Feature

9to5Toys Daily Deals Tool, ‘Specials’ and Free Otterbox Armor iPhone cases contest

9to5 Staff

Screen Shot 2013-03-16 at 10.28.16 AMWe have some exciting 9to5Toys.com announcements for our US readers today.

1. We’ve teamed up with Stack Social to launch Specials.9to5toys.com which will feature new software and hardware specials for Apple ecosystem folks every day. Some examples:

2. Specials will headline our new 1 minute Daily Deals Aggregator. This is one of the tools the 9to5Toys Team uses to scout out the best deals on the web. Now we’re releasing it to the public.

Every Day, you get the best 36 retail Daily Deals on the net including: Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, Target, MacMall, MacConnection, Woot, 1SaleaDay, Sears, NewEgg, eBay, Apple Refurbs and many others. The page gets updated every hour and is super-cached  for speedy browsing. Checking all 36 Daily Deals only takes a minute using the ^ and v arrow keys.

Bookmark the 1 Minute Daily Deals page now and you are guaranteed to save some money.

3. To celebrate the launch, we’re teaming up with AT&T to offer 3 of new $99 OtterBox Armor Series iPhone 5 cases in White, Black and Gray. We will award one on each of the three major social platforms: FACEBOOK, TWITTER and GOOGLE+. Just Follow/Like/Circle 9to5Toys (if you haven’t already) and Tweet/Like/+1 this post to enter. We’ll pick winners on Monday.

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Speaking of contests, our $49.99 Parallels 8 Bundle (expires this weekend, details below) winners were picked; congrats to Robert, Tyler and TK! Read more

iMac shipping times continue to slip in EU to 4-6 weeks, as iPad mini shipping estimates improve

Jordan Kahn

Screen Shot 2013-02-04 at 8.23.57 AM

We told you last month that shipping times for Apple’s new 21.5-inch iMacs slipped from an estimated delivery of 7 to 10 business days to 2 to 3 weeks. Today, iMacs are continuing to experience supply shortages with shipping times on many international Apple Stores once again pushed back. As noted by French language blog macg.co, Apple’s online store is now listing the 21.5-inch iMac as shipping in 3 to 4 weeks and the 27-inch model as available in 4 to 6 weeks in at least France. While Apple has yet to update its U.S. website with the new shipping times, Apple stores in Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, and many other European Union countries are now listing the longer wait times for new iMacs.

We heard that Apple expects to reach a supply and demand balance for the new iMacs (and iPad mini) within the next couple of months, but CEO Tim Cook recently noted that supply constraints will most likely continue into Q1. The same thing goes for Apple’s new iPad mini that, as of this week, is now shipping with an improved delivery time of 1 to 3 business days in at least the U.S. and Canada:

Read more

CES 2013

Belkin debuts the Thunderstorm Handheld Home Theater, an iPad case with integrated front-facing speakers

Jordan Kahn

Belkin Thunderstorm Handheld Home Theater 01

Belkin-Home-Theatre-CaseWe just looked at the latest range of audio accessories from Griffin, and now well-known accessory maker Belkin is showing off a new audio product for CES 2013: The Belkin Thunderstorm Handheld Home Theater. Available starting this month on the Apple Store, the otherwise traditional-looking iPad case packs in front-facing ported speakers, thanks to a little help from Audifi, and doubles as a stand with various angles.

The case works as a dock, meaning Belkin will release two models to accommodate for both 30-pin and Lightning connectors. Belkin is also making a free companion app available that will allow users to customize sound profiles for different types of media. The Thunderstorm app isn’t available yet in the App Store, but it should début alongside the 30-pin version of the Thunderstorm Handheld Home Theater case sometime this month. A lightning-compatible version of the dock will become available in the spring. Both models will sell for $199.99 from Amazon, the Apple Store, and additional retailers.

We’ll bring you full hands-on from the CES show floor shortly.

Update: We had a chance to listen to the product on a loud crowd floor. While the sound was definitely a significant improvement over the built-in iPad capability, it was a little tinny/thin and didn’t add as much base as we would have liked.  We’ll have more when we get some hands-on time later.

Updated Gallery below: Read more

The Apple Store begins offering Retina 15″ MacBook Pro refurbs starting at $1869

Seth Weintraub

From 9to5Toys.com:

Screen Shot 2013-01-04 at 9.47.36 PM.

This evening, Apple began offering refurbished Retina MacBook Pros at the online Apple Store at significant 15% discounts, yielding savings of over $500 on high end models (below). 15-inch Retina MacBooks normally retail at $2200 but we’ve seen them as low as $2,000 (which is also the EDU discount price).

Apple refurbished products are packaged and look like new and come with the same one year of AppleCare. See all of the best prices on Apple Products on our Apple product pages.

Thanks Jason! Read more

Feature

Announcement: 9to5Mac Apple Products pages

Seth Weintraub

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It is the holiday shopping season again, and we know many of you will be looking to buy Apple- and Apple-related products this year. To help out, we’re compiling a new section of 9to5Mac called Apple products and separate sections for each of Apple’s lines. Elsewhere, we have seen buying guides, pricing guides, related news and predictions, but we’re wrapping them up into one page per product.

How it works:

1. With the help of our 9to5Toys editors, we’re finding the lowest prices on Apple products in the U.S. and keeping a matrix of the biggest retailers’ prices. Here’s the current static matrix of MacBook Airs.

2. For the last few months and going forward, every post we do on a related product will be propagated to the page so you’ll have a roundup of the latest information on each product line. Additionally, in every post on a topic, you’ll notice a new link to the product section on the right.

3. We’ll also have a record of Apple’s past updates on each product, which should help in estimating the next product cycle.

4. Finally, we have our best predictions on upcoming products from 9to5Mac’s editors headed by Mark Gurman.

Together—this information should help Apple product users and buyers make smart, informed decisions.

Enjoy! Read more

Apple opens its first eBay store for a trial with select refurbished products

Jordan Kahn

Seth Weintraub and Danny DeSilva contributed to this post.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been posting links to a mysterious Apple refurbished store that appeared on eBay about a month ago and has been hiding in plain sight ever since. Labeled only “Refurbished Outlet” with hidden corporate information and nothing in the way of contact information or a traceable backend, the store gets impressive 99.7-percent positive reviews from buyers. But, there is no information on where devices are coming from.

We thought Apple might be testing the waters to sell refurbished products directly to customers through eBay, and it seems that’s exactly what is happening. We discovered that this is in fact an Apple-run Store within eBay. It is in trial, and it could open the door to much bigger things. No one would go on the record at eBay, however.

Aside from the image fonts above, which are an uncharacteristic wreck, there are many telltale signs of Apple’s direct involvement. Just like Apple’s own refurbished products, the “refurbished outlet” products all have the following:

  • Full one-year warranty
  • Returned to like-new condition
  • iPads/iPods include a new battery
  • Received complete burn-in testing
  • Original OS re-installed
  • Repackaged with manual and cable
  • Final quality inspection by Apple

The prices on the products are also identical to the Apple Store’s refurbished prices across the board (below) Read more