ikreateit.com

It’s that time of the year again, folks, and every­where on the ‘net you stum­ble upon give­aways and spec­tac­u­lar sales — makes you feel like christ­mas is upon us already. Here is a roundup of a num­ber of sites where you can score free or cheaper iPhone apps, Soft­ware, Hard­ware and so on. Most are Mac related, but there’s also stuff for the PC guys down the list. If you know of any other event that’s not listed, post it in the com­ments and I will add it. Enjoy!

Give­aways

A give­away is an event where you have to enter your email address, leave a com­ment on a site, sub­scribe to an RSS feed or the like to be eli­gi­ble to win. Read the sites instruc­tions care­fully to find out how you can participate.

Abduzeedo

Not really christ­mas related but rather an anniver­sary but still: abduzeedo is hav­ing an awe­some give­away and if you are not a fre­quent reader of the site, now would be a good time to start.

Mac­Sto­ries

It’s a hell of a give­away they are hav­ing, head over as long as there is still some­thing to grab

Mac. Appstorm.net

Every day, you can win really awe­some Mac soft­ware. So far, there’s been Tweetie, Things, Fork­lift or CSSEdit, for exam­ple. If I can trust the pre­view image on their site, I think there are apps like Lit­tleSnap­per, Billings, Rapid­weaver and even hard­ware like iPods and the iPhone! Check it daily!

Web.Appstorm.net

This is Mac.Appstorm’s sis­ter site and if you are not a Mac guy or if your inter­est extends to online soft­ware and apps, you def­i­nitely should stop by here every day as well. Give­aways so far have been for exam­ple Google Wave invites, Ember, or Canny Bill.

Free­bies

Yes, you read right: some sites give away stuff com­pletely for free and you should be click­ing the links below by now…

Appventcalendar.com

Every day, you can grab an iPhone game com­pletely for free.

iTunes 12 days of christ­mas (UK & DE only)

Start­ing Decem­ber 26, iTunes UK and DE will be giv­ing away music, apps etc. for free. Every down­load will only be avail­able for 24 hours.
Link to the UK event
Link to the Ger­man event

CHIP Down­load calendar

For the PC users among us: one free soft­ware down­load every day. Don’t be dis­cour­aged because the site is in Ger­man: just click on the pack­age of the respec­tive day and a new win­dow will open with the soft­ware download.

SALES!

Now, here you’ll have to shell out some Dol­lars, Euros or what­ever cur­rency fills your wal­let. But you can strike a lot of good deals and if you’ve been wait­ing for some­thing spe­cific to be on sale, maybe these sites will make your day.

Fork­lift

The file & FTP man­ager is on sale until christ­mas! Only $9.95. Have been using it for years and very happy with it.

MacUp­date Christ­mas Bundle

It’s here finally: the MUpromo christ­mas bundle.

Appsforsale.de (Ger­man iTunes)

Every day, three apps are reduced in price. Only valid for Ger­man iTunes.

Unimall.de

For stu­dents, teach­ers and edu­ca­tional facil­i­ties: a great deal on soft­ware (both Mac and Win­dows) or hard­ware every day. You have to pro­vide proof for being a stu­dent or teacher though.

Cyberport.de

My favorite hard– and soft­ware store around the cor­ner has a christ­mas cal­en­dar again this year. Deal on soft­ware and hard­ware for every­one. Mac and PS users, come together

Gravis.de

Con­trary to Cyber­port, you know in advance which soft­ware and hard­ware deals are offered until christ­mas. But you don’t know which door of the cal­en­dar will close each day. How much of a gam­bler are you, then?

Non-Christmas related sales and give-aways!

Even bet­ter than great deals around the cozi­est time of year are deals that you can strike through­out the entire year. Check the fol­low­ing sites from time to time to see if you can score.

Mac­Zot

Great deals on Mac soft­ware every sin­gle day! And from time to time, even soft­ware bun­dles. A must-bookmark for every Mac user.

Mac Upate Promo

Like Mac­Zot, great deals on Mac apps every day.

MacHeist

It’s dif­fi­cult to sum up MacHeist in just a few words: it’s an adven­ture quest with puz­zles to be solved and for the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of a task, you are rewarded with free apps. At the end of the month-long event, a breath­tak­ing bun­dle of Mac apps waits for you for a fric­tion of the prize you’d nor­mally pay for the apps together. While receiv­ing the apps is great, the most fun lies in the solv­ing of the puz­zles and inter­ac­tion with the com­mu­nity. Which is cur­rently wait­ing impa­tiently for MacHeist 4 to start … any day now. Please! Oh, and you missed the MacHeist Nano Bun­dle already … 6 great apps for free. But don’t be dis­cour­aged. Head over there and sign up for MacHeist so you’ll be in the fun when the real heist starts.

TUTS+ Net­work

Maybe you’ve heard of the Envato net­work con­sist­ing of such great sites like The­me­for­est, Graphi­criver, Video­hive, Active­den and Audio­jun­gle? They have stun­ning resources for cre­atives of every field and each month, they are giv­ing away one piece of every cat­e­gory for free … PSD tem­plates, web sites, video loops, audio jin­gles or great graphics.

The Mac Sale

Cur­rently noth­ing going on there, but check back from time to time to receive amaz­ing dis­counts on a num­ber of Mac apps.

The Mac Bundles

Ever chang­ing bun­dles of Mac apps for a reduced prize.

NETTUTS.com

Occa­sional give­away, espe­cially books on web development.

Suber­apps

Occa­sional give­away of apps.