What We're Buying

Ascent M-12 Sport Helmet

Since the opening of dealnews' New York office, I decided to start biking to work. New York streets, however, can be filled with drivers with no regard for human life -- cyclist or otherwise -- so I figured I'd fix myself up with a helmet.

I have an enormous head (I've got a lot of brains) so this Ascent M-12 Sport Helmet was the best deal I could find for an XL helmet. (After coupon, it was under $20 shipped).

The helmet is lightweight and has plenty of vents -- so far, so good. Unfortunately, like all bike helmets, it looks dorky. As for it's usefulness at protecting my brain during impact? Hopefully I'll never have to put it to that test. Now, if I could just get the willpower to actually start biking to work. -- Jeff Somogyi

Last week I bought the Casio Exilim EX-Z600 for $139 from Buy.com. The story behind this purchase is that by day I am mild-mannered Jeff Morgan, employee of dealnews, but by night I am Jeff the "Camera Destroyer." This is my fourth camera in two years. First to die was the Minolta DiMAGE D20, which I really liked, but lasted under a year before it arrived on death's doorstep.

So I bought another camera just like it, but it too died within months. Then in January I bought a 7MP Polaroid via dealnews and was happy with it. It was your basic entry-level point and shoot camera, but a couple of weeks ago the Destroyer found it dead. So I decided I would buy a higher end camera, which led me to the Exilim. It's a much nicer camera than my previous ones. It has a small USB cradle, which I keep it docked on throughout the day in my office allowing me to quickly display images I've taken. It's also very thin and uses rechargeable batteries rather than AA's. My only complaint is the clunky user interface, which turns simple tasks into multiple-button maneuvers. Nevertheless, I've adjusted to it quickly and I'm happy overall. The picture quality is also substantially better than the Polaroid which had a tendency toward grainy photos. -- Jeff Morgan

I recently bought the $20 SanDisk Cruzer 2GB USB Drive to keep on my keychain. So far, it's been extremely useful. Whenever I want to copy something from someone's computer, I just pull out my keys, plug in my Cruzer, and start copying. It's USB 2.0, so it's a lot faster than transferring over a network, and since it's on my keychain, it's always with me when I need it. It also looks cool, which is another reason I give it two thumbs up.

For an additional $15, you can get the 4GB version and avoid running into space limitations like I have on the 2GB model. -- Wesley Hall

Over the summer we listed a deal for Shadowrun for the Xbox 360. I had been told multiple times by the guys at work (read: Chuck) that I needed to get it since it was the new hotness on Xbox Live. I wasn't too excited by the demo, so I told myself that I wasn't going to pay retail price for it (I hate paying retail anyway), but if I was lucky enough to find it for under $40, I'd buy it. I managed to find it on Amazon.com for $30 and I knew my time had come. Once again, dealnews helped me go broke by saving money. The game arrived ahead of schedule, and I'm happy with the overall experience in ordering it. The game isn't too bad, either. -- Daniel Hendley

While certain amenities of the W Hotel chain may be lost on me -- I don't really need a mix CD to set the tone of the room -- I must say that it sports one of the best beds in the industry, The W Bed. When I saw that I could get one of its customized Simmons Beautyrest mattresses for $627 I jumped at the offer. And, despite a backlog of 900 orders (as quoted by the customer service representative at W Hotels - The Store), I received my mattress three days later. The verdict? Zzzzzz ... (In a good way.) -- Jeffrey Contray