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Discounts, doorbusters, and more: TUAW sampler of holiday savings

Filed under: Features, Deals, Holidays

Just because Apple aficionados have historically been willing to pay a modest premium for the world’s best computers, music players and cellphones, that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy the occasional bargain as much as their Windows-using, Zune-toting, Blackberry-typing brethren. In the spirit of healthy holiday consumerism, here’s our list (far from comprehensive) of a few select deals for the Black Friday sales. You can get full-on shop-till-you-drop coverage at dealmac.com, and quick overviews from Gizmodo and dealNN.

Desert hills outlet

Naturally, Amazon and Newegg both have big discounts on most gear for today — not all of it is good for Macheads but there are plenty of treats on the hard drive, headphone and camera front. Amazon is selling SwissGear backpacks for $24, which is tempting, and shows the iPod touch 8GB at $209; that’s likely to be matched by the Apple Store’s one-day discount as it rolls around the globe. Newegg has the usual excellent pricing on hard drives and flash memory, although not much on the ’secret deals page’ is overly Apple-oriented; $19 for an 8 GB flash drive might raise some eyebrows and liberate some funds, though.

The heat on hardware is also clearly set to ‘high’ with the discounts from Best Buy, MacMall and MacConnection. Right now MacConnection is showing the best deal on my benchmark machine (the midrange MacBook unibody), with a selling price of $1149 — keep an eye on the other sites too, as MacMall is right behind at $1179.

If you love to watch TV on your shiny Mac screen, there’s a deal for you too. Elgato is offering $50 off of the $149 EyeTV Hybrid HDTV tuner and DVR software bundle today. This is a particularly good item for anyone who has an older analog TV in a spot where they don’t have cable or satellite but they do have a computer — it’s a great way to get through the digital transition in February of 2009, as domestic US television drops its analog signals for good.

Nobody can live by hardware alone, though, and there are plenty of software and accessory vendors who want to grab their fair share of your gift budget. A few of note below…

Continue reading Discounts, doorbusters, and more: TUAW sampler of holiday savings

TUAWDiscounts, doorbusters, and more: TUAW sampler of holiday savings originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 28 Nov 2008 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Human trafficking - how big?

the question of soul trafficking is overwhelming…so overwhelming that it is hard to believe. the state department says about 1,000,000 a year — if you think about it, that means about 12 professional football stadiums full of women and children each year….astounding, isn’t it? share       

Newmark: I’m willing to pay for trustworthy news

latimes.com “i would pay for subscription services, which would give me good, trustworthy news that i trust has been fact-checked and all that,” craigslist founder craig newmark (left) tells los angeles times staffers. “so i do think dues services will work, but that’s in requital for upper-middle importance and above. …i do cogitate on we will see the public service model and philanthropy model in the mood for propublica. so i think we’re going to take care some hybrid on that.”

Deep frying turkey

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Best Political Gag Gift Ever

as seen on keith olbermann’s countdown, “the complete book of the sedate wisdom of sarah palin (in her own words)”, this will be the greatest gag gift ever as a remedy for the holiday ripen.there are 100 blank pages! so i postulate you can fill it in when if she does put forward up some clear-sightedness.a perfect hand-out for the barack obama fan, or the mccain advocate with a use sense of humor.get your copy today!
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CAMBRIDGE, England (CNN) — Students here in Cambridge watched in horror in September 2005 as they saw lines of desperate people snaked round the convention center and the Superdome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

In the past couple of months, they watched with admiration the lines outside polling stations both on Election Day and in the early voting states. They found it difficult to imagine that voters in Britain would be prepared to queue for hours to vote.

No American election in recent history has aroused such interest in Britain among old and young alike. Partly, this is the result of the compelling drama of the long drawn-out primary battles, partly the result of the feeling that, whichever candidate was elected, there would be an end to the "arrogant unilateralism" (Robert McNamara’s phrase in Cambridge in 2002) of U.S. foreign policy.

Attorney general seems fine after fainting spell

Partly, of course, it was the powerful narrative of an African-American running for the White House. Each August I teach 35 American high school teachers about the civil rights movement for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in the far-removed historic buildings of Clare College. This year they reported their students were unprecedentedly enthusiastic about both Barack Obama and the political process.

I expressed deep skepticism that an African-American candidate could win a southern state. They had more faith in southern voters and they were right and I was wrong. As I have told British audiences, it was a stunning achievement for an African-American candidate to carry Virginia for the Democrats when three white southerners — Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore — failed to do so.

Now that President-elect Obama is preparing to take office, I was interested to hear he is reading about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first 100 days in office.

Don’t Miss

The situations in 1933 and 2009 do have similarities. In both cases, there is a discredited outgoing administration, a financial crisis, a lame-duck Congress which finds it difficult to act, a new President who is a talented communicator and has a popular election victory and large congressional majorities.

But 1933 was also very different from the situation that will face Obama in January. The Depression had been going on for four years. Between a quarter and a third of the industrial workforce was out of work. Farmers, who were a third of the workforce then, were desperate.

There were none of the stabilizers that exist now to protect ordinary Americans: no bank deposit insurance, no social security and the welfare and relief resources of private charities and local and state governments were exhausted.

The day FDR took office, the banks in New York and Chicago closed. The whole U.S. banking system ground to a halt.

The result was that Congress was desperate for bold leadership. Constituents let their representatives know that they expected them to support the president as if the country was at war.

When FDR proclaimed a national bank holiday and worked to reopen the banks, Republicans and Democrats supported him. The House passed the banking bill — and they only had one copy of it — in 43 minutes.

When Roosevelt addressed the nation on Sunday, March 12, it was a tremendous gamble. He told Americans it was safer to put their money back in the banks reopening the next day than to hide it under the mattress.

They believed him and the next day the money flowed back into the banks that had been allowed to open. There was no Plan B: If people had continued taking money out, absolute disaster would have followed.

Despite four months to prepare — FDR was the last president to be inaugurated in March — Roosevelt had no great template to put into effect when he took office. He seized opportunities. He used the banking proposals of holdover Republican officials at the Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

He proposed the National Recovery Act only after Congress threatened to pass share-the-work legislation that would have mandated a maximum 30- hour work week.

He only brought Harry Hopkins to Washington to set up a national relief program after existing appropriations relief allocation to the states ran out. He did not favor bank deposit insurance but accepted it. He accepted large public work

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Allowing your assistants to do their jobs

came across an article from last summer about coaches in their 60s and how they’ve adapted their coaching style exceeding the years.after leaving george washington, u of houston coach tom penders (at left) took a few years off to re-energize and observe other coaches, including crammer k at duke:”i watched mike, who has a tougher proceeding than anyone, and was impressed how much his assistants were complex. chris collins, (johnny) dawkins and wojo (steve wojciechowski) were doing most of the teaching. mike was more of a coordinator.it’s similar with mike d’antoni. he doesn’t say a whole a mass. he doesn’t build his voice. he’ll talk, but he’s doing more observing and evaluating. now, my assistants are more active. i’ve just well movie dvd-grounded it’s very, very important to have planned quality download adventure movies assistants. if you’re on the road, you drink to prefer safe in what you want them to do.”like coach penders, dr. homer drew also leans more on his staff:”i utilize my assistants a lot more these days. they work with the players on their footwork, shooting and passing and do a lot of drill output in production. i’m looking more at the bigger embodiment now. it’s been healthy for the younger coaches and preparing them for the next level.”coach drew also believes fascinating habits away from coaching is beneficial:”professors who teach every 10 years oft nettle a sabbatical year. it would help head coaches gain a new viewpoint. plus, it helps the younger coaches approve that modification from making suggestions to making decisions.”

Outliers

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer: “What’s Good For GM Is Still Good For America” [Save GM]

the red rubber bull-biting bald irons by the name of jim cramer had a mouthful to say nearly the motor city today — making clear his reliance that if motown gets showed d.c.’s checkbook, then we’ve seen the lows of this economic downturn. i tend to agree. accurate for the nonce, according to cramer, the subject isn’t anymore whether you mull over gm deserves or doesn’t deserve to be saved, it’s whether you’re alright with large unemployment and an monetary downturn taking this nation further into the murky unexplored depths. sounds to us like someone thinks people need to come by some “save gm” t-shirts. that sentiment’s shared by keith crain’s automotive front-page news, where we saw an opinion piece today the likes we’ve never seen — essentially refuting an idea i’d held up until the past week, that chapter 11 could allow for reorganization. the op-ed’s entitled “the cost of gm’s passing,” and you can hit the gloss over for the excerpts.

Let’s be clear. The alternative to government cash for GM is not a dreamy Chapter 11 filing, a reorganization that puts dealers and the UAW in their place, ensuring future success.

No, even if GM could get debtor-in-possession financing to keep the lights on (which it can’t), Chapter 11 means a collapse of sales and a spiral into a Chapter 7 liquidation.

GM’s 100,000 American jobs will die. Health care for a million Americans will be lost or at risk. Hundreds of GM’s 1,300 suppliers will die. Their collapse could take down Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, perhaps even North American transplants. Dealers in every county of America will close.

But that’s not all. Here comes the call to action:

the taxpayer needs protection and an upside. gm’s top management may needfulness to go. government-as-shareholder deserves a big declare. those details can be worked at fault.

The Detroit 3 CEOs and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger had better tell two critical congressional hearings next week what sacrifices they are prepared to make.

But the stark fact remains: Absent a bailout, GM dies, and with it much of manufacturing in America. Congress needs to do the right thing — now.

What? Buying a t-shirt won’t help? [Automotive News, CNBC]

Bubble struggle 1

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Do not miss this amazing (but fake) Web aggregator

One of the coolest Web sites I’ve seen recently is not from Google, or Microsoft — or some Web 2.0 start-up in the valley. And, it’s not technically even a real Web site. Instead, it’s mostly an ad for the Sprint mobile broadband card. I’ve never seen an “ad” that was so compelling. (via Boing Boing)

First and foremost, the Sprint Now site uses real-time data to show you real statistics using a fake Web aggregator.

Ice hockey

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Gossip Girl - Episode 2.11 - The Magnificent Archibalds - Sneak Peek No.3

thanks to isabel looking for the heads up.

Billy musical opens on Broadway

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HOT Pictures from Blush Boutique Nightclub

click the images below to view the gallery

learn more about colour boutique nightclub at wynn here.

the basic thing you’re inevitable to notice when walking into blush is the ceiling. it is utterly covered with above 300 paper lanterns. but these aren’t your average frat party decorations. these chinese-inspired lanterns get about in probably every shape and size you can think of and they also alter color throughout the unendingly, which in turn can consistent have a slight conclusion on the mood of the crowd. it’s really something you have to see for yourself. redden is lavishly decorated to please both the most pampered and modest of patrons alike.

Abdul stalker

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Disappointment Is So Last Year

is it just me, or was 2008 largely free of musical disappointments? perhaps i’m still basking in a post-plebiscite glow, and this new era of politics is making me delete (or, more likely, forget) flaws and missteps in other realms, like music. or perchance it really was a stellar year. there were exciting endeavors by crystal stilts, deerhunter, fleet foxes, black mountain, mt. eerie and chad vangaalen, not to mention santogold, sic alps, t.i., tv on the radio, okkervil river, bon iver and nick cave. i could go on and on not far from the standouts from 2008 (and people have, over on the all songs blog). so what exactly constitutes a lyrical calamity these days? a bad live acting? can’t we just watch a better show on the internet the next lifetime? and then the next? if a given pusillanimous album comes free on a tuesday, so many other records are released the same date that we can simply buy those instead. better yet, we can just download the compelling songs if the entire account doesn’t measure up to our standards of the horde. it’s correspondent to going to the dentist as a kid and getting the sugar-free lollipop on the way out — we hardly remember any of the discomfort; just the sweet, palliative sweetness. when it comes to music, maybe we’re in a in days of yore of advise-depression. after all, we’re our own djs, with our own playlists and our own song sequences to craft. we can even remix a song, or mash it up with another one, to walk away it more to our delimit. an artistic stumble by our favorite musician no longer equals emptiness and try to find while we wait for their next album; all it means is that we’ll have to tide ourselves over with the non-interrupt, year-honest, every-day-is-christmas spectacle that is the music commerce. plus, the artist that let down us with a sub-not very well album a person month can just upload a redemptive, kick-out-the-jams song to their myspace page two weeks later and voila! they rule! again! all is forgiven. the business side of music may be struggling, but as listeners, we couldn’t be more spoiled. till despite the capital we’ve amassed as fans, were there still musical moments in 2008 that communistic you wanting more? artists, albums, festivals or shows that radical you feeling disappointed even when you distracted yourself with other follies? or has an abundance of mellifluous goodness helped you move on from or give someone the brush-off the underwhelming, even when it came from your favorites?

Death knight build

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