It’s tough to let go of the past.  I remember when I bought my first DVD player 10 or 12 years ago; I loved the high-resolution digital video and audio it provided, but what was I supposed to do with my huge collection of VHS tapes?  Not only would it be expensive to transfer or replace them, but I found I’d formed a strange, sentimental attachment to those clunky, obsolete icons of analog.  So away they went, into boxes in the attic, not to be seen again for a decade.  A funny thing happened, though… I missed ‘em.  When I found a great deal online on a side-by-side DVD/VHS player, opening those boxes back up and digging through my old tapes was like Christmas morning.  Oh, how empty my life had been without you, Robocop 2! 

Today’s deal of the day works in much the same way.  Sure, digital photos have proven their superiority conclusively at this point, which is what makes the frame’s widescreen digital display so enticing.  Photo slideshows accompanied by MP3s?  Yes, please!  But I still have plenty of old-fashioned paper photos lying around.  Are they no good anymore because they were taken in 1988?  Of course they’re still good!  And they deserve a place of honor next to the stupid pictures I took with my BlackBerry at 3 a.m. on St. Patricks Day. 

Choices are overrated when you can have it all.  Thanks, GPX!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I happen to believe GPS navigation devices to be one of history’s greatest inventions.  For a chump like me who wouldn’t know north from south if the Civil War was still being fought, it’s a true Godsend to have a magical electronic friend to tell me where to turn to find the nearest KFC.  My only gripe with GPS devices like today’s deal of the day is that they don’t go far enough.  I think you know what I’m talking about—If my satellite navigation gadget is so good at finding the best route home, why isn’t it driving the car?

Sure, there’s the problem to be solved of how to prevent our robot chauffeurs from crashing into stuff, but if we’ve got the technology to pinpoint our car’s location from SPACE, it can’t be much more of a bother to slap a couple of proximity sensors on the bumpers, can it?  Every time I think about it, my eyes glaze over:  Instead of playing footsie with my brake pedal during my morning commute, I could just curl up on the couch in the back of my SUV and with the latest issue of Star magazine and watch that episode of Law and Order:  SVU that I recorded the night before.

Hey, obviously I’m too lazy to unfold a map, is it really so difficult to believe that I’m too lazy to drive?  What’s the point of creating all of these fancy robots if I still have to drive my own Chevy?  Let’s put that bailout money to good use, if only to see the look on a cop’s face when he has to write my Nextar a ticket.

I’m going to admit something very personal and troubling to you today.  Until today, I had no idea what a megapixel was.  For all I knew, it was just some arbitrary number tacked on to the model number of a digital camera, intended to make your new toy sound more technically advanced.  Sure, I had a vague idea that megapixels in some way correlated to the image quality a camera produces, but which was more desirable—more megapixels or fewer?  And what exactly is the difference between megapixels and pixels?  For whatever reason, they didn’t cover this stuff in junior college. 

When you find yourself ignorant on a given topic, it’s always a good idea to ask someone smarter than you to teach you some basics.  So, I asked the Internet.  The Internet tells me that a megapixel is one million pixels, and that it’s a term often used to refer to the number of sensor elements in a digital camera.  For example, a camera with an array of 2048×1536 sensor elements is commonly said to have "3.1 megapixels."  So, the more sensor elements, the better image quality you get from a camera, right?

Well, sort of.  In theory, more megapixels are better.  But as camera makers cram more and more megapixels into their products, the limitations of the “more sensors=better” ideal are becoming apparent.  Chiefly, the sensor elements have gotten smaller and smaller as manufacturers race to stuff their cameras full of more megapixels, meaning some of the smaller, high-megapixel cameras out there today are less sensitive to light, leading to poorer image quality overall.

Why are camera makers trying to cram more megapixels into digital cameras?  Well, because most people are like me and don’t have any real notion as to what a megapixel is.  All we know is that more is always better, and camera makers discovered they could charge more for cameras that boasted a ton of megapixels.  That’s why today’s deal of the day is such a steal.  Not only is the Kodak EasyShare M341 a name-brand camera with enough megapixels (12.2) to churn out high-quality photos in any light conditions, but it also happens to be cheaper at BuyersHQ.com than you’ll find anywhere else on the Web.  It’s the best of both worlds!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to ask the Internet what “digital” means.

It seems absurd now, but when I first heard about this new thing called “Wi-Fi” years ago, my first thought was, “What’s the point?”  These were heady days not far removed from the crackle and screech of dial-up 14.4 baud modems, and the idea of removing the wires altogether seemed strange.  Was it really worth the money spent just to have a little less clutter under my desk?  It didn’t help that all the early reports indicated that wireless routers were notoriously unreliable (not everything changes). 

Why couldn’t I see the potential for Wi-Fi?  It’s simple:  Back then, everyone I knew that jacked into the Internet was using a big, boxy desktop CPU.  Laptop computers were for total chumps—you couldn’t even play a decent game of Doom II on one of those toys!  Unless you were some hack novelist or a sports writer or something, laptops just wouldn’t cut it in the days of Windows 95—at least, that’s what I believed.  Who needed wireless Internet when all our computers were immobile lumps of plastic?  Nobody was rushing out to lug their Compaq Presario down to the coffee shop.

Today, of course, I wouldn’t be caught dead purchasing a big, boxy desktop CPU.  I love my Toshiba Satellite like a member of the family, and Wi-Fi was officially crowned the greatest invention in history the first time I checked my e-mail from the bathroom.  Thanks to today’s deal of the day, the AirLink 101 ASB-10DA 2.4 GHz 10 dBi Indoor Directional Patch Antenna, I can make sure there’s not a single spot in my vast mansion where I can’t get a quality signal, so now I can finally surf the Web from my attic.  Just goes to show that as an Internet visionary, I make a great cheapskate bargain hunter.

If you’ve got a Blu-ray player and an HDTV, there’s absolutely no excuse not to own Planet Earth Vol. 1.  If you’ve already seen the BBC documentary series, you already know why you should own it.  If you haven’t seen Planet Earth yet, let today’s deal of the day serve as notice that it’s time.

In a nutshell, Planet Earth is the nature documentary for those of us who typically don’t watch nature documentaries.  Four years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and also the first to be filmed in high definition.  Believe me, the patient work and Hi-Def technology shows up on the screen.  Not only are some of the most rare and beautiful natural behaviors on our planet captured on film in Planet Earth, but the visuals are so eye-popping and stunning that they’ll put the rest of your Blu-ray collection to shame. 

Volume 1 collects the first three episodes of Planet Earth, giving you the perfect introduction to the series.  In case you’ve just recently purchased a Blu-ray player, today’s Pure AV Performance Pack is also the perfect introduction to HD video, because just for kicks it included a 6-foot HDMI cable.  Elsewhere on the Web, you’d be lucky to find either the Planet Earth disc or the HDMI cable alone for $13.99, let alone both.  But here at Buyers HQ, we’re cool like that.  If Planet Earth has taught us anything, it’s that conservation is vital.  So order this fantastic hi-def package today and conserve that paycheck!

The first time we featured the First Alert SRC500 Storm Light on BuyersHQ.com was back in January, right after Haiti was devastated by an earthquake.  In an effort to do our part to help, Buyers HQ donated a portion of each sale that day to the Red Cross’ relief efforts.  In the grand scheme of things, our donation was small, but we did our best.  Thanks to everyone who purchased a storm light/radio in January, and if you missed your chance, today’s your lucky day!

So, two months later, how is Haiti doing now?  Well, they’re still in very rough shape, as you can imagine.  The island nation is in a holding pattern as it awaits a March 31 international donors’ conference in New York with the hope of kick-starting the reconstruction effort.  According to a draft summary of the Haitian government’s damage and needs assessment released last week, Haiti will need $11.5 billion to build anew.

Today, about 1.2 million Haitians have temporarily resettled in some 460 tent-city encampments in the Port-au-Prince area. About 40 percent still do not have tents or tarpaulins.  Haiti’s rainy season begins in April.  To get involved with Haitian relief efforts, we recommend you visit http://www.RedCross.org.

At this point, the Nintendo Wii Remote has been around for over three years.  I think that’s enough time to pass judgement on the new technology, don’t you?  We’ve seen the Wiimote utilized in a dozen different ways by hundreds of Wii games at this point.  So why am I still so unsure what to think of this weird little controller?

Sure, there are some games that utilize  the motion-sensing capability of the Wii Remote beautifully.  Red Steel, Medal of Honor:  Vanguard, and Metroid Prime 3 all make brilliant and innovative use of gaming tech unavailable with any other console.  But for every success, there seems to be a least a couple of complete failures by game developers to integrate Wiimote gimmickry into their titles.  Need for Speed, Far Cry, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 all feel as though they’d play a lot better with more conventional controllers (say, a PlayStation DualShock?) than they do with a Wii Remote.  Many more games make no attempt whatsoever to utilize the Wiimote’s motion sensing. 

So three years in, is the Wii Remote a real breakthrough or just a gimmick that got old quickly?  Both.  It’s provided some stunning new ways to play video games, and it’s also been a frustrating obstacle to overcome in other games.  What IS nice is that there are always ways to improve the Wiimote so that a few of its flaws are corrected.  Take today’s deal of the day, for example.  The Wiimote goes through batteries like power ups:  It always needs more.  Thanks to our fantastic deal on the dual Wii remote charger, you get all the cordless controller action you can stand without blowing your game budget on Duracells. 

As for the Nunchuk?  For now at least, you’re on your own! 

Ah, free stuff.  It's what made the Internet great!  Today, we here at Buyers HQ are only too happy to help carry on a fine tradition of giving stuff away for free online.  Think of it as a thank-you for coming back to our site every day to check out the last hot deal each morning.  We appreciate it, and we hope you'll appreciate today's free item:  The Automotive Jelly Sticky Pad!  I don't know what kind of black magic these funny little pads have been imbued with, but it really shouldn't be this easy (or this FREE) to keep my BlackBerry securely on my dashboard.  Especially when the pad isn't even sticky!

But guess what?  The free stuff doesn't end there today!  We're also running a special promotion on our Facebook page.  Anybody who orders a free sticky pad today and also signs up to become a fan of the Buyers HQ Facebook page will receive a free JD-100 Bluetooth earpiece with their order!  With your free jelly pad and your free Bluetooth headset, you'll be ready to legally talk and cruise hands-free for only the price of shipping and handling.  It's an unbeatable deal, so head on over to our Facebook page to take advantage.  Once these free jelly pads are gone, so is your chance to score a free Bluetooth earpiece!

Some of you may have taken a glance at today’s deal of the day and exclaimed in shock, “Hey! Didn’t they just feature this product on their site a month ago? Who are these jokers trying to fool? Just how many iPod docks do they think I need, anyway?” Well, those would all be perfectly valid questions if we’d ever offered this product as a daily deal before. But we haven’t!

Back in February, we offered a Benwin iChoice iPod Dock that was very similar to today’s deal… except it wasn’t compatible with the iPhone 3GS! Now, we sold a rather large number of those iChoice docks last month, but we also received a stack of e-mails wondering if the dock worked with iPhones, and FOR PETE’S SAKE WHY DIDN’T IT. We take feedback from our Buyers very seriously, so when we discovered a cache of Benwin iChoice iPhone docks had become available from our distributors, we jumped all over ‘em. They’re a little pricier than the all-white version we sold a month ago, but an extra six bucks is a pretty small price to pay for iPhone compatibility. After all, if price was you only concern when it came to mobile electronics, you’d probably still be rocking the Motorola RAZR you got for free in 2002. Am I right? Besides, $29.99 is still cheaper than you’ll find this model anywhere else on the Internet! (We checked.)

I don’t know about you, but I could use a recharge right about now.  I love St. Patty’s Day and all, but thank God it only comes once a year.  I had a great time last night only to wake up this morning feeling depleted, dry, and drained.  A can of Red Bull was the best I could do to get the juice flowing again.

It’s days like today that I wish they had battery chargers like our deal of the day for people, not just electronics.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just plug yourself in for an hour and let your nickel cadmium power cells warm up and recharge from any wall socket?  No longer would I need eight hours of sleep a night (or six during the day, either).  Think of all the money I could save on food!  Sure, I’d miss chicken fried steak and everything, but for a confirmed spendthrift like myself, taste ain’t everything.

Sadly, we’ll just have to make do with our AC Quick Chargers keeping our portable gadgets humming along efficiently for the foreseeable future.  This morning, though, I’m turning the volume wayyy down.