The Gadget Blog » Promos

Weekend Deals, Dell, Alienware & HP Promos

Rico Mossesgeld — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:30:23 +0000

The promos intensify as the holidays near. For this weekend, you can check out the following discounts available from Dell, Alienware, and HP:

Promo	Ends	Coupon Code
Free 2 business day shipping on all Alienware laptop and desktop purchases with coupon code D9MF6D4X1C9BVH	12/18/09 11:59 PM CST or after 200 redemptions	D9MF6D4X1C9BVH
Save $149 on this Alienware Aurora desktop. Only $1499 after discount	12/12/09 5:55 AM CT	None required
Save over 45% on this Studio 15 laptop. Only $549 after instant discount! Hurry only 1000 units available at this price.	After 1000 redemptions	None required
This Inspiron 15 laptop only $399 after $100 instant discount and coupon code 40M?6?W03KFH93. Plus get free next business day shipping.	12/18/2009 11:55 PM CST or after 1830 redemptions	40M?6?W03KFH93
This Inspiron 15 laptop only $479 after $220 instant discount and coupon code 1R$ZL9Q7CFG69V. Plus get free next business day shipping.	12/18/2009 11:55 PM CST or after 1200 redemptions	1R$ZL9Q7CFG69V
Nov 19-Dec 4: Only $415 for the Inspiron 11z laptop + free next business day shipping! Use coupon code $9532Z?LL5DB9$.	1/2/2010 11:55 PM CST or after 400 redemptions	$9532Z?LL5DB9$
Save up to $605 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition Series Customizable Notebook PC!	12/6-12/12	None required
Save up to $515 instantly on the HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition Series Customizable Notebook PC!
Save up to $545 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite e9250t Series Customizable Desktop PC!
Save up to $515 instantly on the HP Pavilion Elite e9280t Series Customizable Desktop PC!

Please note the validity periods, as some promos last until certain dates, while others end after a certain number of redemptions. If you’ve got your own holiday promos you’d like to share—and have something to do with gadgets—hit the comments below.

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Dell and Alienware Holiday Promos

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:00:52 +0000

The online retailer is at again, with a bunch of discounts lined-up for the holidays. All the following promos are for US buyers only, and run until this December 14, CDT (unless otherwise specified):

Dell Laptops

Select laptops starting at $449. Save up to 40% on Dell’s most popular laptops.

New Lower Price on Dell Netbooks! Now starting at only $279 + free standard shipping.

Save $404 on the Studio XPS 16 laptop! Only $1099 after discount

Dell Desktops

Inspiron 537s desktop starting at $499 after savings and includes a 20″ monitor.

Complete desktop package featuring the Studio XPS 8000 desktop and 20″ monitor for only $999 after $329 instant off.

Special 24-Hour Promo

For 24 hours only, Dell will hold a special “Performance PC” sale. This runs from 6:00 am today (December 3) until 6:00 am tomorrow. Highlights include:

Over 20% off a Studio XPS 8000
Save $320 on an Alienware Aurora Desktop
Get over $200 off the Studio 17″ Core i7
$275 in instant savings on the Alienware M15x laptop

Click on the link below once the sale starts to avail:

24 Hour Performance PC Sale!

Any other desktop and laptop holiday promos out there? Feel free to share below.

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Top Black Friday Deals, Ready for You

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:30:28 +0000

From Tom’s Guide

The folks over at Tom’s Guide have gone through the web, saved what they think are the best Black Friday deals, and compiled them into one mega list. The full list is available here. For your convenience, I’ve listed the different promos below:

From NewEgg.com

NewEgg has its own Black Friday page up, right here: NewEgg.com Black Friday promo page

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Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals from Dell

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:00:13 +0000

Dell’s marketing is busy cranking out deals for the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday, perhaps inspired by the maker’s strong laptop reliability showing. So expect a constant stream of discounts and promos, starting today until November 30, 2009. American shoppers, take note of the following below, and their corresponding end dates! Discounts available during this period of the year are notoriously short-lived.

Promo	Starts	Ends	Highlights
Electronics Sales Event – Save up to $690 on select TVs and Electronics	Ongoing	11/26/09 11:59 PM CST	Sony BRAVIA 55″ KDL55V5100 120Hz 1080p LCD HDTV $1769.10 after $529.90 instant off Nokia N86 Unlocked Smartphone $369.99 after $130 off
Ultimate Value of the Season. Black Friday at Dell Home + Free 3-5 day shipping on all items on landing page	11/27/09 12:00 AM CST	11/27/09 11:59 PM CST	The new Inspiron Zino HD desktop for only $199 Mini netbook for only $249 42″ Sharp TV for only $599 (limited quantities available)
Entertainment Sale – The great offers continue at Dell Home!	11/28/09 12:01 AM CST	11/29/09 11:59 PM CST	Mini 10v netbook with TV tuner only $499 Xbox 360 Elite Holiday Bundle only $269.99 after $30 off
Great Cyber Monday Deals at Dell + Free 3-5 day shipping on all items on landing page	11/30/09 12:00 AM CST	11/30/09 11:59 PM CST	Inspiron 15 laptop for only $449 TomTom One 130 GPS only $79.99 Corel Photo & Video Bundle Software $69.99
Black Friday Alienware Special: Get $200 off when you purchase $200 or more in upgrades.	11/27/09 12:00 AM CST	11/30/09 11:59 PM CST	Upgrades are FREE if worth $200

CST stands for Central Standard Time. If you’re not familiar with this time zone, more information is available here (you can use the time zone converter here as well). As mentioned above, the promos only apply in the US. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are American institutions anyway.

Don’t forget, other “Black Friday” promos by Dell are still ongoing!

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Quad-Core Dell XPS 430 With 500GB HDD and 256MB GPU for $599

Rico Mossesgeld — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:32:35 +0000

For the Labor Day Weekend, Dell.com’s slashed $190 off the XPS 430. Such a unit configured with the following specs:

Dell XPS 430. Courtesy Dell

Intel® Core 2 Q8200 Quad-Core (4MB L2 cache,2.33GHz,1333FSB)
3GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz – 3 DIMMs
500GB – 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB
Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth

Thus retails for $599. The only thing missing? A monitor. Dell has told me this promo will only apply to the first 500 units, so if you’re looking for a decent computer powerful enough to run mid-range video games, with lots of space for data, I suggest you look into this as soon as you can.

Save $190 on the XPS 430 desktop. Only $599 with Quad core processor!

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Fallout 3 50% Off on Steam for This Weekend

Rico Mossesgeld — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:00:10 +0000

Thanks for punishing the early adopters once again Valve! I kid of course, but I imagine those who bought Fallout 3 at $50 (when it first came out) are probably cringing at today’s $20 price, available under Steam’s Weekend Deal program.

What’s Fallout 3 you ask? Are you ok? It’s the best solo RPG to come out in recent memory, features a relatively massive gameplay world worth weeks of losing sleep over. Owners of the game will also enjoy free access to current or future downloadable content packs. Over five have been released or are about to be released, and they all represent additional gameplay and new ways to waste time.

Get Fallout 3 for only $20 at Steam. Today’s the last day this Weekend Deal lasts, so you’d better get going!

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Laptop Deals From Dell

Rico Mossesgeld — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:30:39 +0000

No matter what you think of Dell, their prices still represent the highest spec-for-buck ratio I’ve ever seen.

Studio XPS 13. Courtesy Dell.

For instance, the basic Studio XPS 13 laptop costs $999. Here’s what you get for that price:

A 2.0 GHz Processor (Intel P7350)
Vista Home Premium
A 13.3″ 1366 x 768 display, with an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam
DVD/CD burner
3GB DDR3 RAM
250GB 7200 rpm hard disk
NVIDIA 9400M G
Support for Wireless N (802.11n)

That setup won’t be able to run more demanding games like the notorious Crysis, but it’s powerful enough for practically any other task. Shop for an XPS Studio 13.

Other Deals

Dell’s also upped the ante by discounting their offerings further, as part of the current Dell Days of Deals promo, running until this June 25 (5:55 AM CDT). To paraphrase some writer: “Dell’s discounts depend on the phase of the moon, astronomical alignments, and the direction of the wind.” Anyways, here are some laptop promos that seem interesting:

Just remember the lower price comes at a price though; Dell’s reputation for poor customer service is in vogue right now. Though this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for computer savvy owners. Hopefully.

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Microsoft’s $10K Internet Explorer 8 Promo

Rico Mossesgeld — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:09:18 +0000

The $10,000 Internet Explorer 8 Promo: Follow clues laid down @tengrand_IE8 on Twitter, to find “a cleverly concealed webpage that only Internet Explorer 8 can view.” Seems straightforward enough, except the promo makes sure to ask you to “Ditch the web browser you’re using. If you try to find the $10,000 with Firefox, you’ll get nowhere.” The promo details are here.

Screenshot of Promo Page

Hopefully Microsoft is trying to promote how well IE8 properly displays web pages, being so faithful to existing web standards that it can reveal what competing browsers can’t. This so-called hidden website had better not be dependent on any special web rendering functionality available only through IE8. That would validate critics’ long-time assertions that Microsoft refuses to play the web standards game just to maintain their dominance of the browser market.

Case in point: Internet Explorer 6. The browser, still the most widely used today, continues to give web designers nightmares, thanks to the non-standard methods Microsoft insisted on using to display web pages.

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A Must-Bookmark for Steam Users

Rico Mossesgeld — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:30:59 +0000

Part of Steam’s appeal must be its regular discounts and price drops. But with so many titles in the catalog, it can be easy to miss out on some of them.

Yet that should now be practically impossible, thanks to the efforts of Steam forum user sciss0rz, who’s taken it upon himself to update other forum members with information on—you guessed it—the latest discounts and price drops on Steam! The list (found here) also includes information on Steam game packs, compilations of multiple titles that are usually available at a lower total price (sciss0rz does not list packs that represent no savings).

Even more important however is region availability. Lots of Steam customers have complained about the inconsistent availability of games worldwide. Specific games aren’t available in certain regions and countries, and you can see who misses out on what.

Nevertheless, the “Price Reduction and Sales!” thread is a very useful resource that any Steam user should bookmark. Heck, I’d even suggest making it your browser homepage, if only not to miss out on any new promos cooked up by Valve’s sales team.

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Assassin’s Creed + Freedom Force = $16.73

Rico Mossesgeld — Sat, 30 May 2009 09:11:01 +0000

Up for this weekend: 50% off on Assassin’s Creed for the PC, and 10% off the Freedom Force: Freedom Pack, for a total of just under 17 dollars! The Assassin’s Creed promo lasts over the weekend, while the Freedom Pack goes back to regular price by the end of June 5.

Why would you get those games? Well, Assassin’s Creed is probably the best 3D platformer I’ve played in quite a while (finished it on the PS3 last year). For some reason, dealing fatal counters to attacking enemies seemed very therapeutic.

The original Freedom Force, on the other hand, is a great strategy game that features a campy yet compelling story, and very wonderful art direction. Personally, it’s also a chance to finally try out the expansion!

I’m starting to hate Valve. They perfectly understand that, after development work, the production costs of video games are practically zero. More so if distribution is done through a digital platform like Steam.

Of course, Valve has to pay for servers to keep Steam running smoothly (they should!). But you can bet they pay less for each copy’s distribution. And they can tempt me to pay through the nose for games, because with all their game packs and weekend promos, they end up selling copies for less than what the pirates do.

Since I (currently) pay a flat monthly fee for internet access, those are very good deals indeed. Until you realize that you’ve spent more on games before signing up for Valve!

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