Another day, another capitalist marketing agenda. But you can be as cynical as you like about the existence of Cyber Monday – the fact remains it’s one of the best times of the year to take advantage of sales and discounts to snag a bargain before the holidays.
Cyber Monday is historically Black Friday’s nerdy cousin, a follow-up day of online-only sales. But considering the state of the world in 2020, many of the best Black Friday sales this year were strictly online too. So while today has arguably lost its unique selling point, it’s a good reminder that the four-day weekend of cut prices is about to end.
As such, there’s not much new to report if you already read our Black Friday deals roundup. But if you’ve been sleeping on these offers, make haste and grab a bargain before boring old Retail Price Tuesday rolls around. Here’s our pick of the best stores to check out.
App Store
There are a huge amount of apps and games on sale on the App Store at this time of year – so many it can be hard to find the diamonds in the rough. That’s why we’re here to bring you a curated selection of some of the best App Store deals currently available. And we’re talking about way more than a few cents here and there.
This year’s selection features some truly premium apps that would ordinarily set you back as much as $60. Tap here to check out our pick of the six best bargains currently available.
Apple Store
Apple typically doesn’t discount its products for Cyber Monday – or ever – but it’s still taking part in the fun with a four-day shopping event. Instead of offering money off, Apple is giving away gift cards of up to $150 that can be spent on other products in the Apple Store.
Note that much of Apple’s latest and greatest is exempt from the offer, so make sure you’re happy with last year’s models before being tempted by the gift card. For many, though, it’s a great way to make your money go further – especially if you were planning an Apple purchase anyway. Read more about the deals or explore them yourself on the Apple Store website.
Amazon
Amazon is the undisputed king of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It has thousands of deals and tends to price-match the best prices from around the web, so you can be sure you’re not missing out. That said, it’s often guilty of promoting barely-discounted products alongside genuine bargains, making it hard to figure out which is which! That’s why we recommend you cross-reference the deals using trusted price-tracker camelcamelcamel.com to see how the Black Friday discounts hold up to historical sales. If a product is at an all-time low, you know it’s a good deal!
Amazon’s offerings change by the hour and differ by region, so your best bet is to get online and do some browsing yourself. You can find a full roundup of every Cyber Monday deal right here on Amazon’s website (or here if you’re in the UK). In particular, look out for blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Lightning deals that offer big discounts for limited periods.
iPhone Photo School
When our friends at iPhone Photo School offered us the chance to give readers a whopping 90% off their photography course for Black Friday, we jumped at the chance. It’s by far the most comprehensive online photography course we’ve seen (and we’ve seen plenty) and the results we’ve seen from rookie photographers are stunning.
Today marks your last chance to qualify for that price. True, iPhone Photo School runs decent sales all year round – but this is by far the biggest discount of the year! Read more here or click straight through to sign up now. If you’ve got one eye on Christmas shopping, this could be a great digital gift for the amateur photographer in your life.
Full disclosure: our affiliation with IPS means we get a small kickback for directing sales their way. But rest assured we were fans of the course long before money was involved and would never promote something we didn’t believe in. It simply means that buying their course is a great way to indirectly support Tips & Tricks. But no pressure – their free stuff is great too!
Tips & Tricks eBook
Speaking of digital gifts, did you know we also sell a PDF eBook comprising all the core iPhone tips from our app? We’ve had a lot of requests over the years for a version of the guide that can be read on a computer or even printed out, so here it is!
Click through to our eBook shop and use the offer code BLACKFRIDAY for 50% off. Note that the current version for sale covers everything in iOS 13, but you’ll also get an exclusive code to upgrade to our full iOS 14 guide (coming soon) for just $1. Both guides are broadly the same, so either way you’ll be able to get the basics down and plenty more besides!
If you’ve found the tips in this app helpful over the years, the PDF makes a great standalone gift for anyone in your life who may need a helping hand with a new Apple device this year.