deal

BlackBerry PlayBook dropping to $199 in time for holidays

It's official--the price of BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet will soon be dropping into the Kindle Fire range at a number of big-time retailers... for a limited time.

When it launched earlier this year, the slate from Research In Motion started at $499. A few months ago, the price dropped as low as $299 through a combination of credits and rebates from retailers like Best Buy.

Today, RIM announced via Twitter that the rumored $199 price drop is for real "for a limited time only."

The PlayBook Web site lists Best Buy, Wireless Giant, Staples, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart as participating retailers. RIM has offered no confirmation of when the price cut will go into effect, but current prices have remained in place on the retailers' sites this morning, and previous reports suggest that the $199 price may be a Black Friday deal.… Read more

Simplify your Black Friday shopping

The TGI Black Friday app doesn't just provide you with a comprehensive listing of Black Friday deals, it also gives you some nifty tools to make sure your shopping experience goes smoothly.

The most important part of the TGI Black Friday app is, of course, the coupons. The app, along with its sister site tgiblackfriday.com, aggregates an enormous number of Black Friday advertisements, many of which are leaked up to a month ahead of time. The coupons from these ads are then listed in the app, and can be browsed by date added, store name, or category. Don'… Read more

Shopkick gets you discounts and rewards at the same time

To use Shopkick, simply download the app, and fire it up whenever you're out shopping. Then, just by making supported purchases, scanning items, or even walking into featured retailers, you'll start earning "kickbucks," which can be redeemed for gift cards, free merchandise, and more. You can also earn kickbucks by "checking in" to specific commercials you're watching, or by sharing the app with friends.

The other half of Shopkick is the deals. Whenever you're in a featured store, be sure to check the app to see if any coupons are available. If … Read more

GeoQpons sniffs out discounts nearby

GeoQpons is a brilliantly simple app that pulls up coupons based on your GPS location. Just fire it up when you're out, and it will scan its database for any discounts available nearby. You can browse through available coupons based on distance or alphabetically by retailer's name. There's also a convenient Favorite feature that lets you save stores that you visit often. This keeps you from having to scroll exhaustively through listings every time you're out.

We also love the added conveniences that GeoQpons offers, like the Shopping List, Discount Calculator, and bar code scanner. While … Read more

Find slick deals with your Android

Slick Deals RSS Feed gives Android users an easy interface for accessing the rich user community behind the popular Slickdeals.net. If you're not familiar with Slickdeals.net, it features found discounts for everything from fast food to computers, all of which are posted, rated, and vetted by thousands of bargain-hunting users. The best deals (after being scouted and confirmed by Slickdeals staff) then get featured on the site's front page. These featured deals then get pushed through to the Slick Deals RSS Feed app.

Where Slick Deals RSS Feed falls short is its lack of a search … Read more

Pull up coupons on your Android

The Coupons App for Android is a bit like an inelegantly designed Swiss Army knife for bargain-shopping. It serves up location-relevant coupons, sniffs out the lowest gas prices in your area, and even helps you compare products with its built-in bar-code scanner.

Usability is certainly not this app's strong point, but once you have it figured out, it works well enough. Swipe left and right through different filters including Food, Stores, and Gas, then once a filter is loaded, swipe up and down to see the deals. If you find a deal you like, tap it to open up … Read more

The best sites to track Black Friday deals

Are you ready? Black Friday 2011, the day that U.S. retailers and thrifty consumers have been waiting for all year, is just around the corner.

Whether you're looking for a $2 toaster or a $200 laptop, you're going to need a plan of attack to help you succeed. Here are a few sites that will help you develop and carry out your strategy this year:

FatWallet FatWallet has been around a long time and is a popular destination for deal hunters. It maintains a Black Friday section each year, to help you sort out all the deals. … Read more

Easily convert all of your videos to DVDs

ConvertXtoDVD is a tool that converts and burns your Internet movie files to DVDs. It supports the most popular formats as well as subtitles and has advanced options such as the burn engine, a fast encoder, and automatic menu. Designed for beginners and advanced users alike, anyone can now easily convert, create and edit your videos with VSO Software's ConvertXtoDVD.

Rated 5-stars by CNET, we've partnered with the developer of this program to bring you an exclusive 24-hour deal for just $19.99, which is a 60 percent savings from the original MSRP of $49.99, so take … Read more

The truth about Black Friday

Black Friday is coming! Black Friday is coming!

Meh.

This is the time of year when Black Friday ads are leaked weeks in advanced, pre-Black Friday sales emerge on a daily basis, and the media goes hog-wild about Black Friday ads, apps, sales, and people willing to stand in line at 4 a.m.

If you'll pardon the expression, I'm not buying it. Much as I understand the importance of this day to American retail's bottom line, I just can't muster much enthusiasm.

See, as a 365-days-a-year cheapskate, I see killer deals all the time. … Read more

Groupon model still faces obstacles to success

Now that we have gotten the Groupon IPO out of the way, the debate over the health of the daily-deals sector rages on.

In fact, the novelty of being one of the fastest growing Web juggernauts ever began fading before last week's IPO. One early warning sign: the Chicago-based company's core business, which it pioneered just three years ago--prepaid local daily deals--dipped 3 percent during the third quarter, Yipit, a deals aggregator and industry tracking firm, reported prior to Groupon's IPO.

What's more, according to Yipit's research, Groupon's gross billings per subscriber are … Read more