When you buy a new computer, one question that will come up is whether you should put out the extra bucks to buy the extended warranty.

I have no doubt we’ll be getting a call from Dell shortly pushing its extended warranty for the new notebook computer that will be soon be joining our household.

Today’s Boston Globe actually addresses the question, with some decent advice.

As the article points out, Consumer Reports advises not to bother, since your new system will probably be covered for some period (in our case, a year). In that time, presuming you’re using the computer, if something’s bound to go wrong as a result of a faulty part or connection, it will.

The fact is that most warranties don’t cover the stuff that can really happen to your machine in those extended years of use: Your new kitten runs into the power cord, pulling the notebook off your desk; or your first-grader tries to print a coloring page from The Wiggles website while you’re off washing your hair and spills his breakfast juice on the keyboard. Trust me, that stuff isn’t covered by an extended warranty.

Still determined to get that extra protection? Then ask these questions, suggests the Globe:

“Can it be returned to the store, or will it be shipped to a third party? Who pays for the shipping? What is the ‘lemon clause’ — meaning how many times will they try to repair the computer before they give up and replace the device?”

Whatever you do, don’t buy the warranty the moment you’re standing in the checkout counter holding your new purchase. That gives you no time at all to read the fine print.

So when Dell calls this household for that after-market upgrade, we’ll say, “No thanks.” Plus, we’ll make sure that juice is served in a sippy cup.

Where do you stand on the subject?

Do thousands of colors make a difference?
The Creative Zen Vision:M portable media player, which won Best of Show and Best Portable Audio & Video Device awards at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (see this Wikipedia article), has a 2.5 inch backlit TFT LCD Screen with 18-bit color depth (262,144 colors). The Apple iPod fifth-generation update, aka iPod Video 5.5 Gen, also has a 2.5 inch backlit LCD Screen. However, it only has a color depth of 16-bit (65,536 colors). Both devices have a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels. I’ve had the opportunity to watch video on both devices at different times. Unfortunately I never actually compared them side by side to see if the additional 196,608 colors were actually noticeable. What I did notice though was that videos looked better on the iPod, simply because the screen was brighter.

Does screen resolution make a difference?
Two iPaq handhelds, the HP iPaq 110 Classic and the HP iPaq 210 Enterprise PDA may seem easier to compare. Both have 16-bit (65,536 colors) screens, although the HP iPaq 210 was initially wrongly advertised as having an 18-bit screen (on the HP site it has been partially corrected and reads 65,536 colors (18-bit), which of course makes no sense). The iPaq 210 has a 4 inch 640 by 480 pixel, that is, VGA resolution screen. The iPaq 110 (also referred to as the HP iPaq 111 Classic) has a 3.5-inch 240 by 320 pixel screen. Frankly the iPaq 110 is a great little light handheld, with the same processor as the iPaq 210. The iPaq 210 is larger and heavier (6.8 oz compared with 3.7 oz), but for those who have previously owned a handheld with a VGA resolution screen (like the Dell Axim X51v), a lower resolution screen may be too much of a step down.

Watching Significant Other go through the process of buying her newest computer gave me some insights I’d like to share.

Give the person on the phone or in the chat some room to wiggle. By turning down the offer of the free printer, SO gave the Dell representative some space in which to find other, more meaningful ways to reduce the price of the entire transaction.

Don’t be fearful about expressing how much you want to spend. Because SO stated her price limit upfront, the rep could direct her to some practical computing options.

Figure out what’s most important in the purchase. In SO’s case it was that non-glare screen and a specific version of Office. Yes, she wants a machine with good performance. Yes, she wants some obvious equipment — a DVD burner, a large hard drive, a mouse, wireless. But those are almost foregone conclusions these days. By sticking to two items that were absolute requirements, she could reduce what she spent on the other components.

Accept the fact that you may make an impulse purchase or two. In her case, that was the pink case for the notebook computer and the webcam for me.

For each decision that pushes the price up, ask how the price might be brought down. Make it pleasant for the rep to help you.

Be mentally prepared to sign the deal if you get what you want. Otherwise, you’ll be starting from the ground floor in developing a relationship with a new rep on the phone or in the chat when you’re really ready to finalize the deal.

What have you learned about shopping for big ticket items lately? I’d like to hear your advice.

What do you get when you cross a SanDisk Sansa Clip with a SanDisk Sansa View?
The Sandisk Sansa Fuze.

This MP3 player, slightly bigger than the third generation iPod Nano, is squarely aimed as a competitor to the Nano and the 4GB and 8GB Zune. At 3.1 inches by 1.8 inches by 0.3 inches and weighing 2.1 oz it is a reasonably small player. It comes in a variety of colors and capacities: black (2GB, 4GB), blue, pink and red (4GB), and silver (8GB). Like most SanDisk Sansa media players it has a microSD expansion slot, which accepts High Capacity (microSDHC) cards. This means that currently an additional 12GB can be added to the player. A variety of audio formats are supported, including MP3, WMA, WAV and Audible. Subscription music is also supported via secure WMA. The Sansa Fuze also features an FM radio, voice recording, picture viewing and video playback. Its screen is only 1.9 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 220 by 176 pixels, so is not that great for watching videos.

Reviewers are almost unanimous in pointing out that SanDisk’s media players are steadily improving in build quality, and the Fuze is no exception. At around $100 for the 4GB version and $130 for the 8GB version, the Sansa Fuze is very competitively priced. I would definitely add it to my collection if I did not already have a too many media players.

That pink mouse was when negotiations on price began in earnest. Here’s how it played out.

After agreeing that a pink mouse would be lovely, the chat rep asked Significant Other if she’d like the computer to come in pink too. Doing so would cost a bit but not a lot.

Then the rep asked if she’d like to consider having the laptop come in pink as well. That would be an extra $25. SO hemmed and hawed. OK. She was sounding a bit disengaged from the deal.

Problem was, the price kept going up bit by bit, and pretty soon it would be way beyond the $1,500 price limit SO had set for the purchase, based on the size of the gift her father had sent her.

So SO mentioned all the discounts plastered around on the Dell website. What could the rep do about that? Without missing a beat, the rep offered $150 off the total, which brought the price down below $1,500.

That certainly helped.

And what about the shipping and tax and the rest of it? Tax was what it was. And there was a charge for a California state environmental disposal fee paid up front to cover the monitors. But the rep could provide free shipping. But that was a standard deal with Dell, wasn’t it, said SO. Sure, free shipping was standard, but not two-business-day free shipping. And that would apply to each of the components — computer, mouse and monitor — which would ship separately.

The rep said somebody else would call by phone to go over the complete order and take credit card information. And that’s what happened.

But even then, the deal-making wasn’t done. Suddenly, my SO realized that it would be nice to have a webcam eyeball built into that computer. (My small contribution to her decision-making.) So she called the phone rep back and said she’d like that added. The rep replied, the price would be an additional $25. SO asked if there was any way to get it for less. The rep didn’t hesitate. Yes, she could add it on for only $10.

When the final invoice came back, the tally was $1,596.55. I figure that extra $97 over the original goal will be my graduation present.

Next: What I’ve learned about getting a great deal on computers right now.

First, what exactly is a smartphone? Well, just trying to define a smartphone is a bit of a challenge, as I found out while searching the web. Wikipedia’s definition of a smartphone is:
“…a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality.”
They also add “There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. For some, a smartphone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features.”

For my purposes I’ll choose the definition of a smartphone being a mobile phone with advanced capabilities and an Operating System.

The Motorola A1200 MING Cell Phone runs Linux and has PDA capabilities, so it definitely can be termed a smartphone. For input it has a touch screen phone and a stylus, along with a virtual keyboard. It also has an 312MHz Intel XScale processor, 64MB ROM and 64MB RAM, FM Radio, 2 Megapixel camera and Bluetooth. A microSD slot supports cards up to 2GB.

This is not bad for a phone released over two years ago. Unfortunately it wasn’t picked up by any U.S. carriers, as it may have done well. It is one of the coolest looking phones I’ve seen.

So, Significant Other tried out Dell’s live chat function. This function on Dell.com allows you to talk with a rep from the company to get your questions answered. Her primary question was, how can I get a laptop that has a non-glossy 15-inch screen? She likes the idea of working outside, especially during the summer, and most glossy screens, which seem to predominate on notebooks these days, become almost invisible. She has the same problem when she’s working in her too-bright office.

With that bit of information in her hands, the Dell rep led her on a journey of her options, helping her to make choices at each phase of the buying experience. For example, she explained that none of the 15-inch-plus displays came in anti-glare. She’d have to go with a 14-inch display to get that — a tidbit of information she couldn’t discover strictly through Dell’s shopping function.

My sweetheart was quite adamant about staying under $1,500 and told the rep that. Not a problem, was the reply.

She recommended the Inspiron 1420. Seemed like a solid option. That has the Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 processor. She specced it with 2 gigabytes of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce TM Go8400M GS video card with 128MB of graphic memory. (SO isn’t a game player, but she does work with DreamWeaver, so this seemed sufficient.)

Best, it included a 14.1-inch anti-glare widescreen display.

The rep mentioned the free printer offers that Dell pushes everywhere these days. No interest, said my SO.

But she did want to find out what it would cost to add an external flatscreen monitor too. Would doing so keep the price under the limit? Pretty close! The rep added on a 19-inch Dell UltraSharp 1908FP,Wide Flat Panel. But suddenly, the barrier was breached.

Then came the software. Yes, Vista Home Premium Edition was fine, and she wanted Office 2007 Small Business Edition to go with that.

From there, the shopping covered the hard drive, a 250 gigabyte 5400 RPM no name hard drive, which could have been faster for sure, but helped SO keep the price down. And she needed a DVD with read-write.

Plus, she wanted blue tooth to start taking advantage of all of the great wireless gear out there — though the gear itself would have to wait until a later date. So she settled on a simple wireless mouse. Then the question came up: Would she like that in pink?

If you knew my SO, you’d know that it was just the right thing to ask in the buying cycle. Suddenly, she was emotionally hooked to that computer. A pink mouse? Wow! She did some quick surfing to check out customer testimonials, and the recommendations were almost uniformly positive — except for one reviewer who said the pink was redder than preferred. Best, the price was the same, no matter whether the mouse — from Logitech — was black or pink. Problem was, shortly that pinkiness would help push the price tag well above $1,500.

Next: Negotiations in Earnest!

Maybe it is one of the surest signs that I’m a computer geek: I find backups interesting. Not quite as interesting as cool tech gadgets, but interesting enough to be watching the increase in capacity of the largest drives as well as the portable and colorful Western Digital Passport series of hard drives with interest.
So here is BBE – Backups, Boring but Essential.

It always helps to keep your backup formats simple, for example I use True Image for drive images (full backups of a drive or partition) and the Zip format (which can be created and read by WinZip and countless other programs) for incremental daily backups. Many backup programs use the Zip format. For secure backups my preference is the RAR format. WinRAR can be found online, and can also be read by numerous utilities.

Once backups are created, they need to be copied off the computer. Here’s where external drives are the best option. I use a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition External 250GB Hard Drive for data backups and a SimpleTech SimpleDrive External 500GB Hard Drive for larger files and media files. Since I’m using Windows, I’ve formatted both of the drives to NTFS (they both came in FAT32 format), so I can store files larger than 4GB on them.

These drives meet my needs and the SimpleTech drive was on sale when I was buying, but you may find another drives more suitable to your specific needs. Reading both expert and users reviews of hard drives helps immensely. Make sure you can return a drive if you have problems. Out of three external drives purchases I have returned one and bought another drive from a different manufacturer. Also keep in mind that currently prices are falling as larger drives come out. At the moment 1 Terabyte external drives are really tempting, but they will drop in price as soon as 2 Terabyte drives become available.

Significant Other just received a very generous check from her dad as a graduation present to apply to the purchase of a new notebook computer. (She’s getting a master’s in accountancy, a degree she’s been plugging away on since 2005. Yay!) So she went shopping all last week, online of course. Should she go with HP? Should she choose Dell? Was there another company out there people were talking about? Could she find what she wanted for that much money?

Here’s what we learned: Companies are willing to make great deals right now. If you pay sticker price, you’re probably paying too much.

Over the next few days, I’ll describe her shopping journey, in case there’s something useful for your next consumer jaunt too.

Since SO had mostly satisfactory experience with both HP and Dell, she felt comfortable going that direction.

As you probably know, it can be a lot of fun to spec out a dream machine on the HP and Dell sites. You start clicking this radio button over those, specifying this component as an add-on, that application suite over the other one, and as you go along, you get to see the price tag adjust itself.

But it can also be overwhelming. You have to decide if you’re going to shop through the business side or home & home office side of a company’s site, when it’s a machine you’ll be using at home but for business reasons. Then you have a myriad of laptop choices, depending on weight considerations, screen size and a slew of other details.

Plus, those shopping tools don’t always help you get what you’re really looking for. In her case, she wanted at least a 15-inch display with anti-glare.

Next: Live Chat to the Rescue!

Usually people only buy a new computer after their old computer gets too slow or crashes. I seem to have done it the other way round. My old eMachines Desktop computer just died about a week ago. It had been playing up for well over a year now. It would just suddenly cutout like the power had gone. After unplugging and re-plugging the AC power cord, it would work again. At first I though it was a power supply problem, but it was just too erratic. More research found some possible hard to fix problems. It wasn’t overheating, as it would sometimes cutout just after I switched it on, but work after that. Sometimes it did this once, sometimes twice. Occasionally I had to wait for half an hour before trying it again. Since I couldn’t trust it I bought cheap Compaq desktop computer on special, and used the eMachines Desktop as a secondary machine. I only used it occasionally, mainly for an important application which I intended to move off the eMachines Desktop.

When it happened, the eMachines Desktop wouldn’t turn on, no matter how many times I tried. I left it for an hour, then a day. Eventually I gave up: it was dead, never to boot up again. Of course the software I meant to move off was still on it.

One of the reasons I had kept the unpredictable machine around for so long was that up until a few weeks ago, it had the largest hard drive of any of my computers; 160GB. That doesn’t sound like much now, with 1 Terabyte hard drives available, but in 2005 when I bought it that was a lot of space.

Now I’m thinking of removing the hard drive and turning it into an external hard drive with a kit like the AcomData 2163 External 3.5 inch Hard Drive Enclosure. That saves me from trying to figure out how to erase the data on the hard drive in a machine which won’t boot.