Thanksgiving- Light up your Black Friday with these Shopping Tips!

Black Friday is synonymous with large crowds of aggressive bargain hunters, contending with messy stores and clueless employees just to get the gift list squared away by Christmas. This is an exciting time for many shoppers, but it is a nightmare for many others. The sheer number of people that go to the malls is only outdone by the number of deals that are provided by stores. Many people shun most forms of shopping for the entire weekend, either because they can’t stand crowds or they’re turned off by the notion of people shopping from pre-dawn 'til after dark. Here are some Tips to Help Light up your Black Friday Shopping!

1) Shop Online!

Stop and think about it…it’s probably the smartest thing to do…No Crowds…No Lines…No Parking woes…you don’t even have to change out of your pajamas! Remember that shopping isn't just limited to the stores. Online shopping centers will also have deals on this day. What’s more, many online retailers offer sales and special discounts on the Friday after Thanksgiving — and sometimes those sales kick in at midnight on the night before Black Friday. But things on the internet are just as susceptible to getting picked and going out of stock as things in the store. Because of that, you need to go about searching for the best deals over the internet as soon as Black Friday hits.

2) Do your Research Before-hand

Organization is a key to conquering Black Friday whether shopping online or at retail stores. Either way to avoid missing great deals, rushing into buying something you don’t really need and freaking out running amuck and ultimately stressing yourself out, a good idea is to make a list of what you want or gift ideas for certain people and research the deals you can avail on them. Keep back up items in mind incase what your looking for is sold out. Take note of all the newspaper Ads, store timings, time specific deals and coupons. Collect & keep all the coupons (a great way to save!) and lists ready in a safe place for the Big Day!

3) Compare Prices

Use Internet shopping sites like Dealplumber.com, Pricegrabber.com or shopping.com which allow you to compare prices across the web. Find the best price on online, make sure your getting up-to-date information, read merchant reviews, product descriptions, specifications, product reviews, plus pictures and coupons. Reading the user reviews and ratings for various products will give you a general idea of the authenticity of the merchant, service provided and quality of products dealt with.

4) Beat the Early Birds by being a Night Owl Shopper!

Stores offer Early Day Shopper Specials and run deals between 5 a.m. until 11 a.m. with no "rain checks" which means once they run out of the products, you are out of luck. Internet shoppers can beat the Early Birds by shopping online in the pre-dawn hours of Black Friday. Many retailers will be posting their Black Friday specials, which can be ordered, online and picked-up at your local store. A lot of sites hold “Web Only” deals that may start as early as Thanksgiving Eve.

5) If you Must Brave the Crowds…..

Be prepared with your list, back-up list, newspapers cuttings of Ads, store timings and coupons. Decide which stores you’ll visit first, prioritize items in your list and shop accordingly to avoid losing out on what you need/ want most. Dress comfortably – warmly enough for the outdoors but not so much for when you’re in stuffy crowed stores. Take along the right shopping buddy a spouse family member or friend (avoid taking your kids) and use the ‘Divide and conquer’ policy. This will make it easier to take advantage of the early-bird deals in different stores. Ensure your getting a good bargain….this is where your research should pay off and remember when purchasing any product that ‘A bad product is a bad deal no matter how cheap it costs!’

Follow these simple tips to Light up your Black Friday. Let the day be fun and advantageous and not stressful. If you’re Lucky you’ll get some great deals and can tick off some of those things from your list, if not, don’t fret you’ve got the rest of shopping season to pick up a bargain…and trust me there’ll be many!

Halloween- Top 10 Cutest Kids Costumes!

Halloween is the time to play dress up! Kids Love pretending to be their favorite Cartoon or Movie character...and lets face it parents you love seeing your kids all decked up to go trick or treating! Here are some of the cutest Costumes you can get your kids this Halloween.

1) Scaredy Bat Costume: A perfect way to bring in Halloween! A great costume, perfect for your little creature!

2) Fairy Costume: A vibrant fairy that is always merry! She’ll flutter through the forest, sprinkling a little magic on everything she sees! This Halloween, take a trip to the magical land of fairies.

3) Harry Potter Costume: Let you Kid experience the magic or Halloween the Harry Potter way as the great Boy Wizard himself or as his friends Hermione, Ron or as the Great Dumbledore himself....or even Voldemort!

4) Minnie Mouse Costume: Tranform your lovely Children into their favortive Disney Character like Minnie or Mickey, Daisy or Donald or Ariel the Mermaid or even Cruela-De-Vil!!

5) Boxer Costume: He’s the champ of this Halloween match! Have your little one give a one, two punch to Halloween this year!

6) Super-Hero Costume: Make your little one feel like a Super Hero and save Halloween! Superman, Spiderman, Batman or even one of the Incredibles!

7) Star Wars Costumes: For 1000 generations, the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and order in the galaxy… Let your child be a defender of the Galactic Republic in this Jedi costume or you favorite Star Wars Character...Yoda, Anakin, Princess Leia or even Darth Vader!

8) Cat in the Hat Costume: A fun costume from the movie Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat.

9) Scooby-Doo Character Costume: Let your kid choose a favorite Cartoon character to transform into this Halloween!

10) Knight Costume: Be A hero of the Dark Age. Where ever there’s a damsel in distress, the Medieval Hero will come to save the day. Make your child your Knight in shinning armour!

Top 5 User Rated Laptops & Notebooks!

Here's a List of the Top 10 Laptops & Notebooks based on User Rating from Cnet and PCWorld.

1) Toshiba Qosmio G35 AV-600:(Most tricked-out multimedia laptop)

SPECIFICATIONS:-
Type: Media
Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center
Processor Name: Intel Pentium M T2400
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Weight: 9.9 lb
Screen Size: 17 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce Go 7300
Storage Capacity: 160 GB
Networking Options: 802.11a/g
Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW

USER REVIEWS:-

1) I am a Rich Internet Application developer working all of the U.S. for numerous corporations. That said, I really, USE my laptop for work as well as entertainment. I work long hours and really put this laptop through some tough scenerios with having several "memory" and "processor" hog applications running simultaneously.And it's handled it without a single "glitch" and took it like a champ. So the "average" user should be very pleased with it's performance.I previously owned and worked on a Toshiba Satellite S-611 problem was it was ALWAYS overheating and shuting down on me. After reading several reviews on the Qosmio both G25 and G35 I was intrigued with the Centrino Dual Core processor as well as the ability to run a Raid Array setup to speed up my ability to work and develop on my machine.The 17inch screen was a definate "must" since I work sometimes soley on the laptop with no external monitor. All in all, I have been using this machine for about 6 months and on several projects nationwide, and have been VERY pleased with it's performance. The G35 is not soley for the average laptop internet "browser" type of user, this thing is a ROCKET when used by a developer especially in New Media Application development.I give this one two "thumbs way up".

2)This laptop is simply amazing. I bought the Qosmio G35 last weekend and I can say with confidence that it is the best laptop I have ever owned. The Intel Core Duo processor is amazingly quick and multitasking is a breeze. The most amazing aspects of this laptop is the quality of the screen, the 17 inch widescreen display is gorgeous to look at and watch movies, and the audio. The speakers are phenomenal! I listen to a lot of trance and dance music and all I can say is WOW...so clear, so crisp and a pleasure to the ears. Overall I say if you shell out the required dollars to purchase this laptop then do it. You will NOT be let down with this amazing machine.

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2)Sony VAIO SZ Series (VGN-SZ280P): (Best balance between portability and usability)

SPECIFICATIONS:-

Type: Ultraportable
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo T2500
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Weight: 3.72 lb
Screen Size: 13.3 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Storage Capacity: 2 GB
Networking Options: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11a

Primary Optical Drive: DVD+RW (Plus)

USER REVIEWS:-

1)For me, cost was not a factor. I wanted a cool laptop that did everything without compromise, at least 13 inch widescreen, glossy coating, long battery life, fast, large drive, lightweight. This laptop does it all in a very light 3.7 lb. package. The screen is excellent, all connectivity options, a very cool and so far perfectly working fingerprint reader that also allows you to register web pages requiring passwords so that you can just swipe your finger and the passwords are entered automatically. Fullsize keyboard, although the travel is a little long and soft for me. Connectivity is a snap. Plus, its got a built-in low res videocamera and mic for perfect for streaming video over an instant messenger. The speakers are OK (little tinny things, but better than most) and a 100 gig 5400 rpm hardrive (most are 4000 rpm). This model is carbon fiber and comes with 1 gig of DDR memory. Great battery life and switchable graphics chip from an onboard Intel to an NVidia GeForce chip for more intensive graphics work or when using AC power. The touch pad works great. In short, this laptop does it all, very well.The only drawback is that Sony includes a bunch of software and trialware that I would prefer not to have on there. I had originally planned to wipe the drive and install my own software, but I understand that there is a partition where Sony stores all the stuff for a default setting restore,and it is problematic to wipe the drive an get everything running again. I did not want to screw with it, and just uninstalled most of the stuff I didn't want. Also, there are no backup CD's for anything and no documentation included with the laptop. Everything is apparently online. Highly recommend this laptop if you can find one. I got mine from Datavision, $110 less than list!

2)Super Slim with great performance,the LED LCD has no competitors. Sharp, colorful, bright and very thin. Battery (6 cels) up to more than 5 hours with maximum battery life mode.
Full of Sony rub software, however it doesn't seem to be problem to me; I know exactly what should be removed.

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3) Lenovo ThinkPad X60s: ( Best ultraportable notebook for business)

SPECIFICATIONS:-

Type: Ultraportable, Business, Small Business
Operating System: MS Windows XP Professional
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo L2400
Processor Speed: 1.66 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Weight: 3.5 lb
Screen Size: 12.1 inches
Screen Size Type: standard
Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Storage Capacity: 80 GB
Networking Options: 802.11a/g
Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW

USER REVIEWS:-

1)I own an IBM ThinkPad X-30 in addition to the X60s. I eagerly awaited its arrival 2 months ago, after reviewing offerings from HP, Dell and Sony and haven't been disappointed. The battery life, in-built Bluetooth and available EV-DO or HSPDA connectivity, ease of memory expansion and BIOS/driver support of the X60s are excellent. I have had no negative experiences with the X60s.

2)No matter are you new to the computer or professional, this X60s must be your best choice. It is very light (only 2.7lbs) and powerfull with Core Duo CPU. I got one with 2G ram and 100G hard drive recently. I take it with me to the office everyday with no problem and its long life bettery really makes me confident not to bring the charger with me all the time. If you are worrying about the service, I would like to say, trust it, it's the best and most professional I've ever met! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4) Dell XPS M1710: (Best gaming laptop)

SPECIFICATIONS:-

Type: Gaming, Media
Operating System: MS Windows XP Media Center
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Weight: 8.8 lb
Screen Size: 17 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce Go 7900GTX
Storage Capacity: 100 GB
Networking Options: 802.11n
Primary Optical Drive: DVD+R DL

 

USER REVIEWS:-

1)This laptop is the best laptop ever made. It is ridiculously fast, looks awesome, has mediadirect for watching DVDs, has an awesome lineup of graphics cards, plays games so well, has up to 4 gigs of ram(which is insane for a laptop), and looks awesome. I would take this laptop over ANY other laptop on the market today and already have. Mine has 2 gigs and Core Duo 2.0 ghz processor with the GEForce Go 7900 GTX and it is even faster than my one year old Alienware PC(This is a first for me a laptop that outruns my desktop). It is well worth the price of admission and I highly suggest that if you have the money you pick up the best laptop ever made.

2) I have this baby with 150GB and 2GB RAM. I have Company of Heroes, STALKER, FEAR, Call of Duty 2, Counter Strike Source, Battlefield 2 and 2142 on this laptop. I can run all games but FEAR on MAXIMUM settings!!! Company of Heroes runs FLAWLESS on this laptop! This laptop is the ultimate gaming laptop out there! FEAR lags a bit but thats a graphic/performance demanding game which is suited for a desktop. The lights on this thing accompanied by the glossy firetruck red plating on the top makes this thing look like something you would wear! It's awsome and fancy in a way! The screen is monster size too! The only problem with it is (and this is not a downside to me because I personally like Vista) is that it's Vista ONLY. You can install XP seperatly but you can only get it Vista from off the Dell Line. I personally like Vista because it gives the laptop an even cooler look to it with Aero. Home Premium is the only way to go with this laptop. Get this laptop if you have the money - it's not a let down I assure. I give it 10/10!! (Vista isn't a good enough reason to put it to 9.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5) Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch Core 2 Duo): (Best Laptop Design)

SPECIFICATIONS:-

Type: Media, Business
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T7600
Processor Speed: 2.33 GHz
RAM: 2 GB
Weight: 5.5 lb
Screen Size: 15.4 inches
Screen Size Type: widescreen
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon x1600
Storage Capacity: 120 GB
Networking Options: 802.11a/g
Primary Optical Drive: Dual-Layer DVD+/-RW

USER REVIEWS:-

1) I been using my Macbook Pro 1.83 with my Lacie 160 Gig external harddrive for about 1 day now and I can say its the best computer, let alone laptop I ever used. I am new to OS X and it is so easy to use. If your thinking of running Office 2004, it runs great like Steve Jobs stated at the Macworld conference, its very snappy and no slow ups. The performance is great, I got around 4 hrs with energy saver on, bluetooth, and Airport off. The is a fast machine I can tell you, you'll notice the power once you get going. If your going to do a RAM upgrade, a #0 philips screwdriver is needed, these screws where the RAM compartment is are like eyeglasses screws, very small. The isight and front row are awesome. I just did the caliberation of my battery and this magsafe technology is very cool. It does what it says and is easy to get in place. I have no complaints, no right speaker is louder than the left, or any vibrating noise that people are complaining about, this is a all around perfect machine and Im pleased with my purchase. Well this about covers all aspects of the computer, if your thinking of buying one, I would recommend this to anyone.

2)I purchased this laptop for my college bound daughter. After she had used it for several weeks and me sneaking in to use it I went out and bought nother one for my wife and I!!!!!! This is an awesome laptop that has convinved me to scrap ov er time my 4 other PC's and start converting all my home computers to MAC. I am a super conservative buyer that dos a lot of research and I can whole heartedly recommend this one! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fashion Trends- Fall Handbags!

Handbags!- Totes, hobos, satchels, quilted, patent, jacquard, croc,metallic …lets face it the list of types of bags available today is pretty exhausting, so here’s a guide of the must have Handbags to lookout for this Fall!!

Bright Color Handbags :It’s time to ditch those pastels coz this seasons designs are Bold with Vibrant colors! It’s the perfect way to add a dash of color to a somber outfit and brighten it up! For example theCharlie Lapson "Heidi" Handbag

The Clutch: Clearly my mom was right, and good things do come in small packages. The clutch is back, and its simple, unobtrusive style will go with all of this season's top trends. A clutch is the perfect accessory when all you need for the night is an ID and a smile. The clutch is timeless, sophisticated and very chic!For example- Kooba ‘Roxanne’ Clutch in Black

Patent Leather: Patent Leathers ‘HOT’ this season. And your way ahead of the game if you get yourself a bright colored Handbag in Patent just like The Find "Decked Out" Handbag

Metallic:Metallic handbags have been totally hot for a few seasons now. From matte metallic to bold metallic to brushed metallic and especially a super bold, reflective in your face silver and gold!

Textured Handbags: Textured Handbags are huge this season. It may be a Croc or snakeskin embossed bag in patent, a woven one, quilted one or even a fringe bag…but textures are here to stay!

Animal Prints: The call of the wild is strong this season. These bold animal prints and details can be the centerpiece of an outfit, so beware of accessories overload.

Fashion Trends- Fall Shoes!!

All women know as well as I do that Shoes can make or break an outfit. Shoes can give personality to your style and a boost of sexy confidence to you. Here are some of the more buzz-worthy new styles and trends of Autumn or just the revival of some old ones you’ll be sure to ‘fall’ for!

Ankle Boots/ Booties: Back from the 80’s these ankle length boots also known as booties are smoking Hot this season especially the mens wear inspired oxford-shoe type Booties. Booties can vary in length, from the super-short variety, which falls just under the ankle, to the longer version, which hits right above the ankle. Be sure to avoid showing flesh when wearing these boots (i.e. no minis) since the high cut of the shoe can make your legs shorter than they really are. Another way to wear the ankle boot is to pair them with tights or leggings which are the same color as the boots.

Animal Prints: Leopard spots, tiger, zebra stripes…..in short Animal prints draped over any style of shoe like stilettos, pumps, platforms and even booties are huge this season, so it’s time to go Wild! Be careful to pair your animal print shoes with subtle solid colors don’t overdo patterns and prints and make the focal point of your outfit the shoes….its a tough one to pull off so keep it simple and let the shoes do the talking!

Patent Leather: Love it or hate it….but you can’t deny that patent leather has made a huge statement in a lot of fashion trends lately and shoes are no exception to this! Pumps, stilettos, boots, flats, peep-toes……you name it and it’s available in Patent. This is a very versatile style and can be worn with just about anything to complete any look be it Office, party or evening wear.

Mary-Janes: The “Oh so school-girl” look is back with the ever so famous Mary-Jane style shoes! The grown up version of these shoes may come in the form of flats or chunky heels. Team these with a smart skirt or skinny jeans and your set to go!

Wedges: Thought this look was only for summer? Think again the wedge heel is on all this fall season styles including boots making them hard to miss!

Casual Flat Boots: ‘These boots were made for walking…..’ While ankle boots are creating a stir this season, it’s hard to resist the undeniable sexiness of a high boot. Flats are in but some of us –not so tall ones could use them with a small heel…like a wedge heel. Wear over skinny jeans if you’ve got long legs or just team them up with a flowy skirt or dress.

Ballerina Flats: Those comfy, feet- and back-saving flats are still going strong this season. They have been infused with a touch of glamour with the addition of ornate jewels and other shiny trimmings.

Bright Colors: Bright colors in every type of shoe imaginable from flats to pumps, peep-toes, pointy shoes, wedges, patents……to add that dash of color to any look is the way to go this season! Team is with any of the above trends and your set!

Popular Designers: Steve Madden, Guess, Marc Fisher, BCBGirls, Nine West, Vera Wangand many more….