If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives): apple

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It's black friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.

Perhaps I can help?

Today is purported to be the biggest shopping day of the year. Some stores opened their doors at the ungodly hour of 4 a.m., others had people camping out the night before. According to early news reports this morning, Nintendo Wii, Zune and other mp 3 players as well as games like Halo 3 and gadgets like iphones and ipods are the hot sellers.

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A Wal-Mart shopper loads up her cart with Black Friday bargains.

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Midnight shoppers rush into the Altamonte Mall in Florida.

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The parking lot at the Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, Tenn., was 85 percent full shortly after 9 a.m.

If you are one of those sane people who, rather than getting your car door dinged by a thoughtless shopper in a crowded parking lot or losing your cell phone in the local mall, would prefer to shop from the comfort of your home and personal computer, then I am here to help.

Nowadays, most of the 'great deals' people are clamoring for the day after Thanksgiving in malls are also available online.

And the savvy shopper does better to buy out of state (no tax) and find an online coupon code for free shipping!

I suggest checking these sites before you hit the 'check out' button to be sure you're not missing out on any promo codes or special deals:

http://www.keycode.com
http://www.retailmenot.com
http://www.dealhack.com
http://www.fatwallet.com
http://www.edealfinder.com
http://www.couponmountain.com
http://www.couponcabin.com/
http://www.couponheaven.com/
http://www.dealcatcher.com/
http://www.onlinepromotioncodes.com/
http://www.currentcodes.com/

First and foremost, The Apple Store (who rarely ever has a sale) does have a sale today. AND Only today!

Apple gifts this year, you had better act fast--the sale is of the one-day variety. Highlights include $51 or $101 off MacBooks and iMacs (sadly, you're out of luck if you're trying to justify a MacBook Pro purchase), $21 off the AirPort Extreme Base Station, and $21 off the iPhone Bluetooth Headset. Three iPods are on sale: you'll save $31 on an iPod Classic and $11 on either the Nano or the Shuffle. Lots of other products and accessories are on sale. See them all here.
So now's the time to get that iphone or ipod.

Click here to go to the apple store online sale.

Go here to see Jonathan Blum choices for the top ten tech toys this year.

Watch a CNN video on hot toys this christmas season here.

Check out Buy.com (they have great deals all year and even better today). Especially on things like external hard drives and Zune media players, as well as books and tvs!

Got a serious Sports Fanatic in the house? According to Money Magazine's Charles Passy, Noah Rothbaum and Wilson Rothman, here are The greatest gifts ever for sports fanatics....

My personal top 5 choices for gifts that no one would return:

For anyone, male or female, young or old, the following five gifts are my favorite things to give this season.

1. The Flip Video Ultra 30 minute recorder

Above: The Flip Video Ultra, a pocket sized video camcorder (available with 30 minutes of recording time or 60 minutes). Even my grandmother can use this one. Record and plug it into the tv (cord comes with) or into the computer via the built in usb.
This rocks! I bought four earlier this year and am giving them to my whole family (who are not tech savvy!)

Here's a money saving hint. No one really needs 60 minutes of recording time unless you are making an actual movie. So if it's just for "you tube" fun or to see keep up with your growing nephews and nieces, get them the 30 minute recorder.. they will be thrilled.

Available online at www.theflip.com or target, toys r us, amazon, buy.com, etc.
Be sure to check out all the stores, prices vary on this one. Also available in black or colors.

2. Netflix movie rentals and instant computer movie downloads.

So easy, affordable and who doesn't rent DVDs? Plus the options for the amount of time or number of rentals makes it easy to purchase this for anyone regardless of how much you want to spend.

How it works:(click to enlarge)

Buy it here.

3. Pottery Barn's Fabulous Fur Throws on sale today only!!!!!!!!!!

I get so many compliments on the luxurious feel of this throw from men and women everytime they visit and see it !
Comes in four nice options. Usually $150.00, it's on sale WITH FREE SHIPPING today only for $99.00
Buy it now.

4. Money no object? Spoil your child or yourself with the $345.00 PLEO by Ugobe.

Learn more about this adorable interactive toy here.

5. A Bluefly gift certificate.

Lots of people have heard of Bluefly but haven't actually checked it out. They are unaware that in addition to having designer clothes at a discounted price they carry great home decor items like Thomas Paul Pillows and luxury bedding at prices that are hard to beat anywhere. Shoes are a great find here as well...and as many items for men as women.

And for Project Runway fans, they actually sell the "wall of accessories" here. Luxury and designer handbags, belts and more.

Also, a bonus is that no one makes it easier to return items than Bluefly. They provide you with the free return sticker, just put it in the box, seal it up and set it out for the postman. Costs you nothing and you get full return credit.

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Ready to hit some of the stores who have sales and free shipping today?
Here are a few you can access from the comfort of your home instead of braving the heinous crowds.

Click away...
Apple store
Bluefly
Target
Buy
Toys R Us
Amazon
Bluefly
Pottery Barn
Walmart
JC Penney
Kohls
Best Buy
Circuit City
Sharper Image

Apple. Experiencing a Power Surge.

Since Steve Jobs returned for a second stint at Apple 10 years ago, the company has come up with consumer hits such as the iPhone (above) and the iPod. However, there were a few duds too. Remember the Cube? and how about Apple tv?

Regardless, the stock has increased over the past year (see below).

Mr. Jobs, who returned for a second stint as chief executive in 1997 after being away for a dozen years, may announce that annual sales surpassed $20 billion for the first time in the company's 31-year history when he reports results for the year and fourth quarter on Oct. 22.

And if Steve Jobs instincts are correct, I say get out there and buy some Apple stock, if you weren't savvy enough to do so already.

Below is an article reprinted from today NY Times:
By JOHN MARKOFF
Publishedin the NY Times: October 22, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 21 — It may have dropped the word “computer” from its name, but Apple is certainly selling plenty of Macs.

Driven in part by what analysts call a halo effect from the iPod and the iPhone, the market share of the company’s personal computers is surging.

Two research firms that track the computer market said last week that Apple would move into third place in the United States behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell on Monday, when it reports product shipments in the fiscal fourth quarter as part of its earnings announcement.

“The Macintosh has a lot of momentum now,” said Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in a telephone interview last week. “It is outpacing the industry.”

On Friday, Apple will start selling the new Leopard version of its OS X operating system, which has a range of features that in some cases match those in Windows Vista and in others surpass them.

Mr. Jobs said that Leopard would anchor a schedule of product upgrades that could continue for as long as a decade.

Above: The apple site has a live count-down until the release of the anxiously-awaited Leopard Operating System

“I’m quite pleased with the pace of new operating systems every 12 to 18 months for the foreseeable future,” he said. “We’ve put out major releases on the average of one a year, and it’s given us the ability to polish and polish and improve and improve.”

That pace suggests that Apple will continue to move more quickly than Microsoft, which took almost seven years between the release of its Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems.

Above: Vista, Microsoft's more visual interface and operating system that debuted last year.

Vista has had mixed reviews, and corporate sales have been slow so far. Mr. Jobs declined to comment on Microsoft’s troubles with Vista, beyond noting that he thought Leopard was a better value. While there are multiple editions of Vista with different features at different prices, the top being the Ultimate edition, Apple has set a single price of $129 for Leopard.

With Leopard, Mr. Jobs joked, “everybody gets the Ultimate edition and it sells for 129 bucks, and if you go on Amazon and look at the Ultimate edition of Vista, it sells for 250 bucks.”

Microsoft has said that it will release an update, or service pack, for Vista in the first quarter of 2008. But it has also said that it intends to offer a service pack for Windows XP in the first half of the year. That, analysts said, could further delay adoption of Vista as computer users wait to see how XP will be improved.

Microsoft has also hinted that its next operating system, code-named Windows 7, would not arrive until 2010. At Apple’s current pace, it will have introduced two new versions of its operating system by then.

Apple has not been flawless in its execution. Early this year, it delayed the introduction of Leopard for four months. Mr. Jobs attributed this at the time to the company’s need to move programming development resources to an iPhone version of the OS X operating system.

Several analysts said they thought that Leopard would have only an indirect effect on Macintosh sales.

As for Vista, it has clearly not pushed up demand for new PCs as much as computer makers hoped. Last week, the research firm Gartner said PC shipments in the United States grew only 4.7 percent in the third quarter, below its projection of 6.7 percent.

That contrasted sharply with Apple’s projected results for the quarter. Gartner forecast that Apple would grow more than 37 percent based on expected shipments of 1.3 million computers, for an 8.1 percent share of the domestic market.

Apple has outpaced its rivals in the United States, particularly in the shift to portable computers. While this is the first year that laptops have made up more than 50 percent of computer sales in this country, Mr. Jobs said that two-thirds of Apple machines sold in the United States are now laptops.

Apple has also outperformed rivals in terms of market share by revenue, because its machines are generally more expensive.

According to Charles Wolf, who tracks the personal computer market in his industry newsletter Wolf Bytes, Apple’s share of home PC revenue in the United States has jumped in the last four quarters. In the second quarter, for example, the Macintosh captured a 15.8 percent share, almost double its share of the number of units sold.

He added that Apple had a significant opportunity now in terms of visitors to its stores. Apple is now reporting 100 million annual visitors, and Mr. Wolf estimated that 60 million to 70 million of them were Windows users drawn by the iPod or the iPhone, who could potentially shift to Macs.

Above: A typical in-mall apple store

Although Apple may be able to grow briskly by taking Windows customers from Microsoft, the two companies face a similar problem: the industry is maturing and there have been no obvious radical innovations to jump-start growth.

Indeed, many of the new features in the Leopard operating system version are incremental improvements. But Mr. Jobs said he was struck by the success of the multitouch interface that is at the heart of the iPhone version of the OS X. This allows a user to touch the screen at more than one point to zoom in on a portion of a photo, for example.

“People don’t understand that we’ve invented a new class of interface,” he said.

He contrasted it with stylus interfaces, like the approach Microsoft took with its tablet computer. That interface is not so different from what most computers have been using since the mid-1980s.

In contrast, Mr. Jobs said that multitouch drastically simplified the process of controlling a computer.

Above: Apple's iphone

There are no “verbs” in the iPhone interface, he said, alluding to the way a standard mouse or stylus system works. In those systems, users select an object, like a photo, and then separately select an action, or “verb,” to do something to it.

The Apple development team worried constantly that the approach might fail during the years they were creating the iPhone, he said.

“We all had that Garry Trudeau cartoon that poked fun at the Newton in the back of our minds,” he said, citing Doonesbury comic strips that mocked an Apple handwriting-recognition system in 1993. “This thing had to work.”