Amazon is offering Roku HD Player for 79.99 as part of their Deal A Day promotion. This is $20 off of regular price of $99.99 and includes free shipping. You can read my full review on Roku Players and decide if this is something you want to purchase. With Roku players, you can stream Netflix content directly on your TV. With Netflix recently announcing a $1 billion dollar deal with Epix, they have increased their streaming library to even more.

*update* Deal is dead but you can still get $10 off by clicking here.

I recently made two purchases using Groupon. I heard of Groupon for awhile but I never really invested any time looking too much into it. After a friend of mine sent me a link to buy Rotisserie Chicken Family Meal at Chicken Out for 50% off, I figured it couldn’t hurt to make that purchase. It was the easiest thing ever. I just registered and signed up and made the purchase using my credit card. Then, they sent me a link to print out the coupon. I took the coupon to Chicken Out and I paid nothing more. $14 for a family meal that normally costs $28. I could not have been more satisfied.

Then just the other day, I made another purchase for $10 for 20 weeks of Sunday Edition of the Washington Post. Normally, that would run you about $40.

Groupon is the easiest thing you can use and you can save a lot of money.

This is how it works:

1. Each day features one item that’s local to your area. You have select the closest city you reside in. The coupons or discounts will only apply to your local area. It’s vital that you make sure the coupon applies to your city or zip code prior to making your purchase.
2. For each item, there is a minimum requirement of purchases for the coupon or deal to become activated. 99 percent of the times, there’s usually enough people interested in the deal that you rarely have to worry about it. If you really like a particular deal, just invite your friends to make the purchase to reach the minimum purchase requirement.
3. Check back next day for another deal.

Here are some of the past deals that have been posted for the Baltimore Area.

It’s been 8 days since I started using Proactiv. Yes, it’s a bit embarrassing for me to admit using it, especially as a 32 year old man, but I was desperate. I can not believe that I have more pimples on my face now as  a 32 year old person than I did back when I was a teenager. It’s utterly ridiculous that I still have to go through what I thought would end by the time I graduated from college. But no, these little critters are relentless and they’ve been attacking me with no regards to my feelings whatsoever. I waited and waited and used all sorts of over-the-counter methods of eliminating these little zits, but I couldn’t wait any longer to take desperate actions. I’m engaged and getting married in a few months! I refuse to get married with a few dozen pimples sunbathing on my face.

So I made the Proactiv purchase and have been using it without fail for the past 8 days. I still have zits everywhere on my face. I counted 29 the other day. Not 29 blemishes, but 29 actual live zits; the ones that itch and hurt at the same time. But I can feel the medication working. My skin feels different and I can feel the pimples slowly dying. Couple more new zits  have popped up the last couple days, but it’s definitely at a slower rate than it was before.

Proactiv also sent me a book written by the two female “doctors” that created the medication. It’s called “The Doctors’ Secrets to a Lifetime of Clear Skin”. It lists 30 truths about acne. As I read through them, I felt that it was good useful information. There are three things I learned from reading the book.

1. Take Control Of Your Acne

Acne is not curable but controllable. People will always get a variation of some acne. Acne is such a broad term that any blemish that pops up on your body can be labeled as acne. There are many medication out there to help us control it but none of them offer a cure for it. To control it, we must take care of our skin on a daily basis. It’s almost like washing your hair or brushing your teeth. If you don’t take care of them, they will go bad. In the same way, if we don’t take care of our skin, acne will appear.

2. If Pimple Is Visible, It’s Too Late

There are two ways to treat pimples. Treat the ones that are already visible on your face and treat the ones that have not yet appeared on your face. Acne goes through different stages like all other things in life. When a pimple is visible on your skin, it is in the very last stage of its life. When we use topical cream to treat the visible ones, we’re basically playing catch-up because new ones will appear by the time existing one dies. The best way to treat them is to prevent them from appearing in the first place, by taking care of our skin using proper medication, everyday.

3. Use Three Steps To Prevent Breakout

There are two chemical solutions that fight acne well: benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. Basically what you need to do first is clean up the dead skin cells using an exfoliating benzoyl peroxide solution. Then open up the clogged pores by dissolving them with salicylic acid based toner or astringent. Finally, once the pores are open, use benzoyl peroxide based lotion that will kill the pimple.

So, these are what I learned from Proactiv. I feel like it’s working so far, but we’ll see. I’ll keep trying and will provide an update later.

Have you tried Proactiv? Did it work for you? If not, what other medications have you tried that worked well?

There was a Bloomberg article that was released yesterday indicating that Apple will launch iPhones under Verizon Wireless in January, 2011. We all anticipated this move, whether it be soon or much later in 2012 when AT&T exclusive agreement runs out. One of the most common complaints iPhone users have now are the dropped calls and weak 3G signals. I am a current iPhone user and even stood in the line for 10 hours to get my iPhone 4 and I get dropped calls at least 1 time every day. Other friends have complained that they started experiencing dropped calls as soon as they switched over to the iPhone. It’s very frustrating. It’s also very frustrating when I have zero signal on my iPhone and my friend has full signal bars on his phone. When I ask him who his carrier is, he says Verizon and then starts laughing at me for having no signal on my phone.

Well, if the Bloomberg article holds true, Verizon users don’t have to wait that much longer to be part of the iPhone bandwagon. I previously wrote about best online brokerage firms and I would recommend signing up for one and suggest in buying Apple stock now in anticipation of the Verizon iPhone launch. When it does come out, will you switch over to the Verizon iPhone? If you’re a current AT&T iPhone user, will you switch to Verizon?

On Tuesday, Hulu announced the launch of their paid subscription service. The service runs at $9.99 per month and subscribers can watch most of recent TV shows from the current season, along with episodes of past seasons, including the popular shows such as Glee, Office, and House among others from ABC, NBC, and Fox. At $9.99, the service becomes affordable and I know for  fact that more people than not are willing to pay for the subscription to watch their favorite TV shows at any time they want. Hulu’s On-Demand subscription service will compete with streaming content of offered by Netflix. Netflix currently does not offer too many of the popular current network TV shows so Hulu will have an advantage over Netflix in this category.

Which is better?

I still believe Netflix has a huge edge of Hulu. Netflix is more affordable at $8.99/mo and you still receive unlimited DVD rental included with your service. Netflix also have blue-ray players and playstation,  Wii consoles and even Roku media players to help you stream content onto your TV. However, Hulu does have plans to launch their service to be compatible with playstation in the future. Hulu also will still have advertisement in their streaming content. This is a huge negative for viewers especially since they are actually paying for the content. Netflix has no advertisement in their streaming content.

Hulu’s service is currently available by invitation only and has plans to release to the entire public in the near future.

What will you do?

When it becomes available to everyone, will you pay for their currently free content? I probably won’t.

Refer to my other Netflix posts:

Netflix Streaming Review: Save Money With Netflix
Roku Becomes Friendlier with Netflix
Use Your Wii To Stream Netflix, Save 10%
Netflix Reaches 15 Million Subscribers

The war is on. Today, as I was driving to work, I learned over the radio that Barnes and Noble has dropped their price on the eReader, Nook to $199, a drop of $60! In response to that, Amazon lowered the price of their eReader, Kindle to $189 within only couple hours of Barnes and Noble price drop. So, who wins here? We DO!

As consumers, we hate monopoly. When there’s competition, prices become competitive as each vendor tries to outdo each other to win customers. Which one is better though?

Comparing the most important features, it looks like the Kindle is the clear winner! The cost is less, weighs less, and battery life is longer than the Nook.

However, Nook also has one big advantage over the Kindle. With the Nook, you can read free ebooks at your local brick and mortar Barnes and Noble stores. You can’t do that with the Kindle.

What about the iPad? Anyone have a success story with their iPads?

It took me a while, but I finally pre-ordered my iPhone 4. I tried to do it at Apple’s website but nothing was working. Kept on getting error messages. But when I read some forums, people were having some success pre-ordering through Apple Store App on iPhone. So I quickly installed the App for free and went ahead to start the ordering process. The process couldn’t have been easier. I just picked my store location and selected the iphone and that was it!

It now appears that the website is working now as I was just able to get passed the error messages I was getting earlier. So go ahead and reserve yours! Don’t you want yours right away like all the other Apple product fanatics?

**Update (June 24, 2010)** 10% sale is STILL ongoing. Simply use promo code “save” at checkout. “xrdeal” is not live anymore.

If you love watching streaming Netflix on your computer, why not go one step further and watch it on your TV? If you don’t already have PS3 or Wii or other Netflix streaming capability equipment, consider using a Roku Media Player. It practically does everything you want to play streaming Netflix on your TV. Right now as Father’s Day promotion, Roku is offering 10% discount on their top model, Roku HD-XR Player. Just use the code XRDEAL when you check out. If you’re not familiar with streaming Netflix, you can read my Netflix Review written in a previous post.

As I’ve written previously, I don’t think a roku player is necessary when you already have a laptop. With a laptop, you can simply connect it to your TV with an HDMI cable and you have an instant media player. But if you’re a tech savvy person, a roku player might be the next best thing to own. The HD-XR model starts at $129.99. The promotion ends June 20, 2010 so be sure to act before then.

ChristianPF, a personal finance blog is celebrating their 3 year anniversary by giving away one Ipad to the grand prize winner. Entering is very easy as all you have to do is link to their page like I am doing now. There are other easy ways also such as twittering about it and mentioning it on your facebook account. There are 6 ways to enter and the more you do, the more entries are given to you (max of 21 entries). Go check it out and you might win yourself a new iPad.

I have been a Netflix subscriber for over one year now and I been enjoying it practically everyday. I was previously a Blockbuster Online subscriber but after I switched, I never looked back. I live in Maryland and all of my shipments come from Gaithersburg, MD location, which is a good 45 miles away from where I live. When I mail in my DVD for return on Monday, I will receive my new movie in the mail by Wednesday. It’s ALWAYS been 2 days for me. It’s never come earlier and it’s never arrived later than 2 days. The reliability of the delivery is phenomenal without a flaw, in my experience.

Although the speedy delivery is nice, what I like the most about Netflix is the streaming capability. I have watched countless number of movies and tv shows through Netflix and the quality of these are exceptional, as long as you have high-speed internet. They’re constantly adding new shows and movies to their already vast number of categories.

The streaming part of the subscription is totally free, as long as you have a subscription membership. Their memberships start out at $8.99/mo which includes 1 dvd out at a time and unlimited streaming video. It goes as high as $23.99/mo which allows up to 4 dvds at a time. If you opt to choose a limited plan which limits to 2 rentals per month, it allows only 2 hours of streaming video. This service is only $4.99.

Not only can you watch your streaming videos online on your computer, there are so many media players that are already Netflix-ready. PlayStation 3 and Wii game consoles already provide Netflix streaming directly to your TV. Another player that’s recently been increasing in popularity is the Roku Media Player, starting at only $80. Whatever service plan or Netflix-ready media players you choose, Netflix will provide you with plenty of online entertainment, whether on your computer or big screen LED TV.

Refer to my other Netflix posts:

Roku Becomes Friendlier with Netflix
Use Your Wii To Stream Netflix, Save 10%
Hulu Competes With Netflix
Netflix Reaches 15 Million Subscribers