Apple has begun teasing its Black Friday 2011 sales event, ahead of the day that brick-and-mortar retailers consider the biggest of the year, and their chance to get "into the black" for the year.
However, Apple typically has very modest (and that's putting it nicely) promotions on Black Friday. Those seeking big promotions need to look to third-party sites like MacMall, MacConnection, and Amazon.com.
Here are the contents of Apple's email to customers, reminding of the event.
"Every gift list has its day. Mark your calendar. This Friday, November 25, is the special one-day Apple shopping event. Visit your favorite Apple Retail Store or shop online all day."
Typically, though, Apple's discounts are small. Last year, Apple offered $101 discounts on their MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac product lines, with $11 - $41 discounts on the iPods and iPads.
Don't expect any iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S discounts, however.
Groupon went public on Friday (NASDAQ: GRPN), and the stock shot up 31 percent. Now, with the bloom off the rose of the first day of its IPO, the question is: where will the stock go from here?
Groupon priced its shares at $20 on Thursday. That raised $700 million for the company, valuing it at $12.76 billion. That's more than double the $6 billion that Google offered for the company in late 2010.
With demand for shares huge, Groupon raised the number of shares offered from is selling from 30 million to 35 million, but that was still just 5.5 percent of the company. That is a relatively small float compared with typical IPOs, and Groupon's underwriters have the option of selling an additional 5.25 million shares.
After opening, the stock rose quickly, and by midday, shares were priced at $29.24, up 46 percent. The stock closed at $26.11, up 31 percent. The stock is currently up another 1.18 percent in after hours trading, to 26.60.
Groupon Chief Executive Andrew Mason was in New York to ring the opening bell as NASDAQ. On the company blog, "Our IPO is a small milestone on our journey. I feel incredibly grateful to serve as CEO of Groupon. With our IPO behind us, I couldn't be more excited about what lies ahead."
What lies ahead? Groupon has far more competition that it had when Google made its offer, including Google Offers, the service Google created when its offer was spurned. It will be an interesting, and competitive, post-IPO period.
No, Virginia, it turns out the hardware-keyboarded device seen recently wasn't an AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II after all. BGR earlier said it had exclusively determined that the image above was the AT&T version of Samsung's 5 million-selling (and without U.S. carriers) Galaxy S II, but they backtracked quickly on Friday.
Instead, a new source has come forward, saying that the keyboarded Samsung device wasn't a Galaxy S II, but some other Samsung device, also coming to AT&T. BGR was fooled, the site said by the fact that an image showing the device ID had it listed as the SGH-i927, which was previously reported to be the Galaxy S II's device ID ahead of launch.
It's rather unusual for an OEM to re-use a device ID, even in unfinished form, so we're still scratching our heads, though. At any rate, the Galaxy S II exists un-keyboarded globally, so the keyboard had already thown us for a loop, although it is true that the same thing happened on the Galaxy S, where one carrier, Sprint, had a keyboarded version (the Epic 4G).
One other unusual thing is that the kernel version for the device, via ROM images, appears to be a Honeycomb kernel version. That's extremely strange since the device is clearly sporting Android 2.3.4 or the latest Gingerbread build, unless this device is perhaps further out and will eventually run Ice Cream Sandwich.
Whither the actual Galaxy S II? Since Samsung just erected a "sign-up" page for information about the U.S. launch of the Galaxy S II, we know it's coming soon. Most rumors currently point to an August release on at least three (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon) carriers.
Actress Nila a.k.a Meera Chopra shot to fame with SJ Surya’s Ah Aah but never once after that movie. Though she acted in quite a few movies, she has always been into one controversy or the other which made news than her acting.
Earlier last month, she filed complaints against a miscreant who harassed her with mails. She eventually found who it was and to her surprise, it was someone she knew very well. Now, she is facing murder charges.
Her real name is Meera Chopra. She lives in Delhi where the Haryana police had come to arrest her. The actress reportedly shares an illicit relationship with a man in Gurgoan by the name Sumeet Puttan. He was already married.
Sumeet’s wife Ruchi fought against their relationship and the couple had often quarreled over the issue. Despite the wife’s protests, the relationship never seemed to end. Giving up all hope, Ruchi went ahead with suicide by hanging herself.
Ruchi’s husband Sumeet tells the police that it is a suicide but the police are not giving up. They suspect that it was a murder. It was when Ruchi’s sister Shefali accused Nila of a possible connection with the murder that the Haryana Police have decided to arrest Nila and carry out inquiry.
After rampant speculation over what service or product Apple might roll out in celebration of the 10th anniversary of its retail stores, it seems the meetings and such that Apple retail stores were having were not about a new product, but rather a new way to sell: the iPad used promotional signage.
That's right, instead of paper-based informational signs next to the company's products on store tables, there are now to be iPads with information. The new "signage" began showing up first in Australian Apple Stores, which are of course far ahead of stores in the rest of the world in terms of time (and were thus far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of missing the 2011 Rapture prediction of Harold Camping).
The iPads display information about nearby products, such as prices and configurations. They even let customers compare, and customize models of the nearby products. Customers can even page a retail employee for assistance.
It's obviously a lot more green in terms of paper used, though a lot less green in terms of electricity used. It's also a lot easier to update the information.
You can view a video of what the new system looks like in stores next to various products, below.
In the race to the top, Lady Gaga is still ahead, as she has become the first on Twitter to top 10 million followers. As of late Sunday evening (EST) she had 10,044,837 in total.
Meanwhile, her close pursuer, Justin Bieber, has a "mere" 9,661,720 Twitter followers. Based on recent trends, Bieber may eclipse her later in the year.
Looking at those in the celebrity circuit who reached milestones for Twitter, they include Ashton Kutcher, who was the first user to reach a million followers (in April, 2009); Charlie Sheen, who was the fastest to one million followers. Beyonce reached a million followers without Tweeting once.
Guess who's No. 3 on the list, by the way? It's U.S. President Barack Obama, with 8,005,414 followers, in the same late EST timeframe as above. Interestingly, no single GOP politician appears in the top 100 of the Twitter follower list (unless, and it's entirely possible, we missed one).
Aamir Khan says he can not and would not go ahead without Salman’s assurance. Aamir Khan and Salman Khan have been great buddies, and both have been displaying their sense of humour to the media of late. As Aamir Khan suggested that the only way to get Salman married is to tie him to mandap, Salman suggested that its Aamir who he will tie lest he runs to the mandap and gets married a third time!
Aamir, when asked if he is still on a bride hunting spree for Salman, he was quick to say, “I really do not mind finding a girl for him. But I need his assurance that whomever I choose, he will marry without question and discussion. Until then I am sitting pretty”.
Groupon is not having a good week. First the company's Super Bowl ads fall flat, and then the company runs a nationwide FTD deal ahead of Valentine's Day that has its own set of issues.
The problem was that after a buyer was awarded the Groupon FTD deal, he had to go through to the site using a special link. Anyone who's used those multiple rebate sites (such as Mr. Rebates or eBates) knows that depending on the link you use, you won't necessarily get the same price at a florist like FTD.
The deal was $20 off a $40 or more order. However, when they used the special Groupon link to get to FTD's site, some customers who were savvy noticed that prices on that page were marked up, meaning that the value of the Groupon deal was reduced. Some customers were also upset that deliveries couldn't be made by Valentine's day (Monday).
To rectify matters, Groupon did the right thing. It negotiated with FTD to ensure that discounts normally available on FTD's site will be usable with the Groupon. Also, those who already paid for the difference with their credit card will be refunded the difference.
The thought is that Groupon is probably making up the difference from its own coffers. Those who want to get the difference refunded to their credit cards can call a special FTD phone line to complain at 855-645-6214; Groupon customers can mail support@groupon.com for a refund as well.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently saw his Facebook page hacked on Wednesday. The page was taken down, but earlier on Wednesday had a rambling note which attracted a lot of likes and comments.
The post, reported via a screenshot captured by TechCrunch, said:
"Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a social business the way Nobel Price (sic) winner Muhammad Yunus described it? http://bit.ly/fs6rT3 What do you think? #hackercup2011."
It attracted some 1,800 likes and 500 comments in just a short time.
Ironically, the hack came on the same day that Facebook announced changes to its site. In an effort to improve security on the site, the entire site will use secure connections via https. The announcement came not just on the same day as the hack, but ahead of Friday's Data Privacy Day.
They are also going to add a new type of captcha feature to authenticate users when they want to retrieve a lost password or when Facebook detects suspicious login activity. Instead of the standard captcha or recaptcha, which you probably know are those sometimes frustrating oddly formed words and characters used to ensure human activity, or even using personal questions, which can also be compromised, Facebook will use ... your friend.
A so-called social captcha will display a picture of one of your friends, and you will need to ID the person to authenticate yourself. Of course, this might become a problem if you are trying to authenticate and Facebook pulls up one of the "faux friends" that Jimmy Kimmel wanted you to dump or "unfriend."
Aishwarya Rai has become rather choosy in signing roles that pitch her alongside hubby Abhishek Bachchan, we hear that she has rather recommended Katrina Kaif for a role alongside Abhishek.
May be it’s a lesson hard learnt after the super debacle of Raavan, but Ash is wary of another professional faux pas and that’s quite evident from the buzz that she’s turned down director Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s next film that would have paired her with hubby Abhi. Rather, we hear that she’s recommended that Shah should go ahead and sign Katrina Kaif for the film.
Ash isn’t in a rush to sign new projects with Abhi until and unless the project is unique and creatively satisfying enough to lure her into signing on the dotted line. And this is not the first role with Abhi that Ash has turned down.
She first declined to do Dostana opposite him and also turned down Abhinav Deo’s Game with hubby dear.
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