Amazon

From 9to5Toys.com:

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Today only, Best Buy takes 20% off select iTunes eGift Cards, as listed below. We saw Walmart has a similar deal last week but only on $50 denominations. Note that international US iTunes users are eligible to purchase because the gift cards will be emailed for redemption but must use a US credit card or Paypal.

iTunes gift cards are good for Mac Apps, iOS Apps, iTunes Music, Videos, iBooks and more.

The deals:

• $15 iTunes eGift Card for $12
• $25 iTunes eGift Card for $20
• $50 iTunes eGift Card for $40
• $100 iTunes eGift Card for $80

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If you plan to trade-in your iPad 2 and pick up a third-generation iPad when it launches on Friday morning, Apple is now giving you another option by offering up to $320 in trade-in value (Apple Store gift cards) for an iPad 2 depending on the condition and model. To get the full $320 from Apple’s Reuse and Recycle program, you will need a 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G model in near perfect condition. On the entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi model, Apple is offering $205. Before the new iPad unveiling, we told you our Top 10 places to trade an iPad for cash or credit, and a few of those options are still providing slightly more than Apple in many cases.

A quick look at a couple of the other popular options—Gazelle and Amazon—will get you just over $400 for an AT&T 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad in “flawless” condition, which is quite a bit more than Apple is offering. Of course, for your iPad to qualify for that much, it will have to “look like it has never been used,” according to Gazelle. Some listings on Amazon are as high as $450. Those options also give you alternative payout methods. In the case of Gazelle, you will be able to get your trade-in value by check, PayPal, or an Amazon gift card. Trade-in values will likely start to fall after the new iPad’s rollout, but Gazelle told us it has seen a 700-percent increase in trade-ins since the new iPad announcement with over 150,000 iPad offers in total so far. Apple’s announcement that the iPad 2’s new $399 price tag was great for education and it certainly did not hurt demand for the iPad 2.

Before you sell your iPad, you will want to get it prepared, cleaned, and packed to get the maximum trade-in value. After the break, you will find step-by-step tips for doing exactly that, courtesy of Gazelle:

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Apple earned the top spot in a new corporate reputation study by Harris Poll (via TechCrunch). It awarded Apple with a corporate reputation quotient of 85.63, which is enough to displace a second-ranked Google with a score of 82.82. Only eight companies earned an RQ score of 80 or above that denotes “excellent reputation.” Apple’s achievement is even more noteworthy knowing Google ranked as last year’s most reputable corporation. Facebook and Intel did not appear on the list this year at all. As for Apple’s rise:

Apple’s current dominance is built on strong investments in its brand, predominantly through its products and services. This one-dimensional approach to building reputation has ultimately yielded high associations with all six reputational dimensions. Conversely, Hewlett Packard, which once out-ranked Apple, has headed in the reverse direction. Hewlett Packard’s slowly eroding reputation has been injured by negative perceptions on Ethics and Vision & Leadership dimensions, and its brand is beginning to feel the damage.

Beverages giant Coca-Cola (No. 3), online retailer Amazon (No. 4) and multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate Kraft Foods (No. 5) round out the top five. Apple ranked the highest in Financial Performance, Products & Services, Vision & Leadership and Workplace Environment—four  out of the six key dimensions in reputation. Interestingly, Amazon.com rules the Emotional Appeal category, even though it lacks brick-and-mortar stores and has a limited human interaction with its customers…

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Apple’s iPad maintained its market lead throughout fourth quarter of last year even though it lost some ground compared to the previous quarter due to an influx of Android-based tablets. In fact, Amazon’s dirt-cheap Kindle Fire device that costs just $199 saved the day for Android slates, really. This is the gist of the latest survey by research firm Strategy Analytics that was released this morning.

Global tablet shipments reached 26.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011— up 150 percent from 10.7 million from the year-ago quarter. Global tablet shipments hit 66.9 million units throughout 2011— a 260 percent increase from just 18.6 million units in 2010. Looking at how tablet vendors performed throughout Q4 2011, the survey recorded a 39.1 percent share for tablets powered by Android. Even though it is a record for tablets driven by Google’s software, Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the holiday quarter for a healthy 57.6 percent share. This left the remaining 3 percent for tablets outside the Android/iOS tablet duopoly, with Microsoft-driven devices holding onto 1 percent share of the market.

This compares to a Strategy Analytics’ survey for the September 2011 quarter that depicted a 27 percent share for Android tablets in Q3 2011 (up from 2.3 percent in Q3 2010) and 67 percent for iPad (down from 96 percent in Q3 2010). Android tablets are clearly picking up steam, largely based on the success of Amazon’s device that launched Oct. 15, 2011. Still, the iPad is expected to remain king of the hill as analysts expect its lead to maintain throughout 2012.

Strategy Analytics Research Director Peter King opined:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFsmyTIEz0c]

Amazon issued an update yesterday to the $199 Kindle Fire that is supposed to fix some of the mainstream problems, but we are still a fan of the Kindle-as-iPad-app that also got an update this morning.

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Walter Isaacson cannot write an alternate ending for Steve Jobs in his famed biography, but the author is entertaining plans to expand the 630-page book in the future.

Isaacson shared his upcoming plans, and numerous anecdotes about the two years he spent with the late Apple CEO, at a Dec.14 event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California. Fortune senior editor Adam Lashinsky moderated the sold-out discussion.

The biographer mentioned plans to create an annotated version of the best-selling biography.

According to CNN’s Fortune, the author also described Jobs’ influence on the book’s cover at the San Francisco event. The Apple cofounder apparently teased Isaacson about quitting the interviews unless he was given input over the cover:

“It took me about one and a half seconds to say, ‘Sure!’” said Isaacson to the event’s crowd. “I mean this is one of the greatest design eyes of our time.”

Isaacson further discussed writing an addendum to the book that details the days before and after Jobs’ death:

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Originally aired on November 2, PBS is making their 60-minute “Steve Jobs– One Last Thing” documentary available on DVD starting today. Available on Amazon now for $22.15, the documentary includes a never-before-broadcast interview with Jobs from 1994, as well as interviews with a number of those who knew and worked with Jobs such as Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Ross Perot, and Dean Hovey.

The video is also available to rent on Amazon Video and is free for Prime members.  It is also available (Flash) on PBS’s website, or you can grab it on iTunes here.

Here’s an excerpt from the rare Jobs interview:

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Walter Isaacson signing books in Times Square | Photo: Tanner Curtis

We noted last week that Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography published by Simon & Schuster became Amazon’s best-selling book of 2011, but that included just sales of the dead trees version. Print sales do not, however, paint an accurate picture because Kindle e-books are now outselling hardcover and paperback editions combined, prompting Amazon to include Kindle books into the rankings.

The company this morning issued a press release stating that the biography of Apple’s late co-founder broke all records to become the best-selling book of 2011 – just 50 days following the October 23 release. It’s not just Amazon, the book also topped Customer Favorites chart on Amazon and is #2 on Audible.

The exclusive biography is also a top-seller in the Non-fiction category on Apple’s iBookstore, where it can be yours for fifteen bucks. It’s also available as a digital download from the Kindle store. It did not fare as well on Barnes and Noble however, only garnering a #34 ranking of NookBooks. Go past the fold for Amazon’s list of Top 10 best-selling books overall.

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You don’t need this software to hack an AppleTV but it makes things easier.

aTV Flash (black) is a user-friendly software package that supercharges your new black AppleTV, unleashing a plethora of new functionality. Don’t worry about the technical details – aTV Flash (black) is simple to use and safe for your AppleTV. Installation is a snap and doesn’t require any physical changes to the AppleTV.

MacUpdate has it for the sale price of $19.99 today only.  AppleTV (2010) went on sale for $89.99 at Amazon matching Best Buy so you are looking at $110 for the whole shebang.  If you have an old AppleTV, they’ve got you covered there as well.  Full features below:

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/?v=NnSmENvbY8I#!]
With the $199 Kindle Fire out of the gate, the inevitable questions pops into mind: Which is faster overall, the Amazon or Apple tablet?

The comparison isn’t really fair because Amazon skimped on internal components, which was key to its breakthrough $199 price point. An iFixit teardown reveals Texas Instruments’ OMAP 4430 chip inside the device, also  found inside Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

For starters, iPad 2 boots much quicker than the Amazon tablet – again, due to its more efficient dual-core processor and optimized software. Browsing the web? No surprises here either, Safari on iPad 2 stormed ahead, performing noticeably faster than Amazon’s Silk browser which offloads page rendering to the Amazon cloud. One thing to remember: In this test, Kindle Fire was loading Flash content which of course is not supported on Apple’s device.

The iPad 2’s graphics unit, praised for its nine times performance jump, helps with scrolling, which is pretty choppy most of the time on Amazon’s device. One surprising finding is that Kindle Fire streams Netflix smoother than iPad 2, most likely due to the new version of their Android client which is not yet available for Apple’s platform.

This is not the most scientific test in the world, mind you. Again, as 9to5Google noted in its quick review, there’s really no comparing Kindle Fire to iPad 2, be it on the price, overall polish, performance or shininess. As for the speed, mainstream buyers may not be interested in raw specs anymore and Amazon has priced this thing out of the range of the Samsungs and BlackBerrys of this world so it’s more of a competitor to Android tablets than to Apple.

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Interesting move today from Amazon.  Not only did they drop the price of Apple TV to $89.99 matching Best Buy, but they are now calling it the ‘2010’ edition.  Could that mean an update is on the horizon?  At the very least, it is a solid deal.
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From 9to5Toys.com:

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Today only, Amazon has the Pioneer VSX-1020-K Home Theater Receiver for $299 with free shipping.  That’s close to half off the list price of this 770W 7.1 3D iPod/iPhone/iPad-controlled stereo system which features include six HDMI 1.4 inputs, 110 watts of power into seven channels, subwoofer output, and more.

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We covered the VSX-1020-K when it was launched last year for $549.  Since then it has been superseded by newer Pioneer products with Airplay.
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From the Toys Section:

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Amazon offers Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for Windows and Mac, model no. 65064073, for $149.99. With free shipping, that’s tied with our October mention of a downloaded version and the lowest total price we could find by $130. This photo editing software is designed for use with RAW files.

Adobe charges $89 to download Lightroom 3 if you are a student or teacher. More Adobe deals here including up to 80% off for Academics.
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We pondered how best to get our hands on the Steve Jobs Bio that was released last night at midnight. I ended up getting it on Kindle (and hardcover soon) while others at 9to5Mac got it at the iBookstore and/or via local hardcover outlets. We were wondering what the breakdown was for our audience…

Obviously, the book is beyond popular as the #1 Kindle eBook as well as hardcover and Audiobook currently.

Hows the reading going? I passed out at around page 400 last night. Anyone finish? Skip to the last chapter?

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We’re getting reports that the Steve Jobs bio is hitting Amazon Kindle early and we’re just hearing that it has hit the iBookstore as well (it has been hitting at midnight the world over but looks to have gone a bit early because of Amazon’s jumping the gun).

Apple also offers an Isaacson Jobs-Einstein-Franklin three pack for $47 and and Audiobook version of Steve Jobs narrated by Dylan Baker over 25 hours ($30).

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As it passes into Monday in Australia and across the World, the Steve Jobs bio is hitting the iBookstore (full shot below). It is still a $16.99 pre-order in the US but should become available at midnight tonight. It also hasn’t begun shipping in hardcover form from Amazon $17.88, but the Kindle downloads should be available at about the same time. We saw that some bookstores had begun stocking them prematurely yesterday and readers have been sending in lots of scanned pages since then (thanks).

Thanks Dean!

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From 9to5toys.com:

Amazon offers the Seagate Expansion 3TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive, model no. STAY3000102, for $119.99 with free shipping ($0.04/GB). That’s the lowest price we could find on this or any 3.5″ hard drive which runs at 7200 rpm.

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Funny, because it is true? SNL’s Seth Meyers tackles the Fire vs. iPad debate at 48 secs in (YouTube).

[vodpod id=Video.15495947&w=650&h=420&fv=]

You know, no one is really talking about this, but at a smaller 7 inches and priced at $199, the Kindle Fire is more of an iPod touch competitor than a iPad competitor…at least as far as budgets and capabilities are concerned.

We’ve heard there are some iPod touch price cuts coming on Tuesday which should make them even more competitive.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUtmOApIslE]
Kinda neat. The voiceover quotes French writer François-Marie Arouet Voltaire.

The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes property of all.

And then, Amazon adds its own cheesy part: From Kindle, the Fire is born. Talk about pun intended.

The new Kindle Fire tablet costs $199 and ships November 15.

Full 45 minute presentation below the fold…

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Just as Amazon’s media event begins in New York, serving as a launchpad for their inaugural tablet, Bloomberg spoils the announcement by publishing key pieces of information about the device. It will be called the Kindle Fire, as rumored, and will cost just $199, which is a pretty big deal.

The tablet is powered by a dual-core processor, has a seven-inch color display which responds to touch (just two fingers at once, though) and a “fresh and easy user interface” running on a forked Android version. You can read e-books on it, listen to music, watch movies and play games available for download through the Amazon Appstore for Android. Meanwhile, our own Seth Weintraub is on the scene in New York at Amazon’s press conference and here’s what he was able to glean from Amazon’s announcement…

A biggie: The device will come with a 60-day free trial of Amazon Prime (a $79 a year value) membership and pre-registered with your Amazon account, so you can literally use it right out of the box. Bad news: It has no cameras – not even a microphone. Heck, it even lacks 3G access so looks like the Fire will be a Wi-Fi affair only. The Kindle Fire is available at Amazon’s newly published Fire page and over at amazon.com/kindlefire. November 15 can’t come soon enough.

As for competition, check out this side-by-side specs comparison of Amazon’s Fire, Apple’s iPad 2 and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, courtesy of The Verge.

That, plus this bit from the Bloomberg article:

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is betting he can leverage Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce to pose a real challenge to Apple’s iPad, after tablets from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. have fallen short. Sales of Amazon’s electronic books, movies and music on the device may help make up for the narrower profit margins that are likely to result from the low price, said Brian Blair, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp. in New York.

The analyst observes what all of us have known for a long time, that the Seattle-based online retailer has the most compelling ecosystem to take on Apple’s iTunes juggernaut. His quote plus three more Fire shots after the break.

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If all of the rumors are true, Amazon has a 7-inch “media tablet” that runs a forked version of Android and will connect to all of Amazon’s services, including its Appstore, Movies, TV, Music and of course eBooks. It won’t be true multi-touch but the rumored price is half of the iPad’s (just like the screen) at $250.  Who is making this for Amazon?  Foxconn of course.

Yes, it sounds just like a Nook (which is getting an interesting update soon) with a better backend store.

via Verge
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