Save hundreds on brand new MacBooks, iMacs and MacBook Pros

[AppleInsider]

A trio of sponsors have teamed up this month to offer AppleInsider readers savings of between $100 and $280 on Apple's most popular Mac product offerings, including the brand new 21- and 27-inch iMacs, as well the newly redesigned white polycarbonate 13-inch MacBook.

White 13-inch MacBooks

For example, OnSale.com is selling the just-announced $999 2.26GHz white MacBook for $923.99 after a $75 mail-in rebate. However, it's also offering AppleInsider readers an additional 3% of when using the links in this article or those in the Mac Price Guide (also below), bringing the final cost down to $899.18.

New 21- and 27-inch wide-screen iMacs

For its part, ClubMac is extending AI readers similar courtesy on sales of Apple's new 21- and 27-inch iMacs. After mail-in rebates are combined with the added 3% discount, the 3.06GHz 21-inch NVIDIA model comes to $1,093.18 ($105.82 savings), the 3.06GHz 21-inch ATI model to $1,374.18 ($124.82 savings), the 3.06GHz 27-inch ATI model to $1,548.18 ($150.82 savings), and the 2.66GHz quad-core 27-inch model to $1,834.18 ($164.82 savings).

13-, 15-, and 17-inch MacBook Pros

Meanwhile, MacMall's mail-in rebate and 3% offers cover the 13-, 15-, and 17-inch MacBook Pro lines. After discounts, the 2.26GHz 13-inch MacBook Pro falls to $1,078.18 ($120.82 savings), the 2.53GHz 13-inch MacBook Pro to $1,354.18 ($144.82 savings), the 2.53GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro to $1,543.18 ($155.82 savings), the 2.66GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro to $1,784.18 ($214.82 savings), the 2.80GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro to $2,025.18 ($273.82 savings), and the 2.80GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro to $2,219.18 ($279.82 savings).

In each of the above cases, the resellers' final costs fall below Apple's educational pricing for the respective models. Additional details are available in AppleInsider's Mac Price Guide, which is updated daily.

The 3% discounts are reflected as "Instant Discount(s)" during checkout, after the items have been added to your shopping cart. Discount will not show up before items are added to your shopping cart.

#bfmatrix, #bfmatrix3 { border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #aaa; } Current Generation Macs Product Apple Amazon MacMall MacConnection B&H Best Buy On Sale ClubMac Education Discount MacBook 2.26GHz 13" MacBook (white) $999.00 $994.00 $944.00 $989.99 N/A Yet N/A Yet $899.18• $923.99 $949.00 $99.82 MacBook Pro 2.26GHz 13" MacBook Pro $1,199.00 $1,168.95 $1,078.18* $1,119.00 $1,168.95 $1,199.00 $1,118.99 $1,118.99 $1,099.00 $120.82 2.53GHz 13" MacBook Pro $1,499.00 $1,474.00 $1,354.18* $1,399.00 $1,474.95 $1,499.00 $1,398.99 $1,398.99 $1,399.00 $144.82 2.53GHz 15" MacBook Pro $1,699.00 $1,678.95 $1,543.18* $1,579.00 $1,678.95 $1,699.00 $1,578.99 $1,578.99 $1,599.00 $155.82 2.66GHz 15" MacBook Pro $1,999.00 $1,948.95 $1,784.18* $1,799.00 $1,948.95 $1,999.00 $1,798.99 $1,798.99 $1,849.00 $214.82 2.80GHz 15" MacBook Pro $2,299.00 $2,110.00 $2,025.18* $2,089.00 $2,110.00 $2,229.00 $2,088.99 $2,088.99 $2,099.00 $273.82 2.80GHz 17" MacBook Pro $2,499.00 $2,311.99 $2,219.18* $2,249.00 $2,312.00 $2,499.00 $2,248.99 $2,248.99 $2,299.00 $279.82 MacBook Air 1.86GHz 13" MacBook Air $1,499.00 $1,449.00 $1,394.00 $1,439.00 $1,439.00 $1,499.00 $1,438.99 $1,438.99 $1,399.00 $105.00 2.13GHz 13" MacBook Air $1,799.00 $1,708.99 $1,694.00 $1,729.00 $1,709.95 $1,799.00 $1,728.99 $1,728.99 $1,699.00 $105.00 iMac 3.06GHz Dual 21" iMac $1,199.00 $1,194.00 $1,129.00 $1,169.00 N/A Yet N/A Yet $1129.00 $1,093.18+ $1,149.00 $105.82 3.06GHz Dual 21" iMac $1,499.00 $1,494.00 $1,419.00 $1,489.00 N/A Yet N/A Yet $1,419.00 $1,374.18+ $1,399.00 $124.82 3.06GHz Dual 27" iMac $1,699.00 $1,694.00 $1,599.00 $1,699.00 N/A Yet N/A Yet $1,599.00 $1,548.18+ $1,599.00 $150.82 2.66GHz Quad 27" iMac $1,999.00 $1,994.00 $1,894.00 $1,949.00 N/A Yet N/A Yet $1,894.00 $1,834.18+ $1,899.00 $164.82 Mac mini 2.26GHz Mac mini $599.00 $594.00 $589.99 $579.99 N/A Yet N/A Yet $589.99 $589.99 $549.00 $19.01 2.53GHz Mac mini $799.00 $794.00 $784.99 $769.99 N/A Yet N/A Yet $784.99 $784.99 $749.00 $29.01 Mac Pro 2.66GHz Mac Pro (Quad) $2,499.00 $2,299.00 $2,289.99 $2,299.00 $2,299.00 $2,499.99 $2,298.99 $2,298.99 $2,299.00 $200.01 2.26GHz Mac Pro (Octo) $3,299.00 $3,078.95 $3,069.99 $3,099.00 $3,078.95 $3,299.99 $3,078.99 $3,078.99 $2,999.00 $229.01

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[caljomac]

Whooo this is gonna make me really buy a new iMac

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by caljomac

Whooo this is gonna make me really buy a new iMac

And by the time you get your rebate back you'll look just like your emoticon.

[archer75]

why no discount on the i7 imac?

[shanmugam]

thank you appleinsider and staff,

but can you remove the product which no longer available? (like previous generation Mac Pro) ...

[MacTripper]

Another savings is doing business with a company that has no physical presence in your state, thus avoiding sales tax.

Apple, even online, has to charge sales tax because they have a store in nearly every state in the union.


For the more advanced among us:

When you first get your Mac from a shipper, it's wise to clone the boot drive to another drive, option boot and repair permissions on both to verify it's working correctly, then erase with Zero option the original boot drive. Cloning copies the whole drive, programs and structure etc. It works just like the original.

Shippers are rough with parcels, damage to the platter sectors may have occurred during transport or from the factory, even from overseas. Zeroing will map off these bad sectors, giving you a much more reliable computing experience and less glitchy behavior. Later on as the drive fills up, it may come across bad sectors and you'll be wondering WTF? So it's wise to Zero early on with every new drive before using it.

You can option boot off the clone and reverse clone after zeroing, keep the clone as a fall back optional boot method in case later on all things go bad with your original drive. Drives are cheap, cloning software like Carbon Copy Cloner and Superduper are near free and easy to use, it's a life saver trust me. Drives just die one day for no reason, great to have a alternate boot method in addition to any other method like Time Machine etc. Don't use Filevault of course.

I was taught this method by video production friends because their files are often quite large and thus more likely to run across bad sectors on the drive. Having watched my hard drives being carelessly dropped at my door and 30" displays just dragged across a busy highway, I was a bit hesitant to order anything online after those incidents, but now take plenty of precautions to protect my data. Zeroing has greatly increased my computers reliability. Also redundancy, lots of redundancy. Store clones and file copies off site in case of fire, theft, flood, and deranged girlfriends too.

And especially for the new iMac, since the hard drive is most likely not user accessible (again), booting off a clone will allow you to use the computer until you can schedule a appointment for service. You might even be able to retrieve files using Data Rescue or any other recovery software which read the bit's directly, bypassing the file system.

Clone your whole boot drive every two weeks, and before any major software install/OS update.

(no comp for product mention)

[whatisgoingon]

MacMall may not be the best place to buy, particularly to only 'save' $10...

Macintouch MacMall reader page

[codog24]

Just tried to take advantage of one of these deals (specifically, the 3.06GHz 21-inch ATI iMac), and when the page finally loads, the discount isn't reflected. Maybe this goes into effect tomorrow...?

[libertyforall]

BUT the cheapest Macs are on eBay, Craigslist, or similar... ;-)

[TroubleStarter]

Both MacBook Pro 13" and the new MacBook 13" have:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz
2 GB DDR3
1280 x 800 gloss display LCD
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
7h hour battery
New touch pad

Apparently, the only differences are:

Aluminum case vs Plastic case
Firewire port present vs No Firewire port
Backlit keyboard vs Regular keyboard
160GB vs 250GB (!!!)

But, one costs 1199.00 (or 1078.00 using AppleInsider's discount) and the other costs 999.00 (or 899.18 using AppleInsider's discount).

Does anyone else here think that Apple should lower the prices for MacBook Pro 13"? Or, at least, start shipping MacBook Pro 13" with 250GB standard?

I went to an Apple Store today and test-drove both and, though, I like the aluminum case, I don't see a point in purchasing it anymore, especially with a hard disk 36% smaller.

[Kasper]

Originally Posted by codog24

Just tried to take advantage of one of these deals (specifically, the 3.06GHz 21-inch ATI iMac), and when the page finally loads, the discount isn't reflected. Maybe this goes into effect tomorrow...?

The 3% discount are reflected as "Instant Discount(s)" during checkout, after the items have been added to your shopping cart. Discount will not show up before items are added to your shopping cart.


Sorry-- shoulda made that clear

[Shogun]

Ha. Mail in rebate? I don't think so. I've never had one of those come through. They always put 17 steps in there that you have to do exactly so then ding you and disqualify the request based on some stupid meaningless misstep.

To be clear, I don't have experience with these companies and mail in rebates, but thanks but no thanks. Not worth 45 minutes of my time to fill out paperwork for a rebate that'll never arrive.

[hpapad01]

I think the best rebate program I have experienced belongs to Canon. The advertised rebate is deducted at the point of sale. Period, end of story, no papers to fill, no steps to follow, no waiting for a check. And BTW, I am a Nikon shooter.

Originally Posted by Shogun

Ha. Mail in rebate? I don't think so. I've never had one of those come through. They always put 17 steps in there that you have to do exactly so then ding you and disqualify the request based on some stupid meaningless misstep.

To be clear, I don't have experience with these companies and mail in rebates, but thanks but no thanks. Not worth 45 minutes of my time to fill out paperwork for a rebate that'll never arrive.

[Undo Redo]

I have always gotten the rebates; on several computer purchases. Just follow simple directions. It takes about 10 minutes.

[bugsnw]

I used to fill in and send those rebates for MacMall purchases. Then I discovered that Apple was more than willing to beat any and all deals. This offered quick and easy on-the-phone customization and ordering with software discounts often thrown in for good measure.

So I order exclusively from Apple via a phone rep. Great customer service and goodies thrown in. I've retired from filling out rebate forms and hoping for the best.

By the way, thank you for link. Tomorrow I'll order the 27" and hopefully get to keep a little extra xmas money in my pocket.

[libertyforall]

Rebates do suck, although the Bing rebate is ok, you just have to wait for a few weeks for some...

[NasserAE]

Originally Posted by Shogun

Ha. Mail in rebate? I don't think so. I've never had one of those come through. They always put 17 steps in there that you have to do exactly so then ding you and disqualify the request based on some stupid meaningless misstep.

To be clear, I don't have experience with these companies and mail in rebates, but thanks but no thanks. Not worth 45 minutes of my time to fill out paperwork for a rebate that'll never arrive.

MacMall rebate is really easy to do. You can fill the form well before you receive your Mac, check it out before you buy on their website. Amazon rebate program is electronic and simple as well. I remember I received the rebates from MacMall within 2 weeks or so after mailing and Amazon within the same time frame. I like ordering from MacMall and Amazon (and other online places) because I don't have to pay taxes, which is something around $88 for each $1000 in my state) and the rebate is a plus.

[bugsnw]

Technically, those that buy from out of state retailers still owe Sales Tax (if their state has a sales tax, which most do). It's just called a Use tax. And it's up to the individual to track online purchases where ST was not paid and remit the identical amount that would have been paid if the retailer had collected ST.

Amazon is one of the few that doesn't collect it for states where it has no nexus. But that's going to change, especially with the current budget deficits across many states. They will be looking at all possible revenue sources. And this is one big source that is being overlooked (well, except if you're a business, where the collection is far more aggressive).

[technohermit]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

the 2.53GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro to $1,543.18 ($155.82 savings)

Aww man, I'm so broke, but I'd love to sell my current 2.4 C2D Mid-08 and get this unibody. Matte screen, though

[houseley]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

A trio of sponsors have teamed up this month to offer AppleInsider readers

...in the US only?

[TBell]

Unlike traditional brick and mortar retailers, current federal law forbids the states to force online retailers to collect sales tax where the online retailer doesn't have an in state physical location. States have been pressuring Congress to change this, but so far the online retailers have been victorious in getting Congress to resist the change. States can regulate brick and mortar stores because they have an in state presence. Online stores most often do not.

Like you say, the buyer, however, is supposed to report this purchase on their Income Tax Return in the states that have a sales tax. The buyer hardly ever does this, which is why states are unhappy. I do not feel bad for the States though.

Originally Posted by bugsnw

Technically, those that buy from out of state retailers still owe Sales Tax (if their state has a sales tax, which most do). It's just called a Use tax. And it's up to the individual to track online purchases where ST was not paid and remit the identical amount that would have been paid if the retailer had collected ST.

Amazon is one of the few that doesn't collect it for states where it has no nexus. But that's going to change, especially with the current budget deficits across many states. They will be looking at all possible revenue sources. And this is one big source that is being overlooked (well, except if you're a business, where the collection is far more aggressive).

[pmz]

No way to get the education discounts on top of these correct? That's through Apple only?

[bugsnw]

Originally Posted by TBell

Like you say, the buyer, however, is supposed to report this purchase on their Income Tax Return in the states that have a sales tax. The buyer hardly ever does this, which is why states are unhappy. I do not feel bad for the States though.

Yep. I don't shed any tears myself. What's worse is what happened in WA state. They sent Use tax forms to all small businesses. The form threatened an audit if the business didn't send in some money. Turns out the State 'knew' purchases were made across state lines and wanted their chunk.

Imagine the angst if you were a business that made purchases only through online retailers that collected sales tax. The threat of an audit is a very effective too to extort additional funds.

[vucats54]

OnSale either doesn't have the Macbook available or their website is messed up. You click on Buy Now/Customize button and you get an error that the page is not found. Not much of incentive to buy from them.

[daehl]

Originally Posted by TroubleStarter

Both MacBook Pro 13" and the new MacBook 13" have:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz
2 GB DDR3
1280 x 800 gloss display LCD
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
7h hour battery
New touch pad

Apparently, the only differences are:

Aluminum case vs Plastic case
Firewire port present vs No Firewire port
Backlit keyboard vs Regular keyboard
160GB vs 250GB (!!!)

But, one costs 1199.00 (or 1078.00 using AppleInsider's discount) and the other costs 999.00 (or 899.18 using AppleInsider's discount).

Does anyone else here think that Apple should lower the prices for MacBook Pro 13"? Or, at least, start shipping MacBook Pro 13" with 250GB standard?

I went to an Apple Store today and test-drove both and, though, I like the aluminum case, I don't see a point in purchasing it anymore, especially with a hard disk 36% smaller.

Yes, I noticed the exact same thing yesterday. The $1199 MSRP MacBook Pro 13" now seems less of a value when compared to the base MacBook. At the bare minimum, I would think Apple should upgrade the base config to a 250GB HD on the MBP (with no increase in cost). That would be enough to restore the value for me, but I'm very close to making a purchasing decision and the MacBook suddenly seems like a better deal all things considered. The backlit keyboard is the only feature it is sorely missing (for my purposes) and that's hard to justify for the extra $200 or so.

Although, I'm probably going to wait until Black Friday to purchase though. We have Apple EPP discount pricing where I work, and you can double-dip on the Black Friday discount, which (usually) puts the Apple store prices less than MacMall's (and no rebates to deal with). Though, I'm not put off by rebates, I've done them before and always gotten them (eventually).

[daehl]

Originally Posted by MacTripper

For the more advanced among us:

When you first get your Mac from a shipper, it's wise to clone the boot drive to another drive, option boot and repair permissions on both to verify it's working correctly, then erase with Zero option the original boot drive. Cloning copies the whole drive, programs and structure etc. It works just like the original.

Shippers are rough with parcels, damage to the platter sectors may have occurred during transport or from the factory, even from overseas. Zeroing will map off these bad sectors, giving you a much more reliable computing experience and less glitchy behavior. Later on as the drive fills up, it may come across bad sectors and you'll be wondering WTF? So it's wise to Zero early on with every new drive before using it.

Wow! That's a lot of extra work, seems totally unnecessary for the reason described. The read/write heads on hard drives are parked in a safe spot off the surface of the drives when they're not in use, so normal motion and dropping during transport (assuming the drives aren't in use) have no effect on the surface of the platters (creating bad sectors). And any impacts severe enough to damage the drives would probably shred the box and definitely destroy other componants in the computer as well.

But, of course, there's nothing wrong with having a bootable backup of your drive, it can come in handy for sure.

And of course, bad sectors due exist on pretty much every drive, and new Bad sectors do appear during normal use. Hard drives are designed to deal with them by including spare sectors that can be called into action as new bad sectors appear. My understaning is that most drives (S.M.A.R.T. drives in particular) will remap them on the fly during normal use (it checks every sector used during a write operation).

So it's not necessary to erase the entire drive to remap sectors, and even that will not always "work" completely because sectors can also be marked as "unstable" where they've had a history of unreliability, but the drive will continue to use them (not remap them as "bad") as long as they can still be read.

[MacTripper]

Originally Posted by daehl

Wow! That's a lot of extra work, seems totally unnecessary for the reason described. The read/write heads on hard drives are parked in a safe spot off the surface of the drives when they're not in use, so normal motion and dropping during transport (assuming the drives aren't in use) have no effect on the surface of the platters (creating bad sectors). And any impacts severe enough to damage the drives would probably shred the box and definitely destroy other componants in the computer as well.

But, of course, there's nothing wrong with having a bootable backup of your drive, it can come in handy for sure.

And of course, bad sectors due exist on pretty much every drive, and new Bad sectors do appear during normal use. Hard drives are designed to deal with them by including spare sectors that can be called into action as new bad sectors appear. My understaning is that most drives (S.M.A.R.T. drives in particular) will remap them on the fly during normal use (it checks every sector used during a write operation).

So it's not necessary to erase the entire drive to remap sectors, and even that will not always "work" completely because sectors can also be marked as "unstable" where they've had a history of unreliability, but the drive will continue to use them (not remap them as "bad") as long as they can still be read.

I've found that even with so called "smart drives" and park-able heads, that zeroing each and every new drive still increases my computers reliability.

I don't know the exact reason why, as this would require doing reliability tests on hundreds of drives for hundreds of hours, but perhaps with smart drives it allows drive makers to relax their standards as they certainly can't take the time to verify each and every sector before shipment.

It could be I'm catching and correcting a lot of errors before it has a chance to screw with my data.

Cloning seems a lot of work, but it really isn't, the computer does all the work, but when your drive fails it's a blessing.

Zeroing seems like a lot of work too, but it certainly erases any "crap", either placed on their by drive makers or on the drive by malicious means.

I remember all those iPods that shipped with a PC virus, mine didn't get it because I always zero the drive first.