Gizmodo Gallery, cheap things to consider

Work has picked up again, and i've been busy. And much has changed

Right now there are a few things to think about for geek gadgets:

-With the PS3 now at $299, I think it's a great buy. Easily upgradeable blu-ray, great games, big roomy hard drive, and wireless, you can't get the same at that price with a 360. Speaking of which, I am still waiting to get one to play 360 games....

-On the computer side, expect prices to drop for PC hardware coming this fall. ATi just released a brand new high end 3D card, which has a tendency to cause prices for existing hardware to drop. In addition, Intel has released its new CPU architecture, which would also have the same effect for CPU prices. Also, Quad Core for under 100 bucks, though, I'm not sure Quad Core is what everyone needs right now....

-Gaming wise, there are a lot of new games on the horizon, the biggest of which is Modern Warfare 2. Expect to find discounts on a lot of other games during the holidays to give them a fighting chance at this behemoth of a game. Again, there's always Goozex...

I'll be heading to check out the Gizmodo Gallery this Saturday in NYC, should be a fun time. Stay smart and stay cheap. Look out for the next article on freegeeking soon.

FreeGeeking (a first in a multipart series): TV

Hope you guys have had a lovely Labor Day. I got my outdoor fix of Whitewater Rafting in the Poconos, drinking in Philly, and a pretty sweet weekend in NYC. Anyway, with my regular trips to nyc, my gaming habits, and my food habits, my girlfriend (an investment), I've had to become an even smarter geek when it comes to saving money. You can find many websites like the consumerist or lifehacker, both of which I follow for random little tidbits. I also have some of mine which I'll add here too, as part of a little series I would like to call FreeGeeking. Enjoy.

How to save money the Geek (and legal) way (part one of many): TV.

The Internet is your friend. As people start to watch less and less tv and start doing more online, TV shows are starting to take notice and are going online. If you are scraping for cash, ditch the cable and keep the internet and check to see if your favorite shows can be streamed online. You can watch them any time, and if you have a PS3, 360, or wii, you can put them on your tv and it's like nothings changed:



-I was surprised that youtube has a lot of full season tv shows on it now, although most are pretty old. Everything from the old school class Star Trek series to Anime like Code Geass (both seasons and dubbed or subbed) and even the original 90210 series. I'd recommend youtube for older stuff, anime cartoons as they have a lot, and a few newer shows. Course, in the end, you can entertain yourself for a whole night on the failblog clips alone.


-Hulu is probably the one to beat right now. A small sample of shows ranges from Heroes, The Office, Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, CSI, Family Guy, Gossip Girl, The Hills, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Burn Notice, and Battlestar Galactica. Needless to say, virtually any show you watch on tv now is available on Hulu.






-Also, another great alternative is Netflix. For as low as 5 bucks a month, you can have a dvd a month with two exchanges and a few hours of streaming netflix (also available on 360), or 16.99 a month for 3 dvds at any time and unlimited streaming. Netflix has TV shows via dvds of most of the popular tv series, and my friends have been watching all the seasons of Law and Order: SVU on the 360 by streaming the past few weeks. Depressing, but a good show nevertheless. The only downside to this is that obviously the tv show had to have a dvd collection of it released, and netflix opted to pick it up.

-Finally for me there's sites like mysoju.com, which provide access to Asian tv shows like drama and anime. You couldn't even get this on regular tv if you wanted in the first place. It's a little grey area in terms of legitness, but it uses existing streaming sites to provide tv shows. I am not into Jdrama or Kdrama, I swear. Along those lines, there are streaming sites that offer up to date tv shows but those are almost always over night shops and disappear by the time they get popular. And there's always bittorrent.... -_-;;

More to come in my next post. Stay smart and stay cheap.

Price and other Updates

Alright, this is going to be a quick update. I've spent a week of August on vacation for my best friend's wedding, and work is hard...I need to finish my brief article on mooching online, but give me some time. I blame video games.

My girlfriend just bought a Panasonic U12 Series HDTV (42 inches) for roughly $650 for her mom.

Not a bad choice, especially if a bunch of AV Guys approve: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1139625

Probably not the best for a pro setup, but it works if you just want an overall good setup. As you can see, tv prices are dropping, and hopefully this will continue through the fall for another few weeks. If you want a tv, now is the time to get one.

Other changes:
-Goozex.com is now supporting the trading of blu-ray and dvds! Now I'm using my points to buy blu-rays that I've wanted, like Dark Knight, Iron Man, and The Watchmen. Quite handy.
-In terms of bus trips, I've confirmed that DC2NY now has both electrical outlets and wifi, so if you're up in Dupont or closer to Dupont than the Metro Center, it might be a better choice. Sadly, I'll be taking the chinatown bus to Philly tomorrow for a rafting trip, then NJTransit for New York >.<

Pray for me. Shop smart and cheap.