Shopping for insanely great Mac computers and accessories at a discount for back to school - college needs? This time of year Apple, Amazon and others offer discounts and deals to help you gear up for education technology.

In 2016, Apple is currently offering a set of Beats Solo2 Wireless Headphones if you buy a Mac for college by mid-September. They also offer a free set of Powerbeats2 Wireless Headphones when you buy an iPad PRO model (only) - or an iPhone 6 or 6s (only.) These are a good thing, because frankly young folk like to BLAST their music to people who might not share their audio preferences. But that's what being young is like - not knowing where your sound-space ends and others right not to have to listen to it begins. Kudos to Apple for choosing personal listening headphones as their 2016 Back-To-School promo!

Amazon is also featuring back to college deals and discounts for computer technology needed to gear up for the school year with thier Shop Amazon For Off To College promo loaded with Mac compatible accessories and gadgets.

For most secondary ed and college bound students, I recommend the ultra-light and ultra slim MacBook Air to ease the pain of lugging around just that much LESS along with their textbooks and whatnot. Select students in certain fields of art and design, architecture and others might really need the added screen space and extra CPU horsepower of a full-blown 15" MacBook Pro laptop, but they may be the exception.

Check out these pages of specific MacBook Air peripherals and MacBook Pro accessories that MacGizmoGuy recommends to round-out your Apple compatible computing gadget arsenal.

Own a website or blog? Articoolo's instant article generator can be a Mac webmaster's ally in keeping your site fresh and informative. As a browser-based cloud application, you can access Articoolo's article writer from any MacBook, Macintosh desktop or iOS device.

Articoolo produces draft-quality articles up to 500 words in 2 to 3 minutes. With a few quick edits and tweaks, you can have fresh content ready to publish in minutes. It costs nothing to generate an article and preview it's content. You only pay about $1 per article if and when you choose to buy it. Visit their site and see for yourself how good computer generated content can be.

For more insights, read MacSEOTips review of Articoolo over at www.macseoapps.com

With an ever-growing number of Apple computer system users in both homes and businesses, there is a greater need than ever before for tax preparation software for Mac OSX. They can really ease the pain of submitting State and Federal income tax forms. Unless you're completing a very basic 1040 or 1040 EZ Fed tax status, you need all the assistance you can get to help with preparation taxes on your Mac with ease and precision. The two primary apps for Mac tax prep are Intuit's longstanding TurboTax Deluxe and H&R Block's Mac Tax Software - formerly known as 'TaxCut' and 'At Home'. Both programs generally available at retail or for download prior to Thanksgiving to let you get an early start on your 2015 taxes due in April of 2016.

Best Tax Software For Mac

Download TurboTax 2015 For OSX

NOTE: Self-Employed and Schedule-C filers need to buy the Home & Business edition to unlock Sched-C and home office deduction features. The Deluxe version no longer does that. While you can pay to upgrade to Intuit's Home & Biz version from inside the Deluxe software if you need to, it's cheaper to buy the Biz version in the first place.

TurboTax Mac 2015 is also available in boxed retail packaging on DVD if you need it. Frankly though, with Apple having discontinued the inclusion of a SuperDrive in any of it's more recent Macintosh desktop and laptop computers, most will simply prefer the downloadable Mac OSX version of the tax software linked above.

If you prefer to use H&R Block's Tax software for Mac OSX, here's a slightly more affordable alternative than Intuit's TurboTax Deluxe:
H & R Block Tax Software 2015

Deluxe Fed + State Mac Edition

Like Intuit - H&R Block's Deluxe Fed+State version doesn't include Schedule-C, rental property and small biz features. For that you'll need the Premium version.

Once you've keyed in your 2015 tax-year Federal income and expense data, and have gone over any of your deductions, the Turbotax application can likewise assist with State tax prep for those Mac owners who live in states which require them. The crucial data from your Federal filing gets automatically imported into the State portion to ease the procedure. One may then additionally e-File (electronically submit your returns) over the web for faster, paperless filing and getting a return quicker.

Shopping for a 2nd generation ThunderBolt 2 docking station? All the major dock peripheral manufacturers have updated their newest ThunderBolt docks to 20Gbps ThunderBolt 2 chipsets and added other refinements.

Best ThunderBolt 2 Dock - From OWC

Multi-Port Support + USB Charging

Some of the Apple ThunderBolt 2 docks have seen port changes and enclosure redesigns as they've been revised. Depending on whether the new docks are from Belkin, Matrox, ElGato, OWC or others - you may or may no longer have FireWire 800 or eSATA connectors. Higher power USB 3.0 ports may be offered to better support charging high-demand USB devices like Apple iPad tablets. Others have shifted from DVI to HDMI as the supported video out as vendors strive to match their docking hardware with the kinds of interfaces most currently in demand.

With the introduction of the 12-Inch MacBook with Retina Display, Apple is delivering the first Macintosh system with the next-generation of USB connector. The USB 'Type-C' interface provides the new non-directional, reversible plug for hassle-free device connectivity. The Type-C jack also replaces MagSafe as the charging port as well.

It's important to note though that Apple's implementation is just the 1st revision of the USB 3.1 standard. Rev 1 means any new devices connected to it will still operate at USB 3.0's 5Gbps speed. It won't be until full USB 3.1 SuperSpeed+ (Plus) chipsets are used in future Macs that the data transfer rates will bump up to SS+ 10Gbps speeds - and on a par with 1st generation Apple ThunderBolt devices.

In a way, that's okay. Very few Apple computer peripherals need or can even come close to maxing out a 5Gbps USB connection anyway. Really, only multi-drive RAID storage arrays and 4K video displays need that kind of bandwidth. (And in particular - PCIe based solid-state drive arrays.) As such, expect the industry-wide rollout of SuperSpeed+ to 10Gbps to be a slow one. It remains to be seen if, how and when Apple implements it across their MacBook and desktop line in the year ahead.

Shopping for a Mac OSX and iOS Airprint compatible laser printer on the cheap? Brother has long delivered great value in affordable monochrome laser printers. With the Apple-friendly HL-L2340DW compact laser printer, duplex printing and wireless networking can be had for well under $100 USD -- and it's an absolute bargain on every level for cheap, reliable printouts. It's what consumers want, and that puts it high on Amazon's Top-100 Best-Seller list for good reason.

Mac And IOS Brother Laser

Airprint Compatible B&WPrinter

Plunk one of these in the middle of your home or business - and ANY Apple, Windows or Android device will easily print to it wirelessly. Sure it only prints black and white. For the rarer times where you actually NEED color. you can always have a secondary ink-sucking color inkjet photo printer when needed.

Epson recently joined the ranks of computer peripheral companies offering a lightweight and compact WiFi travel printer for Mac OSX and Apple IOS. The Epson WF-100 is now the smallest and most portable mobile printing solution for Apple users on the go.

Portable Epson Printer WF-100

WiFi Mobile Direct Printing + USB

This 3.5 pound printer offers an LCD display control panel, USB and WiFi connectivity, and a Lithium Ion battery that's rechargeable via AC adapter (included) or from your MacBook's USB port when needed. Easily print from an Apple iPad, iPhone, tablets, smartphones as well as PC or Mac laptops.

For a listing of all the Apple compatible mobile printing solutions available: Visit http://www.maclaptopprinters.com to see what's available from HP, Canon and Epson.

If you're wondering how many Mac computers Apple sells yearly or quarterly, I can tell you the numbers look good. In spite of a massive trend towards handheld iPhones and iPads, the Macintosh desktop and Apple MacBook laptop lines remain strong sellers. After selling 4+ million systems quarter after quarter, Apple's taken it to the next level.

In the past quarter - which spans the holiday shopping season - Apple sold a record-breaking 5.4 million Mac systems. That's great for both MacGizmoGuy's like me - and consumers like you. The market trend towards dominance in cell-phones and computing tablets has been somewhat detrimental to the shrinking share of the pie for conventional desktop computer peripherals and Mac accessories. Although there's some cross-over, many gadget and gizmo manufacturers are focusing ever-more R&D dollars towards mobile computing products geared for handhelds.

With Apple on trajectory to likely sell 20+ million Macs, 5 or more million each quarter. 4+ million of those will be MacBooks. That helps insure a reasonably healthy market for conventional computing peripherals designed especially for Mac.

Shopping for the cheapest Macintosh computer model currently available? With the release of the newest Mac mini desktop computer in Late 2014, the Mac mini base model shaves a hundred bucks off it's predecessor and pares the list price down to $499 - a new price low making it the lowest-cost Mac mini ever sold, and the cheapest Mac desktop computer ever offered.

Cheap Mac Mini Computer

Price Starting Under $500

You could say this price cut is long overdue when commodity value-priced desktop Windows PC's have easily hit the $249 - $399 price range. So at least Apple is moving in the right direction. What's the tradeoff for the cost savings? Besides the ongoing general trend of lower electronic component costs, Apple has opted for a modest 500Gb hard drive, and a SLOWER CPU clock-speed in the Intel i5 processor down to 1.4Ghz. Yes, it's slower than it's predecessor, but for the average Mac user at home, it's dual-core CPU can handle everyday tasks with ease regardless. Remember, with TurboBoost, Intel processors can temporarily throttle up their clock speed when they're doing demanding tasks as needed.

But don't underestimate this super-cheap Mac mini Late 2014: In addition to quad SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports - it also features an upgrade to the latest 2nd generation 20Gbps ThunderBolt 2 interface, an SDXC card slot, HDMI video, Gigabit Ethernet that you can hold in the palm of your hand. And if you need more there are certainly higher-end models and build-to-order options to get an SSD / Fusion drive and much higher clock speed CPU if your wallet wants it.

Canon was long overdue to update it's popular iP100 mobile printer that's been on the market for quite sometime. With the release of the iP110 they've added wireless AirPrint printing capabilities (in addition to USB) and changed the portable printer's casing from silver to charcoal gray. As a result the original iP100 has seen a significant price cut as the iP110 succeeds it. Both continue to use PGI-25 Black and /CLI-36 color photo ink cartridges. With Canon portable printers, a battery is optional equipment and bolts onto the back of the printer adding to it's bulk and overall cost if truly AC-power free printing is required. Since there hasn't been a MAJOR physical design change to the printer and it lacks a LCD control panel, assume an OSX utility is used for configuring AirPrint to find your wireless network and configure the access password.

Canon AirPrint Portable Printer

Wireless + USB Photo Prints

Although competitor Hewlett-Packhard has it's OfficeJet 100 and 150 Mac compatible mobile printing solutions, they only offer wireless Bluetooth printing. So the addition of AirPrint compatibility for your Mac and any iOS devices is welcomed. However, unlike Canon's iP110 and 100, an internal battery is included and not a separate, optional and external add-on.

For a big picture view of currently shipping MacBook Pro and Air portable printing solutions, inks and accessories visit: http://maccompatibleprinters.com

It's hard to use the words ThunderBolt and cheap in the same sentence, at least in terms of cost per gigabyte. However, Western Digital's pushing the envelope with a laptop size portable ThunderBolt RAID drive available in 2GB or 4GB configurations with it's My PassPort Pro drive series.

Portable ThunderBolt RAID Drive

Dual 2.5" Drive Modules

Utilizing two 2.5" laptop size hard drives in a portable enclosure with integrated ThunderBolt cable, WD is delivering a portable ThunderBolt hard drive with excellent HDD performance up to 233Mbps using spinning platter mechanisms. The drive can be configured as Striped RAID 0, Mirrored RAID 1, or as JBOD for dual independent drives. Although SSD prices have come down precipitously in the past year, 2 and 4TB solid-state drive capacities still aren't affordable for most.

In a Striped RAID 0 configuration, 233Mbps significantly outperforms any single HDD solution and approaches the data transfer speeds a much lower capacity single SSD flash memory drive would provide at these price points.

For a wide range of Mac compatible ThunderBolt Storage solutions visit www.thunderbolt-hard-drive.com for the fastest file transfers and Apple TimeMachine backups ever!

You may think the internal mic in your MacBook Air or Pro 'sounds okay' for the most part. And for casual use maybe that's good enough. But if you were to listen to and compare the fidelity to any external, quality USB computer microphone plugged into your MacBook, you'd be surprised - and pleased by the difference in sound reproduction quality. Apple's internal microphones are far, far from studio grade.

Blue Tiki USB Condenser Mic

Dual Mode : Speech Or Music

Samson Go-Mic Portable USB

Cardioid or Omnidirectional Patterns

For a wide variety of recommended USB microphones for Mac desktop and MacBook laptop use, visit this site dedicated to better sounding audio capture and speech recognition on your Macintosh: http://www.mac-microphones.com