I bought the Dynex 32″ LCD HDTV from Best Buy for $449. Not sure if I’ll keep it yet, though. I went at 11am or so and they had plenty of stuff. The best deal I saw was a 50″ Samsung Plasma for $1299.

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Best Buy seems to be the best retail place for electronics on Black Friday – and for only one reason: no mail in rebates. I hate those things and so does Best Buy. They decided to get rid of them altogether, from what I’m told.

Here’s a Black Friday tip: take advantage of price guarantees. Some stores offer 110% guarantees (Circuit City, for instance). So, just take that ad for the $399 Element LCD HDTV at Best Buy (because you know they’ll be sold out) to a competitor that will match the price – and you’re all set.

But, you can avoid all of that hassle altogether and just shop online. My favorite sites for online shopping: Amazon.com (Black Friday Specials here), Overstock.com, and dealsea.com for getting pointed in the right direction.

Happy Shopping and Happy Thanksgiving!

Verizon Wireless launched into a full-scale overhaul of their service plans today, and the results for consumers are mixed. Here are the main points:

* They’re now called “Nationwide Plans”
* Everybody now gets “Mobile Web,” which used to cost $5.
* Data connections that used to take minutes out of your bucket, no longer do.
* But you’re charged $1.99/MB for some data services.
* If you want to switch, you don’t have to re-up your contract

In other words, if you have been a cheap bastard using your cell phone as a dialup modem, which used to only cost you your minutes; that perk is gone and now you will be charged for them. So that bootleg of the latest blockbuster you wanted to see, forget about downloading it and just buy it from that shady guy on the streets.

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February.

Here’s an idea for an app for the iPhone: transform it into a device that works on the Verizon network. Yeah, I’d like that.

My new crib is awesome. It’s the reason I’ve been working my butt off of late. A few pics and a description after the jump.

The Metal Shutter Houses are nine duplex apartments (ranging in size from a 1,950-square-foot three-bedroom to a 3,180-square-foot four-bedroom penthouse with three terraces, left) encased in perforated metal shutters that operate exactly like the rolling grates of the Chelsea galleries and Korean delis that inspired them.

Duplex owners will be able to mechanically adjust their own shutters, and inside each apartment, a 20-foot window wall will pivot open, left, getting these few Manhattanites as close to California living as they might possibly dream of being. That feeling will no doubt be reinforced by Frank Gehry’s IAC headquarters just feet away on the lot next door. The Metal Shutter Houses, at 524 West 19th Street, are scheduled for completion in fall 2008.

I can’t wait to open them shutters for that fresh, crisp Manhattan air.

I just downloaded and installed Windows Live Writer – a stand-alone application that lets you edit your blog offline. It integrated into bobbysketch.com without a problem and seems to have a nice interface for editing posts and images. I was even ale to drag and drop a URL into a post – spiffy!