Apple will participate in a Black Friday sale this Friday, November 25, and some Apple Stores will open at midnight to accomodate anxious shoppers. For those who don’t want to visit a physical store, Apple’s Online Store will also feature sales for the one day sale event.

• MacBook Air – Save $101
• MacBook Pro – Save $101
• iMac – Save $101
• iPad 2 – Save $41 to $61, depending on model
• iPod touch – Save $21 to $41, depending on model
• iPod Nano – Save $11

A large variety of accessories are also discounted, including Apple Wireless Keyboards, iPad smart covers, headsets, iPhone cases, and more.

The special one-day Apple shopping event.
This Friday, November 25.
Mark your calendar now, and come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for the special one-day event. You’ll discover amazing iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

Apple’s Black Friday sales are generally similar to educational discounts, except they apply to everyone. Last year, this meant $101 off iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro models, a $41 savings off the iPad, and a $21 discount on the iPod touch. Other items often have minor discounts as well, but the iPhone typically retains the same pricing structure.

Black Friday is a shopping holiday that immediately follows the Thanksgiving holiday in the USA, while it’s generally US focused, many other countries also adopt sales on that date as well, and Apple has placed the same notification on most of their other worldwide sites, including UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Germany.

Check your local Apple Store hours if you plan on shopping in person, otherwise just visit the Apple Online Store on Friday.

Unbelievably sad and terrible news to report: legendary Apple leader and tech visionary Steve Jobs has died. The following statement has been issued by the Apple Board of Directors:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Apple has put up a short and touching note on their website as well as the image up top, the note says the following:

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com

The family of Steve Jobs’ has since released the following statement:

Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family.

In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve’s illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories.

We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve. We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief.

Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out the following email to Apple employees:

Team,
I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim

There’s been an outpouring of words, here are a few notable citations from various industry leaders, competitors, and friends of Steve:

Bill Gates:

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.

Google CEO Larry Page:

I am very, very sad to hear the news about Steve. He was a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance. He always seemed to be able to say in very few words what you actually should have been thinking before you thought it. His focus on the user experience above all else has always been an inspiration to me. He was very kind to reach out to me as I became CEO of Google and spend time offering his advice and knowledge even though he was not at all well. My thoughts and Google’s are with his family and the whole Apple family.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

Tonight, America lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein, and whose ideas will shape the world for generations to come.

US President Obama:

Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

We’re all at a loss for words. Thank you Steve for everything, rest in peace.

Did you miss the WWDC 2011 keynote? Couldn’t keep up with the hectic WWDC live blogs? Weren’t too impressed with the terrible quality guerilla feeds broadcast from someones cell phone?

No big deal, you can watch the full thing on Apple’s Events Page in HD glory.

The sequence of the video is: Intro > Mac OS X Lion > iOS 5 > iCloud, and it’s 2 hours long, so grab some popcorn and dig in.

A couple of the highlights include:

• Mac OS X Lion release date set for July, available exclusively through the Mac App Store for $29.99 – available soon, cheap, easy to install, sounds good!
• iOS 5 release date announced: Fall 2011 – beta releases for developers will be available sooner
• 16 of the coolest new features of iOS 5 – here’s a good look at some of the coolest features in the upcoming version of iOS
• Videos of iOS 5 – don’t miss this collection of videos showing off the latest features
• Mac OS X Lion features – this is an old list because nothing too new was introduced at WWDC, but if you haven’t seen videos of Lion in use, watch the keynote.
• iCloud announced as free

There was no hardware announced, but the software at WWDC 2011 was impressive enough to more than make up for it. This one will go down in the Apple history books.

Apple has posted their Black Friday sales deals for both the Apple Stores and Apple Online Store. You can expect about $100 off a new Mac, and a decent discount on the iPad and iPod series:

• iMac – $1098 ($101 discount)
• MacBook Pro – $1098 ($101 discount)
• MacBook Air – $1198 ($101 discount)
• iPod Nano – $138 ($11 discount)
• iPad – $458 ($41 discount)
• iPod touch – $208 ($21 discount)

If you’re looking for an iPhone, AT&T is offering a great Black Friday sale for an iPhone 4 for $99 with a 2 year contract, it’s a refurbed iPhone but it carries the same warranty as a new iPhone that otherwise costs $200. We’re not sure if Apple is going to match AT&T’s refurb iPhone deal.

The best deals from Apple are probably the MacBook Air and the iPad, the other prices are similar to what you get on Apple hardware with a student discount.

I’m not one to enjoy crowded shopping, so I personally would either shop online with Apple or just go to Amazon for the same discounts on most Apple hardware.

The Back to the Mac event is scheduled to be live streamed directly from Apple today.

To watch the live video feed, go to http://www.apple.com/ at 10 AM PDT using Safari on either a Mac or iOS device.

Here’s the message from Apple’s PR team:

Apple® will broadcast its October 20 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on October 20, 2010 at www.apple.com.

Our quick predictions: Mac OS X 10.7, new MacBook Air, iLife ’11… Enjoy!

Apple has launched their official Safari Extensions Gallery, at this time it features 100 extensions out of the roughly 300 out in the wild. All of the extensions on Apple’s gallery have been digitally signed and sandboxed so you don’t have to worry about security problems like some of the Firefox extensions have had in the past. You will need to have Safari 5 to be able to use the extension feature.

Apple: Safari Extensions Gallery

If you’re feeling inspired, it’s not too difficult to create your own Safari extension. You’ll need knowledge of HTML/CSS/Javascript and to sign up for Apple’s Safari Development program (it’s free) to get started.

The next natural question is… when do we get Safari extensions for iOS? While the iPhone screen might be a little small, some of these extensions would be great on an iPad.

Apple has started the free iPhone 4 case or bumper program, if you’re an iPhone 4 owner it’s a simple process to claim a free case or get a refund from a past purchase.

• Download the iPhone 4 Case Program app at the iTunes App Store
• Launch the app on your iPhone and sign in using your iTunes/Apple ID
• Select your free Bumper or Case

To qualify for the free bumper or case, you must apply to the program within 30 days of buying an iPhone 4, until September 30 when the program expires.

The free iPhone 4 bumper and case program is offered in response to the antenna problems that some users have reported experiencing with iPhone 4, which has received a large amount of media attention and subsequently been parodied to death.

You can read more on Apple.com’s iPhone 4 case program information.

Do you want to design a case for the iPhone? No problem thanks to Apple! A new page on Apple’s developer website contains full dimensional drawings with all the measurements necessary to quickly and easily design a case for the iPad, iPhone, or iPod.

There are over 25 dimensional drawings of the iPhone/iPad/iPod product line to help you get started. Even if you’re not a designer looking to create the next coolest iPad case they are still fun to look at the detailed pictures.

Apple Developer: Designing Cases for iPod, iPhone, iPad

Apple never ceases to amaze me, their entire product line emphasizes creativity and then they take it a step further by doing things like release these drawings, making it even easier to create for their product line-up.

You can opt out of Apple’s new iAd location and data tracking service, which will use gathered data on you to serve targeted ads through Apple’s new iAds platform.

To opt out of iAd cookies, visit http://oo.apple.com from the device you wish to opt out with.

Note that you must be running the latest iOS 4 or you will get an error, since iAds requires iOS 4 to run. You will need to view that website directly from your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, and access the site individually per device if you want to opt each out of the service.

Without the iAds location and data tracking cookies, you will just be served generic and less targeted ads.

Personally, I don’t mind location relevant ads as long as they don’t pass on personal data, and I have even found some location based ads to be helpful in the past, so I am not opting out of the iAds cookies at this point.

If you ever wanted to know exactly what Steve Jobs thinks about Flash, you’ve got your chance. Apple’s CEO has released a lengthy letter detailing why Apple does not allow Flash on it’s iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices. Calling Flash part of the “past” and “PC era”, he addresses six major points as to why Apple is leaving Flash behind, they are:

* openness of the platforms
* the ‘full web’ and video experience
* reliability, security, and battery performance
* battery life of devices
* touch user-input
* the pain of third-party developer tools

The entire 1671 word essay in it’s entirety is repeated below:

Thoughts on Flash

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

I use Adobe products frequently but I for one am happy to see Flash left behind. Flash performance on a Mac is abysmal to say the least, and considering the popularity of Flash blockers for the Mac, I know I’m not alone in my thoughts. Good riddance to Flash.

[ via Apple.com: Thoughts on Flash ]

Here’s something you don’t see every day: the CEO of a major corporation completely dressed down and hanging around their storefronts. Apparently Steve Jobs occasionally pops into Apple Store’s for various reasons, although this particular picture was supposedly taken on the iPad launch day.

Thanks to Damien for sending us the picture and story from TwitPic.

Why is Apple so successful? Look at what, and how, they sell.

* You walk into a beautiful Apple Store

* You’re presented with amazingly attractive machines

* The packaging is clean, minimal, and enticing

* The operating system is simple to use yet amazingly powerful

I came across a post simplifying this on MinimalMac and found myself completely agreeing. Buying an Apple product, especially a Mac, is an experience from the start to the finish.

It’s an experience I’ve never been able to replicate when buying a PC, which typically comes from a loud and generic electronics store with product overload, and that sensory overload never ends: open the PC box and you have stacks of paper warranties and user manuals, various driver disks, promotional offers for this and that, a ton of cables and cords haphazardly thrown in a box. Then you finally boot the thing up just to be overwhelmed with a Windows install that has been bloated up a storm with OEM garbageware and 20 icons on your desktop… there is just no comparison, you don’t get that from Apple and you never will.

This is exactly why they’re so successful, Apple just gets it.

Now, MinimalMac does a more elegant job of telling the story than I do via fewer words and a few pictures, so be sure to scroll through them, it’ll only take a second and for four pictures, it does a good job of capturing the Apple buying experience.

MinimalMac: What Apple Sells

Mac OS X Server is infinitely better equipped, more stable, and just generally more pleasant than any of Windows offerings (yes I am biased, but it’s true), if you’re needing a server I highly recommend checking out Apple’s offering. Instead of shelling out the $499 for a copy though, you can get a free evaluation copy! If you’re a large corporation, small business, nonprofit organization, government agency, or educational institution, you can get a free and fully functional evaluation copy of Mac OS X Server directly from Apple. I just found out about this and I think it’s a pretty great thing for Apple to do, so if you qualify for a copy, check it out and you will be impressed.

Apple: Snow Leopard Server Evaluation

Ever wonder what Apple.com would look like in 1983? It would be promoting the Apple Lisa which ran at a blazing 5mhz, had 1mb of RAM, and cost $9,995 (which is $21,335 in inflation adjusted dollars!). Designer Dave Lawrence designed the mockup and it’s a good laugh, he’s also a huge fan of the Apple Newton and has managed to connect one to Snow Leopard… don’t ask why.

via Flickr

It’s that time of year again, the holiday season is upon us! What better way to celebrate than to download a hoard of free Christmas songs from Apple, courtesy of iTunes?

From Barry Manilow to Amy Grant to Weezer to Aretha Franklin, this is quite a diverse set of holiday songs that are sure to get you in the spirit. Head on over to Apple, launch the link in iTunes, and enjoy your free music!

Apple iTunes: Holiday Sampler Album – 20 free songs