Just got this email from Costco.com. I was placed on their notify list for the Nintendo Wii, which I why I received this email. If you can’t read the screenshot, this is what it says:

Dear Costco Member,

You requested to be notified when the new Nintendo Wii Bundle is available for purchase at Costco Wholesale. This item will be available for purchase on costco.com on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at approximately 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The item will be prominently displayed on the homepage of costco.com until it is sold out.

Due to the extremely limited supply, we can accept orders from current Costco members only on a first come, first served basis, with a limit of one unit per household. Selected Costco warehouses will also have a very limited supply on Sunday, November 19, 2006.

Orders for the Nintendo Wii Bundle will be shipped via UPS by Tuesday, November 21, 2006. Tracking information will be available on costco.com.

We hope to receive additional quantities in our warehouses and on costco.com prior to Christmas, but we do not have an estimated arrival date, or approximate quantity at this time. We apologize in advance if you are unable to purchase this item from Costco Wholesale.

According to the store managers, there will be a bundle including the Wii and two games (Zelda and Excite Truck) for $339.99.

Edit: Got one! It never showed up on the site (link stating the Wii being available was there, but it just led to a page with some Wii games), but I learned through a forum that adding to the cart using the item number would work. I had to reload the place order page a dozen times before it went through (even though not many people could order it was very slow nonetheless). Less than a minute after I successfully placed my order the item finally shows up on the site but it’s out of stock!

Comcast, like any other business, never wants to lose its customers. If you try to cancel or downgrade your account, they’ll transfer you to their retention department. The retention department is made up of a group of employees who are paid to retain the customer at all costs. They’re even willing to lower the price of your service or upgrade your account for free, if necessary.

This morning, I called 1-800-COMCAST and pressed “4,” the option terminate/downgrade my current plan. I threatened that I would cancel and switch to Verizon FiOS unless they were willing to offer a better deal than the current $44.95/month 15MB/2MB plan from Verizon FiOS. Without hesitation, the lady offered to upgrade my plan to 16MB/1MB to slightly match Verizon without any additional cost.

Your mileage may vary depending on who you talk to, but just keep trying and you’ll get some kind of discount. If the customer service representative actually attempts to cancel the account, just hang up and call again later. I was able to save around $10 a month by getting a free upgrade, but if you don’t need the extra bandwidth, you can get them to lower the fees of your current plan instead.

Update: Over at MWYN, Mike was able to get his prices lowered to $34.99 for a whole year. Proof that this works. Post success stories in the comments! If anyone is able to get a plan upgrade and lowered fees, definitely let everyone know how you did it.

Complete the Microsoft Windows Vista quiz (answers after the jump) and get a free CD copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2.

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Just print out the coupon. Note that it is a one time use coupon.

VisualHub is new piece of software made by the guys who made iSquint. It’s an easy-to-use and very fast video convertor for nearly every format. I’d say it’s probably worth the $23.32 USD, but there’s a pretty big bug in it. You don’t need to pay for it to get a working serial. Just keep the name and e-mail box blank and enter in any number for the serial.

Don’t worry, already notified the guys about this.

Update: They’ve pulled the bugged version and re-released a fixed version. I guess anyone who grabbed a copy in the first 24 hours got lucky.

The deal is buy a new Mac and get a free iPod nano.

1. Buy a Mac.
Buy a new MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, or Power Mac G5.

2. Buy an iPod nano.
Purchase your iPod with a Mac.

3. Submit your rebate.
Your iPod nano is free after mail-in rebate.* Or choose another iPod and enjoy big savings after mail-in rebate.* After you receive your products, start your rebate online for fastest processing. Or download and mail the rebate form.

Sounds like an awesome deal to me. Student discount AND a free iPod nano.

Electronic Gaming Monthly
Computer Gaming World

No guarantees on how long this will last. This should extend my EGM and CGW subscriptions to 2012 (never ever paid for EGM or CGW).