EXPIRED - DEALS: R5 Ster Kinekor movie tickets @ Dealify on sale till end of 1st June 2011

Deal is limited to 2 tickets per user and valid till 15 August 2011.

Please click on link below to access this deal:

http://www.dealify.com/r/1029/

EXPIRED - DEALS: Musica Flash Sale on selected console games all less R99 until 2 June

Musica is having a flash sale on selected xbox, ps3, wii and PC games for under R99 till the 2nd of June.

See link below for more information:
http://www.musica.co.za/selection/show/MUSICA_PROMOTION4/

EXPIRED - The Weekly Roundup (26 - 29 May 2011)

The week it seems like House & Home has come into the market with some great prices.
Take a look at the specials available this week below:

Best Buys:

LCD TVS
 
LCD TV 32 inch: 
LG 32" (80cm) FHD LCD 32LD460 @ House & Home for R3489
http://www.houseandhome.co.za/HH281.pdf
If you can afford an additional R500 I would suggest you look at the 32" LED option below. The extra R500 is worth the extra guarantee alone.


If you are on a budget you can get the HD ready 32" for:
Samsung 32" (80cm) HD Ready LCD 32C350 @ Game for R2999
http://www.game.co.za/RapidCat/game/rsa/pages/page-3.jpg


LCD TV 40-42 inch:
LG 42" (105cm) FHD LCD 42LD420 @ Game/Hifi Corp/House & Home for R5499
http://www.game.co.za/RapidCat/game/rsa/pages/page-3.jpg
http://www.houseandhome.co.za/HH281.pdf
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS168/INS168_SA.pdf


LCD TV 46-50inch:
Samsung 46" (117cm) FHD LCD LA46C530 @ Makro for R7999
http://www.makro.co.za/content/p48/samsung/48_samsung-2.pdf


LED TVS


LED TV 32 inch :
LG 32" (80cm) HD Ready LED 32LE5300 @ House & Home for R3589
http://www.houseandhome.co.za/HH281.pdf

LG 32" (80cm) FHD LED 32LE5500 @ House & Home for R3989 (Includes 100Hz trumotion)
http://www.houseandhome.co.za/HH281.pdf

LED TV 40-42 inch :
LG 42" (107cm) FHD LED 42LE5500 @ House & Home for R7499 (Includes 100Hz trumotion)
http://www.houseandhome.co.za/HH281.pdf


LED TV 46-50 inch :
Nothing I can recommend this week.


3D LED TV:
Nothing I can recommend this week.

EXPIRED - DEALS: iPad 1 Price drop AGAIN!!! Pick up an iPad 1 + 3G for R3333

Incredible connection has yet again slashed the prices of the remaining stock of the iPad1. See table and links below:

iPad model	Old Price	New Price
16GB Wi-Fi + 3G	R 4,999	R 3,333
32GB Wi-Fi + 3G	R 5,999	R 4,444
64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G	R 6,999	R 5,555

Table above taken from mybroadband article.


Click link below for official tweet from incredible connection:
https://twitter.com/#!/IncConnection/status/73301526482923520

Cick link below for article on mybroadband:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/gadgets/20483-iPad-prices-slashed-again.html

EXPIRED - DEALS: Massive Gaming Clearance sale this weekend @ Incredible Connection! 26-29 May 2011

To download full list of games click on the link below.
http://www.incredibleblog.co.za/wp-content/uploads/gaming-sale-26-29May-2011.pdf

For more information click the link below:
http://www.incredibleblog.co.za/specials-2/gaming-clearance-sale/

EXPIRED - DEALS: Sale on Mango Flights from R199 one way starting 25 May @ 9am

DEALS: Mass Effect 2 on PS3 for R149 and Bulletstorm on PS3 or Xbox for R249 at BT Games

BT Games is having some good specials this week.

Mass Effect 2 on PS3 for R149
Click link below for more information:
http://www.btgames.co.za/bt/infopage.asp?C06770

Bulletstorm on PS3 or Xbox 360 for R249 as well as many other specials.
Click link below for more information:
http://www.btgames.co.za/bt/onspecial.asp

EXPIRED - DEALS: Xbox 360 Slim 250Gb plus Halo Reach & Fable 3 for only R2999 (Save 20%) + Bluray movies less 50%

Kalahari.net is having a "Wild Winter Sale" which includes:

Xbox 360 Slim 250Gb plus Halo Reach & Fable 3 for only R2999
http://www.kalahari.net/sale_normal/Xbox360-TM-250GB-Fable-III-Halo-Reach/42665/41471773.aspx

Bluray movies at 50% off
http://www.kalahari.net/sale/85037.aspx

And for more specials on books, ebook readers, books and accessories go to:
http://www.kalahari.net/sale/default.aspx

EXPIRED - The Weekly Roundup (19 - 22 May 2011)

Hope everyone had a good election day. This week Game has nothing on offer when it comes to brand name TVs, so lets take a look at what the other retailers are offering. After assessment it looks like a good week full of LG deals.
Remember that if you uncomfortable to purchase at Hifi Corp or Makro you can always use Game or Tafelberg's option to match any advertised price.


Best Buys:

LCD TVS
 
LCD TV 32 inch: 
LG 32" (80cm) FHD LCD 32LD460 @ Hifi Corp for R3499
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS167/INS167_SA.pdf
If you can afford an additional R500 I would suggest you look at the 32" LED option below. The extra R500 is worth the extra guarantee alone.


LCD TV 40-42 inch: 
LG 42" (80cm) FHD LCD 42LD460 @ Makro for R5499
http://www.makro.co.za/p/39170/lg-42-107cm-full-hd-lcd-tv/


LCD TV 46-50inch:
LG 47" (119cm) FHD LCD 47LD460 @ Makro for R7799
http://www.makro.co.za/p/40442/lg-47-119cm-full-hd-lcd-tv/


LED TVS


LED TV 32 inch :
LG 32" (80cm) FHD LED 32LE5300 @ Hifi Corp for R3999 (BONUS 3 Year Guarantee)
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS167/INS167_SA.pdf


LED TV 40-42 inch :
LG 42" (105cm) FHD LED 42LE5300 @ Hifi Corp for R6999 (BONUS 3 Year Guarantee)
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS167/INS167_SA.pdf


LED TV 46-50 inch :
Nothing I can recommend this week.


3D LED TV:
Nothing I can recommend this week.

EXPIRED - DEALS: Election specials - 32" LG FHD LED TV for R3999 and Klenex 2 ply toilet paper for R69.99

Game is having election day specials. See image below for all specials.
Some of the highlights are:

• 32" LG FHD LED TV for R3999
• Klenex 2 ply toilet paper 18 pack for R69.99

These specials are only valid for today and tomorrow.

Click on image below for a link to the full sized PDF.

EXPIRED - The Weekly Roundup (12 - 15 May 2011) 40" FHD for R4999 & Toilet Paper for R72.99

This week sees the return of the 40" full HD LCD for  R4999. This is the Samsung 40C530 model which I personally have myself. It is an excellent TV and play almost all media including HD MKV files straight from the USB port. The 40C530 has been replaced by the 40D550 and hence the sale price of R4999.

Best Buys:

LCD TV 32 inch:
No FHD TVs for under R3500 so there is nothing I can recommend.


LCD TV 40-42 inch:Samsung 40" (100cm) FHD LCD 40C530 @ Hifi Corp for R4999 (Plus 3 Year Guarantee)
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS166/INS166_SA.pdf


LCD TV 46-50inch:
LG 47" (119cm) FHD LCD 47LD460 @ Makro for R7799
http://www.makro.co.za/p/40442/lg-47-119cm-full-hd-lcd-tv/


LED TV 32 inch :
Samsung 32" (80cm) HD Ready LED UA32C4000 @ Hifi Corp for R3999
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS166/INS166_SA.pdf


LED TV 40-42 inch :
LG 42" (107cm) FHD LED LE5300 @ Game for R6999
http://www.game.co.za/RapidCat/game/rsa/pages/page-2.jpg


LED TV 46-50 inch :
Nothing I can recommend this week.


3D LED TV:
Nothing I can recommend this week.




Extras
Baby Soft 2 Ply Toiler Paper 18 pack for R72.99 at Game. Click image below for full advert.

DEALS: Price Drop - Get Halo Reach @ The Hut for R205 (customs and delivery included)

The Hut just had a price drop on Halo Reach and are selling it for R205 [£14.85 x 1.25(customs) x 11(exchange rate)] which is a saving of 70% off the original price.

Click here to access the deal

Review: iPad 2 vs iPad 1: Start up, Loading times, Games and Web Browsing (checkerboard) comparison.

Without any advertising Apple launched the iPad 2 in South Africa on the 29th of April, a mere 3 months after the official iPad 1 SA launch. Me being the Apple fan that I am managed to get my hands on one.

The iPad 2 is selling at the same old iPad 1 price starting at R4399 for the 16Gb WiFi version.

For more information on the pricing follow the link below:
http://www.core.co.za/secondary.html 

Upgrades
In order to review the iPad 2 it would be difficult to look at the similarities between the iPad 1 and iPad 2, instead let us look at what has been upgraded or changed.

The new iPad 2:

• has a new dual core A5 processor
• has a VGA front facing camera for FaceTime, Photobooth and various other applications
• has a rear camera for taking pictures and recording 720p HD video
• is a 1/3 thinner and lighter
• sports a new graphics processor claiming an increased graphics performance of 9x

Of all the upgrades above the first thing you notice is how unbelievably thin the iPad 2 feels compared to the iPad 1. It is amazing that they managed to squeeze all that tech into such a slim case.

<-------- iPad 1      iPad 2 ------->

Performance
As a gamer I was the most excited about the claimed CPU and graphics performance upgrades so in order to illustrate the differences between the two I have created a side by side video comparison of the iPad 1 and iPad 2. The video shows the load times and performance differences for start up, games and browsing. Click on the video to view the comparison.

As shown in the video the iPad 2 is faster at starting up and loading apps and doesn't suffer from the plagued checkerboard effect that the iPad 1 has when browsing large web pages.
The in-game graphics are definitely smoother with higher frame rates but the claimed 9x graphics performance increase definitely wasn't as obvious as expected during the tests. It felt almost like twice the performance instead of 9x. I anticipate that the benefit of the increase graphics performance will only come when the developers use it to implement options like anti aliasing without sacrificing frame rates. This will hopefully bring iPad games closer to console quality games.


Which model to get?
All the models across the entire iPad 2 range has the same internals (CPU, screen, etc) so you do not get any added benefit beside capacity and 3G by choosing a more expensive unit. My opinion has always been that the entry level model is the best value for your money as you stand to lose the least when selling it again. And with the option to make your iPhone a personal hotspot with the latest firmware upgrade (4.3) you don't even need to buy a 3G iPad.
Think of it this way, in order to utilise a 3G iPad you will need a data contract over and above your normal phone contract so that you have a dedicated SIM that you leave in your iPad. On the other hand if you use your iPhone's personal hotspot to connect your iPad to the Internet you would save the expense of a separate data contract and the additional cost of a 3G model. In my case I use my iPad 85% of the time at home where I use my WiFi connection to the Internet and on the odd occasion when I use it outside my house I always have my iPhone in my pocket to link it to the Internet. Now ask yourself if it makes sense to pay the extra R1200 for the 3G version as well as the R1000 - R2000 pa for a data contract?

Conclusion
In conclusion I would suggest to hold onto your iPad 1 if you use it mainly for browsing and email. If you like playing games and use graphics intensive multimedia apps such as iMovie I suggest you buy the iPad 2.

If you have never had the opportunity to play around with the iPad 1 or iPad 2 I suggest you borrow your friends one for a few days (if he is willing to let it go) and I'm sure you will be hooked. Whenever I have a party or function at home my iPad seems to be constantly in use by my friends, be it for surfing, YouTube, games or just viewing movies and pictures. I always tell people that if you looking at getting your parents or any anti-tech person to use the Internet and email the iPad is the ideal tool. It is so simple that by the touch of an icon you have your email, browsing, photos and music on one device. No left click and right click, menus and start bars.

Go out and buy the iPad 2. It is truly and pleasure to use, extremely simple and stunning to look at. I'm actually posting this review from my iPad 2 while relaxing on my couch using an app called BlogPress.

For a more comprehensive and techinical look at the new iPad 2 click on the link below for the Engadget review:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/09/ipad-2-review/

EXPIRED - DEALS: DSTV Drifta Mobile Decoder for R399.95 @ Incredible Connection

Incredible Connection has a special on the DSTV Drifta Mobile Decoder for R399.95 until the 8th of May.

See link below for full information and brochure.

http://www.incredible.co.za/uploadedfiles/contentimages/Tab_5_8_May.pdf

EXPIRED - The Weekly Roundup (5 - 8 May 2011)

It's not good news for those who were looking to buy a TV for their mom on mother's day this week . It seems that the large retailers were banking on mother's day gifts and all the prices are about R500 - R1000 more than they were last week. If you have to buy a TV this week choose from the best options below but my suggestion would be to wait another week and see what becomes available next week.

Best Buys:

LCD TV 32 inch:
No FHD TVs for under R3500 so there is nothing I can recommend.


LCD TV 40-42 inch:
Sony 40" (102cm) FHD @ Game for R5499
http://www.game.co.za/RapidCat/game/rsa/pages/page-1.jpg
(Note that the Sony TVs are alway limited with what media they can play with the onboard media player)


LCD TV 46-50inch:
Nothing I can recommend this week.


LED TV 32 inch :
Nothing I can recommend this week.


LED TV 40-42 inch :
Samsung 40" (102cm) FHD UA40C5000 LED TV @ Hifi Corp for R7999 (Include FREE Home Theatre)
http://media.hificorporation.co.za/hifi/specials/INS165/INS165_SA.pdf


LED TV 46-50 inch :
Nothing I can recommend this week.


3D LED TV:
Nothing I can recommend this week.




Hopefully there will be better deals next week.
Come back later for my side by side iPad 1 vs iPad 2 performance comparison.