Until September 8th, you can buy Office for 30% off with the purchase of any Mac at Apple resellers. Visit this Microsoft Promo Page and choose "Save Now".

Students can get additional discounts by purchasing Office with academic pricing. This Student Pricing page offers tips about ongoing student discounts that aren't limited to the September 8th cut-off.

A cheap copy of Office ... what more could you want?

Got some data cleanup plans for the Labor Day weekend? I know I do -- there are scads of vacation pictures, silly videos and MP3s that have got to get gone from my laptop hard drive and onto some standby storage. That's why I was excited to see Amazon's one-day deal (8/28 only, probably cutting off at midnight PT but I can't be sure) on the Western Digital 250 GB Passport drive: $90US, and eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime. Giga-licious, although 250 GB isn't as big as it used to be...

I've gotten plenty of reliable use out of my own identical WD 250 Passport, which has a bus-powered USB port and a sleek black finish (makes it kind of hard to see on my desk, but that's another matter). No other connection to WD or Amazon, except as a satisfied customer. I believe the drive ships formatted with cross-platform FAT32, but as all savvy Mac users know, you're best off reformatting as HFS+ when you get the drive -- otherwise you'll be cringing when you try to copy those larger-than-4-GB video files that FAT32 doesn't support.

If you're looking for more Labor Day deals, buzz by dealmac.com for the latest updates and discounts.

TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for nifty supplies for any student.

Today only, RadTech is offering 20 percent off regularly-priced backpacks, cases, laptop bags and sleeves, including bags with photovoltaic cells to help charge your electronic devices. Solar panels on the bag can provide up to four watts of power for your iPod or phone.

Make sure to use the promo code SCHOOL88 when you check out to take advantage of the offer.

MacBundleBox is offering 15 Mac applications for $49.95: an 85 percent discount (compared to buying each app individually). The apps included are:

• Headline - A full-featured RSS/ATOM feed reader with an ultra-minimal UI.
• Mac Pilot 3 - A system optimization and customization utility.
• iConquer - A game not unlike Risk.
• Mahjong Forests - A traditional mahjong game.
• Shoebox Express - A solution for organizing all your photos by content.
• Caboodle - A way to collect random snippets of text or images on your machine.
• Narrator - A program that will read out stories in multiple voices.
• WriteRoom - A distraction-free word-processor, and possibly the most popular app in the bundle.
• Scribbles - A simple drawing utility.
• Money - An accounting app.
• Operation - A simple project management application.
• Aurora - An iTunes-integrated alarm clock.
• Compositor - A CoreGraphics-based image editor.
• Sofa Control - Allows you to control your applications remotely, using an Apple Remote.

MacBundleBox is available directly from their website.

TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for tips on saving money on software.

At the start of every school year, students, teachers and parents have a seemingly-endless list of "to-buy" items. It gets expensive, and software is often the last place people want to plunk down money. Fortunately, the world of academic software discounts can easily save students (and their parents) and teachers enormous sums of money.

Academic software is exactly the same as the "regular" software, but the box says "Academic License" and the price can be significantly, noticeably less. How much less? Well, in the case of Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium 3.3, the academic version goes for $594.95 (you can save an additional $200 if you buy the package with a new Mac at the Apple Higher Education Store), and the full version clocks in at a whopping $1799US. $600 vs. $1800 is a pretty big difference, especially for students.

Depending on the software title, you might have to be a college student or faculty member to take advantage of some of the best discounts, but more and more publishers are opening up the discounts to K-12 students and teachers.

Please note: While academic discounts are available in other countries, this guide is primarily aimed at US and Canadian students. All prices are in USD.

I've been buying academic software since I was in high school, and here are some of the tips/best practices I've picked up over the years ...

TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for help for professors and instructors.

Humble Daisy is offering 50 percent off its ProfCast software, which helps educators (or anyone else who presents via PowerPoint or Keynote) record slide-based lectures as podcasts, and share them via iTunes U and iWeb.

The promotion is only available today, August 14. Academic users will receive an additional 25% off over the 50% discount. Purchasing today also allows you to upgrade to the next version for free.

The software is $30 today only (normally $60). For Academic customers, ProfCast is $15 $22.50. Volume discounts are also available.

ProfCast is a universal binary, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. You can check out a 15-day demo, too.

Update: My mistake, folks: the $15 price was based on a faulty calculation I did -- commenters are reporting that the Academic price is $22.50. A thousand apologies for that.

Ryan P sent us a nice tip about using Coinstar units to turn your spare change into iTunes apps. You've seen Coinstar at the grocery store before -- you throw your spare change in there, and then it spits out a receipt you can take to the service counter for cash (minus a little off the top for the counting). But Ryan told us Coinstar now offers gift certificates instead of cash, if you want, minus the coin counting charge.

And one of those certificates can be used at the iTunes store, which means you can throw your coins in, and instead of paying Coinstar to count them, get the full value of your change in an iTunes card. And since apps on the App Store are so cheap, you can use your former quarters and dimes to pick up some terrific apps (may we recommend Sketches, or maybe Pennies -- since you're so coin-conscious anyway). And considering that the amount Coinstar takes out is almost 9%, putting the money in an iTunes card (if you're going to buy the apps anyway) can be a nice chunk of change.

Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won't be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don't forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.

Follow the jump for all the iTune freebie goodness -- and don't forget. It's Dr. Horrible time! (Thanks Eric G.) Not free -- but it's Whedon!

While MacHeist is on their summer break, Mac Mix is hoping to shake things up in the Mac app bundle community. Their website went live early this morning and allows you to mix applications to make your own bundle. You might say, "What's so special about that"? Well, Mac Mix gives you a tiered discount based on how many applications you purchase.

There are currently 28 applications to choose from including:

• Parallels
• iBank
• Yep!
• Photon
• TextExpander
• and more ...

The pricing is similar to the way the Give Food to your Mac promo worked. The pricing tiers are:

• 10% off of any one app
• 30% off any 3
  
• 40% off any 5
  
• 50% off any 7
  
• 60% off any 9
• 75% off any 12

These deals will be available for 2 more weeks, so if you want to get a great deal on some great software, why not give Mac Mix promo a try. In addition, the 500th buyer will receive a "Super Bundle" that includes all 28 peices of software.

Thanks, Vivek!

If you've been looking to get the Apple Bluetooth headset for your iPhone (really, it works on any Bluetooth enabled phone/device/computer) then now is the perfect time to buy. That's because Apple has lowered the price by $30 (US). So you can now pick up a Bluetooth headset for $99 instead of the previous $129.

However, Apple did make some sacrifices to get the price down: they no longer include the Dual Dock that allows you to dock both your iPhone and Bluetooth headset for charging/pairing. This is a huge bummer seeing as the Dual Dock now sells for $49.

Apple does still include the docking travel cable, which allows you to charge your iPhone/headset, however, it is definitely not as nice to look at as the Dual Dock.

Thanks, Dylan!

Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won't be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don't forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.

Follow the jump for this week's free iTunes offerings.

Early Tuesday morning, Apple started offering boxed versions of the much awaited MobileMe web service. While buying from Apple costs $99 for the boxed version, Amazon is offering MobileMe for $89.99 (US).

According to Amazon, MobileMe has been on sale since "July 1, 2008," however, they also say "This item will not be released until July 12, 2008."

We did learn last night that MobileMe is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, July 9th around 6 p.m. pacific time.

Stay tuned to TUAW for the latest information regarding the .Mac to MobileMe switch, iPhone 2.0 software, and the iPhone 3G coverage.


Thanks, Jay!

It looks like Apple has a nice little surprise for anybody in the market for the SSD equipped MacBook Air. The price on the Apple Store for the 64GB SSD upgrade on the 1.6GHz Air has dropped to $599 from $999. Similarly the price of the 1.8GHz Air (equipped with the SSD standard) has dropped to $2598 from $3098.

Needless to say, the SSD is still a pretty penny and there's some controversy about how much it helps battery life. But if you've been waiting for one it looks like this is your lucky day.

Thanks, Keisha!

Once again, TUAW is pleased to present you with a selection of free songs and videos from around the world. Many of these iTMS items won't be free for long, so grab your copies before the week is up. And don't forget: If you want to buy these on your iPhone or iPod touch, make sure to sign into your account in iTunes before you sync.

Follow the jump for all the iTunes freebie goodness.

Applications on the Mac give you this warm, fuzzy feeling when you download and unpack their .dmg (or .zip) files. "Make Your Own Mac Mix" hopes to make this feeling even better by offering deals in the form of discount tiers for buying Mac applications.

You will be able to choose between 27 "high quality" Mac applications (similar to those being offered by MacHeist). Prices will be based on the following tier system:

• 10% off of any one app
• 30% off any 3
  
• 40% off any 5
  
• 50% off any 7
  
• 60% off any 9
• 70% off any 12

Just as there are no details on specific applications, there is also no set date; but the creators are claiming this will be an amazing deal on Mac applications. This deal is set to go live this month. This deal and details will soon be made available on the MacMix Promo website.