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Boxing Day sale tips: How to bag the best bargains online

Posted: 26 Dec 2010 04:00 AM PST

It’s Boxing Day, you’ve eaten all the turkey you can stomach for one year and if there are any walnuts left it will be a miracle. Now, clear up the last scraps of wrapping paper, fire up the laptop and get your gadget-buying face on. It’s time to bag the best bargains online.

So, maybe this year you didn’t get the gadget of your dreams from Santa. Don’t get down-hearted, just get shoping. Boxing Day will see the start of the big price drops as online retailers compete with the high street sales. If you know where to look you can snag some great bargains.

Look for unwanted presents

Just because you have been lusting after a particular bit of kit, it doesn’t mean that everyone else was. eBay, Gumtree, Craigslist and other free listings sites are going to be awash with unwanted gifts in the days after Christmas so get on early and check to see if they have what you need.

Compare and contrast

Price comparison sites are your friend, but be prepared to trawl through a few if you want to find the real bargains.

Google Shopping is a useful search engine for price comparison but it tends to get bogged down in irrelevant results – e.g. searching for ‘iPhone 4′ will bring up gazillions of links for iPhone cases, screen wipes and other accessories meaning you will have a lot of page flipping to do if you sort by price. Bing’s equivalent – Ciao.co.uk has similar issues but its layout makes the problem slightly easier to work around, we find.

Try a few different comparison sites like Pricerunner and Kelkoo and shop around (but, see below). If you are looking for a mobile phone or tablet on contract or SIM-free there are several comparison sites that will give more specialised results – try Recombu and Omio.

Dynamically devious

Some sites use dynamic pricing to adjust the price of items according to various factors including the current demand and the time of day. Some even make adjustments based on your online activity – you will be tracked as you browse their online catalogues and small adjustments will be made according to your apparent interest in a product or type of product. In theory there is no reason an unscrupulous online merchant couldn’t track your activity on other sites too – there are several browser flaws that will allow this kind of tracking.

You can get around this to a degree by browsing from different web browsers, clearing out your cookies or using an anonymous browsing mode like Chome’s Incognito to avoid saving cookies and other tracking data.

Go offline and haggle

As a last resort, find the best price you can online, take a printout (or smartphone screen) down to a high street shop and get haggling. It doesn’t always work, but canny sales staff will be glad to make the sale and you might be able to get an even bigger bargain if you play it right.

Your new PlayStation 3: Five things you never knew

Posted: 26 Dec 2010 01:00 AM PST

You’ve just unwrapped that ominous looking George Foreman Grill-shaped parcel under the tree only to discover that someone very kind has only just gifted you a bleedin’ Sony PS3 games console. You’ll already know the PS3 can play games. But there are other things you probably never knew about your new PS3. Like what? Read on…

You can watch all your favourite TV shows on it
If you’ve just lucky enough to have been gifted a PS3 you’ll fall into two camps. Those who’ve pleaded with their loved ones to get one because of its talents, or those who know little about it, but remain been pleasantly surprised to be the owner of a strange new console. If you fall into the latter, did you know that your shiny new PS3 isn’t just for playing games? Thanks to a recent update the addition of ITV Player and 4oD now lets you catch up with shows from ITV and Channel 4 that you’ve missed. BBC iPlayer is on there too. Just hook it up to your Internet connection and enjoy.

Play games in 3D
Your PS3 can play stereoscopic 3D games. Sure, not everybody has a 3D TV. in fact hardly anybody does, but it’s nice to know the option is there. A number of games are playable in 3D right now, such as Wipeout HD, Super Stardust HD and Gran Turismo 5. Future games set to include 3D capability include long-awaited triple-A titles such as Killzone 3, Crysis 2, and Ico & Shadow of the Colussus HD Collection around mid 2011. 3D TVs will hopefully have come down in price by then.

BD-Live compatible
If you’ve just got a PS3 purely for the gaming you’ll be chuffed to know it can play full high definition (1080p) Blu-ray movies. Not only that, but the PS3 also supports BD-Live. BD-Live is a service letting users download interactive film features and goodies from Blu-Ray discs such as theatrical trailers. More and more Blu-ray players support the feature, but earlier ones didn’t, making the PS3 a worthwhile investment if you already in the market for a Blu-ray player.

You can make free video calls with it
If you’ve got a PlayStationEye camera you’ll be able to make free video calls with up to five more PS3 owning mates. To get started simply select your buddies from your friends list, press triangle to start a new chat and invite them to videochat.

View 3D photos using PlayMemories
One of the lesser known features of the PS3 is a photo application called PlayMemories. It’s a photo service on your PS3 available from the PlayStation Network that lets you view your photos in panoramic style and turns normal photos into multi-angle photographs. The best bit is you can even view photos taken from a 3D enabled camera, and view them in 3D, assuming you own a stereoscopic 3D TV.

Made for Life

Sunday 26 December 2010

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

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