Deal

Daily deals: They're taking over your town

There's a scene in the 1989 comedy "Troop Beverly Hills" in which rival bands of Wilderness Girls attempt to best one another in a fundraiser by selling boxes of the same cookies to the households of a single upper-crust neighborhood--and unfortunately for the underdog protagonists, their arch-enemies have beaten them to the punch at just about every house. That's what it may soon look like for the explosion of companies offering ultra-discounted, fire-sale daily deals for local businesses, which have fast become the Web's latest retail craze.

Here's how it works. You'll sign … Read more

Last-minute deal: Buy an Olive 4 or 4 HD, get the Beatles Remastered free

Christmas has come and gone, but it's not too late to think about giving yourself a post-holiday treat. And Olive is here to help. The company is offering a free copy of the Beatles Remastered CD collection to anyone who purchases an Olive 4 or Olive 4 HD digital music server. Yes, at $1,500 to $2,000, this is no impulse buy, but if you're in the market for a high-end digital music server, having the Beatles CDs (a $200 value) thrown in for free just might get you to take the plunge. (We liked the previous … Read more

Twitter? Profitable? Really?

This one's a surprise. Twitter will have turned a profit in 2009, a BusinessWeek report claims, citing sources. What happened? Search deals with Google and Microsoft brought in a nice chunk of cash for the company, which has raised well over $100 million in venture capital and has a paper valuation floating somewhere around $1 billion.

Considering the company has not yet put forth a long-term revenue strategy, this would be one of those Christmas miracles along the lines of a neurotic mom getting home to her stranded 8-year-old by fortuitously hitching a ride with a polka band fronted by John Candy.… Read more

Dealer's choice

Dealer Solutions is a full-featured program for managing automotive dealerships. With an attractive interface and a full suite of management tools, Dealer Solutions is a great choice for auto dealerships of every size, or anyone who manages a fleet of vehicles, for that matter.

Dealer Solutions sports a well-designed and fairly intuitive interface, although it does take some getting used to, thanks to its copious features. The program's major features are arranged in tabs down the side, including tabs for inventory, contacts, deals, and accounts. Each of these sections is quite detailed, allowing users to create quotes, print window … Read more

Groupon: We're profitable and we just raised $30 million

Wow. There is money out there: a retail deals site called Groupon has raised a whopping $30 million Series B funding round led by Accel Partners, one of Facebook's early backers. Existing Groupon investor NEA, which led the company's $4.8 million Series A round in January 2008, also contributed.

Here is the gist of Groupon: there are currently editions for 26 U.S. cities. The site advertises a deal each day from a selected local establishment like a restaurant, nail salon, or gym. There's a heavy discount involved. But enough members have to opt into the … Read more

The 404 Podcast 476: Where we all Cyber on Monday

If you're cursing yourself for sleeping through Black Friday, you can still indulge your inner cheapskate today on Cyber Monday! No, it's not what you're thinking, dirty birdy--Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving when all the vendors come together to tempt you with online deals and take whatever coins are left in your bank account.

Since it's our first day back, we take the first half to update each other on our holiday festivities: Jeff visited the Norman Rockwell Museum, Justin is missing an arm after shooting guns in the Garden State, and Wilson stuffed himself silly with a batch of be-deviled eggs. I also suffered through "Twilight: New Moon" and "Ninja Assassin" over the weekend. Which movie deserves the award for least entertaining flick of the year? Check out our full review!

And speaking of Cyber Monday, Wilson digs up a controversial story about an "Adult-only" app arriving on the Android marketplace. The steamy app is pseudo-cleverly called "MiKandi" and according to Phandroid, the app only works with the Android. Sorry, iPhone users, your Web browser will have to do.

We're super excited to be back and ready to tackle the rest of 2009 with more giveaways, surprise guests, and a series of year-end wrap-up episodes coming your way, so don't miss an episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. While you're listening, leave us a voice-mail at 1-866-404-CNET and give us your two cents. You can also send us an e-mail at the404(at)cnet[dot]com or just leave a comment on this blog!

EPISODE 476 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

AT&T has refurbished 16GB iPhone 3Gs for $49

Chances are good that someone on your shopping list is pining for an iPhone for the holiday season. If you know of such a person, then we've got a surprise Black Friday deal for you. AT&T is offering refurbished 16GB iPhone 3Gs for $49 for new customers. That's the shipped price, and they're even waiving the activation fee, normally $35.

The refurbished units have the same warranty as new units so you don't have to worry about getting someone junk. As an owner of a refurbished 3G I can attest to the quality of … Read more

eBay launches holiday deals app for iPhone

eBay is playing virtual Santa this holiday season with a free "Deals" app for the iPhone that leads consumers to the better buys on the auction site.

Launched Tuesday, eBay Deals is designed to deliver a stream of the best deals on the site from across hundreds of millions of listings. Like eBay Mobile, the company's regular iPhone app, Deals lets you search, shop, and pay for your items from your iPhone or iPod Touch.

All featured deals spotlight items with no bids, no reserve price, free or fixed-rate shipping, and less than four hours remaining to … Read more

The Black Friday deals that aren't

If it's five o'clock in the morning and you have to spend your time with far more people than you're used to, pushing, pulling and writhing your way to satisfaction, then perhaps a shopping mall is not the ideal location.

The tradition of Black Friday as the day when one attains negotiation nirvana seems a peculiar one. And one has to wonder whether people have learned that some of the deals really aren't deals at all.

As CNET's Rick Broida has already pointed out, many of the alleged deals aren't terribly enticing, as stores … Read more

Black Friday special: Vizio's Blu-ray player hits $99.99

We knew it was coming and now it's here: Costco will be serving up Vizio's entry-level VBR110 Blu-ray player for $99.99 on Black Friday. As usual, this comes with the disclaimer: "While supplies last."

In case you're wondering, while the VBR110 is an entry-level player that retails for around $150, it does have an Ethernet port and BD-Live capabilities. And you also get a free HDMI cable.

Here's a complete list of all of Vizio's Black Friday deals:

Vizio VBR110 Blu-ray player with free HDMI cable: $99.99 at Costco and online … Read more