If it were not for my two younger nieces and Rite Aid, I would not have known about these “Pocket Change” products that basically change the look and feel of your pants pocket.

There’s an exclusive $5 off Pocket Change coupon available now on Facebook.com/riteaid on the “Rite Aid” tab. Pocket Change accessories are exclusive to Rite Aid and offer an affordable way to add glitz and glam to your pockets. These coupons are available for a limited time, so print yours now.

So for the young one, or for yourself, hit up Rite Aid’s Facebook page and print out a $5 off coupon on the Pocket Change product.

Of note, it’s pretty wise to go ahead and bookmark or become a fan of the Rite-Aid Facebook site. They often have exclusive coupons that can help you further save money.

[ Links: Rite Aid Facebook Page ]

According to the New York Times, Vivendi executives have agreed with General Electric in principle on a price to offload their 20% stake in NBC Universal, eliminating the final obstacle in Comcast’s planned acquisition of the media giant.

Recent leaks from inside the very leaky “secret” negotiations indicated that Vivendi wanted about $500-$900 million more than GE was willing to pay. The word now is that Vivendi is willing to part with their share for a cool $5.8 billion. As it stands, there’s a few loose ends to clear up, but the final deal should be officially announced by Thursday, according to chatty insiders.

Link to the original article…

Blinkcase [ site here ] is offering 30% off on all of their fashionable Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch cases and accessories via the coupon “BLACKFRIDAY09“.

I’d jump on it guys if I were you… nothing like a good case for cheap.

Being up-to-date and/or being an early adopter in the realm of gadgets is very expensive. In this edition of Save Money Mondays, I’d love to share with you one of the places that collects a lot of software and hardware deals in one place for your perusal. I’ve been a fan of Deals2buy.com [ site here ] for years. I’ve bought my previous Aliph Jawbone 2 earpiece via a link from their site and saved about $45 dollars off of retail among other deals for software, coupons and other gadget deals over the years. Definitely a site worthy of bookmarking.

They also collect those hard to find Dell coupons as well.

[ Deals2buy.com ] [ Related: RTL Deals ]

In this edition of Save Money Monday, I’d like to direct your attention to the ever-changing Dealighted.com [ site here ] which lists some of the absolute best sales, deals and coupons for everything from computer products and upgrades to fashion to even travel and website hosting and vitamins.

Subscribe to Dealighted’s RSS feed for the best chances at savings.

[ Dealighted ] [ Related: RTL Deals ]

Combined with marathon gaming sessions and many hours of Adobe Photoshop, a good, comfortable mouse is definitely something that’s on each and every geek’s list at one time or another. Enter the Microsoft Blue Track Explorer Mouse. And Microsoft delivered a blue LED (yummy!) enabled mouse that can track movement on just about any surface. Table top, glass, your flannel shirt, that week old pizza slice… it’s all game for the new blue LED tracking dubbed BlueTrack™.

Yeah, I bet Bill Gates thought of that one by himself.

With the following features:

• Microsoft BlueTrack Technology combines the power of optical with the precision of laser for remarkable tracking on more surfaces.
• The battery status indicator tells you when a quick recharge is needed. The compact, stable recharging base is easy to use. 3 Weeks between charges via the included rechargeable batteries and easy to use recharging base.
• Reliable wireless on the go. Microsoft 2.4 GHz wireless and the snap-in mini-transceiver deliver a reliable connection with up to a 30-foot range.
• The glowing blue light effects and comfortable curved surfaces set your mouse apart.

Hell yes. And totally comfortable to use for a long time. Normally $99.99, currently on sale at Best Buy for $59.99. Make your geek happy.

Next!

Prior RTL* Last Second Shopper Gift Guide Options:

• #9 – KOR ONE Water Hydration Vessel
• #10 – Nike Zoom Potro PrizeFlight Premium
• #11 – Tank Theory Dungeons Belt Buckle
• #12 – Vaja Case iVolution Case for the Apple iPhone3G

I had gotten my first MagicJack USB VoIP device on July, 19 2007. After one small business trip, it somehow stopped working but the guys over at MagicJack replaced it without question last October. So my “one year review” truly started in October, 19 2007.

A year later, I have gone from Windows 2003 Server SP2 to Windows Vista SP1 – I know, I know… it still sucks – switched professions and cities, and I still am using the same replacement MagicJack device. I’ve even pumped in about $50 into making overseas calls while on-the-go – the rates are “competitive” to most countries… but honestly still a disappointment to some other countries compared to other VoIP options.

The good news, I just renewed for another year of phone calls within the US and Canada for some $20 USD for the entire year. The device has been updated at least 5 times using their upgrade process, only once have I had to manually update it – that was during my switch to Vista. It was quick, painless… and it seems that I was somewhat fortunate. I’ve read about some horror stories over at The Unofficial magicJack Support Forum. The unofficial site that is about one of the only sources for reliable help if you have questions since magicJack’s main website is mostly about just selling the device. You can still get assistance via their live chat at magicjack.com, but it’s only active after you use search.

The bad news. You will have to always keep a machine up and running in order to receive a phone call. For the geek type that loves to have uptime records to brag about, that’s great. For somebody like my mother that treats her computer much like a lamp… it’s off the moment she walks out of the room; that’s going to be a problem if you wish to receive a phone call via the magicJack device. This is not a standalone ATA device like you’d have with Vonage. MagicJack uses your main machine – it only works in Windows XP and Vista, as well as Intel Mac OS X – to receive a phone call. No Linux version yet.

Once you open up the blister pack, place it into an USB2 port and after a very quick and simple registration process, you will be up and running in no time. Place a regular phone into the back of the magicJack device, hit talk on the telephone and you should hear a dialtone; dial all 10 digits of whomever you’re calling in the US/Canada… and you’re golden. I think even my own mother could set this up without even calling me once.

Along with a my.magicjack.com account that will mirror your e-mail and password that you input earlier, the system will prompt you to how to get into your voicemail within the actual phone application itself. You can use either a headset and microphone or use the aforementioned connected telephone. While traveling, I’ve actually hijacked the telephone in the hotel room and plugged it into the magicJack device instead of carrying around another telephone with me or even a headset for that matter. But if I were to use the device at a coffee shop, I’d probably switch to a headset to avoid whipping out a big telephone and looking crazy.

Then again, I might just eBay an old rotary phone for the heck of it now.

If you have good broadband access – my cable modem is rated at 3mb/s down, 1mb/s up normally – your voice clarity will be as good as a cellphone, if not better. I’ve had compliments from people when I call them using magicJack. But as with anything that’s bandwidth dependent, if you get busy downloading things, or use something that likes to hog the bandwidth, like Skype or bit torrents, your voice quality will suffer. Google around and turn off Skype’s supernode if you insist on using that program.

Using the thing now is like second nature. I walk in, grab a phone, dial a number, the software window pops up – it autoruns on windows start, and will pop up each and every time you minimize it, then use the telephone. There are ways to remove this nature as well. I’ve found some good tutorials on how to do so over at the Unofficial MagicJack Forum. But to be honest… it just works.

Sure, there’s been a few times it failed – I might have dialed too fast, missed a number, or the software didn’t register a few numbers I dialed. I tend to dial quite fast, so it happens quite a bit. But the speed dial numbers work every time. Perhaps I’m a clumsy dialer. It rings just like a regular phone, if you leave a message, they see the number – but not the proper name, it just says whichever city you got your number from usually. And speaking of numbers, magicJack has quite a list of area codes and numbers. Not all areas are covered – my part of South Carolina is not covered at all – but since most cellphones have the ability to call long distance now, or in my case I use a Grandcentral number for local numbers – that’s really not an issue. And if you call overseas, you will hear before it attempts to connect you an approximate amount of minutes announced before it dials out. To me, that’s a plus.

With how to use it and how it sounds out of the way, my gripes are very simple. I don’t like the fact that I have to keep my machine running, always. The machine my magicJack device is hooked up to… it’s loud. Like Boeing 777 about to take off loud. In order to make phone calls overseas, you have to pre-pay. Which isn’t a problem, but they don’t accept Paypal. And that… annoys me somewhat. Being a windows process control freak, I do not like the fact that it installs an USB driver that’s always started up – UTSCSI.exe. And for some reason, on my machine, magicJack doesn’t always autostart; which is resolved by merely double clicking the magicJack icon. Nothing major, but it’s a gripe if I were in a rush and thought it was already running.

There are a few other minor gripes; however it just works fine for me – but I’m a casual telephone user. For a month, I had my own mother try it out. She’d get confused sometimes, miss calls and the VMail button wouldn’t announce that there was an voicemail waiting for her (they’ve since fixed this, btw) and not all of her messages came to her directly via e-mail. Some were delayed by a day or so.

This device is also not ready to replace my normal landline. True, it has e911 which works rather well – ask Vonage, it’s the same type of system. But some numbers, such as AT&T 800 numbers just refuse to work. You get some unnaturally fast busy sound. I’ve also noticed problems with toll-free numbers that start with 866 or 877 also being a problem as well. And outages aren’t that rare either.

But when it works… it’s great.

By now, I’ve rambled long enough. Is it for you? I’d say that depends… are you a casual telephone user, do you slaughter your cellphone minutes like I tend to do? Or do you just want to drop a landline and have a cheap secondary line besides your cellphone? I’d say go for it. If you want to replace your landline… I’d say try it out first. If you want to make this your sole telephone line… I’d just honestly say “Don’t do it and wait for another option.”…

All in all… 3.5 out of 5 (It’s good)

• Audiophile headphones
• Wireless headphones
• Hi-Fi headphones
• Portable headphones
• Sport headphones
• Noise cancelling headphones

Yep. You can even trade earbuds for $50 bucks off of the mighty HD 650.

Even better, the program has been extended to the end of September 2008 to include summer travel and back-to-school shopping.

From now through September 30, 2008, upgrade to a high quality pair of Sennheiser’s and they will give you cash just for unloading the old ones…even if they are broken, crusty, damaged or an obscure brand. Best of all, you’re likely to find a better type of headphone for your needs than what a stock earbud can provide: sport headphones, in-ear headphones, noise cancelling headphones and more.
Here’s how it works:

Gather up your old headphones, which can be new, old, broken, used, any brand – they don’t care!
Upgrade to a pair of Sennheiser’s (see link below for eligible models)
Mail the old headphones E-Z trade form and get $$ for your trade. It’s really that easy.

Seriously… I might have to take advantage of this myself. Find out more at Sennheiser USA.