How the Apple iPad can Save You $1,600 this Year

Apple iPad Can Save You Money by NOT buying other productsThe Apple iPad generates an amazing amount of positive and negative press. The day of the first announcement, I went down to my local Apple Retail Store to find out about the iPad for myself.  There were hundreds of people in line outside the store waiting to buy an iPad.

However, inside the store, the iPad demo units were not being used.  I walked in and spent one & a half hours playing with the iPad.  Two Apple Support Reps that were assigned to the demo units answered all my questions and showed me a few tips on using the new tablet.

I also went back to the Apple Store again this weekend to spend more time testing the iPad, asking other people for their feedback and watching how other people were using the new device.

Based on my own experience, the Apple Specialist Tips and all the other reviews, I quickly realized that the iPad packed a lot more into it than what I originally expected.

Without much effort, I was able to list out over $1,600+ of other product purchases that an iPad could replaced this year:

  • 10" HD Digital Photo Frame $200
  • Portable GPS for the Car $150
  • Netbook $350
  • Portable Game Console (high-end) $150
  • eBook Reader $250
  • Portable DVD Player $150
  • Small Portable 10" HDTV with Battery (If you can find one) $200
  • MP3 Music & Video Player  $150
  • Daily Newspaper (Paper) & Magazine Subscriptions $100 per year

Update: The total savings from NOT buying all these other items is now up to $1,700.

Of course, not everyone will feel that the iPad can really replace all these products.   If  you need specific features on a laptop or netbook for example, the iPad just won't do the job.   However, there are very few other products that can really do ALL these functions in a package the size, speed and feel of the iPad.

As a result, your Mother's Day, Father's Day, Graduation, Birthday, Anniversary and Christmas shopping just got a lot easier this year.

So what do You think?

Roku Player Update - Get 50,000 Videos, Movies, TV Shows & More on Your TV

Why do Cable Companies, Dish, DirecTV and AT&T U-verse have such a limited selection of Video-on-Demand and Pay-per-View Movies?  :(  We have no idea either.  However, this Holiday Season, we are buying a Roku Box to change all that... and if you love to watch movies (like we do), you should buy one too! Roku, NetFlix and Amazon have teamed up to provide you easy access to 50,000 Videos-on-Demand directly on your home or office TV.

* 40,000+ movies and TV episodes available from Amazon Video On Demand * 12,000+ movies and TV episodes available with your Netflix subscription * Start watching movies on your TV in seconds using your high-speed Internet connection * Instantly plays the entire Netflix Instant Watch library if you have a Netflix membership - no additional subscription cost required, and viewing is unlimited * Instantly plays over 45,000 movies and shows from Amazon Video On Demand * Connecting is easy - both Wi-Fi and Ethernet are built in * Works with virtually any TV - old or new - including HDTVs

New (November 2009), Roku just added the following 10 content channels to the product for FREE: Pandora, Facebook Photos, Revision3, Mediafly, TWiT, blip.tv, Flickr, FrameChannel, Motionbox and MobileTribe.

Premium Channels

  • Netflix - Play movies and TV shows from your Netflix Instant Queue
  • Amazon.com - Video on Demand - Browse, purchase, and play the latest hit movies and TV shows
  • MLB.com - Watch all out-of-market baseball games live and on demand

Free Channels

  • Pandora - Free service that plays music personalized for you
  • Facebook Photos - View your Facebook photo albums, as well as friends' photos
  • Flickr - Browse your own photos and public photos on Flickr
  • Mediafly - Your premier source of personalized, on-demand content from the web
  • Blimp.tv - Hosts and distributes the best original Web shows
  • twit.tv - Netcasts you love from people you trust
  • Revision3 - Home of Diggnation, Tekzilla and tons more great shows for the Internet generation
  • MobileTribe - Your favorite social networks are now on your Roku player

Roku Player Unboxing and Set-up - YouTube Video

It is very easy to set up the Roku Player.  There are four basic steps:

  1. Plug the box into your TV
  2. Connect the box to the internet using a direct cable or through your wireless Wi-Fi network
  3. Walk through the set-up menus on the TV screen
  4. Turn it on and start watching your first Movie or TV Show... or listen to Music with Pandora (new)

Watch the video below to see how one user unboxed and set up a new Roku Player for Netflix.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tepv9iLMO0]

Please comment with any tips that you can pass on for new Roku owners.

cnet review of the New Roku HD-XR Player

More Roku Information & Customer Reivews

There are three Roku models available.  Each product link (to Amazon.com) below provides you with more product information, current  pricing and customer reviews. Roku SD Player - Entry Level if you don't have HDTVs - $79 Roku HD Player - HDTV & WiFi - $99 (We're Buying This Model) Roku HD-XR Player - HDTV & Wi-Fi N-Dual Band (Newest Technology) 29