Beware of the Upsell

It's something worth repeating every holiday season: When retailers take a hit on TVs, they often make up the difference on ridiculously overpriced extras. You may find a genuine deal or two on a big ticket item at a giant tech retailer like Best Buy, but, as far as I am concerned, you would have to be a damned fool to buy any of their extras and accessories. You know about HDMI cables, but there's a lot more profit-driven accessorizing where that came from.

Even if you already did buy the accessories needed for your gadget gifts, go online and do some calculations before you toss out those receipts. You may want to return them when you see how much you could have saved. As for late shoppers—listen up. Getting batteries, cables, controllers, mounts and other necessities can really nickel-and-dime your holiday budget. Time may be running out to shop, but that doesn't mean you should allow retailers to take advantage of you.

Let's go over this again. Retailers like Best Buy are not above bending you over with sucker warranties and massively overpriced or deceptive services.

And how about those high-margin extras? For example, I selected a random low-profile wall mount from Sanus designed for HDTVs measuring 30 to 60 inches diagonal. It's the kind of wall mount the average Joe would probably select for their new TV—a TV they may well have got a reasonable deal on. Best Buy is selling it for $169. Buy.com is selling it via Amazon for $94 with free shipping. Guess what, Best Buy—bite me. I can wait for the UPS guy if it means saving $75 or more.

The Rewards of Patience

So, I have to ask: Is the convenience worth spending $50 or more on that "high quality" 6-foot HDMI cable upsell in a store when you can get basically the same performance from a $3 version (shipped) from Amazon? Best Buy's cheapest 6-foot HDMI cables will still run you $13. Even discount giant Walmart can't get anywhere near the prices you can find online at places like Amazon and Monoprice. When you consider all of the various cables you might need to buy for your gadgets this holiday, the costs can really add up. My advice with cables is to suck it up, shop online and and wait if necessary.

For other products, you may not need to wait for an online shipment because the best price is just up the road. I don't know why anyone would spend $50 on a wireless Xbox 360 controller and $100 on a wireless-N adapter at Best Buy when they can hop in the car and head to Walmart and get them for $38 and $83 respectively. I know shopping can be hectic, and I understand why you would just want to get it over with, but saving money is going to be worth the inconvenience. As always, it is best to do your price comparisons before heading out. And if your local store is sold out, you can always order them.

Other Extras You Might Need

Now that you're good and aware of the nature of this problem, let's go over all of the things you might still need, even after Santa has left the building.

Batteries: I don't expect you to order batteries online last minute, but the good news is that you can probably find great prices in your area. We recommend Duracell rechargeables, but if you try and pick up a basic 6-hour charger with 4 AA batteries from Best Buy, it is going to run you $28 compared to $20 at Target. Futhermore—if you already have the charger or are buying it separately—a 4-pack of extra pre-charged NiMH AAs runs you $18 at Best Buy and only $13 at Target.

Storage: Everyone who buys a new computer or even upgrades their OS suddenly finds themselves in need of a backup hard drive. Generally speaking, a big ole USB desktop unit is the best value. The going rate for a 1TB brand-name USB 2.0 drive is around $100, and while Amazon, NewEgg and Walmart all beat Best Buy on price in some ways, only Walmart, strangely enough, offers either the 1TB Seagate FreeAgent desktop drive or the 1TB WD My Book desktop drive for $99.

If you have several computers (especially with different OS platforms), you're going to want to check out setting up a network drive or array. We really liked the Iomega's Ix2-200 as a cheap but full-featured NAS solution. I actually ended up picking one of these up myself for about $40 off list at Amazon, but you can find a slightly (and I do mean slightly) better deal on Next Warehouse right now. NewEgg also has a great reputation for good prices on storage devices. In this case however, they come in third because of shipping charges.

Powerline Networking Kit: If you're getting a connected Blu-ray player, TV, Roku Box, game console, HD media player or other assorted networked thingamajigs, you may want to think about a powerline adapter, like Linksys' PLK300. It's a simpler and usually more broadband friendly alternative to Wi-Fi. But the PLK300 sells for $155 on Best Buy and a shocking $169 at Walmart. Amazon will hook you up for $122, but if you don't mind a little risk, NewEgg has an "open box" offer for $93.

Bags and Camera Packs: There are countless options when it comes to cases and bags for your gadgets, but one of our faves is the Timbuk2 HAL backpack. It has all of the storage you would need, and you can score it for as little as $96 on Amazon shipped. In other stores, it might cost as much as $120. eBags also has the Timbuk2 for $96 with a free 2-day air upgrade. Some cool bags aren't as easy to find on sale—Matt loved the Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home camera bag, and we can't really find it anywhere (respectable) for under $80.

Gadget Cases: When it comes to cases for iPhones and iPods, profit is the name of the game, so be careful about any potential screwings. Our best advice is to try doing generic searches—instead of a brand name, type in "silicone iphone case" or "rugged iphone case" and weigh your options. For the former, Amazon and NewEgg yield a huge selection of cases in the $15, while Walmart only shows just two $20 cases, and Best Buy has a similar two, for $25 a piece. A combination of thinking—and thinking ahead—is what works here.

iPhone and Smartphone Car Mounts: With many of us relying on our cellphones for GPS guidance these days, a good car mount is becoming essential. Unfortunately, those fancy iPhone docks with a GPS-boosting receiver like the TomTom and the Magellan are pretty overpriced (especially when you have GPS already built into the phone), and besides, they're in pretty short supply, as is the official car mount for Droid phones. So where does that leave you? Well, it leaves you with a lot of basic, no-frills options that do the job just fine. For the iPhone, you could get something as dirt-ass cheap as this $6 windshield mount from DealExtreme. Here's a secret, the Droid fits in many iPhone docks, especially ones that hold at just one end. But if you're gonna fudge it, go cheap, or else hold out for the official dock.

In-Car Phone Chargers: Don't ever ever ever spend money on specialized, phone-specific chargers if your phone happens to charge with USB. That's just a con. Just take the same cord you plug your phone into your computer with—regardless of whether you have an iPhone, a Droid, a Pre, really anything "smart"—and plug it into one of these super-cheap 12V USB adapters. Griffin's dual-USB one sells on Amazon for $7.50. With all the money you can finally save not buying proprietary car chargers, you may just want to buy a few of those, and while you're at it, stock up on extra USB cables.

Universal Remotes: You can get cheap universal remotes anywhere, but if you want something more high end, the Logitech Harmony 900 should fit the bill. On Amazon it's $280 shipped. How about Best Buy? Oooh, $380. See a pattern developing here?

As I mentioned in my recent article championing the HTPC, you can get something as simple as the HA-IR01SV from Mediagate to control Windows Media Center for only $25.41 shipped from Amazon. If you absolutely need it now you will have to pay a few extra bucks at Walmart.

Conclusion

When it comes to buying all of those extras for your holiday gadgets this year, my advice is simple: Use common sense and don't settle. Stores like Best Buy, Staples, Office Max and Gamestop are probably not the places you want to go to score your accessories. Look at the local discount stores like Walmart and Target first—and if you can't find a good enough price without ordering online, you're just gonna have to wait it out. As tough as that might be with a new gadget to play with, the savings will be worth it.

And if any of you have come across any good deals of your own on stuff to make your gadgets run at 100%, just throw them into comments—with pricing and a photo, if possible.

Image via Link

The new "i" line checks in at $349, and knocks the control-less X10 down to an even $300. They won't be here in time for Christmas, or even New Year's, with their reported sell date placed ambiguously in "early 2010."

The other nugget out of Klipsch today is that the popular S4i ear buds—which reviewed favorably here at Gizmodo in August—are about the get a color refresh (as seen in the image). The price will remain $99. [Engadget]

Basically, what this big red thing does is slip over your Wiimote and, theoretically, makes it easier to grip and push those tiny buttons when playing a game with the Wiimote on its side. Kind of like the Classic Controller, with an accelerometer built in.

Unfortunately, Ars Technica says the additional bulk just makes things unwieldy. One needs big, beefy hands to use this thing properly, they report, and the additional heft in back—junk in the trunk, if you will—only makes things worse. And since the buttons on the case are just pressing down the original Wiimote buttons below, things got a tad unresponsive. Even at $10, the reviewer "breathed a sigh of relief" when he tore it off after an hour of play time.

It's too bad. That tiny directional pad and those tiny 1 and 2 buttons really cramp me up after an extended play session in the Mushroom Kingdom. [ars technica]

The accessory plugs into the docking port on an iPhone (or presumably iPod Touch), and includes features like an extensive library of IR codes, customizable buttons, and RF learning from other remotes. It's a great idea; my iPod Touch doesn't get much use as a PMP, but Remote, VLC Remote and Boxee Remote make it a great remote control for my HTPC, so I'm all for extending the functionality to RF. We don't know much about this gadget yet—but it'll be officially announced at CES, and we'll give you more info (like price and availability) then. [Chip Chick]

The H20 Audio Capture Case is specifically designed for the current-gen iPod Nano, allowing full use of the video camera up to 12 feet underwater. Seems pretty cool—you can listen to the latest NPR Planet Money podcast while you catch some waves (that's what surfers like, right?) and then when you fall, you can take a video of the pretty fish while you grope your way to the surface. They'll be available next week for $80, which is fairly reasonable, but they don't include waterproof headphones—you'll have to buy those separately.

Oh, and that guy up there? That's Laird Hamilton, friend of Gizmodo and expert surfblogger. [H20]

Sold together under the 'V Collection' title, the pricing hasn't been confirmed yet but we don't need to tell you it'll be more than the average phone costs.

Looking much like the ballpoint pen included in the collection, the Bluetooth 2.1 headset has six hours of talktime, and features a fold-out earpiece with metal ear loop for attaching to your hearing-hole. The memory card reader, which also looks like a pen, only reads microSD cards so won't be of much help to digital camera users unless they use a microSD card adapter too. [Vertu V Collection via SlashGear]

While not entirely scientific, the pattern supposedly grabs a baby's attention and holds it long enough to get a decent photo. ShutterBuddy's PR team managed to cook up this gem: "The ShutterBuddy™ is a revolutionary new product that uses the science of infant vision development and pattern recognition to capture and hold a baby's attention so that you can get a great picture." Making your kid smile on command is another story, but I've heard things that squeak or jingle sometimes do the trick.

At $20, the ShutterBuddy is cheapish. Could be worth a look if you've got a bunch of holiday greeting cards to send out this year. Oh, and a baby. [Shutter Buddy via CrunchGear]

If I'm going to be honest, I kind of expected more from this contest: There aren't many truly impressive drawings submitted as of now, and the current leader in votes is a virulent anti-Obama nutball creation that looks more like the bumper of an Alabama pick-up truck than an iPhone case. A drawing of Obama as Heath Ledger's Joker? What does that even mean? You can't be an anarchist and a socialist at the same time, they're completely conflicting ideologies. Take a political theory class, Cardboard iPhone Case Drawing Man!

Anyway, I think there are enough badass illustrators among the Giz readership that we could really bust out some impressive entries. I'd love to see what you guys can do—this contest is ripe for a Giz onslaught. Go forth, readers! [Case-Mate via CNET]

About a month ago, Jabra sent a little bag out to its regular reviewers. Inside was a stone—a literal, polished stone—and that was it. It was a cheesy PR stunt, the kind we see all the time, but when I got the headset itself, it made sense. The Jabra Stone, when docked, is a near-seamless pebble, broken only underneath, at the headset's hollowed-out ejection point. It's a stunning headset, actually, which sounds weird coming out of my mouth. (Or fingers! Who's counting.)

The Stone's specs are appropriate to its pricepoint: it'll pair in regular and A2DP modes for voice or music listening, respectively, has a minimalist status display, a noise-cancelling mic, volume controls—though here they're managed with a touch-sensitive shell rather than buttons—and a charging dock. The claimed talk time is two hours per charge, and the dock is good for three extra charges. Standby time is a respectable 12 hours 12 days.

And to be honest, aside from eking out a little extra battery life over competitors' products, there's not a whole lot a company can do to make a Bluetooth headset technologically interesting. What they can do, and what Jabra has done with the Stone, is focus on style and feel. Bluetooth headsets look dumb, and they're awkward to wear. The Stone is a headset designed with these thoughts in mind—it looks as not-dumb as a headset can; it feels as not-awkward as a piece of plastic in your ear conceivably could. It's self-conscious, almost embarrassed for what it is.

Long-term testing might bear out some initial concerns about battery life and the practical convenience of carrying around a slippery little battery rock, but my first impressions were uniformly positive. The Stone paired almost instantly with an iPhone, a Pre and a Hero right out of the box, sound quality was clear, and three ears of varying shapes and sizes found the angled earpiece plenty comfortable.

The Stone will be available at AT&T stores from November 8th, priced at $130 right alongside the Platronics Voyager. From the looks of it the Voyager edges out a win on battery life, but the fact that Jabra's put even the tiniest bit of sex into their newest piece goes a long, long way. [Jabra]

Made of grey wool, dark leather and herringbone-patterned elastic, it's the first sleeve I've seen that matches both my shoes and my belt, which obviously is my most important criterion for gadget accessories. Unfortunately it has the pricetag to match, coming in at 79 euros (about $116USD). Guess I'll have to stick with the neoprene. [Hard Graft]

Just head over to the Palm store and enter in PALMPRE at checkout. [Palm]

10 cases for $8 is not good enough for hobomodo, but cheap enough even if it's not water proof. [Case-Mate via Oh Gizmo! via Dvice]

The Philips Notebook Sleeve also has a soft cushion built-in and, what is more important, "an extra HeatProtect layer prevents overheating by allowing good air flow." Sounds good to me and to my private parts. The design is good too, with a suede-like lining and a rubberized zip, so your notebook doesn't get scratched.

SendStation's PocketDock, available now, is incredibly tiny, having "the same footprint as Apple's iPod plug," and features a 3.5mm jack in addition to the miniUSB. The 3.5mm jack lets you bypass the volume board used by the headphone jack, giving you clearer sound quality, just like a dock. It's pretty simple, and a little expensive at $30, but if you use a ton of miniUSB gadgets, it'll be worth it. [SendStation]

SendStation releases tiny PocketDock Line Out Mini USB adapter for iPod

Frankfurt/Main, Germany - August 25, 2009

SendStation Systems today released the world's smallest Mini USB-to-iPod adapter with integrated Line Out jack: the brand-new PocketDock Line Out Mini USB.

Mini USB has become the connectivity standard for portable electronic devices and the latest addition to the PocketDock family of iPod & iPhone adapters addresses that: now you can sync & charge your iPod or iPhone using the same cables, wall or car chargers found with digital cameras, portable hard drives, GPS devices, PDAs and many more. Additionally the integrated 1/8" (3.5 mm) Line Out jack offers pristine audio quality for connecting the iPod or iPhone to your home or car stereo or DJ equipment.

"This is the best PocketDock we've ever created", says SendStation's President André Klein. "Not only did we further improve our already known, excellent built-quality, but we were also able to shrink the size by an incredible 66% over our existing USB Line Out model."

The new PocketDock Line Out Mini USB comes in black color, weighs merely 4 grams and with 7 by 25.5 mm has the same footprint as Apple's iPod plug, thus fits through the dock connector opening of any case. Like all SendStation accessories with 30-pin dock connector, it is "Made for iPod" certified.

SendStation has also redesigned the included set of slim audio cables: the RCA (Cinch) plugs feature a flattened top to accept the thumb, which, by slightly turning while pulling, helps to unplug them easily.

For additional info visit www.sendstation.com.

Pricing & Availability

The SendStation PocketDock Line Out Mini USB is immediately available from SendStation Systems at www.sendstation.com and from authorized dealers worldwide. Suggested retail price across Europe is EUR 29.95, respectively USD 29.95 in the US and the rest of the world.

So no matter what the time of day, Qlocktwo can spell it out for you by illuminating just the right spots.

But while the design is pleasing, Qlocktwo's price is not. You see, it's a designer product, meaning that you'll need to pay somewhere around $1500 to own on of your own, along with a few hundred bucks should you want to change out the faceplate.

Then again, if Qlocktwo can replace all the other reading you do in your life, it could save you a boatload on print materials. Our reserves from Danielle Steele alone will be staggering. [Qlocktwo via Design Milk via technabob]

The 975 is a replacement for the white, sparkly 925, which was technologically impressive, but might've gone a little far with the "HOT FASHION" shtick. The 925's main features—including noise cancellation, loopless ear fitting and wind protection—are still present in the 975, though the internal hardware has been moved from the mic stem to the main earpiece, giving the 975 its slimmer profile, and the headset's got a newer dual-mic setup—one for voice pickup, and one for noise canceling.

A Bluetooth headset is a Bluetooth headset, and there aren't a whole lot of ways to improve on the basic concept or performance. The 975, though, trounces the 925 in one of the only ways that really matters: its battery pack/carrying case, which looks the same as before, will now charge the headset twice over, at five hours of talk time per go. If you leave the house with the headset and carrying case juiced, that's a claimed 15 hours of talk time with the standard kit, which'll pretty much get anyone who doesn't run a one-(wo)man adult hotline through even their phoniest workdays.

The Discovery 975 lands today, at a premium-but-not-too-premium pricepoint of $130, with carrying case. [Plantronics]