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How to find the best online deals on electronics

While big retailers like Amazon and Best Buy are trying to persuade you that their price cut is the best bargain you'll get on that laptop, tech-savvy shoppers are quietly scoring ridiculous deals only the Internet could offer.

There's a good reason why you haven't heard of sites like SlickDeals and DealsPlus before: tech shoppers in the know are good at keeping secrets. The deals are first come, first served, and usually sell out by the end of the day.

Well, I think it's about time I share this secret to best prepare you for your … Read more

New study shows 88 percent of auto repair shops recycle tires

From 1989 to 2001, a company called Used Rubber USA operated a retail store, offering cool gear to city-dwelling hipsters, on the corner of Fillmore and Haight streets in San Francisco. The company still turns old tires into book bags, wallets or belts and other merchandise--now online only.

Recycling used tires isn't a new idea, and now a study shows that most auto repair shops recycle tires rather than send them off to a landfill.

The organization Car Care Council has been urging auto repair shops to recycle more vehicle parts and engine fluids, in a consumer education campaign … Read more

Should I buy a floor-model TV? (Morrison's Mailbag)

CNET reader Peter Haluszka from Cleveland writes:

I would like to buy a new plasma and ideally would like a Panasonic VT30 series but they're very pricey. I would like your opinion about the Pioneer 55" PRO-FHD1. I was thinking of buying one from the local high-end store for maybe $1,000 to $1,500 if I can get it for that price, based on the fact it was a floor model. Do you think it's worth buying? I have cable and surround so no problems with it being a monitor. Otherwise, my choices are either the ST30 or GT30 60-inch models, and if I can get it for under $2,000, the VT30 55 inch. I value your opinion probably more than anyone else.

Thank you, Peter Haluszka Cleveland, Ohio

Amazon: We're testing a redesign

Can you remember a time when there wasn't an Amazon?

The site seems to have been around since pages took 30 minutes to load. And it's always seemed the same. Some blue, some orange, and as utilitarian as a dustpan and brush.

So how strange it would be if Amazon suddenly looked, well, 21st century. I cannot guarantee that this will happen, but the company has admitted to The Wall Street Journal that it is testing a redesign.

Oddly for a site that is spectacularly easy to use, this redesign is intended to make it even easier. What … Read more

ShopWell gives food buyers new tools for healthy eating

If you're going to try to help people figure out the best foods for their individual circumstances, why not bring a little Silicon Valley sensibility to the table?

That's the thinking of ShopWell, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up that's hoping to become a major player in the ever-growing personal nutrition recommendation arena with a high-tech matching algorithm.

Founded by Brian Witlin, a former entrepreneur-in-residence at leading design consultancy IDEO, ShopWell is aiming to give individual shoppers Web- and mobile-based applications that offer the best possible suggestions about what groceries to buy based on their own personal … Read more

Simplify your grocery shopping on Android

Grocery shopping--it can be fun, annoying, relaxing, or done in a rush, but it is always necessary. So why not use a grocery app for your phone that can help make the process go smoother every time? While the number of grocery apps in the Android Market is mind-boggling, the amount of features per app varies greatly. Out of Milk is relatively balanced on features, ease of use, and quality in comparison to many others. Here's how to use it to simplify the necessary task of grocery shopping:

Step 1: Grab Out of Milk from the … Read more

3DS owners not totally out of luck, thanks to Nintendo 'Ambassador program'

A bumpy start out of the gate has forced Nintendo to drop the price of the 3DS 32 percent, down to $170 from $250 beginning on August 12. A weak launch lineup, failure to deliver a robust online marketplace on time, a finicky 3D experience, and an overall dearth of compelling software are to blame for disappointing sales.

And what if you were one of the early adopters who paid full price for a 3DS? Fortunately, all is not lost. In an attempt to make good for those loyal few, Nintendo has introduced what the company is calling the "Ambassador program."

Any 3DS unit that connects to the Nintendo eShop before 11:59 p.m. ET on August 11 is automatically registered to receive 20 free titles from the online store. Ten free NES titles, including Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and The Legend of Zelda will be released on September 1, and 10 Game Boy Advance games, including Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Metroid Fusion, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong will be released before the end of the year. … Read more

Outlook bright For cloud-based business software

Noguska's NolaPro Free Accounting is actually a powerful freeware business suite that uses the Apache and cloud-based tools. It runs securely online from your home or work PC or any server or workstation. It not only handles business accounting but also payrolls, order tracking, inventories, point-of-sales, business-to-business, and other important functions, and it includes not only a full database but also a time clock, hosting manager, development API, and online shopping cart. It can handle all kinds of taxes, including VAT, and it integrates with many third-party applications, add-ons, and plug-ins. It can be widely customized to suit virtually … Read more

Study: Why you should wait to buy Apple gear

Common sense dictates that the longer you wait to buy a piece of technology, the cheaper it gets. Though that adage can be difficult to abide by when those products are coming from a company like Apple, which rarely cuts the price of a product until it's been made obsolete by something newer.

Nonetheless, discounts can be had from Apple's authorized resellers, who can throw in a discount or add-on to better compete with the company. Discount tracker Dealnews has put together three years of pricing data to illustrate this, as well as offer suggestions on when's … Read more

Fetchmob resembles a crowdsourced Kozmo

"There's a third way to shop," Crisson Jno-Charles, the founder of Fetchmob tells me. Like other pickup-gig services--Zaarly, TaskRabbit, GigWalk (story)--Fetchmob is about not going to a store, nor going online to shop, but rather getting someone else to shop for you. Fetchmob lets you post quick shopping jobs that friends or acquaintances can take on.

It sounds a lot like a crowdsourced version of Kozmo, but Jno-Charles sees the service as being more intimate than that or any of the current open-call gig services. He views it as being used primarily by people in close proximity to each other: students in the same dorm, or co-workers on a floor. He thinks people will use it not to make money, but simply because it's what you do when you live with people or work closely with others.