Black Friday - List any deals you find!!

Lol never heard of neither. I'll check like walmart or bestbuy or something. Biggest store we have is Walmart lol. Next to Bestbuy.

"All the best buys are at Frys" Its their slogan . But I do love best buy too.

i heard conns is good too.

[DarkPacMan77]

I found a great deal that I plan on buying. Many stores are selling the old model of the Zune for $99, Toys R Us is lowest at $79.99. Few people know that a second model has even come out... but it has. To put this in retrospect, some stores have the Zune selling at $250, so $99 is MORE than a steal. I'm also talking about the 30gb hard drive version. The new models are 4 and 8gb models that are similar to the ipod nano, but use flash memory instead of hard drives, and those start at $150. 30gb for $50-70 less? - sounds like the best Black Friday deal I've seen so far if you ask me.

Stores selling it
1. Toys R Us - selling for $79.99 (any color)
2. Radio Shack - selling for $99.99 (any color) + free leather holding case
3. OfficeMax - selling for $99.99 (brown only)
4. Buy.com - selling for $99.99 RIGHT NOW - perhaps will drop on black friday even more
5. Newegg.com - selling for $99.99 RIGHT NOW (brown only)

Here's some important Zune's specifications
1. Originally a $200 value for the 30gb (Zune 30)
2. Has a 3 inch screen.
3. Aspect ratio of 4:3
4. Screen resolution of 320 x 240 - capable of tv-out ability (320 x 240).
5. Displays portrait AND landscape styles
6. Customizable wallpaper
7. Plays music, video, views pictures, and has an FM tuner for radio.
8. No games yet, but Microsoft plans to add them.
9. Plays WMA, WMA Lossless, MP3 and AAC formats, but can be hacked to run many more.
10. Has wifi media sharing (3 plays / 3 days rule sucks though) - can be hacked to get past 3x3 rule.
11. 14 hour music playback (wifi off) - 13 hour music playback (wifi on) - 4 hour video playback. (Same battery in it as the Apple Ipod 80gb)

There's also a Zune 80gb model that is touch screen (also has manual scroll feature as well) that has a MUCH better battery, 30 hours of music playback and tv-out mode of DVD quality, but I haven't found deals for that yet.

-DarkPacMan77-

[DarkPacMan77]

Wow i think im going to buy a zune.

It definitely sounds like a great deal, even if you already own an ipod. For a long time, I wanted an ipod, but they were just too expensive for being small in capacity and very light on features. I've seen 1 and 2gb .mp3 players on places like tigerdirect.com for as little as $10-20 with rebates, and those had FM tuners. That was a justification I used to tell myself that "if a $10 .mp3 player has an FM tuner, and a $300+ one does not, then it isn't worth it". The Zune, however, is a great competitor for the ipod. A larger screen, same battery life as the best ipod that's out, customizable wallpaper, landscape/ portrait view, FM tuner - all great things. I've also found that the 80gb model is HARDLY available just about anywhere, and as far as I can tell, it's only priced at $250, so if you consider the fact that you could get a 30gb Zune for less than the cheapest iPod model (that has far less space/ features), why wouldn't you get a Zune? For $80-100, I don't see why not

Of course, there's a few bad things. I'll be fair and list them as well.

1. The big issue is the DRM (Digital Rights Management - I think). Basically the issue is this. If you've purchased online content via the iTunes store, or somewhere else where audio is for sale online, it won't be compatible in the Zune, and I haven't been successful in finding a hack for this (though getting the encryption out of the audio file may be possible - I can't confirm though).

2. You may only be able to find brown, a color most people wouldn't "want". I think the brown is a nice color though. I wouldn't call it "brown", but rather, "chocolate" instead, as the color much more resembles a chocolate color than "brown", at least in my opinion

3. The software, the software, the software. Just as the iPod has iTunes, the Zune has it's own Zune software. Most people complain that it is flawed, and buggy. Recently though, there was a large release especially aimed at the 30gb model that revised many firmware problems on the Zune. It also "prevented hacks", but not how "Sony prevents hacks". People have begun to hack the Zune just the same as they had before. I don't think that Microsoft is trying to make the Zune "unhackable" like Sony is with the PSP, however, I think that the new update only prevented the hacks in existence because Microsoft COMPLETELY REWROTE the code for the firmware using a combination of java and... some other code I can't recall right now.

Sorry for another long-winded post, but for people considering a Zune, I thought I'd throw those things out there.

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

My only problem is/was downloading songs I already have onto it. If I can downlaod say like mp3's I have saved to my computer right now ripped off CD's, would I be able to download those to the zune? That's the only reason I wouldn't get one. But my cellphone now is pretty mp3 friendly (Sony W300i, I know it's cheap but you can't beat a phone like that for free, has great mp3 playback and a FM tuner). But none the less great deal dpm.

[BKFraiders7]

Who all has tried out the ipod touch? I wont get it this Christmas (getting a 360 Elite) But i might work and buy it. Probably over the summer (price will be down and less bugs) and also, I will be making a LOT of $$.

[brentbizzle]

If you want unprotected music you've bought off itunes then just burn them to a cd and rip them back onto the computer. I've done that since I need to make hard copies to use in the car anyway. I'm sure it would work to make an iso instead of actually producing a cd, then mounting the iso and ripping the music back on to your computer.

[DarkPacMan77]

Thanks for the tip brent. I knew there would be a simple way to skate around the DRM issues. And ace, yes, you can just throw your .mp3 files on there and go. I think it's funny that you bring up the Sony W300i because I was recently looking around for a cell phone/ plan, but then I realized that I don't like the phone... so why would I get a cell phone? lol. I was going to get it free with a plan, like you did, and I've known about the specs being pretty good. What may even be more ironic, is that yesterday my friend got one of them.

The big problem with the W300i is that it it can only support 2gb of music... and well... I have over 45gb of music... so the Zune = definitely the better of the two for me

-DarkPacMan77-

[ace]

Lol, it is really a good phone imo, for what it's worth. I have about ~30gb of music and movies, but I barely listen to any of it. I just stuck my favortie songs on my phone and go. I need some new headphones though, the ones that came with it are awesome, but the little rubber ear bud piece is missing now . My mom was vacuuming or something and well, the rest is history.

[DarkPacMan77]

I was thinking about getting a phone because of free long distance... as many of you may know, I have a special somebody I'd like to talk more often with in Brazil... but other than that, battery life and limited capacity for music is what made me decide not to get one right now. At least, that's the technical aspect of it. The bigger issue at hand is that I hate talking on the phone, and don't particularly like it when people call. I try not to be a jerk about it or anything, but I just know too many damn people and that's the last thing I need is for them to find out my cell phone number! lol

-DarkPacMan77-

om still sticking with ipod touch.

[DarkPacMan77]

om still sticking with ipod touch.

I'm sorry...

-DarkPacMan77-

i like the ipod touch, but i probobly will get someone to pandoraize my psp AFTER feb. becuause the amiling system will be all f'ed up during the holidays. the last thing i need is to lose my 2gb memstick and my only battery.

I don't have a black friday some stores do it but the rest just have xmas seals starting.

But I will be getting a Blu-Ray player for $290 and a HDTV for $200 so i'm going to get those for myself.

I know, our country doesnt come thru for its consumers look how long it took them to price things accordingly to our dollar. I'll most likely be heading down to NY to see what kind of bargains I can find.

I am about to put some items on ebay if they spark anyones interest.

1. Iomega Zip Drive w/ 7 100mb disks.
2. An Older Camcorder...(don't remember the specs on it right now)
3. A lot of baseball, basketball, and football cards. We are talking thousands.
4. HP Digital Camera (AFTER I take pics of all my auctions...lol)
5. Barbies (no they are not mine, my wife has a nice collection)

Also I have six computers with different things wrong with them. If you need a specific part please let me know and I will cut you a deal. I don't know much about hardware but if you tell me what you need (ie..graphics card) I can look them up on google I am sure.