Recently in Shopping Category

A while back I applied for a coupon that would give me $40 off a digital tv converter box as the US is switching off analogue broadcasts on 17th Feb 2009. This is similar to the switch off that is happening in the UK at the moment but seems to be a staged process as opposed to one definitive date.
Anyway, the coupon arrived and I finally got around to going shopping for one. The coupon is for $40 off selected (low end) converter boxes but you would be very lucky to get one for $40. Most of them seem to be $49 or $59.
I went to BestBuy this afternoon and got the Insignia NS-DXA1-APT. About 10 minutes after getting it home I had 11 REALLY clear tv channels. The difference between tv on the standard rabbit ears aerial and the aerial with the digital converter is amazing. The picture is now very similar to the quality of the picture you'd get with cable.
A lot of the channels are broadcast in wide screen though, and then some of the commercials are broadcast in 4:3 format so you end up with a small picture in the middle of the screen with black bars all around it - however pushing the zoom button on the remote brings it to full screen (but you will loose some of each side of the picture).
The remote also has the ability to turn off the tv if it is supported (there are about 45 different makes supported) and there is a auto shutoff option too.
One other feature is analogue passthrough - by turning off the unit, the tv will continue to receive the analogue broadcasts which could be useful if your stations are still broadcasting in analogue only.
There is also a basic EPG guide that shows you whats on now and next - better than nothing but nowhere near as sophisticated as the EPG you'd get with cable.
If you are still using over the air transmissions for your tv then I'd highly recommend you apply for a coupon and get a box now rather than wait until Feb and this unit is well recommended.

Thanks to the Fatwallet forums, you can get Taxcut Premium, Federal and State and EFile for $29.99 with a $10 in store check. You can order this online at OfficeDepot and when you select in-store pickup the price drops to $29.99 - the rebate form is here. Unfortunately our nearest officedepot closed at the new year and the next nearest is 30miles away....now Staples price match so........ not sure if they will honour this one - ymmv -Update Staples wouldn't price match for me in Columbus Ohio as there are no office depot's near by :-(

Blockbusters are increasing their prices for their monthly dvd rentals by $2. We are on the $14.99 plan for two videos at a time and 3 instore exchanges per month. The $2 increase is not a lot but is a 13% increase. Strangely their email extols the virtue of their existing service but gives no details as to what extra benefits are available for the increased price. A temporary way around the increase might be to upgrade NOW to the 3 dvd's at a time, 5 instore exchanges which is currently $17.99 and a 6 month prepaid subscription is available (but no discount). So for an extra $1 a month you get one more dvd in shipment at any time and an extra 2 instore changes.

I'm very pleased with the new camera purchase so far. Unfortunately the picture quality may go down a bit whilst I work out how to use all the new settings on the camera.  The first couple of shots I took outside the house I couldn't understand why the camera was bleeping at me and then the photo was taken.  It turns out that the self timer was turned on and it was giving me 10 seconds to get into the picture!

I've also ordered a couple of extras to go with the camera, the rc1 remote control which enables you to take instant photos and 2 second delay photos with the remote. This will be useful for group shots and also for taking photos while reducing camera shake. I'm also getting a replacement  lens cap as the one that comes with the camera does not have a loop for attaching to a strap so I know it won't be long until I lose the original cap. I've already purchased a 2GB Compact flash card from Bestbuy for $35 with the camera as they had a good deal on the card and was even cheaper than Amazon.  I went for the extreme version of the card as it twice as quick as the ultra cards at reading and writing, with quoted speeds of 20mb/s and speed is important when writing many pictures to the card in quick succession when using the multi shot mode.

I'm also hoping that the tripod quick release mount arrives in the post this afternoon - I ordered it on Sunday and it arrived in Dublin this morning according to USPS. This is slightly longer than I hoped for, one of the books I ordered from Amazon at the same time arrived on Wednesday (although as usual with amazon, the other books have not arrived including the one that really needs to be here.)

The picture of Kate is a reduced and cropped version after she ate some of Katie's birthday cake. She's looking a bit sad as all the cake is gone and she is suffering from a cold/fever/virus infection (but she did cheer up when eating the chocolate and icecream cake)

BestBuy have a pretty good deal (or it looks like it to me) of a Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP camera, 18-55mm lens, 75-300mm zoom lens, bag, battery and uv filter for $700 with a minimum of 8 per store, but you'll probably have to get there at 3am to get the vouchers they hand out - OR you could just order it online for the same price. I am sorely tempted by this one as the camera is normally 550-600 alone. I'll let you know what we decide!
Update You can actually get approximately $25+ off this price (on a subsequent order) by signing up for their rewards card. They are doing a holiday promotion gift package where you get $15 extra reward points (750) if you spend over $500 AND you get the original $10 reward for the first $500 and an extra 200 points for the next $200 - thats one less camera available for purchase ;-)
Update 2 I went to the store Friday morning and purchased this camera. Then I had a horrendous time trying to get hold of someone to cancel the web order but I eventually managed to. Fortunately Bestbuy's website have a feature where you can use the computer to call them so you don't have to waste minutes on your phone plan.

This time, Microsoft sent a letter saying I needed to include the top of the box from my TaxCut purchase in order to get my $40 rebate. Unfortunately I already sent the top of the box from my TaxCut purchase. A reasonably quick call to the rebate line on 1 800 622 4445 got a new tracking id and the rebate approved. Apparently it's all staple's fault. How it can possibly be staples fault when its a Microsoft rebate I have no idea!
Now all I am waiting for is Microcenter to give me my Vista upgrade that I was promised.

I heard back from the Better Business Bureau yesterday and it seems like Gigafast's response to all the complaints is to ignore them - Gigafast have an F rating with them (which is not good!) with 67 ignored complaints. Fortunately on the same day, I received a cheque from OnRebate as Microcenter paid the rebate instead. So it's a thumbs up for Microcenter - now all they have to do is respond to me about my upgrade to Vista that I was promised.

Today I got a spam mail from netgear which annoys me as they should know better, but unfortunately for Best Buy it went to an email address given only to Best Buy. Nowhere in the email does it mention Best Buy at all and I have never agreed to let Best Buy share my email address with third parties (and ensure this box is always ticked appropriately when conducting business with a company).
The annoying thing is that BestBuy' s privacy policy states -

• Best Buy does not sell or rent your personal information to third parties.


• In limited circumstances, Best Buy may need to share your information with certain third parties.

Our UPS started acting up last week so I contacted APC (who make Conext UPS's) and I just received an RMA and notification of shipment - funnily enough their email routine is broken as the tracking number shows up as 5.0751E+14

I received this email from onrebates.com this afternoon - "We regret to inform you that the above rebate claim has not been funded by the sponsoring manufacturer, Gigafast Inc., and therefore cannot be paid. Gigafast Inc. contracted with OnRebate.com Inc. to have OnRebate.com Inc. process Gigafast Inc. sponsored rebates but, in violation of the terms of this contract, Gigafast Inc. has not funded disbursements for several months and has not responded to our many funding requests or other attempts to reach them. As a result rebate disbursements to customers who purchased Gigafast Inc. products have not been made. At this point your rebate claim is being cancelled but your rebate details will be kept on file in the event that you are able to contact Gigafast, Inc. and get them to fund your claim."
I'm not a lawyer but I imagine my contract is either with the shop or the rebate company, not Gigafast....As I paid on my credit card, it would be interesting to see what they have to say about it.
Update I've filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Emailed Microcenter (if this was in the UK I'd have also requested money back from the credit card company as the contact was broken. There is also a forum at Fatwallet where people are also adding their comments and reactions - looks like Microcenter, onrebate and Gigafast are going to be pretty busy.
Update 2 rebate@gigafast.com is rejecting emails - very fishy.
Update 3 Microcenter are honouring my rebat - see the fatwallet discussion for up to date news.

A while back I decided to get the series 1 of Lost from Amazon from an amazon marketplace seller who had had good feedback. Unfortunately that was March 19th and I've still not received anything. However looking at the sellers feedback it looks like I'm not the only person with problems from this user (There was only one complaint when I placed the order). I complained to amazon as the positive feedback looked suspicious as people were saying they had received goods within 2 days but I hadn't even received an acknowledgement - amazon replied to tell me I had to wait until 28 days before I could claim my money back -the last day for the goods to arrive is tomorrow and then Thursday I'll be claiming. In the meantime, I'd recommend you stay away from peachtree30357@aol.com
Update I thought I'd delete my feedback and add something else to it - but it turns out that if you delete feedback on amazon then you can't add another feedback comment - my comment was "12 days from order, no goods, acknowledgement or contact from seller despite 2 emails requesting information" now it's "Still no feedback from this user - I'll be claiming against Amazon after tomorrow"

I decided that I needed some more memory for the pc at home as the performance is really sluggish and slow - switching between newzcrawler, thunderbird and firefox takes about 5-10 seconds. The pc has 512mb of memory already but it obviously needs more so I've purchased 2 sticks of 512mb memory for $80 (including postage). Considering this is less than the price of one stick from compusa I'm pretty pleased with the price and hopefully the pc will start to behave like normal - especially as I plan to set up a LAN party in the near future, I need a decent performing pc! I got the memory from NewEgg but I have to wait a couple of days before it gets here.

Home depot prices in a flyer they sent me have 4 out of 6 items at a higher price than their normal price - some sale that is. I know companies take advantage of Black Friday but this is ridiculous. However, I wouldn't mind an air compressor for 7cents!

Kristen and I went to some garage sales this morning and we got some good bargains. We got a couple of sandwich cooler bags (which I need to keep my sarnies cool in the car whilst I'm driving to customers) for a couple of bucks each, Operation and battleship games for 30cents each - a bargain although I'm much better at Operation than Kristen - even when I use my left hand - she had a flukey series of lucky guesses with battleships and it took me another 16 shots to sink her battleships after she had sunk all of mine.
We also got a HP Deskjet 930c for $5 - our printer in the uk was a 940c model. We were told it had a paper jam in it which the previous owner couldn't be bothered to fix and when I opened it up there was a sticky label in the innards - part on the back roller and the other half deep inside but as it was a thick plastic label it held together well so I was able to reach in and grab a corner and slowly peel it off. 5 minutes later I had an almost new printer for $5!
The same garage sale had a brand new full size tripod which we got for $5. Previously I've made do with a wall and a mini tripod but now I can take this one around for family shots etc.
Whilst driving around we drove through one estate in Dublin, Tartan fields, and the houses there are (gi)(e)normous. Most of them had 4 car garages and some looked like they were almost their own gated community. The sad thing is that most of the houses probably only had 2 people living in them. If you feel like donating some money to the building fund then take a look at this listing site - only another 3.5billion adsense clicks needed to put a deposit down :-)

I've decided to go for the second (and final) exam of the MCDST certification and purchased the online training and exam voucher from Measureup. Unfortunately their stupid system did not include the voucher code with the receipt for the exam so I can't actually register for the exam. Naturally their support lines are now closed and I'm *really* hoping that there will still be exam vacancies at the testing centre for Wednesday when I ring MeasureUp to complain as I will not be a happy bunny if I can't take the exam in August (not that I'm expecting to fail of course).
As an aside on the quality of MeasureUp's practise exams - they are pretty good but way out of date. Most of the questions that I had today were on service pack2 and it's new features including Remote Desktop Support, Popup blocking and ICS. None of this was covered in their online support material (which did cover service pack1).
I've also had a couple of problems using the exams - the problem I had with only 106 questions appearing instead of 150 was unexplicably caused by either Firefox or an invalid cookie - using IE which I hadn't used on the site gave me the full 150 question set.

The final rebate (out of 5) arrived this afternoon and was actualy the first item purchased way back on the 23rd April 2005. It has taken 3 months and 2 days to arrive (as I sent the data off on the 24th) on a rebate that should have taken 6-8 weeks according to the small print.
The BestBuy (who got their wrists slapped for misbehaving on rebates) rebate on the same item arrived on the 31st May.
Now you can see why people refuse to use rebates for items. However, it is difficult to get the same or similar products at a comparable price without resorting to the rebate con.

I went to a 1 hour dry cleaners this afternoon at 2pm to get a suit drycleaned. However they were unable to accept it for 1 hour cleaning and the earliest I could get it back would be 10am tomorrow. If I had wanted 1 hour cleaning I needed to have had it dropped off by 1pm. What I can't understand is the shop closes at 5 at the earliest so that still gave them 3 hours between arriving at the store and them closing for them to clean the suit and they were advertising 1 hour.

We received the check from HP yesterday for the rebate for our computer which was nice and fast - less than 4 weeks from purchasing the computer and sending the rebate stuff off. The funny thing is that I received an email this morning to say that the cheque had been cleared for payment and to wait 2-4 weeks to receive it. It is not often that snail mail is quicker than email!
I'm still awaiting confirmation from all of the other rebates I've applied for - none of them have even acknowledged the receipt of the application. This area of shopping needs some serious looking at by government inspectors or something - either that or they should let me have a job where I can take 12 weeks to answer a letter of correspondance!

After my last shopping experience with them when they couldn't make up their mind on shipping, this time they've cancelled an order I placed as the seller can't accept amazon payments. Yet the item is still on sale this morning AND they have an identical item selling for 1p if you can name the number of tracks that the item can hold. Something is not right here....

I'm sitting outside panera in the mall whilst Kristen goes into one of them lady shops :-; Kaufmann's were having a nice sale so I've got some levi's for $27 - well cheap compared to uk prices. Also got some cargo trousers and shoes so I don't feel like "little orphan annie"

I've been looking around trying to find a laptop, as cheap as possible but with a decent spec - probably around the £500 mark (plus the dreaded vat) and £100 for office. I had shortlisted it down to a dell, acer or samsung and Hi-grade. I've only had favourable experiences on the samsung, having used 2 of other peoples, heard horror stories of dell (but they are so big,disasters are likely to occur occasionally) and acer, a reseller friend says they are a lot better than they were 6 years ago when we purchased 4 and all 4 had to go back for repair (and only 1 still works). Higrade won a recent laptop comparison in PcPro. And scarily, this is the narrowed down selection. I know Neil commented about the Ferrari Acer and said it was really expensive, but like the car and the rest of the fashion world you are paying for the name (and in this case the bright red flash and a prancing horse).
Anyway, I sent an email to higrade, querying the price and a week and a half later I've not heard anything. Trying to determine which of the acer laptops are cheap is impossible when you look at their laptop site.They have 22 models all with buzz/marketing words describing them, but none telling you which are the budget laptops or the differences between them without looking at the individual pages, 1 by 1. Could you tell the difference between "advancing the innovation of ultraportability", "widening multimedia connectivity", "unwired innovation", "streamline your unwired world" and "mobilize your workplace"? At least 4 of those imply wireless networks and not a lot else to choose between them.
So I settled on the Samsung and saw two good deals on the simply website. However both descriptions say that wireless is an option but don't really say whether it is included(it does if you look closely) and both say that you can have xp home OR pro but the price is only for home. A quick email to sales@simply.co.uk, their published contact and email address, asking for more details returns the response "Thank you for you email and thank you for choosing Simply Computers. Unfortunately we are unable to answer sales enquiries via email. " I've left the spelling mistake in on purpose. What I really can't understand is why publish a sales@ email address if you are not going to answer the queries and if you are going to send back a form letter, then at least make sales@ an autoresponder so that I don't have to wait 2 days to get the reply! They do then give me the option of ringing their (national rate) phone number to place an order. Sorry Simply, but thats simply not good enough customer service.
grrrrrrr

a 1GB pen drive for £59 inc vat seems a bargain - the other good feature is that the lid snaps on securely to either end - I keep loosing the lid off my existing pen drive AND the catch has broken so it never stays on securely. usb pen drives need a good redesign in general to ensure the lid stays on AND the usb bit can stay on a keyring so if the lid and usb bit get seperated you don't loose the usb bit!

The post arrived today with the UV filter that I purchased from 7dayshop on the 12th May. Not impressed with the service at all. Also the uv filter when fitted to the lens adapter means that you can't actually use the lens cap as it won't clip to the filter. I know you could argue that you don't need a lens cap as the uv filter is protecting the lens, but whats protecting the uv filter from getting scratched? Not sure if this is Fuji's design fault or the filter - I suspect the former. So that was £7 down the drain as I'd rather have a lens cap on the camera than a scratchable filter.

I also got my voting papers in the post today - we're part of the country that is trialing paper voting. The system seems clear enough, BUT you have to get a witness to sign the paperwork to say that you are the person that you say you are - how that is preventing fraud I don't know and what if you live on your own and don't know your neighbours?

The stuff I ordered from 7day shop arrived last monday - the 24th May. This was stuff ordered on Wed 12th May and which was in stock but not yet despatched until the 20th May. I'm still waiting for an outofstock item that has come back in stock sometime last week but still not been processed. I really don't think I'll bother ordering from them again.

Its been two weeks now since I received a request to stop any more comments being made on my comment about Absoblogginlutely: MetroNOmy PC sends an email stating that they won't be shipping out pc's for the time being.
I emailed Julian this afternoon with the following -

Hi Julian - its been some time now since you contacted me about comments that Gavin made. Have you had any more details on how many pc's you have shipped out and references? Many thanks

I have removed *some* of gavin's comments which were sailing close to the wind, but others I have left as they were from his own personal experience of working at Intersaver, where Julian agrees that he worked and the fact remains that Intersaver did go bust.

After GCC's email about libel I did check up on libel law. What does seem daft is that as GCC said, its the only uk law where you are guilty until proven innocent! I have therefore removed any possible unfactual comments from Gavin's posts and I am still awaiting a reply from Metronomy for more information.

Not that I am planning to go to London in the near future, but the advice given at London on the cheap website looks pretty good - probably best for students. Thanks to postcardtimes for the tipoff

Even though BT are not admitting responsibility for the fire in Manchester, the Register reports they will compensate customers which is what I was told by a BT employee over a week ago. As yet I've received no information on how much or how long it will take.

Further to my fairly recent blog about the ack of a free pc from Metronomy I had some comments from other not-so-happy potential customers and also some comments from someone called Gavin who posted some interesting comments and allegations about the companies behaviour and certain employee's. It didn't take long (although too long) for an ex Metronomy employee to stand up for them and then tip them off about the comments - (thanks ss!) and I have now received an email from them asking for the libelous and untrue comments to be removed.
The problem is, that if I did as they asked I would be taking their word against Gavins and they have not offered any proof to refute these allegations - and I've yet to come across anyone who has received a pc from Metronomy. Also looking at some of the allegations, there are several reports about intersaver going bust and taking a lot of peoples money - just take a look at VNUnet, chinwag, bankrupt.com, dooyoo (although there are some favourable reviews on dooyoo, dvdreviewer. As to the comments about him paying himself and his friends a lot of money I can't comment, although if SS or Julian Jones would like to forward me a copy of the company accounts,detailing the wages paid to these executives in comparison to the rest of the company and its income then I'd be delighted to take a look, the same goes for the trading standards quotes in the local paper.

As for Gavin, apparently they know who he is so I suggest that you contact him and ask him to retract his comments and I will issue an apology on his behalf. However, although I'm not a lawyer, there hasn't been any proof offered by Metronomy to refute these allegations.
I have closed the comment on the original thread and also contacted the Register as they covered the story in the past and it will be interesting to see what response I get from them.

Oh and by the way Julian, I'm sure you know who SS is as he uses the same internet access/pc that you do so its likely that you also know who Gavin is.

I've been looking for some flight prices for a friend of mine for this weekend. One of the places that I was looking at, ThomsonFly at Coventry has on their news page that they have received 2 enforcement notices from Warwick council about the airport - but they still have plans to fly everyone. But who is going to book flights with the (pretty major) chance of the flight being cancelled?

Well I got an email from MetroNOmy PC this evening which quite frankly I'm not suprised to get although it does make me wonder how on earth they expected to do this and make a profit. Their email says the following:-
We regret to inform you that we are unable to fulfill your application at this time. As you may know, Metronomy’s launch generated considerable media interest, and we received an excellent response from households wishing to take part in the scheme. However, we have also received information to suggest that a minority of applicants do not intend to operate within our standard terms and conditions, resulting in the potential theft of the computer.Whilst we have invested considerable resources into developing highly secure business processes and technology, the high cost of each PC means that we must control our exposure at this stage.As such, we have reluctantly decided to release only a limited number of PC’s in the first instance, in order to fully test our security procedures and technical infrastructure before a wider roll-out in the Autumn. Unfortunately, we will be unable to progress your application until then.Should you wish us to remove your details from the waiting list, please click here: cancel@metronomy.com and return the message, remembering to include your customer number. Otherwise, you will be contacted later in the year with further information.We recognise that our concerns apply to only a minority of applications, and regret any inconvenience that this may cause to bona-fide customers, but feel this is the best course of action to protect the long-term interests of the business and ensure that the offer can be available to all who want it in future.

So did *anyone* get a pc?

Some nice clothes available at ComputerGear. I especially liked the "Requires Windows98 or better" one, and I'm oh so tempted to edit one of the tshirts and swap one of the words for management.

Egg sent me an email to tell me of their wonderful offers.....they're reducing the cash back from 0.5% to 0.1% (after last years reduction from 1%) instead I get 0% interest on any balance transfers for up to 5 months as long as I transfer in October......Its now February - what good is this offer going to do me?

Got an email today confirming that the Metronomy pc, the free one as long as you watched adverts, would be arriving between 15th and 25th April

The long awaited calendar arrived yesterday (whilst I was out of the office), the day after I sent a snotty email to computerworld asking for a refund, which I am pleased to say they did that afternoon, and I said I would refuse delivery of the goods. However I wasn't in the office yesterday, and the receptionist had forgotten that I had told her to not accept the shipment - as it was so long ago - so I emailed ComputerWorld saying I now had them eventually and asked what they wanted me to do with them. Ever so nicely they told me to keep them with their compliments, sorry for the delay and please frequent them again. I don't think I'll buy from them again but it was nice to get them for free, but then again I don't know what they would have done with them by the time they arrived back at their depot 2 months from now!

As I get free Non Geographical numbers off peak it makes sense to use the Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers instead of the 0870 or 0845 ones.

I purchased a calendar from computerworld and after receiving my credit card statement, where it was debited on the 18th December (which means I placed the order a couple of days before that), I chased computerworld to see where my goods were. I received an email saying it was shipped out on the 29th December.....how they expect it to arrive before the 1st Jan I don't know. NOT impressed.

Kristen has mentioned that sometimes I grumble too much on this site, normally about the lack of customer service I get! I've just found GrumbleText which publicises complaints about public companies and gives advice on consumer matters and rights - they have a good area on sms spam too.

Chris blogged about Fixture Ferrets which gives details on deals in various supermarkets in the uk. Looks like a good deal - shame they don't provide "new deals" as an RSS feed. That would be a great service.

Then a friend from work has 3 pc's for sale at his website.

After my dreadful experiences with ebuyer, I sent an email to ebuyerdotcon with details. Ebuyer have now sent a solicitors letter to ebuyerdotcon asking him to cease and desist on his domain name and complaints. It's interesting that this came to light this weekend as there has been a lot of news over this week about the rights of bloggers in the US to give their opinion under Freedom of Speech, and also not to get sued for libel either. Wired posted about this last Tuesday. Unfortunately this blog is based in the UK, but I think that ebuyer would have a major problem if they tried to take this any further. After all, they don't really want all their disappointed customers brought in as witnesses do they?

I was going to post on this after hearing it on the radio last night but The Shifted Librarian beat me to it. Apparently the money spent on ringtones is substantially greater than the money spent on cd singles. If thats the case, how come so many people have that annoying "nokia" ring tone that is mocked by that guy shouting "HELLO! - YEAH I'M ON THE TRAIN" in the advert/comic sketch. (oh and I wasn't listening to Radio2 - I've a long way to go till I get that far.)

Turns out that you can't redeem Nectar vouchers online with Argos, which is a right pain as it means you have to go into the shop and I wasn't able to order online afterall. Having said that, the website kept only sending me half a page of text so I wouldn't have been able to complete the order anyway - grrrrrr

Thanks to Neil I read about Ryan s post about the No I will not fix your computer t-shirt. Like I said on Neil's comments I'm tempted to put a "unless you pay me loads of money" comment on the back of it. This is the second or third link I've read in the past couple of weeks that has talked about going freelance for tech support......the only thing is I don't think the town I live in has enough people to keep me in business. It is very tempting though.

Test of a link to Argos as I may be shortly be purchasing a elliptical cross trainer from them in an effort to keep fit.

I've never actually heard of BuyMusic.com but from what I've seen at scriptygoddess I'd be very reluctant to do so. They've had a problem burning music they've downloaded onto cd and the site has basically said its not their problem despite forcing you to use their software to burn it with. Personally I'd contact my credit card company, explain that the music is not as described (burnable onto cd) and request a refund on the credit card.

The replacement dvd player arrived this morning, which was a bit unexpected as I had asked for my money back. So far it's played the american, english, mp3, and picture disks that i've tried this evening. I brought down the cd that I had created earlier containing my backup of all the pictures taken with the digital camera and we had a good laugh looking back through all the pictures. It was a lot easier looking through the "photo albums" than it would have been looking through the old fashioned albums crowded around the one book. Oh, and Basil likes the empty box - its just his size.