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.

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 2014 taxes due in April of 2015.

Best Tax Software For Mac

Download TurboTax 2014 For OSX

NOTE: Self-Employed and Schedule-C filers need to buy the Home & Business edition.

TurboTax Mac 2014 is available in 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 version 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 2014

Deluxe Fed + State Edition

Once you've keyed in your 2014 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 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

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.

Apple is currently offering a $100 Apple Store Gift Card if you buy a Mac for college by mid-September. They also offer a $50 gift card when you buy an iPad or iPhone. 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.

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.

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

If you were stranded on an island and only had one iOS handheld gadget and Mac compatible keyboard to choose from, Logitech's OSX and iOS friendly solar-rechargeable Bluetooth keyboard would be an excellent choice.

Mac Logitech Solar Keyboard

Bluetooth Mac - iPad - iPhone Connectivity

• Explicitly designed for Apple folk : Compact aluminum finish with familiar Mac layout.
• Solar charging even from indoor lighting to eliminate battery changing hassles.
• The keyboard includes a USB cable to recharge it, even while its in use.
• Bluetooth wireless technology for typing within a 30 foot (maximum) range.
• Easy-Switch Bluetooth for 1-button toggles between typing on an iPhone, iPad or Mac.
• Quiet and comfortable typing in a slim and minimalist keyboard design.
• For Mac OSX 10.5+ or iOS 4.0 or later.

While some Apple iPad users might prefer an integrated iPad folio / cover and keyboard combo for travel -- At home or the office, this versatile Apple compatible keyboard from Logitech has distinct and superior advantages over Apple's own Bluetooth keyboard - at a lower cost.

HP's Portable Laptop Printer + Scanner makes them the first company ever to deliver a mobile print and scan solution for Mac OSX users on the go. This battery powered portable scanner and printer for MacBooks running OSX 10.5 and higher features a 2.3" Touch-Screen control panel and both USB 2.0 and wireless Bluetooth printer connectivity.

This is a long awaited and awesome Mac accessory for select business users on the road who really need to both print, copy and scan receipts and documents anywhere, any time - and can eliminate the need to carry a separate Mac compatible USB powered mobile scanner. For those who just need mobile printing functions, the HP 100 laptop printer is $100 less.

For other mobile printing and scanning solutions, www.maclaptopprinters.com to find the right Mac computing accessories for travel.

The Fastest Mac SSD Drive Upgrade is Samsung's 840 series SSD with state of the art controller and NAND flash memory. For many MacBooks and Mac mini's made in the last 5 years, and especially for newer Apple computers you ideally want a 7mm or 9mm low-profile form-factor module. A laptop size 2.5" SATA III SSD solid-state flash memory drive is an excellent option to breathe new life in an aging Mac laptop or desktop system. Samsung delivers one of the best SSD's for Mac drive swaps ever, with record-setting data transfer rates at a very reasonable cost per gigabyte.

For Macintosh models such as the iMac or Mac Pro towers which use standard 3.5" SATA drives, a drive converter like the IcyDock can convert a laptop SSD to a full size desktop drive in seconds. Just plop the best Mac compatible 2.5" SSD you can afford {from OCZ, Samsung, Sandisk, Kingston or others) into the case and close the cover. It's that simple. OWC's drive adapter sled is another good option.

Visit www.ssd-for-mac.com to learn more about various options to turbo-charge an older Mac's performance.

Does It All-In-One WiFi Assistant : Hewlett Packard does printers RIGHT. Here, the HP 6520 delivers one of the best printer solutions for iPad Tablet, iPhone or Mac OSX for only around $120. With very fast print speeds and both USB and Wi-Fi Wireless convenience, it's an excellent small office workhorse or shared home multi-function printer / scanner / copier. It's also AIRPRINT Compatible allowing direct wireless printing from iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch running the latest iOS update. Tip: Always buy XL - High Capacity replacement ink cartridges for far more pages of printed output for only a few dollars more.

Visit www.maccompatibleprinters.com for other desktop and portable inkjet, laser and multi-function AIO printing solutions for Apple iOS gadgets and Mac OSX.

Slim USB Portable Speaker Smart design and amazing sound quality you can hold in the palm of your hand and take anywhere. A passive bass-radiator woofer, and quad speaker drivers in Edifier's USB bus-powered or LiOn battery powered portable soundbar speaker improves any MacBook's audio. Reviewers all agree: a well-engineered portable speaker product with pleasing digital stereo sound for your MacBook Pro laptop or Macintosh desktop at home. Includes travel sleeve and 1/8" stereo input cable for standalone use with external analog devices like an iPad, iPhone or iPod. Also has on-board volume and mute control for quick sound-level adjustment.

Grandmax Slim Tweaker Speaker is one of the best portable USB speaker options and must-have accessories for MacBook Air users. It's the smallest portable computer speaker perfect for Mac laptop travel. This USB-powered laptop loudspeaker features dual, oblong stereo speaker drivers in an ultra-slim 1x10 inch cast aluminum soundbar that weighs less than 8 ounces. Experience room-filling volume levels and wider frequency-response that a MacBook Air's built-in speakers simply don't and can't deliver.

Check out www.usb-computer-speakers.com for a wide range of USB powered computer speakers for laptop travel or stereo audio on your desktop.