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It’s the time of year when we’re all trying to get all our Christmas presents for friends and family.  Last year we did our 12 Days of Christmas Shopping and we thought it would be good to remind you of some great places to purchase gifts online!

1. Apple
2. 123-Reg
3. Dell
4. Amazon
5. AVG
6. Misco
7. CD WOW
8. Dabs
9. HMV
10. PC World
11. The Carphone Warehouse
12. I Want One Of Those

We hope you find this helpful for ideas!

Over the past 12 days we’ve recommended 12 different retailers to you for Christmas present ideas.  As we are at the end of it all we thought it would be a good idea for us to do a quick review of who the 12 retailers were.

1. Apple
2. 123-Reg
3. Dell
4. Amazon
5. AVG
6. Misco
7. CD WOW
8. Dabs
9. HMV
10. PC World
11. The Carphone Warehouse
12. I Want One Of Those

Which retailers have you used?  Who is your favourite retailer?

Over the next 12 days we are going to have a retailer of the day.  For each retailer we’ll give you a quick idea of what they sell and why we think that they are worth checking out for Christmas ideas!  Our first retailer is Apple.

Apple are probably best known for their iPods, iPhones and Macs.  iPods are more than likely to be a very popular product to have this Christmas.  A bonus from buying from Apple is that you can personalise your products (e.g. have your name engraved into the iPod).

They manufacture great products for everyone!

A slightly different tip this week..it is for those of you looking at some of the Apple hardware! No matter if you are interested in the latest ipod touch, imac or xserve Mac Rumors is a great site for all the gossip on what is happening in the world of Apple!

The best and in my mind the most useful page on the site is the Buyers Guide, it advises you when updates to Apple products are due for release and also has posts about what the updates are likely to be. Apple tend to change their products at regular intervals so it isn’t to hard to suss out when a new update is due and that it is not wise to buy just before they release that update! So check out the MacRumors Buyers Guide for all the news from Apple including the iPhone

Maybe we should have had this as site of the month one time..

Apple have released the latest version of the music software iTunes.  iTunes isn’t something we give much time to but credit has to be given to Apple really because it is a brilliant bit of kit and if you have an iPod it works seemlessly. Allowing you to fully manage your music, videos and podcasts!

Their latests version I have to say I am very impressed with, which is why I thought it warrented a mention in today’s tip!  I haven’t played with it properly but iTunes Genius claims it can create great playlists based on the song you are listening to! So far I have been impressed but let me know what experiences you have had!

The other thing they have done is changed the way we browse our music, implementing a grid view which is far more graphical that the old big long list!

But this is a quick tip…head over to the Apple iTunes Site and download it for yourself, or just read about it

Enjoy!

RED is a global fund put together to help the fight against AIDS in Africa. In January 08, Dell and Microsoft joined together to support the cause by creating a RED Product Range. Dell and Microsoft are only the most recent companies to join the product range, already RED have support from Motorola, American Express, Gap, Giorgio Armani, Converse, Apple and Hallmark. The links take you to the RED section for each company to see what they are providing for the charity and how they got involved. You may be thinking, “well this is good but I bet it’ll cost me loads more money to buy the products!” Well it doesn’t! It’s at no extra cost to you, you just have to buy the product and the company that the product is from will give some of its’ profit to the charity.

The products in the Dell RED collection are Printer 948 (PRODUCT) RED, XPS M1530 (PRODUCT) RED, XPS M1330 (PRODUCT) RED and XPS One. Microsoft’s RED Product Collection isn’t quite as expansive as the other companies involved, however it is as equally as interesting. Their RED Product is Windows Vista Ultimate (Product) RED which has been put on all of the Dell Laptops and Desktops mentioned previously in this blog article.

Want to find out a bit more about the charity and what they actually do? The image above is RED’s ‘mission statement’, click on it and you’ll go the the site. On the website there is also an about page.

The site also has some cool features which help publicise RED (e.g. Community Tool Kit and Impact Cards.) Also there is an Impact Calculator which shows you how the money you have spent has helped the organisation by showing you what different products can buy the charity.

We think this is a great way for some of the big companies to get really behind a need in this world and one that we can be part of too!  Fantastic Idea!

Quick Tip this week: Nearly everyone now has a nice fast broadband connection, but are you using it for more than you would use your old dial-up connection for? For many the answer is no! So here are a few suggests to start making the most of your broadband connection:

1. Film Trailers – Watch the film trailers on the Apple website of the newest films released or coming out soon!
2. XBox Live – Make the most of your XBox and your internet connection
3. How Stuff Works - Find out how virtually anything works!!
4. Facebook – Share photos and messages with all your mates – possibly the biggest time waster on the web.
5. YouTube – Amongst a fair amount of drivel there is a load of amusing stuff on You Tube
6. BBC iPlayer – Watch the last 7 days ofBBC TV!

Let me know if you have a better suggestion!