This year, gift cards go beyond just plastic as companies add features to lure you into buying the profit-filled gifts.
New card ideas include Target, which has added a small digital camera to their card, and Best Buy, which chose to go with a speaker that can connect to any MP3 player and play music through the included mini headphone jack.
While the Target card makes sense, because you can use it to capture holiday memories, send thank you pics to the gift giver, and even use it as a camera stand-in on your way to buying a real digital camera of your choice, the Best Buy one seems a little strange, since I can’t imagine the tiny speaker sounding any good as it attempts to keep up with the enthusiastic gift recipient.
Either way though, it’s an interesting idea, and it will be interesting to see what gets attached to a gift card next.
[Target Gift Card, Best Buy Gift Card]
If you happen to be shopping for shirts inside of a Target, then be sure to stop by the EGPApparel section, because they’re selling shirts that not only feature artwork from Experimental Gameplay Project games, they actually feature the games themselves on a CD that comes with each one.
Supporting indie game developers and getting a unique looking shirt out of the deal; all at the same time?
I’ll take two.
[EGPApparel]
[Experimental Gameplay Project]
[Via: Tcritic Via: Kevin Allen Jr.]
I love when companies directly target other companies with their advertising (unless I’m caught in the middle of it) so this “Art of Thin” advertisement for the new Lenovo ThinkPad X300 is a fantastic shot directly at Apple’s MacBook Air (Or, according to the ad, “hot air”.)
Will Apple return fire?
[Lenovo ThinkPad X300]
[Via: CrunchGear]
Apparently Target has a neat way of keeping track of how many times they’ve discounted a product. Normally their prices end in 9 (14.99 or 19.99 for example), but each time Targets discounts the product, they drop the final digit of the price by one, with the lowest being a 4 (14.94 or 19.94 for example). If you see something you want, and the price ends in something lower than an 8, chances are, you should probably buy it before Target stops selling it all together.
[Target]
[Via: Boing Boing]
Many stores (Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Office Max, Sears, Target to name a few) have a policy where you can receive cash back if they lower their price within 30 days of your purchase, but most customers have no idea. Price Portectr want to change that by making it easy to keep track of changing prices and potential savings. When you buy something online, simply enter the URL of the item into their site, and they’ll email you if the price drops within 30 days. It’s a great way to get a little extra cash back, and it’s free, so you’ve got nothing to loose (except 30 days of worrying weather or not you got the best deal).
[Price Protectr]
[Via: Etre]
Target’s doing some serious hype for the Wii with their new illuminating gift cards, hoping that if you can’t get in line for a preordered system, at least you can appease the hopeful receiver of your Wii little gift with a glowing mini Wii (fat chance). Definite points for creativity, and I’m sure some fanboys will Wii their pants just seeing this thing in person, so in that sense, mission accomplished Target, mission accomplished.
[Via: Go Nintendo]
[Via: Gizmodo]
