If you are a fan of modern classical composition, you are likely aware of the minimalist movement and composers such as Steve Reich, Terry Riley, John Adams,and Philip Glass. Glass gained fame in the 70’s for his operatic work ‘Einstein on the Beach’, and has been heard in many films with Academy Award nominations for Kundun, The Hours, and Notes on a Scandal. His work is not nearly as avant-garde as Riley, nor as rhythmically challenging as Reich, nor as epic as Adams, instead offering a combination of stark soundscapes, touching melodies, and passionate movements.

This week I got a notice that Amazon had the Philip Glass “The Orange Mountain Music Philip Glass Sampler Vol.I” for FREE, and being a fan of his work but only having a small collection of his recordings, I immediately grabbed the MP3 download and loaded it on my iPod. For nearly a week I have been thrilled with the nice variety of textures, styles and tones in the 21 song collection.

If you are interested in checking out modern classical music that offers a deep listening experience without veering too far into the ‘out there’ world of the avant-garde, I strongly recommend checking this out – it IS free, after all!

Another interesting tidbit: while driving around this weekend, my older son commented that the Etude No. 2 sounded very much like something my younger son had been writing on my MIDI system, and during his weekly piano lesson my younger son actually reproduced the opening segments from memory and mentioned it to his teacher. Cool stuff!

Source: Amazon.com
Image courtesy of PhilipGlass.com

Amazon Prime is Amazon’s service where, for $79 a year, your purchases get free two-day shipping. Better still, Amazon Prime members can upgrade items to one-day shipping for just $3.99. It comes in handy… trust me! If you buy a lot from Amazon and are impatient (who, us???) it is a great little add-on.

Well, Amazon just went and made their Prime service even better. From now on Amazon Prime-eligible items that are ordered on Thursday before 5PM EST will be delivered Saturday. This means if you have that impulse buy on Thursday you don’t have to wait all weekend before getting it.

Is it worth $79 a year? Only you can decide. Me? I love it.

As soon as I saw that AT&T would offer up the HTC Pure for $149 under contract I knew that this Windows Mobile 6.5 phone would be destined for freebie status (after contract). Amazon is showing the phone out of stock but they’re probably just waiting for their first shipments. If you still want one after reading our review, head over and reserve it now.

HTC Pure – Free after contract

Before the release of BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Macs, one of the best ways to sync your music, videos, and photos between a Mac and BlackBerry was doubleTwist.   In fact, using doubleTwist, you could easily sync media to a wide variety of mobile devices — including Sony PSP, G1, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile (5.0/6.0), and even iPhone (2.0 firmware).  What was great about this solution is that if you are in a household that utilizes multiple devices — you would have a single resource to transfer your media.

Now doubleTwist has added what could possibly be the best feature (and the one feature that can keep the application relevant) — an integrated Amazon MP3 music store letting you purchase and sync music to hundreds of mobile devices.

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You can spend $349 at T-Mobile for an HTC Touch Pro 2 – or visit Amazon.com and purchase one for $149 with free two day shipping and yes both deals require a new 2 year activation on a compatible T-Mobile plan. The Amazon deal does not require any rebates. PS – Shopping in a carrier’s store is a guaranteed way to pay the absolute highest price for a phone – but only after you’ve waited 45 minutes behind 7 people trying to pay off their delinquent bills or asking insane amounts of questions about every freebie phone in the store.

HTC Touch Pro2 Phone T-Mobile

Did you wake up this morning determined to buy a large HDTV? Amazon is offering up to 26% off Samsung Plasma and LCD HDTVs. To enable the lower prices you’ll have to use the coupon codes . LCD and Plasma HDTV sizes are available from 40 to 63 inches and the offer expires 9/5.

Samsung LDC and Plasma HDTV deals

Amazon is running a promotion through 8/31/09 – buy a Sony Webbie camcorder and get a $25 Amazon gift certificate. Our GearSponsor Logicbuy is indicating that you add them both to your cart and the $25 Amazon certificate is free. Eligible cameras are the Sony Webbie brand of high definition cameras suitable for video capture and subsequent online posting of embarrassing video . In addition to 1080p Hi-Def video the Webbie also takes 5 megapixel still photos, has a 5x optical zoom and 20x digital zoom.

Sony Webbie Promo

The single biggest problem my wife and other family members have is making sure that their data is backed up.  The HP Mediasmart LX195 will help you make sure that data is safe and a while lot more.

This server is based on Microsoft’s Windows Home Server.  It’s not my normal operating system of choice, but I think that Microsoft and HP have done a good thing here.  They have done something that is difficult with Linux.  They have made it extremely easy to setup a media server and a backup server all in the same tidy package.  Try as I might, I could not find much to NOT like about this little server. Continue Reading

What if you could turn someone into anyone you wanted; give them a new personality, new memories, a new life…and then with the flick of a switch, take it away and leave them blank until you add a new one?

Sound intriguing? That’s the basic conceit of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Season 1 is now on sale at Amazon.com for 29.99; the list price is 49.99.

If you haven’t caught this show, or you saw the first few episodes and couldn’t get into it, give it another shot. The last 8 episodes improved immensely, and the DVD has both the unaired original pilot and an unaired 13th episode that sets up the mythology for the rest of the series. The season started out slow, but it has all the elements for great sci fi: moral dilemmas, technology being used in new and frightening ways, and of course several alums of great science fiction shows like Battlestar Galactica and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Dollhouse was renewed for a second season, so now’s your chance to catch up and be set for the premier this fall on Fox. And yes, I’m shamelessly promoting this because I am one of the 4 people who actually watched it from start to finish during the season!

I’m a huge fan of the Roku Player. It is simple to set up and use and is great for streaming Netflix instant movies and Amazon Video On Demand. What is especially nice about the Roku player is that, if you already have a Netflix subscription, there is no additional cost after you purchase the player. That’s right Netflix subscriptions include their streaming service and although the choice aren’t fantastic there is always something to watch. Add to that the ability to rent and view movies from Amazon at a rate that is often better than iTunes and you have a nice media player.

What’s even nicer is that you can now get a refurbished Roku player for under $90. Add to that the fact that by linking your new player to your Amazon account you’ll receive a $5 credit toward movies and there’s never been a better time to get a Roku. (And when you DO get it be sure to check out the BBC show MI-5 on Netflix. Awesome!)

More information  on the Roku on their website. To purchase a refurbished unit visit HERE.

We try hard at Gear Diary to share with you awesome deals around the web…but what about times when shopping somewhere WON’T save you money? There are some instances where pricing is so out of whack it’s like a train wreck, and you won’t believe it. Want to know what devices are commanding over 100% premium to their initial release price? Click the read link and find out…

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If you’re one of the people who bet on the “wrong horse” in the DVD format wars, don’t throw out your HD DVD player quite yet. A co-worker of mine commented that he was stocking up on HD DVDs, and a quick search on Amazon.com shows that you can apparently score them for quite cheap. In fact, if you’re looking for a way to beef up your DVD library really fast, try this deal, 100 HD DVDs for $329.

See? Betting on HD DVD wasn’t all bad, as long as you limit your movie buying choices to DVDs ported to HD DVD and released before 2008!

I’ve just noticed (though this certainly could have been the case for some time) that Amazon is offering three models of discounted Netbooks with embedded 3G mobile broadband connectivity. The discounts on the models are at least $300 provided that you also subscribed to the pricey (typically $60+/mo) wireless broadband service of either AT&T or Verizon.

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It looks like Amazon has refined their online wireless store so that AT&T and Verizon cell phones will be sold without the need to file a rebate. Amazon has always sold phones however some were sold with a requirement to file for a rebate while others were rebate free. For now only AT&T and Verizon are being offered on the beta site. This newly revamped store is listed as “beta” and may be accessed at http://wireless.amazon.com.

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It’s big ass TV day here at GearDiary and our GearSponsor LogicBuy helps spread the fever with three coupons for $200, $300 and $400 off on different models of Samsung LCD (and one plasma) HDTVS. At the (more) affordable level is the $1,499 40″ Samsung LN40B750 with a $200 savings. The top end “screw the economy I’m getting a big TV” is the 63″ Samsung PN63B550 1080 Plasma priced at $2,574.99 less a $400 discount. Coupons are SAMSFOUR, SAMTHREE and SAMTVTWO for the respective discounts. Just think how crazy it will drive your neighbor to see the 63″ tv box sitting by the curb for trash pickup. Details on the coupon codes at the link below.

Samsung HDTV Coupon Codes (expire 5/23/09)