When you like tech, bringing some (or a lot) of it into the car is a big deal. Here’s three ways to bring some or more of your electronic goodness into what you drive without breaking the bank.

Cigarette Lighter USB Adapter

Got something powered by USB that you’d love to have in the car? Use one of these little guys and it will fit the bill nicely. Cheap, too. Only 5 dollars. If you shop around enough you might even be able to score one for less than that.

Non-Slip Dashboard Mat

This little dashboard mat stays put and "sticks" whatever you place on it. They are made of material that is non-slip and "hold" things like cell phones and iPods. No installation required. Plop on the dash, put stuff on it, done deal. If one is not available at your local electronics store, try this eBay search. Prices are as low as 3 dollars. The better ones are washable.

Coffee Cup Power Inverter

Sure, you’ve seen power inverters for cars before that give you "three prong" outlets – but have you ever seen one shaped like a coffee cup? This one is, and it’s only 30 dollars. Sound like a lot? Not really when you realize how convenient this thing is. Usually when you plug in an inverter it is in a decidedly inconvenient spot, not to mention the inverter itself is large and might even scrape up against your leg while in use. This one has its own spot and it’s already in your car. Oh, and by the way, this also has a 500mA USB charging port on it too! You may not even need the cigarette lighter USB adapter above if you get one of these…

Over the course of the weekend I used the internet to find places most of you out there are aware of to get good stuff cheap. Most of you will know what these places/events are, but it’s how you find them that’s the important part.

Using Google Maps, with the category operator you can quickly find what you’re looking for in or near your local area.

For this example we’ll use Flea Markets, Thrift Stores and Estate Sales.

Flea Markets
(International visitors: flea market defined)

Usage: city state category:Flea Markets
Example using Tampa Florida

Thrift Stores
(International visitors: thrift store defined)

Usage: city state category:Thrift Stores
Example using Boston Massachusetts

Estate Sale
(International visitors: estate sale defined)

Usage: city state category:Estate Appraisal & Sales
Example using Dallas Texas

How do you find other categories in Google Maps?

Instead of using the category operator, just use your town/state and what you’re looking for when searching. Any category that appears in the list (there may be several) will sort by that category only.

Example: If I search for Tampa FL cars, I get a ton of listings.  But at the top left, I see the categories, and they look like this:

Note where it says Categories: Auto Repair, Auto Dealers Used Cars. Clicking one will sort by that category only.

Almost anything you search for in Google Maps will have a category for it. Use it and use it often. You will most likely discover many businesses you didn’t know existed that in turn give you more choices to shop for better deals.

Yes, this is a netbook 9-inch screen model that I’m talking about.

The computer industry is hurting right now so most of the larger OEMs are slashing prices left and right and Dell is no exception.

The Inspiron Mini 9 is selling well, but evidently not well enough so the price has been dropped significantly.

With Ubuntu Linux installed, the price is $249. With Windows XP, $299. But even with XP, that’s still cheap. I mean, seriously, you can’t even buy used decent units for that cheap.

New laptop, anyone?

At the present time you have 3 choices for affordable (keyword there) multi-core processors, that being dual-core, triple-core and quad-core.

If you’re going Intel you can do duals and quads. With AMD you have duals, triples and quads.

No matter what brand you go with, multi-core (sometimes known as many-core) is the way to go. They run circles around single-core CPUs, and if you’re not running one, you should, plain and simple.

As of now multi-core is cheap to run, and the motherboards that support them are also cheap to own and run.

On the Intel side, a retail-boxed (meaning it includes the fan and all that stuff) dual-core non-Celeron is $69.

On the AMD side, a retail-boxed dual-core is $45. True to tradition, when going AMD you do save money over Intel – both on the CPU and the motherboard.

And by the way, that AMD I linked is only a 45-watt. It’s cool, as in literally cool-running compared to the Intel which is a 65-watt.

The choice of which company to go with is ultimately your decision. At the present time I’m running an Intel dual-core and yeah, it’s awesome. But I’m quite sure AMD duals are just as nice.

For those of you out there wondering whether Windows XP has any issues with multi-core, the answer is no. XP has absolutely no issues with a multi-core processor. In fact, when I first used a multi-core with XP I was surprised it didn’t have any issues whatsoever. It just booted and ran exactly like it was supposed to do the first time and every time after that.

Multi-core is not expensive, and said honestly it’s the best possible upgrade you could do. Once you go multi, you never, repeat, never go back.

Let me say it another way. Have you ever dabbled in overclocking or the like with single-core CPUs? You don’t even need to bother when running multi-core. They’re plenty fast enough right out of the box. Yes, some super-gamer types may argue to the contrary, but for the rest of us, multi-core as-is is more than enough.

This is the mentality of many on the Internet. Or so it seems. People want everything for free, almost to the point where they’re willing to steal what isn’t already free. This attitude leads to people searching out pirated software and otherwise trying to find ways to get something for nothing. Is it wrong or is it justified?

Continued

DVD Burner: Samsung 20X DVD+/-R model SG-S202J, Black
Price: $22.99 (with free shipping, a true-blue $22.99)

My opinion: Samsung = Good brand, good deal.

19-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor: Acer AL1916WAbd
Price: $169.99 (with free shipping)

My opinion: Acer = Decent brand (not perfect but decent), awesome price point, 1440×900 which is proper for this size, 5ms and you can’t go wrong for this price. Has massively good reviews across the board. It is rare to see a monitor with that many positive reviews on it. And it’s cheap.

Computer keyboard: Lite-On SK-1788
Price: $6.99 + $7.00 shipping (yes, I know, ridiculous)

My opinion: One of the cheapest keyboards with low-profile keys on it (a plus). Also has laser-printed keycaps. What does this mean? It means the lettering won’t wear off as quick as others (another plus). In addition it has no branding on it and it’s low-noise (no CLICK-CLICK-CLACK-CLICK). For those that hate any sort of brand-label on their ‘boards, this is for you. Drawback: PS/2 and not USB. But nothing a converter can’t fix.

UPS: APC BE350R
Price: $43.99 + $15.47 shipping

My opinion: UPS + power outlets in brick form = convenient. Saves your box from going dead when the power goes out plus isn’t as inconvenient as a big-box UPS (but not as good either). For the price this is inexpensive. And yes I know this isn’t an upgrade per se but if you don’t have a UPS, get one.

Additional note to the above: I’m going to reinforce the point by saying this lil’ UPS is definitely not as good as the bigger brother versions. However it does get the job done in a minimal sense (i.e. if the power clicks off for a few minutes then comes back on, this will do the job – but for any outage longer than that, no).

I make it no secret that I’m very anti-cell phone. The main reason is because I do remember when the phone companies were literally screwing us blind in phone charges for land-line telecommunications back in the late 80s and early 90s.

Today’s wireless plans are essentially just as bad cost-wise.. and unfortunately no one sees this, but I digress.

I use a wireless phone not because I want to but because I have to, therefore I go cheap. With that said, here’s the lowest cost post-paid plans (meaning contractual agreements and not “pay as you go” pre-paid methods):

Verizon, AT&T, Alltel

Lowest possible price: $39.99 monthly, 2-year contract

You basically get the same features no matter which carrier you choose in this price range. All of them have free mobile-to-mobile (meaning same-carrier) minutes. AT&T is the only one that does NOT offer unlimited nights and weekends. All have 450 “anytime” minutes with the exception of Alltel that has 500.

The best deal in this price range is Alltel, no question. You get 50 more minutes plus the ability to add 1 “My Circle” number that doesn’t count against your 450.

Sprint, T-Mobile

Lowest possible price: $29.99 monthly, 2-year contract

T-Mobile offers 300 “anytime” minutes while Sprint only offers 200 monthly.

Does Sprint sound crappy? Not really when you consider their plan has unlimited nights and weekends while T-Mobile DOES NOT. T-Mobile only offers unlimited weekends but not weeknights and that’s a huge drawback.

Both carriers have the same perks so-to-speak as the higher-cost plans such as voicemail and so on.

. . .

So there you have it. Five major carriers in the USA with 2 of them on the low-low end of the price spectrum.

If you’re the type (like I am) that uses a wireless phone for basic and/or emergencies only, now you know how much it costs.