1. Amazon Prime - right before the holidays I read a post from some guy saying that he didn’t shop at any B&M (brick & mortar) stores, but did all of his shopping on “Amazon Prime”. Prime? Never heard of it. So I did a little digging and basically Amazon Prime is a subscription to free shipping. You pay $80 a year and for it you get unlimited free TWO DAY shipping on any item that comes directly from Amazon.com ($4 gets you overnight service). The only downside of this is that not all of the stuff on Amazon is actually from Amazon. They have partnerships with hundreds of companies and a lot of the stuff isn’t eligible. But there are still plenty of things and I’m pretty sure that I’ve already got my $80 worth and it’s not even February yet. The added bonus- I get to say that I’m an “Amazon Prime” member which makes me sound special.
2. Vimeo.com - For a while I’ve been looking into an upgrade on my church’s video camera (and partially curious for personal use as well). I did a search for some high def sample footage and ended out at this site called Vimeo. Essentially Vimeo is a youtube like site, only with a much smaller community and a much stronger focus on the artistry of film making. The real bonus from the site and what sets it apart from many others is that there are hundreds if not thousands of HD clips. I have a pretty big pipe to get this stuff, but I’m still amazed at how fast it buffers and plays at such incredible quality.
3. 24″ iMac - Yes, it’s true I’ve finally decided to switch and as we speak my new 24″ iMac is on it’s way here. I will admit that there is some hesitation and wonder as to how I’m going to like working in OS X all the time, but I have a feeling it’s going to be all good. The added bonus- the ability to watch and record true HD.