Bargains - not CDs!

[Dave2002]

There is a Prime day laptop for £99 - not sure if it's any good at all. Is there any point in having a Win 10 PC at all - even a fairly low powered one?

There are also computer monitors for under £80, and referring to msg 135, there are some Toshiba 4 Tbyte drives for a fraction over £75 at the moment.

Question is, do we need any more of this stuff?

[Bryn]

. . . there are some Toshiba 4 Tbyte drives for a fraction over £75 at the moment.

Well. I suppose 12.96 is indeed a fraction of 75 but the current Amazon Prime price is exactly the same a that which I paid for the Toshiba 4TB USB hard drive a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-HDTB440EK3CA-2-5-Inch-Portable-External/dp/B07KPM58FX/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=toshiba+4tb+hard+drive+prime+day&qid=1563192097&s=computers&sr=8-1-fkmr0

I guess the offer price has run its course as they appear to have sold what stock they had.

Oh, and my experience of Windows 10 devices has been far superior to that of the IOS gear I have.

[Dave2002]

The deals have shifted towards Seagate drives now - there is a 4 TB one for about £75. I think there's a 1 TB for under £40.

I'm still not sure that an Atom powered Win 10 machine is really worth having even at £99.99 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/iOTA-11-6-C...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

The Flymo 1200R robot mower is at a good price, though - under £400 if anyone wants to try one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flymo-1200R-Lithium-Ion-Robotic-Mower/dp/B00C70LUQ4/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Flymo+1200R&qid=1563197757&s=gateway&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&sr=8-2

Some of the best deals (arguably) are on alcohol - whiskies - Lagavulin cheaper than it's been for some while.

[Bryn]

The deals have shifted towards Seagate drives now - there is a 4 TB one for about £75. I think there's a 1 TB for under £40.

I'm still not sure that an Atom powered Win 10 machine is really worth having even at £99.99 - https://www.amazon.co.uk/iOTA-11-6-C...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Oh indeed, re. the Atom notebook. I have a little Celeron notebook running W10 and it has to have a USB stick inserted for it to be able to take Windows 10 upgrades. It does work, but slow hardly begins to describe its speed. Usefull only for very lightweight work. I have ordered a £99 1TB SSD in the current promotion. The USB case to put it in was not in the 'sale'. The new SSD is intended for use mainly with an i7 based Windows 10 compact laptop (256GB SSD, 8GB RAM).

[Dave2002]

Oh indeed, re. the Atom notebook. I have a little Celeron notebook running W10 and it has to have a USB stick inserted for it to be able to take Windows 10 upgrades. It does work, but slow hardly begins to describe its speed. Usefull only for very lightweight work.

I have a much earlier Atom based notebook - now a doorstop.

How do you define lightweight work?

I’m guessing it won’t really do photo or video editing. Can you record/edit with a tool like Audacity, or use a DAW like Reaper?

I’m trying to think of something I can’t do with more powerful iMacs or MacBooks. In the past there was software which didn’t go across. I’ve probably still got a Totalrecorder licence/entitlement I could refresh. Are there any sharing issues which could be resolved more easily if I had a Win 10 machine to play on? I really can’t think of much right now that I can’t do with MacOS, or would be better to do with Win 10. Also I note the concern (see reviews) about 64 bit software and compatibility for that under £100 machine. I know people who have software which requires Win for some reason, or which would be too expensive to convert from, but few of us now are really in that position.

[Bryn]

I have a much earlier Atom based notebook - now a doorstop.

How do you define lightweight work?

I’m guessing it won’t really do photo or video editing. Can you record/edit with a tool like Audacity, or use a DAW like Reaper?

I’m trying to think of something I can’t do with more powerful iMacs or MacBooks. In the past there was software which didn’t go across. I’ve probably still got a Totalrecorder licence/entitlement I could refresh. Are there any sharing issues which could be resolved more easily if I had a Win 10 machine to play on? I really can’t think of much right now that I can’t do with MacOS, or would be better to do with Win 10. Also I note the concern (see reviews) about 64 bit software and compatibility for that under £100 machine. I know people who have software which requires Win for some reason, or which would be too expensive to convert from, but few of us now are really in that position.

I would not consider much more than word processing and the like with the Celeron machine. It is very slim and light, and a step up from Atom but still very slow by today's standards.

[Dave2002]

I would not consider much more than word processing and the like with the Celeron machine. It is very slim and light, and a step up from Atom but still very slow by today's standards.

Thanks. Doesn't sound like a bargain then - for me at any rate.

[Dave2002]

Just found out how to get slightly better results on the Amazon site today - while it's still a "Prime Day". Basically there is a section for Prime Day, so if you type in something you might be interested in, the deals will come up. I'd already done whisky yesterday by browsing, but today I tried "Classical CDs" and "Pure Audio Blu Ray". The first search didn't really come up with too much, though there is the complete Verdi box for £85 - but I have that already. There may be cds or boxes that others are interested in. The second search for audio blu rays delivered a blank, for me.

"robot vacuum cleaners" shows a few good buys - if you happen to want one.

Some of the deals seem to have been and gone. There are some TP-Link range extenders. YMMV.

[HighlandDougie]

Just found out how to get slightly better results on the Amazon site today - while it's still a "Prime Day". Basically there is a section for Prime Day, so if you type in something you might be interested in, the deals will come up. I'd already done whisky yesterday by browsing, but today I tried "Classical CDs" and "Pure Audio Blu Ray". The first search didn't really come up with too much, though there is the complete Verdi box for £85 - but I have that already. There may be cds or boxes that others are interested in. The second search for audio blu rays delivered a blank, for me.

"robot vacuum cleaners" shows a few good buys - if you happen to want one.

Some of the deals seem to have been and gone. There are some TP-Link range extenders. YMMV.

Ah well, you should have looked yesterday morning for Blu-Ray Audio boxes - the Karajan/Bruckner at £14.00, the Haitink/Mahler and the Haitink/Bruckner for £19.00 etc etc. But, and very Amazon this, the cheap prices all disappeared at around 11am. Yet another reason not to give them one's business.

[Bryn]

I have never seen even a single episode of Game of Thrones and had not really felt a need to change that situation until, quite by chance, I followed up on an Amazon recommendation regarding season 3 for less than a tenner. I was not tempted but, out of curiosity, went in search of the complete collection. It appears that the full seasons 1 to 8 inclusive will not be released until the end of the year. However, my eye fell upon an offer from Music Magpie, in the marketplace, for a boxed set of Blu-rays of seasons 1 to 7, "Used: Very Good". It was the price which grabbed me, £15.74 (including p&p). My guess is that it was a pricing error, but nothing ventured . . .

I now await the pretty inevitable cancellation email.

To my considerable surprise, the 30 Blu-Ray set has just been delivered. Now to see if they also delight.

[Bryn]

Not that much cheaper, and the speed is useful often enough. Depends what you want these for.

Now that I am converting ambisonic files to stereo, binaural and 5.1 surround for further editing, the need for higher speeds has impressed itself upon me. I, therefore, took the opportunity of the Amazon Prime days to order first a Samsung 1TB 2.5" drive and Sabrent case, then a 1TB Samsung Portable SSD T5. The latter cost around £10 more than the former combination but comes ready to go, replete with security software, C-type to C-type and C-type to A-type USB 3.0 leads. It is also very much smaller than the combos and has superior heat dissipation.

I also grabbed a couple of the Amason Basic 2.5" USB cases for use with 120GB SSDs I bought some months ago with the original intention of installing them in ageing laptops. I later opted for 240GB and 480GB SSDs for those roles. Very pleased with the transfer speed increase.

[Dave2002]

One of today’s Amazon Kindle book deals is a book by Daniel Levitin on Brains and Music for iirc £1.99.
This seems like a bargain. Some recent deals have shot up in price after midnight. I’ll try to find the link for this one and report back.

Here you go - https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-B...s%2C241&sr=8-7

Act fast if you want it - Sunday.

[Mal]

One of today’s Amazon Kindle book deals is a book by Daniel Levitin on Brains and Music for iirc £1.99.
This seems like a bargain...

I read the "look inside" sample and several reviews, and decided not to buy.

[Dave2002]

I read the "look inside" sample and several reviews, and decided not to buy.

Chacun ....

Personally I thought I could afford to take a punt.

[Dave2002]

Audio Kit Synth One is free

and

the recently released FM Player 2 is 99p for about another week.

These are iOS iPad apps. Might be fun to play around!

Check them out in the Apple App Store.