Black Friday, that darkest of days-after, is fast approaching. You know what it’s all about: crazy crowds and crazy deals. But you’re ready for it, right? You’ve set out warm clothes (those 4am lines get chilly), you’ve stocked up on snacks (no time to stop for food) and you’ve been scouring the internet for information on the best deals.

If you are hunting for deals on Macs,  however, finding info online has probably proved difficult. Besides this fake “leaked” advertisement, no real information is out there regarding Apple’s Black Friday plans. What’s a shopper to do? Give up and get a PC? NEVER! With a bit of research and a healthy dose of reasonable expectations, you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect from Apple.

Reasonable Expectations

Let’s start with the reasonable expectations. You’re not going to find a $500 MacBook. You’re probably not even going to find an $800 MacBook. Sorry. This may come as a surprise to those who have never dealt with Apple on Black Friday (or ever). So “why not?” is a reasonable question. Plenty of other retailers have heavy discounts on laptops during Black Friday, right? Why not Apple?

MacBook Pro

It would take a book to fully explain the logic of Apple’s business model, but the simple answer is this: Apple doesn’t want to be in the business of selling cheap computers, and it doesn’t really need to be either. Apple considers itself a premium computer maker, not just a computer maker, and heavy discounts can hurt that image. Plus, the company has a lock on the premium notebook market and recently posted it’s most profitable quarter ever without ever putting Macs on “sale” or offering a netbook. If you’re products were selling like hotcakes at full price, would you start putting them on sale? I didn’t think so.

Apple Retail Stores

None of this means that you can’t find some deals though – even at your nearest Apple store. Based on Apple’s previous Black Friday sales, I’d say that you can expect the following MacBook discounts at Apple’s retail stores on Friday:

• The New Unibody MacBook for $948 ($51 off)

• 13-inch 2.26Ghz MacBook Pro for $1148 ($51 off)

• 13-inch 2.53Ghz MacBook Pro for $1398 ($101 off)

• 15-inch 2.53Ghz MacBook Pro for $1598 ($101 off)

This is a very simple model that Apple has used for the past couple Black Friday events (tweaked for the current lineup), and I don’t see any reason that they will deviate from it this year. Note that I don’t expect discounts on all of the MacBook Pros – just the three least-expensive models. Of course, there will also likely be small discounts (think 10%) on the iPod Nano and iPod Touch, as well as a large variety of discounts on software, accessories and other items. But don’t be mislead – despite the mediocre discounts, Apple retail stores are bound to be buuuuuusy. If you *really* want that $100 off, show up early or plan on being there a while.

Apple Store. Get there early!

Of course, if and when Apple announces anything definite, you can be sure we will have that news here, so keep checking back. (Update: Apple has announced that there will be an one-day shopping event on Friday - as if we didn’t already know. No specifics are given regarding prices.)

Beyond the Apple Store

Some interesting deals can also be found at the other retailers that sell Apple products. Best Buy, for example, is offering a $150 gift card with the purchase of the new Unibody MacBook ($999). I know, I know – technically this is still full-price, but if you’re planning on doing additional shopping at Best Buy anyway, it could be akin to only paying $849. Not bad!

The New Unibody MacBook. $999 with $150 gift card at Best Buy.

If you’re looking for an iPod Touch, leaked ads from Target show them to be including $15 and $30 gift cards with the 8GB and 32GB iPod Touch models, respectively. Walmart is also rumored to be offering a $50 iTunes gift card with the iPod Touch. Personally, I’d rather have the cash discount that Apple’s stores will likely offer, but if you aren’t near an Apple store or don’t mind the gift cards, these are both pretty good deals.

And don’t forget the smaller Apple resellers. Experiences will vary from store to store, but I’ve seen these smaller shops offer some fairly compelling Black Friday sales on MacBook. If you’re not sure about where to find one, try Apple’s Where to Buy web page and use the Find a Reseller search. If you find a worthwhile deal in your area, feel free to share them with others in the comments!

Black Friday: Buyer’s Guide for Apple MacBooks and iPods (Updated) is a post by Jeremy from Notebooks.com.

If you’ve read my previous article on why getting a Mac is such a good idea this holiday season, you are no doubt on the hunt for a bargain. While Apple’s rumored Black Friday deals are probably not true, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still score a good deal on a MacBook if you are ready to act fast and mail in some forms.

MacMall has extended its sale from this weekend on all things Apple. The sale includes the newest MacBook and MacBook Pros, as well as many of Apple’s other offerings (sans Apple’s Cinema Displays, Apple TVs, iPhones, and iPod Shuffles). Better hurry though – the savings end Thursday, November 19 at 11:59pm PT .

MacBooks are going for $934.99 after instant savings and a $50 mail-in rebate, while MacBook Pros start at $1099 (after instant savings and an $80 mail-in rebate). Additional goodies include a free (after rebate) copy of Parallels Desktop 5 ($79) and an HP All-in-One Printer. Click here for the full list of products and savings.

MacMall extends sale on MacBooks and MacBook Pros is a post by Jeremy from Notebooks.com.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again – I am an application addict. I’ve also pointed out that one of the Mac’s great strengths is in the quality of it’s developers and software. With that in mind, I present to you today 5 applications, each of which is:

1. Only available on the Mac
2. Free (!)
3. Especially useful for MacBook users
4. Really great
5. Did I mention FREE?

Check them out and let me know what you think!

1. Caffeine by Lighthead Software

Caffeine is one of those insanely simple applications that, once you use it, you find that you cannot live without. Just like it’s namesake, Caffeine’s one purpose in life is to keep your Mac AWAKE! With a single click on the menu bar, you can prevent your Mac from going to sleep, doing the pre-sleep dimming or turning on the screensaver!

It's better than pouring coffee on your keyboard. Trust me.

I find this especially useful when I’m watching full-screen videos where you’re usually completely hands-off of the keyboard and mouse. It’s even more when I’m running off of the battery, where default Energy Saver settings cause the screen to dim after only 60 seconds of inactivity. Sure, I could always adjust my Energy Saver settings, but sleeping the display is actually good for your computer, and I don’t want to have to continuously change them back and forth.

2. coconutBattery by Christoph Sinai

Since you’re going to be keeping your Mac awake, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on it’s battery. Any poor soul can look at the menu bar to get a rough idea of how long their battery will last, but the built-in utility isn’t always 100 percent accurate, and is meager in what information it offers you. coconutBattery offers some nice improvements here that can give you deeper insight into your energy situation.

coconutBattery - weird name, but super useful.

Not only will coconutBattery show your your battery’s charge down to the milliampere-hour (mAh), but it also shows you how that compares to the maximum charge of your battery, as well as the original charge capacity (so you can see if your battery is getting run down). You can save this data periodically, allowing you to track your battery over time. It also lets you know how old your computer is, which is nice, in case you forgot.

3. Quicksilver by Blacktree

Quicksilver is a launcher, but calling it that is like calling a computer a clock. Yes, it can do that, but if that is all you are using if for you are SO missing out. Besides acting as an application launch and file search tool, Quicksilver is a highly-extensible command interface that allows you to do almost any action or command with almost any file simply by typing a few characters. For example, I could create an email, with a recipient and attach a file to it in less than 10 keystrokes. “Why not just drag the file onto the email?”, you ask. Well, what if Mail.app isn’t running, or simply not in my Dock? I don’t want to have to always dig through my Applications folder to get to it.

The all-powerful Quicksilver

Or what if I just don’t like using a trackpad to drag stuff around? (Hint: I don’t.) Using the trackpad for long periods of time is awkward and tiring on my hands. Quicksilver’s greatest benefit for me is that is makes so much of OS X accessible from the keyboard, without forcing you to you to learn UNIX or leave the GUI. The example I gave is a very simple view into what Quicksilver is capable of. And because it’s so extensible (it’s open source), it can “learn” about new file types and applications, expanding it’s abilities with each new extension.

Quicksilver is simple, fast and powerful, and it’s one of those applications that truly changed the way I use a computer. Download it, play with it and give it some time to sink in.

4. Cyberduck – Open Source

Most mobile computer users need a quick and easy way to upload and download data from various servers and sources, and Cyberduck is far and away the best free remote file browser around. It covers almost anything you could want – FTP, SFTP, WebDav, Amazon S3 and CloudFront and Cloud Files – and because it’s open source it could theoretically have additional functionality added as needed.

Because nothing says remote data access like a rubber duck.

Let’s face it – FTP applications are more useful than they are exciting. That being said, there are some nicer features here. Cyberduck has tight integration with text editors to make editing remote files very simple and it also does a very slick job of integrating with OS X’s Spotlight searching and Keychain services. If you’re in need of a remote file browser, and don’t want to spend on something like Panic’s Transmit ($29.95), Cyberduck is where it’s at. Plus, it’s a rubber-duck on your dock…that alone is worth the download.

5. iAlertU – Slapping Turtle Software

Most of us have laptops because we enjoy being mobile, but part of the burden of taken your laptop everywhere is that you have to keep an eye on it. Have you ever been to a coffee shop and need to use the rest room, but didn’t because your MacBook was just sitting there? No more!

iAlertU is another free utility that lets you protect your MacBook if you need to step away from in briefly. With this App, you can use the remote that comes with every MacBook to enable an alarm that gets triggered if your Macbook is moved, closed, unplugged or messed with in other ways. The alarm is really loud – enough that I’d expect would-be thieves to bolt and leave your lovely computer behind. Check out the video.

There is also an additional feature that allows the built-in iSight to snap a picture at the time the alarm is tripped, and then email that picture to a specified address. I have yet to get this feature to work, but I’ve seen it work for others, so it’s likely just a matter of getting a patch. But even without this feature, it’s a great way to give you some peace of mind when you’re out and about with your Mac.

So, get to downloading! Let me know what you think in the comments below, and feel free to share your must-have apps.

Free Mac-only applications every MacBook user should have is a post by Jeremy from Notebooks.com.

Apple’s latest work of art isn’t a laptop or a phone – it’s a new retail store.

Opening at 10am on November 14 (tomorrow morning as I write this), the Upper West Side store boasts an all-glass arched roof and a 45-foot genius bar. It also houses Apple’s largest training and support area, and more Apple products than any other store in the world.

The first 2,500 visitors to the newest iMecca will receive a free, commemorative t-shirt. But you better show up early – Apple store openings are known for the long-lines of Mac fanboys and gawkers.

Whoa.

The grandeur and scope of Manhattan’s fourth Apple store may seem strange to some. Likewise for Apple’s new significant stores” strategy, with it’s emphasis on flashy stores in major markets. In a time where many consumers are turning away from brick-and-mortar stores, and many companies are cutting costs, Apple appears to be moving in the opposite direction.

But it’s working for them, particularly in New York. Apple recently posted it most profitable quarter ever, thanks in large part to it’s retail locations, and Apple’s 5th Avenue location is among that shopping areas highest grossing retailers ever.

Is anyone in the New York area going to check this place out? I’d love to know what you think, so share your comments below or on twitter. And feel free to send me a t-shirt. Size: medium.

Apple opens biggest, baddest retail store ever in NYC’s Upper West Side is a post by Jeremy from Notebooks.com.

If you’ve already started holiday shopping, you’ve no doubt realized that purchasing a computer is more daunting of a task than ever before. Dozens of companies making hundreds of models with thousands of possible configurations – it’s enough to make you dizzy. When it comes to buying laptops as a gift, the pressure is even greater. How can you make sure that you’re getting that special someone the perfect gift that they will love?

I am a long time Mac user, and I’d like to share with you some of my reasons for owning and loving my Mac, and why I think you should get a Mac this holiday season. I made an effort to steer clear of the Apple PR line and give you my personal reasons, although you might find that there is some cross-over. Forgive me if my inner-fanboy pokes through.

Let’s start off with some house cleaning. Despite the increased popularity of Macs generally – and of the MacBook in particular – many false or exaggerated claims are made about buying and owning a Mac. I think it’s important that we address these, so without further ado…

Rumor 1: Macs aren’t compatible with PCs

Stemming from the personal computer landscape of the 80s and 90s, this is a critique of a bygone era when Macs and PCs didn’t work together without significant effort. Today, Macs are simple to connect to networks, as well as share files and network devices with PCs.

Macs and PCs play nice these days

The basics are covered, of course. MP3s, PDFs, ZIP files – you name a standard file type and odds are that there is native support for it built into Mac OS X. “Native support” essentially means that you don’t need to spend time downloading applications like Adobe Acrobat Reader or WinZip to use your PDFs and ZIP files. They just work. The same goes for connecting to wired and wireless networks.

Using your Mac in a Microsoft-heavy environment is just as simple. Not only does Microsoft have you covered with a Mac version of Office 2008 ($149), but Apple’s iWork suite ($79) is also compatible with Word, Excel and Powerpoint. (Heck, you could even use the free TextEdit application that’s included on every Mac – it too has native support for Microsoft Word files.) OS X also has built-in support for Microsoft Exchange. Even Windows doesn’t have this level of Exchange integration.

You might read the above and think to yourself: “Gee, out-of-the-box, Macs seem *more* compatible with a Microsoft environment than a standard PC is.” Go ahead and think that – you’re not wrong.

Rumors 2: I won’t be able to find the software I want or need

This is a tricky one because it can seem so true, even to Mac users. Walk into the software section of any big-box store and you will see hundreds or thousands of software titles for Windows. You might see a handful for the Mac – if any at all. Numbers don’t lie, right?

Well, they they may not lie, but they can be misleading. If you actually look, you will see that a lot of what makes up that massive pile of software is fluff – 15 different photo editors; 20 anti-virus packages; several dozen “utilities”. Do you really need all of this? Probably not.

Truth is, I’ve never been unable to find the software that I need. I may have two or three options to choose from, instead of 20, but there are options. The best part about this is that you will usually be choosing from two or three really good pieces of software, instead of digging through 20 mediocre ones looking for something worth buying.

Finding great Mac software is easy too, if you know where to look. I personally skip the store and go straight to my browser. In fact, many of my favorite pieces of software are only found online. If you need some direction, Apple’s online store is a great resource. However, I often find that a quick trip to your search engine of choice can be more useful. (Tip: Try searching for “Best Mac OS X App _____” and fill in the type of software you are looking for.)

If all else fails, and you really have your heart set on a specific, Windows-only application, remember that you can always run Windows on your Mac.

Rumors 3: Macs are overpriced

Pricing is often the primary factor in computer purchasing decisions. Even before the economy was in poor shape, the smart consumer (that’s you) would be on the lookout for the best deal. Why pay $1000 or more for a laptop when you can get one for $500, right?

Macs are more expensive, but they're worth it.

This mindset is understandable, but it’s not always correct. The first hurdle in understand why Macs can be more expensive is to realize that Apple does not make low-end computers. The least expensive MacBook ($999) is much more comparable to the mid-level offerings of companies. I won’t lie, the Mac is still going to be more expensive, but not as much as if you compare Apple’s least expensive offerings to those of other companies.

Remember that “inexpensive” often gets confused for good value”. I believe that the Mac is a better “value” even though it is often more expensive up front. My reasoning for this will become evident as you continue to read. So enough with fighting off critiques – let’s talk about what I think makes the Mac so great.

One computer = Many

The Mac is the only computer on the market that can run every major operating system. Want to run Windows 7, XP or Vista? Check. Linux? Check. Mac OS X? Well….yeah…check on that too. I regularly use 2 or 3 different operating systems, and I do it all from one MacBook. It’s like having 3 different computers in one!

Windows 7, MacBook Style.

With Apple’s Boot Camp (free), switching between operating systems is just a restart away. If you don’t want to restart, VMWare Fusion ($79) or Parallels Desktop ($69) are both brilliant ways of running several operating systems simultaneously. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the free VirtualBox. It’s not as user-friendly as it’s counterparts, but it’s free!

For the computer-nerds among us, don’t forget that Mac OS X is built on a UNIX kernel. While it’s not really a separate OS, those of you braver (and smarter) than I will find that the Terminal (a tool for running the UNIX command-line) can be a very powerful way of computing. Only on the Mac can you run a UNIX command-line side-by-side with your everyday OS.

Software, Software, Software

Software can make or break a computer experience. Whether you are editing photos, browsing your RSS feeds, writing the next great-American novel or just the next great tweet, you are likely to find Mac-only software of a caliber simple not found in the Windows world.

The OS X Dock: Where great software lives.

This is partly thanks to a dedicated community of smaller Mac developers who love Macs. It is also a product of the high-bar that Apple has set with it’s own software and the relatively small size of the Mac market. There is very little room for bad software on the Mac because users get used to great free software from Apple, and there simply isn’t enough users to support mediocre products for very long.

Finding great new pieces of software is my addiction, so stay tuned for future articles highlighting some of my favorites.

Not just good – Great

Measuring how well a computer is made is difficult. It’s one of those things that you can feel but can’t always describe. Macs are what I would call polished” or refined.” They feel solid. Hinges are smooth and connecting pieces fit tightly together. The icons and user interface contain a surprising level of graphical detail. Even the packaging of a new Mac is beautiful and well made, and opening a new one is quite an experience.

The MacBook Family. You'll love them.

You may shrug this off as my fanboy-ism and unimportant, but it is meaningful when we talk about a computer’s value. If you love your computer you will do more with it. You will also probably keep it longer. Buying a new computer less often will save you money, and when you do decide to upgrade, you’ll find that Macs maintain a high resell value in a way that is unheard of in the PC world.

It’s a certain Je ne sais quoi that usually raises a product from good to great, and can make the difference between using your computer, and loving it. Mac users don’t just use their computers, they love them.

And that is the real point. Whether your gift is for a college-bound student, couch-bound family or office-bound adult, you want it to be loved. So go make someone a very happy computer owner and get a Mac this holiday season.

Holiday Gift Guide: Get them something they will love. Get a Mac is a post by Jeremy from Notebooks.com.