Buy a cheap netbook for basic computing needs

The netbook trend that has taken the market by storm really started with the vision of one techno-optimist named Nicholas Negroponte. This MIT professor started a nonprofit called One Laptop per Child that aimed to make small, inexpensive laptops available to Third World children.

The for-profit computer manufacturers responded quickly by rolling out their own versions of ultra-cheap lightweight mini-laptops when they caught wind of MIT’s nonprofit plan.

One of the first companies to make money with netbooks was Asus with the Eee (pronounced “triple E”) PC. Today a basic Eee model starts at just under $200 when you find it on sale.

Other manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Acer all have their own netbooks. The typical screen size is about nine or ten inches and they generally operate on Windows XP or Linux. These “wundercomputers” are designed for the basics and not much else: Web surfing, e-mailing, word processing, and cheap VoIP service.

So for around $200, a business traveler can take a two-pound netbook as a substitute for a regular laptop instead of paying $2,000 for a traditional one and having to lug around ten or fifteen pounds of extra baggage.

The neat thing is that netbooks are suddenly out, and the hip and in thing is the iPad and competing tablets. Consequently, netbooks are seen as the redheaded stepchild of the industry and have dropped severely in price. For my money, though, I still want a physical keyboard.

A word about the tablet market: If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to the iPad, it’s still too early. Give it at least six months and you’ll be rewarded with very nice tablets at very nice prices.

I expect tablets to be priced so low they’ll become impulse purchases by the middle of 2012. One of the key indicators telling me so is that VIZIO is entering the tablet market. VIZIO is the number-one seller of TVs and the company that’s had the most to do with driving down the cost of HDTVs. When VIZIO enters a market, it builds stuff of very high quality, at lower prices than anybody else says is possible.

Tablets that run on the Android platform will be the real bargain, not Apple tablets. With tablets, people get hung-up on screen size, but the real key is to know what version of Android a tablet is running before you buy it. As new versions come out, people will dump their older-version Androids, and you may steal a deal on a used tablet, but it’s up to you to make sure the version it’s running will do everything you want.

Sell your gently used electronics

If you’re like most Americans, you have gently used electronics lying around your house that you wouldn’t really miss. A couple of websites have now popped up that will give you the opportunity to turn your e-trash into cash in an environmentally responsible way.

Gazelle.com is just about the most popular of these “cash for old gadgets” ventures. You simply log on to Gazelle and enter the make and model of your electronics—everything from cell phones, MP3 players, computers, and cameras to GPS systems and gaming consoles.

If they see resale value in what you’ve got, the service then makes you an offer. Customers are sent a box to ship their item(s) in and Gazelle even pays for the postage. It typically takes about a week before you’re paid once they receive your package. Gazelle says they remove all personal info from your devices before selling them off to wholesalers and retailers.

If what you’ve got isn’t worth anything, they’ll still take your e-trash off your hands and recycle it for free.

Many major retailers are now partnering with Gazelle. That means you can log on to the websites of Costco Wholesale, Walmart, and Sears to do your transaction. If you go that route, payment is remitted in store gift cards.

Other websites that offer a similar service to Gazelle include MyBoneYard.com, which offers Visa gift cards for laptops, desktop PCs, cell phones, and flat-panel monitors; and TechForward.com, which requires a fee to lock in a guaranteed value. A couple of newer entries into the marketplace are eBay’s Instant Sale program and EcoSquid.com. The latter acts like an aggregator of various recycling programs across the Web.

Finally, I’ve used Best Buy’s recycling program over the years. You can turn in up to two old electronics items at the Geek Squad counter and they’ll take them off your hands for free. There can be a charge of up to $10 for certain items, but then you get a store gift card for $10.

Of course, the possibility of a pay option is more enticing, right?

Consider the cost of replacement ink when buying a new printer

With computers being an undeniably popular item year after year, I want to share a tip that can help you save money on one important accessory.

A printer is the kind of purchase that I see people making based on price sensitivity. Few understand that the real cost of a printer is not its up-front expense but rather the cost of replacement ink over its lifetime.

One study I’ve seen from the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay suggests that the cost of printer ink is nearly $10,000 per gallon. Wow is all I can say!

Hewlett-Packard—the dominant printer company—is the perfect example of the traditional printer business model. They lose on every HP printer they sell, but they make a zillion dollars on ink cartridges. It’s an idea borrowed from Gillette, which takes a haircut on razor handles but makes a profit on replacement blades.

One printer company has flipped this business model on its head. Kodak makes money on its printers and sells ink at rock-bottom prices. This approach has won Kodak only about a 2 percent market share in the printer business. But it can mean long-term savings for you if you’re willing to pay the $150 or so for a Kodak printer up front.

I bought an early-generation Kodak printer that was so-so on quality, but now I have a newer one that I really like. Some people have complained to me about recommending Kodak printers; however, I haven’t had any problems with my new one. And I really love the cost of replacement cartridges, which can be as little as $9. You get a lot of pages for that $9. I usually buy cartridges in multipacks at Sam’s Club.

Regardless of what kind of printer you have, there’s an easy way to save money on ink. Buy generic cartridges if available for your printer from your store of choice. The major office supply stores all offer their own in-house brands.

You’ll find much cheaper prices on eBay, but be warned that sometimes the cartridges don’t work!

Beware of bait-and-switch when buying cameras online

The online sale of cameras and accessories can often be a tricky business. Toward the end of the last decade, the attorney general of the state of Texas brought charges against two online retailers—Broadway Photo, L.L.C., and Starlight Camera & Video, Inc.—that were accused of the old bait-and-switch routine.

Consumers who would make a purchase that was advertised as new would often receive refurbished or used gear. In 2011, both companies were fined by the Texas attorney general. Starlight had to pay $5,000 up-front and must dissolve as a corporation—or pay another $250,000! And Broadway Photo got hit with $100,000 in fines right off the bat, but can keep doing business in the Lone Star State.

Here’s some advice for those who are going to buy just about anything on the Internet. First, stick only to sellers that have multiple positive ratings—not just one or two glowing postings from family and friends. You can use Epinions.com to vet out potential vendors. Or use a search engine like Google or Bing and enter the vendor’s name plus the words “rip-off” or “scam” to see what kind of gripes are out there in cyberspace.

Many times I’m willing to pay more to buy from a reputable seller.

Second, pay only with a credit card—not a debit card or a check or a PayPal account linked to a checking account. With a credit card, you have the right to dispute the charge within sixty days if your merchandise never shows up or is not what was advertised.

Sometimes a deal is not a deal, particularly if you’re dealing with hoodlums.

Get free software online for office use

If you have a small business, you know that software can be expensive. For many years, Microsoft enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the world of office productivity suites and was able to charge sky-high prices for Microsoft Office. But the software giant’s primacy has been challenged in recent years by free services from OpenOffice.org and Docs.Google.com.

Surprisingly, only 6 percent of people have ever used software alternatives to Microsoft Office. I’m not one of those anti-Microsoft people, but I’d rather you save the dough.

OpenOffice works like traditional software that you download to your computer and is interoperable with Microsoft Word. Google Docs, however, works via “cloud computing.” That is a fancy way of saying that your documents are stored not on your computer but in a password-protected “cloud” on the company’s server. The benefit is that documents can be accessed from any computer, anywhere in the world. Visit Docs.Google.com for more info.

In fact, I worked with my coauthors on this book using another free office productivity suite at Zoho.com. The service is free for up to three people and allows easy collaboration without having to e-mail documents to one another.

Not wanting to fall behind the times, Microsoft recently introduced a a new business model, called Office 365, that borrows from cloud computing and makes it more affordable to everyone. All the programs are password protected and available from any computer, anywhere. Best of all, it’s available via a subscription model. You pay $6 per user each month for up to twenty-five users. So a one-person company would be $72 per year. Visit Office365.Microsoft.com for more details.

GETTING ONLINE

Consider naked DSL

For a long time if you wanted your high-speed Internet from a phone company, you had to purchase a landline as a prerequisite. The phone monopolies thought they were smart pushing obsolete landline technology on consumers who wanted modern DSL.

But now there is another option called “naked DSL.” The term was originally coined by Qwest Communications to describe high-speed Internet access without a landline.

Naked DSL typically appeals to younger generations like my college-age daughter or my twenty-seven-year-old assistant producer, Joel Larsgaard. But it’s also great for older consumers who have dropped landline phone service.

The nation’s two big traditional phone monopolies—AT&T and Verizon—each have their own versions of naked DSL. A basic version of AT&T’s FastAccess DSL is available for $15 to $20 per month with a twelve-month contract. Verizon, meanwhile, charges you $10 more a month (with a two-year annual contract) to go naked.

As a result of its purchase of NBC, Comcast is now required to sell high-speed stand-alone Internet without having you buy a landline or cable service. The Comcast offer looks like it’s pricing out around $20 per month with a six-month contract right now. But check on these offers often; the providers are always trying to attract more market share, and you never know what you’ll find.

Visit ATT.com, Verizon.com, and Comcast.com for more details.

Talk to customer retention at your ISP to get a better deal

Are you thinking about firing your high-speed Internet service provider (ISP) because it’s too expensive? Don’t do it before trying to negotiate to see if your ISP can offer you a better deal. Essentially what you want to do is play one provider against another and make them compete for your business.

The trick is simple: Research what other deals the marketplace is offering and present them when you speak to the customer service representative. You can use a website like WhiteFence.com to get quotes. Once you have those quotes in hand, share them with your current provider and ask them to make it worthwhile for you to be their customer. It’s just a matter of calling up and negotiating.

You’ll likely be switched to the customer retention department. Sometimes if you threaten to fire them as a company, you’ll magically be offered a cheaper deal that might be unpublished elsewhere.

Several years ago, I was paying the outrageous price of $43 per month for high-speed Internet. When I told the customer retention specialist that I was about to cancel, she offered me three months for $9.99 per month. She also told me to call back again in ninety days to see if I could get the same deal.

Well, I was so excited about saving $100 in a four-minute phone call that I went on my show and blabbed about it to the world. Then my SmartMoney magazine arrived in the mail days later and knocked me down a notch. The issue said not to take any three-month offers and to keep fighting for more. In fact, the reporter was able to get a discount on service for an entire year.

Now that’s some real negotiating!

Having been a loyal Media-Com subscriber for 15 years, I thought maybe they would offer me a good-customer discount. After playing phone tag for several minutes, I got a supervisor and pleaded my case. She suggested that I sign up for a yearly subscription instead of the month-to-month service. (I did not know they even offered it and they do not advertise it.) My monthly rate was $120 (Internet, cable, phone, etc.) but after signing the contract, my bill is now $84 per month, saving me $36 per month or $432 per year. The catch? There is a $45 penalty if I cancel anytime before one year. Let’s see—it might cost me $45 but I could save $432 over a year . . . duh! Loyalty pays off, but you have to ask!
Gerald M., IA

Drop the cable and telephone monopolies as ISPs

Much of America has suffered under the shared duopoly of the local phone companies offering DSL and the cable giants offering cable modem service. But those who live in distant suburbs or rural areas might have access to only one or even none of those choices.

Now things are about to change.

CLEAR—a technology that sends out a blanket high-speed Internet signal to cover an entire metro area—is available in most cities across America. With CLEAR, you can have either floating or fixed wireless Internet. The former allows you to access the Internet when traveling at speeds of about seventy miles per hour—hopefully as a passenger rather than as a driver!

I used a first-generation version of CLEAR (then called “Clearwire”) at my Florida beach home and was very impressed with it. Now I’m on the new CLEAR and it is amazing, much faster. I pay about $24 per month and have been impressed by its reliability over the course of nearly five years. But keep in mind that prices will likely fluctuate as CLEAR rolls out to more markets. The entry of a third player is always a game changer in a capitalist system.

One word of caution: Be wary of your current Internet service provider trying to lock you into a long-term contract ahead of CLEAR’s arrival in your market. With the way technology changes, you definitely don’t want to be locked in!

Beware of subsidized electronics offers

As netbooks and tablets have become hot items, I’ve noticed more and more subsidized offers promising to put these tiny cutting-edge computers that weigh practically nothing into your hands for as little as $49. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon have all stepped up with offers of this sort in past Christmas selling seasons.

Sounds like a great deal, right? Actually, no, it’s not.

If you accept the offer, the subsidized electronics devices come with a contract for an overpriced two-year data plan. You’ll pay massive overage fees if you exceed the data cap. So while you might save yourself $80 to $100 on the up-front costs of a netbook or a tablet, you could wind up paying as much as $1,500 extra over two years because of the restrictive data agreement.

This marketing push is very similar to what we saw in the 1990s when AOL, CompuServe, and others offered a free computer in return for signing a three-year contract for dial-up service. You’ll be better served today by competitively shopping for the electronics item you want using a site like DealNews.com (mentioned earlier in this chapter) and going with an unlimited Internet service plan of your choosing.

MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR

Make minor computer repairs yourself

Imagine you have a gadget, a gizmo, or even an appliance that’s sitting unloved in your home because it’s broken. Instead of junking it or hiring someone to fix it, you might want to consider repairing it yourself.

Now, there is nothing I’m capable of repairing myself, but I know there are lots of you out there who are pretty handy. It turns out there is a website devoted to you called iFixIt.com that I’ve been getting a kick looking through.

iFixIt.com offers repair manuals, step-by-step instructions, and diagnostic tools to help you troubleshoot problems, with an emphasis on electronics repair. It also offers links to any parts you might need for the repair. What’s more, the site is truly collaborative. Users can post additional information and fix-it tips with each article.

Historically, the choice to fix or trash electronics has been a tough one. Once an electronics item is out of its initial manufacturer’s warranty, it never pays to have it repaired because electronics depreciate so quickly in value. But that’s not a viable answer for someone who is short on cash and cannot afford a replacement but is motivated to try the do-it-yourself route.

So next time, instead of running to the electronics repair shop, give it a go yourself with iFixIt.com.

Don’t buy a Windows recovery disc from a store

Several years ago, Best Buy and the now defunct Circuit City came up with a new way to rip off customers buying computers—and it has nothing to do with extended warranties! According to PC World, these retailers were trying to get customers to pay for Windows recovery discs.

These backup discs are rarely needed, but retailers have found a way to boost profits by tapping into the “what if?” fear of consumers who may not know a lot about computers. It turns out that you can make these discs yourself or buy them from the manufacturer for half of what the stores charge you.

PC World got so fired up over the whole issue that they sent in secret shoppers to get the real scoop. The shoppers found that Circuit City pushed them hard to pay an extra $30 for the store-made recovery discs. At Best Buy, three out of five stores visited told the secret shoppers that it’s not possible to make the backup discs yourself.

Very often a recovery disc will be included with your new computer, so be sure to check the packaging thoroughly. If not, Acer, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo all say that you can create your own recovery disc using the preinstalled software on your store-bought PC. All Acer and HP notebook models come with instructions and software for creating the recovery discs.

Shake your printer cartridge for maximum value

I really hate to waste things. So I was excited when I read a TechWorld.com report about how manufacturers of the cartridges we all use in our printers give you a notice that your cartridge is empty when nearly 60 percent of the ink is still left. If you throw it out at that point, more than half the ink you pay for goes unused!

So when your computer tells you to replace the cartridge, instead just pull it out and shake it. You’ll probably get several weeks more use out of it. Manufacturers have a clear financial incentive to shortchange you and make you buy more of their product. What you pay to print per page skyrockets if you throw that cartridge out or recycle it too early.

Multi-ink cartridges are the worst because they have individual ink banks for up to three or four colors. Any one of them can run out before the others do. Another way to save money on ink cartridges is to get them refilled. Manufacturers hate it when you do this. The studies I’ve seen haven’t yet shown decisively if the refilled ink is of a good quality or not.

So just shake it up, baby!

Meanwhile, Samsung is one of the few companies that makes printers with a toner saver button that can reduce the amount of ink you use per page by 40 percent. Over time, that becomes a great savings.

Another way to reduce your ink use is to change the font you use to print. The general consensus out there seems to be that Century Gothic is just about the most economical font.

Avoid extended warranties on computers

I hate extended warranties in general but no more so than on computers. The profit margins for retailers are huge, and it never makes financial sense to insure a rapidly depreciating asset like a computer.

Let’s run through one scenario: Say you buy a warranty that extends your coverage on a new laptop purchase to three years. And let’s say that computer finally croaks ... at two years, eleven months and twenty-nine days. You’re feeling great because you’re covered for repair, right? You dodged a bullet.

But computers depreciate in value like few other things. The value of that computer you bought two years and eleven months ago is today not even worth the price of the extended warranty you purchased on it.

There’s a theory in the computing world called “Moore’s Law.” It states that the number of transistors that can be cheaply put on a circuit doubles every two years and the cost steadily declines. For you and me, this simply means computers are getting better and faster all the time, roughly every two years. So a three-year-old computer that breaks down is not worth what you paid for the warranty to repair or replace it. It’s just an expensive doorstop.

Many credit cards will double the manufacturer’s original warranty up to one additional year if you use them to make your purchase. That’s the “Clark Smart” way to get an extended warranty for free!

STAYING SAFE ONLINE

CLARK’S GREATEST HITS
Avoid the ten most common online passwords
With all the talk of high-level hacking, it’s easy to forget that we are the ones who make ourselves most vulnerable on a very individual level. PC Magazine recently compiled a list of the ten most common passwords in the United States today. Do not use these on confidential e-mail accounts!
1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. link182
10. (your first name)
These are the first passwords that a criminal will try when attempting to hack your account. Other types of passwords you want to avoid are birthday dates and the names of your children or spouse.
I’ve had some particularly creative passwords over the years. In the past, I’ve used an employee ID number from a company I worked at in the 1970s. Then I came up with an even better idea, which I can’t divulge for obvious security reasons!
The key is to create a password that is unrelated to anything someone might be able to find out about you if they were digging into your background. Tricky alphanumeric passwords—ones that include letters, numbers and symbols—usual ly work best.

Know what personal info not to post to social media sites

The growth of social networks like Facebook and Twitter has been amazing—and they’re only poised to get more popular. While these services offer a great way to reconnect and keep in touch with old friends, I have to recommend the utmost caution about what you post in your profile.

A new Experian study has found that more than half of adults age forty-five and over post enough info on their Facebook page to open themselves to identity theft. Meanwhile, more than a third of people of any age haven’t put any privacy settings in place on their Facebook accounts.

Some privacy experts are now suggesting you lie about your city and gender as a way to protect yourself. But that defeats the purpose of having Facebook as a safe venue where you can trust sharing info with your contacts.

Here’s a quick rundown of information you shouldn’t post on Facebook: full home address, place of birth, phone numbers, and educational background.

While I don’t want to scare you away from the joys of feeling connected, I do want you to be smart about it and stay safe.