Productopia | Electronics

Wal-Mart's Black Friday circular includes a healthy variety of HDTVs. Videophiles looking for high-performance televisions will likely want to line up elsewhere, but there are a few decent deals to be had for those looking to score a respectable HDTV at an equally respectable price.

Before picking up an ebook reader for the holidays, many people were waiting for the debut of Barnes & Noble's Nook -- an ebook reader meant to go head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle. The Nook has now been out for less than a month, and it's already sold out for the holidays. Order a Nook now and it won't arrive before the week of January 4, according to an article in the New York Times Bits blog.

While the rumored $150 Acer Aspire One at Office Max turned out to be a mirage, shoppers looking to snag a sleek and stylish netbook still have some reasons to be merry this holiday season. There are some real lemons out there to be sure -- the $120 Kmart "netbook" deal we posted about earlier comes to mind -- but some good performers at substantial savings can be found at several retailers. Here are the details for some of the better deals we've spotted:

Though it's not the $50 Blu-ray player that some thought would be out there for Black Friday this year, the $78 Magnavox NB500 that Wal-Mart is offering as a doorbuster is still the cheapest Blu-ray player we've seen to date. This Funai-made player has been around for quite a while now under various brand names, including Philips and Sylvania, and has earned pretty good user feedback. Of course, there's a catch or two.

Best Buy is offering two cordless phone systems with significant price reductions:

• The Panasonic KX TG6413T, normally $85, will be marked down to $60.
• The VTech LS6215-2 Expandable Cordless Phone System, originally $60, will be on sale for $45.

So which phone is the better option? It's more expensive, but we think the Panasonic phone is the better deal.

More and more people are skipping car GPS receivers, The New York Times reports, and getting turn-by-turn directions from smartphones instead.

"More than 40 percent of all smartphone owners use their mobile devices to get turn-by-turn directions, according to data from Compete, a Web analytics firm," reports the Times' Jenna Wortham. "For iPhone users, the figure is even higher, eclipsing 80 percent."

And while smartphone sales keep rising, GPS device sales have plummeted, the Times says. Smartphones now look and perform a lot like traditional car GPS units, thanks to apps from major GPS makers. The Navigon Mobile Navigator (*Est. $90) and TomTom for iPhone (*Est. $100) both get good reviews, as do some cheaper apps like the MotionX GPS Drive by Fullpower (*Est. $3 per month or $25 per year).

The Nikon Coolpix L20 digital camera is a hot ticket for black friday 2009. We've already seen it in leaked circulars from Sears and OfficeMax, and now Target's recently leaked flyer is showing the L20 for $88. Target's price sits between those of Sears ($100) and OfficeMax ($80), both of which were deemed by us to be "no deals." While spending less than $100 for a digital camera is tempting - the L20 isn't even really worth that low price. As we've reported, the Nikon Coolpix L20 gets mixed professional reviews and many users reviews report blurry images and other issues. We recommend going with the Canon PowerShot SD480 (*Est. $105) if you're on a budget. See our cheap-digital camera report. for more best-reviewed (and affordable) cameras.

Though a few okay deals can be found, the Black Friday circulars leaked so far haven't held a lot of excitement for those looking to score a home-theater bargain for the holidays. The Best Buy Black Friday circular looks like more of the same for the most part, but one combo deal, a 50-inch Panasonic Viera TC-P50U1 plasma TV and a Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-ray player for just under $1,000, made us sit up a little. Taken together, it looks like a little better discount for decent tech than we've seen from many other retailers. Let's dig a little deeper.

The official start to the holiday shopping season -- Black Friday -- is rapidly approaching and stores are already starting to slash prices. At its recent CES Unveiled event, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicted a 3 percent decrease in spending from last year, based on their research. This is due to a number of reasons, including 53 percent of those polled in a recent CEA survey who say they are making less money than they were last year.

There will be plenty of deals to be had this holiday season, but the Vivitar digital camera listed in Kohl's leaked Black Friday circular for $60 isn't one of them. The 10-megapixel Vivicam X024 offers 3x optical zoom,  a 2.4-inch TFT LCD and video capture. So far, so standard. Here's what's not: the camera can't record sound. That's right, you can only make silent movies.

Vivitar digital cameras are virtually ignored by professional reviewers, and user reviews are scarce, particularly for the X024. We dug deep and found a sprinkling at Amazon.com and Pricegrabber U.K. - the highest rating the X024 receives is two out of four stars. Users complain of quick battery drain and feel duped by the lack of a mic to capture sound, something that's not mentioned anywhere in the product materials or on the Vivitar website.