Fukubukuro, or "Mystery Bag," is a Japanese New Year's Day tradition during which merchants sell sealed bags of various items at a substantial discount, often as high as 50%. Apple participated this year, and one lucky shopper, Justin, blogged his experience.

For the approximate equivalent of $384US, Justin received

• an 8 GB iPod touch
• Nike iPod sensor and armband
• Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere2 speaker set
• Cool, re-useable bag (at right)
• Commemorative T-shirt
• 2009 calendar

Quite a haul! Shoppers lined up at midnight on January 2nd for a chance to buy one of Apple's Mystery Bags. I'm thinking that US retailers need to adopt this tradition.

[Via ifoAppleStore]

For many online and brick and mortar stores, it has not been a great holiday season. Even with all the after-Christmas sales today, retailers are saying they do not expect to be able to make up for the effects of a dismal economy.

For Amazon, however, things went very well. Today Amazon reported that this has been their best season so far, shipping an amazing 72.9 items per second. Amazon has not reported profits, so with deep discounting they may not have made as much money as last year, even though they have sold more items.

In the electronics category, where computers and MP3 players sit, the Apple iPod touch was a best seller. Of the 25 best selling notebook computers, 7 were Apple laptops when I checked. (These numbers change hourly.) Only one other laptop that sells for more than 500 dollars made the top 25, a Toshiba for $599. The rest of the top sellers were all under $500 and included several netbooks. Are you listening, Apple? Netbooks are catching on. What is so interesting is that Apple users did not seem to be very sensitive to price, and the best selling Apple notebook was not the cheapest, but was in fact the new unibody MacBook.

For desktop computer sales, 3 of the 5 best sellers are Macs, but note these numbers change hourly too. Dell and HP round out the top 5. While not authoritative, Apple seems to weathering some of the economic recession. When Apple releases holiday benchmarks for their retail and online store, the results should be interesting.

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

The Apple TV launched almost two years ago and has yet to really "take off." That's OK, with more and more downloadable HD content, improved support for stuff like podcasts and Airtunes and some awesome third-party solutions, the Apple TV can easily become a great media center.

Did Santa bring you an Apple TV this year? These are my tips for making it even more awesome!

Boxee It

I've made no secret about my unabashed love for boxee, the awesome media center with a social kick that can run on your Apple TV. It should be no surprise that my first piece of advice is that you set-up boxee on your Apple TV as soon as you get it connected to your TV and home theater.

Need an invite? If you don't have a friend to ask, check out the boxee forums, hit up the boxee Twitter feed or pester me (@film_girl) and you should be able to get one pretty quickly. On January 8th, 2009, boxee will be opening up the alpha for everyone.

After you've updated your Apple TV to the latest firmware, follow my instructions or take a look the information at the ATV USB Creator project page for the the details on making a patchstick. The process is extremely easy and you just need a USB stick (1 GB or more recommended) and a few minutes to get everything up and running.

Once boxee is installed, you can enjoy Hulu (if you live in the US), streaming video from other services, last.fm and playback of other file types that won't natively play on the Apple TV; you can store those files either on the Apple TV, or that you access from another hard drive.

Learn about the other cool software add-ons

I really love the Awkward TV Wiki, which is a great way to stay abreast of the latest programs and hacks users have created for the Apple TV. Most of these plugins can be installed via a patchstick -- like boxee -- and they run on-top of the existing Apple TV interface. Some of the coolest utilities, like Couchsurfer, have recently been updated for firmware 2.3.

Although modifying your Apple TV does come with some risks (you might have to do a factory restore if something goes wrong), the methodology of applying said modifications has become much, much easier and you really aren't putting your Apple TV at risk. Still, keep in mind that Apple won't provide any technical support for a modified Apple TV (which means, restore it to factory settings before sending it back :-)).

Try out a new remote, ore the iPhone/iPod touch remote app

One of the most usefulf feature additions in firmware 2.3 is the ability to program a universal remote to work with the Apple TV. If you have a really nice programmable remote, like the Logitech Harmony, you've already been able to use it with the Apple TV -- but now you can do the same thing with your TV or receiver remote.

Even better, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, the Remote app [iTunes link] is pretty awesome. The Remote app let's you control music from your Apple TV -- which is fantastic if you want to use the ATV as a music center.

Rent some holiday movies or buy a holiday TV show

'Tis the season! Rent or buy a Christmas movie directly from the Apple TV! You can also peruse some holiday TV classics, like The Best Christmukkah Ever from the first season of The O.C.

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Some good soul gifted you with a hard drive for the holidays. I can't think of a better gift! There are two ways to use that extra disk space -- the right way, which I'll get to in a moment, and the way many people do it, which is to just expand their disk space because they are running out of room.

I'm here to tell you that is the wrong thing to do with a new hard drive if you don't have a backup strategy already. Let's make a few assumptions here. The new drive has a USB 2.0 interface, or it has a Firewire 400 or 800 interface. It also is at least as large as your primary hard drive. Even better if it is bigger. Use that drive as a backup device, not for more disk space. Old hands around computers already know this, but if you are just getting started, it really is extra important to have all your files duplicated on another drive.

With any computer, stuff happens, like a sudden power surge, a drive failure, or a kid in the house who loves to see how the Mac trash can works. Can you really afford to lose all those pictures, emails, documents and CDs you lovingly ripped to iTunes? I didn't think so.

Getting a heavy duty back up is not too challenging. If you plug a brand new drive in, your Mac (assuming you have Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) will ask you if you'd like to use it as a Time Machine drive. Time Machine is Apple's built-in backup solution, and it is great for people who constantly change or update files and sometimes have a good reason to go back and get the old versions. The larger your extra drive, the further you can 'go back in time'. Time Machine allows you to restore all the data, but it can take several hours and may require your original system DVD if your machine isn't bootable.

Read on for more...

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Did Santa leave you a camcorder for Christmas? If he did, you probably did what most people do -- ripped open the package, slapped a battery pack on it, and started recording the fun. Hopefully you're reading this post before you've succumbed to that temptation, so you can avoid issues later on. Here are some hints to make your future as a filmmaker as trouble-free as possible.

1) Read The Manual. Most people tend to toss out the manual with the wrapping paper, but for something as complex as a camcorder it's a good idea to keep and read the manual. Sure, with a point and shoot camcorder like a Flip Mino you can get away with giving the camcorder a quick charge and then going to town recording the kids bouncing off the walls in a sugar-induced frenzy. But if you were really good and Santa got you a high-end HD camcorder with a powerful zoom lens, image stabilization, and other cool features, you'd better learn how to use them.

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Congratulations, you've finally gotten an iPhone! It's either your very first one, or you've managed to upgrade to the iPhone 3G. As with any new hardware purchase, now you get to have even more fun selecting accessories for it.

How to use your iPhone
There is plenty of information out there if you're looking for a basic guide to the functions of your new iPhone. One of the best sources for free information is right here at TUAW. Here's a couple of tips to help you get started:

• Taking screenshots: Hold down the home button and then quickly press the sleep/wake button. You'll see a flash and hear the sound of a camera click, and a screenshot of your current screen will be placed in the Camera Roll under Photos.
• Back to home: If you're browsing a page on a home screen other than the initial one, press the home button again and it'll take you back to the first page of the home screen. You can also speed-scroll through your home screens by tapping to the left or the right of the white & gray page indicator dots at the bottom of the screen.
• Back to the top of the screen: In both Mobile Mail and Mobile Safari, if you've scrolled down to the bottom of the page and want to get back to the top easily, just tap the menu bar and your page will spring back to the beginning.

Headphones
If you're like a good many people, you want to replace the stock Apple earbuds as soon as possible. I love my Bose In-Ear headphones, for example. Shure is another excellent brand for purchasing earbuds, and their SE110MPA Sound Isolating Stereo Headset includes an inline microphone and a control button for receiving and ending calls. Sennheiser also makes a similar headset, but for a lower price. For the true audiophiles, there's Etymotic's hf2 headset. If you have $350 to spend, there is the Beats headphones by Dr. Dre.

If you like Apple's headset but find that it's a poor fit, then it's worth the $9 to purchase a set of BudFits. They attach onto Apple's earbuds and then wrap around your earlobe for a very secure fit.

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

It was probably the biggest box under the tree (unless you really splurged on the anniversary edition of the Radio Flyer wagon); now that you've got your new, speedy iMac unpacked and plugged in, what's next?

USB + Input

Despite a full set of three USB ports on the back of the iMac, you're inevitably going to need more ports up front at some point. A hub that makes a fashion-forward statement -- or a retro one -- will be a nice add-on for your machine. If you're going to be importing loads of holiday pictures from your new digicam to your iMac, a standalone SD card reader will be faster than using the camera's tethered upload.

If you're feeling restricted by the included wired Mighty Mouse, you could spring for the wireless Bluetooth version... but believe it or not, Microsoft makes a snazzy Mac-friendly wireless mouse too.

Storage

If you've already got a Time MachineCapsule or other outboard storage, you're all set to begin backing up your new iMac; otherwise, a drive for backup should be first on your post-Christmas shopping list. Western Digital's MyBook Studio Edition matches your iMac's aluminum finish and provides quad-interface storage for backups and more. If you forgo the Firewire, you can find USB-only 1TB drives for around $100US -- no excuse not to get the storage you need. Of course, if you need lots of storage, there is another way.

If you're one of the lucky people who got a digital camera this Christmas, congratulations and welcome to the fun and exciting world of digital photography. But now that you have your shiny new camera and are holding it in your eager hands, what's next? Fortunately, I've been in your shoes and can offer the following tips to hopefully make your new camera easier to use and more fun to play with. Let me help get you started on the road to taking some great pictures.

Memory Cards

Digital pictures can be quite large when it comes to file sizes; modern cameras can chew up plenty of megabytes with each shot. Consequently, the meager capacity of the compact flash (CF) or secure digital (SD/SDHC) memory card that came with your camera just isn't going to do the trick for very long. So, one of the first things you are going to want is a larger card, or cards, to store your pictures.

I tend to stick to memory cards from Sandisk or Lexar and opt for several medium-sized cards, such as 2GB, instead of just one big one. This way, in case disaster strikes and a memory card fails, which they sometimes do, all of your not-yet-downloaded pictures are not on just one card and are instead spread across several of them.

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays! If you're a iPod veteran, send a link to this post to the switcher on your holiday list.

Congrats on your new iPod nano! We hope the color matches your wardrobe.

Setting Up
If you do not already have iTunes (available for Mac and Windows) installed, then you will need to get that taken care of. The latest version is available for free from the Apple website. Depending on your Internet connection, this download could take a few minutes, but remember that you shouldn't connect your iPod until you know that iTunes is installed. If you have a Mac, then iTunes probably came installed on your machine, so check your "Applications" directory for iTunes.app.

Once you have iTunes installed, plug your iPod nano into a USB port on your computer using the included USB Dock connector. By default, iTunes will launch and ask you to set up your iPod nano for the first time. You will start by entering a descriptive name for your iPod -- you can choose anything you wish.

You will then be able to sync your music from your iTunes library. If you don't have much in your library, you can download some tunes from the iTunes Store (perhaps you received an iTunes Gift Card), or you can rip music from CDs directly to your library. Of course, you aren't limited to the iTunes store for your music shopping: any online music store that delivers MP3 files (eMusic and Amazon, for example) will work just fine with your iPod.

iTunes also lets you subscribe to and download your favorites from thousands of free audio and video podcasts (we can suggest a few winners) and listen to online radio stations. You can't copy those streaming programs to your iPod, though, without a separate tool like RadioLover or RadioShift; if you really crave radio and your local stations don't broadcast online, you can check out Griffin's RadioShark peripheral for off-the-air recording.

Continue reading for more tips, tricks, accessories, and more!

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Hopefully a lot of you reached into your Christmas stockings and pulled out a lump of coal fully-loaded iTunes gift card. In case you haven't been presented with one of these gems before, they come in denominations of $10, $25, $50, and $100 in the USA -- check your country's Apple website for the availability of cards in your local currency.

Turning this card into tunes or iPhone apps is simple:

1) Check the back of the card first. If you see a list of numbers and letters instead of the words "Scratch off gently with coin", then your card has been used before. Take the giver off of your Christmas list for next year.

2) If the scratch-off material is intact, grab a coin and gently scratch off the material to reveal the code.

3) Launch iTunes. Make sure you're logged into your iTunes account and not somebody else's.

4) In the upper right part of the iTunes screen you'll see an area marked "Quick Links" (see screenshot at left). Click on the "Redeem" link.

5) You're almost there. A screen appears that will ask you to enter the code exactly as it appears. Note that if you mistype even one number or letter, the card will be rejected, so make sure you're reading the letters and number properly.

6) Click the "Redeem" button. You may want to read the Terms & Conditions, but I seriously doubt it. There's more legalese in that document than you'd find in a bank bailout plan.

7) If everything has gone as planned at this point, you'll have a credit in your account. Exactly how much money you have to play with will be listed just to the left of your iTunes account name in the upper right side of the iTunes window.

8) Buy tunes and apps until you're filled with the joy of the holidays!

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Did you wake up this morning with a shiny new iPod touch under the tree? If you did, read on to get our suggestions in making the "funnest iPod ever" even more fun!

You know, even though the grammar in the ad kills me -- Apple got it right, the iPod touch really is the "funnest iPod ever." The first-generation touch was a great device but the second generation touch is even better. Faster than its predecessor (it is even faster than the iPhone 3G), and now with a built-in speaker, the ability to record your voice and built-in Nike+ support, the iPod touch is one of the most versatile digital devices on the market today.

Here are my suggestions for making the iPod touch experience even better:

Earphones

The stock earbuds that come with the iPod touch are the same white earbuds (more or less) Apple has been packing with its iPod since the first version came out in 2001. Seven years later, they still suck. While they'll do in a pinch, if you really want to listen to high quality audio files (maybe something in Apple Lossless) or watch a movie or TV show with a less tinny sound, you'll want to replace them.

You don't even have to spend a fortune to get a better sounding earbud, though if you want to get your audio-geek on, you certainly can.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Sony MDR-ED21LP - If you want a solid replacement for the buds that ship with the iPod touch, but you don't want to spend more than $20, check these out. You can get them for $15 US from Amazon.com and they are lightweight and provide a substantially better experience than the default earphones. I have a pair of these stashed in my purse in case of an emergency (and no earphones is most certainly an emergency) or for running or walking in nasty weather. A solid replacement.
• Apple In-Ear with Microphone and Remote - Apple's first pair of in-ear headphones were just awful. Awful. The fit was weird and they had this great tendency to stop working (more specifically, one ear would stop working) after six months. The new In-Ear headphones include a microphone and a remote, and the reviews have been largely positive. For $80, the set offers a solid experience.
• Denon AH-C551K In-Ear Earphones - Amazon.com is selling these for $55 (MSRP is $99.99) and these are a great pair of entry-level ECH buds. I like them better than my old Shure EC3s.
• Shure I2C-MP - i'm mentioning these because at $40 US from Amazon.com, they are a pretty great deal. The buds themselves aren't as good as other Shure products, but the addition of a microphone that works with the iPod touch 2G and the great price point makes them worth a look.

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays!

Congratulations on your new MacBook Pro!

For the Desk
While you are on the go, the MacBook Pro allows you to have the best mobile Mac experience; however, when you get home, you might want to have a more complete desktop config. The first place to start is by purchasing a display. Apple's 24" LED Cinema Display is the ultimate MacBook Pro accessory that combines a huge 24" glossy screen with additional speakers, iSight camera, and power for your MacBook via a MagSafe adapter. While the Cinema display is gorgeous, it is also expensive -- if you don't mind how your external display looks, then you can go with a Dell display. It's true, Dell displays can give you more "bang for the buck" with bigger screens for less money.

If you plan on using your MacBook Pro in desktop mode some of the time, then you might want to consider getting an external mouse and keyboard. I would recommend the Apple Bluetooth keyboard because of its portability and cool design. I would also recommend the MightyMouse, but have a warning for you: It may break sometime within the first year of owning it. The Mighty Mouse most commonly has a problem with the scroll ball failing to scroll after some use; however, a good cleaning can normally free up the scroll ball.

Other Desktop accessories that go great with a MacBook Pro:

• Griffin Technology's Simplifi is a clean, simple solution to docking your iPhone/iPod, accessing photos/other media on media cards, and it does triple duty as a USB Hub.
• The Rain Design, Inc. mStand (or Griffin Elevator) is a great way to get your notebook up to eye level for better ergonomics.

Read on for more applications, cases, and software for your new MacBook Pro.

A couple days before Christmas a year ago, I walked into a local Apple reseller and without hesitation told the salesperson I wanted a MacBook. It was my first brand-new Mac ever, and I couldn't be prouder of my little machine. While I was sitting in Barnes and Noble writing this post, an older lady sitting next to me leaned across the table to her companion. "I got my grandson one of those for Christmas," she said, pointing at my MacBook.

If you're reading this, you've also just received a MacBook for Christmas or Hannukah, or have recently purchased one. So, what do you do with it now? You need accessories, of course! Some of the best ones to get are:

A case
There's all different cases for the MacBook, from simple sleeves that you can use to cushion your MacBook when you place it in another bag to hardshell cases to roller cases and backpacks. My current pack is the InCase Nylon Backpack ($99.95 USD), which has more pockets than you will know what to do with and is extremely comfortable. InCase also manufactures a number of sleeves and smaller cases. Other respected brands include TimBuk2, Brenthaven, and many more.

An extra power adapter
After an incident where I accidentally left my MacBook power adapter at a friend's house 100 miles away and had to purchase an extra, I've found that having two power adapters has been one of the best decisions I ever made. I keep one adapter at home, and the other stays in my backpack. I'm never caught anywhere without a power supply.