Archives for 2021

Charge me up! That’s the theme of the day at the Sunday 1/31/21 [yup, just like that we ate up the first month of 2021] Meh daily deal. It’s a bundle of charging-related gear for $19 plus S&H (free S&H for Meh-meh-members). You get:

• two Morphie 8000 mAh powerbanks with one USB-A and one 3A USB-C output ports (today’s phone flagships are too hungry for this, but can be great for smaller/older phones and other not-very-hungry electronics (Kindle e-readers, headphones, etc)
• four 1-slot USB-A car charges
• one 3-port 21W AC Wall charger

Then we head on to the B&H daily deals where we find a 7-pack of offerings good until 11:59pm ET on Sunday {or earlier if sold out}:

+ Camera Muzzle Sound Blip for $80
+ because there’s always someone in the room that is finely tuned to the camera-sounds and likes to complain about it early and often 😉

+ Ruggard Lux Strap with 3/8″ Connector for $7

+ Tamrac Stratus 10 Shoulder Bag (Black) for $60
+ a Dodge Stratus is NOT included in the bag 😉

+ National Geographic 50mm f/12 AZ Refractor Telescope for $40

+ H&R Block 2020 Deluxe + State Tax Software (Digital) for $22.50 in either Windows or Mac
+ all apologies for reminding you of taxes so early in the tax year BUT if you are expecting a nice refund…

+ Conair Travel Smart TS35Q Ladderkart for $60

+ 10pk Blizzard disposable KN95 masks for $20
+ I wonder what will happen to the billions of masks currently residing in homes and offices and warehouses if/when/after COVID is gone
+ I know, start working on your viral videos and listicles, “10 Ways to Repurpose Masks”, “5 Surprising Uses of Single-Use Masks”, “Out of Coffee Filters, You Got Masks!”

UPDATE #1: it’s a mix of things at the Woot daily deals for Sunday headlined by Samsung TVs (yes, SuperBowl season is fully upon us, $180 to $5600), $30 Kindle Paperwhite e-readers (but the 2013 model, aka 2nd generation – current model is 4th generation, see Wacopedia), and consumer lighting (table and floor lamps, $25 to $55), and some A/V action too with Logitech Harmony Ultimate One for $55 and a Vizio sound bar for $100…

The current iteration of Adorama daily deals is good until Sunday at 10am ET (or earlier if sold out) and it is headlined by the Sunpak VideoPro-M 4 Tripod with True Fluid Pan Head and Case going for $55 with free US shipping…

Meanwhile at the Saturday 1/30/21 Woot daily deals they have yet another iteration of the Apple sale (iMacs, MacBooks, iPads) and the LG V30 for $200 among others…

Off we go to the Best Buy dailies where the headliners are Intel i9 and i7 processors. They also have the 12TB WD external USB 3.0 HDD for $200…

You can’t buy scrambled eggs there despite the name, but the Saturday NewEgg daily deals include a 2TB Sandisk SSD and Nintendo microSDXC, Intel i7, 8TB Seagate internal, WD Red, Acer Aspire 5, etc…

PS: is it me or is it easier to write the correct year this COVID year #2? I rarely catch myself writing x/x/20…

Friday’s daily deals at B&H Photo last until Saturday at 11:59pm ET, but as usual, no ordering between Friday PM and Saturday PM {check website for exact times}. On to the offers then:

+ Watson CX AA Rechargeable NiMH Batteries (1.2V, 2000mAh)
+ 8pk for $7.50, 8pk for $15

+ Porta Brace PR-C3B Projector Case for $138~

+ GVM Aluminum 5-Section Monopod with Video Fluid Head for $99

+ Apexel 4K HD Mobile Phone 5-in-1 Camera Lens Kit for $35

+ KJB Automatic Digital Thermometer & Sanitizer Dispenser for $85

+ Google Pixel Buds (1st generation) for $59

UPDATE #1: among the current iteration of the Adorama daily deals they have the Alter Rapid Filtering system (with lens mounting ring), available in 55mm to 72mm, starting at $20…

UPDATE #2: among the Friday Amazon USA Gold Box offers they have a “Need Workstation” office desk sale featuring a soccer team of options (eleven of them with prices ranging from $79 to $119…

ThirstDAY aka Thursday is here and we have a new 6-pack of B&H daily deals good until 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out) as follows:

+ Genaray LED-6200T 144 LED Variable-Color On-Camera Light for $69

+ Manfrotto MK290LTA3-BHUS 290 Light Aluminum Tripod with Ball Head for $100

+ Nanuk 925 Case with Foam for $80 after $70 off automatic in-cart couponeaux

+ Anker 10,000mAh PowerCore Slim 10000 PD Portable Charger for $18
+ have the Rolling Stones yet licensed “Start Me Up” for charging eqiupment? “Charge Me Up!”

+ IndiPro 14.8V 95Wh Lithium-Ion Battery & Pro Charger Kit (V-Mount) for $150
+ the sun has near-infinite power, the rest of the light sources, not so 😉

+ reusable masks for childrenz

UPDATE #1: refurbished iPads starting at $70 (iPad 2) headline the Woot daily deals for Thursday, with a total of 17 options, including iPad 2 through 7, Mini 1 through 5, Air 2 and 3, iPad PROs 1 and 2… With a total of 25 (!!!) models as of the time of writing, Wikipedia may be in-order to sort-them-out… But that’s not all, under “Electronics” is another variant of the Fuji EnviroMax single-use battery sale with AAA, C, D and 9V options (the AA sold out)…

UPDATE #2: meanwhile at Best Buy’s they have the 256GB Sandisk Ultra Plus microSDXC for $45 [still not sure what the difference is between the “PLUS” and the non-PLUS), 5TB WD EasyStore External USB 3 HDD for $100, etc etc etc (including… Poo Pourri, a great troll gift!)…

And just like that we are almost at mid-week, Hump Day is here and we have a new 4-pack of B&H daily deals good until 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out):

+ Lenovo IdeaCentre 5 14IMB05 Desktop Computer for $449
+ you can’t get an Apple Silicon Mac Mini at this price 🙂
+ 2.9 GHz i5-10400 six-a-core, 8GB 2933 MHz DDR4, Intel UHD Graphics 630, 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, etc
+ processor ranks #320 at cpubenchmark.net
+ keyboard, mouse, power cord included
+ if they don’t include powerbricks with smartphones, why do they include semi-disposable keyboards/mice with desktops? They make the boxes larger and you may end up paying for the extra box size and weight!
+ they should instead include coupons towards useful keyboards/mice/accessories
+ Max RAM 24GB (2 user-replaceable slots, 2x of 4GB included)
+ DVD burner
+ two USB 3.0, four USB 2.0 (soy vey!), two USB-C
+ HDMI and VGA outputs
+ Ethernet, Wifi 5, bluetooth 5, 260W, 1-yr warranty
+ 5.8 kg = 12.79lb (desktop)
+ averages 4.6 out of 5 on 73 customer reviews as of the time of writing
+ option for a $20 off combined purchase discount with Microsoft 365

+ Apexel Gorillas Tripod for $18

+ Atomos Connect 4K for $49

+ Zeapon Micro 2 Micro Rail Slider with EasyLock 2 & Ball Head Bundle for $200

Next up we have the Adorama daily deals (change Wednesday 10am ET) headlined by the CLAR Basic 2-Light LED Softbox Kit going for $80… There’s also single-use 3-ply masks. Masks and more masks. !@#$!@#$!@#$ COVID 🙂

Tuesday aka Toonsday aka Tunesday is here and with it we have a new round of B&H daily deals good until 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out) as follows:

+ BOLT TTL Macro Ring Flash with Transceiver Set with Additional Transceiver for $300 in your choice of Sony, Nikon or Canon system options

+ Carson JC-1000 2.4″/60mm Refractor Telescope Kit for $60

+ IDX batteries, two options, $230 to $550

+ Letscom fitness tracker for $13

Meanwhile at the Woot daily deals there’s a $100 Chromebook and a $46 coffee machine that brews both K-cups and traditional basket-style… Either way, you may risk expulsion from the Hipster Coffee Club unless you exclusively make PourOver coffee 🙂

Mundane Monday is back and the Meh daily deal (jigsaw puzzles) brings us to the “(Useless) Photography Tip of the Week”: print your beautiful landscape and nature pictures as puzzles 😉

To the B&H daily deals we go now, with this round running until Monday at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out):

+ PortaBrace Carrying Case for DSLR Camera, Multiple Lenses and Accessories for $100

+ SirUI SUP224SR Carbon-Fiber Photo/Video Monopod for $130

+ Netgear Orbi Pro AC3000 Wireless Tri-Band Gigabit Wi-Fi System for $270 after an automatic in-cart coupon

+ Motorola Verve Loop 200 Wireless In-Ear Headphones for $12

Meanwhile at the Adorama daily deals (change Monday 10am ET) they have:

+ Pictar Smart Light for $35

+ Vanguard ALTA PRO 2 263AP 3-Section Aluminum Tripod with Alta PH-32 3-Way Pan Head for $100

UPDATE #1: the headliner of the Woot daily deals for Monday is a sale of factory-reconditioned Samsung curved LED monitors with prices ranging from $130 to $300, and screen sizes being either 27″ or 32″. They come with a 90-day Samsung warranty…

If you have rechargeable devices that are low in power requirements, then you may be interested in the Sunday Meh daily deal, it is a 4-pack of 3000 mAh Morphie powerbanks for $19 total plus shipping for non-Meh-members…

Next up we go to the B&H Photo deals du jour where we have the following offers good until Sunday at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out):

+ Vello HSA-PVU Hot Shoe Adapter with Safe Voltage Conversion for $15

+ NanLite MixPad 11 Tunable RGB Hard and Soft LED Panel for $84

+ Magnus VPH-10P Three-Way Pan and Tilt Head for $25

+ Apexel 4-in-1 Cell Phone Camera System for $18

Next up we go to the Discount MAGS weekend sale (sometimes it ends Monday night instead of Sunday night) where the theme is a multi-year sale, and of photography interest, VideoMaker is around the “default sale price”, but “Outdoor Photographer” is below $5/year, it goes for $13 for a prepaid 3-year subscription. These are printed magazines delivered to USA addresses old-school-style. No auto-renewalings…

Meanwhile at the Adorama daily deals (change Sunday 10am ET) they offer the iOgrapher Filmmaking Multi Case for Smartphones for $40 with free US shipping…

UPDATE #1: at the Best Buy dailies they have the 128GB Sandisk Extreme PLUS microSDXC (V30, A2, U3, C10, UHS I) for $33, and headlined by AKRacing gaming chairs…

Sunday is Samsung Day at the Woot daily deals headlined by the new condition unlocked with 1-year warranty Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G (128GB) for $850 (one per customer). There’s also Samsung tablets ($90 to $430) under “Computers” and “Galaxy Buds Live” for $110 under “Electronics” and such…

Friday is also known as FryDay, because it’s a traditional day to fry everything you eat or drink 😉 PS: the previous sentence has not been fact-checked!

Car charging fans, the Friday Meh daily deal is for you, it is a 2-pack of Anker 5-port 50W car chargers for $19 total plus shipping. That’s under $10 per charger. Now those long commutes have a utilitarian silver lining: charging everything that could be charged 🙂

Meanwhile the B&H daily deals are, as usual, good until Saturday at 11:59pm ET with the caveat that orders are not accepted Fri PM to Sat PM {check their website for exact times}:

+ open-box Peak Design Shell Form-Fitting Lens Rain and Dust Covers, two options, $20 to $25

+ Pelican ProGear 1810 LED Keychain Light for $6
+ now you can light paint no matter where you are

+ Vello hot-shoe bubble-levels, four options, $6 to $10

+ MiGGo Splat Flexible Tripod 3N1 for $18

+ AmazFit GTS smartwatches, six options, for $90 each

+ reusable masks

+ flash deal: Sachtler Shell Camera Backpack for $96~

+ no teaser for the next flash deal

UPDATE #1: the Friday Best Buy daily deals are headlined by a Razer gaming sale (including mechanical keyboards). There’s also a 1TB WD external USB-C SSD for $140, a 27″ LG IPS FHD monitor for $250 (HDR, DisplayPort), a Samsonite mobile duffe for $70, Rexing dash cams, a $5 wired keypad (could be handy for data entry on laptops without OR with USB OTG dongles on compatible smartphones/tablets), and on and on…

UPDATE #2: at the Woot daily deals they have open-box MacBooks, former-flagship refurbished scatch-n-dent Android phones starting at $60 ($60 = Galaxy S6)… A point of potential consumer confusion in the “Grocery” sub-Woot, the “matcha” they advertise is not matcha. It’s loose leaf tea with matcha sprinkled in. Matcha, by definition, is tea leaves ground to powder and you drink the whole thing. Unlike instant-coffee, (real) matcha does not dissolve (but rather suspends) in water because it’s actual pieces of tea leaf (and not chemical instant coffee that dissolves)…

UPDATE #3: the new incarnation of the Adorama daily deals (change Saturday 10am ET) includes:

+ StabiLens Cinematographer Kit for $120

+ H&A Elite Pro 15′ XLR M to XLR F Microphone Cable with Rean by Neutrik Gold Connectors for $6

Countering the Tuesday Woot-Off (more on that in the next post above this), Meh is running its own variant of the Woot-off, a Meh-a-thon at the Meh website. One deal at a time, with a visible countdown clock on it. I have no clue what is in the pipeline, so YMMV…

No flash deals today either, but there are four items in the B&H daily deals for Wednesday 1/20/21 at 11:59pm ET (or earlier if sold out):

+ Nanlite MixPad 27 Tunable RGB Hard and Soft LED Panel for $219

+ Manfrotto 612 Nitrotech Fluid Video Head and Carbon Fiber Twin Leg Tripod with Middle Spreader for $800 after a whooping $500 off in-cart automatic coupon

+ Zhiyun Crane-2 3-Axis Stabilizer with Focus Motor for $359 with FREE Zhiyun-Tech Remote Control for Crane 2

+ Pelican 1637 Air Case (Orange) for $200
+ neither vitamin C nor beta-carotene are in it 😉

UPDATE #1: among the Woot daily deals for Wednesday there’s a random accessories sale which includes a variety of self-rings, power banks, and, well, accessories of all kinds 🙂

Tuesday is now officially called ToonsDay or TunesDay, or if you have free/available time, you are empowered to watch all the cartoons/anime you want, and listen to all the music you want ~ even Adult AC 😉

Meanwhile this round of B&H daily deals is good until Tuesday 1/19/21 at 11:59pm ET or earlier for anything that sells out ahead of time…

+ Oben CTM-2500 5-Section Carbon Fiber Monopod for $65

+ Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz 6-Core LGA 1151 Processor for $260
+ OR you can buy an Apple M1 computer 🙂
+ funny how things change, especially when you start milking the clock instead of pressing on with innovation; Intel went from having a virtual monopoly to getting owned by AMD/Ryzen, dramatically losing on mobile to Qualcomm/MediaTek/etc, and getting humiliated by the Apple M1 chip

+ Think Tank Video Transport 18 Carry-On Case for $230

+ Impact 5-in-1 Collapsible Oval Reflector with Solid Gold (42×72″) for $50

+ ZIV TTL Cord with Focus Assist for Nikon (Coiled, 3′) for $15

+ SirUI PB-10 Multi-Axial Panoramic Head for $100

Meanwhile at the Adorama daily deals they have Coleman 10×25 Signature Waterproof Roof Prism Binocular offered for $50 with free US shipping… They also have a 50pk of 3-ply single-use masks for $8…

Our Linguini Experts suggest Monday got its name from the french phrase “Mon Dieu I have to go back to work again”. Disclaimer: the previous sentence has not been fact-checked 🙂

The current round of B&H Photo daily deals is good until 11:59pm ET or earlier if sold out…

+ Nanuk 920 Hard Utility Case with Foam Insert for $80 after automatic $40 off in-cart coupon
+ with purchase, you are contractually obligated to say “Nanu Nanu” Robin Williams style every time you open or close it

+ MeFoto RoadTrip S Travel Tripod in alumin(i)um for $80 in five delightful summer fruit colors

+ Acronis True Image 2021 (1 Windows or Mac License, Download, Standard Perpetual Edition) for $18

+ Dhale 552 Professional Rotary Trimmer (20″) for $129

+ LetsCom ID131Color HR Fitness Tracker for $15 in three color options

+ 50pk 3-ply Kids masks for $5
+ one way to tell how the markets see the ending of COVID (in sight) is the ongoing discounting of masks and other COVIDalia (sanitizers, forehead thermometers, etc)
+ with disposable masks dropping in price, multi-use masks lose favorability because they too have their costs (you have to wash and disinfect them, and that’s not free either ~ costs in terms of water use, power use, time/effort, and detergents)
+ welcome to our new COVID 2021 mini-blog 😉

Meanwhile the Adorama daily deals, whose current incarnation ends on Monday at 10am ET features:

+ StabiLens Gimbal Stabilizer Starter Kit, Includes Gimbal Ring, 10x Tungsten Alloy Weights for $80

+ Sirui 82-95mm Nano MC Step-Up ND Filter, 10-Stops for $15

+ Sirui Aluminum Ultra Slim S-Pro Nano MC UV Filter 86mm for $20

+ contrary to popular belief, a Filter CD or a “Hey Man Nice Shot” digital download is NOT included with the purchase of a filter 😉