Just buy this one
justbuythisone.com
justbuythisone.com
However, for buying a toaster or a microwave or something, I can definitely see this site being useful. Usually I end up going to the store and picking something out based on the blurbs on the packaging - not exactly a prime source of impartial data.
Regarding preferneces, read Gladwell's essay - The ketchup conundrum -http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html. It discusses Prego's tomato sauce and highlights something these guys are missing - the concept of customer segmentation. Different people have different preferences. Since when was a one size fits all universally appealing?
Still, I can imagine this being the lazy buyer's dream, I suppose.
I just read the reviews on Amazon. If anything, they are often too negative.
Now that said, would this actually be useful to me? For the stuff I care about (like, say, a computer) I definitely would not use this site. So it's for stuff I don't care about. Like a kettle. But I'm fine just buying a cheap-ass old school kettle that you don't plug in. So it's probably ultimately not for me. Super clever though!
Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't allow this yet.
btw, http://www.justbuythisone.com/best-high-end-tv broke the website.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HZ30W-Digital-compact-supporte...
(This is the mid-level recommendation - the top price recommendation is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3).
I'm not a camera guy so I can't vouch for the quality of these cameras, but I'm not seeing the one you linked to.
Of course the obvious counter argument is that what's not important to me is to someone else. So of course what this site really needs is just much more coverage.
Brilliant execution. Just stellar.
Considering how much tea I drink, I would have been most disappointed to discover price doesn't always correlate perfectly with quality ;-D
Otherwise I like the site; it fulfills that "family member asking for advice on electronics" niche well.
Not reasuring re. justbuythisone.com
But their high-end recommendation was a Macbook.
I suppose it makes sense that they're targeting people who aren't picky and are just looking to buy something they won't regret in that category, but there's a HUGE gulf to me between buying a Dell with Windows 7 and a Macbook running OSX.
[edit: I noticed the title has been changed, so the point is moot now.]
I did find out about it because we work with the guys who built it (http://www.reevoo.com) but I thought the HN crew would enjoy it - it feels to me like a hardware version of this classic XKCD: http://xkcd.com/627/
We pick the price we show from Reevoo's price comparison, choosing the cheapest price from the 400 shops we list prices from - so we're pretty confident we're showing the best product at the best possible price. I'd love to know if we're missing somewhere with dirt-cheap prices, though.
One caveat is that we don't use Amazon Used&New prices for JBTO, just cause things tend to be sold in very low quantity there and so go out of stock really quickly.
For this, you'd probably need a huge database of product properties (let alone products), but that's conceivable. See, for example, http://market.yandex.ru/guru.xml?CMD=-RR=9,0,0,0-PF=21425576... – these are all TV models with WiFi and 3D support that Yandex knows about (see there are a lot of filtering options on the right)
Anyone would like to implement such a service?
Edit: I'm using IE8 on WinXP.
I don't know how to answer this without being harsh, but, what else did you expect? I mean, Windows XP is hardly the typophile's platform of choice, is it?
It's fine to be harsh if you're being logical.
You don't have to render _everything_ as an image or flash to get the most eye-catching element on your landing page to look perfect.
Otherwise, the picture quality of plasma TVs are dramatically better than LCDs.
I have my plasma TV set to automatically shut off after 3 hours of inactivity. Also, I have the "pixel orbiter" feature turned on which periodically slightly shifts the picture around (not noticeable to the human eye when it happens).
From what I have heard (in places like avsforums and elsewhere), newer plasma TVs are much harder to permanently burn, especially after the initial break-in period; it is pretty much a thing of the past. You'd really have to try really hard to make it happen (leave it on a still image for more than several days), and I think an auto-shutoff of 3 hrs will prevent that. I don't have any scientific data to prove this, though.
I haven't been a long-term owner of a plasma TV yet (bought my first HDTV set about a year ago), so I'm not a good data point, but in that year I have not experienced any such problems and we leave things paused or on menus all the time. I expect that some day my plasma display will show signs of age. Supposedly, the green phosphors tend to age faster than the blue and red, which will cause a shift in color. But that could be 10 to 20 years from now. And LCD is not immune to aging; the 9-year-old LCD monitor I am using right now has had uneven brightness all over the screen in weird blotches for the last several years. I assume its a backlighting problem; but it doesn't bother me as I've adjusted to it and I continue to use it. If my plasma ever develops burn-in, I'll probably adjust to it in the same way.
The difference between LCD and plasma for me is this: with LCD I find myself noticing all the artifacts -- the colors being unrealistic, the motion blurs, the flashlight effect (backlighting being noticeable on dark scenes), etc. Processing like judder correction and blur correction just makes things worse because it makes film look like it was shot with a video camera. LED-LCD TVs are especially bad (I owned an edge-lit one for a few weeks before returning it), because the colors are even more unrealistic than with CCFL-backlit, though maybe the newer tri-color ones are better.
Whereas, with a good plasma TV I can just watch the content because there are no artifacts and deficiencies that I can see. The colors are closer to what you can expect from a CRT. Also, plasma displays seem to smooth out pixelation; I can watch video that is very low resolution and it looks great fullscreen on the plasma while it doesn't look good fullscreen either on my LCD or CRT computer monitors. I guess you can say that plasma is slightly less sharp, but this works out in its favor.
One of the big differences is: with plasma each pixel is actually producing its own light, whereas with LCD you have backlights shining through the pixels which is why LCDs are not even. Also, plasma looks the same from all angles, whereas with LCD you generally have to be center (vertically and horizontally) for the best picture, though some LCD TVs pull this off better than others. Side note: OLED displays also have each pixel producing its own light.
Maybe I am really picky (I didn't realize how picky I was until I started shopping for HDTVs last year) and the typically consumer wouldn't be as concerned and only videophiles care enough about the difference. But I think coupled with the fact that plasma TVs are generally cheaper than LCD TVs for equivalent quality and sizes, and the fact that I think with the more expensive LCD TVs you are paying for tech that is compensating for the inherent defficiencies with the technology (e.g. local dimming to make up for the lower static contrast ratio), I think plasma is the better buy for even the typical consumer.
I think the slight risks of possible plasma burn-in in the distant future are way too small to choose what I think is the less suitable technology for TV/film viewing.
If you happen to see this reply -- I have one last question you may have input on. My friend Google has been of limited use in figuring out the positioning of plasma when it comes to gaming. Not just burn-in (HUD's and such) but also ghosting. Comments? :)
Another plus is that it covers a lot of products, and gives a pretty comprehensive overview of their findings.
Personally I find Justin's site more captivating and would be more likely to trust his judgment than the masses.
I don't want to be an average guy. ;-)
If they become even moderately successful, I will always be worried that the big brands / local importers - just bought the top slots and the site is nothing more than a marketing tool.
But maybe its me being cynical