Aside from the HP Mini deal available from netbook (which runs until December 22), the PC maker has its own deals available from hp.com, covering both desktops and laptops. All the offers listed below also include free shipping, a minus $29 over the final price, and last until December 26, 2009, the day after Christmas:

HP Desktop Deals

Save up to $545 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite e9250t Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

• $250 instant rebate
• Free 6GB memory upgrade (-$80)
• Free 640GB hard drive upgrade (-$50)
• 35% off a 21.5-inch diagonal widescreen monitor (-$90)

Save up to $515 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite e9280t Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

• $300 instant rebate
• Free 750GB hard drive upgrade (-$50)
• 35% off a 21.5-inch diagonal widescreen monitor (-$90)

Save up to $465 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite e9270t Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

• $250 instant rebate
• Free 750GB hard drive upgrade (-$50)
• 35% off a 21.5-inch diagonal widescreen monitor (-$90)

HP Pavilion Slimline s5280t

Save up to $405 instantly on the HP Pavilion Slimline s5280t Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

• $250 instant rebate
• Free 640GB hard drive upgrade (-$50)
• 40% off a 20-inch diagonal widescreen monitor (-$80)

Save up to $405 instantly on the HP Pavilion p6280t Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

• $250 instant rebate
• Free 640GB hard drive upgrade (-$50)
• 40% off a 20-inch diagonal widescreen monitor (-$80)

TouchSmart 600xt

Save up to $375 instantly on the HP TouchSmart 600xt Series Customizable Desktop PC! Savings include:

• $300 instant rebate
• Free 640GB hard drive upgrade

HP Laptop Deals

There’s a reason why I’m listing HP’s laptop deals last here. The reputation of this maker’s laptops recently suffered a black eye, thanks to a reliability report placing the brand dead last among eight. The deals below still look good, just keep in mind that there are also other options you can consider, such as laptop deals from Dell.

Save up to $565 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition Series Customizable Notebook PC! Savings include:

• $200 instant rebate
• Free memory upgrade from 3GB to 4GB (-$50)
• Save $100 on 6GB of memory
• Save $100 on 8GB of memory
• Free double hard drive upgrade from 250GB to 500GB (-$90)

Save up to $545 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition Series Customizable Notebook PC! Savings include:

• $200 instant rebate
• Free double memory uypgrade from 2GB to 4GB (-$80)
• Save $100 on 6GB of memory
• Save $100 on 8GB of memory
• Free hard drive upgrade from 250GB to 320GB (-$40)

Save up to $515 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition Series Customizable Notebook PC! Savings include:

• $200 instant rebate
• Free memory upgrade from 3GB to 4GB (-$50)
• Save $100 on 6GB of memory
• Save $100 on 8GB of memory
• Free hard drive upgrade from 250GB to 320GB (-$40)

Save up to $495 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv6t Series Customizable Notebook PC! Savings include:

• $150 instant rebate
• Free double memory uypgrade from 2GB to 4GB (-$80)
• Save $100 on 6GB of memory
• Save $100 on 8GB of memory
• Free hard drive upgrade from 250GB to 320GB (-$40)

Save up to $445 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv4t Series Customizable Notebook PC! Savings include:

• $150 instant rebate
• Free double memory uypgrade from 2GB to 4GB (-$80)
• Save $50 on 6GB of memory
• Save $100 on 8GB of memory
• Free hard drive upgrade from 250GB to 320GB (-$40)

TouchSmart tx2z

Save up to $345 instantly on the HP TouchSmart tx2z Series Customizable Notebook PC! Savings include:

• $200 instant rebate
• Free double memory upgrade from 2GB to 4GB (-$80)
• Free upgrade to 320GB hard drive from 250GB (-$40)

Again, all offers listed here benefit from free shipping (-$29)

Online shoppers who visit buy.com benefit from the site’s widely varied catalog, which includes a variety of tech-related trinkets and gadgets that for a limited time are available at a lower price.
Feel free to take a look at the following list and see what piques your interest. Various items are available on the cheap, including Xbox games, themed flash drives and portable media players, and even an all-in-one PC! All discounts or offers below last until December 22, so it’s your chance for some very last-minute Christmas shopping!

Save 62%
Free Budget Shipping
Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle Crackdown, Perfect Dark Zero, Project …read more

Andrew McDonald, perhaps known as the writer of The Greatest Blogger in the World, recently came up with a fool-proof plan to get his camera back—just in case he ends up losing it to theft or carelessness.
The author will simply leave a series of pictures on his camera, never deleting them. A masterful mix of actor-worthy facial expressions and witty copy on a portable whiteboard entertains whoever finds the camera with a bit of over-share, before finally instructing them how to return the gadget. The first two shots are below:

With a total of 26 shots, the total size of the …read more

The reality is that while Facebook’s new privacy settings are actually pushing people to share more of their personal life, we simply can’t just drop the social networking site. Right? Right, especially if you’re addicted to your online life—and if you’re an online marketing professional who wants to keep tabs on what the masses are up to.

Anyways, it’s harder to be private on Facebook, and Facebook is a sort of must-have these days. Both are currently facts of life, so reading Yahoo’s recent tips on improving your privacy on Facebook makes sense. Aside from reminders that some parts of your …read more

Select markets have enjoyed access to the Nokia N900 for quite some time now, which was why I was happy to finally try out the Maemo-powered phone. “Phone” though is such a mild name for the N900. While it continues the Linux-based legacy of Nokia’s previous Internet tablets, a key difference is the inclusion of a SIM slot and thus telephony and wireless broadband functionality. Here’s a 3-minute video of me fumbling with the N900, as featured on Technograph.
As you can see, the N900 benefits from its powerful ARM processor, handling multiple apps with ease. I just wonder though what …read more

It’s not the week leading up to Christmas, and retailers are ramping up their promotion campaigns, hoping they catch shoppers trying to fit in some last-minute Christmas shopping into their busy schedules. So they make sure the market knows all about these bells and whistles.

Like engravings on iPods. It’s a great way to personalize Apple’s popular media player for a friend or loved one. Just in keep in mind that it’s impossible to return an engraved iPod!
Makes sense actually: Except for those who originally bought them, these engraved iPods have virtually no resale value, and Apple definitely can’t provide refurbished …read more

Feel free to call me an old fogey who’s slowly turning into the harrumphing adult, the kind who was irritating when I was kid. But when did kids start thinking that sending “nude or nearly nude” photos of themselves to friends was an ok thing to do? A probably late news report summarizing the trend:
It’s like what JayeCuevas on YouTube said: “hey i have an idea! DON’T TAKE THOSE KIND OF PICS IN THE FIRST PLACE! now there’s a concept”. In any case, even adults need to learn that keeping a record of incriminating pics or text is simply asking …read more

The home page of goo.gl, Google’s new URL shortening service, claims that it’s “not for broader consumer use”. But thanks to Alexandre Gaigalas, who created a third-party goo.gl URL shortener, that’s not true.
Visit http://gaigalas.net/lab/googl, type in any URL and press “Shorten” to get your very own goo.gl URL!

Thanks for the tip Andry!

A quick face-to-palm worthy moment: The Register reports on a company suing Apple, Microsoft, and other big operators like Sony for infringing on their patent—or the “standard activation software used by a vast array of software”.
Consider this your monthly dose of patent trolls (BetaNet LLC in this case) seeking to profit off the hard work of others.

A development that will surely worry Barnes & Noble execs at best, and force the book retailer to come out with a firmware/software update at “worst”, a group of developers have managed to turn the nook e-reader into a sub-$300 web tablet—with free 3G access via B&N’s network access.

The process, which predictably violates the nook’s warranty and user agreement, first involves removing the e-reader’s internally stored 2GB microSD card. The next step requires connecting this card to a PC running Linux or Unix, editing an initialization file, and simply replacing the word “disabled” with—you guessed it—”enabled”.
However, that’s not the end …read more