Sale posts

The PC gaming community has long enjoyed the ridiculously awesome Steam sales Valve loves to break out during holidays and at other fun times of the year. The sales deliver game bundles for crazy cheap prices, even on AAA current titles. Steam's summer sale kicked off a couple of days ago. For the first time, Mac gamers get to join in on the fun thanks to Steam's recent adoption of OS X.

While there are hundreds of Mac & PC titles on sale through July 4th, most of the best deals are found on a few select games featured each day. Today's sales have two good selections that Mac gamers may want to check out. For strategy fans Paradox Interactive's deep historical real-time strategy game Europa Universalis III lets the player control a European nation and rewrite history between 1453 and 1820 AD. For adventure gamers, a bundle of all five episodes of the previously mentioned Telltale Games' Tales of Monkey Island is also available at a great price. The clock is ticking -- but thankfully Valve offsets the time for most US timezones so you can get a chance to pick them up in the morning.

If those two games don't belong to any of your favorite genres, there are a bunch of other titles included in the full sale. Right now is a great time to pick up any of Valve's growing list of games released for OS X with first-person shooters Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Portal and Half-Life 2. Better yet, grab the Valve Complete Pack for all of them so you're ready to go when Left 4 Dead 2 arrives on OS X.

I probably don't need to explain SimCity to you; it's one of the most classic PC games of all time, and Electronic Arts released it for the iPhone a while go. It's the same game you've played before; you can mark out zones in your city, draw out roads and buildings, and slowly build up your population as a mayor, keeping your people happy, supplied with utilities, and within reasonable distance of work and play.

So, why are we spotlighting it today? Along with most of EA's iPhone titles, its price has dropped down to just 99 cents. So, if you haven't picked it up yet, now's the time to do so (and it'll give you something to play on your brand new iPhone this week). Other titles to check out at just a buck, if you haven't gotten them yet, include Need for Speed, Command and Conquer, FIFA 10, Madden 10, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and the classic Dragon's Lair. Just think, buying them all will set you back $7, the same price as the full Rock Band title.

We've received quite a few emails from developers who are providing you with special app pricing during WWDC 2010. Here's a roundup of some of the info we've received:

• Ubermind is selling Masque for US$1.99 until June 12. The app is an amazing photography tool for iPad.
• iOS4 devs should look into purchasing iMockups for iPad during WWDC. It's available for 30% off today (June 7), which is $6.99 instead of the usual $8.99. It's a nice mockup tool for apps.
• UK developer Michael Kaye couldn't make it to WWDC 2010, but he's celebrating by putting BabyBubbles on sale for $0.99, a huge discount from the usual $5.99 price. BabyBubbles is an innovative "baby logger" for new parents, and currently runs on iPhone and iPod touch. Michael says he'll keep the price at $0.99 until BabyBubbles HD appears.
• Developer Craig Caruso is selling his iLineup for iPad app at the special price of $0.99 this week only. The baseball / softball lineup card package usually sells for $1.99.
• Cameron Banga at 9Magnets let us know that their iOS device battery management tool Battery Go! will be free until Friday. The regular price is $2.99, so pick it up while you can.

Click the Read More link below for more hot WWDC app deals.

If you were about to buy one of the MyRegions Navigon GPS apps for the iPhone, don't press that 'buy' button just yet. In honor of WWDC, Navigon will make the normally U.S. $29.99 version just $14.99 from June 1 through June 11. That's a big savings on one of the premier nav apps. The MyRegions versions cover the Western, Central and Eastern U.S., so if you are going to buy, make sure you get the correct version.

All versions include functions such as Reality View Pro, Google Local Search, Lane Assistant Pro, Enhanced Pedestrian Mode, NAVIGON MyRoutes and much more. Of course you get text to speech, and either a flat or perspective view of your route. All these features are described in detail at the links above for each version.

In addition, you can add other regions of the country with an in-app purchase. During the sale, additonal regions are $9.99 instead of the usual $14.99. Buyers can also add Traffic Live services (which will update traffic notices in real-time) for a one-time subscription cost of $19.99. If you buy, note that the entire U.S. will download to your iPhone, which is 1.4GB, so make sure you've got the room. If you go to add a region or two, you'll just unlock the data already installed on your phone.

We've spotlighted vinyl decals for MacBooks before, but comic art blog Super Punch has spotted a few fun iPad decals on sale over at the homemade crafts site. This Joker iPad one is probably my favorite, but there are plenty more, including a Kirby version, one for Lego fans, and a nice Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference (which you could maybe even pair up with some "nice friendly letters" on a wallpaper).

I've got a much more rugged case on my iPhone, just because I bring it everywhere with me, but an iPad seems a little more ideal for something artistic -- stick it in a case while traveling, and you can be a little more careful with it while actually using it. And there's a lot of empty space back there, too -- just the thing to fill with a little artistic flair.

Space Miner: Space Ore Bust is a terrific game for the iPhone -- it's an arcade game that's basically a one-stick shooter, where you move a ship around a 2D field (rendered in colorful 3D), collecting asteroid ore and taking down alien robots. But though the basic premise of the game is quite simple, there's actually a lot of depth that builds up over time, as you navigate around various zones, and upgrade your ship, your ore collector, and all of the other various parts of your space ore business.

And while the gameplay is tight and fun, the best part of Space Miner (in my humble opinion) is the brilliant and hilarious script. Not only does the story of the game give you great reasons to keep going out there and blasting ore, but it's legitimately creative and funny. Chicago poet and performer Robbie Q. Telfer is listed in the credits as story editor, and that really paid off for the game -- some of the dialogue is just perfect.

So yes, the game is worth a buy even at the normal $4.99 price -- but wait, there's more. Starting tomorrow, Space Miner: Space Ore Bust is going on sale for just 99 cents for a limited time to help promote the Venan Arcade's upcoming second game, the strangely titled Ninjatown: Trees of Doom. At that price, it's worth a purchase just to play through the tutorial. Definitely be sure to grab it.

Square Enix has released their Chaos Rings game that we heard about a while ago. At US$13.99, it's one of the most expensive iPhone (not iPad -- yet) games you'll find, but the reviews are terrific so far. The game appears to be a classic Square Enix title, complete with great graphics, a deep storyline and a tight battle system. I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet, but it definitely looks intriguing, and if the game matches up to the hype, we could have a new bar set on Apple's handheld platform.

To celebrate, Square Enix is putting all of their other games on sale, including dropping Final Fantasy 1 and 2 down to $7 each. If you've been waiting to pick up one of their other titles, now's your chance, and maybe you can add the money you save into the price of the new game.

And finally, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is now out from Sega for the iPhone. Unfortunately, the game uses the same Sega emulator as all of their other games, so it's not exactly glitch-free or polished gameplay. Still, it's playable, and it's definitely the second Sonic game, recreated on the smaller screen. You can pick it up for $5.99.

Debacle Software's Pano app has been a photo favorite since the App Store opened in 2008. The Toronto-based development team announced that they've shipped version 4.0 of the app, with new and improved features (a recent scaling update has since bumped it to version 4.0.1).

As we've discussed before here at TUAW, Pano lets you take panoramic photos with your iPhone camera by giving you a semi-transparent guide to help you align adjacent shots. You can even take 360° panoramic photos if you so desire; it just takes a steady hand and sixteen photos. Once you've taken all of your individual photos, Pano stitches them together to make a seamless photo like the one you see above (which I took in Miami, FL). The new version of the software not only speeds up the process of aligning and blending your photos together, but sports an improved user interface as well.

If you're tempted by Pano, you'll be thrilled to know that the app is currently on sale for just US$0.99 -- it's usually $2.99, and even at the higher price it's a bargain. Anyone who is a fan of photography on the iPhone should pick up a copy of Pano while it's on sale. You'll be glad you did!

Today it's CoPilot live, continuing a holiday sale price of U.S. $24.99 [iTunes link] through the end of December. We've had a look at the app before. It is good for a low-cost app, but the database seems a bit out of date and the POI list is limited. The new version adds live traffic, local search and fuel prices for an extra $19.95. The new features are for 12 months only, and then you would have to renew. The new features make up for the POI omissions, but it costs extra to solve the problem.

As all these GPS apps race to add features and keep prices down, we all benefit. And of course, we're still holding our breath to see if the new Google Navigator app makes it through the Apple approval gauntlet. With word that Apple has bought a mapping technology company and wants to beef up mapping, the Google app may never see the light of day.

We'll be doing a roundup with our views on the best GPS solutions for the holidays, so stay tuned.

Well, Black Friday is here! If you're looking to save some money, here are another dozen deals from DealNews.com to consider once you wake up from your tryptophan-induced coma:

• Walmart: [Black Friday] Walmart Black Friday Sale now live
• Other World Computing: [Store Events] OWC Black Friday Sale: Accessories, HDDs, speakers, RAM, LCDs, more
• Apple Store: [Black Friday] The Apple Store Black Friday Sale: Up to $101 off select items
• Dell Home: [Black Friday] Dell Home Black Friday Sale now live
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Freebies: UpNext 3D Cities, Sip-N-Store, PhotoScatter, Super Shock Football, more
• Staples: [Black Friday] Staples Black Friday Early Bird Specials available online
• OnSale: [Black Friday] OnSale.com Black Friday Sale live now
• TigerDirect: [Black Friday] TigerDirect.com Pink Friday Sale now live
• eForCity: [Black Friday] eForCity.com Black Friday Sale: Deals from $3 + free shipping
• MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Games] MacUpdate 2009 Black Friday Game Bundle: 11 Mac games for $30
• AT&T Wireless: [iPhone] Refurbished Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB for $49 + free shipping, 32GB for $149
• eForCity: [Black Friday] eForCity.com Black Friday Web Buster: 30% off sitewide

After seeing that yellow sticky for just a little while, Apple has posted the Black Friday specials in the US store. The products on sale include:

• iMacs (21.5 and 27 inch) and MacBook Pros (13, 15 and 17 inch) are discounted $101, and start from $1098.
• You can save $11 on an iPod nano, which can be purchased from $138 today.
• You can also save $21 on a 8GB iPod touch, $31 on an 32GB iPod touch and $41 on a 64GB iPod touch.
• You can get an Apple TV for $208, a savings of $21.

There's also discounted prices on software, Mac accessories, iPhone and iPod accessories, so there's something hopefully for everyone.

As Victor mentioned yesterday, for the next few days we'll be featuring daily deals from our friends at DealNews.com. Lots of good stuff today, so why not get started browsing for Christmas gifts on stuffing day? Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

• Walmart: [Black Friday] Walmart Thanksgiving Day Sale live now
• Best Buy: [Black Friday] Best Buy Thanksgiving Weekend Sale: Netbooks from $180, more
• MacMall: [Black Friday] MacMall 72 Hour Apple Black Friday Sale: Up to 25% off Apple systems after rebate
• RadioShack: [Black Friday] Radio Shack Shack Friday Sale live now
• Sam's Club: [Black Friday] Sam's Club Black Friday Sale live now
• JR: [Black Friday] JR.com posts Black Friday Sale
• 6ave: [Black Friday] 6th Avenue Electronics Thanksgiving Day Sale live now
• DicksSportingGoods: [Black Friday] Dick's Sporting Goods Black Friday Doorbuster deals now live
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Gameloft iPhone / iPod touch Apps: Real Tennis 2009, Blades of Fury, more for 99 cents each
• Lowe's: [Black Friday] Lowe's Super Friday Sneak Peek Sale live now
• GoGamer: [Black Friday] GoGamer Black Friday Madness: Deals from 1 cent + $3 s&h
• iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] CoPilot Live North America for iPhone downloads for $20

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]

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.

When TextExpander touch for the iPhone was announced, one of the exciting aspects was the SDK to allow other developers to integrate TextExpander's technology into their iPhone apps.

The new version of WriteRoom for iPhone now includes TextExpander support. With this announcement, SmileOnMyMac has announced that they will be selling TextExpander touch for $1.99 until September 30 at 12 noon Pacific Time, a 60% discount off the regular price of $4.99.

WriteRoom for iPhone 2.1 includes other updates as well, as noted on the development blog:

• TextExpander support.
• Optional startup password.
• Settings are now accessed within app.
• New option to lock screen orientation.
• Sync service is out of beta and is open sourced.

If you purchase WriteRoom for iPhone ($4.99 on the App Store), you'll get a $5 off coupon that can be used to purchase either WriteRoom ($24.95) or TaskPaper ($29.95) for Mac.