But are they bright and beautiful?

Sharp unveiled its new gargantuan 108 inch flat panel LCD screen at this week’s International Consumer Electronics Show. The company states they have increased the frame speed and enhanced the way LCD screens show rapid movement, making them smoother. Improving the moving image quality gives LCDs the ability to compete with plasma TVs in the flat screen market. Sharp’s 108 inch screen beats out Samsung’s 102 inch behemoth offering last year.

And at the other end of the scale, Verizon Wireless is betting that consumers will watch TV on a tiny screen and is introducing TV for cellphones. Cellphones already are being widely used as cameras and for recording video. LG and Samsung are producing new phones capable of receiving TV broadcasts. Verizon has not revealed how much the new broadcast service will cost.

Consumer affairs.com is featuring an article about Blue Hippo Funding, a company that sells computers, televisions and other high-end technology to consumers with poor or non-existent credit. The company has a unique credit plan.

I checked out the Blue Hippo website where they advertise a computer system on easy credit terms. There are no credit checks. To qualify, you make a downpayment of $99.00 and then six weekly payments of $39.99. This means you will have paid $338.94 before your computer is shipped, in fact, the website states that it is not even ordered yet. Once you have paid the $338.94 “we can offer to finance the balance of your purchase price, order your computer and have it shipped…”. Still, you may think it sounds like a good deal. But nowhere on this page does it state how many payments you will make after they ship your computer.

Terms seem to change. I found several sites, including Wikipedia, stating that the initial pre-payment period was 13 weeks. Currently the BlueHippo site says 6 weeks. However, the term following the pre-payment is at least 49 weeks and in some cases it is said to be 52 weeks. In any case, the consumer ends up paying over five times the value of the item.

I checked with the Better Business Bureau. Not surprisingly, Blue Hippo has an unsatisfactory records with the BBB.

Bottom line: if you are thinking of doing business with Blue Hippo, check out a few of these informative sites first.

Better Business Bureau

ConsumerAffairs.com

Wikipedia

BlueHippo Ripoff Report at badbusinessbureau.com

A lot of us stayed home this season and did most of our Christmas shopping without ever leaving our chairs. Online shopping was more popular this year than ever with Amazon recording its biggest day ever with $4 million in sales on December 11.

The season was disappointing for retailers though, so many are slashing post-holiday prices in an effort to make up the lost sales.

And as retailers further discount high-ticket items consumers will be out looking for presents for themselves. And, why not? There’s no better time to get a great deal on that luxury item you have wanted all year but resisted the urge to purchase. Post-season savings could even make it affordable.

Christmas is over. ‘Tis the season to be selfish.

If you’re running out of time for shopping this year and you can’t even seem to find a bad gift, no strange objet d’art like a fish head clock or even a fish head tie, then you will probably end up purchasing a share of the $80 billion worth of gift cards being sold this season.

But know that about 10% of those gift cards’ values are never redeemed and are kept in the pockets of the retailers. Some recipients just aren’t the type to go shopping unless they really need something and others might think that not using the card saves money for the giver.

If you give a card this season, be sure you choose one that the recipient will use. Encourage the recipient to spend the full value of the card and to do it soon, as many cards now carry expiration dates.

Do them a favor by only choosing cards that have safeguards against scams. Don’t buy cards displayed on a rack where scammers could take down the numbers from the card or the envelope and spend the card’s value before your loved one has a chance to.

If all of that seems far too complicated and you are sill shy a gift – consider regifting the fruit cake Grandma sent last year.

Happy Holidays!