Amazon: No more Wrap Rage!

OK, so maybe this isn't the most high-level IT topic I've covered, but I've got to hand it to Amazon for trying to find a serious solution for a serious problem. They're working with manufacturers to eliminate overpackaged, hard-to-open containers for merchandise!

While on some level, Mother Nature is breathing a sigh of relief, there are also tangible benefits in terms of cost and frustration as well as weight. Heck, there's a closet-industry built up around devices to open modern blister packs!

In my day toys came in a cardboard box, possibly with some assembly required and with at most a small plastic window to see some of the contents inside. The current trend of exposing as much of the toy as possible in a demo mode is so ungodly frustrating to me that it makes me want to strangle kittens. Knowing that I'll be undoing half a roll of tape and a few dozen steel twist-ties is frustrating!

Just package the stuff in an appropriate, but not overdone package. A lot of computer stuff is already very lucky in this regard, but tons of consumer-oriented gear is not. Nobody is putting their greasy mitts on an Amazon product in a retail store. You don't have to compete with other items on the shelf. It's all going to ultimately come in a plain brown wrapper no matter what, so let's save time, material, plastic, frustration, etc. and see some more sensible packaging. Good job, Amazon! Keep it up.

The Usual Subjects

Finding a good deal on pretty much anything is tricky nowadays. Fortunately, deal aggregators do most of the work for you. You'll often see Internet forum posts with a note to "check the Usual Suspects" for deals, coupons, etc. The big computer OEMs --Dell, Lenovo and HP in particular are noted for running big sales. These sites aren't just good for computer/electronic stuff, either. I've scored free magazine subscriptions and all sorts of cheap stuff.

Who are the usual suspects? I like to use these guys, in rough order of preference:

• Slickdeals.net
• NewEgg Daily Deals
  
• Dealnews.com (And affiliates, DealCoupon and DealMac)
• Dealsea.com
• Buy.com Deals
  
• GotApex
• FatWallet

Special mention goes out to Woot. Woot.com only offers one random thing a day, but the deal is usually stupidly good. Shirt.woot.com offers one T-shirt a day -- designs vary, but it's $10, shipped. I highly recommend both.

Got any more? Post a comment and tell me about your favorite!

Gateway Ditches Direct Sales

It seem like so long ago, but once upon a time, Gateway was one of the darlings of the early direct-sales model. They were exceedingly competitive with the likes of Dell through the P2/P3 era and instrumental in the whole paradigm of ordering custom-configured computers first over the phone and later over the web.

Gateway, now a subsidiary of Acer, has floundered tremendously in the last few years. The idea of selling product directly and indirectly through Gateway Country stores floundered and they had begun selling through retail and e-tail channels.

This weekend, Gateway announced that they're giving up entirely on direct sales, and going to a 100% pre-configured, non-customized sales model. Last week, buying a pre-configured computer at 'retail' was just an option if you wanted a Gateway. Now, you get a choice of pre-configured systems and no more.

I'm going to call this one as a bad move, even if there are massive cost-savings that can be passed down to consumers. They're basically giving up on the business markets and high-end prosumer, leaving the low-margin "plain old computer" buyer.

Good luck, Gateway...