How to spend $100?

[pjpjpjpj]

I recently won a $100 Visa gift card. My money, for me to do with what I like, and it can't be used for practical things like paying bills, so no guilt from the wife!

I feel like I want to get something A/V-geeky. Some "gadget" of some sort. I'm debating an MP3 player of some sort (I don't have a lot of use for one, and I currently use my phone for the function, but it has a rather clunky interface). Is there any sort of home audio or home automation stuff that I could get started on for around $100 (I doubt it)? Any kind of cool network streaming devices, or wireless gadgets, or the like, that anyone has and LOVES?

Consider this an open chat about your favorite gadgets, similar to the fun thread about favorite "HTPC gems".

I'm open to suggestions.

If I don't come up with anything that really intrigues me, I'll probably just add some more hard drive space to the Sage system. Not terribly exciting, but useful...

[Bizarroterl]

Hard disk or a universal remote are the 1st 2 things that come to mind.

[reggie14]

I've never found phones to be very good alternatives to MP3 players. I bought an iPod Shuffle for jogging a couple years ago, and I really like it. It's so small you can easily bring it anywhere.

I got a great deal on a Harmony One remote last year and I love it. You probably won't be able to find one for $100, but I think the Harmony 650 would be a nice remote for about $100.

I very, very frequently use Netflix streaming on my blu-ray player. I'm using PlayOn on my bedroom TV, which usually works OK, but it's not nearly as nice as using an official player. I've thinking about getting a Roku box for my bedroom, partly because I might get Hulu Plus if they drop the price down to $5/month.

Or, the most boring, but perhaps the most practical option, is to simply get a 2TB hard drive. I can always find ways to fill up hard drive space. My 10TB unRAID server is filling up far faster than I thought it would.

[JetreL]

I would think a better remote or another Hard Drive, heck buy the Sage Linux License and start goofing around with that. Its always a good time to learn more about Linux. That is guaranteed to take up 3-5 weeks just getting it all set up.

My biggest problem is everything that I want now on the HTPC realm is in the $300-$1000 range.

If you are looking for a cheap MP3 player the Sansa E260s are around $50 you can flash them with Rockbox and tinker till your hearts content. With a nice pair of ear buds the players sound great too! (I found them on sale a few months back for $15 a piece, I bought 2 and have never looked back!)

[Spartan]

Do you have an iPhone or iTouch? I recently dumped my Harmony 890 RF (when it broke and cust support wouldn't replace it) in favor of this:

http://www.iruleathome.com

Love it.

[pjpjpjpj]

Spartan - does that thing work with Sage TV extenders? I'm intrigued....

[Spartan]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Spartan - does that thing work with Sage TV extenders? I'm intrigued....

Yes, but you'll have to install SageTCPServer. I have an HD200 extender upstairs and SageClient downstairs. I installed SageTCPServer on both my server and my client, and can control each via my (or my wife's) iPhone.

I set up an activities panel that looks like this:

http://screencast.com/t/sa76UPEQd

This is my upstairs sage control:

http://screencast.com/t/Y45Gic6vMO69

...and this my downstairs:

http://screencast.com/t/jWLMTxuYn

(The background matches the furniture of the room )

[GKusnick]

I don't want to be a party-pooper, but where did this card come from? Was it from someone you trust, or did you "win" it through some kind of rebate or product promotion deal? If the latter, then the issuer will probably be looking over your shoulder as you shop to see what you spend it on. If that doesn't bother you, fine, but in your shoes I would look for a way to convert the card to cash before spending it.

I spent my last rebate card on bus fare.

[Oats]

Take it to your bank, they will give you cash.

[RobJ]

But if it is in cash, his conscience or his wife may make him spend it on bills or groceries!

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I don't want to be a party-pooper, but where did this card come from? Was it from someone you trust, or did you "win" it through some kind of rebate or product promotion deal? If the latter, then the issuer will probably be looking over your shoulder as you shop to see what you spend it on. If that doesn't bother you, fine, but in your shoes I would look for a way to convert the card to cash before spending it.

I spent my last rebate card on bus fare.

Wow... I thought I was paranoid.

[darcilicious]

Unless you're already paying for cash for everything and have been doing so for the past decade or so, it's already a lost cause...

[drewg]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I recently won a $100 Visa gift card. My money, for

$100 is roughly the price point for smaller SSDs, which is the next "gadget" that I'm looking at. The goal to breath some more life into my 3 year old workstation.

Less fun, but you could always donate the card or its contents to a charity of your choice. There are lots of people who need that $100 more than anybody posting here needs a new gadget

Drew

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Unless you're already paying for cash for everything and have been doing so for the past decade or so, it's already a lost cause...

Just because my own bank might be spying on me doesn't mean I have to let some random card issuer I never heard of before do so as well.

[darcilicious]

.

[pjpjpjpj]

Holy cow, the drama!

I organized and ran my office's participation in a charity event and, as thanks, they bought me a gift card which was awarded to me at our company's Fall meeting. It's about as innocent as you can get. It's a Visa gift card that the office manager bought at her local grocery store (or somewhere like that). No malicious intent and believe me, it's not being monitored by anyone at my office.

Now, back to the topic of people talking about their favorite (relatively) inexpensive gadgets... or else I'll just use it to buy some new pants!!

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Just because my own bank might be spying on me doesn't mean I have to let some random card issuer I never heard of before do so as well.

Yeah but your banks is selling that info along with the stores. So really no privacy anymore anyhow.

[robk]

Take a look at a used Palm TX on ebay - some go for $100. I use a couple of cheap pay-as-you-go Boost and Trac phones - I don't have any use for a super-duper phone that does everything... so... I use a Palm TX : 480x320 color screen, WiFi "b", bluetooth, to read email, use google maps, and MOST important, use it to watch videos I record with Sage. I use a 3rd party program to transcode down to 480 x 320, 15fps, typically 4 or 5 movies fit on a 4Gig SD card (you need a special driver for 4Gig SDHC, 2 Gig capability is built in. There is a lot of useful software for the TX: media players (video and mp3), internet radio, TV, photo viewers, web browsers, etc. Since it's almost a "dead" OS, you can get tons of free software. I personally won't spend the monthly fee to run "apps" on an iPhone. The TX is a very capable device!
Rob

[flavius]

How about the new apple TV - I just ordered a second one.

[crusing]

Originally Posted by flavius

How about the new apple TV - I just ordered a second one.

I am curious, what value does the Apple TV bring to you as a sagetv user? Do you rent TV shows on Itunes?