Like many retailers, Apple is holding their Black Friday deals close to their vest. The Apple homepage has one of the four secondary banners devoted to their “special one-day Apple shopping event”. Clicking that link however, just tells you to come back November 26th. Apple promises “dozens of great iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list”. Based on previous years, expect Apple hardware discounts of 8% – 10%, and better deals on software and accessories. You can look at the past three Apple Black Friday deals here. If the new Apple TV gets discounted, I just might pick one up!

Update 11/25/2010:

Apple has released their Black Friday deals on the page linked above.  As suspected, discounts are in the range of previous years.  Save $101 on the iMac, Macbook Pro, and Macbook Air.  Save $41 on the iPad, $21 on the iPod touch, $5 on a number of Apple accessories, and more.  These aren’t the only discounts as the page says, “Tomorrow, you can save on these Apple products and many other accessories”.

Scoutmob is similar to Groupon in form, but functions a little different. Both Groupon and Scoutmob allow you to experience local restaurants and businesses at a discount, but unlike Groupon, Scoutmob is completely free to use.

Each day, Scoutmob has a different daily deal. You can visit the Scoutmob website and enter your mobile phone number and you’ll receive a text message with the deal information. The deal is good for about 3-4 months, after which it will expire and you cannot use it. You can only claim the deal if you visit the website and enter your mobile number during the time the deal is being offered; unless you have an iPhone. If you have an iPhone, you can download the Scoutmob iPhone App and you can see all current deals (ones that have yet to expire) and there is no need to “claim” the deal.

Using the deal is simple. If you have the text message, just show the text message when you pay and your discount will be applied to your bill. I’ve never used the text message method, but I imagine you have to delete the text message on the spot to prevent reuse. If you have the iPhone App, just open the App, select the deal, and click the “Use This Deal” link. The App will verify your location and then just show the screen to the server.

I’ve used the Scoutmob iPhone App about 3-4 times and have never had a problem getting the discount. The first couple version of the App were horrendously slow, but those problems were fixed some time ago. My only wish for the App would be a way to hide deals I know I’ll never use. Scrolling through the deals can take a while, and having the ability to hide unwanted deals would be a time saver. A simple hide flag would be fairly simple to implement, and a button to removed the “hidden flags” would be a great way to get any accidentally hidden deals back.

Scoutmob is currently offering deals only in Atlanta and New York, but are looking to expand to other cities. The handful of cities they are expanding to next are listed on the Scoutmob homepage. Sign up to be notified if you want to know when they launch in your city. Scountmob is completely free to use, and I highly recommend it.

If you’re not familiar with Groupon, it’s essentially a group coupon purchasing website. Each day in a number of large cities across the United States, there is a daily deal. The deal is essentially a gift certificate/coupon to the location featured that day. You have the remainder of the day to purchase the deal before it changes, but enough people need to purchase the deal before the coupon is issued. If the required number of people don’t purchase the deal, you aren’t charged and the coupon is not issued. I’ve never seen a deal not purchased by enough people to trigger the deal however. The deals vary by city, as does the cost, value, and expiration date of the deal.

Up until now, you had to login to the website to purchase the Groupon. Once you purchased the Groupon, you had to print it and present it to your server/cashier. With the release of the iPhone app, you can now purchase and redeem the Groupon right on your phone!

After opening the app, you select your city and the daily deal will be shown. You can sign in with your existing Groupon login, create a new login, or sign in with Facebook Connect. Once signed in, you can see your existing Groupons and purchase new ones. When using a Groupon, your iPhone displays the same code that the printed out Groupon displays. The retailer just needs to verify your code and then you receive the value of the coupon.

I enjoy Groupon as it gives my wife and I a chance to visit different restaurants and save some cash. We don’t eat out a lot, but Groupon has provided good motivation for getting us to try different places. If you live in one of the cities with a Groupon site, I highly suggest you check them out.

CoverSutra has many great features, including Last.fm scrobbling, spotlight-esque searching of your iTunes library from the toolbar, cover displaying on the desktop and the dock, and much more.

I finally made the plunge and purchased CoverSutra and am not disappointed. The sale price is valid for all versions of CoverSutra, including 1.2 for Tiger and 2.22 for Leopard and Snow Leopard. Free upgrades are available until version 3.0 is released.

If there is one thing us Mac users can count on, it is that every couple months there will be some kind of software bundle/deal offered. The deals vary in applications and methods. Some deals are a flat fee and you get the entire lot of applications. Other deals give a sliding discount based on how many applications you buy, the more applications you buy the bigger the discount.

The Mac Bundle Box is the former type of deal. For $49 you get 13 applications. The entire bundle is valued at over $300 and includes:

• Relationship
• Code Collector Pro
• DrawIt
• Espionage
• Cover Stream
• DEVONnote
• QuickScale
• Project Calculator
• Transcriva
• Magnet
• Involver
• Stuf
• Blog Assist

If you in the market for a few of these applications, it makes the price of the bundle very attractive. I don’t need any of the applications myself so I’ll pass on this particular bundle. The folks behind Mac Bundle Box are donating %5 of each sale to charity: water. charity: water is a non-profit devoted to bringing clean water to people in developing nations.

The bundle will run for 11 days according to the website, but I don’t see a mention on when that “timer” started.  If you’re interested in a few of the applications, it’s probably better to buy early than later.

1Password is perhaps the most frequently used application on my Mac. What is 1Password? 1Password is the ultimate password manager for Mac. You’re able to manage all your web passwords across every browser on your Mac. There is even a free 1Password iPhone/iPod touch application that syncs your 1Password logins and passwords.

1Password is currently offering a buy one get one free license sale. In addition to that, 1Password is also 15% off (use this link) the $39.95 regular price.

For the readers of Apple Mac HQ, I’ve got a deal for you too. Just leave a comment on this post with a reason why you want a copy of 1Password. I’ll draw a winner randomly from the comments and send you a free 1Password license. The deadline for your comments are tomorrow (Sunday Nov 30th) at 6PM EST.

Today only, save 25% off Remote Buddy, the application that turns your Apple Remote (and Wiimote) into the ultimate universal remote for your Mac. With Remote Buddy, you can use the Apple Remote to control a huge list of Mac applications like Aperture, Camino, Delicious Library, iCal, Keynote, Last.fm, Lightroom, NetNewsWire, Voodoo Pad, and many more! Remote Buddy also includes a cool AJAX remote application for your iPhone or iPod touch.

This offer is available for one day only, so hurry up if you’re interested in purchasing Remote Buddy. The sale price is about 15€ which is around $19 USD.

Tomorrow (November 28th) is probably the busiest shopping day of the year. Retailers look forward to the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and that season begins tomorrow with Black Friday.

Like every other retailer, Apple will be offering some deals tomorrow. Since it’s already Friday in Australia, TUAW is reporting that the best offer in the Australian online store is a discount on the new unibody Macbook. It’s likely Apple will run the same deals across all countries they do business in.

The discounts in the AU store include:

• Macbook
• iMac
• 8GB Nano
• iPod Classic
• 8GB iPod touch
• Apple TV
• Time Capsule
• iPod and iPhone cases
• Other Mac accessories

If you need to shop for the Apple fan in your life this holiday season, tomorrow is likely the best day to do so!

Update 11/28/08: Here’s the link for the Black Friday deals page on the US Apple website.  Just replace the two character country code with your country to see the deals listed for your country.

It must be the holiday season, because the software bundles/sales are beginning to appear. Up early is Give Good Food To Your Mac.

So what’s the deal with Give Good Food To Your Mac? You purchase between 3, 4, or 5 applications and receive 20%, 30%, or 50% off the purchase price. Purchasing more than 5 applications will get you maximum discount of 50% off.

The promotion has over 60 applications to choose from. Including:

• BannerZest (and BannerZest Pro)
• DEVONthink Personal
• DiscLabel
• LibrarianPro
• RapidWeaver
• Together
• Yummy Soup

Check out the Give Good Food To Your Mac website for the entire list of applications available in the promotion. The promotion ends December 1st!

Have a Wii and a Mac? Want to share your movies, music, and pictures directly to your Wii? If you answered yes to both those questions, you need to check out Wii Transfer. Use the coupon code “NEWSLETTER” to save 20% off the already low $19 price.

New in version 2.6: The ability to copy your Miis to your Mac!

If you’re in the market for a case for your 1st generation iPhone, case-mate is having a big sale on two of their cases. The Leather Flip Case and Signature Leather Case are both on sale for $6. The regular price of these cases are $35, so this is a very good deal. No word on how long the prices will last. You can get more information about the two cases on sale and other 1st generation iPhone cases here.

For some time now I’ve been meaning to to write a review of the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid. I’ve owned one for about a year and absolutely love it. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, what exactly is the EyeTV Hybrid?

The Elgato EyeTV Hybrid is a USB device that allows you to watch TV on your Mac. The EyeTV Hybrid can receive over-the-air HD signals (antenna sold separately) or you can just plug in the coaxial cable from your cable provider. Bundled with the device is the EyeTV software which allows you to schedule TV recordings with the click of a button. In the US, a free TV guide is also included within the EyeTV software. The EyeTV software has a couple of presets allowing you to easily export your recording into AppleTV or iPod compatible formats. Of course you can just watch the recording on your Mac too if you wish. I promise a full review of the product is coming later this month!

Retail price of the device is about $150 USD. Other World Computing is currently offering a factory refurbished EyeTV Hybrid for less than $70 USD! This is a fantastic deal on a great product. It looks like version they are offering supports the NTSC and ATSC standards, so you need to be sure the device will work in your country before buying it. The only downside is that the factory refurbished models appear to be shipping with the previous version of the EyeTV software, version 2. I’ve had no problems with the version 2 software so I wouldn’t consider that a deal breaker. If you want to watch TV on your Mac and save some cash at the same time, this is a fantastic deal.

Update: Someone in the comments linked to the upgrade details for EyeTV 3.  It looks like you can get the upgrade to EyeTV 3 for free!

It seems like every other week when a large Mac software bundle/deal comes along. I’ve participated in one of those deals, and wouldn’t hesitate to again if the right software was involved. I recently found out about yet another Mac software deal.

Mac Mix is a tiered discount promo. The website is very clean and has some nice JavaScript touches. Browsing the website is easy. Buying between one and twelve applications will net you a discount of between 10% – 75% off. The more you buy the more you save.

Here is a sampling of applications included in this promo:

• Parallels
• MacGourmet
• Yep
• iBank
• ForkliftTextExpander
• And more

Checkout the Mac Mix website for more details about the applications available and the discount amounts. I’ve been thinking about buying at least one or two of these applications so I might stop by the website and do some shopping.

[Via TUAW]

The Home Use Program (HUP) allows employees of companies with Volume Licensing agreements to purchase certain Microsoft Products at steep discounts for use in their homes. For instance, my company is part of the HUP and I’m able to purchase Project, Visio, and Office for less than $20 USD ($19.95).

For those waiting to get Office 2008 via the HUP, go forth and purchase!

As the time for purchasing the MacHeist software bundle nears an end, the bundle keeps getting better. The fourteenth and final application will be unlocked if the charitable donation hits $300,000. To reach the goal, there needs to be around 27,000 bundles sold.

The final application added to the bundle is VectorDesigner. VectorDesigner is a new application which recently won the Macworld Expo Best of Show award. VectorDesigner has everything you need to create fancy vector graphics such as posters, brochures, stickers, logos, web design, t-shirt and more. It features a wide range of tools: smart shapes such as rectangles, ovals, rounded rectangles, polygons, stars, bezier creation and editing and even conversion from raster to bezier. VectorDesigner is a Cocoa application that has iSight integration, iPhoto integration, and a Flickr browser. If you’re looking for an affordable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, VectorDesigner might be the ticket.

If you haven’t bought the software bundle, you have about two and a half days left. If you want to help me get a free bonus application, use this link when purchasing the MacHeist bundle.