If your father is anything like my father, he loves getting Father's Day gifts with that personal touch ... but since monogrammed golf clubs are a bit out of my budget range this year, I'm going with an iPhoto book instead. Nothing dresses up a coffee table like a professionally printed book full of pictures of the grandkids all slathered in mud.
Apple is ready to help with the giftgiving; there's a 20% book discount (use code 'springbooks' at checkout) through June 15. Standard shipping books need to be ordered today (June 3) for delivery by Father's Day, and express shipping gets you an extra few days (June 8 order deadline).
If you've been looking to get the perfect Mother's Day gift, Apple says to look no further than iPhoto or Aperture. It's that special time of year when we celebrate our mothers (of course, if you ask Mom every day is Mother's Day), and Apple is cutting us a break! You can now get 20% off of iPhoto books when you use the promo code LoveMom at checkout.
This promo code is valid for iPhoto or Aperture users in the US and Canada and is good until May 11, 2008. Apple recommends that you order by April 30 for standard delivery and May 4 for express delivery so that you get your book in time for Mother's Day.
Was is los in Deutschland heute? First the iTunes video store finally makes a German-language debut this week, and today we receive word via a T-Mobile press release that the first tiered-discount plan for iPhone purchases is now in effect. German buyers can take advantage of a limited-time offer (April 7 to June 30) to purchase an 8GB iPhone for as little as 99 euros, if they sign up for the top 2-year contract on a service plan (the Complete XL, 1000 minutes and 300 SMS for 89 euro a month) at buy time. Translated offer pages here and here. Lower-priced plans offer a comparatively lower discount, with the top price for an 8GB iPhone at 249 euros. Note that the 16 GB iPhone remains full freight at 499 euro.
Is this another example of the iPhone shortage phenomenon, or just some clever promotion by T-Mobile to enhance sales of the lower-end handset? Ach du meine Gute, ich bin völlig verwirrt.
If you're shopping for a new iPod this week, Daniel Jalkut at Red Sweater reminded us that you can get a 10% discount on a new iPod any day at your local Apple Store if you do one simple thing: bring in an old iPod to trade in. The program's been around since 2005, but it's always worth another mention.
We've covered Jisho, the Japanese to English dictionary for OS X, a few times in the past, so I'm pretty sure that everyone who wants to translate Japanese to English and reads our site has probably seen it already. But just in case you've been waiting on a decision to buy it, wait no more-- not only has James, the creator, recently updated the app to version 2.2 (with Leopard compatibility, results sorting, and a greatly enhanced zooming function), but he's also putting it on sale for TUAW readers: between now and Sunday, December 9th, use the code "TUAWFTW" during checkout, and get the $15 app for 20% off.
Newly updated software and a discount just for you readers? Kirei desu! Sore kudasai!*
*Note: The author of this post does not know Japanese and does not own Jisho. For all he knows, he just said that "You have a nice chicken."
Not quite done with that holiday shopping? A little birdie tipped us to the upcoming "Give Good Food to your Mac" promotion, officially opening tomorrow -- if you're already a customer of one of the participants, you might get a preview link in the mail today. A ragtag band of European developers has put together this bundle discount: buy any 3 applications from the list, get 30% off your total, and scaling up from there (5 apps = 40%, 7 apps = 50%, 10 apps = 70% discount). Could add up to substantial savings, especially if you're paying in weak greenbacks like us Yanks must.
The list of available programs (full rundown in the bottom of the post) includes such heavy hitters as web authoring app RapidWeaver, bitmap diva Pixelmator and project management tool Merlin, among lighter fare such as iStopMotion, CoverScout and Expert Wine Cellar. While you're waiting for the annual MacSanta discounts to fire up, go ahead and check out GGFTYM.
A recent update to iGTD brought some significant enhancements, one of which is very, very rich integration with Scott Morrison's MailTags 2.0. With v1.4.3, iGTD can process most of the MailTags 2 information attached to an Apple Mail message. For example: keywords in MailTags prefixed with @ will get translated into contexts, while your other tags will simply become regular tags in iGTD. Same with projects, deadlines, priorities and even notes added to Apple Mail messages with MailTags: they'll all effortlessly transfer over into iGTD when importing messages with an F-key.
If this is all getting your productivity and GTD gears turning but you haven't purchased MailTags yet, Scott Morrison and Bartlomiej Bargiel (iGTD's developer) have just offered a partner promotion that should do the trick: for a limited time, when users donate to iGTD, they can contact the author and receive a $5 coupon off the $29.95 retail price of MailTags 2.0. I say 'limited time' because, as of this writing, they have 35 coupons left, though Scott said he's definitely willing to whip up more coupons depending on how much interest spawns from this promotion (I know, I know: I warned them about the TUAW effect, so we'll see).
As an extremely happy and paid user of MailTags and a budding GTD user for whom iGTD finally made sense, this sounds like a great deal for anyone looking to get more productive with their email. MailTags and iGTD: two great tastes that taste great together.
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.
Reader Derek went to his local Cingular dealer to pick up a Blackberry Pearl last week. Upon examining his receipt, he found that it said, "iPhone 2 year agreement savings: $150.00" (you can see an image of the entire receipt at Derek's site).
On one hand, it looks like the folks at Cingular need to re-program their registers. Secondly, we can speculate that this indicates a discounted 2 year plan on iPhones. That could take some of the sting out of $499US.
Ok, so for whatever reason you just need to have the ability to encode darling little WMVs on your Mac, Flip4Mac is probably the way you'll want to go, and macZOT! makes the encoding software more appealing with a nice 35% off discount. The full-fledged Flip4Mac WMV Studio package typically runs $49, but with this offer (good for today only) the price gets knocked down to just under $32. As a side note, you don't need to spend any money to play Windows Media files: simply grab the free plugin. The software requires OS X 10.3.9, and QuickTime 6.5 or later. (Don't shoot the messenger!)
One of the appeals of MacHeist that a few participating developers cited for their participation is residual sales. Things like upgrade licenses, extra plugins and add-ons can all be big boosts to a 3rd party developer's revenue, and some of MacHeist's participating devs have certainly hit the ground running. Yesterday I received my confirmation emails and licenses from RealMac Software (RapidWeaver) and Dave Watanabe (NewsFire), both with exclusive offers for MacHeist customers. First, RealMac Software is offering a 10% discount on theme packs, and Dave is offering a 'lifetime upgrade' add-on for NewsFire for a mere $11. We've also known from early on that John Casasanta has had a version 4.0 upgrade just around the corner for iClip, and MacroMates had an offer on the table since day 1 of at least 60% off an upgrade license to an upcoming version 2 release of TextMate.
It will be interesting to see how all this plays out for these 3rd party developers in the coming months. I know I'm already falling in love with TextMate, and even though I use WordPress, ecto and Dreamweaver for most of my website needs, RapidWeaver is tempting me with its sexy ease of use and purty themes. The 3rd party devs, it seems, have already made a revenue statistic out of me.
Christopher Breen at Playlist's iPod blog found a great little deal on iTunes gift cards. Costco.com is offering the $50 gift card for $45 while supplies last. Breen mentions that local Costcos brick and mortar retail outlets may have a limited supply available for sale as well.
This is a great price for a last-second gift. I'd hardly call a $45 item a stocking stuffer, but it would fit very nicely into most people's small-sized gift needs.
In their true spirit of integration, Apple has finally decided to offer .Mac customers a small kickback on the purchase of iLife '06 (just in time for that iLife '07 sting to really get ya in January). In Apple Stores or online, the .Mac blog has announced a $20 discount (it's a mail-in rebate if you purchase from anywhere else) on the purchase of either a single or family pack of iLife '06, bringing their respective prices down to $59 and $79. Not a bad deal considering these two services are joined at the hips. You can also walk - no need to run - as they've left the discount/rebate open for (most of) the holiday shopping season - it ends December 13th.
I heard somewhere that there are only something like 30 basic movie plots, and all films are just twists and forks of these original few. Some would say that the same is true for e-business, and they would probably be right. MacUpdate.com has announced a new feature in which a featured piece of software will be heavily discounted and available for only 24 hours. If this concept sounds familiar, it's because it is. The massively successful MacZot got the idea from woot.com, and woot probably found the idea somewhere else.
Because Mac software is a relatively niche market, I see one of two things happening. Either the competition between sites leads to a bidding war to see who can bring in the most dough for the developers, or one of the sites becomes much more popular than the others. Either way, I think the new feature will benefit us end users in the end.
I was in an Apple Store here in CO yesterday and noticed that retail boxes of Parallels Desktop have arrived on the shelves. In fact, I had a nice discussion with a customer who was switching because he could now run Windows on a new Mac (he never considered Virtual PC an option - I personally don't blame him). He even used the term 'safety net' to refer to how often he hoped to have to run Windows - if ever.
I also just received an email from Parallels promoting a $20 rebate with the purchase of Parallels Desktop ($80) and Windows XP (either $200 for Home or $300 for Pro). The rebate is good through August 15th, and Windows XP must be purchased within 14 days of Parallels Desktop.
If your father is anything like my father, he loves getting Father's Day gifts with that personal touch ... but since monogrammed golf clubs are a bit out of my budget range this year, I'm going with an iPhoto book instead. Nothing dresses up a coffee table like a professionally printed book full of pictures of the grandkids all slathered in mud.
If you've been looking to get the perfect Mother's Day gift, Apple says to look no further than iPhoto or Aperture. It's that special time of year when we celebrate our mothers (of course, if you ask Mom every day is Mother's Day), and Apple is cutting us a break! You can now get 20% off of iPhoto books when you use the promo code LoveMom at checkout. 
Was is los in Deutschland heute? First the 
If you're shopping for a new 
We've covered 
A recent update to iGTD brought some significant enhancements, one of which is very, very 
The word that there might be as many as 
Reader Derek went to his local Cingular dealer to pick up a Blackberry Pearl last week. Upon examining his receipt, he found that it said, "iPhone 2 year agreement savings: $150.00" (you can see an image of the entire receipt 
Ok, so for whatever reason you just need to have the ability to encode darling little WMVs on your Mac, Flip4Mac is probably the way you'll want to go, and macZOT! makes the encoding software more appealing with a nice 35% off 
Christopher Breen at Playlist's iPod blog found a great 
I heard somewhere that there are only something like 30 basic movie plots, and all films are just twists and forks of these original few. Some would say that the same is true for e-business, and they would probably be right. MacUpdate.com has 
I was in an Apple Store here in CO yesterday and noticed that retail boxes of Parallels Desktop have arrived on the shelves. In fact, I had a nice discussion with a customer who was switching because he could now run Windows on a new Mac (he never considered Virtual PC an option - I personally don't blame him). He even used the term 'safety net' to refer to how often he hoped to have to run Windows - if ever.
