Shopping Blog Posts
Popcorn
Today I learned:
There are two basic types of unpopped popcorn. Movie theaters generally sell butterfly popcorn, which expands vertically from the hull with "wings." Mushroom pops from the bottom of the hull upward, into a tight ball. The popcorn you get at the fair is usually pop up as Mushroom.
In Addition, did you know:
Most Movie theaters use to use Coconut Oil in their Popcorn. If your looking for the best Popcorn kernels I would suggest getting your popcorn from Fireworks Popcorn Company.
Filed under the Classic Stores of New England
I was looking around for some old stores that use to be in the Boston area, here's a list that I came up with:
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AmazonBasics USB A to Lightning Compatible Cable
I ran into an issue using the AmazonBasic's USB A to Lightning Compatible Cable with the latest iPhone 5s. My music and video got deleted from my phone when I left it connected to the computer overnight. The data wasn't gone from the phone as it was still using the disk space.
I am not sure exactly what happened, as the cable was working find for a couple of weeks. I don't know if Apple did an updated that changed the Lightning code to make this cable in effective.
Recently I notice an alert on the phone that said, "Accessory may not be supported." So I am guessing that this cable is no longer a charging and data transfer cable.
I solved my missing music and videos issue by connecting the iPhone 5s with the Apple cable that came in the box. Within minutes iTunes recognized the issue and put the music and video back.
My advice would be to get the cable to use as the wall charger and use the cable that came in the box as the computer charger.
Best Buy Shopping
Recently the media has been talking about how Best Buy has become the show room for Amazon.com buyers. They are right for a lot of situations. Here's an example:
Last month during the tax free weekend in Massachusetts, we decided to get a new digital camera. We decided to check out a couple of stores to see what they had in stock for SLR camera.
Our first stop was Office Depot, we were also there for stationary shopping, and they had a fairly small selection. In fact the sales person didn't try to sell us any camera. They did asked if we needed help but were clueless to the details of the different cameras they had in stock.
The next stop brought us over to Best Buy in Framingham. We spent time looking at various SLR cameras but found them to be too complex and we decided that changing the camera lens isn't something that we were going to do on a regular bases. In looking at various point and shoot cameras, we found a nice Sony HX200V camera. We were impress with the zoom, in fact we were able to zoom to a ladder half way across the store and easily read the words on the steps.
I quickly looked up the price of the camera and saw that it was $80 cheaper on Amazon. We talked to the sales person about this and they told us that they would price match cameras on a case-by-case bases. When I showed him my iPhone with the price, he took out his phone did a quick search and walked away. He came back and said that he would price match Amazon.
We were very impressed with that. We saved a lot of money and was able to get the camera right away. We had no idea of the exact camera that we wanted and was able to get the lowest price available. We probably wouldn't have gotten that camera if we didn't have the opportunity to play with it and compare it to other cameras. We liked the features of the camera and how it fits in our hands.
The moral of the story is when you go to Best Buy, don't be afraid to ask if they price match to Amazon, or other online retailers.
vzwpix.com
Recently I have been getting the following text messages from Verizon:
FREE VZW Message. 2nd notice: Your Pix Place account has been inactive for 170 days.
Log onto www.vzwpix.com within 10 days or your content will be deleted.
Thank you Verizon. I am pretty sure that if I haven't use the service in the past 170 days that its not something that I'll be missing. There was probably something about it that I decided it wasn't worth going back.
Stop sending me text message about it.
Kindle Owners' Lending Library
From Amazon's Website:
The Kindle Owners' Lending Library allows eligible U. S. Amazon Prime members who own Kindle devices to choose from thousands of books to borrow for free -- including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers -- as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.
Basically what Amazon is saying, is that Prime Members get up to 12 free book rentals a year. Make sure you make a good selection on what books you rent. I read some places online where someone rented a children's book, and now they have to wait till next month to rent another book.
Make no mistake, there are good choices in Amazon's Prime library, just remember that what ever you select, that you have to wait until next month to select another book.
Send to Kindle
Have you ever browse the web and found an article that you would like to read at a later time on your Kindle? For example, let's say you found a great article about Who really found the Titanic? and you wanted to read it offline on your Kindle. There is an easy way to get web content onto your Kindle.
There is app called, 'Send to Kindle' that makes it really easy to send Web content to your Kindle. You can setup this App in Chrome or Firefox very quickly. What's great is that anytime you find an article that you want to read later on your Kindle, you simply click a button. You just have to remember to sync your Kindle before heading out.
I find it great for researching CSS3 topics or when I find a long article and want to read it on the train. Here are some resources where you can find some good content to read:
You can be creative in your Google/Bing search too:
- Project Blue Book - You heard of it? But have you actually read it?
- Lincoln Conspiracy
- JFK Umbrella man
- Missing Gold of Atlanta
- Unsolved Mysteries of Boston
As you can see there's a lot of cool content out there, you won't have to worry about buying books on Amazon.com. Try 'Send to Kindle' out and you'll find it to be a great productivity saver.
From the product description page:
Send to Kindle is a Browser extension for Kindle owners who prefer reading web content on their devices. It?s designed to offer a quick way for pushing web content to Kindle, so you can read articles or news later on your device.
You can download the app here:
http://www.klip.me/
Kindle eBook pricing
Amazon still hasn't gotten the right formula to selling eBooks. Here's the price guide for 'April 1865: The Month That Saved America on Amazon.com on April 11, 2012.'
Clearly the publisher is setting the price as I also checked Apple's bookstore and saw that the eBook is also $10.99. I don't know why they think that consumers would pay more to have the book in electronic format?
Since I have Amazon Prime, I ordered the paperback version. I can wait a couple of days to save $5 dollars. I have seen this price difference on many books - where its cheaper to get the paperback version than to get the Kindle version.
The better price model would be to have the price of the eBook be at least 20% less than the new hardcover or paperback version. The electronic version is pure profit for the publisher since they don't have to worry about distribution and overstock inventory.
Free Kindle Books
If you have an Amazon Kindle and looking for some good ebooks to read, there are some good options for you. You don't need to purchase an ebook to find an ebook, here are 3 really good ways to get good quality ebooks:
Sign-up for Amazon Prime and get an opportunity to borrow a limited number of books. If you want to find out what books qualify for borrowing simple go to Amazon.com and search for 'Lending Library in Kindle'. Anything that says 'Prime' qualifies as a borrowable book.
Go to your local library! Many libraries are now offering the abilty to borrow ebooks for free. For example, the Minuteman Library Network has a relationship with Overdrive where users can download books to their Kindle.
Also Project Gutenberg has 36000 free ebooks for Kindle, Android, iPad, iPhone. Many of these books are classic and are free because their copyright has expired. You shouldn't have to pay to read classics such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. All there are free on the Project Gutenberg.
Check Twitter! Authors and publishers have promotions running all the time and announce them on Twitter. Search for #kindle, #freeEbook and #Freebook
Kindle Touch Cover
At the Levenger store at the Prudential, they sell a Moleskine0xFFFD Digital Folio for E-Readers. This is a great Folio since it also has a notepad so you can take notes when you0xFFFDre reading.
This will not work with the Kindle touch, as the Folio is too tall for the Kindle Touch. The store manager told me that some of the folios that Barnes and Noble sells would fit the Kindle Touch.
The Amazon store has a good selection of Kindle touch designs, but I think they are pretty expense. I don0xFFFDt know why someone would spend $60 to cover a $99 device.
I think a great place to look for cover would be Etsy. You can find all sorts of unique covers and you can make special requests from the designers. They have a few Disney designs, but I haven0xFFFDt seen a good Haunted mansion design.
Another good place is Ebay! There are all sorts of economic covers and if you search by the dimensions (6.8" x 4.7" or 172 mm x 120 mm) you can get a much larger selection. Some sellers don0xFFFDt target their covers for a particular device so they may not list their product description.