Christmas time means cheap electronics.  It’s actually the only time I buy electronics since the discounts are so big and I can “suffer” through the old stuff for quite a while.

My current 5.1 all in one sound system is lacking any HDMI and doesn’t upscale.  This meant I needed to use component cables for everything and with a lack of inputs, I needed a switch.  After 6 years, it’s time to upgrade.  Pioneer – VSX 1020k 3D ready, 7 channels, 6 HDMI inputs, upscales to 1080p, Ipod connector, multi room capable as well.  Basically all the bells and whistles I need for quite some time.  Given that all my gear now works with HDMI, I need a better projector too!

Well actually, I just need a projector.  The Blue Hue isn’t getting bigger but it is getting stronger.  Given that it’s near impossible to find any projector with component, I needed one with HDMI.  Since I have blue ray, I figured might as well go 1080p/3D ready as well.  Here comes the Epson 3850.  Optical zoom, better contrast, great luminosity and most importantly, a larger throwing area.  It was the cheapest 1080p I could find that would throw 118″ over a 15 foot gap.

The receiver should be here in a few days, which will have me rewire quite a few things.  Projector next week and that will be that.  Oh, I need a new HDMI cable too.  Found a 16 footer for 10$.  More expensive than I’d like but eh.  People who spend anything above 20$ for digital cables are getting ripped off.  Monster makes amazing speaker cables but they make digital cables with a 1000% markup.

I love gadgets but it takes me a long time to mull the decision to buy one.  A really long time.  It took me 3 years to buy a PS3, 6 months to get a hockey net and pad and way too long for insurance.

So, the other day I picked up an e-reader.  Specifically the Sony PRS-650.  It’s third generation, 6 inches, e-ink and supports the epub format.  Third generation means a stable and fast platform.  Damn it looks nice.  6 inches is the size of a decent paperback.  It’s really comfortable in the hand.  E-ink means it takes a battery charges to change the page but not to keep the page.  So when it displays something, it’s not taking any power, which is different from an LCD screen (Nook Color, Galaxy Tab, IPad).  2 week battery life on a single charge is nice!  Also, since e-ink doesn’t use a light source, it’s very easy on the eyes.

Epub is the industry standard for ebooks.  Nearly all readers support it, except the Kindle.  You can borrow books from the library in that format and they come out great.  Oh, it’s also touch screen, which works amazingly well.  The only thing lacking is wireless but why do you need wireless in the middle of a book?  It also takes SD cards up to 32 gigs and has an internal memory of 2gigs.  A book is about 500k or less, so even the stock memory is good for 4000 books.  If you were to put audio books (yes, that’s supported too) or huge PDF files, then I guess you would need more space.

They’re on sale at Future Shop right now, so if you can find another store that stocks them and does price matching (Best Buy is where I got mine), you can get an even better deal.  If you do a lot of reading, then it might actually be worth your while.