Robin Majumdar 2.0

OK, a quick trip home and thought I would share this excellent deal over at Dell Canada today…

If you’re in the market for a very good midrange GPS that includes bluetooth technology, street name pronunciation, 2D & 3D views, maps of both the US & Canada as well as an integrated MP3 player and the perfect sized 3.5″ then you should really check out todays deal at Dell for the Garmin NUVI 360 for $259.99 - as always, it even includes free shipping from Dell.

As a reference, it is $399 at Best Buy - but we never buy anything at Future Shop or Best Buy at their regular retail prices, right ?

Over at TigerDirect Canada it is on sale for $299.

Well, I’ve been looking to renew my Bell Mobility account with a newer device and take advantage of a retention plan offer - Bell wanting to keep me with them - and was surprised that my current best bang for the buck device and plan; the HTC Touch combined with Bell’s $7/month unlimited data plan for that phone….

was out of stock “temporarily” on the Bell site.

Well I learned from a source that the device isn’t actually out of stock - in reality, Bell Mobility had to pull the HTC Touch smartphone because BellMo didn’t have bilingual (i.e. French) user interfaces on the HTC Touch phone.

This is kind of incredible… to think that a company as large as Bell Mobility would miss an obvious requirement of bringing a device to market with interfaces, manuals and the like in both languages.

In the meantime, my Audiovox 8910 CDMA camera phone is still MIA.

Well, the remote manipulator system has been sold to US defense military contractor Alliant Technologies.

editI initally had staff remove this article because I thought it may have been a bit too incendiary, but after consulting with fellow Canadian friends who are as equally shocked by this news, it is back up…. - Robin

The true sad news is not about the Canadarm being sold to the US military , but that essentially MDA (MacDonald Dettwiler Corporation) has sold RADARSAT 2 to the US military establishment less than 1 month after the December 14th launch.

So, RADARSAT is now in US hands as is the Canadarm… a sad day for Canadian involvement (waning over the years) in the non-military aerospace business.

As a side note, ATK mentions that it is the largest supplier of weapons ammunition in the US, primarily to the US military clientele.

and TGIF… and the final day in Dell’s 12 days of deals as Christmas is just around the corner.

Asus has really had a sort of coming out as having technically sound products (especially LCD panels and laptops) and their P527 PDA GPS Windows Mobile 6 SmartPhone for $399 down from $499.

(more…)

OK, a quick article in between sandwich and a soup for lunch.

Ahhh Christmas is getting closer and those fun lovin’ corporate multinationals have more and more enticing ways to separate you from your hard earned (?) money.

So, without further ado, today on Dell Canada, the star is the Netgear SPH200D Dual Mode Cordless Phone & Skype Support for $99 down from $189.

What makes this phone interesting, besides that it works as a standard phone over the PSTN (public switched telephone network) is that it also works as a stand-alone Skype phone using your broadband (cablemodem, DSL, etc.) Internet connection. You basically log in to your Skype account directly from the phone, and you can make calls from anywhere in the house within range of the receiver. This is nice because it gives you that classic telephone feel with a handset… and you can relax on the couch or in your bed a bit easier than with your laptop.. (or full tower PC hehe).

The device supports 12 hours of talking and 120 hours of standby time (figure 1/2 that in real-world usage) and a nice 3-line color LCD screen.

Definitely worth getting, and I’ve been a satisfied Skype and SkypeOut user for a couple of years and a few versions of Skype on both desktops, portables and Windows Mobile devices…

Other deals include the Dell SP2008WFP 20″ Widescreen LCD Monitor with a built-in Webcam… sounds great for $229.. but no thanks. As of today, no LCDs under 22″ in size, 16/9 or 16/10 form factor and…. native 1920 x 1080 resolution. That is the new minimum - 1920 x 1080 to support full HD.

There is a cool James Bond (err, Jason Bourne…?) style TrendNet TV-IP312W Wireless 2-Way Audio Day/Night Internet Camera System which lets you REALLY play big brother… and everyone else within range of it hehe. It’s a fun gadget for $139 down from $270. The TrendNet products (AV surveillance especially) tend to get mixed reviews on the performance and stability side, but I haven’t heard enough about this unit to pass judgement yet. Leave a comment if you have any opinions on it.

Since Dell now sells EVERYTHING… there’s also a “Dell exclusive” Ferguson Hill FHOO7 Mini Speaker System for $549… hmmm?