Sears was one of the first out of the gate with a huge list of products for sale on Black Friday at supposedly great discounts. We took a look at some of the gadgets and gear and frankly were not very impressed.

In the digital camera department one of our favorite point and shooters is the Canon SD1100. Sears links to a pink (yes, pink) version for $169. On Retrevo, you don't have to compromise your masculinity (not that we have anything against pink) when you buy a silver SD1100  read more »

Our friends at  the walyou blog  put together this list of gaming accessories to make any gamers experience more fun. Here's the introduction:

"Video Game Consoles have evolved greatly over the years from the early days of 8-Bit to the modern era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) incentive and resource hungry games; Gaming has become a big part of our daily lives. The gamers’ demographics have changed too - from adolescent to te  read more »

Did you know your portable TV probably won’t work after February 2009? Here’s a 7 inch portable LCD TV for around $100. Is it a good deal?  read more »

Deal or No Deal?

Navigon 2100 3.5" Portable GPS Navigator

Here’s the deal; The Navigon 2100 has been around for about a year. It's a decent GPS that you can buy now for less than $100  read more »

Deal or No Deal

Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

Here’s the deal; A Sony Blu-ray player available on amazon.com for $229 with free shipping (while supplies last). It displays 1080p Blu-ray content and is a nice looking unit.  read more »

Deal or No Deal?

Westinghouse TX-42F430S 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV with 4 HDMI ports for $849.99

How does a 42 inch, 1080p, LCD TV for under $900 with free shipping sound? The Westinghouse TX-42F430S is on sale at BestBuy.com for $849.99 with free shipping. With the exception of a few users who had problems with this TV, it gets favorable reviews for image quality.

The good news:  It includes 4 HDMI ports so you can hook up everything  read more »

It was opening day at CTIA today and no one was fooling around. I have to say this show is a lot easier to deal with than CES; much more manageable and less crowded. You could actually get a chance to check out the products at the booths and lunch in the press room didn't vanish at 11:45.

Speaking of the press room I ran into a Becky Waring, an old colleague who has a degree from MIT and has been writing a lot recently for PC World. She just finished a roundup of new wireless routers due to be published soon. One thing she told me that I wasn't aware of is how WiFi networks ca  read more »

Retrevo is at the CTIA show in Las Vegas this week. CTIA is the big cell phone conference. Showstoppers is an event held at all the most popular tech conventions that brings the press and vendors together in a comfortable setting. The draw for journalists is easy access to the right people from companies with cool products. The attraction for companies is access to fish or rather journalist in a barrel. The fact that they always have great food helps lure in hungry journalists looking for a free meal. It's always a great place to see cool new stuff and meet interesting people.  read more »

While reading  Etan Horowitz's new tech blog for the Olando Sentinel I came across a reader's comment that mentioned another fallout from next year's digital TV conversion and that is all those analog-based TV audio receivers. I've had many multi-band radios that have had a TV band that let you listen to the audio portion of a TV show. All those old radios will stop receiving analog TV signals next year. They'll all have to switch to digital receivers for TV audio. Just in case you want to read more  read more »

Keep your eye out for firesales on HD DVD players. If the price gets low enough these players might still make excellent standard definition DVD players. For example, the Toshiba HD-A30 has an HDMI 1.3 port and upconverts to 1080p. You might even be able to pick up a player that comes bundled with some discs.