Seth Weintraub

Amazon finally has Microsoft Office 2011 Student and Teacher Edition for Mac for $79.99.  That’s the lowest price we’ve seen and likely will see for the foreseeable future.  The price had previously been promised “over the weekend” but on Black Friday only reached $89.

Amazon also offers lowest prices on 3-license edition ($109) and Business edition (which includes Outlook 2011).
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This is new to us but it has been around for a few months.  It isn’t for the Apple fanboy, but for a look into the mind of a disgruntled Apple Store employee from the UK (or a good parody), check it out.  Sometimes funny, often harsh on Apple Store Managers and Geniuses and the Apple Corporate communications, CrAppleStore gives a look behind the curtain of working at an Apple Store.  
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Microsoft Office 2011 is Cheapest at Amazon starting off at $88.99 (though Microsoft had promised $79 earlier) for Student and Teacher.  Three license version is $109.  For Professional (which includes Outlook) prices go up to $182 and $246.

Snow Leopard is $26 and a 5 license family pack is $50.   The Mac Box set, including iWork and iLife ’11 is $117.

Pixelmator, a great image editor is $17.99

Adobe Photoshop Elements is $45 and Premier Elements is $49.  An Adobe Photosho CS5 update is just $139.  Adobe has significant Educational discounts up to 80% off.  Adobe’s full Black Friday deals here.  Adobe’s Amazon site.

Parallels has $10 off this weekend only on Parallels 6 download bring it down to $69, and more importantly the update to $39. Amazon has Parallels 6 box for $57 so probably best to head there if you don’t mind waiting.

Smith Micro has 60% off their whole store which includes StuffIt, Poser, VMware Fusion, Anime Studio and more.

MacUpdate, as always, has great prices on smaller software downloads.

Amazon’s full Mac Software site.

Dragon Naturally Speaking is $140 at Amazon.  That is $60 off.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMkLH2QH5E&w=640&h=390]

Following on from Erica’s Sadun’s discovery of a way to enable AirPlay Video streaming in third-party apps, a developer named Zone-MR created a hack which enables this feature in all applications including Apple’s Safari.

This is big because it means Apple could easily (and will likely) enable it in future versions of the iOS.

The hack itsself can be downloaded from this Cydia repository:
http://cydia.zone-mr.net
(and it should be available in other repositories soon)
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Here’s a rundown of Apple products dicounted around the web.  As always check the Toys section for the latest deals.

AT&T takes $100 off iPhones (refurbs.) iPhone 4 is $99 for the 16GB model and $200 for the 32GB model.

Apple offers the best price on the iPad starting at $458.  They take $41 off each model.

iPods are almost universally cheapest at Amazon who are selling the 8GB for $175 ($200 with a $25 gift card). The 32GB iPod touch is $260 ($280 with a $20 gift certificate) and 64GB iPod touch is  $350 ($370-$20 gift card).

iPod nano 8GB are $130 ($140 with $10 Gift Certificate) 16GB are $170.

iPod shuffles are $47

Macs are cheapest at MacConnection or Amazon.  Prices have been fluctuating all day so check for lowest prices.

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Readers have been getting emails from T-Mobile in the UK letting them know that they will soon be carrying the iPad with a subsidized plan (Thanks Sam!).  Also Orange in France is doing the same thing.

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Yep the store is down.  You’ve seen what to expect.

Update: The Apple Store’s Black Friday Sale is now “live”. Dozens of items are on sale, although with modest discounts almost none are at the lowest total price we’ve seen. (Excluding the iPad discount below.) Plus, items in this sale qualify for free shipping. (Typically shipping is only free on orders of $49 or more.) Sales tax is added where applicable. Deal expires today.

Notably, a best bet is the Apple iPad 16GB Wi-Fi for $458 with free shipping. That’s $41 off and the lowest price we’ve seen for any new, factory-sealed iPad.

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We heard last week that Microsoft was going to be offering Amazon customers Office Student and Teacher edition for $79.99 and $109 for 3 licenses over the Thanksgiving Holiday. That sounded great.

As we get ready to carve into the turkey, Amazon has Office 2011 for $89.  A solid price but not the $79.99 we were hoping for.   What gives?  Family Pack is the promised $109 and a better deal all around however.

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PC Connection offers the base Mac Mini for $599 with free shipping.  That’s $100 off of retail and the lowest price we can currently find in the lead up to Black Friday.  Amazon currently charges $647.

The base Mac Mini includes:

• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
• 2 GB of Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M Graphics
• 320 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
• 8x-Speed SuperDrive

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From the Toys Section:

Amazon.com offers the D-Link 802.11n Wireless 4-Port Router, model no. DIR-601, for $19. With free shipping, it’s a buck under last week’s mention of a refurbished unit (this one’s new) and the lowest total price we’ve seen for any D-Link 802.11n wireless router. (It’s also a current price low by $9.) It features four 10/100 LAN ports, WPA/WPA2 support, and more.

Looks like everything must go!  iPads are A$50 off, 13-inch MacBook Airs are A$ 121.00 off, MacBook Pros and iMacs are up to A$121 off and iPods nano and touch are A$25 and A51 respectively.  How will this translate across the world?

Apple accessory discouts below:
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The San Jose Mercury News reports today that Apple has purchased HP’s huge Cupertino Campus for around the asking price of $300 million.   Apple has been looking for space and has finally aquiered the aging HP campus which is adjacent to additional land in Cupertino that Apple bought in 2006.

Jobs talks about his reason for purchasing the first bit of land in Cupertino in 2006 (the sound is not synched):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meVQqYNGzYA&w=640&h=505]

One can  only image what Apple is going to do with the new space.  I forecast a city-approved monorail that transports people/freight along I280 between campuses.

The huge, sprawling (former) HP campus can be seen below:

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If you are the Black Friday stampeder type, you might want to consider Target on your list of stores to visit on Friday.  Target’s Black Friday ad is out and they have some pretty good deals on iPods.  The 8GB Touch is $225 with a $30 Target giftcard.  The  Nano is $145 with $15 gift card.  If you aren’t a stampeder, Amazon usually has the best prices with Touches currently starting at $200 and Nanos at $140 (no rebate required).  Those prices will certainly head south on Friday.

Update: Walmart will have the 8GB iPod touch for $225 minus a $50 gift card yielding a $175 total

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Erica Sadun builds the first proof of concept third party app (that I’ve seen) that uses Airplay to push the content to an HDTV.  Developers take note, this will be big (if the lag can be avoided).  According to Sadun, it amounts to changing one line of code.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1CK9X3aFTw&w=640&h=390]

Sling has announced the availability of an iPad application ($29.99).

Watch and control your home TV and DVR on your iPad!

When connected over 3G or Wi-Fi to a Slingbox SOLO or PRO-HD (Slingboxes* sold separately), you can play anything you can see on your home TV on your iPad. View and control video sources such as:

-Cable set-top box and DVR
-Satellite set-top box and DVR
-Telco / IPTV set-top box and DVR
-Basic Cable
-Digital Over-the-Air broadcasts (Slingbox Pro-HD only)
-Tivo
-Apple TV
-Home security cameras

You already pay for great content at home. Why settle for other iPad TV applications that only offer a limited selection of content when you can enjoy everything that’s on real TV?

*A Slingbox SOLO or Slingbox PRO-HD is required. The Slingbox PRO, AV, Tuner and Classic will not work at all with SlingPlayer Mobile for iPad.

More screenies below:
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For those heading across the Atlantic, Iceland Express has a nice little convenience for you.  For about $13 you can rent an iPad on the flight that’s loaded with movies and television shows, music, magazines and games.  Not a bad way way to introduce an audience to the wonders of the iPad,

How long until these are like headphones, given out on every flight and every carrier?
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We’re just getting warmed up for Black Friday with some news from the Toys section:

Amazon offers the Seagate 1.5 TB drive for $59.99.  That’s the lowest price we’ve ever seen for any 1.5TB drive.

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A survey done by Changewave shows that after the release of the new MacBook Airs, consumer buying forecasts for MacBook/Air/Pros exploded to 36%, the highest they’ve ever seen.

More than one-in-four respondents (26%) said they plan to spend more on consumer electronics over the next 90 days, and 10% said they plan to buy a laptop in the next 90 days — the highest level recorded in a ChangeWave survey in three years.

“The manufacturer most responsible for the surge in laptop demand is Apple,” writes research director Paul Carton, “with 36% of planned laptops buyers saying they’ll purchase a Mac – a huge 11-pt jump since our previous survey of a month ago (Oct ’10).

“Simply put,” he writes, “it’s the highest level of planned laptop buying ever for Apple in a ChangeWave survey.”

Looks like there are going to be a lot of Apples under the tree this year.

Graphic via HGW27.net
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We’re just getting warmed up for Black Friday with some news from the Toys section:

Amazon offers the Western Digital Elements 2TB hard drive, model WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN for $94.99 with free shipping.  The highly rated item is the lowest cost 2TB drive we can find.  With a USB 2 interface and 5400 RPM internal drive, it isn’t the fastest available, but comments on Amazon seem to indicate it works well.

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The Daily icon Consomac via MR

It seems like Apple is gearing up for a late in the year event to introduce the world to its tablet publishing platform.  Over the weekend, we first heard about a tablet-only newspaper from the Guardian.   The Daily would be a News Corp exclusively tablet publication that was worked on with Apple and will usher in Apple’s Tablet publishing platform.

Daring Fireball then reported some additional details of an event to be hosted by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch:

My understanding is that this initiative is going to launch with a press event, with Murdoch (and perhaps other newspaper and magazine executives) joining Steve Jobs on stage. This is not going to be a quiet launch, to say the least. But “this month” is effectively already over, considering that Thanksgiving is Thursday, so it won’t happen until next month at the earliest.

(The date I’ve heard is December 9, but that’s a Thursday, which would be somewhat unusual for an Apple press event. My guess is that they’re telling people December 9 but it might slip back to Tuesday or Wednesday the week after. Perhaps it will coincide with the opening of the Mac App Store?)

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Another Steve Mail explaining that patience is a virtue when waiting for giant leaps in the space-time-driverless printer continuum.  Oh and lots more printer support coming soon.

via syavno
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