Boy Genius Report claims to have gotten its hands on Apple's Black Friday brochure. Although they had posted another brochure earlier that made less than credible claims of 30% iPod discounts and 25% Mac discounts, BGR claims this newest ad comes from "a pretty credible connect of ours." The new ad's discounts are also more in line with Apple's previous Black Friday deals, which tend to be fairly modest compared to other retailers.

Below are a few of the discounts on the "leaked" ad:
iMac: $101 off
MacBook Pro: $51-$101 off
iPod nano: $11 off
iPod touch: $21-$41 off

Boy Genius Report notes that these deals apply only on the online store, not at Apple's retail stores.

Though this ad seems legitimate on the face of it, it's worth noting that pretty much everyone here at TUAW agreed Boy Genius Report's last "leaked" ad was a fake. So take this latest "leak" with a grain of salt. However, after taking into account Apple's Black Friday deals in earlier years, whatever discounts it offers this year are at least likely to be similar to this latest ad leak whether it's the real deal or not.

[Via Mac Rumors]

As usual for this time of year, Apple has announced a special one-day sale on November 27th, which is Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). The page on Apple's online store reads:

"Come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You'll find dozens of great iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas - all with free shipping.

Mark your calendar now. And until then, start your research by browsing the Apple Online Store to find iPod, iPhone, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list."

There's no details on what's exactly going to be on sale, and this doesn't look like the questionable leaked email we saw last week stating Apple's Black Friday discounts. Apple has in the past not posted the actual sale prices until early Friday. We'll let you know when we find out what's on sale and what those discounts are.

What are your purchase plans? Let us know by leaving a comment!
[via Mashable]

I don't know that I completely agree with this article over at Business Week (technically, last year was our first Christmas with the App Store), but I think the concept is fascinating. Lauren Sherman and her interviewee Retails Systems Research managing partner Paula Rosenblum reason that this coming Christmas season -- surprise, we're only five days away from Black Friday 2009 -- will be the first where mobile shopping apps (and the smartphones that can run them) will be generally ubiquitous.

Not only will people have access to apps on their iPhone that help them find deals, stores, and prices, but they'll all have 'net-connected phones as well, which many of them actually got last Christmas. You'll see people sending texts to each other, playing games while in line, and even scanning coupons in at the register -- all with their phones.

As I said, this was all possible last Christmas, but since then, we've seen non-iPhones like the Pre and the Droid drop, and the iPhone itself has claimed a lot more customers than Black Friday 2008. These people won't be out buying smartphones, obviously, but they will be using them, and it'll be interesting to see how much this changes the experience. When I was a kid, you planned out your route ahead of time and hit what few stores you could, but between Twitter, apps, and all the other information available on a phone, shopping during the holiday season might be very different this year.

Although you can be sure there will still be lines, parking frustrations, and lots and lots of people buying junk just because it's cheap. Then again, maybe it's better to use that slightly older piece of technology, the desktop browser, and just do the shopping from home.

[via MacBytes]

Wanted to mention this one before the deal ends: Right now, you can get 10 applications for $49.99 from The Mac Sale. Most notably, this bundle includes CrossOver Games from CodeWeavers which allows you to play many popular games from the Windows platform on your Mac or Linux computer. The bundle also includes Picturesque, a great application that enhances your pictures: also a winner of an Apple Design Award.

One last mention for MacJournal; it's a journal application that integrates with Wordpress, Blogger, LiveJournal, MobileMe and more, all the while keeping your information encrypted and password-protected on your Mac so snooping eyes can't find your secrets. Here's a full list of the applications available:

• CrossOver Games
• Picturesque
• HoudahGeo
• MacJournal
• Morph Age Regular
• Opacity Express
• Searchlight
• Vinoteka
• Stone Imaginator
• Stor

Want an iPhone app business without all the boring hassle of actually programming and releasing iPhone apps? Boy, does Brice Milliorn have a deal for you! He's auctioning off his iPhone app business, which he says has 87 different apps for sale, over on eBay.

Milliorn says he started out developing apps on his own, but the business is just too big for him to keep up so he's selling all of the apps and their rights, all of the source code, and technical support for two months to transition everything over to the new owner. He doesn't specifically say that he'll transfer the developer account on Apple's App Store to your name (he says he'll send over a DVD with the source code and transfer "the whole kit and caboodle" to you), but we presume that's what will happen -- of course if you go for it, you're doing this at your own risk.

What will a burgeoning App Store business, complete with apps like iSexyRef and Swine Flu cost you? Just a cool $100 grand. That's the starting bid in the eBay auction, which has just over a week left and no bids as of this writing. There are certainly less expensive ways to get started selling apps on the store. It only costs $100 to register in Apple's Developer Program for a year, and then you just need to find a developer you can pay -- or even do it yourself with a helper service).

If you'd rather start off with a bunch of marginal to silly 99-cent apps and happen to have an extra $100,000 lying around to spend (maybe for a nice holiday gift?), here's your opportunity.

How does a 20% discount sound? How about 20% off software from over 30 developers? This list has been growing since One Finger Discount started this week and continues to grow as developers jump on board with a pretty darn good deal if you're in the market for any one of these awesome applications. They run the gamut from productivity to games to blogging software.

Kudos to Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software for putting these deals together on one page, somewhat cheekily as a response to MacHeist, it would seem. The One Finger? Well, that comes from 1/5, 20% discount as opposed to a five-finger discount (free). 20% is still a steal, right? Very clever, Mr. Jalkut -- we'll leave the readers to consider which finger they should order with.

[via Macworld]

As Kevin pointed out on Wednesday, MacHeist has a new bundle for us at the moment -- but this one is what they consider a "nanoBundle" and it's free. I can't speak for everyone here at TUAW, but when I see the word "free" next to software, I horde it.

They've decided to just give away this bundle of apps in what appears to be a move to encourage their users to come back for more. 6 great mac apps for zero dollars. That's my kind of deal. There are only 6 more days to download this bundle, so go grab it after checking out the loot:

• Shove Box -- An awesome reminder, organization, gotta-get-it-done application that sits in your menu bar. You can then drag things like text, URLs, images... possibly anything to the menu bar app and it'll save it for later. When you get some free time, you can go back through and see what you have. There's an iPhone companion app as well.
• WriteRoom -- A simple writing application that removes all of the typical distractions from your writing sessions. It makes the text window full screen, completely cutting off the rest of the world from your mind -- if you so choose. It still has simple tools like word count, background/text color adjustments... but definitely keeps you focused. We've covered it quite a bit.
• Twitterrific -- One of my favorite apps on my iPhone as of late. The desktop version is similarly simple. Set up your Twitter account and tweet away with the easiest solution imaginable.
• TinyGrab -- Is a screen capture maniac's dream. It allows you to use the standard command-shift-4 and select part of your screen or hit spacebar to capture a specific window. The kicker: it uploads it directly to your own FTP server and puts the URL in your clipboard so you can paste it in Facebook, Twitter, email, IM... whatever your pleasure.
• Hordes of Orcs -- I'll admit, this is the real reason I'm downloading the bundle. I've heard nothing but great reviews about this game even from our own Mike Schramm. It's one of the most innovative desktop tower defense games I've seen. Everything is in 3D, there are 6 different game variations and let's not forget tower defense.
• Mariner Write -- This is a word processor with features you need but none of the "bloat" found in other applications *cough* Microsoft *cough.* Of course, it will open and save Word documents, as well as other formats.

While I was writing this, the download total went up 5,000 downloads but it'll take 500,000 for all of us to get the full benefit. MacHeist says that Mariner Write is the unlockable application, so I'm hoping to get a serial and really try it out. Head over to Macheist, and download your nanoBundle. For the first time, I'll be using all of the apps in it -- and it's free!

Software bundles seem to be all the rage nowadays, but in my humble opinion, MacHeist is still the best. It doesn't just lump a bunch of apps together for special price, but instead, it turns getting a discount into a game.

As a recent Mac switcher, I was utterly confused by MacHeist 3, the first edition in which I participated. Someone told me to check out the MacHeist bundle, so I went to the web site to see what applications it contained. But the site didn't tell me. It soon became clear that I was going to have to work for my software!

The whole idea, if you're not familiar with MacHeist, is that you need to complete a series of challenges, labeled "heists," in order to get free software. Yes, free. As in what lunches aren't. And the software isn't anything to sneeze at (neither are lunches, by the way), as there are always some real gems to be found.

UPDATE: We took the 4 from the title as it is currently unknown whether this is actually MacHeist 4 or an early bundle offer.

There are three more full days until the start of National Novel Writing Month, and that means that yet another software developer has checked in with a deal on a Mac writing application.

This time, it's Mariner Software, and the application is StoryMill. Mariner's deal is this -- if you purchase StoryMill before the start of NaNoWriMo on November 1st, you'll get a 35% discount off of the normal price of US$49.95. That brings the price down to a very nice US$34.95.

StoryMill is unique in that it has a timeline function that gives authors a way to arrange the scenes in their opus on a graphical timeline. For continuity of the story line, that's a great tool, and it's something that seems to be available only with StoryMill. The package also has a distraction-free writing mode for churning out your average of 1,667 words per day, as well as a Progress Meter for counting down those 50,000 words in your NaNoWriMo novel.

If you're not sure that StoryMill will work for you, there's also a 30-launch free trial that may see you through NaNoWriMo. I'm hoping that all of you TUAW readers who are thinking of writing during NaNoWriMo have signed up by now and have decided what your story is all about. Good luck, and happy writing!

In my continuing campaign to get as many Apple fans out there as possible to take part in National Novel Writing Month, I'm always looking for deals on writing software. Earlier in the week, I reported on a deal that Scrivener is providing for NaNoWriMo participants. Well, not to be left out of the fun, Storyist Software also has some deals set up for would-be novelists.

If you're in the Bay Area, you might want to take part in NaNoWriMo's Night of Writing Dangerously on Sunday, November 22, 2009 from 5 to 11 PM in the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchant's Exchange Building in San Francisco. Every writer who participates in this fundraising event gets a free copy of Storyist 2 from Storyist Software, and two top fundraisers for the event will each receive an Amazon Kindle and a $50 gift card from Storyist.

Storyist always provides a 30-day free trial version of their namesake software, but this time they'll give you a temporary license that lasts through the first week of December if you contact the company from their NaNoWriMo page. In addition, if you decide to purchase the software at any point during NaNoWriMo, just use the coupon code NANOWRIMO at checkout and you'll receive 25% off of the download-only version (US$59.00) or the boxed edition (US$79.00).

Now you have your choice of two great writing tools to use during NaNoWriMo, so you have no excuse not to sign up for the creative writing event of the year and churn out that novel you've always been meaning to write. Get signed up today!

After my post about NaNoWriMo preparation the other day, a couple of TUAW readers pointed out that Literature and Latte, the folks behind Scrivener 1.52, have a special deal going on for NaNoWriMo 2009 participants.

Are you considering giving Scrivener a try while you're writing your entry for NaNoWriMo 2009? You're in luck! Normally, the application comes with a 30-day free trial. While that's long enough to last through the 30 days of writing ecstasy that it NaNoWriMo, you should get to know the tools of your trade before you start writing. Downloading the trial version of Scrivener between now and the start of NaNoWriMo on November 1st gives you a trial version that lasts until December 7th, long enough for you to not only finish your tome, but also make your first editing pass before sending it to your publisher.

Now here comes the really fun part -- if you are successful in writing your 50,000 words by November 30th, you can buy Scrivener starting on December 2nd at a 50% discount off the normal license price of US$39.95. Those who run out of luck or time and aren't NaNoWriMo finishers can still get 20% off by using the promo code NANOWRIMO.

If you'd like to be able to take notes in between writing sessions, you'll be happy to know that WriteRoom notes can be synced to SimpleText.ws, and then imported directly into Scrivener.

Thanks to Cthulu Saves and sophielynette for the tip!

I like the way Schiau Studios thinks -- when customers complained about the price of their $2.99US App Store game Alchemize, they raised the price up to $39.99. Over on the TouchArcade forums, they make their case: most devs, they say, when faced with complaints about price, will just lower their price even though their software is already cheap. So they wanted to buck the trend, and instead raised it up to almost $40 (which, incidentally, is slightly more than what you might pay for a handheld console game).

Lest you simply complain that they were greedy, they say they were only out to make a point: everyone who purchased the game at the higher price point will have all of their money go to charity, and now that the game's back at the $2.99 price point, 33% of all the profits to be gained will go to the same charity. Regardless of whether the game's any good or not, we like their thinking.

Can we all agree to stop griping about price points? I've actually heard this come up lately on a comedy podcast of all places -- when Chicago broadcasting legend Steve Dahl (and one of my favorites) started up a podcast about a month ago, and introduced an app to go along with it. Steve was inundated with comments complaining about the $2.99 price, which he responded to with a great argument on the show: he's put a lot of money into the app and the show behind it, and if you're already a fan of his, paying less than the cost of a cup of Starbucks should not even be an issue.

Sure, when the App Store first started up, it was the Wild West -- both prices and quality were all over the place. But at this point, Apple's review system has more or less settled down, and blogs like ours are full of recommendations, with enough free apps to last any rabid app user most of their iPhone time. If you have any interest in an app at all, a couple of bucks shouldn't be enough to give you pause -- either pick it up and make sure the dev gets their due (small as that may be), or move on to find an app you'd rather buy.

If you look under your seats, you'll find a bevy of free iPhone apps. That's right ... you get an app, you get an app, everybody gets an app (or 16)!

We've mentioned Chilli X a few times, and I've developed a fondness for their collection of sleek, simple iPhone apps with great-looking interfaces. And now it's their first birthday, and they're giving out presents: this weekend only (starting right now), you can grab any (or all) of Chilli X's iPhone apps for FREE.

There are plenty to choose from; 16 apps in the App Store and one just submitted for approval today. We've mentioned Done [iTunes link], MyCal [iTunes link] and Playlist Alarm Clock [iTunes link], but much has happened since then. What follows is a roundup of some of the latest apps, but you can find them all by searching for "Chilli X" in the App Store.

I'm a sucker for anything that allows me to get secure remote access to my home machine, so when I saw that FarFinder, the remote access tool from FlyingMac, was on sale for US$20, I jumped on the chance to buy it. It'll be on sale until October 22nd, so if you want to get the application for US$15 less than the normal price, you'll want to head over to the FlyingMac site right now. The family license is US$20 off during the sale, and is available for US$45.

The last time someone at TUAW wrote about FarFinder was back in 2008, when blogger Mat Lu referred to it as "your Finder on the web." That's a perfect way to describe FarFinder, since it makes your Mac's files and folders (plus any network-attached or external drives that are mounted) available to you from most web browsers and your iPhone (see screenshot at right).

FlyingMac offers a 20-day free trial of the application. One thing I really like about FarFinder is that once you've purchased it, there are no extra subscription fees. That means that US$20 price will give you service forever...or at least until there's a major upgrade you need to purchase.