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• iPhone 3G 8GB Black - $99US
• iPhone 3G 16GB Black - $199US
• iPhone 3G 16GB White - $199US

If you have been waiting to get your hands on VMWare's Fusion, then now is the perfect time. Fusion is the software that allows you to run Windows, Linux, and now Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine right inside of Mac OS X! And you don't have to pay the regular $79.99US for it either.

MacMall is currently offering VMWare Fusion 1.0 for $14.99US after a $20US mail-in rebate. Fusion 1.0 can be upgraded to the newest version (2.0) via a free upgrade available from VMWare. You can grab this after-holiday sale item from the MacMall website.

Know of more holiday sale items online? Tell us about them in the comments!

Thanks to Karl for the tip!

Stick with us here: first, there was the free Aurora Feint: The Beginning, which has recieved some pretty rave reviews as one of the first iPhone games. Then there was Aurora Feint II: The Arena, which added multiplayer and some much-awaited MMO features. And now the folks behind it all have announced two more Aurora Feint games: there's Aurora Feint II: The Beginning, which features the gameplay of the first game with new graphics and the extra MMO features included, and Aurora Feint II: The Tower Puzzles, which contains more of the gameplay seen in the "Tower" location in the full game. Got all that?

The Arena and The Beginning are not compatible -- The Arena offers multiplayer, while The Beginning is all singleplayer. And the second version (II) of The Beginning is still singleplayer, but offers the MMO features introduced in The Arena along with the singleplayer gameplay. And The Tower Puzzles is more puzzles based on the "Tower" mode, and according to the iTunes description, does not include the MMO features. Whew. Complicated, no?

The good news is that it's all cheap -- for now, anyway. The very first game is still free. The Beginning (version II) and The Tower Puzzles are both 99 cents right now as an introductory price, to go up to $2.99 and $1.99 respectively in January. And The Arena is $7.99 -- pricey, but it's the only place you can dive into multiplayer (and it's also not compatible with both versions of The Beginning). All are available in the App Store right now, and even if you don't want any of them, feel free to scan your eyeballs over the pretty pictures below.

Gallery: Aurora Feint

I haven't run the numbers thoroughly, but there's a team consensus here that iTunes library management and synchronization questions occupy high slots in the top 10 list of frequent questions to Ask TUAW and our tip line. With multiple machines, iPods/iPhones and massive libraries of media, keeping everything shipshape can be a real challenge.

Past posts have discussed several options for sharing and syncing, including products like Syncopation, myTuneSync, TuneRanger and Mojo -- and one item that keeps showing up in the list is SuperSync, mentioned by Mat here. It may not be the most attractive tool for the job, but reports are that it handles the task with aplomb (though it's a good idea to back up your library first).

SuperSync is discounted 50% today via MacZot, at $14.95 for a pair of licenses (allowing you to sync 2 machines); if library cleanup is on your holiday to-do list, it might be a good last-second purchase. We'll aim for a TUAW Faceoff on the various library sync and management tools early in the new year.

Phantom Fish and CoolLittleThings have teamed up to give away 42 copies of both Byline and BlogPress. If you buy one app, you win a chance to get the other for free.

Three winners will be chosen every day beginning the 18th, and ending on the 31st. The promotion is available to anyone who purchases either Byline or BlogPress between today and the end of the year.

Depending on which app you buy, you must email a copy of your iTunes receipt to the app's publisher to be entered into the contest. Full details and instructions are available on both the Phantom Fish and CoolLittleThings websites.

Byline is a Google Reader client and offline browser for the iPhone, which I reviewed in October. It's available for $4.99 in the App Store.

BlogPress is an easy-to-use WYSIWYG blog editor that supports all the maintream blogging platforms, including Blogger, WordPress and Movable Type. It's also available for $4.99 in the App Store.

If you've been considering Parallels Desktop for your two computers, they have a great deal for you: buy one for $80 and get one free. The price effectively gets you two copies of Parallels for $40 each. Not bad. Just follow this link here.

Parallels Desktop is virtualization software that allows you to run a variety of PC operating systems from within Mac OS X.

[Via Smoking Apples.]

• Drive Genius 2
• RapidWeaver 4
• DefaultFolder X 4
• VirusBarrier X 10.5
• MacGourmet Deluxe
• LittleSnitch 2
• KeyCue 4
• MacPilot 3
• WhatSize 4
• iVolume 3

• ShareTool automatically configures routers supporting NAT-PMP or UPnP
• Remote services automatically appear in Finder, iTunes, and other applications
• ShareTool enables remote access for any application or service that advertises itself using Bonjour and runs over TCP/IP
• All network traffic is strongly encrypted. Access to your services requires your Mac OS X username and password
• Dynamic domain name support
• On the fly compression: Transfer large files quickly

There are lots of iPhone app discounts to be had for the remaining 3 hours of the day (that's ET -- different developers may trigger the return to regular pricing at different times, although I believe 'official App Store time' is PT), but two in particular caught my eye as excellent temp-free apps, and probably worth their regular prices as well.

Houdah Software's ACTPrinter addresses a longstanding challenge for the iPhone: how to easily get PDF files or other printables onto the device without having to email them to yourself. Using a driver on the Mac side to wirelessly ship the printed doc across to the device is a delightful approach to the problem, and from what I've seen it works like a charm (you can judge for yourself via this screencast). Such a bargain! ACTPrinter is normally $0.99.

For a different moneysaving strategy, check out MeterRead from Zerogate. This app (video demo here) lets you keep track of your electrical usage by saving and analyzing your meter statistics. Does the dishwasher use more power than the air hockey table? Do compact-fluorescent bulbs save major kilowatts, or just a trickle? You can find out with MeterRead; the developer cites a study that indicates 10-20% electrical savings for motivated consumers who analyze their usage. MeterRead is normally $2.99.

Last chance to submit your favorite App Store ephemeral freebies in the comments!

Just because Apple aficionados have historically been willing to pay a modest premium for the world's best computers, music players and cellphones, that doesn't mean they don't enjoy the occasional bargain as much as their Windows-using, Zune-toting, Blackberry-typing brethren. In the spirit of healthy holiday consumerism, here's our list (far from comprehensive) of a few select deals for the Black Friday sales. You can get full-on shop-till-you-drop coverage at dealmac.com, and quick overviews from Gizmodo and dealNN.

Naturally, Amazon and Newegg both have big discounts on most gear for today -- not all of it is good for Macheads but there are plenty of treats on the hard drive, headphone and camera front. Amazon is selling SwissGear backpacks for $24, which is tempting, and shows the iPod touch 8GB at $209; that's likely to be matched by the Apple Store's one-day discount as it rolls around the globe. Newegg has the usual excellent pricing on hard drives and flash memory, although not much on the 'secret deals page' is overly Apple-oriented; $19 for an 8 GB flash drive might raise some eyebrows and liberate some funds, though.

The heat on hardware is also clearly set to 'high' with the discounts from Best Buy, MacMall and MacConnection. Right now MacConnection is showing the best deal on my benchmark machine (the midrange MacBook unibody), with a selling price of $1149 -- keep an eye on the other sites too, as MacMall is right behind at $1179.

If you love to watch TV on your shiny Mac screen, there's a deal for you too. Elgato is offering $50 off of the $149 EyeTV Hybrid HDTV tuner and DVR software bundle today. This is a particularly good item for anyone who has an older analog TV in a spot where they don't have cable or satellite but they do have a computer -- it's a great way to get through the digital transition in February of 2009, as domestic US television drops its analog signals for good.

Nobody can live by hardware alone, though, and there are plenty of software and accessory vendors who want to grab their fair share of your gift budget. A few of note below...

...for the downtime in the store means that the Black Friday discounts will soon be up in the US. We already know the rough scale of the savings -- modest, not dramatic -- so don't get too excited!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in. Now, go to bed and sleep off that load of turkey.