Nerdy Dork

UPDATE: Since writing this post, Amazon has increased their price to $169.99, but the coupon below still works so you can get it shipped for $149.99.

So I have a small business. After meeting with my accountant last night I determined I really could make my life easier by using Quickbooks. I’ve tried the free version and it’s crap. So I figured I’d bite the bullet and shell out $200 for the pro version. Yeah, my business is growing, I guess it makes sense.

But being the budget conscious guy that I am, I figured I’d search the net for a better deal. I was nearly ready to head over to Costco to buy it for $150 plus tax, but after some further research I found a way to get it for $129.99 - no tax, no shipping. Better yet, it’s from Amazon so you know its the real deal.

It’s simple really. Amazon has it listed for $149.99. After adding it to your cart, and before you checkout, add coupon code UPINR5SC

Click Here To Order QuickBooks Pro 2008

Caution: Don’t delay if want this deal. The coupon expires Feb 15th.

Note: It works. I’ve done it. See screen shots below.

   

At Buy.com they are offering a Kingston 1GB microSD Secure Digital Card for only $10 and free shipping. That’s a sweet enough offer in and of itself, but there is a way to get it free.

If you have never bought anything from Buy.com using Google Checkout, they offer $10 your order for doing so. So that’s basically all there is to it. Buy the card with Google Checkout and its free.

So what are you waiting for. This deals going to be gone by the end of the day!

I recently built my own computer and I know from experience it can be a pain in the butt finding and fixing issues. (In my case it was the bios not giving my RAM enough voltage.)

I am the family tech support guy. It makes sense that every family has one of these, otherwise, you may be left to the wolves trying to find an honest computer repair store…

Last week I woke up one morning to find my cell phone dead. It just wouldn’t turn on. I’ve tried not to rely on a cell phone most of my life, but this week, with all that I had going on, was a bad week not to have a cell phone!
But I’m a glass is half full kind of guy. I’ve been considering integrating my cell phone and PDA into one unit, because, quite frankly I don’t seem to use my PDA so much anymore because I don’t like carrying the bulky thing around. I use it every week in church for my scriptures and manuals, but the calendar and task list was less than useful as I didn’t carry it with me enough to get the reminders I needed. I would like to make it a useful tool again.Since I generally take my cell phone with me I thought it might be more convenient to get an integrated device. So I set off on my quest to find the device I desired.

When searching for a smart phone, below are a few items that weighed on my mind in this decision.

Palm OS vs. Pocket PC

My first question was, do I want to go back to using Palm OS, or stick with Pocket PC. I started on the Palm and wrote applications for the Palm. It was very nice. But one day my work said they would no longer buy or support Palm OS for us and if I wanted to upgrade my PDA it would have to be a Pocket PC. So I got one. At first I really didn’t like it. It seems much less intuitive than the Palm. With each new release of the OS it has improved and I can now see definite advantages, such as new technologies, support, a multi-threaded OS, etc. Plus, for the past few years it is all I have used and I have registered application for it. So number one, it needs to be Pocket PC

How About an iPhone?

I didn’t mention this above, but what about an iPhone. It’s all the buzz right now and it crossed my mind. But the cons certainly outweighed the pros in my mind. Sure it would be cool to be one of the first to own it. But I’m not really into using my phone as a music and movie player. I have an iPod video and I don’t even use that often enough to justify the expense. And I’m sure the iPhone will be more expensive with the demand they are hyping up. I couldn’t wait a whole month without a phone and I’m not sure that it will be completely stable on its initial release anyway. Besides, whatever you can do with an iPhone, I’m sure you can do on a Pocket PC, and then some.

PDA Style

So I’ve decided on a Pocket PC (Windows Mobile platform). But now there are choices as to what brand and style. I knew that to keep the same feel as PDAs I’ve had in the past, I wanted a model with a stylus. And I decided I wanted a large screen. This is useful for reading, which I do a lot of on my PDA. With a larger screen you can scroll less often which is nice. So when I made this decision, this led me to compare two main models, the Cingular 8525 and the T-Mobile Wing.

T-Mobile Wing (a.k.a HTC Herald or PC4350)

This is one of the newest smartphones on the market. It replaces T-Mobile’s MDA. A friend of mine recently purchased the MDA and has been pretty happy with it. It looks and and best of all, it’s one of the first to come with the Windows Mobile 6. I’m already a current T-Mobile customer. I did have the options of getting this for $300 if I extended my contract 2 years whereas, if I were a new customer I could get an additional $100 off through LetsTalk.com. The positive side of not switching carriers is that I would not have to pay an activation fee. The main negative point with this device was the processor speed. I watch some C-NET videos and YouTube videos and it seemed a bit sluggish.

Cingular 8525 (a.k.a. HTC Hermes TyTN)

The Cingular 8525 (or the New AT&T 8525) was my other options. has a very similar design to the T-Mobile Wing. It’s been around longer and is a time-tested device. The processor in this device was about twice that of the T-Mobile Wing, yet it still runs Windows Mobile 5. This was where the dilemma was for me. Do I want the latest OS, or a faster processor. So now the question was, can I have my cake and eat it to? I set out to find upgrade options for the device and found that AT&T may provide an upgrade to WM6. If not, I found a site where I could download WM6 roms if I were brave enough to do so. That was what swung the decision. The other feature that seemed to be better was according to CNET, the 8525 took sharper photos than the T-Mobile Wing.

Of course when comparing, we can’t forget price. I always find the BEST deals on LetsTalk.com. The rebates for this model allowed me to get it for $200. I’m moving a family plan though and I was able to find a nice Sony Ericson phone for my wife that actually made us $100 after rebates, so it knocked the total price down to $100! Cha-ching!

My PDA/Phone should arrive today according to the UPS tracking number I was given by LetsTalk.com. That pretty impressive considering when I ordered last Thursday I was told both phones were backordered and estimated arriva date was this Thursday. I’m getting them 2 days early - Yay!

I have a friend/co-worker that uses his Palm OS fanatically. We’ve been PDA fans ever since we first met in college a number of years ago. Recently his Sony Clie started malfunctioning. It certainly had quite a long life.

He finally decided that since he needed a new PDA anyway, he would also get a cell phone plan. He’s very frugal but found that it was becoming more necessary to have a cell phone with his growing business and his outsourcing much of it.

After a couple weeks of researching the latest devices he came in one day with a new T-Mobile MDA. Inevitably, the price came up. I couldn’t believe he paid $250 to get it - not that it is not worth it, but because I saw just that morning that you could get it for free with a new contract at LetsTalk.com. I always have ordered my cell phones through LetsTalk.com. I just assumed that deals were the same no matter where you went. I just ordered online so I didn’t have to deal with a salesmen. But I guess you can get better deals when you shop around and LetsTalk.com certainly had a better deal there!

Oddly, I couldn’t find the T-Mobile MDA available and LetsTalk.com this morning. Maybe they are sold out at the moment. But I did notice you could get a Cingular 8525 for $199, which in my opinion is a much better phone/PDA. Even the Cingular 8125 is only $99 with a new plan.

My contract ends again soon, so maybe it’s time to look at a new phone & a new carrier