Every year during the holiday season Apple products top the wish lists of many consumers and end up being one of the top gifted items when it’s all said and done. Now, Yahoo-run analytics firm Flurry Insights has shared the gift giving trends for this holiday season, again showing that Apple devices were among the most popular items received this year.
If you’re one of those people who likes to leave your holiday gift shopping until the last minute, Apple has you covered. Apple notes on its website that you can order products online right up to 2pm on 23rd December and the company will deliver them overnight free of charge. This replaces the normal two-day shipping.
Still not cutting things fine enough for you? No problem …
Every year, Apple puts together a beautiful-looking holiday gift guide on Apple.com, packed with the latest iOS devices, Macs, and accessories people would love to receive as gifts. The hitch is that Apple’s prices are almost always full retail, with no discounting, so it’s easy to spend anywhere from $5 to $300 more per item than if you shopped around.
This year, 9to5Toys and 9to5Mac have done the bargain hunting for you. We’ve found savings on virtually every item on Apple’s holiday shopping list, which this year is organized into 6 sections: Gaming, Photography, Music, Fitness, Learning and Travel. Using the links below, you can save up to $350 on a new 12″ MacBook, between $20 and $80 on many third-party accessories, and up to $130 on a pair of Beats headphones…
Apple’s Personal Pickup service – where you place your order online but can pick it up from a local Apple Store as early as an hour later – just hit six more European countries today: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
Long limited to the U.S. only, it made its way to Australia and Canada a couple of weeks ago, and the UK a few days later. German site Macerkopf first noticed its availability in Germany, before updating with the additional five countries.
Personal Pickup can be a useful option if you’re in a hurry, allowing you to get your hands on a product the same day while minimizing the amount of time you spend fighting the crowds in an Apple Store.
The idea of a smart home is a long running meme in technological circles. Apple has made the biggest stride recently with HomeKit and there is now a significant ecosystem of lights, switches, and other accessories to buy for your home. That being said, smart home accessories are still novelties and quite pricey: they aren’t must-have purchases. However, this makes them great gifts for the holiday season — uncommon presents that are fun to play with and have some long-lasting usefulness. We’ve rounded up our favorite HomeKit accessories below …
Shopping this year through iPhone and iPad apps is significantly more convenient thanks to Apple Pay and Touch ID. The latest iPhones and iPads allow you to avoid the arduous process of re-entering your credit card information each time at checkout and instead pay for your purchase with the touch of your finger.
Hopefully our holiday gift guides are steering you in the right direction for what to buy this year, especially with guides focused on using your iPhone and iPad in the car, making music with Apple devices, outfitting your home with connected smart devices, and more, and these shopping apps should continue to help you along the way.
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For Black Friday, Apple has refreshed the frontpage of its online store with a rather-drastic redesign. Each product category now dominates the webpage, with full-bleed images of their main product lines. The new iPad updates get the top spot, but interestingly Apple TV and Beats headphones also get prime placement. In fact, the product images for Beats accessories are so large, it only takes four images to dominate the screen.
The strap-line ‘From one gift come many’ headlines the page, which also links up with Apple’s upcoming retail store holiday changes. The same tagline will soon be featured in Apple Store windows around the world, highlighting the wide scope of the iPhone and iPad, as shown below.
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Today’s can’t miss deals:
Last Call updates:
Take $150 off MacBooks and iMacs at Best Buy with .edu email
Anker iPad Air Magnetic Bluetooth Keyboard Case: $20 shipped
Valentine’s Day Bailout: Amazon free 1-day shipping and 20% off jewelry/clothing/shoes
PlayStation 4 is back in stock at Amazon for $399.99 with free shipping http://t.co/Ic01GsI9yv
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) February 12, 2014
Other great deals from today:
Get a FREE $1 Amazon MP3 Credit http://t.co/s7i56yPcz4
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) February 10, 2014
More great deals still alive:
New products:
Apple has just launched its annual 12 Days of Gifts campaign for 2013. In previous years, this campaign was available only in a few select countries, but not in the United States. For the first time Apple will now allow U.S. customers to participate in the giveaway.
The 12 Days of Gifts app is available for free on the iTunes Store. Each day for twelve days the app will provide a special free item from the iTunes, iBooks, and App Stores. Each gift is only available for 24 hours, so users have to check in every day to make sure they get everything that’s offered. This year the giveaways start on December 26th and run through January 6th.
From 26 December – 6 January, you can download a gift each day—songs, apps, books, movies, and more—with the 12 Days of Gifts app. Each day’s gift will only be available for 24 hours, so download the free app to make sure you don’t miss out. Please note: Not all content is available in all countries.
Thanks, Rahul!
With an iPad and few accessories, these days anyone can have a functional recording studio in their home for less than the cost of a Mac. Whether you’re just getting started and want a modest iPad recording setup in your living room, or you’re looking to setup a full-blown home studio with your Mac, our comprehensive gift guide below will walk you through all the essentials and save you some cash in the process.
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From 9to5Toys.com:
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Best Buy is taking $125 off the price of MacBook Airs for the next three days to celebrate Mother’s Day. That yields some of the lowest prices we’ve seen. The retailler knocks off $100 across the board, then using code MOM25 knocks off another $25.
Prices after discount:
Best Buy is also offering a $100 iTunes gift cad for $85. (Free Money!) That is a total savings of 15% off future purchases of Apps Music, Movies and any other content on the the App Store, iTunes, Mac App Store and iBook Store. This is the first iTunes deal we’ve seen in nearly 2 months and a perfect opportunity to surprise Mom on Mother’s Day.
More at Best Buy’s Mother’s Day sale and Smart Buys & Gift Ideas for every type of Mom in our Mother’s Day Gift Guide
iMac $150 off sale on most current generation configurations, now starting at $1,150 shipped
Just a few weeks ago we saw an unprecedented sale from Best Buy on current generation iMacs and now Amazon has stepped up and surpassed that deal by offering a staggering $150 off 3 out 4 standard configuration iMacs.
Other amazing 9to5Toys.com deals from around the web:
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