Set condition one for bargain hunters! The U.S. Apple Store is now offering refurbished MacBook Air models with 1.6GHz processors, 2GB of memory, and 80GB (non-solid-state) hard drives for $1,549.

That's a savings of 14 percent from the retail model. Or, think of it as getting a free AppleCare subscription (for $249).

As of this writing, the refurb model shows shipping times of three to five business days.

Thanks, Chris!

Update: Sold out, folks -- sorry! We'll keep an eye out for more refurb deals.

Looking to pick up a discounted, refurbished 16GB iPod touch? One-day discount vendor woot.com is offering the midrange version of the premium iPod for $290 + $5 shipping, comparing pretty favorably with Apple's refurbished sale price of $329/$349 depending on whether you get the $20 January Software Update bundled in. Judging by the description copy, the woot models don't have the update loaded, but that's still $39 cheaper than Apple's version and $79 less than a new unit, again discounting for the JSU.

Like all Woot deals, this is good for today (Saturday 5/3) only and it's valid while supplies last. Mother's Day giftgiving got you scratching your head? Need another touch as your development unit? Looking for a movie player for long car trips? Might want to pick one up. I've gotten in the habit of watching TV shows on my touch during my NYC subway commute; a 44-minute Lost is just about right for the ride. 16GB would mean less shuffling of episodes... where's that rebate stimulus check again?

Thanks Matthew

Dealmac reports this morning that the Mac Pro towers have returned to Apple's refurb clearance stock, with the Octocore model available for $3399, a full $600 below new retail. The rest of the line shows up as well (scroll down through the refurb page for all the choices); shipping is also free, which is a big help for those heavy, heavy machines.

It may be a smidge late to pick up a tower for Christmas, but the good news is that if you were planning to pick up a hefty Mac before Macworld Expo in January -- since laptops are more likely to see revisions than the big iron -- you can now pick up a pre-owned model for less.

The MacSanta promotion is back again this year. Basically a number of Mac developers are offering a 20% discount on their products for one day with the coupon code MACSANTA07. The products available change each day, but have included first class applications from the likes of Rogue Amoeba and others. If you miss a Featured Deals, they have some Extended Deals available through December, though the discount is only 10%. So if you like Mac deals keep an eye on MacSanta until Christmas; they even have an RSS feed to make it easy.

NYC's venerable Mac retailer Tekserve has posted a list of discounts for its post-Thanksgiving one day sale, available in person or on phone orders. The savings include a steep 30% discount on the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid and Turbo.264 units; a $300 savings on the previous-edition 24" iMac, $40 off a LaCie 160GB portable drive (first 50 customers only), and plenty more.

The days of BARS may be well behind us (Before Apple Retail Stores), but Mac users of longer memories will recall how challenging it once was to find a storefront shop with the savvy, supply and sticking power to serve the Apple customer community. This holiday season, in addition to your shopping excursions to the mothership's outlets, please make an effort to support the remaining independent resellers who stood by the platform during the lean years.

Is your local indie Mac shop offering Friday sale discounts? Post a comment here to let us know and we'll summarize the sales on Friday morning.

It appears that Apple is joining the Black Friday madness with a special sale set to go live the day after Thanksgiving, both online and in their retail locations. Quoth the ad: At this "a special one-day-only holiday shopping event... you'll find dozens of great iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas - all with free shipping."

Down in the footnote at the bottom it says: "Sale prices are available while supplies last" suggesting that there will be a few deals to go along with the "gift ideas." The "one-day-only holiday shopping event" goes live online at 12:01am PST on November 23, and whenever your local Apple store opens. So if Turkey day hasn't knocked you out, get thee to an Apple store on Friday for some undisclosed special deals on Apple goodies.

Atomic Bird software, makes of MondoMouse and Macaroni (an app designed to automate maintenance, according to our fine commenters-- thanks!) has reached its five year birthday, and to celebrate, owner Tom Harrington is giving away some software. Through the 19th, every fifth order on Atomic Bird's website is going to be completely free. If you've been thinking about picking one of those up (or give one of them a try and decide you'd like it) order before the 19th and you've got a 20% chance of getting it for free.

And even if you don't buy anything, Tom's got a good writeup on his blog about how he got started selling software over the internet. I've always enjoyed hearing stories like this-- whenever you make good software, the Mac community seems completely ready to support what you do. While users of other systems (no names) seem to grab at the free stuff, no matter how buggy or slow it is, Mac users always seem ready to pay a premium price for a premium product. Then again, maybe I'm putting the horse before the cart on that one.

At any rate, congrats Atomic Bird on five years of successfully selling that software, and here's to many more.

[via Gus Mueller]

If you want to pick up an iPod on the cheap, take the advice of our pals over at dealmac.com and shoot over to Target.com for a deal that expires today: $20 off new Nanos, $30 off iPod touch models. Use coupon code "TCTARGETWELC" to cut the price at checkout.

Having just had the chance to help a colleague set up his new 16 GB touch, I think I might be scootching over to Target myself before the end of the day -- that is, if our household finance manager gives me the high sign.

via dealmac.com

Alan dropped a quick note about a chance for our UK readers to get a free iTunes song. Those of you overseas may have been complaining that Apple treats you like second class citizens, but Britons, worry not, because they're bribing you with a song. Send an SMS with the words "ROCK," "POP," "LIVE," or "ITUNES" to 85100, and Apple will send you back a code for a free song on the iTunes UK store.

The promotion ends on September 30th, so you've got to get it done quick, and this is definitely a YMMV situation. It won't work outside of the UK, and I even tried to send the code using iChat, but no dice -- apparently it has to come from a phone number there. It's not exactly free, either -- as you may have figured out, it's actually the cost of sending and receiving an SMS. If that's more than £0.99, it's not worth it.

But if you're in the UK and have an itchy SMS finger, send it along and see what happens.

Here's another one of the take it or leave it variety. TheMacPak is a special bundle deal a la MacHeist and MacZOT. In this case, the bundle promises 10 (or 11) applications for $30, starting today. But they are only going to reveal them one at a time, with the price going up $5 each time (up to $75). The first application is online now, and involves a choice between two games from Pangea Software: Otto Matic or Pangea Arcade. They are promising "no MacHeist dupes, No MacZot Friday 13th dupes, No MacAppADay dupes, no apps with less than 4/5 on MacUpdate, no widgets" and a total bundle value of $288.86. Note, however, that serials will not begin to be emailed until June 1st and may take up to 14 days more.

TheMacPak is available for purchase now.

The word that there might be as many as 9000 switchers a day got us thinking: maybe all those switchers could use some tips on how to save a few bucks while hopping the fence to white, black and aluminum pastures. Sure, Apple typically doesn't offer much in the way of excitement when it comes to zany blow-out sales on their products, but who says you have to buy your Apple stuff from Apple? There are plenty of resellers who offer some great deals to lure customers away from Apple's shiny stores, and discount watching sites can help you jump on time-sensitive sales. If you take our tips to heart, we guarantee both you and your credit card will sleep better at night with your next (or first) Mac purchase.

Read our recommendations after the jump.

Apple has just added a few new goodies to the collection of refurbished products in the Apple Store, including several Intel Core Duo-based MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, and minis. Specific models range from the 17 inch, 2.16GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro with 1GB of RAM, 120GB HD, and SuperDrive for $1,999, to the 1.66GHz Core Duo-equipped mini with 512MB of RAM, 80GB HD, and a SuperDrive. There are some good deals to be had on older Core Duo (and even newer Core 2 Duo) systems here, with savings ranging between 18% to 33%+. Of course, all systems include the standard one year warranty, so if you're looking for to save a few bucks and don't mind having a slightly older model, this is a prime opportunity.

As David just posted, the iSight is enjoying a dramatic aftermarket boost, with specimens going for 2x original retail (or more) on eBay. Despite the obvious profit potential -- I have mine sitting in a drawer at home somewhere -- this strikes me as a bit weird, since there are plenty of affordable FireWire cameras to be had for quite a bit less. You may not get the slick mounting hardware, but you'll get a serviceable, iChat/Skype compatible device.

While the Unibrain Fire-i appears to be out of stock (they indicate a pending refresh of the product and a late-February ship date), the GlobalMedia iRez is shipping for $130 and comes with a snazzy tripod. The true budget choice, however, is the GlobalMedia 1394 StealthFire camera; it's on closeout pricing at $50, a deal and a half. Granted, it's got the 'basic black' aesthetic flavor of an early-2000 IBM laptop (or an early 20th century Ford Model-T), but it should get the job done. Update: As noted by readers, the StealthFire does not have an onboard microphone, so you'd have to go with your built-in or add a USB mic to complete the suite (Logitech sells one for $30 but if you hunt around you can do better).

Meanwhile, for a true FireHose of data on all kinds of FireWire cams, including obscure and expensive industrial units, check out Damien Douxchamps's dauntingly extensive list of 800 models. C'est bon!

Playing catch-up, here's a quick round up of the countries whose free items hadn't gone live when I wrote the normal freebies post yesterday. And I'm sure none of you will be shocked that it's all Borne, Borne, Borne all the way. Don't believe the Canadian writeup. The "Loss of Signal" album actually costs $9.99 Canadian, not $5.99.

Canada: The Guide by Borne
The four-piece known as Borne formed in 2003 in Australia and has spent the years since its inception honing its epic pop into something more precise, passionate, and unique. Cameron Tapp's vocals have an earnest, yearning quality that floats in the same airspace as Chris Martin or Bono, but has a rougher, more soulful edge. On "The Guide," the band turns a plaintive piano lament into an ecstatic array of guitar-lead bliss. The band originally sent us their demo a while back and we ended up featuring a track from them in our Australian store. The track was a phenomenal success. We think the band is something special and so now we're making this new track available free worldwide in order to get the word out. If you like the song, check out the group's album Loss of Signal, available exclusively on iTunes for a mere $5.99.

UK: The Guide by Borne
The four-piece known as Borne formed in 2003 in Australia and has spent the years since its inception honing its epic pop into something more precise, passionate, and unique. Cameron Tapp's vocals have an earnest, yearning quality that floats in the same airspace as Chris Martin or Bono, but has a rougher, more soulful edge. On "The Guide," the band turns a plaintive piano lament into an ecstatic array of guitar-lead bliss. The band originally sent us their demo a while back and we ended up featuring a track from them in our Australian store. The track was a phenomenal success. We think the band is something special and so now we're making this new track available free worldwide in order to get the word out. If you like the song, check out the group's album Loss of Signal, available exclusively on iTunes for a discounted price.

Japan 今週のシングル: The Guide by Borne
シドニーのオフィスに送られてきた１本のデモテープが、オーストラリアストア史上最多フリーダウンロードを誇るシングルに！そんなラッキーバンド、Borne の素晴らしい功績を祝して、何と今週は世界一斉フィーチャー。特にコールドプレイ、スノウパトロールのファンはきっと彼らのサウンドが気に入るはずだ。新しいアルバム「Loss of Signal」から"The Guide"をフリーダウンロード。

Here's a nice deal, courtesy of TwisterMc. Buy a two-pack of General Mills cereal (this one was found at SuperTarget) and get two free iTunes tracks. Plus there's a dollar-off coupon for a $15 iTunes card. Just be aware that this deal may lead to weight gain, sugar highs and hyperactivity--which are all good reasons to dance on down to iTunes tracks, if you think about it.

[Via TwisterMc]