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If you’ve got shopping on the brain, then these deals could assuage your money woes. Check out Gearlog’s deals for Thursday:

1. ThinkGeek is one of my favorite Web sites, mainly because they have the geekiest toys ever. They also have great deals, like this one. If you spend $30 or more at ThinkGeek between now and Thanksgiving, you can enter the coupon code ZOMBIETURKEY and you’ll get $10 shaved off your purchase. Remember, this is only good until November 26.

2. eCOST is having a great sale on HDTVs. The Samsung T240HD 24-inch 1080p LCD HDTV is only $355. It has 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for sharp images. The TV costs $499 at Best Buy, so check out eCOST for a cheap deal.

3.Dell is having a Pre-Black Friday Sale. Thanks to Dealnews.com, there’s a handful of deals you can get your hands on before next Friday. The Dell S𐸺WFP 17-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor (left) is on sale from $159 to $99. The screen has a 600:1 contrast ratio, producing sharp images and text. Beat the Black Friday rush, and order now!

Original post by Jennifer Bergen

Winter’s on its way. You’ll probably be spending money on new boots, scarves, hats, and gloves… but never fear, these cheap deals may also fit into your budget for the chilly season.

1. From eCOST.com, Samsung’s WEP250 Bluetooth Headset is on sale for only $12 with a $15 rebate. The headset is usually $39.99, but is on sale for 55 percent off of the original price. It’s a pretty basic Bluetooth headset, so if you′re looking for a cheap headset, this is a safe bet.

2. The Verbatim Wireless Multimedia Keyboard and Mouse is on sale from Buy.com. The set usually runs for $70.74, but is on sale for $19.98 after a $34.98 rebate. The keyboard has a media console that allows you to play and navigate through your music and Internet browser controls. Also, the mouse has an ergonomic design. How swell.

3. Another great find from Buy.com, the Kingston 8GB Multi-Kit Mobility Kit is only $20.96, down from $36. The all-in-one media kit combines a single card with dual adapters and a USB card reader to give mobile users a compatible storage for all SD and USB-compatible devices, including mobile phones, notebooks, digital cameras, and media players.

Original post by Jennifer Bergen

Filed under: Cellphones

We really, really like where this is going. First came the Zune puppet rap vid, followed by the equally astounding Large Hadron Collider joint. Now, we’ve got a video for all you G1 pre-orderers that’s sure to get your noggin’ bobbin’ as you patiently await the arrival of Android. And just as any true rap should, it unashamedly bashes the iPhone, Instinct and most every other “rival” on the market today. The best 3 minutes and 56 seconds of your day are about to occur — click on past the break and get it going. Word?

[Via Phandroid, thanks Rob]

Continue reading Android rap shows the G1 love, gives Google some street cred

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It look like Hollywood’s won the first round in court against RealNetworks′ RealDVD DVD-ripping software — Judge Maralyn Hall Patel (of Napster fame, remember her?) ruled yesterday that a temporary restraining order blocking sales of the software will stay in place indefinitely until she decides whether it violates the DMCA. The central issue is whether or not making a bit-for-bit copy of a DVD constitutes circumventing copy protection: the studios claim the encryption keys must be read off the disk under the terms of the license agreement, and RealNetworks obviously disagrees. There’s a lot at play here, including the studios’ argument that fair use doesn’t serve as a defense to backing up DVDs, so we’ll be tracking this one closely — it’s sadly clear to us that Hollywood’s fight here is against consumers having flexibility with their media, since it lost the battle against actual piracy ages ago.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Storage

Ok, it’s not by much, but world’s biggest is world’s biggest especially notable when it comes in a package this small. Toshiba just busted up its own record for 1.8-inch drive capacity with this new 250GB MKx⻽GSG series disk spinning at 5,400rpm — the previous 240GB 1.8-incher announced a few weeks ago is stuck with a slower PATA interface more suitable to portable audio players. That makes this 8.0-mm thick, 3Gbps SATA hard drive ideal for ultra-slim, ultra-portable laptops requiring snappy (and cheap compared to an equivalent capacity SSD) data access by your applications. At least it will be when it begins mass production in November.

[Via Impress]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: GPS

Sure, Garmin’s new nüvi 500 series can get you from point A to point G on paved and well-lit highways, but that’s not the (whole) point here. Instead, these rugged (and waterproof) navigators are geared up to take to the trails, waterways and sidewalks with one-touch transitions between driving, bicycling, boating and walking modes. The 500 includes road maps and topographic maps for the lower 48 US states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, while the 550 touts comprehensive street map coverage of the US and Canada. Both devices boast a 3.5-inch touchscreen, a removable, rechargeable battery, Garmin’s “Where Am I?” feature and geocaching support to boot. As for USers, you′ll find the 500 and 550 on sale in Q3 for $499.99, while those across the pond will see the nüvi 550 land this September for £299.

[Via GPSTracklog, thanks Rich]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

You didn’t really think we’d make it through his retirement without running the sexiest of all Bill photos, did you? We have to wonder what he′ll feel like tomorrow morning, though — we hear the headache on a 33 year software hangover is absolutely vicious.

Anyhow, just because the man’s left the building doesn’t mean you can’t take home a few of his fine products. Hit the contests below, they close up Sunday night.

Feel the love
The Bill Gates Engadgethology
Bill Gates: top ten greatest hits (and misses) - the Microsoft years
Engadget’s farewell card to Bill G
Bill Gates wipes away tears at Microsoft farewell
How would you change Microsoft if you were Bill Gates?
Celebrate Bill Gates Day with us here at Engadget

Contests
The Bill Day giveaway (part 1) - Toshiba Gigabeat T400
The Bill Day giveaway (part 2) - Office Ultimate 2007
The Bill Day giveaway (part 3) - Zune 80GB (black)
The Bill Day giveaway (part 4) - Windows Vista Ultimate

Read - Coverage of Bill’s farewell town hall event
Read - Clip from Bill’s little speech to employees

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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Well, Bill, it’s just about quittin′ time out here on the left coast, so with your final day at Microsoft drawing to a close, we wanted to present you with a little farewell card. It’s not much, but we hope you like it.

Bill,
I can’t believe you’re already taking off! They even going to let your pension fully vest? Just kidding, I think heard somewhere that you’re worth a lot of money or something. Thanks for the Xbox 360 and for always being so damn friendly — promise I’ll try my best to think only of Allchin whenever I bluescreen. Come visit soon and KIT, okay?
Yours Truly, Ryan

Continue reading Engadget’s farewell card to Bill G

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Original post by Engadget staff

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Being that it is Bill’s special day and all, we figured we’d give you a shot at stepping into his shoes and shaping Microsoft into something even more dominant that the juggernaut it is. Just imagine taking a seat in the biggest corner office Redmond has to offer, getting your Outlook set up, fiddling through a mess of old floppy discs and finally conjuring up a business plan. How in the world would you tweak / overhaul / etc. Microsoft if you were suddenly dubbed the big kahuna? We know this one’s wide (and we mean gaping wide) open, so feel free to write a book down there.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like there more than a few misty eyes around Microsoft’s Redmond campus today, where even the man of the day himself wiped away tears as he bid his official farewell to the company. According to Reuters, Gates was joined on stage at the employee-only event by CEO Steve Ballmer, who reportedly got choked up himself as he heaped praise on Gates, saying that “there’s no way to say thanks to Bill. Bill’s the founder. Bill’s the leader,” adding that, “this is Bill’s baby.” Ballmer also talked about how he had contemplated leaving Microsoft just a month after joining the company, only to have Gates persuade him to stay by saying “You don’t get it. You don’t get it. We are going to put a computer on every desk and in every home.” Say what you will about some of his predicitions, but he was sure on the mark with that one.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Damn, Bill, you have come a LONG way. Look at you there back in ‘82, you handsome devil. As part of our tribute, let’s take a quick look back at the top ten greatest (and not so great) products created on Bill-time, shall we? Don’t worry, it’ll only sting a little.

Continue reading Bill Gates: top ten greatest hits (and misses) - the Microsoft years

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Original post by Engadget staff

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

As part of our ongoing Bill Gates Day coverage, we present to you the Bill Engadgethology. This is by no means every Gates-related story from over the years — just the choicest cuts from Club Bill Gates.

Bill and us
The Engadget Interview: Bill Gates, Part 1
The Engadget Interview: Bill Gates, Part 2
The Engadget Interview: Bill Gates (again!)
Bill Gates, Engadget reader
A lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES
Bill Gates: the exit interview

Bill Gates live
Bill Gates: Live at Microsoft’s Digital Entertainment Anywhere Event
In real time: Engadget live from the Bill Gates 2005 CES Keynote at the Las Vegas Hilton
Live coverage of Bill Gates CES keynote
Live from the Bill Gates keynote
Live at the Windows Vista launch event
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: Historic discussion live from D 2007 -&gt Poll: Jobs and Gates sit down in an alternate reality
Bill Gates: live at his 12th and final CES keynote
Live from D: Gates and Ballmer debut Windows 7

Bill in high society
Bill Gates to get knighted -> Bill Gates getting knighted
Bill Gates the dropout to receive honorary Harvard degree, will finally be able to do something with his life
Bill Gates gets Harvard degree, not at all smug about it

Bill vs. “PC”
“I’m a PC.” “And I’m also a PC.”: Gates vs. Hodgman on Daily Show tomorrow?
Bill Gates on Mac ads: “I don′t even get it”
AdAge asks Gates about Hodgman to ill effect

More Bill after the break. Photo by Brennanator.

Continue reading The Bill Gates Engadgethology

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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Announcements

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/microsoft/Bill_Gates_Retires_Today’; The end of an era; a fresh beginning; good riddance — whatever you think of Bill’s final day at Microsoft, it’s impossible to deny that his tenure there helped forever re-shape not just technology, but the world as we know it. So we′re declaring June 27th Bill Gates Day here at Engadget and hopefully you′ll forgive us for, like, totally tearing up now that he’s finally stepping out of his role as nerd-baron and into the shoes of full-blown immortal philanthropist. Hey, it’s Sir William Henry Gates III’s world, we just live in it — that means you, too, Steve.

We’ll miss you big guy.

P.S. -Keep this on the DL, but we heard this rumor he′s thinking of returning to uni for his post-post-post-doc, and it won′t even be honorary. We′ll keep you posted. In the mean time today, expect plenty more Bill.

Continue reading Celebrate Bill Gates Day with us here at Engadget

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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Man, who could have predicted back in 1978 that this collection of nerds, dweebs, and hippies would come to rule the desktop? A time when a PC in every home was just a vision and 640KB of memory ought to be enough for anybody. That’s the original Microsoft “family” re-photographed 30 years later (minus Bob Wallace who died in 2002) as Bill Gates slips into retirement tomorrow. It’s better than a gold watch we guess. Who’s who after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft, then and now

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

While Bill Gates’ imminent retirement from Microsoft is understandably a cause for some quiet moments of reflection for some, it’s also given folks an excuse to dig up some tidbits from Gates’ tenure that have somehow gone unnoticed or unheralded in the past few years, one of the juiciest of which comes in the form of a 2003 email that Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligence has thankfully given fresh light. In it, Gates rips into “how Windows Usability has been going backwards” as he details his long, arduous attempts to download Moviemaker and buy the then new Digital Plus pack. While there’s far to many gems to include here, a few of Gates’ stand-out observations include how “crazy” it is that it took six minutes to install “a bunch of controls” before he was able to install Moviemaker, and his disappointment that he had to reboot his machine even though he reboots it every night. Eventually, after (apparently) getting Moviemaker installed, Gates decided to go digging in the add/remove program options to ensure that it was installed, only to find it missing, which prompted him to declare that, “someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable,” adding that, “this program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.” Needless to say, we’d recommend hitting the read link below to check out the full must-read email.

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Original post by Donald Melanson