Seems like every holiday season Apple puts out new shirts for their store employees. Here are some of the slogans you can find on your local Apple employee:
1. Give movies, give music, give TV shows.
2. Give now. Borrow later.
3. They asked for something colorful. Didn’t mean a sweater.
4. Tech the halls.
5. For a PC user it’s not a gift. It’s an intervention.
6. Looking for something they’ll actually wear?
7. This could be the end of regifting. And rebooting.
Even though both the Wii and PS3 are nearly impossible to find this holiday shopping season, Nintendo is certainly making the Wii more available (and affordable) then the PS3.
The Wii has sold over 600,000 units in the first 8 days it was out in the United States. That’s 75,000 a day or 3125 an hour or 52 a minute!!!!! (On an average scale of course). Sony has only sold around 125,000 and 175,000 even though it launched 2 days before the Wii.
Microsoft was only able to sell 400,000 within it’s first 8 days of being on the market. At it’s current selling rate (if the rate proved to be sustainable) , the Wii is set to overtake the 6+ Million Xbox 360′s sold within the next few months.
The The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has become the most successful Wii game so far, selling about 454,000 units. Nintendo also has more units per launch then the other two consoles, thus leading to it’s larger selling figures.
Either way, I know I’m going to be purchasing the Wii, and with Apple’s iTV coming out soon, the Media Center Extender feature of the Xbox 360 is looking less tempting.
The Russian music store, AllofMp3, is sticking to it’s guns even after an agreement recently made between US and Russia to close down the site. They say that US Citizens are “likely legally” downloading music from AllofMp3.
Well the agreement made doesn’t officially go into effect until June 1, 2007. I would recommend that you download your remaining balance and get the heck out of there before you end up losing money to the site.
A new security update released by Apple patches up to 22 exploits recently in the Intel and PPC version of OS X 10.4.8. Make sure to do a Software update today.
One of my favorite photographers and bloggers Thomas Hawk finally made the switch back to the Mac after 15 years. He purchased a MacBook Pro around the same time that I purchased mine. Doesn’t say if he got the 17″ or 15″ model, but he did go for the glossy screen which I am totally loving.
Thomas, make sure to try out Aperture; even for a amateur like me, it’s a great tool for photo editing, plus there is a free 30 day trial.
His post about switching is a great read for anyone on the fence about making the switch. Here are some highlights:
Growing up my Grandfather would perform magic shows for us, and I became quite interested in the tricks and specifically how to do them. Turns out a magician never reveals his secret unless you are yourself a magician. I did some small shows for my family with the tricks I would get from the local store. Nothing fancy, but I’ve always enjoyed watching the art of manipulation, aka magic.
Here are some great tricks starting off with one of my favorites from YouTube, a 4 Card Trick:
Here’s an Ass-Kickin’ card trick:
Finally one that you can play along with at home even, Pick a Card:
Well looks like YouTube will be going mobile sooner then expected. They are in works with a deal with Verizon to appear in thier V Cast service. The service runs $15/month, a hefty charge for mobile video. This is expected to hit the Verizion Wireless market within a month.
Orb has added YouTube support in a somewhat limited fashion today, and beat YouTube to market. The service works on a wide variety of smartphones for free. It also works on nearly every cell network.
Still no support with for the Blackberry Pearl and Orb, although I’m more then willing to keep my Pearl then switch to a Windows Mobile phone.
Apple has released 3 more of their popular Get a Mac ads starting last night during Heroes. They have published them on their site as well.
One is holiday themed, Gift Exchange. The second, the PC is desperately pulling out all the stops with a Sales Pitch. In the third, PC complains how he is being used for functions he was never intended, like blogs, music, etc. He complains that he was only Meant for Work.
All of these ads heavily push iLife. I can’t wait to see what updates will be in iLife ’07. Still debating going to MacWorld this year.
Watch the three videos below:
Well it’s the Monday after a long holiday weekend. I trust everyone is well rested. Get any good deals this weekend? If not Google and the rest of the web for that matter are having great Cyber Monday deals. Google is offering $10 off a $30+ purchase.
Free shipping seems to be the favorite discount offered, and most of the time the purchase is tax free as well.
Here’s Amazon’s breakdown of deadlines for holiday shopping:
Personally I tried to get a Nintendo Wii on Sunday (Best Buy had at least 12 per store), but was unsuccessful. I’m sure there will be more available within the coming weeks.
Well I’ve pretty much done shopping for the day and it is only 7am EST. I was within the first 300 to enter Best Buy. I wasn’t able to get the $400 laptop, desktop or 50″ plasma, but I was offered a ticket for any the other major Door Buster sale items.
The MyBook was still in stock, so I picked that up and am backing up my MacBook Pro with Super Duper right now. I also got a $20 Copier, Scanner, and Printer. Finally 100 DVD-R for $5.
I was able to head across the street to the mall and pick up a gift for my brother at half price, and a nice jacket for VERY cheap.
Apple has their Black Friday Sale info up. Here’s some of the details:
$21 off iPod nanos.
$31 off regular iPods.
Apple HiFi (save $51), other speakers, ear phones, cases, Mighty Mouse (save $11), Airport Express (save $41), iPod remote (save $11), Nike+iPod kit (save $5), bags and speakers are among some of the other sale items. There is no savings on the AIDS Red nano.
Two other notable items are .Mac and Parallels for $68 each.
The MacBook (non-Pro) and iMac also are discounted $101.
I might end up at the Apple store later this afternoon, but I think a nap is in order. Have a great holiday weekend.
