Through January 29, 2009, TiVo is offering a promotion wherein you receive three months free service with the purchase of a new TiVo Series2DT or TiVo HD from TiVo.com. Under the terms of this offer the Series2DT is $149.99 plus service and the TiVo HD is $299.99 plus service.

TiVo is running a promotion through 1/15/09, buy the TiVo Wireless Adapter for $59.99 and get five movie rental downloads from Amazon Video On Demand. That’s a $20 value. (From the fine print it sounds like it is really a $20 credit which can be used for movie rentals, the five movies is just based on a $4 average rental price.)

I guess I can’t call it Amazon Unbox anymore, it is now Amazon Video On Demand. They’ve rolled out the online streaming on demand to the general public, it is no longer just for beta testers. I’ll have to update the blog category… later.

Of course, you can just buy the adapter from Amazon.com for $39.99 and save the $20 up front.

Thanks to Davis Freeberg for the tip on the TiVo promo.

Been thinking about picking up an Amazon Kindle ‘Wireless Reading Device’ (aka e-book reader)? Need another credit card? Like saving money? Well, this deal is for you! Apply online for the Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card and receive $30 back on your first card purchase. Use the card to purchase a Kindle from Amazon and enter promo code ‘VISACARD’ to save $70 at checkout. All told that’s $100 - $30 back, $70 instant savings. You can get all of the details on the Kindle product page.

And now a little digression…

I’m still on the fence about the Kindle. I think it is interesting technology, but I still like the tactile sensation of reading a book, especially paperbacks. (I don’t know why, but I tend not to like reading hardcover books.) I’ve ready books off my PDAs in the past, and countless pages off my laptop, but it just isn’t the same as settling down on the couch, or in bed, with a real volume of bound up dead tree and reading. The feel of the book, the smell - even if they can reproduce the look of ink on paper the hard plastic shell just isn’t the same.

And I know that’s kind of quaint and silly. I’m happy to dump physical media for music and buy everything in digital formats. I’ve had no qualms about dumping VHS and LD for DVD, and now dumping DVD for BD, and using video downloads when quality isn’t as big of an issue. But I still subscribe to a stack of magazines and I look forward to receiving them each month (or week, for Aviation Week) and reading them. And I still enjoy physical books. I don’t read nearly as many as I’d like, or I used to, because I’m so busy. But I always have a stack of books around to read when I can find or make the time.

Maybe it is because I spend all day, most of my life really, reading text off of a digital screen that I enjoy getting away from that and going back to the simple tech of a book.

Someday I’ll probably be that crazy old man with the house full of dead trees that all the kids talk about. As Blank Reg once said: “It’s a book. It’s a non-volatile storage medium. It’s very rare. You should have one.”

Maybe once they get e-paper to the point where it can be bound into book form it would be more appealing to me. A physical book which can be any logical book, that sounds interesting.

For a limited time, Amazon is offering a special Blu-ray starter bundle. Buy a Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player for $379.99 or a Sony 40GB PlayStation 3 for $399.99 and get an 8-pack Blu-ray movie starter set for $80 - just $10 a title, a 65% savings. The 8-pack has an MSRP value of $231.60, and an Amazon price of $161.95. The titles in the pack are: Black Hawk Down, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dogma, A Few Good Men, Gattaca, Life of Brian - Collector’s Edition, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and The Fifth Element.

If you go for the deal I strongly recommend the PS3 over the BDP-S300. The PS3 is a more feature rich Blu-ray player - the BDP-S300 is only a Profile 1.1 / Bonus View player, while the PS3 is Profile 2.0 / BD-Live. And, of course, you get all of the top end gaming features with the PS3.

Picked up from Blu-ray Stats News Log.

Now through July 15th, Sling Media is running a promotional bundle. Buy the Slingbox PRO ($229.99 MSRP) and get the HD Connect dongle ($49.99 MSRP) for component video input and a SlingPlayer Mobile license ($29.99 MSRP), all for $229.95. So basically you get the HD Connect and SPM license free with the purchase of the Slingbox PRO. While I’ve seen the Slingbox PRO & HD Connect bundled for less, including the SPM license this looks like a pretty decent bundle deal. Amazon sells the Slingbox PRO for $182.99 and the HD Connect for $39.99, that’s $222.98 - without SPM, which would bring it to $252.97.

SlingPlayer Mobile is currently available for Palm OS, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Windows Mobile Professional/PPC, and Symbian S60. Symbian UIQ is in beta now and will be out soon, and Blackberry support is in development, expected later this year. The license works for any of the SlingPlayer mobile platforms.

Disclaimer: I work for Sling Media.

The Amazon promotion of a free TiVo HD with the purchase of a Samsung HDTV, originally scheduled to end June 6th, has been extended through June 9th. As previously posted, the deal also includes three months of free TiVo service and free ‘white glove’ delivery.

Palm is running a few specials. Through July 6th you can save $50 on Palm® Centro™ and Treo™ smartphones. That means you can pay as little as $49.99 after rebate. The offer depends on qualifying service. I’ve been a Palm OS user since 1998, and my current phone is a Treo 680. The Centro is a great little smartphone, and it is a steal at $50. If you’re new to smartphones and don’t want to commit to expensive models it is a nice ’starter phone’. Making the deal even better, Palm is offering Free Ground Shipping on all orders over $49.

Additionally, through June 11th you can save up to 50% on select accessories and get a free Palm® Aces Texas Hold â€Ë