Tech Tech Tech
Like Best Buy and The Source, Amazon Canada and Newegg offering up lots of tech items for their early Black Friday sales, whilst accessories are being discounted at Prime Cable.
Unfortunately, the flooding in British Columbia will cause significant delays with some shipments originating from the west coast, as will the current backlog in worldwide shipping, so you should consider buying early. But it appears that Black Friday shopping on the east coast is acceptable, so most imports from American retailers like Amazon.com and Sharper Image should be fine.
By the way, if you’re looking for Apple gift cards, you should note that a PC Optimum offer is available at select, participating Real Canadian Superstores until November 24th, 2021; You can get 5000 bonus points per $50 Gift Card purchase, up to a limit of 10 gift cards.
Paramount Minus
So, I got a three month preview of Paramount+ from McDonald’s and thought i’d be able to watch the new seasons of Star Trek : Pickard and Star Trek : Discovery, and the extended versions of the Naked Gun films. But due to rights issues none of the above mentioned Paramount and CBS distributed content is available to Canadians.
Apparently all we get are crumbs though that $5.99/month service, mainly CBS television programs and less than three dozen films. And now my choices are CTV Sci-Fi for $7/month for the Star Trek series, or $19/month for Crave because the $9.99/month rate is for mobile devices.
I could try broadcasting Crave from my tablet but i’m presuming that the contents will be 720p or 1800p, so i’m probably going with CTV Sci Fi to get these programs at a higher resolution. But I think Paramount+ overestimated the demand for their current services in Canada.
Yes, there is a new version of Behind The Music and a Madonna concert on there. But unless you’re a big police drama and Rugrats fan you won’t find much to watch on that streaming service.
I bet I could watch everything I could possibly be interested in within a month so they’re going to need to make significantly more content available to keep me as a subscriber. After all, I already get most of the films they offer on Netflix and Prime Video. And I get the latter free with Amazon Prime.
I’ll update you if I see any improvements but it looks like I won’t be keeping Paramount+ beyond mid January.
Disney Day Offer Ends Tonight
New and eligible Disney+ subscribers have until 11:59pm Pacific today to subscribe to Disney+ for $1.99 for one month, $11.99/month afterwards.
I’m not being paid to promote this offer but I thought some of you might want to have it over the holiday season, for it’s content, which would include another Home Alone sequel, that I enjoyed last night.
Home Sweet Home Alone isn’t as epic as the first two films but it’s cute and features Archie Yates, the adorable scene stealer from Jojo Rabbit, which is also available on the service. And i’d say this Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell scripted comedy is comparable to Home Alone 3, which took quite an undeserved lashing on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yes, the fourth Home Alone film was boring and deserved to be a television release, but I liked Home Alone 3 as much as this new film, which doesn’t appear have a faired better with some purists on Rotten Tomatoes either.
It’ll appeal to kids and might be worth the $1.99 for parents. But I guess it’s “same old – same old” for some, which is fine. There is other content to watch on Disney+, although they haven’t yet added most the classic cartoons from the 40s and 50s I expected them to add by now, some of which I had purchased on DVD when the Walt Disney Treasures boxed sets were in print.
There are plenty of other classic films on the service to make a subscription worthwhile though, not like that awful Paramount+. I’ll get to that later.
Free transit In December in Ottawa
If you’re planning on visiting or shopping in Ottawa in December, you should know that transit will be offered for free that month.
Here are my favourite music stores in the city:
- Compact Music – 785 Bank Street (at Third St) – Used/New CDs, DVD audio, LPs, vinyl accessories (map)
- Crosstown Traffic – 593 Bank Street (at Sommerset) – Used/New CDs, DVDs, LPs (map)
- Granata Music – 1568 Merivale Rd (at Meadowlands) – Musical Instruments/Sheet Music/Accessories (map)
- Legend Records – 383 Winona Ave (at Richmond Rd) – Used/New CDs, LPs, DVDs, Blu-ray & more (map)
- Long & McQuade – 66 Hearst Way – Musical Instruments/Accessories/Sheet Music (map)
- The Odds & Sods Shoppe – 1440 Clyde (at Starwood) – Used/New CDs, LPs, DVDs, Blu-ray & more (map)
- Steve’s Music – 308 Rideau (at King Edward) – Musical Instruments/Sheet Music/Accessories (map)
- Turning Point – 411 Cooper Street (at Bank) – Used/New CDs, DVDs, Blurays, LPs (map)
- Vertigo Records – 1280 Bank St (at Cameron Ave) – Used/New CDs, LPs / turntables & vinyl accessories (map)
A Legend Records is also located in the Hazeldeen Mall (map) whilst Sunrise Record stores can be found in the Bayshore Shopping Centre (map), Carlingwood Mall (map), St Laurent Shopping Center (map) and Place D’Orleans Shopping Centre (map).
You’ll notice that quite a few stores are located along Bank Street, which is serviced by bus routes 6 & 7. Additional information on local transit in Ottawa can be found at the OC Transpo web site.
In case you wanted to know…
Rakuten.ca will be offering 10% on purchases Black Friday, and I believe this may include purchases from Apple Music, Disney+/Shop Disney, DeepDiscount.com, eBay.ca, Fender Play, Henry’s, Lego Canada, Musician’s Friend, Ticket Network, Ubisoft Store and Walmart. They have cash back offers for 750 retailers.
A $30 Bonus offer is also available by clicking here.
Amazon.ca has also started its Early Black Friday sale, which includes sales on JBL speakers, Sony headphones and various musical and computer accessories. There are also some good prices on televisions.
Upcoming Record Conventions
There will be a convention in St.John’s, Newfoundland this weekend:
- Sunday, Nov 7th 2021 – St.John’s Farmer’s Market (245, Freshwater Road, St.John’s NFLD) – 10am to 4pm – $2 admission
Masks will be required and cash is recommended because many vendors will not take credit cards.
Please note that the Oshawa Record convention that was scheduled to been held at Lviv Hall on November 14th, 2021 has been delayed until February 27th, 2022, unfortunately.