New to Google checkout? There’s a great deal still going on at Buy.com. Spend at least $10 and sign up for a Google checkout account to get $10 off. The best part? If you buy something that is exactly $10, like this Kingston 1GB USB flash drive, it’s completely free!

There is one catch - you may have to pay taxes or shipping, dependent on region. Word is a California resident was only charged $.72 cents, but in PA I got hit with $6.29. Ah well, maybe your state is one of the cheap ones.

(Thanks, K.C.!)

As promised, the TiVo goodie bag giveaway is here! The lucky winner will receive the sexy TiVo Glo Remote (works with both Series2 and Series3/HD units), a 1 year subscription to Real Rhapsody on TiVo, plus a stuffed TiVo doll.

If you want in, please leave one comment. The catch is that you must provide a link to a prior comment you’ve left on ZNF, other than contests. (The comment date stamp is your permalink.) And if you’ve never left a comment, you have some incentive going forward.

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Ah, Vudu. The box that’s generated more hate email towards me than any other product write-up - several folks have taken issue with my critiques. Look, it’s not that I don’t like the Vudu hardware or movie service… It’s that I primarily don’t like the pricing ($399), which limits their chances at mass adoption. I’m sorry they haven’t found ways to bring it down. Until today… Through October 23rd, get $100 off using coupon code VUDURULES. However, to really improve their odds, they’ll need to ultimately charge less than Apple TV and gain a presence at some major brick & mortar retailers. As an aside, rumor has it true HD content will arrive within the next few months.

Stuck in rebate hell? Wonder why? Mercury News uncovers what many of us have suspected, at least on occasion:

I am staring at more than 1,300 rebate requests sent to Vastech [for Fry's Electronics promotions] on Bonaventura Drive in San Jose. The envelopes were tossed - unopened - into a garbage dumpster near Vastech. I have two boxes of envelopes that were thrown out without being processed. In all of my years of reporting, I have never encountered such outrageous behavior against consumers.

Of course they responded with the expected, “the person no longer does any work for the company.” It doesn’t sound like they’re overly concerned about this, motivated to improve the rebate situation going forward, or truly remorseful. I wonder how many envelopes they didn’t recover… Buyer beware.

I’ve generally had pretty good luck receiving rebate checks - including two from TiVo way back when (2x Toshiba SD-H400). Though, rebates haven’t always been timely and I rarely let an offer under $20 sway my purchasing decision since the effort isn’t worth it. However, $200 off my Xbox 360 surely was.

(via Consumerist)

As promised, here’s your chance to win the schizophrenic multi-talented Samsung UpStage for use on the Sprint network. And if you end up feeling like I do about this phone… well, these things are moving for over $150 on ebay.

On the last two giveaways (Tendon, Monster) I had the distinct impression that some non-regulars stumbled in looking for freebies. Perhaps they compulsively search Technorati for blog contests? Who knows. While I obviously appreciate new folks checking out the site, I prefer to save the goodies for those who’ve invested a bit more in the success of ZNF. So…

Leave one comment saying you want in on the giveaway. The catch is that you must provide a link to a previous comment you’ve left here, other than prior contests. (The comment date stamp is your permalink.) And if you’ve never left a comment, now you’ll have some incentive going forward. Let’s see how this experiment works out…

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I came away from the Monster blogger event with a few goodies. So Outlets to Go 6-port (I travel with the 3-port) and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest on Blu-ray are up for grabs. Leave one comment telling me which you could use, and in a day or so I’ll randomly pick the winners.

Tendon USA, an economical online computer & AV cable distributor, sent me a few samples to evaluate. However, I’m giving them away and leaving the evaluation to you. Both cables are 4 meters - we’ve got HDMI<->HDMI and DVI<->HDMI. Leave one comment telling me which cable you could use, and when I get around to it I’ll randomly pick the winners.

Tendon tells me every cable they sell is tested 3 times (at various points in the manufacturing process) and 100% guaranteed. They’re currently running a deal on 1m HDMI cables: $5 for one, $4/ea for multiple.