When the iPad 2 first debuted in Apple’s refurb store, discounts were relatively small: $50 off each model, representing discounts of between 5 and 9 percent, depending on which model you looked at. Now 16 GB models are discounted $80, and 32 GB and 64 GB versions carry an even steeper $100 price drop, representing between 12 and 16 percent off the value of a new, nonrefurbished device.

The new pricing applies to both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models, and Apple currently lists pretty much every model as being in stock, with the exception of the 64 GB AT&T model. All Apple-refurbished iPads come with a full one-year warranty, a new battery and outer shell, and free shipping. There’s really no downside if you’re looking for a gift when comparing these to new iPads, except that you can’t get engraving on refurbished gear.

Apple doesn’t say anything about these price changes’ being limited-time offers, but, as is always the case with refurbished products, supply is limited. You have to wonder if this isn’t a precursor to the arrival of an iPad 3 early next year.

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In the old version, users had to purchase their offers via other means, then could redeem and track them via the Google Shopper app. Now you can buy the offers directly, and also subscribe to offers for specific locations right from an iPhone. The purchases you make bypass Apple’s in-app purchase system entirely, and instead use Google Checkout to complete the transaction via an in-app browser interface.

But the Shopper update is just one of three major recent Google software changes that bring features previously only available on Android devices to the iPhone and iPad. Just Monday, for instance, Google+ got an update that brought improved notifications, full resolution photo uploading, and search function. And late last month, the Google Search iPad app got a considerable overhaul, which introduced slick built-in quick-access interfaces for Google Apps, making it almost like a limited version of Chrome OS within an app.

Google’s doing a good job right now of making sure its experiences reach as broad an audience as possible, but which experiences, specifically? Google+, its fledgling social network, is a major play to win back some of the ground it has already given up to Facebook in terms of being a destination on the web. In order to succeed at its goal of amassing as many users as possible, Google is aware that it has to reach mobile users on the platform where they live, even if that’s not its own.

Google Shopper, especially now with its local offers, is likewise a product that benefits Google most by being in front of as many eyes as possible. It’s purely about advertising reach and selling to groups, so it makes sense that Google would want to count iOS users among potential customers.

With the Google Search app for iPad update, the goal is once again to make sure as many people as possible are using its search products and apps like Docs, all of which help drive traffic to its primary properties and therefore, encourage ad revenue, too.

In short, Google’s improvements to its iOS business are strictly self-interested, which means users hoping to gain some of the more useful elements of Google services on Android devices will likely ultimately be disappointed. Don’t expect turn-by-turn navigation in Maps, for instance, or an official Google Music native player; these are things that remain valuable as competitive advantages for Android devices, rather than as standalone efforts to be promoted in and of themselves.

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Micromat’s TechToolPro 6 is the bundle headliner this time around, offering some of the most comprehensive diagnostic and repair tools for your OS X system available anywhere. TechToolPro 6 is the most recent version and normally retails for $99.99 on its own. It checks your drives for potential errors or signs of failure, helps you rebuild your disk directories and optimize performance, plus recovers data from corrupt drives.

Another highlight is Postbox 3, the latest iteration of one of the best options out there for power email users who aren’t satisfied with what the build-in Mail.app offers. It’s a better fit and better designed than Microsoft’s Outlook for the Mac, and it’s a great Gmail client, too. The only downside is that there is no Exchange support, but it has a load of organization and filtering features that make tackling even the most unruly of inboxes a much easier task. Postbox 3 is normally $30 on its own.

One more app on the list that merits closer inspection is Neverwinter Nights 2. It’s a few years old now, but the game really stands up well despite its age. RPG fans will love it, especially if you enjoyed the first installment or if you’re a fan of games in the Diablo vein. Ordinarily, Neverwinter Nights 2 retails for $20 on the Mac App Store.

There are eight other apps in the bundle, too, as well as one more for the first 15,000 buyers. There is something for everyone, including the FontPack Pro Master edition, which ordinarily retails for $300 and includes every typeface designed by the SummitType font foundry (handy for designers), and Hear, an app that adds audio equalizer options to every app on your Mac (nice for the audiophiles in the crowd).

The deal lasts until Dec. 21, so you still have another 16 days to decide if it’s tantalizing enough to merit your hard-earned cash.

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The App Store is a bit of rolling sea of pricing turmoil, according to madvertise’s findings in the U.K. App Store, with regular highs and lows that make shopping on certain days more advisable than on others. Fridays turn out to be the best possible time to spend your hard-earned cash, since 19.58 percent of iPad and 18 percent of iPhone app prices on average see a drop just before the weekend, and none of the top five categories of apps see any price increases on a Friday.

Don’t jump the gun and think you can get away with buying earlier, though; Thursdays are the worst possible day to shop, with 17.9 percent of iPad and 17.36 percent of iPhone apps showing an increase in price that time of week. Thursdays are good for one thing, however, since along with Wednesdays it’s the most common time for new apps to arrive in the App Store. Updates also come most frequently on Thursdays, with Tuesdays coming in a close second.

Madvertise’s study, which it created in conjunction with AppZapp, a bargain-hunting tool for App Store shoppers, concludes that Friday is the best day to shop for apps. That’s not too surprising, since a lot of publishers seem to promote their wares with weekend sales in order to lock in lucrative positions high up in the App Store rankings.

All bets are off during this weekend, owing to Black Friday, but there’s little reason to doubt Friday won’t be a great time to pick up some cheap apps, both in the U.S. and abroad, too.

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The images posted by 9to5Mac appear to be from an internal staff leaflet or flyer detailing the Apple Store’s Black Friday deals. In addition to the Mac sales (which are actually pretty good at $100 off even the cheapest models), a lot of accessories are on sale, including Apple’s own iPad Smart Cover ($11 off all models), wireless input devices ($11 off keyboard, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad) and networking devices ($11 to $51 off AirPort and Time Capsule hardware).

But some of the standouts include sales on products that, while excellent, are normally out of reach for a lot of consumer budgets (mine included). For instance, the Jambox by Jawbone gets a $51.95 discount, making the Bluetooth speaker only $148 on sale. Jawbone’s breakout hit, the fitness tracking UP wristband, is also significantly cheaper according to the spy shots, getting a $21.95 temporary price drop. Bowers & Wilkins’ excellent C5 stereo headset, which we recently picked as the best overall iPhone headphone companion, is on sale for $128, a full $51.95 off its original price, and the same company’s Zeppelin Air, which is the best and brightest of the AirPlay speaker lot, hovers a little closer to being affordable thanks to a $101.95 price break, making it ‘only’ $498.

I may not have expressed much enthusiasm about Apple’s Black Friday sales in the past, but if this flyer turns out to be accurate I’ll be singing a different tune. Deals on high-end Apple accessories don’t come along often enough, and wireless, room-filling sound just might be worth waiting in line for. Check out the full flyer snapshot at 9t05Mac and let us know if anything catches your eye.

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Both the 32 GB Wi-Fi + 3G and the 64 GB Wi-Fi-only iPads are on sale for $399, which represents a savings of $230 and $200 respectively. The 64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G version is $499, which is $230 less than its original retail value. The 3G versions are compatible only with AT&T in the U.S., as first-gen iPads only support GSM cellular technologies.

If you’re looking to get your hands on an iPad, and you don’t mind being a generation behind (there’s little you’ll miss unless you’re an avid FaceTime user or enjoy cutting edge games), this is great deal. Apple may just be clearing out inventory of older devices now that the original iPad has been off the market for a while, but it could also be the case that Amazon’s upcoming Kindle Fire has caused Apple to want to hook in as many iOS tablet users as possible before that device launches.

Whatever the reason for the discount, Apple lists it as a “Special Limited Time Price,” so the sale probably won’t last forever. If there’s someone really special on the Christmas list this year, this might be a nice option.

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Apple lowered the price of its refurbished original model iPads by $100 over the weekend, and all of these models get a brand new battery and outer shell before being resold, so you won’t be able to tell it isn’t a new device. Having purchased many refurbed Apple goods over the years I can tell you the quality of these products is usually indistinguishable from new. Prices for the refurbished iPads now range from $299 to $599, with each Wi-Fi model getting an additional $100 off their existing discounts, and Wi-Fi + 3G models knocking off $130 from the price of each.

Stock is bound to be limited, and there’s no telling how long Apple will be offering these prices. As of this writing, all storage capacity and connectivity options are still available.

At this price, I’m considering picking up a basic model 16 GB refurbished model as a dedicated development and testing device for my personal projects. Anyone else think this is too tempting to pass up?

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Voices, the last chart-topping offering from tap tap tap sold 300,000 copies in its first month of availability, and Angry Birds, which The Heist managed to knock from its long-standing perch, was a flop for its first three months on the App Store in English-speaking markets. So how did The Heist skip the line, so to speak, and zoom to the top of the charts in such a short period?

Tap tap tap principal Phill Ryu sees it as the result of promotion, adding value for gamers, speaking directly to the audience, generating word of mouth, and being a fresh face among a crowd of old familiar mugs. To say that The Heist is an overnight success is to ignore the fairly extensive pre-launch promotional campaign, which began in the release of Twitter for Mac 1.0. In January, people who bought the MacHeist nanoBundle 2 last year were given exclusive access to a secret area within the official Twitter for Mac client that held clues about The Heist. Then, a week prior, the team put up a teaser page (featuring a multi-touch puzzle when viewed on iOS devices) and a new discussion forum to help build buzz.

The app itself is attractive, too, not only because it’s a great, well-designed game, but also because it offers buyers a uniquely attractive value proposition. Specifically, The Heist costs only $0.99 (the going rate for chart-toppers in the App Store), but it offers gamers who complete it a code redeemable for another game that normally retails for $9.99. It feels like you’re getting something for nothing. Ryu says that they considered charging more, but opted to aim lower in order to build their audience as quickly as possible. Making well over $300,000 (total sales revenue minus Apple’s 30 percent cut for distributing the app in its App Store) in one week says they probably made the right decision.

Direct marketing also worked for The Heist: 500,000 fans opted to receive email updates about the product, and tap tap tap used an iPad 2 giveaway to incentivize fans to spread the word on Twitter. Blog coverage picked up quickly based on the buzz generated through other means, and on the reputation of the MacHeist brand as a quality software bundle deal provider for OS X.

The Heist also had two more key elements going for it. First was an air of mystery, as the prize remained unknown for a short time after its release, and as people seemed surprisingly reluctant to spoil the reward for others. Second, The Heist wasn’t an Angry Birds title, or another variant of longtime App Store chart-toppers Fruit Ninja, Tiny Wings and Cut the Rope. Just by virtue of injecting some new life into the relatively stagnant pool of offerings on Apple’s charts, The Heist made itself attractive to buyers.

I asked Ryu if he could sum up the key to The Heist‘s success in one succinct statement, and he did so by comparing the app to a blockbuster movie from last year:

The Heist was the Inception of the App Store this summer. Fanboy-driven, buzz from a plot twist, a high-risk gamble in a relatively niche game genre, heist-structured, more mentally taxing than most, and I guess, unlocking a game in a game. It’s a fairly unconventional hit, I think.

Both thematically and metaphorically, I think that’s a pretty spot-on comparison. Can’t wait to see where these guys go next with App Store innovation.

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MacHeist and developer tap tap tap Tuesday released The Heist

I talked to MacHeist Directorate Members and tap tap tap Principals Phill Ryu and John Casasanta to find out more about the idea behind The Heist, and what why it seems to have struck such a positive note with app buyers. Note that MacHeist and tap tap tap, while technically separate entities, share the same founders and most staff. MacHeist is a software bundle deals provider that also happens to develop apps in the process of designing its deals packages.

Beginning in 2006, MacHeist ran series of challenges that consumers could follow in order to gain access to a software bundle deal that offered multiple Mac applications for one low price. In 2009, with MacHeist 3, it brought coder Corwin Derkatch (who was also instrumental in the development of this iOS app) on board to create Flash minigames.

Casasanta came up with the idea of packaging minigames for the iPhone later that year, says Ryu. While the “games looked nice enough,” Ryu wanted to go bigger than simply repackaging what they already had, so he ended up suggesting “a much more involved take that featured a giant looming safe to crack, a prize at the end, and mysterious phone calls from Sophia, to try to port the spirit of MacHeist over [to the iPhone].” The MacHeist team had already invested considerable time and effort into a straightforward port of its flash games (six months worth, according to Ryu), but “everyone was on the same page about taking the time to make something truly cool.”

The result of their efforts is definitely cool, as well as addictive. And I’m not the only one to think so, either. Ryu reports that the app has seen more than 25,000 sales so far in just its first day on the App Store. It’s the single best launch tap tap tap has seen for any of its apps so far. Those players are eager to crack the safe, too. So far, 10 percent of buyers have already beaten the game, which is no small feat, speaking as someone who probably slept less than he should have last night in an effort to claim my prize from The Heist.

The addictive quality of the puzzles found in The Heist is due to a simple formula, according to Casasanta: “take a classic puzzle and throw an interesting twist into it.”

For example, Casasanta points out that the wires puzzles in The Heist “are basically traditional 15-puzzles (8-puzzles for the easy levels),” with the additional element of having to “figure out how the wire segments on the tiles need to be arranged to connect the various circuits.” Same with the stone/sand/glyph puzzles, which borrow elements from Sudoku, but use “sections [that] are much more irregular” than the traditional simple 3×3 grid within a 9×9 larger grid arrangement used in Sudoku puzzles. Also, the Sudoku-style puzzles in The Heist employ “color to add another dimension,” and “various abstract glyphs instead of numbers” to “breathe a bit of new life into a familiar puzzle,” says Casasanta.

Of course, the careful attention paid to the look, feel and sound of each puzzle experience is also a key factor. Casasanta notes the development team tried “very hard to make them look great and also have nice background soundtracks to set just the right mood for the player.”

I also talked to Ryu about the business model behind The Heist. MacHeist charges $0.99 for The Heist in Apple’s App Store, but upon completion of the game, users are rewarded with a code for a $9.99 game called Eets in the Steam marketplace, which sells games for Mac and Windows computers. Ryu and his team negotiated a promotional deal with Klei Entertainment, the studio behind Eets, in which MacHeist pays Klei a licensing fee in exchange for the rights to distribute Steam codes to The Heist players for one year. Klei is looking for a bump in sales thanks to the exposure promotional downloads will provide its game through Steam and other sources as a result of increased download volume.

Finally, I asked Ryu about his plans for the future of The Heist and the potential of the iOS platform. He admitted that there were potentially plans in the works for both the introduction of new content to the existing Heist app, and also plans to expand with additional apps and iPad support, but he wouldn’t make any guarantees about either. Judging by the response so far, I think it’s a safe bet that we’ll see something new and exciting from the MacHeist/tap tap tap team on iOS down the road.

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The idea behind SaleLocator is that finding local deals should be fast, easy and require as few barriers to entry as possible. The app definitely makes good on that promise. It auto-detects your location upon launch (after you provide permission, of course) and immediately loads up sales at local retail outlets within range. You can sign up with a SaleLocator.com account, but you don’t have to, unless you want to be able to bookmark relevant sales for later use. SaleLocator isn’t just for big-city dwellers, either; the app provides useful info regarding sales in any U.S. market.

In an email interview, SaleLocator Co-founder and CEO Michael Falkson explained the app can do this because it sources the data to find sales using a multi-pronged approach. There’s a dedicated research team of employees who check out deals, and a “proprietary retail sourcing process that utilizes a variety of online and offline data sources.” SaleLocator has also managed to secure relationships with 25 national retail partners so far, including H&M and Barnes & Noble, and Falkson noted that “more are joining the program each day.”

The privately-funded app currently offers all its functionality completely free of charge, but Falkson explained that after an initial period during which the company plans to focus on “getting feedback, improving the app’s functionality and growing the overall platform’s user-base of consumers/shoppers and retailers,” the company plans to create an ad-supported version of the app, in addition to a paid version that will be ad-free. Ads seem like an easy sell, given that users of the app are already looking to make purchases in the first place.

Revenue-gathering attempts won’t come without additional features aimed at winning over and keeping users, however. Falkson says international support is on the way, and possibly even “loyalty credits,” which might resemble the sort of reward systems we’ve seen in other apps aimed at mobile shoppers like Foursquare.

Group-buying apps like Groupon may be the stars of location-based mobile shopping for those of us who are keen on social networking and live on the web, but for average users, an app that just opens and tells you which stores nearby are having sales, and on what, is a lot less easier to accept when making the move from traditional paper flyers. 

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