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  • Amazon Black Friday 2013 Deals For HDTVs, Cameras, Tablets And Games Galore Goes Live

    The black Friday deals from Amazon are finally up and running. The site has some pretty impressive bargains this season. Here are some of the hot deals available from BlackFriday.com.

    This year, all categories are covered by Amazon Black Friday Deals. You can find products that are marked off for the entire week and there are a number of products with limited-time deals that offer even much more savings. There is an additional deal on Amazon every 10 minutes and buyers can expect great bargains coming later in the day.

    The black Friday deals include a number of electronic products including many HDTVS, laptops and digital cameras with 30% off or more, many tablets with 20% off or more and Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 at 40% off or more. Amazon also has superb black Friday 2013 deals on smartphones, movies, gift cards as well as jewelry. You can also get great deals on grocery items this season.

    Some of the Amazon black Friday 2013 highlights include Samsung 40-inch LED HDTV for $397 that comes with free prime shipping. You can also get the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 for $159.99 with a pink LeapPad 2 Explorer for $59.99.

    However, so far there hasn’t been any indication of a strong black Friday deal on any of the iPad versions, which is one of the hottest items for the season. Comments and tips about the Amazon Black Friday are welcomed and you can share details about the best deals that you have found.

  • Nokia Upgrades Asha 501 with VoIP and WhatsApp

    Nokia has updated Asha 501 with WhatsApp, voice-over-IP and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync features. The company has continued to improve the competitiveness of the Asha family while waiting for Microsoft to complete the acquisition of its devices and services business. At the moment, the company is still facing insurmountable competition from low-cost android based devices.

    The GSM Asha 501 was launched in May and it features a 3-inch screen, Wi-Fi, a 3.2 megapixel camera and the choice between one or two sim cards. The list price was $99 without taxes or subsidies at the time of the launch.

    The upgrade offers users similar software to what is used in the recently announced Asha 500, 502 and 503. Once the update has been received, users can download the WhatsApp client and begin sending instant message.

    The software allows users to make voice calls over data connections through the use of social messaging Apps like Nimbuzz in the beginning and more are expected soon. Nokia has also implemented the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync features for enterprise users.

    Nokia has also made significant changes to the operating system, not just the third-party applications. Users for example can long press the screen to access the camera settings, swipe the screen to start the camera and also swipe to switch to the video mode to the image mode and vice versa.

    Fastlane is a key feature in the user interface that shows social networks, apps and recently accessed contacts. Users can now personalize the application to feature their desired contents. The users can also choose to view full notifications or notification icons on the lock screen.

  • Bitcasa Announces a Tenfold Increase in Unlimited Cloud Storage Pricing

    Cloud storage provider, Bitcasa that has established itself as a provider of unlimited cloud storage invoked the wrath of its customers this week when it unveiled a new pricing scheme that increased its unlimited storage plan tenfold. However, there is a good chance that the new price scheme will not affect all customers.

    Bitcasa, up until this price increase was charging organizations $99 annually for the unlimited cloud storage, but this price has been bumped up to $999. According to Brian Taptich, Bitcasa CEO, the current pricing plans for existing customers will not change. Besides, 98% of Bitcasa’s customers use less than 5TB of data in the cloud. Taptich further noted that 92% of the customers use less than 1TB.

    New customers will be affected and 1TB of data will ring at $99 annually but it will not make a big difference considering the amount of data Taptich said that customers use. Those who will be most affected will be the ones who are looking for a large amount of storage.

    New customers on 5TB storage plan will pay $499 annually while the unlimited plan will cost $999 annually. The free plan will also be changing, with old customers keeping their 10GB of free storage while new customers will be provided with 5GB of free storage instead.

    The new changes will not affect the current customers for now but it has certainly not been received well by Bitcasa’s followers.

    Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, termed the price increase as ‘breathtaking’, although he indicated that the reasoning seems sensible. He further noted that the growing competition will keep pressure on Bitcasa.

  • Samsung to Jump-Start Black Friday HDTV Pricing from This Sunday

    If you are hungry for Samsung’s affordable HDTV but you cannot bear to face the crown on the biggest shopping day mayhem, then you are in luck.  Samsung plans to drastically cut the price of dozens of its HDTVs for the black Friday sales from this Sunday (Nov 24).

    The price cuts will also be offered on the home theater audio. The deals are outstanding, with several HDTV prices being slashed 50% off the retail.

    Samsung has provided two ways for buying the offers. You can register through Samsung’s Black Friday Week Website and obtain all the details for pre-ordering from the company direct through Saturday, or wait for Sunday and order at these reduced prices at participating brick and mortar or online stores or from Samsung’s website. Either way, you will be able to beat the crowds on Black Friday and get the same amazing prices.

    Samsung is the number one HDTV selling brand in the US. Many of its Plasma HDTVs and LED LCDs earned great reviews from HD Gurus and others. Our highest ratings are for the F8500 series plasma that will be available on Sunday at significantly reduced prices.

    Starting Sunday, you will be able to view the prices reflected when you search for the HDTV, home theater systems and soundbars on Amazon or from your local retailers.

  • New Sales vice President Appointed by Mohu


    Brett Eppley has been appointed as Mohu’s vice president of sales. He is set to "further enlarge Mohu’s retail availability of HDTV antennas as well as other consumer electronic products." Eppley is poised to bring a wealth of experience to the company after serving as general manager for national accounts at VOXX international for the past three years. VOXX international markets digital TV antennas through its RCA, Audiovox and Terk brands.

    Eppley was part of the team that in 2002 launched the revolutionary Sirius Satellite Radio Service. He has spent eight years at Sirius/XM as director of national accounts and a further 12 years at Thomson Consumer Electronics as a key and national accounts manager. He has a degree in public relations and marketing from Appalachian State University.

    Mark Buff, president and CEO of Mohu said that Brett has vast experience, drive, effectiveness and industrial knowledge that Mohu values in its quest to assemble an all-star team. He also indicated that Mohu is on the road to becoming a market leader and is fortunate to have a person with Brett’s Caliber for the role.

    Brett Eppley indicated that he is pleased to join Mohu and his 25 years of experience in the consumer electronics industry will help to take the company into the nest level. He is looking forward to working with the team in developing the company’s top rated products.

    Mohu recently unveiled the Curved 50 and Curved 30 indoor HDTV antennas. These antennas are in a new class that combines elegance and exceptional performance.

  • Hosted VoIP Choices Extended By Snom


    Snom     has stated its 7xx series of SIP-based IP endpoints which has received certification to work with Class 5 Softswitch and IPsmarx' multi-tenant IP-PBX platform.

    The certification enables IPsmarx customers the ability to make use of Snom's 7xx series phones with Class 5 Softswitch and its multi-tenant IP-PBX, which includes email marketing, integrated billing, e-commerce functionality and call routing that are wrapped up in a single solution.

    IPsmarx is unique since its VoIP-based telephony services have been packaged to include service applications, billing, marketing capabilities, softswitch and account management. This single solution supports both direct and indirect sales channels. The integrated billing, softswitch and application servers offers scalable and reliable delivery of SIP trunks, VoIP business lines and hosted IP-PBX services with faster time to market and with low costs of ownership.

    Mike Storella, COO of snom indicated that IPsmarx has been the market leader in the fast growing IP-PBX and Softswitch market.

    There has been a steady growth for hosted IP-PBX services as customers leverage its main benefits in terms of convenience, cost, reliability, rich features and unlimited calling.

    In 2010, IPsmarx joined Snom's technology partner program in Snom’s quest to achieve interoperability with the leading communication technology partners.

    The 7xx series of phones from Snom include:
    710: The 710 phone has a rich set of everyday business telephony features, supports four SIP identities and it is suitable for small and large scale deployments.
    720: The 720 supports 12 SIP identities and is Bluetooth headset ready. It also comes with two Gigabit Ethernet ports including one for Power over Ethernet and a USB connector.

  • Best Buy Kicks Off Save Early-Pre-Black Friday, HDTV's Included


    Best Buy is kicking off an online-exclusive save early pre-Black Friday sale. This means that there will not be an outdoor waiting in line since it is an online sale. There are numerous perks that you can get from the Best Buy’s pre-Black Friday sale without standing in line and fighting crowds. Best Buy is also offering free shipping for customers who make purchases for over twenty five dollars.

    Shoppers will save money on big savings on the pre-Black Friday sale on products and will also save on travelling costs.

    One of the featured products on sale is the VIZIO-E-Series Class LED 1080p-120Hz-Smart 55” HDTV. The TV will be available for $729.00, down from $799.00. Some people may not see the seventy dollars as a big deal. However, waiting for black Friday sale may not guarantee that the prices will be lower. Shoppers may be forced to spend hours in line only to find that the product is not available or has a higher price tag.

    You can also purchase the Sharp 32 inch LED 1080p-60Hz HDTV. The smaller but amazing TV goes for $269.00, offering you twenty dollars in savings. Again, this is not a very large saving, but you are guaranteed of buying the television without fighting the crowds.

    Best Buy wishes to get shoppers buying before Black Friday since it will come a bit late this year. Shoppers can either opt to get the amazing deals now or patiently wait for the biggest shopping day.

  • Western Digital Announces My Cloud EX4 Four-Bay Personal Cloud Storage System That Holds Up To 16 TB of Data


    WD has announced the WD My Cloud EX4, a new personal storage application. The new cloud storage is a high performance and 4 bay network attached storage device that is aimed at workgroup and pros users. The storage system is ideal for home or office users who are looking for a way to manage and backup large amounts of data.

    My Cloud EX4 is available in several capacities and the users can purchase the enclosure only and then make use of their own hard drives. The units are available with preloaded hard drives with capacities of 8 TB, 12 TB or 16 TB. Personal drives can be hot-swapped or installed easily and quickly without the need of any tool.

    The device also features a USB expansion port on the back, which allows users to attach compatible USB hard drives to increase the storage capacity. The enclosure provides you with several options for securing data including JBOD as well as RAID 0, 1, 5, 10. The device is shipped together with WD SmartWare Pro software, which allows multiple PC users to back up to the My Cloud EX4.

    Mac users are also able to use the Apple Time Machine backup software for data backups. The My Cloud EX4 device is capable of backing up data from internal drives to cloud services such as ElephantDrive or Amazon S3. The device is currently available for sale at a cost of $379.99 for the enclosure, 8TB version for $799.99, 12 TB versions for $949.99 and the 16 TB versions for $1149.99.

  • EPC Opts for Ontario VOIP firm Instead of MTS


    Calls to retender a contract worth about $6 million that was awarded to an Ontario firm were rejected by a city committee, despite protests from MTS, the losing bidder.

    Calls to retender a contract worth about $6 million that was awarded to an Ontario firm were rejected by a city committee, despite protests from MTS, the losing bidder.

    On Friday, the city announced the new telephone contract that was selected by the public service online. The overall combination of awards is expected upon approval to transfer about 4,000 landlines to VOIP service and the award is expected to save $1.5 million over a period of 5 years.

    However, MTS held the view that it was competitive on all contracts, including the VOIP landline that it lost to FlexITy Solutions. The company further questioned why the executive policy committee supported investment from outside Manitoba.

    Kelvin Shepherd, MTS’s president alleged that the small firm that won the tender may lack the necessary security level that is needed to safeguard sensitive city data.EPC members on the other hand noted that the tender would have immense benefits to the city residents and it voted to support the proposal, with a descanting vote coming from Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital).

    City staff noted that they are not permitted to discriminate on a tender process basing on geographical location.

    Cisco is a business partner of FlexITy and its  regional director, Shane Warnez intimated that the company has over 9 years of experience with VOIP, has a proven security record and already operates in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

    MTS was awarded several services by city including landline and cellular contracts worth nearly $10.6 million.

  • Moto G Smartphone to Be Unveiled By Motorola Aimed At Emerging Markets


    Google owned Motorola mobility handset maker is still struggling to find its niche in the smartphone market. Sales of its high-end smartphone Moto X have not been very impressive. Now the company intends to target the low end market with a cheap phone. However, this comes with a limitation since the phone will not be available in China, the worlds lading low end smartphone market.

    The company announced the low-end smartphone on Wednesday and it is set to retail at $180 without a contract. Motorola believes that it appeal to people in emerging markets like Chile, Brazil and Peru, with a combined population of 500 million potential customers.

    Much of its appeal is poised to come from Google’s Internet services embedded on the smartphone. The phone would be much less smart in china which blocks much of Google’s services including Google play.

    Motorola’s CEO Dennis Woodside said that the company’s ability to compete in china is a bit constrained and the smartphone will not be offered in the country initially.Motorola is confident enough that the smartphone will appeal to a large number of people outside China to make it successful.

    Unlike other low end smartphones in the market, the Moto G will have a 4.5-inch high-resolution screen and will also run the latest android software. However, there will also be some tradeoffs that come with the low cost smartphone. Moto G will be 5 ounces heavier than many popular smartphones.

    Motorola indicates that it will sell the Moto G at a profit and the phone is expected to hit the shelves in Brazil and parts of Europe on Wednesday and then reach US, India and other parts of Asia on January.