cheap

Best Buy appears intent on expanding its line of MP3 players. The latest addition, dubbed the Insignia Kix (1GB), screams budget: It has a small screen, a plastic body, and a price tag of just $50. No doubt, the Kix is cheap (and feels it), but it's not without its merits. The player offers decent sound quality, comes with interchangeable USB covers, and includes a couple of compelling features, such as an FM tuner and subscription music support. Read Insignia Kix review.

It may be hard to believe, but you can actually find a decent MP3 player for around 50 bucks. In fact, we may see more and more devices start to hover near that price point if flash memory costs continue to fall the way they have been over the past couple of years. Of course, there's no sense in dropping even $50 on a complete piece of junk, which is why I've scoured the site looking for some worthy options.

OK, you blew your budget on a high def display and now high speaker prices getting you down? Step right this way, Overstock.com has the cheapest speakers around! Check out their SDAT CES500 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System that goes for $48.99!!! The package includes a wood, 60 watt, 6.5-inch subwoofer, and five small satellite speakers with 2-inch drivers. That's great if you have an A/V receiver, but if you don't consider the Emerson Dolby Pro Logic Home Theater System that comes with a receiver and goes for $69.99. You get a … Read more

I used to cringe when folks asked me to recommend a laptop that cost less than $1,000. Granted, there have been laptops at that price for a few years now, but they were generally chunky cases stocked with generations-old components and low-resolution screens--not exactly anything I'd feel good about recommending for use as a primary computer.

Imagine my surprise when computer manufacturers responded to my call for $1,000 laptops with some downright Crave-worthy systems. I expected to receive only 15.4-inch systems, because the larger case provides more room for engineers to work and keeps costs down; but I also found two 14.1-inch systems that didn't break our budget. I expected to receive cases stocked with previous-generation Pentium or Celeron CPUs; on the contrary, all but one of our review units included current-generation processors, graphics, and chipsets. I expected the cases to be leftovers from last year's crop of new laptops; instead, many in our roundup share the same case design as their more-expensive brethren.

One area where my expectations were met: performance. None of the laptops in this roundup sped through our performance benchmarks. But if I'm buying a $1,000 laptop, I'm not expecting to use it for gaming or video editing.

In the end, we were able to round up sub-$1,000 configurations from Fujitsu, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. Which ones did I like best? The answer is after the break.… Read more

Rick Broida is so cheap...

How cheap is he?!

Rick Broida is so cheap, he uses AOL CDs for Christmas-tree ornaments. He thinks Black Friday should be a declared a federal holiday. And he's stealing his neighbor's Wi-Fi at this very moment. (Kidding!)

Who better to blog about the Web's best deals and steals? Every day I'll be scouring the Interwebs for amazing bargains and bringing them to you right here. Even now, my Cheapskate senses are tingling...

Move over Sony Bravia, Fujitsu seems to be breeding sub-$1,000 laptops like rabbits. Just one month after launching the $799 LifeBook V1010 and a few weeks after the $849 LifeBook A6110, the company has announced the LifeBook S7211, which has a starting price of just $899. The 14-inch wide-screen laptop, aimed at small and medium businesses, includes a built-in Webcam, spill-resistant keyboard, and modular bay for an optical drive or an extra battery to extend your computing time beyond the 4 hours promised by the standard battery. With an optical drive, the LifeBook S7211 weighs 5.2 pounds. … Read more

With so many companies now making MP3 watches--diverse brands ranging from Hyundai to Skullcandy--it was inevitable that some manufacturers would break out for the low end of the market, just as they are with handheld players. And no one will be shocked to find that companies from China are among them.

Chinavasion, which has already been making video watches for as low as $56, has come out with a new MP3 wristwatch with 1GB of built-in memory for $27 (even less in bulk purchases) in a variety of colors, as seen on 7Gadgets. But even at these prices, we'… Read more

Just yesterday we were discussing the race toward commoditization among low-end MP3 players, and this is one item that provides positive proof of the trend. While the Delstar DS2209 isn't exactly on the verge of unseating the iPod, it certainly can hold its own in competitive pricing at $30. The compact player has 1GB of built-in storage and can an SD slot for more, as well as an FM tuner and voice recorder. It's definitely not what you'd call a fully loaded device but, as Chip Chick rightly notes, the price makes it practically disposable anyway.

The Asus Eee PC grabbed plenty of headlines this week, as media outlets (including CNET Reviews) got their hands on the mobile Internet device. Our conclusion: it's the near-perfect choice for a second laptop. Also, CNET News.com's Erica Ogg attended the Eee PC launch event in Palo Alto, Calif., Engadget shared pictures from an Eee PC dissection, and NotebookReview has some ideas on how to hack the little guy. Given the Eee PC's approachable price and Linux OS, we imagine that more tweaks are to come.

We also reviewed a possible competitor to the Asus Eee … Read more