewards: FREE GOLD if you make a purchase by 5/2/16

It looks like Starbucks was prepared with some damage control measures to counter the disappointment by many regular customers over the new Rewards program that favors big spenders instead of frequent visitors. So the new balm Starbucks is trying is FREE GOLD for everyone 🙂

Well, not actual gold, but Gold membership in their Rewards program. If you are a Green level reward member and you make at least one purchase by 5/2/16, you will get one year of Gold membership status. Your free upgrade will be reflected within 48 hours of purchase.

sbux_free_gold

On the other hand, if you are an existing Gold member, you will get an additional year added to your account. This change will take place after May 2nd, as Gold members are in no danger of losing benefits shortly (unless you happen to fall into this tiny window).

As usual, for all Rewards related purposes, you have to pay using the Starbucks app or a Starbucks gift card that is registered under your Rewards account. This goes without saying for all Rewards-related posts, I don’t want to repeat the whole thing every time 🙂

April 13, 2016 Filed Under: Uncategorized

April 13-20 from 2 to 5pm local time: B1G1 Espresso-based drinks at Peets

If you like near a “real” Peet’s Coffee store (not airports and such), between April 13-20 in 2016, and between the hours of 2 to 5pm local time, you can get a “Buy 1 Get 1 FREE” promotion on espresso-based drinks, cold or hot. You have to show the coupon on your device or print it or mention it to the cashier (sometimes many people use the promotion, so the cashiers memorize the offer codes and such).

peets_B1G1_Espresso

This offer came out in an email sent to their email subscribers earlier today.

April 13, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

Reminder: the new Starbucks Rewards program is now in effect

If you are a member of the Starbucks Rewards program, today’s the day, they have switched over to the new Rewards program. You can still pay and earn rewards using the previous version of their app, but you need to update to the new version of the app (already available on Google Play, didn’t check iTunes) if you want to get your latest Rewards tally using the new system.

We broke down earlier on, it basically favors people who place orders with an average of $5 or more. Perhaps they did this to discourage the $2 coffee cup table squatters? Who knows 🙂

One way to counter the drop in benefits is to volunteer for coffee runs, but this is only beneficial if all the people pay you ahead of time or they are reliable with their payments for their drinks 🙂 Perhaps someone can start a “Coffee Dash” or “Starbucks Dash” service 🙂

April 12, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

April 13: Free Cupcake for Sam’s Club members

An email earlier today went out to the Sam’s Club e-mail list (screenshot below) informing of a freebie for members. One free cupcake between 11am and 7pm local time at participating Sam’s Club stores on Wednesday April 13 in 2016. Stores that don’t have “cupcake technology” will instead offer free “brownie bites”. This is a while supplies last promotion, so I don’t know if they will be able to keep it going throughout the day. I guess it depends on how many cupcakes their bakery can make? 🙂

sams_club_members_free_cupcakes

April 12, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

[DEAD] Lucky Rewards: FREE 1 Gallon of Water (ends 4/12/16)

This weekly promotion ended, but keep an eye out for the Lucky’s Rewards emails, every few weeks they include a FREE no-strings-attached item. And as we saw with this, water is a very practical item to have 🙂

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April 6, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

[DEAD] April 7-11: B1G1 on Peet’s Nitro Cold Brew Coffee

This limited time promotion expired… Peet’s Coffee offers typically run Thursday AM until Monday PM, but they don’t have them every week…

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April 6, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

[DEAD] FREE for T-Mobile Customers: 1 Year of MLB.tv Premium Subscription (sign-up by 4/10/16)

This surprise free subscription offer from T-Mobile expired on 4/10/16…

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April 4, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , , ,

Bad News: Citibank reducing rewards for Forward credit card

If you have a Citibank Forward credit card, check your mail or email (depending on how you receive communications from there). A letter from them earlier in the week reveals that the nice 5% reward on “Restaurants, Music, Movies and Books” (which included everything at Amazon.com) is going away in June 2016. It will be replaced with a boring 2% for those categories. Everything else will 1% as usual. This is in Thank You points, not “real money”. A silver lining, rewards earned after the new program is in place will never expire. Previously they expired in 5 years. The 100 bonus points for on-time payments will continue forward.

NOTE: Citi may have multiple variations of the Forward credit card. I do not know if the change affects all of them or only a subset.

An alternative for 5% rewards at Amazon is if you are a Prime member, and you get the Amazon Store credit card (not the one by Chase, but the store card), you can earn 5% as it can become a Prime Store card. You can only use the Amazon Store card for Amazon.com purchases.

April 2, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,

Kindle First options for April 2016: pick one from six choices

If you are a Prime member, one of your included benefits is Kindle First. Every calendar month, you can get a free pre-release e-book from a choice of six e-books, and read it one month before the rest of the world.

The choices for April 2016 are:

  • “Blood Defense (Samantha Brinkman Book 1)” by Marcia Clark in Thrillers
  • “Golden Age (The Shifting Tides Book 1)” by James Maxwell in Fantasy
  • “The Eagle Tree” by Ned Hayes in Literary Fiction
  • “The Secret Healer” by Ellin Carsta, Terry Laster in Historical Fiction
  • “Star Sand” by Roger Pulivers in War Fiction
  • “Deliver Her” by Patricia Perry Donovan in Suspense

You can see the available choices at the Kindle First page. Happy reading 🙂

Since these just came out, it make take a few days before they build up enough reviews for you to get helpful feedback on which one to pick. Remember, you have until April 30 in 2016 to pick one, but don’t wait until the last minute. The options do not roll over. If you don’t pick an ebook during a particular month, it doesn’t carry forward.

April 1, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Samsung Book Deals for April 2016 are out

If you have an eligible Samsung device (phone or tablet), you may be able to get a free Kindle e-book every month from a choice of four. To do that, you must download the Kindle app from the Samsung app store – whatever its name is this time 🙂 This special version has the Samsung Book Deals “baked” in the app, but that’s not all. The app is also S-Pen optimized, so for example, you can use the S-Pen to quickly highlight text or change pages while reading.

samsung_book_deals_april_2016

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April 1, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

YMMV: Panera Rewards: Free Bagel Every Day in April 2016 [the razor/cartridge strategy]

CLARIFICATION & CORRECTION: one of our readers pointed out in the Comments that not every Reward member gets this promotion on their Rewards account, so it is a YMMV…

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April 1, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: , ,

[DEAD] Free Shipping sitewide and 15% off discount at Peets.com (ends 4/3/16 PM)

This limited time offer expired…

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April 1, 2016 Filed Under: shopping Tagged With: ,