Interested in music production? You can learn everything you need to know to realize your dreams from your own home with a Punkademic subscription. With access to all of Punkademic’s lessons and professors, you’ll be able to get a university-level education in classes covering music production, music theory, sound design, mixing and more for a fraction of the cost. Right now at StackSocial you can get a whopping get a whopping 86% off the cost of an all-access, three-year subscription to the Punkademic Music e-learning platform, meaning you’ll get over 1,000 hours of content for just $99. Just note this offer ends March 16.
See at StackSocial
Membership to Punkademic gives you access to Ableton Certified trainers and courses such as FL Studio, Pro Tools, Drum Programming Techniques, Recording and many more, with automatic access to new classes, which roll out every month. Most instructors are currently or have formerly been university professors, but with Punkademic, these teachers and content creators get paid directly from your membership, cutting out the middle man and the need for expensive student loans.
You’ll also get over 1,000 hours of video content, access to private student communities on Discord and Facebook, a 24-hour response time to questions from professors and many other benefits.
Immerse yourself in high-quality digital experiences for less.
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It may be time to put an end to relying on your gas-guzzling mower. You can replace your old lawnmower and upgrade to an electric version without much hassle these days. With an abundance of electric lawnmower options now available, they have become more accessible. And with regular price drops, you can get your own …
Do you have a closet, pantry, stairway or some other dark corner of the house that desperately needs illumination? Rather than hiring an electrician to wire a light, you could simply stick an LED night-light where it’s needed. No wiring, no hassles — this light strip is battery-operated and weighs little enough to attach to a wall, door or counter with some 3M sticky tape. Right now, you can grab a three-pack of night-lights for $10 when you check out with promo code CNETLED3. That’s about $5 off the usual price of $14.99 and way, way down from the supposed list price of $60 that I can’t imagine anyone has ever paid.
See it at Daily Steals
The night-light is a strip of five LEDs powered by three AAA batteries and attaches to whatever you want to stick it to — the inside door of a closet, the underside of a counter, you name it — with included 3M sticky pads. The light is activated by touch; just tap the case gently to turn it on and tap again to turn it off.
Incidentally, I found a number of similar night-lights that have the same basic design, but this particular model has one more LED than most, so it might be slightly brighter. That said, don’t expect miracles on the illumination front. The night-light puts out about 80 lumens, which is bedroom night-light territory. Even the most modest screw-in lamp bulb outputs 500 lumens or more. So don’t plan to read a novel with these lights. But for illuminating your path to the bathroom in the middle of the night or adding some light to a dark closet, this is a great $10 impulse buy.
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Hacks@Home: How to get started with smart light bulbs
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CNET’s deal team scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and check out our CNET Coupons page for the latest promo codes from Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page.
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CNET’s Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. Find more great buys on the CNET Deals page and follow the Cheapskate on Twitter!
Rock-steady video has never been more affordable.
FeiyuTech
Cheeps! I’m back! If you were wondering where I went: personal day on Friday (first one in over nine years, just saying), then the long holiday weekend (best staycation/battery-refresh couple days in recent memory, thanks to my awesome family).
Along the way I did share a few deals on Twitter, which is why I encourage you to follow me there. Often I’ll post deal updates, or share additional deals that cross my desk later in the day.
Remember a few years ago, when the phone in your pocket wasn’t also a powerful high-definition camcorder? Oh, to be a budding filmmaker in today’s world, when the gear is so, so cheap.
Of course, no one wants to look at shaky video (unless you’re making a found-footage film), but you can’t be truly creative if your phone has to stay shackled to a tripod. What you need is a gimbal, a handheld mount that keeps the phone rock-steady as you move around.
You’ve probably heard of these. DJI, for example, makes the Osmo Mobile, a handheld phone gimbal priced at $299, and GoPro recently got into the game as well with the Karma Grip (also $299).
If you like the idea but not the price tag, check this out: For a limited time, and while supplies last, Tomtop has the FeiyuTech SPG C three-axis stabilized handheld gimbal for $125 shipped. That’s after applying promo code DYWFY24 at checkout.
Quick note: This will be coming from a warehouse in China, so expect delivery to take two to four weeks. (I’ve ordered from the supplier before — most items have arrived in a little over two weeks.) Also, if you encounter any issues with the product, my contact at Tomtop invites you to contact her directly at [email protected]. The company is, in my opinion, working very hard to improve customer service.
Lights, camera… gimbal!
For those unfamiliar with the concept, a gimbal uses a combination of weights and motors to keep a camera steady while it’s in motion. That means you can walk or even run and enjoy much smoother video than you could just holding the phone in your hand.
The SPG C is a three-axis gimbal. If you see a similar product priced less, chances are it’s a two-axis model. It can hold a phone that’s up to 80mm wide — or, to put that in real-world terms, most 5.5-inch phones. (My iPhone 6S Plus fit, but only once I removed its case.)
I had the chance to briefly test-drive one of these, and came away impressed. It’s a substantial piece of gear, very solid and nicely designed. There’s a small joystick that lets you control panning and zooming and a mode button that toggles between various functions.
Cooler still, when you pair the gimbal to your phone, a companion app lets you enable features like face-tracking and panoramic photography (options touted in the aforementioned DJI product). I had some trouble with the former, however: Although the app seemed to lock in on faces just fine, the gimbal didn’t respond accordingly. This may well have been user error, and I did find a firmware update on FeiyuTech’s support page. (Haven’t had time to install it, alas.)
I do wish the company would add time-lapse panning to the feature roster, but for the moment that’s not available.
With the 18.4-inch Samsung Galaxy View tablet, you can watch “Bob’s Burgers” in style.
Josh Miller/CNET
Even so, this is just a really cool piece of hardware, and definitely worth considering if you want to record much smoother video with your phone.
Your thoughts?
Bonus deal: Looking for a big tablet? No, I don’t mean iPad Pro 12.9-big… I mean big. Like, you’ll need a second lap to hold it. Like, it could replace a bedroom television.
For a limited time, and while supplies last (they’re fairly limited, I’m told), Daily Steals has the Samsung Galaxy View 18.4-inch tablet for $379.99 shipped when you apply promo code CHPSKTE10 at checkout. It’s already a killer deal; yours truly just made it killer-er.
This monster features a full HD display (1,920×1,080 pixels), 64GB of expandable storage, a built-in kickstand, dual-band Wi-Fi and optional AT&T-powered 4G. (It may be possible to unlock the tablet for use on any GSM network.)
This is new, not refurbished, and it appears to sell for at least $500 elsewhere. OK, let’s address the elephant in the room: This tablet is like an elephant in your room. Why would you need something so huge? I think it would make a pretty sweet addition to the kitchen. Beyond that — hey, you figure it out!
Remember back in December when Spotify offered that three-month subscription for 99 cents? Mine ran out just a few days ago, so this is some seriously serendipitous timing.
For a limited time, you can get a three-month Google Play Music subscription for $3. That works out to just a buck per month (math win!) for unlimited ad-free listening. When that sweet, sweet stretch comes to an end, you can continue for $9.99 per month, or just cancel.
Let me note straight away that I’ve had difficulty actually navigating to this offer page. If you’re not already signed into your Google account, for example, you’ll have to do so — after which you may end up at your music library. If you click Shop from there, you should land at a page that has the deal banner — but for me it disappeared when I returned to that page a little later. Weird. I also tried going right to the Google Play store and clicking Music. Sometimes the banner was there, sometimes it wasn’t. YMMV.
Update:I’m also getting a “server error” when I try to sign up, undoubtedly because this offer is melting the Internet. I’ll keep trying throughout the day, and suggest you do likewise. Apparently even Google can’t handle a global crush of cheapskates!
Google Play Music, of course, is Google’s answer to Rhapsody, Spotify and the like. It lets you stream and download from a massive library, offers mood- and activity-oriented stations (a la Songza) and supports up to 10 devices per account — though only one at a time can actually play tunes. That’s a fairly disappointing limitation, if you ask me.
Even so, back in November, when I asked readers the name their favorite music streaming service, Google Play Music was definitely among the favorites. (This surprised me a bit, as I find the mobile app really unintuitive, and borderline user-hostile in places.)
Epson
These gripes aside, it’s hard to argue with this kind of pricing. If you’ve never tried a music streaming service or simply haven’t tried Google’s, three bucks for three months is a no-brainer. I’m in!
Bonus deal: Got a spare wall lying around? Nothing, but nothing, beats pointing a projector at it for giant-screen games and movies. For a limited time (and deals often expire quickly and without notice here), Amazon has the Epson Home Cinema 2000 1080p 3D projector for $549.99, shipped. Regular price: $749.99.
That’s a killer deal on a 1080p projector, especially one that can rock 3D if you pair it with a PlayStation or 3D-capable Blu-ray player. Plus, it has two HDMI ports instead of the usual one, and even a built-in speaker for easier anywhere-there’s-a-wall viewing. Best of all, the user reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
The best things in life are free: smiles, hugs, the smell of freshly baked bread. The second-best: a box full of goodies delivered to your doorstep every month. Because, let’s face it, to really enjoy life, you need novelty. Mystery. And stuff.
That’s the idea behind Loot Crate, a subscription service aimed at geeks and gamers. It’s already a pretty good deal, but today it’s even better: for a limited time, StackSocial has a 3-month Loot Crate subscription for $39.99 when you apply coupon code crate8 at checkout. That’s a Cheapskate super-exclusive, cheeps, and the best deal you’ll find anywhere. Regular price: $55.11.
So what the heck is a Loot Crate? It’s a mystery box stuffed with items based on a geeky theme: adventure, villains, galactic and so on. Imagine if the folks at ThinkGeek sent you a random assortment of stuff every month; that’s a Loot Crate.
The fun, of course, lies in not knowing what you’re going to get. Any given box might have a T-shirt, a poster, figurines, candy, collectibles, stickers and so on. (Check out this list of some past crates to get a better idea.) According to the company, the contents will always have a combined retail value of at least $40.
Talk about an awesome gift idea for your favorite IT guy, sci-fi fan, game lover or tech blogger! (See what I did there?)
As with many (if not most) subscription services, this one does require you to provide a credit card. But you won’t be charged anything else, and if I’m reading the terms correctly, your subscription will automatically expire after three months; you shouldn’t have to cancel. (Do mark your calendar to follow up and double-check, though.)
If you’ve tried Loot Crate in the past, hit the comments and share your thoughts. I think the fun of a mystery box of goodies is well worth $13.33 per month.
Bonus deal: I’m loath to mention this, given what happened with the last Microsoft Store deal, and unfortunately this too will probably sell out very quickly. But it’s too compelling not to mention: for the 5 minutes that supplies last, the Microsoft Store has the Toshiba Encore Mini WT7-C16MS Signature Edition Tablet for $99 shipped. This is a 7-inch tablet running Windows 8.1 (!), and it comes with a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal (which is worth $70 all by itself). Thoughts?
First things first: You’ve got just one more day to enter the NeatConnect scanner giveaway contest! As of right now, there are under 4,000 entries, so your chances are pretty darn good.
Second things second: What can I tell you about audiobooks that I haven’t already said a dozen times? If you’re taking a long trip, be it by car, train, plane, or whatever, there’s no better way to pass the time. (Well, OK, conversation, maybe, but only if you’re sitting with someone really interesting.)
Audible is widely regarded as the best audiobook service out there, and $14.95 per month for a one-book subscription is not a bad deal. But here’s an even better one.
For a limited time, you can get three months of Audible Gold for $1.95 per month when you apply coupon code TZ2014. That’s a grand total of $5.85 for a subscription that would normally cost you nearly $45. And if you decide not to continue, you’ll walk away with three audiobooks.
Surprisingly, this deal is good not just for new customers, but for previous members as well. (If you’re a current member, I don’t see why you couldn’t cancel, then sign up again via this offer. That’s gaming the system a bit, but that’s how you earn your cheapskate bona fides, right?)
Whatever the case, you’ll start getting billed the regular $14.95 starting with month four — unless you remember to cancel, so mark your calendar.
Of course, you may not want to. Once you get accustomed to listening to a good book while passing time in traffic, you won’t want to commute without one. My top recommendation? “The Good Earth,” by Pearl S. Buck. It may be “literature,” but it’s a terrific story and just riveting from start to finish. And speaking of riveting, try “Unbroken.” You won’t want to get out of your car.
What’s your favorite audiobook? Hit the comments and share some recommendations.
Bonus deal: Make the computer as small as you want, but give me a big monitor every time. Like this one: For a limited time, Best Buy has the AOC E2752VH 27-inch LED monitor for $169.99 shipped (plus tax). Specs include 1080p native resolution, built-in speakers, HDMI and VGA inputs, and a three-year warranty (though just one on the panel). And check out the nearly 200 user reviews, which average out to 4.5 stars.
