Handy feed of latest deals on Netbooks

Here's a nice site that keeps track of all the latest deals and special offers on Netbooks: dealnetbooks.com. There's an RSS feed too. Very handy, easier than sifting through Slickdeals or Edealinfo, and updated several times a day.

They also have some good reviews of netbooks at the companion blog, netbooked.net. Technically-minded and fluff-free information.

I for one am now leaning towards the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. It gets great reviews in terms of keyboard, battery life, build quality, and overall performance, and it's got built-in bluetooth. And deals to get it for $360 with a 2gb memory upgrade keep popping up and then selling out quickly. So I'm pretty tempted spring for it.

Fixing cell phones and where to get the parts

So, I went camping at Lake Erie a couple weeks ago, and cracked the glass protective cover over my phone's screen:

My phone with the broken protective glass screen cover

It didn't really affect the phone functionally, but it was pretty ugly and I figured it would eventually fall apart with so many cracks in it. I called Sprint, and they wanted $125 to fix it!!! And I'd have to mail in the phone and be without it for several days.

So I did a little Googling... and apparently this glass screen cover is literally just a sticker. It has an adhesive backing and just sticks down on top of the LCD. Making it extra-ridiculous to pay someone $125 to fix it.

I've always thought it was annoying how you can't buy small parts for cell phones. But it turns out you can!!! There's a great online store at CNN.cn where you can buy small parts for zillions of different phones and the prices are very cheap. I got a new glass screen cover for $5 + $5 shipping from Hong Kong. It arrived in about a week very well-packed. I basically just pried the old screen cover off with a thin blade, and put the new one on. Now my phone's back to its original state:

My phone with the protective cover replaced

So... if you need any parts to fix your cell phone, and don't want to pay the ridiculous prices of the cell phone companies, definitely check out CNN.cn. I'm not affiliated with them or anything, just a pretty happy customer.