ViewTV AT-163 OTA Converter Box and PVR for $28 w/free shipping

If you want to be an OTA cordcutter but still have rudimentary DVR functions, there’s a number of chinese budget boxes under $40 floating around. One of those options is currently on sale on eBay, it is the ViewTV AT-163 Converter Box going for $28 with free shipping and handling. This ships from New York and already over 740 units got sold from this particular offer.

I haven’t used this particular ViewTV model, but I am using a similarly-priced model that is in the same ballpark in terms of features, the Mediasonic HW-150PVR. I still have to write-up the full review, but to cut a long story short, if you are comfortable programming a VCR, you should be fine with its user interface. I am not even using an external hard drive on mine, just this tiny 128GB USB 3.0 flash drive. It takes up no space, and requires no external power!

June 22, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , , ,

Cordcutters: 1TB TiVO Roamio OTA DVR for $400 without Monthly Fee

If you are a cordcutter and watch only a little over-the-air TV, a basic no-name Over-the-Air DVR for under $40 may be good enough for you. If so, check our unboxing of the Mediasonic HW-150pvr (review coming as soon as I can transfer my thoughts and notes on paper).

On the other hand, if you are a power-viewer and power-user and watch something equivalent to what you are used to with your cable or TiVO DVRs, now there’s a brand new release from TIVO without the dreaded monthly fee. $400 is what it takes to get you the 1TB TiVO Roamio OTA DVR from Amazon which ships in about 2-4 weeks from today.

Unlike the basic sub-$40 OTA DVR mentioned above, the new TiVO model allows you to record up to four shows at the same time, basically covering the prime time of four your favorite OTA networks.

Other features include a commercial skip mode, an option to play video faster to save you time (for slow-moving or talking-heads type of shows), and has some integration with streaming services (eg Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, etc) so you can watch it all from one place.

If 1TB is not enough, you can use external TiVo-ready NETGEAR ReadyNAS storage (you have to purchase these ones, but your TiVO itself includes 1TB of internal storage).

May 2, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Logitech Wireless Combo MK320 Keyboard and Mouse for $20 (free shipping depends) [updated]

UPDATE 5/1/16: The Staples offer ended, but Office Depot picks up the mantle and offers it on sale for $20 for the first half of May 2016, both at their website and their brick and mortar stores.

PREVIOUS UPDATE
Or if you prefer Staples or want to pick it in-store, it remains in-stock for $20 at the Staples website.

The offer at Staples ends on Saturday night (4/30/16), which means the Amazon Prime price-match will likely end at around that time (or earlier).

UPDATE 4/29/16: The Amazon price increased to $26~ for Prime members…

ORIGINAL POST: If you have an Amazon Gift Card and you had been waiting for Amazon to price-match the Staples Weekly Special offer on the Logitech Wirelss Combo MK320 Keyboard and Mouse, your wait is over! As of the time of writing, for Prime members only, this very RF-wireless combo with the universal nano receiver is on sale, in new condition, for $20 with a limit of five per customer at Amazon’s website.

April 28, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , ,

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: ,

[DEAD] Cordcutter Deals until Sat PM: $10 back on $50+ Netflix, $6 back on $30+ Google Play

This particular promotion expired, but Rite Aid has Plenti Gift Card promotions almost every week. Some of them are better than others ~ partially depending on which ones are your favorite stores 🙂

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March 24, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , , , , ,

[DEAD] Logitech MK320 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for $20

The previously mentioned sales ended, but they are a bit cyclical, the prices will drop again at some point in the future (I obviously don’t know when)….

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March 19, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , ,

21.5″ Dell SE2216H Monitor (HDMI, VGA) for $90

With the increasing volume of tablets, phones, laptops, and 2-in-1s in the market, having a computer monitor with HDMI input is almost a must have if you don’t need for a very specific device or task. And with many computers having VGA outputs, that’s still a useful input to have, again, unless you have a specific setup.

So what I’m trying to say is, if you are going to buy a monitor, it’s a good idea to have both HDMI and VGA. This is one factor to consider when shopping around, and an advantage versus VGA-only or DVI-only or HDMI-only monitors.

Which brings us to Staples, they are offering the 21.5″ Dell SE2216H Monitor with HDMI and VGA inputs for $90. This is featured in their circular ad, so the offer is good until the end of day on Saturday 3/12/16, unless they sell out before that.

This is a 1920 x 1080 monitor, with built-in basic speakers (3W each), and a one year warranty. The last picture over there in the vertical gallery shows where the connectors go. It averages 4.9 out of 5 based on 19 customer reviews over there at Staples. Note that the reviews at Amazon are pooled together from a number of different screen sizes. Here are the reviews for this particular model, a total of 22 of them.

CAUTION: note that the Amazon reviews say it doesn’t have speakers, but they are listed in the Staples product specs. I don’t have the monitor, so I can’t verify either way!

March 5, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

ASUS M32CD Win10 Desktop with DDR4 memory for $450

I have an on-going (and slow-moving) review (five parts so far) of the ASUS M32CD Windows 10 Desktop PC going on. The one I purchased for $430, when it came out in the Fall of 2015, had DDR3 memory. Now there is a new version out with DDR4 memory instead, on sale for $450 at the moment with a limit of five per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual.

I only have the DDR3 version, and I’m a poor blogger, I can’t just buy the DDR4 version just so I can do a side-by-side comparison. I went back and looked at my CPU-Z results, indeed, the one I received was DDR3.

NOTE: as you can see at the Amazon page over there, in addition to the DDR4 PC on its own, Amazon is also bundling it with the 23.8″ Acer R240HY bidx computer monitor, however, at least as of the time of writing, there is no bundle discount. You pay the same price whether you buy them together or separately.

PS: yes, the irony is not lost on me, bundling a PC and a monitor from two bitter Taiwanese rivals 🙂

February 24, 2016 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV with bonus Remote for $200

UPDATE (11/25/15): this is going to drop another $50 for Black Friday, so don’t buy it just yet!

ORIGINAL: To encourage more people to jump on the bandwagon during the holiday shopping season, Nvidia is bundling their Shield Android TV device with their own Remote Control for free. So you pay $200 for both. This is the 16GB ShieldTV, not the one with the 500GB hard drive. You can get this offer, with a limit of three per customer, at Amazon. It also has a microSD slot that takes up to 128GB memory cards. The standard Shield kit includes a game controller. The remote is the bonus item here, which goes for $50 on its own. The promotion expires 12/31/15 or earlier if they sell out of them.

November 24, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: , ,

Back In-stock: ASUS M32CD Win10 Skylake i5 PC for $410 [updated]

If you are looking for a bang for the buck i5 Skylake Desktop PC, the ASUS M32CD is back in-stock at Amazon.com for $410 (was $430) with free shipping. It is powered by the i5-6400 quad core, with 8GB RAM, and 1TB hard disk, DVD burner, lots of USB ports (3.1, 3.0, 2.0), and Windows 10 out of the box… Price updated here 11/16/15…

If you are interested in this, we have a slow-moving on-going review of it at our brand new content blog:

  1. UNBOXING (text & pictures; no audio/video)
  2. TURNING it ON for the FIRST TIME
  3. The SPECS
  4. Findings After Three Weeks’>FINDINGS after THREE WEEKS
  5. more coming up
November 11, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 drops to $189

If you are not excited out getting an Office subscription and instead you prefer a regular software purchase, the PC download version of the Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 software package is on sale for around $189 through Amazon.com. The purchase is through them, but the actual download of the software happens through the Microsoft website. Instructions will be given to your by Amazon after you make the purchase. The typical price for this is $200. This version is for one PC only, running Windows 7 or later.

Included are the big three Office packages (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) along with Outlook and Evernote-wannabe OneDrive. Not included in this is Access and Publisher.

November 3, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With:

[DEAD] TiVo Mini with IR Remote (Old Version) for $90

This sale ended…

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October 28, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With:

DIZA 100 iPhone 6/6S Case w/kickstand for $3 after coupon

The iPhone 6S maybe brand new and at full price, but the price-war between the 3rd-party non-designer accessory makers is already heating up to crazy levels. For example, for a limited time only, coupon code XGXA9G8U gets you the DIZA 100 case with built-in kickstand for iPhone 6S for just $3 at Amazon.com. This also fits the iPhone 6. The coupon only works if the seller is “AskForMall”, but the order is fulfilled by Amazon, so a Prime membership gets it to you for free. Not to jinx it, but it’s not part of the Add-On program yet 🙂

PS: I really think it’s high time manufacturers stopped using a final “S” in their model names. You know, in English, the final “S” means plural. One can perhaps forgive sweatshop Chinese accessory makers, but what about Apple? 🙂

October 26, 2015 Filed Under: tech Tagged With: ,

Big YMMV: 16GB WPhoto microSD or 16GB EasyStore USB 2.0 Flash drive under $3 each at Walgreens B&M

This is a big-YMMV because this is a clearance sale at Walgreens brick and mortar stores, and both supplies and availability of the offer depend on multiple factors. I obviously can’t check every single store in the country. These are on clearance, with that bright orange clearance tag.

The 16GB USB drive is an Easystor brand, with the older USB 2.0 standard. The back says Easystor is from Ireland, was made in China and comes with a two year limited warranty. The price, as you can see on the receipt below is $2.19. No coupons needed, it’s the clearance price marked in their system.

walgreens_16GB_clearance_flashdrive_or_microSD

The 16GB microSD card is “Walgreens Photo” branded, a microSD with a full size SD adapter included, and can go up to 48MB/sec (read speed). The back says made in China, but I could not find any clues as to who the manufacturer is. The memory card price is $2.59.

I haven’t taken them out of their packages yet, so I don’t know how well they perform. As I said above, this is a big YMMV since I can’t check every Walgreens store. There are thousands of them!

October 25, 2015 Filed Under: tech 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…

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