If you’re planning your holiday shopping but want to get a good grasp of the budget available to you in advance, it helps to know what kind of deals you’re going to get. Luckily, Apple’s Black Friday discounts have been leaked early, so you can factor in those price reductions while you’re figuring out how pinched you’re going to be financially come January.

Boy Genius Report got the early tip-off, from an anonymous source. It comes in the form of what looks like a flyer image, detailing some pretty significant discounts on all things Apple, basically. They’re deep enough that you’d probably do well to hold off any Mac or iPod-related purchase for at least another 10 days just in case.

Here’s what we’re looking at, if the rumors prove true:

• Up to 30 percent off all iPods (excluding iPhone and iPod shuffle)
• Up to 25 percent off all Macs
• Up to 15 percent off all accessories, Apple software and Apple hardware

The sales seem to be available in Apple retail stores only, since the poster also states that “Select Apple stores open at 6 am,” and a line at the bottom advertises the new availability of in-store gift-wrapping. Last year we saw online Black Friday discounts, though, so it’s possible we’ll see them again.

If these deals do indeed come to pass, they would be pretty significant compared with previous Black Friday sales by the Mac maker. Twenty-five percent off of all Macs is a very good discount, for example, and would result in a $500 discount on the Core i5 27-inch iMac, or a $250 discount on the entry-level MacBook. Compare that to a $101 discount on the MacBook last year, and a $101 discount on the top model iMac.

The teaser image leaked by BGR is fairly convincing, in that it does seem to use design cues and aesthetics currently favored by Apple in its marketing materials, but it’s hard not to be skeptical in the face of sound business sense — considering Apple’s previous Black Friday discounts, and the fact that last time I checked, it really wasn’t in a position to need to offer big price cuts to bolster sales.

If these do prove true, I’ve been putting a new Time Capsule or Airport Extreme purchase on the back burner for quite some time now, and that 15 percent off is nothing to sneeze at, given Apple’s usual reluctance to offer any kind of price cut at all. Anyone else planning on making a purchase if these discounts really do apply? Something you wouldn’t buy otherwise, perhaps?

As we wrote yesterday, MacHeist is doing a new promotion, this time offering six Mac apps for free. MacHeist has long been controversial in the indie developer community, with many developers believing that the promotion, which offers a bundle of applications at either a steep discount (or in this case for free), reduces the value of the work that developers put into Mac applications. One of the sharpest critics of MacHeist has been Daniel Jalkut, developer of MarsEdit.

In response to the latest MacHeist, Jalkut has organized a counter promotion of indie Mac developers offering a 20 percent discount on their applications. Dubbed the One Finger Discount, in a not-so-subtle nod towards the five finger discount some people say you get from MacHeist, the promotion is being offered for this week only. There are now over 40 different developers participating and new ones are being added all the time.

If you’re interested on picking up a discount on some interesting Mac software, or if you want to participate check out the website here.

They say you can’t time the market, but for some lucky folks, there is special time to buy a new Mac and related accessories. By doing nothing other than waiting for this magic time, you could save an average of 5-9 percent on a new computer. It’s all about being at the right place at the right time.

The right place is one the eight states that have computer-inclusive sales tax holidays, and the right time is usually a weekend in August.

Many state legislatures, in an effort to ease the costs of going back to school (and help themselves get re-elected), have enacted laws specifying periods of time where certain purchases are tax-free. Common exemptions include clothes and back-to-school supplies. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee also exempt certain computer purchases from sales tax. Click on the sites of any of those states listed above and you’ll be linked to their respective Tax Holiday Information pages.

Each state does it a bit differently, and it can be confusing trying to figure out what’s included and what’s excluded. For example, mail order sales may still be taxed. Some cities can opt out of the state laws, and some cities may charge other taxes that are not exempt. Occasionally the computer cannot be used for business purposes and some peripherals are excluded. None of the states require that the computer be used for educational purchases nor must you be a resident of that state, so if you live near one of these eight states, it might be worth a drive to save some money.

If you decide to take advantage of a sales tax holiday, note that Apple stores will be packed. Go in a few days before and pick out the items you want and find out the exact rules. Based on past experience, Apple stores will have a procedure to get you in and out quickly on the tax holiday weekend, as their stores will have long waits. Want to avoid some of those lines? You might consider purchasing at an Apple Authorized Reseller.

Unless, of course, you like paying taxes!

As a kid, or even as a university student, if anyone had mentioned back-to-school shopping, sales, gear, or anything else this early in the game, I’d definitely have lost it on them. The summer has yet to begin, just let me get my bearings!

Still, if I were to make an exception, I’d make it for Apple’s annual back-to-school promotion, during which the company offers a free iPod to all education customers when they purchase a new Mac.

The iPod in question, or at least the most expensive one that qualifies for the deal, is the 8GB iPod touch (which is probably nearing end-of-life, but hey, it’s free, and it’s still great hardware), which you buy along with your MacBook when you make your purchases. When you receive both items, you fill out and submit an online claim (which must be done by Oct. 8 to qualify), and Apple will reimburse you for the total amount of the iPod — not quite as insidious as a mail-in rebate, but not nearly as straightforward as a complete freebie, either.

If you’re not keen on the iPod touch, or for some reason you just want to save Apple some money, you also have the option of getting any iPod of lesser value, including an 8GB or 16GB Nano, a 120GB Classic, or a 4GB Shuffle with rebates of varying amounts according to which you choose. On top of that, you also get the standard education customer discount on whatever model Mac you’re buying, so the total savings end up being pretty significant.

Not all Macs are eligible for the promotion, so hopefully, you didn’t just read the first half of this article and then go buy a Mac mini and an iPod touch. The mini, along with any refurbished Macs, won’t get you the free iPod, although any other model will, including all notebooks, the Mac Pro, and the iMac. Offering the relatively inexpensive Mac mini along with the discount probably cuts too close to the profitability line for Apple’s comfort.

Whenever a friend who’s new to Apple picks up a new Mac of their own, I’m sure to tell them about the great educational and support services Cupertino offers as well. In-store group Workshops, Genius Bar and One to One are all great offerings. One I’ve not paid close attention until now is the opportunity for kids to attend summer ‘camp’ at retail stores.

If you’ve got a child who’s between the ages of 8 and 12, they’re eligible learn about digital photography, and making movies, music or presentations. Follow this link to sign your little one(s) up for a 3-hour session at the retail location of your choice. They’re operating on a first come, first served basis, so hurry over if you’re interested. Apple does ask that you only sign a child up for a maximum of two sessions, to allow space for others to attend, but otherwise, there’s no restrictions, and they’re free.

You’ll also need to be present for the duration of the class — but that’s not so bad is it? Worst case, maybe you pick up a tip or trick you weren’t aware of before. Equipment in the store will be available for use, but you’re encouraged to bring your own machines and media if you or your child have personal projects they’d rather work on. I’m thinking this is a great opportunity for them to bring in a ‘What I did this summer’ video or slide show, which has been the first back-to-school assignment since time immemorial.

Clearly this is a great way to establish brand buy-in from the next generation of consumers at an early age. But it’s also a fantastic way to help them learn some skills that they may find they would like to pursue as a career well down the road. Either way, if you’ve got a small geek at home (as I do), hurry and sign them up now!

Today, MacHeist announced the contents of their latest application bundle, providing the opportunity to purchase software to the value of $558 for the bargain price of $39. A huge range of applications are included, ranging from eBay companions to professional 3-D animation tools.

Over the past few months, various ‘missions’ have given regular readers the chance to gain additional discounts on the bundle and gather free licenses for various applications. The final bundle will be on sale for two weeks, with 25 percent of all money paid being donated to a charity of your choice. This analysis will take a brief look at each application on offer to see just how far your $39 can go.

iSale (SRP $39.95)

iSale is a fully fledged desktop application for eBay, allowing you to create really good looking auctions with ease. Interesting features include the ability to easily integrate video descriptions into your auction, and a companion iPhone app. iSale’s main competitor is GarageSale.

Picturesque (SRP $34.95)

Pitched as “Making Images Gorgeous,” Picturesque is a simple image editing tool which allows you to quickly and easily add interesting effects to your photographs and graphics. It isn’t a great image editor as such, but more of an enhancement tool for adding reflections, 3D effects, curves, shadows, borders etc. It isn’t an app I’d pay $35 for, but is good to have included.

SousChef (SRP $30.00)

As someone who loves cooking, I’m very interested to give SousChef a try. I’m not generally a fan of desktop software for managing recipes (searching the Internet generally works fine), but the fact that SousChef collates every users recipe into a searchable ‘cloud’ does offer an interesting angle. It also has a great large text mode for viewing your recipe across the kitchen.

World of Goo (SRP $20.00)

World of Goo is a physics based puzzle/construction game with, as the name would suggest, copious amounts of goo. Its unusual, cartoon style graphics coupled with a reasonably realistic physics engine make for a reasonably odd experience. If you’re not really into puzzle games, I expect it will only provide a few hours of entertainment, though it’s received some very good reviews.

PhoneView (SRP $19.95)

I’ve been trying various applications similar to PhoneView for some time, a tool which allows you to access and manage iPhone data from your Mac. In particular, I like to maintain a backup of all my SMS messages for safe keeping. While I do generally trust iTunes, PhoneView looks like a great application for keeping your own additional iPhone backup.

LittleSnapper (SRP $39.00)

LittleSnapper is a brilliant application for storing and editing screenshots or web page ’snaps’. The interface is delightful, it integrates with all major web browsers, and vector based editing tools allow you to annotate your images in a really impressive fashion. If you need an app for keeping track of inspirational websites, graphics and screenshots, the inclusion of LittleSnapper alone justifies the $39 price tag.

Acorn (SRP $49.95)

Acorn isn’t an application I’ve come across previously, but again falls into the category of an “image editor for the rest of us.” It strips away all the Photoshop bloat and provides a simple way for a regular Mac user to edit photographs or create simple graphics.

Kinemac (SRP $299.00)

Dubbed a “3D real time animation & presentation app,” Kinemac allows you to create impressive 3-D animations without requiring vast amounts of knowledge. It’s a reasonably technical tool, and while undoubtedly impressive, probably won’t really appeal to the average Mac user. The high price tag does bump up the value of the MacHeist bundle, which is undoubtedly one reason for its inclusion.

WireTap Studio (SRP $69.00)

WireTap allows you to record any audio which is being played by your Mac. Similar to Audio Hijack Pro, it provides a simple way to record audio in a lossless format, organize and store clips, and export to a variety of formats. Very useful for recording podcasts, iTunes audio, or Skype conversations.

This app is only ‘unlocked’ when $100,000 is raised for charity (likely to only take a couple of days).

BoinxTV (SRP $199.00)

We’ve covered BoinxTV in an in-depth review previously, so I’d recommend reading Matthew’s comments from a few months ago. Essentially it is a simple way to create and edit great looking video presentations, save them to disk, and broadcast them in real-time if desired.

This app is only ‘unlocked’ at a certain point, which is yet to be announced.

The Hit List (SRP $69.95)

The Hit List is a direct competitor to Things, providing a simple tool for organizing lists and “Getting Things Done.” It combines a simple interface with a powerful feature set, genuinely helping you to stay on top of your tasks. It’s definitely worth trying out.

This app is only ‘unlocked’ at a certain point, which is yet to be announced.

Espresso (SRP $80.00)

Espresso was only released from beta a couple of days ago, and offers an impressive text/code editor, integrated FTP, CSS editing tools, powerful preview functionality, and plugin support. It’s a fantastic competitor to Coda for web developers, and is another gem in this bundle of apps.

This app is only ‘unlocked’ at a certain point, which is yet to be announced.

Big Bang Board Games (SRP $24.95)

The seemingly obligatory board game app for MacHeist, Big Bang Board Games offers an impressive 3-D interface for playing Checkers, Chess, Reversi, Backgammon and more. Online multiplayer support is also built in, and it’s a fun app to open when you need to kill a few minutes — a huge step forward from Minesweeper!

This app is only available for the first 25,000 buyers.

Conclusion

As ever, this year’s MacHeist bundle packs a decent punch across a wide range of software genres. There will be an app (or two!) for you whether you’re looking for games, web development, image editing, or audio/video tools.

The price of $39 is an absolute steal for such a powerful collection of applications, and I’d definitely urge you to consider it a good investment for your software needs over the coming year!

For the first time in the App Store (at least as far as games are concerned) competing developers are joining forces to release their wares as one in the 5 Fingers Bundle ($5 in the App Store). Similar in concept to MacUpdate, these five developers are offering their great games as one, for almost a 60 percent savings.

As many of us have experienced before, bundles usually have a shining star or two while the rest just ride the coattails. So what do you get with the 5 Fingers Bundle?

• Chopper – Was a No. 1 game for a while.
• BurnBall – I’ve become addicted to playing this game.
• Up There – A beautifully designed game, featured by Apple.
• Blackbeard’s Assault – A classic Zuma-style game with incredible graphics.
• Sneezies – A bubble-popping game which seems to have a great following.

Tim Haines — developer of BurnBall — shared the following:

In an increasingly competitive market, five different development teams have taken a break from fighting for a spot in the App Store Top 100 to create something wonderful. Independently connected through a shared admiration and enthusiasm for each other’s work, they have joined forces and worked together to deliver a bundle brimming with quality.

Since the bundle consists of five games from five different developers, I was curious how updates would be addressed. According to Haines, bug fixes will be nearly immediate. App updates to the individual games will be handled in the Bundle on something close to a monthly basis.

Of course the $4.99 price tag may not represent a deal for you if you own 3 or more of the games already. But if you’ve found yourself bumping up against the 148 app limit, this is a good way to squeeze some additional apps onto your iPhone or iPod touch.

I wonder how this model will affect sales of the individual apps. It’s win-win for consumers, who will not only get 5 great apps for a bargain price, but who may also find developers with other apps they didn’t previously know about. With such a generous pricing model and update strategy, I hope it works out as well for the developers.

I love the concept, and think many others will too. Will we see more competing developers ’shacking up’ together for similar bundles in the future? I think it’s a great way to play off each others’ customer base, but I guess only time will tell. For now we’ll chalk it up as yet another interesting experiment in the youthful Wild West that is the App Store.

I’m rarely one to buy into extended warranties. I worked at Best Buy (I was young and stupid, cut me some slack) long ago, and swore I would never waste money on those coverage plans. All that being said, I recommend all my friends cover their Mac with AppleCare — it can be expensive (depending on the model you buy) but in my own experience, has almost always paid for itself. But how do you swallow that hefty warranty price tag after dropping some serious coin on a shiny new computer? An interesting post at Wisebread may have the answer.

One of my favorite blogs about being frugal, Wisebread, has taken the dive and purchased AppleCare protection via eBay. Doing so saved $158 off the extended warranty for a Mac Pro — not shabby at all! Registering the code online went off without a hitch, so no immediate red flags at least. Writer Torley acknowledges no issues to test the coverage with as of yet, but there have been no communications from Apple to believe otherwise.

Despite some people around the web sounding a battle cry against AppleCare, I’ve yet to have a bad experience. I’ve had screens replaced for bad pixels, multiple logic boards on a single machine replaced, the machine finally replaced, and so on. (The question of Apple’s quality slowly degrading opposite their rise in popularity is probably a different post altogether…) But I do indeed swear by the coverage, not to mention that it can up the resale value if you try to trade up before the 3 years are up. Oh, and if you don’t have the extra cash on hand at the time you purchase your new slice of heaven, you can add AppleCare protection up to 1 year from the original purchase date.

Have you used eBay, or some other discount ‘provider’ of AppleCare for your Mac? If so, please share the good, bad, and ugly experiences you may have had!

Stanza is easily the most popular book app available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Recently, it expanded its library even further, adding 40,000 new titles to its library, thanks to the acquisition of a license for eReader’s eBook format. Lexcycle’s Stanza now boasts over 100,000 book and magazine titles, and that number grows daily. Some are crediting the app with helping to turn the iPhone and iPod touch into formidable eBook readers, despite the relatively small screen. Lexcycle claims 500,000 Stanza users, downloading tens of thousands of books a day.

Which would explain why Random House has decided to offer a selection of its catalogue free to Stanza users. The U.S. publishing giant announced yesterday that it will begin offering free, full-length books from a selection of authors through Lexcycle’s catalogue. Authors participating in the program include Alan Furst, Julie Garwood, Charlie Huston, David Liss, Laurie Notaro, Arthur Phillips and Simon Rich. The books selected are from back catalogs of the authors’ works, and will also contain promotional excerpts from their new, hardcover releases, as well as links to online bookseller sites like Amazon and Borders.com to encourage readers who like the free content to make purchases.

The giveaway represents a long-term marketing strategy, not a one-off promotion. According to Neelan Choksi, Lexcycle CEO:

“We are thrilled to bring Stanza readers a sampling of the wealth of titles published by the Random House Publishing Group imprints. But this is just the tip of the iceberg: we look forward to extending this promotion to make even more free titles available.”

Presumably, Choksi and Lexcycle are hoping that the move by Random House will result in other major publishing houses following suit. Penguin Books currently offers an iPhone application, featuring book excerpts, podcast and blog postings, and critical essays. They eventually wish to offer full titles for sale through the app as well, but Stanza has far greater appeal and market penetration, so they may change their strategy based on the success of Random House’s campaign.

The free Random House title are currently available in a special category in Stanza’s iPhone/iPod touch Online Catalog.

These days our lives revolve around our computers — for better or worse. We keep our finances there, photos, purchased music, and much much more. It seems like a no brainer that we should all be backing up our data regularly, but it still surprises me how often I hear from a friend that they’ve lost everything. I’ve written about the importance of backups before — illustrated by my own dead drive experience – so don’t write this off as something that can’t happen to you.

All you need to backup your computer is software, external storage space, and the will to set the two up. From my experience, the last of the three represents the greatest barrier to entry. Whether it be a lack of understanding or possibly a fear of how to setup the actual backup, and which files to choose for inclusion, I’m not sure — maybe both?

Well friends, I present you with Backblaze. For $5 per month (that’s the price of Starbucks for one day after all!) you have an internet based exclusion (that means you only choose what NOT to save) backup solution with unlimited storage space. That’s correct — there is no limit to the amount of data you backup with Backblaze. Ever. Your data is stored securely (via AES, military grade encryption) in the 365 Main datacenter, and can be further protected with your own private password. Versions are kept for 4 weeks in the event you overwrite something accidentally. And then when it is time to retain your backed up files, you have three options for doing so: Download a zip file, have DVDs burned of your data, or order a USB drive to be sent to you.

As is to be expected, Backblaze comes with both pros and cons. I invite you to read on to determine how the features and limitations may fit into your specific set of needs. And if this sounds like something that’s up your alley, the first 50 readers from The Apple Blog to follow this link will get in on the Mac beta (the rest will be able to sign up for future beta offerings) and have a 15 day, fully functional trial period.

The Upsides:

• Easy!
  If you haven’t yet begun backing up your data, this is a fantastic way to begin. Now.
• Backup Anywhere
  You don’t need a hard drive or be near one to backup your data for a rainy day.
• Runs Automatically
  Backblaze runs in the background, so you don’t need to schedule it or remember to kick it off manually.
• Exclusion Based
  Especially for the novice user, it’s much simpler to exclude the data you don’t care about, than figure out all of the stuff that you do care to keep safe. Choose to exclude file types, specific files, folders, or even limit to file sizes.
• Web-based File Browser
  The web interface is simple and effective. Once your files have been backed up to Backblaze, there’s a web-based file viewer which displays all the files that have been saved. Come restore time, you can select any files or folders you wish to retrieve, and they will be prepared in a zip file for your download (or a DVD or USB drive which would be mailed to you).
• Off Site Data
  Having your data backed-up off site is piece of mind in case, heaven forbid, your home burns to the ground, taking your backup with it!
• Encryption
  AES keeps your data safe from even determined prying eyes.
• 5 Bucks!
  And really, can you beat the price at only $5 per month for unlimited data?!

The Potential Downsides:

• “Speed”
  A couple of factors weigh heavily on the speed of the Backblaze internet-centric backup solution: your connection speed, and amount of data needing to be backed-up. Media files (photos, movies, music) take up a great deal of storage space and at a 6Mbps cable connection like I have, it would’ve taken weeks to backup everything I really wanted to save. (For the purposes of this review, I limited to a single folder and then, only files under 2 megs.)
• Security Concerns
  The encryption in use with Backblaze is top notch, but if you’re the tinfoil hat type (or if you’re just rightly concerned about your sensitive files), you may not be feeling great about letting your data out of your posession.
• Restoration Costs
  While backups over the web are free, it’s not very convenient with a huge amount of data (I’m sporting 150 gigabytes…) to download in order to restore. The alternative is to pay for [a maximum of 4.2GB of data on] DVDs, or a USB hard drive of your data to be mailed out. The most convenient being the USB drive, which is easily the cost of buying your own drive for personal use and then some. (To restore my 1.3GB of test data, DVDs would have run me $99, or a USB drive $189.)

At the end of the day, Backblaze represents a backup solution that is within anyone’s grasp. The setup is almost nonexistent, it runs in the background (essentially saving you from yourself), and the service cost is almost nonexistent at only $5 a month. Despite some downsides, the functionality is solid and I truly forgot about it once I set it up and let it go. There’s piece of mind in knowing that, without any interaction, your data will be safe if and when you need it. I think if you’re not already backing your data up, you should definitely start today, and Backblaze could be the perfect place to start.

Yazsoft today announced an extensive Christmas giveaway — their “biggest one yet.” From December 1 to December 24, 2008, everyone has a chance to win 1 of 4 grand packages. No purchase is required to enter, and winners will be drawn randomly during the first week of January 2009. Entering is simple, just email Yazsoft with the subject line ‘Yazsoft Holiday Giveaway.’

Each Grand package will consist of:

• 1 MacBook computer (MB467LL/A: 2.4GHz)
• 1 LED Cinema Display 24 inch
• 1 Apple iPhone (8GB)

It’s a fairly comprehensive set of prizes and, with entering as simple as sending an email, it’s definitely worth a shot. Obviously, the odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. As you’d expect, you can only enter once.

Users that purchase any Yazsoft product during the period of this giveaway will automatically get their entries doubled as a thank you. For example, if you purchase 1 license, you will get 2 entries in the giveaway (and so on). Their product line consists of Speed Download and ShareTool.

Speed Download is a download manager for Mac OS X, and ShareTool lets you access all of the Bonjour services on your home network from anywhere in the world, securely. We recently covered ShareTool in a review.

In addition to the giveaway, you can also save an additional 20% on all the above prices during December. All Speed Download 5.x and ShareTool 1.x updates are free, so you won’t need to pay to upgrade in the near future.

Good luck with the competition, and obviously let us know if you end up winning the MacBook and Display!

Much has been written about VMware in recent months, with the release of Fusion 2.0. The software provides operating system virtualization, allowing you to run your favorite Windows applications and devices on any Intel-based Mac.

Today, until 11:59 PM Pacific Time, the VMware e-store is running a deal for 50% off of VMware Fusion. We recently covered a 25% discount promotion, which pales in comparison to the huge offer today.

To take advantage of the promotion, you need to enter the coupon code “CyberMondayDeal” (without the quotes!), at checkout. The 50% discount is available worldwide, but is a one day only offer — you’ll need to act quickly to take advantage of the deal.

The main two competitors to VMware Fusion are Parallels and Virtual PC, both offering similar functionality. An aggressive push is being made from VMware at present, and for Mac users in the U.S. and Canada, it is interesting to note that this 50% discount can be used in conjunction with a concurrent offer of a $30 rebate for those switching from Parallels or Virtual PC. If you own either of these packages, you’re able to pick up VMware Fusion for a mere $10 (unfortunately, this offer isn’t available for international users).

If you are in the market for a virtualization package, now would be an excellent time to make a purchase. If you’re undecided upon which company to go with, our comparison of VMware Fusion 2 and Parallels Desktop 4 will provide an interesting read.

On Tuesday, Apple sent out emails reminding everyone that the “best shopping event of the year” is coming up in the United States this Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally referred to as “Black Friday” by retailers.

Past Black Friday deals at the Apple Store have been limited to modest ($50 to $100) discounts on computers. Special pricing should be available in the online store and in retail stores around the U.S.. No word yet on what Apple plans, but we will post an update here as soon as the announcement is made. In the mean time, here are some other sales going on this week for the holiday shopping season.

Best Buy is having a sale on Apple gear through Wednesday, November 26. These deals to get $50 to $150 off a new Mac are available online and in retail stores. You can check the story on AppleInsider to get all the details.

MacMall is also running two sets of promotions — a Thanksgiving Blowout Sale and a 3 Day Black Friday Sale.

If you’re having trouble deciding where to shop, MacRumors has put together a nice chart showing the best discounts on Macs between the two sites.

If you’re shopping for discounts on accessories for your Mac or iPod, check out the great web site, bfads.net for searchable listings and scans of all the major retailers. For example, check out these hard drive, printer, and digital camera deals. Online, newegg.com and Amazon.com are having some great sales too.

If you know of other great deals, please share links in the comments below.

Black Friday sale prices are coming a little early for those of you looking to buy VMware Fusion this month. Our readers report that VMware is sending out emails with a 25% off coupon.

Get 25% off automatically when you purchase VMware Fusion online, using the coupon code “FusionRocks” for a limited time only.

VMware Fusion has been my recommendation for some time because of the wide support for guest OS’s including OS X Server, but the new Parallels Desktop 4.0 release does a lot to close the gap. I imagine the coupon is motivated in part by the increased competition from Parallels 4.0 this month.

Our own Darrell Etherington wrote up a comparison of VMware Fusion 2.0 and Parallels 4.0 where he slightly preferred Fusion. Now it is even a better deal at 25% off.

The coupon expires at midnight (Pacific time) at Sunday, November 30.

Apple may not have broken the $900 mark with the new line of laptops they unveiled at Tuesday’s event, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a never-before-used Mac at that price. As long as you’re willing to bury your head in the sand and pretend no new models exist, or your computing habits don’t require the absolute latest tech, you can get some pretty good deals on previous generation Apple notebooks.

Amazon.com, for instance, is offering a $700 (compared to its price at the Apple Store before Tuesday’s release) discount on MacBook Pros, which makes this 15-inch model not much more expensive than the now-discontinued black MacBook. While this is a great deal for those looking for a still-powerful laptop at an affordable price, those hoping for the sub-$900 laptop Tuesday likely won’t see $1,780 as much of a deal.

If you already had that $800+ tucked away for a new Mac, don’t go blowing it all on cheese doodles and beer to drown your sorrow. Best Buy is now offering the entry level 13.3-inch white MacBook for $849.  Keep in mind, this is not the new entry-level white MacBook ($999) which now ships with a SuperDrive. Still, at $850, it’s almost an impulse buy for people holding that first student loan check and thinking about all the somewhat educational things they can do with it. The old MacBook Air is now down $400 from $1,799 to $1,399.

Apple themselves are offering some good deals via their refurbished hardware sales, the highlight being a well-spec’d 15.4 MacBook Pro 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, available for $1,799, a full $1,000 off of its original retail purchase price.

On the previously enjoyed front, Craig’s List and Kijiji have both seen a sharp increase in the number of ads offering MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs for sale. While the used market appears flooded, price points have yet to see significant change despite the spike in supply, and in most cases it looks like you’d be better off buying new from authorized resellers.

Have you spotted any amazing deals? Let us know below.

Enigmo, by Pangea Soft is not a new game/application by any means — for the Mac, or for the iPhone for that matter. While I’ve got it on my MacBook, I hadn’t sprung the nearly $10 that Enigmo was priced at in the App Store. But this week, everyone’s in luck! Pangea Soft is offering this great puzzle game for only $1.99. There’s no indication how long the deal will last, but my suggestion is to get in on it as soon as you can. In actuality, after playing it on the iPhone, I realize just what an ideal fit it is for this platform.

If you’re not familiar with the game of Enigmo, here’s the skinny. There’s more or less a vessel dripping liquid, and you have different tools (drums, accelerators, surfaces) at your disposal to reroute the droplets into an empty vessel someplace else on the level. The tools can be dragged around, and the touch interface is perfect for rotating them to perform exactly the way you’d like, to hopefully beat the level before your point bonus runs out.

Performance of the game is quick, load time is minimal (especially for a game of this complexity), save and resume screens are all very easy to navigate. The only thing I didn’t see a note on (but figured out on my own) was that in order to pause the game, you need to double tap the screen for the menu.

While I balked at Enigmo at around the ten dollar mark — after playing it I’m surprised I didn’t buy it sooner — it’s a steal at 2 bucks. If you’re looking for a challenging puzzle game to pass any free time, you can’t go wrong here. If you don’t want to take my word for it, it also won the Apple Design Award this year in the iPhone Developer Showcase.

Freeverse’s App Store launch title Wingnuts Moto Chaser and Smallware’s Solebon Solitaire, two games which have received fairly high praise from reviewers, are on on sale for a limited time for only $0.99.

Moto Chaser (normally $5.99) is an accelerometer-controlled motorcycle racing game, with a variety of lush environments and Road Rash-style on-bike combat.  Players can select from multiple difficulty levels, a variety of riders and motorcycles. Steering is controlled by tilting the iPhone or iPod touch to either side, while a button on the lower left of the screen controls the gas.  Available here.

Solebon Solitaire (normally $9.99) includes 20 different Solitaire card games, including Kondike Deal 1 and Deal 3, Free Cell and Spiderette.  Card suit icons and numbers are large for added readability on the iPhone’s relatively small screen, and features stat tracking, scorekeeping, unlimited undo and autoplay.  Get it here.

If you come across any special pricing, drop us a line and we’ll include it in our next round.

Since you can’t currently find any Mac minis on the Apple Store refurbished site, you might want to check this out. MacMinicolo.net is selling some of the machines that they have been using. They have two models up right now, both 1.83 GHz, Core 2 Duo. Some were purchased in Jan ‘08, and others in November ‘06. They have mostly been used in their climate controlled data center which means that they should be in pretty good shape.

The 2 GB RAM version is $100 less than it would be from Apple, but $175 less if you host it in their data center (and buy a plan with that).

The discount is not huge, but every little bit helps, right? They also mention that they will post them as they are available, so first come, first served.

If you are interested, you can purchase the Minis by contacting macminicolo.net here.

I figured that with the steep reduction in price of the iPhone ($199 and $299, the same price as an 8GB iPod Nano and 8GB iPod Touch, respectively), Apple might be willing to allow students and faculty members the opportunity to buy an iPhone and get the rebate as part of their most excellent Back-to-School Promotion. I did a little bit of research and found out that although the prices are nothing different, the rebate only applies to iPod purchases.

In related news however, I did find some other ways that starving students (and teachers) can score some bonuses on their Mac purchase this summer. If you go to Best Buy’s Ad for this week, you will see (at least in my area, verify in the comments what your result is) that they are offering gift cards to Best Buy and the iTunes Store with the purchase of iPod Nano or Touch in preparation for Father’s Day. The values are $20 to $40 for the Best Buy gift cards and $25 or $50 for the iTMS gift cards. So, you get a new Mac, get the gift card, get the rebate, and you can totally afford to get MobileMe when it comes out.

(I did ask a couple Apple Store employees if the iTMS gift cards would work in the App Store, and they told me that the iTMS gift cards “are only for content in the iTunes Music Store” and not for the App Store. I guess it makes sense to separate them, but since it is all linked to your Apple ID, it should work out. Apple still has time to switch sides on that, though.)

Also, if you are a member of Best Buy Reward Zone, you can gift card rewards for your purchases. So, add up the cost of a new Mac and an iPod and you could get up to $50 in gift cards. All that together makes for a pretty compelling sale, even if you hate Be$t Buy. Hey, who turns down free money?

Circuit City is offering a similar deal on iPods (only $15-$30 gift cards, though), but they don’t sell Macs there, so it doesn’t help much.

Not a moment too soon, Apple confirmed rumors by releasing a new Back-to-School promo today. When you buy a Mac, (MacBook/Pro/Air, iMac, Mac Pro) you can also buy an 8 GB iPod Touch, or an 8 GB iPod Nano and get a rebate for that purchase a few weeks later.

If you live in Rhode Island or Connecticut, you can get an instant rebate on your purchase, and it might be worthwhile to take up this offer if you live close to those states. Otherwise, you have about 30 days to claim your rebate, so don’t forget!

Bear in mind that a Mac Mini does not qualify for this deal.

I will be using this promo when I buy an iMac just before the deal ends on September 15th.