Pick up a Palm PDA with GPS, for less than $200

THE CHEAP basket returns with a vengance, offering as usual some interesting deals from Amazon.com and other US sellers for our American audience.

The first item to caught the attention of this cheap basket was an iQue 3600 PalmOS PDA with integrated GPS from Garmin. If you've been reading the INQ you know already that until recently the iQue 3000 was the lone survivor, as all the WinMob ones went the way of the dodo last year. The good news is that if you want to get one of these before they disappear for good, the iQue 3000 is at Amazon for $356. But why pay more if you can get a gorgeous iQue3600 - which has the largest display of all - for $179. That's less than you'd pay for a used Tungsten T5.

These iQue 3600s are brand new and factory refurbished, and include Garmin's "detailed street mapping" software, a speaker for voice-guidance commands, MP3 player, and message playback, and finally a voice recorder for memos, quick notes, etc. And since these are Palm PDAs, you can install any third party app you like on it. Really not bad for the price. Remember the motto: GIWYC - Grab it While You Can.

Storage, who doesn't need some?
Even with plenty of NAS servers hooked on my LAN, all good things come to an end and all available storage eventually fills up. I have SimpleShare and Buffalo NAS, and probably plenty of you already have some form of dedicated server. In that case, adding more storage space is as simple as plugging an external USB hard drive to one of those appliances/servers.

A Terabyte of USB 2.0 storage for $269

First, I was going to recommend the very attractive 1TB MyBook Premium from Western Digital at $340, which seems to be a great choice. But, hey, if you're reading this you must be a true cheap b*stard just like yours truly. So why settle to spend over $300 for a Terabyte when you can have the same amount of storage for $269?. The CADB001U32 from Cavalry offers 1TB of 7200RPM spinning disc storage for $70 less than WD's.

There's a catch with the Cavalry unit, however - and no, I'm not speaking about any war - as the pre-formatted enclosure houses not one but two 500GB drives, apparently mapped as a single unit. It is not clear from reading the product description, however, it's just two different drives formatted as a WinXP "dynamic volume" or if the two drives are seen as one at the hardware level. So, the cautious amongst you might prefer to go with Westen Digital's offer, and the more adventurous can choose the cavalry. In any case, both are good deals considering a few months ago $340 only got you 750GB.

Going into the not-exactly-new territory, ecost is offering a 1TB USB 2.0 drive from LaCie for $190 with the disclaimer "manufacturer re-certified". Inventory at ecost fluctuates daily so check that page often.

Finally, if you just need storage to store "trivial" data and you're willing to take the risk of it, Geeks.com has a 750GB HD for $160, refurbished. It looks like an option to put into a cheap PC or your existing USB enclosure and only to store non-critical data that you already have elsewhere - like your ripped music from your CD collection or movies converted from DVD to MPEG4 Xvid / DivX to playback with a networked media player like the Neuros OSD. Still, that would still feel a bit too cheap even for this cheapskate. µ

See also:
One Garmin PalmOS GPS-PDA survives, all WinMob now dead Seagate 750GB external HD reviewed
Amazon.com prices 'only guaranteed for one hour' shocker