Coming on like a seventh sense today is a games console, a bit of romantic nosh and a flashy new camera (geddit? No? Oh.)

All deals courtesy of HotUKDeals where bargains grow on bushes.

Here’s another way to mark Valentine’s Day without spending too much dosh, although if you ask us, the best thing to do is to just ignore it all, as a protest against the naked commercialism of it all. Yes, we said ‘naked’ – get over it.

Treat your loved one to some foodular romantification by taking advantage of an eat-in-your-own-house Valentines meal for two for only £8.00, a saving of as much as £9.95. It’s better than going out because you can dash into the bedroom afterwards or watch Match Of The Day 2 together. Or on your own.

Here’s the best games console you’re likely to see this week and it’s only Tuesday (don’t quote us on that if a better one shows up though.) And it would make an ideal Valentines Day gift for someone you love… yourself!

It’s a Sony PS3 with a 250GB hard drive, plus Uncharted 2, Bioshock 2 and an HDMI cable (which, as we all know, can’t be had for less than £70.) All of that could be yours, delivered for only £265.50. Probably dearer than a dirty weekend away with yourself but ultimately, much more rewarding.

Finally, we’ve got a nice affordable camera for you in case you’ve recently dropped your current on in the bath or are just sick of it and love buying new stuff just because it’s a bargain (cos that sort of thing doesn’t go on at HotUKDeals)

It’s the Samsung ES15 10.2MP point and shoot digital camera. It was £79.00 but is currently half price at only £39.50. ‘Snap’ one up while you can! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

(deals found by HUKD members adsldave, ianshona and ruggyfish7)

[Gawker]

And so we reach the official end of 2009, with a look at the two top stories that you, the faceless readers have been clicking on more than any other. Check out the rest of the top ten here.

2: Thousands can cancel Orange contracts after loophole is opened

Back in August, silly old Orange tried to change the terms and conditions of their customers’ contracts, substantially increasing the cost of minutes above and beyond the customers’ monthly limits.

In other words, they were breaking their part of the bargain and Orange users immediately had the right to cancel the contract without any penalty charges.

At first Orange weren’t having it, but before long, masses of you, armed with our cancellation guide were cancelling in your droves. Then Orange went and sealed up the loophole and everything went back to normal. But it wasn’t the most popular story of the year. Oh no, that was…

1: Probably supposed to be ‘ready for a shot’

Yes. This is the big one. A misprint on a camera box. A swear word. Possibly photoshopped. The most popular Bitterwallet story of 2009. Almost 110,000 hits. Seriously. Heaven help us.

Perhaps it can take photographs of the future, or maybe some folk are throwing about an awful lot of money this Christmas to buy up all the Canon Powershot S5 IS cameras from Sun Digital. At least the price includes VAT, bargain hunters!

Thanks to avid Bitterwallet reader AMcM

Whether you’re into games, photography or whether you’re just looking to show the rest of your neighbourhood that you’re in charge by using a baby as your homegrown enforcer, you could do a lot worse than read the rest of today’s best bargains, courtesy of HotUKDeals…

If you’ve got a baby and want it to have the best start in life, you could do worse than to put in a grobag when it comes to bedtime. Add a little bit of compost, water it lightly and lie it down in your greenhouse and before you know it, it’ll be a strapping, deep-voiced six footer, indiscriminately dishing out beatings to the other kids in the street.

With that in mind, you might fancy getting a couple of the aforementioned bags for £10 each or two for £15. Your kid will be dishing out those beatings within weeks and confirming your family’s status as top dogs. Lovely.

For some people, like the members of the Super Smash Bros Brawl Wii fan club, Super Smash Bros Brawl Wii was THE game of 2008. We’ve never played it but we expect it pits famous brothers against each other in a computerised fist-joust.

You know, people like Jack and Bobby Charlton, Noel and Liam Gallagher or Cannon And Ball. Sounds fantastic. Anyway, you can now pick up a copy of the game for just £9.97 including delivery. Hopefully it won’t be full of 2008 references that make no sense whatsoever. Oh, or the brothers out of Bros, them as well.

If you’re still on the hunt for a decent Christmas gift for someone, let us put you in the picture about a great present that you can snap up for only £79.99 – a Canon Powershot A1100 IS digital camera (normally retails between £115-£160).

Do you see what we did there? ‘Put you in the picture.’ ‘Snap up.’ Brilliant isn’t it? We get money for doing this you know. Not a lot, but just enough to stop us from having to busk for a living. But if we did have to busk, below is the song we’d sing – Zoom by Fat Larry’s Band. Hah, we did it again! Zoom!! Like on cameras yeah?

(deals found by HUKD members tracymac, Lupeto and andywedge)

Before we forensically examine this new Kevin Spacey advert cameras, let’s deal with the ‘Hasn’t he got ENOUGH money?’ argument. If someone came up to you and offered you an aching bundle of hard cash in exchange for filming you prancing about like a tit for half a minute, you’d take it eleven times out of ten. That basic human urge doesn’t disappear just because you’ve been in a score of highly-regarded movies and K-Pax.

So, on to the ad itself. Some questions need to be asked. Why is Spacey standing like that? Has he succumbed to a particularly violent attack of rickets?

What has happened to his face? Spacey was never a matinee idol but the front of his head looks like it’s been replaced with a scale model of the surface of the moon that’s been buttered and had a couple of raisins added on for eyes. What is going on?

What the foo is ‘the hurty thing’ that Spacey speaks of? A photograph that hurts every time you look at it? I’ve got one of those – it stems from my seventh birthday party when, at the height of my obsession with comedian Kenny Lynch, I asked to be blacked up. You can snigger but we’ve all done it.

Spacey tells us: “Don’t be a tourist.” We say: “Don’t be such a wanker.”

Remember when we told you how to build a 3D camera for that special occasion? Well Fujifilm have only gone and ripped our idea off* (*not really our idea) and turned it into the gosh-darned real thing! The Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1 camera is coming to a high street store near you this Autumn, allowing you to photograph the world in 3D and view the results without the cardboard glasses you first got free with your copy of Look-In in 1984.

It’s chunkier device than the Tom Thumb-sized digital cameras available now, housing two lenticular lenses and two photo sensors to create true stereoscopic images on the rear LCD screen. You can also print off the images onto lenticular paper, or view them in a custom digital photo frame with a lenticular screen, also to be released by Fujifilm. Lenticular printing is essentially the process by which multiple images can be overlayed to produce the impression of movement, such as on advertising hoardings and cereal packet cards, but Fujifilm have reportedly refined the process to produce highly detailed images.

Compared to the price of a knockabout digital camera, it’ll cost a lot more – it’s expected to retail at around £550 when it goes on sale later in the year. Prints are expected to be pretty pricey too at around £3 per image, but as with everything economies of scale will see those prices drop rapidly if the camera is a success.

[stuff]

[FRONT]

Plus, if you liked that, you’ll love these…

Brutal honesty on the NY subway

The Moscow beg-dogs that are commuting to work

Safety training film or terrifying gore-fest?

Because there aren’t enough reasons for the Police to shoot you, introducing a camera in the shape of the gun. Point it at your subject, squeeze the trigger, and bang! – you’ve a grainy voyeuristic shot of your target.

It’s only a design concept at the moment, and hopefully it’ll stay that way:

[Likecool]

We’ve mentioned Best Buy’s impending entrance into the electrical retail arena with some relish – not because we want to see the current leading names fail, but rather because we want an improvement in customer service standards and value for money.

Don’t think for a moment that Best Buy will be some kind of white knight coming to the rescue of the UK consumer – like everyone else, they’ve got their critics and are regularly caught with their pants down when it comes to looking after the punters.

American blogger Michael T. Barrett has written of the shocking service his mother-in-law received when she tried to return a camera she had bought at Best Buy that had already had its seal broken and was filled with someone else’s photos (above). The store manager stonewalled her and refused to replace it, claiming the camera had clearly been dropped (???).

However, there was some serious backtrackage once Michael ferreted around in the camera some more and found some pics taken instore featuring a hairy member of Best Buy’s own ‘Geek Squad’ repair team. Hmmm. So Best Buy Store #519 in Douglasville, Georgia sells used cameras as new.

Maybe it was a one-off, a genuine error or maybe there’s a culture among Best Buy’s hierarchy to try and pull fast ones against the consumer wherever possible. All we know is that the phrase “Best Buy sucks” brings up almost 25,000 results in Google. Maybe it’s like The Who sang: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” We’ll see…

[Consumerist]

Time for today’s round-up of the some of the best deals unearthed by the hard-nosed bargain-moles at HotUKDeals.

DIG IF YOU WILL A PICTURE...
First up is a cracking entry-level digital camera, available for a penny under £50. Not one for the tech-savvy camera addict, but a perfectly affordable Christmas gift for a digital newbie who wants to point and click to their heart’s delight.

A pensioner for example, or a school-age child, or someone who’s just got out of prison after a long stretch and doesn’t know a megapixel from a pick axe handle. They’ll be able to comfortably deal with the built-in Green Mode function, which completely automates the camera setup, making picture taking effortless for even complete beginners. Or hardened jail birds.
(Deal found by EBENEEZER SCROOGE)
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