For the last few years, I’ve done my absolute best to avoid Black Friday sales. You’ve all heard the stories… grandmas getting trampled for that $39 DVD player, grown men wrestling over a toy in front of their kids, soccer moms becoming ninjas in the clothing section using hairpins in ways that make even Chuck Norris cringe.

The horror… the horror.

I’m happy just to sit home, ride out my tryptophan overdose and find potentially less dangerous ways to get those hot items online. Sounds lazy, sounds “new age”, but I’d rather avoid getting dropkicked by some geriatric soccer ninja dad with a peg leg for a Tickle Me Elmo.

Here’s a few websites that make my life easier:

Blackfriday.info
Dealnews
Dealighted
The Bargainist

Feel free to share your favorites.

However one word of caution; do not forget that Circuit City is currently in bankruptcy. So be aware if they have any mail-in rebates because you just might not get them. Also Continental Promotion Group, one of the largest rebate processors has gone out of business and even if you get a rebate check back, you might want to avoid cashing it to avoid fees, read more here.

Leave it to Billshrink.com to come out with a comparison of the total cost of ownership between the wildly popular Apple iPhone 3G and the recently introduced and sold out BlackBerry Storm.

BillShrink launched today a Blackberry Storm vs. iPhone 3G Comparison Site where consumers can view and calculate the real cost of each device and plan, features and related service head to head.

BillShrink helps consumers find the right phone and plan given their personalized usage patterns, e.g., how many texts you send, how many minutes you use, etc. In today’s tight economy, the site is helping consumers save an average of $340 annually on their cell phone bills.

Mind you, Billshrink has already saved me a few dollars a month already – almost $200 a year. Oh, and if you want other comparisons:

Storm vs. iPhone vs. G1
Storm vs. iPhone vs. G1 vs. Instinct

Nice. All of the data in one place to compare it.

Now… if Billshrink.com can find an instant way to avoid having to pay getting out of my contract too, it’ll get my vote for “best.thing.ever” instead of “just” being an incredibly good service that’s given me almost $200 bucks a year for beer my savings.

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)

Besides looking for the newest in gadgets and phones, I’m also always looking for a new way to save money. Always. I’ve seen and used a lot of “deal” and coupon sites and I’d like to pride myself with the thought that I budget my money quite well. But we all need help. My biggest problem though is that I’m not always aware of the best bill plan or how I could save a few dollars despite being quite aware of what’s new hardware-wise.

Enter BillShrink.com.

I had the lucky chance to quickly ask a few questions to the co-founder of BillShrink, Samir Kothari about the two biggest things going on in communication at this moment: the T-Mobile/Google/HTC G1 and the Apple iPhone 3G and how you might save a few dollars and his expert opinion about the iPhone 3G versus the G1.

A lot of users already own an iPhone 3G, if not the first generation iPhone. The total cost of ownership for these phones is much higher than the advertised, subsidized costs. What are the total cost of ownership for each for the subsidized two year ownership of an iPhone 3G versus a T-Mobile G1?

Samir: We agree whole-heartedly with your statement on the total cost of ownership (TCO) for these phones being much higher than just the initial price of the device.Thanks to the expanded subsidy from AT&T with the launch of the 3G iPhone, the prices of the devices themselves are pretty comparable ($180 vs. $200) with the slight edge going towards the T-Mobile G1. But the overwhelming factor in TCO is the cost of the service plan that the user has to pay each month over the typical 24-month contract term.

Generally speaking, the T-Mobile G1 also has the advantage in this regard, because T-Mobile pricing tends to be lower than AT&T.

To illustrate by example, a G1 data plan providing unlimited data and text messaging will cost $35 per month, whereas an iPhone data plan with unlimited data/messaging will cost $50 per month. A $15 per month differential works out to $360 over the course of a 2 year contract, and that is pretty significant compared to the cost of phone itself.

But the above statements are generic; in reality the true cost of one service plan vs the other is very dependent on a user’s specific usage pattern. For example, if I happen to use a lot of minutes calling friends who are also on AT&T, since those minutes are free mobile-to-mobile calls when using an iPhone from AT&T but would be charged as “anytime minutes” on a T-Mobile G1, it could very well be the case that AT&T is the better deal for me.

It can get pretty complicated to make the right choice, which is exactly why BillShrink offers a service to help users find the best plans for their individual usage. To compare personalized plan choices for the iPhone and G1, users can use this resource:

AT&T iPhone Plans vs. T-Mobile G1 Plans

Does having a physical keyboard versus the virtual keyboard make that much of a difference? How did you find the comparison between the two?

Samir: Well I think this is really a matter of personal preference, but in my opinion the physical keyboard does make a big difference. Any new keyboard takes awhile to get used to, but I feel more comfortable manipulating the physical keys with tactile feedback rather than tapping on the iPhone screen.

Again, really depends on personal preference, but especially for heavy mobile emailers, the G1 has an advantage.

The speed of the UI is a major factor. Would you say that the T-Mobile lags or “keeps up” or surpasses the Apple iPhone 3G UI?

Samir: In our testing thus far, I think the T-Mobile UI keeps-up with the iPhone.

Bluetooth tethering and A2DP… iPhone allows neither. What about the G1?

Samir: Same as the iPhone, the G1 doesn’t support those features.

Camera functions – could you describe if the camera in the Apple iPhone in terms of quality and speed from selecting the camera to actual being able to snap a picture?

Samir: Using the cameras on both phones is pretty comparable in terms of ease-of-use. The camera is one particular feature where the G1 outshines the iPhone, with a better resolution (3.2 megapixels vs 2 megapixels) and better focusing as well.

Build quality… the pictures make it look very “plasticky”. True, false?

Samir: Feels like it is pretty well built. It has more moving parts than the iPhone (with the slider) which makes it less “solid” but still quality feels fine.

Reception – the iPhone has been vilified for it’s reception. Care to compare it’s reception with the G1?

Samir: We haven’t had enough talk time around town with the G1 yet to fully compare its reception, but so far, both phones seem comparable. Our feeling is that the most important factor is the quality of your carrier’s network where you live, as that tends to be more impactful than the device itself.

So when deciding between these phones, be sure to review the respective signal strengths between AT&T and T-Mobile on BillShrink.com. You can view a detailed map in many areas around the country that show a visual comparison of network coverage, and even identify potential dead spots on your daily commute path.

What about Mobile Chrome versus Mobile Safari? Which one to you personally “feels” better and why? Flash support up to date? Or is it a workaround like Apple’s H.264 enabled YouTube converted videos?

Samir: Actually both browsers feel about the same, which is not surprising because they are both based on the same WebKit foundation, and therefore the page rendering is quite similar. One notable difference is that you can’t pinch to zoom on the G1 because there is no support for multi-touch like there is on the iPhone.

I think the G1 uses the same H.264 codec that the iPhone uses to play YouTube instead of supporting true Flash.

Ok… copy and paste. Please let it be there… is it?

Samir: Yes, there is copy/paste on the G1, much to the dismay of iPhone fans everywhere!

Any little issues with the G1 that annoy you that you think are invariably going to be addressed in forthcoming updates? The virtual keyboard is already coming. What else do you think is upcoming that’s going to make people want to go out, run get this phone? GrandCentral connectivity perhaps?

Samir: I think the key to the G1 success is the vision for a big, vibrant marketplace around Android applications. If Google is able to get the developer community excited about building apps and contributing to the Android marketplace, that could go a long way to getting users talking about new and cool applications that drive them to get the phone…

So… where are the other Android enabled phones?

Samir: So lots of speculation about where the next Android phone(s) will be coming from, but nothing confirmed as far as we’ve heard. LG, Motorola, and Samsung are already part of the Open Handset Alliance, so perhaps expect to see some activity from them. And perhaps another offering from HTC as well…

Do you feel as if Google got this one “right”?

Samir: The Android Platform is a pretty interesting and ambitious initiative for Google. And I think they are on the right track. Google has been quite successful in getting developers to build upon their APIs (think about the thousands of apps out there using Google Maps) and I suspect they should be able to leverage that experience in building a community around their mobile platform.

Open tends to beat closed in the long run, and having a deep-pocketed sponsor like Google, give Android a good chance of changing the game.

For the uninitiated…

BillShrink is a unique, free online service that saves consumers money by making continuously updated, personalized, usage-based recommendations on everyday services with very complex bills and offerings that change frequently.

BillShrink’s patent-pending technology automatically monitors millions of rate plan/feature combinations, and matches them against individual consumers’ usage patterns, providing simple, apples to apples comparisons and updated money saving recommendations on an ongoing basis as changes occur.

And about BillShrink’s co-founder:

Samir is a co-founder of BillShrink and manages product development by maintaining a constant dialogue with users and tailoring the product to meet their needs. He previously led product management and strategy for TrialPay, a fast-growing company at the intersection of online advertising and digital payments.

Samir had previously worked at BEA Systems, where he headed product marketing for WebLogic Workshop and played a key role in launching the WebLogic Platform. He also worked as a product manager with Microsoft. Samir also spent several years working as a venture capitalist with Battery Ventures and Summit Partners, focusing on investments in software and consumer Internet companies.

Samir graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Computer Science and an AB in Economics. He also received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Millar Scholar.

I want to thank Samir for taking the time to explain not only his expert opinion about the T-Mobile G1, but also about BillShrink.com. Found out tonight that I could actually be saving a few dollars on my plan.

Awesome.