Welcome to the first (and not last by a long shot) Black Friday Gadget Guide to the best deals you can find online and in brick & mortar stores. This year, in particular, will be a special Black Friday due primarily to the crappy economy. Retailers and manufacturers eager to build mountains of cash out of molehills of consumers willing to spend said cash are striking some amazing deals, and I’m going to unveil as many of them as I can. So, here we go (in no specific order):

• Best Buy’s Doorbusters Deals page – Check out the HP G50 lappy and Canon 3-in-1 printer for just US$349.
• Sony’s 4GB Walkman Video for US$49.99 at Circuit City. This is one hot little non-Apple gadget which is quite highly rated and looks nice in red.
• Kohl’s (I know, I know) has a Samsung 8.1MP digital minicam for a measly US$80 and an unspecified 3.5″ GPS unit (looks like Garmin) for US$80 after a US$20 mail-in-rebate. (If you’re outside of the Los Angeles region, start here. NOTE: The GPS deal in on the first page of the catalog)
• Apple isn’t revealing anything until the actual day starts. Keep an eye on the Apple store and here’s a link to Apple’s own teaser page.
• Walmart has an XBOX 360 Arcade Edition, a game bundle, and Guitar Hero III with a wireless axe for a paltry US$199, and you have to hit the store to get it.
• Walmart is also sporting a Samsung 40″ 1080p LCD panel for a tiny US$798. Sure, its only got two HDMI inputs, but if you’re budgeting gadg’ this year, this is one hell of a buy.

Check after the jump for some more deals on more stuff!

Check out these deals, the first being my personal fave:

• Nokia’s sweet N810 Internet Tablet – I picked Mobile City because they offer free shipping with the best price on the unit.
• Target has a Western Digital 750GB external drive for US$88. Its on page 4 of their online catalog.
• If you have kids who love to IM or you just like to collect random gadg’, check out the ZipIt 2 wireless communicator, now just US$50 with no subscription fees required. In case you can’t tell, its a mini Linux-based lappy with integrated wi-fi. There are even builds of a terminal and the text-based Lynx web browser for it. It also sports surprisingly good audio, has integrated support for internet radio, and has an SDHC slot which can take up to 4GB cards for additional tunage. You can even buy them at Target, something like the next gizmo…
• If I have not yet expressed my near-fanatical love for the Peek email device just yet, consider this me doing it now (if that meets any standards for written English at all). If you need one, and you DO need one, get it here in Grey, Cherry, and Aqua.

Now for some tips and tricks to pay attention to:

• When buying a new computer, get a Mac. Sure, I know the arguments against and they’re all moot. Just get it over with, ditch Windows, and get a Mac. After a month or so you’ll never look back, and if you have to, the Mac makes it easy.
• When getting an HDTV, make sure to get at least a 1080i set though 1080p is best, make sure its LCD and NOT plasma, verify it has a minimum of two HDMI ports, 32″ will do in most cases but 42″ is really the most you’ll need, and don’t pay any more than $1,200. The reason I don’t suggest anything over 42″ is resolution. 1080p runs at 1920×1080 pixels. The larger the screen, the larger the pixels get and the lower the effective resolution becomes. If you get a set with a low refresh rate, it will look blurrier, especially during sporting events. Resist the urge and don’t get anything bigger than 42″.
• Just because its called a “smartphone” doesn’t mean its smart. The best all-in-one mobiles are the Apple iPhone, T-mobile’s G1, Nokia’s N95 8GB, and just about any plain old mobile handset and a Palm PDA. The worst is anything else or anything which runs Windows Mobile.

Purchase this and related items at Amazon now: