discounts
Latest
Apple Store down to make way for Black Friday discounts
The gray box awaits you, weary turkey eater. The Apple Store is down for its annual discount refresh, and the expectations (as usual) are for modest reductions on popular products. You can get a sense of what's in store by checking out the Aussie version of the holiday price cuts, which have been active for more than 12 hours already. You may find better deals on some items elsewhere; have a look at our Black Friday coverage or check dealnews.com for updates. [holiday hat tip 9to5Mac]
TERA on sale again, merge details revealed
Yo dawg, Amazon heard you might like TERA, so it's giving you TERA when you buy TERA so you'll have two copies of TERA. Bizarre though it might sound, it's the truth. Purchase a digital download version of TERA on Amazon right now for $9.99 and you'll receive a second key for the game as well at no additional charge. It's worth noting that this deal is valid for only the downloaded version; the retail version does not have the same price discount or special offer. The deal doesn't technically reward you with an immediate copy, instead providing a $9.99 promotional credit that can be redeemed only on a second copy of TERA. This credit is valid until October 15th, but the promotion ends on September 22nd. If you and a friend have been tempted to give TERA a shot, now is obviously the time to jump in, although you may want to wait for a day as the game is merging down to three servers tomorrow. In fact, En Masse has just officially announced the names of the new servers and revealed additional details about the merges on the TERA website. [Thanks to potatochobit for the tip!]
T-Mobile to incentivize select 2G subscribers with upgrade offers during five-city US pilot
Growing tired of that EDGE-only device on T-Mobile? The carrier wants you to upgrade just as badly as you do, and may be willing to kick some extra incentives your way to help motivate the switch. In an attempt to clear devices from its 2G network, T-Mobile reportedly launched a pilot this month, targeting 5,000 select customers each in Boston, DC, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City with discount offers that vary slightly by market, and may include a waived upgrade fee, up to $100 (Boston) or $50 (NYC, DC) off any phone, or, exclusively for folks in Miami, the option to swap their device for a Samsung t259, t359 Smile or Gravity TXT for free with no new contract to sign. According to TmoNews, customers may receive a targeted offer if they're Classic or Legacy subscribers with 1,000 or more monthly minutes on a 2G device (the iPhone is not included). If the pilot is successful, T-Mobile may roll out the offer to customers in additional cities, as part of the carrier's refarming effort to grow HSPA+ network capacity. A full offer breakdown is available at the source link below.
Sony drops VAIO T from free PlayStation offer, hikes real cost of entry to $970
Remember how it seemed too good to be true that Sony's back to school promo would let you buy a VAIO T and get a free PlayStation 3 or Vita worth a third of the value of the Ultrabook you just bought? Well, it was. Sony has quietly dropped the $750 laptop from the PCs that qualify for the deal, raising the real qualifying price to $970 for a 15.5-inch VAIO S. Some will cry foul at being denied such a killer bargain without warning, but it's easy to see why Sony backed out: that's a lot of gear to give away for little in return. Dreams of heading to class with an ultraportable in hand and a PS3 at the dorm will have to be postponed, then, even if it's still an ample discount. [Thanks, Gabriel]
Google+ patent app details myFaves-like carrier contacts integration with social network circles
With more carriers pushing unlimited calling plans, we can't say there's necessarily a need for the friends and family features of yesteryear on this side of the Atlantic, but plenty of networks beyond the good ole US of A are a bit more stingy when it comes to tallying talk time. The latest Google patent application to be published was filed last December and covers exactly this type of scenario, suggesting that the Google+ profile of the future could include an option to create a "Telco Co. Preferred Calling" circle, which would theoretically enable free calling between yourself and a small group of friends. According to the application, semi-public information, such as a telephone number, would be shared between Google and a registered service provider, and you would maintain discount calling relationships from within Google+, adding and dropping callers to and from your online contacts list. You could also dictate custom rules, such as ringtones for contacts in specific groups, or create carrier-branded circles that are populated with your friends on the same network, making it easier to determine whether or not you'll be billed for calls to a particular user. Like all patent applications, there's no guarantee that Google's submission with come to fruition, but if you're feeling optimistic, you can hit up the source link below for all the legalese.
Google Offers swings by the iPhone, saves dough for Apples
iPhone owners bummed that their Android-using friends were taking advantage of Google Offers they couldn't use can now level the playing field: an iOS port has just gone live. Much like its Google-native peer, the iPhone-optimized version can spot discounts in the neighborhood and will let you claim them on the spot. The chronically inattentive still get a lot of love in the process with both mentions of new offers and warnings for soon-to-expire deals. In keeping with Google Offers' current US-only focus, the app won't show outside of American borders just yet -- but if you've been thinking those yoga classes in Portland were a bit too dearly priced, your iPhone (and a well-timed sale) is now all it takes to set things right.
Hasselblad cuts H4D prices by up to 23 percent, might let you afford rent
Hasselblad is typically known for everything but price cuts, and sometimes goes in the opposite direction. As such, we're more than a little caught off-guard by a round of price cuts on what's usually considered the definitive medium format camera line. The 'entry' H4D-31 has been cut down by as much as 23 percent; we're not sure we'd call it a steal at $11,995 without a lens, but it's now an option if you think even a Nikon D800's full-frame sensor is puny. Price slashes aren't reserved for the bargain models, either, as even the 200-megapixel, status symbol H4D-200MS shaves enough off the cost (now $35,995) to be a worth look for those sitting on the fence. You can get the full details at the source link, and you won't have to survive on ramen noodles for a year to shoot billboard-sized photos.
Conquer Online 9th anniversary celebrations include a free trip to China
Reaching the nine-year mark is quite an accomplishment in the MMO world, and Conquer Online plans to celebrate this milestone in style with a number of special events, bonuses, and gifts both in-game and out. From now through May 31st, players can enjoy a variety of festivities and goodies: Ongoing special events like Crazy Lotto, Naughty Bunny, and Crazy Invasion. Special discounts on offers in the shopping mall, including a four-hour event on +3 stones from May 26th to 27th. A chance to prove which server is truly best in the cross-server Capture the Flag battle. A Nurture Pack with useful healing and XP items to welcome newcomers. VIP gifts. Special upgrades to certain event rewards. Oh, but that's not all! The pièce de résistance: Three lucky current Conquer Online players will win a free trip to China to take in the sights of Beijing and visit the TQ headquarters. To enter the drawing, players must credit at least one $15.99 or one $29.99 TQ Point Card during the period between May 15th and June 30th (the more you credit, the more chances you have), have at least one level 50+ character, and be at least 18 years of age. For full details, check out the contest rules. [Source: Press release]
Spotify offering students in the UK a 50 percent discount on Premium service
Streaming outfit Spotify and the National Union of Students have teamed up to offer scholars in the UK a whopping 50 percent discount on the music service's Premium plan. Of course, you'll have to meet a few requirements first, including having an "extra" NUS card and, naturally, a Spotify account. Once you've got those credentials in place, Spotify's Premium service will only set you back £4.99 per month, which gets you an all-you-can-stream buffet on both desktop and mobile -- yes, that includes the shiny new iPad app. The deal's said to be good for 12 months from the moment you sign up, and you can get started now at the NUS link below.
GOG head: massive discounts 'bad for gamers'
GOG managing director Guillaume Rambourg shared a shockingly controversial opinion: there's a downside to Steam discounts. "Heavy discounts are bad for gamers," Rambourg told Rock, Paper, Shotgun. "If a gamer buys a game he or she doesn't want just because it's on sale, they're being trained to make bad purchases, and they're also learning that games aren't valuable." The all-too-common phenomenon of spending more money than you want to just to get everything that's on sale in a particular week is "not good for anyone," he said.If, like us, you wonder at this point how this attitude squares with GOG's own weekend sales, Rambourg explained: "Our average sale tends to be around 40% – 50% off; that's plenty of incentive to pick up a game if you're interested or if you just think you might like to try it because you're not sure about the game, but not some crazy 75% or 85% discount that damages the long-term value of a game." Of course, if you want to get extremely technical about it, the majority of GOG's business is selling $6 versions of games that cost upward of $50 when they originally came out (twenty years ago).
Apple introduces VIP discounts for iBooks publishers
Some sharp eyes have once again discovered something new and cool in Apple-land. Apple appears to be offering rather hefty discounts to some (possibly all) iBooks publishers as part of a new iTunes VIP program. Information is still developing on this front. Made available through iTunes Connect, these discounts appear to be exclusive to the iBooks program. Discounts range from $500 off the base Mac Pro down to $60 off the base mini. As with previous programs of this nature, Apple places a limit on the kinds and quantity of hardware affected. The discount is for two computers, two iPods (which appear to include iPads, etc.) and one Apple TV. It's unclear whether Apple will extend these discounts to its App Store members as well, although that was a benefit for the Select and Premier programs until they were more or less discontinued a few years ago.
AT&T Plus now in trial stages, lets loyal users in on special deals and more
Looks like racking up those loyal points may just pay off in the near future, as Ma Bell's rolling out a new loyalty program dubbed AT&T Plus. The free service -- which is only available in Houston, Colorado and Minneapolis at the moment -- will let customers get tidbits such as a "personalized customer experience," with access to a special 1-855-ATTPLUS customer service line. Additionally, AT&T Plus users get a 25 percent discount on accessories (sorry, no iPhone or iPad add-ons) as well as waived activation and upgrade fees. AT&T's yet to say what you'll need to get a Plus party invite, but we'd imagine that staying away from any warning is the first step...
Halo prices dropped across the board on XBLM today, discounts on other titles in the pipeline
It's pretty unlikely at this point that you own an Xbox 360 without a copy of Halo: Reach in some form or another. But if for some crazy reason you just got an Xbox 360 and you're still missing out on Bungie's swan song to the Spartans, Microsoft's got a digital version of the game discounted alongside all of its DLC (well, most of it, anyway -- the Anniversary Map Pack is sadly absent). There's also a handful of Avatar clothing/items, as well as the always thrilling "Anchor 9 Premium Theme," you big collector, you. Head to Xbox.com's Halo: Reach section to see how today's discounts apply to your region. Should Halo not be your particular bag, a whole mess of other deals are being offering in the coming days and weeks, mostly of the Hasbro variety. Major Nelson has conveniently compiled them for you right here.
Mobile Miscellany: week of December 19, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of December 19, 2011:
App Store holiday sales on now: GTA 3, id software, Dungeon Raid, lots more
The App Store freeze goes down today, so this is the last chance for many developers to put their apps on sale. And of course, many have taken advantage of that chance. Before we even start listing sales today, many of the sales previously listed, including EA and Gameloft's whole-catalog 99 cent sales, are still ongoing through the weekend. The anniversary release of Grand Theft Auto 3 is only $2.99. That's a bargain no matter which way you slice it -- pick it up. Japanese developer Cave is having a big 99 cents sale, with some of its bullet-hell shooters available for cheap. id Software is also going cheap, with Rage HD, Doom Classic, Doom II RPG, and more going on sale for just a buck. Hack-and-slash Aurum Blade (above) is free for the holidays. Monster RPG 2 is 99 cents. Comixology's great Comics app is having an in-store sale, with lots of comics for only a buck. Dungeon Raid is one of the best games of the year, and it's only $1.99 in a rare sale. Dragon Fantasy is an excellent 8-bit style RPG that's only a buck. Wayforward's excellent Shantae: Risky's Revenge platformer is only $1.99. Gamevil's Zenonia and Zenonia 2 are both completely free. iPad exclusive tower defense/strategy game Ant Raid is only a buck. Chillingo's Ravensword: The Fallen King is only 99 cents, and there's plenty of other Chillingo titles on sale for cheap as well. Disney's in on the sale, too, with Where's My Water, Jelly Car and lots of others for only 99 cents. Companions for iPad is only a buck. Galaxy Pirate Adventure got renamed as Galactic Phantasy, and it's only 99 cents right now. Word game Welder is just $1.99. And that's only the ones we've heard of -- there are probably lots more sales out there. In other words, if there's an app that you've been wanting to buy, you should probably check up on it today, because if it's not on sale now, it probably won't be this year. Good luck, enjoy all of your new apps!
RIFT offers cheap client, lots of bonus XP for Christmas
What does Christmas look like in Telara? There's probably snow, and elves, and according to the latest Trion news blurb, there are lots of presents too. First of all, the RIFT client is available for a paltry $4.99 starting tomorrow. And of course there's plenty of "cheer, joy, charity, and battling a never-ending stream of extra-dimensional monsters bent on undoing reality." To help you in your quest to save the world from demons and bad Christmas music, Trion is running a pretty spiffy promotion from December 22nd through January 2nd. RIFT subscribers will enjoy 15% bonuses on kill XP, favor, prestige, plaques of achievement, marks of ascension, and planarite throughout the holidays, and you can learn more about the game at its official website. [Source: Trion press release]
EA premieres a Daily Deals page for the holidays, and other ways to find cheap apps
So now that we're rolling into December, we're about to enter into the biggest season of the year for both app buying and app sales. Right before Christmas, Apple will "freeze" the App Store, which means listings won't get updated, and developers won't be able to change prices or release new apps, so iOS devs and publishers are working overtime right now to make sure everything is ready for the holiday. To that end, here's a few tools to help you find deals as quickly as possible. As always, we'll be reporting on as many deals as we can here on TUAW, and for up-to-the-moment discounts, you can also follow our Twitter account at @TUAW. But there are other ways to find big app price drops. EA has made it easy for its apps -- the company has put together a "Daily Deals" page that will highlight free and discounted apps that show up in the company's catalog. Right now, for example, Shift 2 Unleashed and The Sims Medieval are both completely free, and there are a few other apps that are discounted in price. Another nice tool for finding free apps is AppShopper's discounted apps page -- that will show you all apps that have seen a price drop recently. Unfortunately, that includes both apps worth your time and apps that aren't so much, so you can also check AppShopper's "popular" price drop page to thin the herd a bit. For example, I see there that Zen Bound 2 and Street Fighter 2 Collection are both on sale for 99 cents, both great apps at that price. Again, if you want the complete story, you can stay tuned here to TUAW -- whenever there's a big wave of sales, we'll definitely find the hits and let you know when there's something good to buy for cheap. But if you want to do a little cheap app hunting yourself, there you go.
Star Trek Online offering perks to subscribers before the business shift
Season 5 is now live for Star Trek Online, but the actual conversion to free-to-play is still a little further ahead. That means there's a grace period during which players can be given a few extra little perks for sticking with the game. Said perks have been outlined in the most recent Path to F2P blog entry. Until January 2nd, the classic Constitution-class ship and the Klingon Qorgh Refit are free to players who log in and claim them from the C-Store. Subscription deals are also being offered through December 19th for players who subscribe for longer than one month. Picking up a three-month subscription will come out to around $36, and a six-month subscription will run about $66, both cheaper than the regular pricing. You can also pick up a lifetime subscription as well, if you're willing to drop $200 up front. While some players will doubtlessly be taking advantage of the shift to stop subscribing and keep playing, there's certainly no shortage of deals being offered to keep subscriptions after the switch.
Engadget's Black Friday 2011 roundup
<div style="text-align:center;"> <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/engadgets-black-friday-2011-roundup/"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/11/untitled-1-1322062828.jpg" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;margin:4px;"/></a></div> <div> Black Friday is just around the bend -- in less than 36 hours, many a deal hunter will be camping outside their prospective Wally Worlds searching for prey. Thankfully, we've eagled-up in advance and thrown together a few deals in the meantime that should cause a sparkle in at least a few eyes. (Just to be safe, we've also included links to each store's full line-up of deals.) So, join us after the break, read along and see if anything strikes your interest. What's to lose, really? A chance to miss out on a good deal, of course! Feel free to thank us later or let us know about anything else you spot in the comments below.</div>
Enter at Your Own Rift: Happy half-birthday, RIFT!
It's hard to believe -- but amazing nevertheless -- that RIFT is almost a half-year old. Six months ago, hundreds of thousands of gamers rushed through the gates to become the first to explore Telara, included me, and we were introduced to what's become one of the most dominating MMOs of the year. Following this smooth release (and it was smooth), Trion Worlds set a remarkable standard for itself by pumping out meaty content updates at a steady, rapid pace and marketing RIFT out the wazoo. We've already witnessed two live events, numerous subscription specials, the addition of a ginormous raid, and my not having hit 50 yet -- to my eternal embarrassment. Of course, there have been bumps in the road as well: a lackluster initial world event, a segment of disgruntled players and opponents, and the looming specter of several heavy-hitting MMOs waiting in the wings. But for right here and right now, this is Trion's time, and the company is taking advantage of this half-year milestone to light the fireworks and lay out the good china in celebration. We got on the phone with Scott Hartsman and his Justice League to talk about what the studio has up its sleeves for this event -- and what's next for this rapidly expanding title.
