Thanks to Sharon Li from Alibaba.com for the following story..everyone get ready for the sales!  Pays to shop around- check Apple and assorted retailers listed below…

Apple gears up for Black Friday sale

Editor: Sharon Li
27 Nov 2008 02:48:04 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc, facing a tight U.S. consumer spending environment, is gearing up for a one-day sale on Friday and at least one analyst expects the company to offer discounts of up to 15 percent.

The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, is the traditional kickoff to the U.S. holiday shopping season and one of the biggest buying days of the year for consumers.

The outlook for the computer and consumer electronics industry is universally grim, with shoppers widely expected to cut back on purchases as a recession looms.

An announcement on Apple’s website said the online store is holding a “one-day-only holiday shopping event. You’ll find dozens of great iPod, iPhone, and Mac gift ideas.”

An Apple spokesman declined to provide details.

Here is what the ad looks like

Apple products are typically more expensive than those of competitors, and it doesn’t offer price reductions very often.

Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu said in a research note that he expects Apple’s Black Friday promotions to be “a little more aggressive than usual.“

Wu expects Mac computers, iPod digital media players and accessories to be discounted up to 15 percent, but said it was unclear whether the iPhone would also be on sale. In years past, Apple has cut prices by 5 percent to 10 percent.

Retailers, including Best Buy Co Inc and Amazon.com Inc, are already discounting Apple products. The Best Buy website is currently offering $100 to $150 off certain MacBook laptops.

Wu also said many Apple stores are electing to match the price discounts of resellers.

Shop Amazon For iPod Touch Sale

Mac Mall is also offering a 3 Day Sale on Apple Products New and Refurbished- Worth checking out-

3 Day Apple iPod Black Friday Sale! Up to $101 in Savings! from 6pm PT 11/25-11:59pm PT 11/28

Technorati Tags: after Thanksgiving sale, buy apple products, buy ipod, discounted Apple products, iphone

The Bank of America iPhone application is now available from the App Store Icon on your phone, from iTunes or from going to www.bofa.mobi

With the Bank of America iPhone application, you can:

Technorati Tags: Bank of America iPhone application, cell phone, iphone applications, mobile banking

Gas Cubby is the ultimate tool for tracking gas mileage and vehicle maintenance and now its available for the iPhone. Whether you’re a hypermiler, or just want a reminder to change the oil, Gas Cubby will help save you money and keep your vehicle operating at it’s peak.

Features:

• Tracks gas mileage and vehicle maintenance
• Charts: MPG, gas price, gas expenses, service expenses
• Charts update as data is filtered
• Customizable service reminders
• Supports multiple vehicles
• Store vehicle information: VIN, License Plate, and Insurance Policy
• Turn data fields on and off
• Excel compatible email reports (CSV attachment)
• Easily search, sort, and filter records
• Customizable tags
• Number Pad or Odometer style entry
• If data entry is interrupted by a phone call, the data will be stored and retrieved on next launch

iPhone Applications now available at iTunes.com! Shop Now!

Technorati Tags: cell phones, Gas Cubby, hypermiling, iphone applications, new iphone apps, track gas mileage

From Mangaware.com comes iPhone Manga converter.

The iPhone Manga Converter can be downloaded at MangaWare.com and is free to try (registration required). The trial version expires after 14 days from the first use. Its $14.95 if you want to keep it. Website contains full ez to follow instructions and good FAQ page.

For those of you who don’t know, manga is the Japanese version of comic books that is wildly popular there and abroad with millions of fans. Many like to read them on their smart phones. Here is a way to do it on your iPhone:

iPhone Manga Converter is a tool for converting your favorite manga, comics, or images into format suitable for the iPhone browser. Save the converted file into your personal Web server or upload to your Web site by using any FTP software or free DNS service to create a host name that will direct to your personal Web server. Once you have your converted files online you can read them anywhere using Safari browser on your iPhone over Wi-Fi, EDGE or 3G connections.Version 1.0.0.4 fixed bug on HTML chapter menu creation.

Features

• Supports image format JPG and PNG or in a form of archive format “RAR”,”ZIP”.
• Supports archive in archives of “ZIP in RAR”, “RAR in ZIP”, “ZIP in ZIP”, or “RAR in RAR”; IPhone Manga Converter will extract archives no matter how deep it is.
• Unique panel scanning logic that can automatically identify panels. This function is helpful when performing panel zooming on iPhone.
• Conversion results were tested and 100% Safari iPhone compatible. Auto creation of html, JavaScript, Title menu, Chapter menu, Index menu and image pages.
• Excellent image quality with small file size.

Here is an 8 minute YouTube video showing off some of the features. (by the way, it isn’t your imagination, there doesn’t appear to be any audio for several minutes into this video)

Technorati Tags: 3G, Apple Safari, cellular phones, iphone manga converter, manga

Thanks to author Matt McGee in Searchland.com

for an interesting article on Google’s new enhancement to its iPhone app: Voice Search Capability- watch for it coming soon on iTunes but before you read this watch a demo from Google courtesy of Youtube:

The New York Times reports in Friday’s newspaper that Google’s iPhone app will be updated with voice search capability. The move should come as no surprise: The launch of Goog411 in 2007 brought immediate speculation that mobile voice search was on the way, and Google tells the Times that data collection from the Goog411 project helped create this new iPhone service.

With the new Google iPhone app, you’ll be able to speak your search query into the phone rather than having to type it out. The Times article explains what happens after you ask your question:

“The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.

The search results, which may be displayed in just seconds on a fast wireless network, will at times include local information, taking advantage of iPhone features that let it determine its location.”

The Times article says Google’s updated iPhone app should be available Friday. It’s a free update, and Google expects to make the voice search feature available on other phones, too.

Postscript from Greg: I just checked and the app doesn’t yet appear to be available in the iTunes store. As the Markoff article mentions in the Times, both Yahoo and Microsoft have a variety of voice search apps.

Microsoft’s Live Search mobile client app has offered voice for some time, but it’s limited to mostly local categories. Microsoft also owns Tellme, which offers both the free directory assistance alternative 800-555-Tell and an app for BlackBerry that is voice powered. Microsoft also separately operates 1-800-Call-411.

In July Google introduced a voice-powered version of Google Maps for BlackBerry. Earlier this year Yahoo introduced voice for oneSearch (full web search) with Vlingo. This is what Google is now introducing essentially.

As mentioned, there are also a host of free directory assistance alternatives in the market (six or seven major ones), including Tellme, Call-411 and Goog411. The recognition engine behind Goog411 powers the new iPhone voice search.

Among the range of “voice search” and free directory assistance alternatives services now in the market, mobile ChaCha is noteworthy because it allows users to ask any question, essentially full web search, not just “what city what listing.” It also uses humans behind the scenes to disambiguate and answer queries. ChaCha has said that some of its heaviest users are doing query volumes that mirror search activity levels on the desktop. Hypothetically the more queries, the more ads — potentially.

In terms of the iPhone, a range of companies are working voice “search” or control for the device, including Nuance which previously demo’d voice control and search for the iPhone. The first to officially offer a voice capability for search was Dial Directions, which has two voice controlled iPhone apps, Say Who and Say Where. The former is voice control for contacts/dialing and the latter, introduced several months ago, is voice-based local search through selected sites via the Safari browser.

The key with all of these voice applications is the accuracy of the speech recognizers. The failure rates remain an issue, although they’re improving and variable from app to app.

So far voice has not proven to be the “killer app” for mobile search (as I once believed it would be). However Google’s new voice search iPhone capability should be helpful in selected situations — while in the car, for example, when directory assistance is most heavily used or for longer “long tail” queries that are highly specific. Indeed, it may result in longer or more precise query strings.

Regardless, I’m sure the new Google voice search capability will be quite popular among iPhone users.

LINK TO iTUNES HERE

Technorati Tags: Google iphone application, iphone app, voice search

Thanks to Robert Hansen writing for iPhone Freak on 10/28/08 for the following review of Google Earth for the iPhone: (but first check out the You Tube Video from Google about how to download and use the app)

Google has recently released an iPhone and iPod touch version of GOOGLE EARTH. The newly released app is available for free and offers functionality similar to the desktop version. Initially I was a little skeptical on just how well this would perform on the iPhone, but after playing for a little while I can say that it not only performs well, but was also fun to use.

Google Earth for the iPhone allows users to browse the globe with your fingertips. It even has links to Wikipedia articles for select locations as well as over 8 million Panoramio photos. Using Google Earth is simple thanks to the touchscreen capability, users can move around by swiping your finger, then once you locate that spot you want to check out, you can then pinch to zoom in or zoom out. The app also takes advantage of the built-in accelerometer and allows you to tilt the screen and get a different view.

Additionally you can use the search field to narrow into a particular location, and even use the built-in Location Services of the iPhone to quickly zoom in on your current location.

Overall, I am not sure just how often I would use Google Earth, its fun to play with, but one thing it seems to be missing are the street names, which you would commonly find in Google Maps.

Technorati Tags: Google Earth for iphone, iphone applications, iphone apps