It’s not just the designers with the dressed down cool aesthetic like Alexander Wang, or rising stars like Sophie Theallet though; the open embrace of the fashion tech set is a large part of how the fashion week schedule at Milk Studio has risen to take on the tents.

Jennine Jacob’s twice-a-year Evolving Influence conference kicked things off, and a combination of video, blogs and tweets have propelled it forward as the closest thing to an Internet Fashion Week that we’ve seen so far.

Milk Made LIVE is a collaboration between M.A.C. Cosmetics, Milk Studios and The Standard, New York that brings video from Livestream, notes from Tumblr and brief quips from Twitter together in one online place for those who can’t make it to New York or just want to participate by proxy.

In the past four days since it went live, the Tumblr-based site has generated:

• 8,500 notes (reblogs and likes)
• Approximately 900,000 note impressions
• 80,000 page views
• 9,000 unique viewers and 280,000 viewer minutes for Alexander Wang and Altuzarra’s livestreamed shows alone

Tumblr has openly committed to focusing on the fashion content that drives a significant portion of its traffic, and the response to Milk Made seems to confirm the wisdom of that decision.

Of course we’re far past the point where social media as part of Fashion Week is new, but the concerted effort to centralize the responses and interaction for an always on Fashion Week destination feels fresh. More important, for designers who can sometimes struggle with how to make those interactions work at an individual level, it’s a value add that the tents don’t have.

Part of that comes from the approach. For IMG, any publicity – including livestreaming or a social strategy – are completely left to the designer. For brands that operate through a tightly controlled PR machine, that’s actually a huge “pro,” so it’s not something everyone will see as a problem. For medium and smaller labels though, the collective extra effort towards online and social promotion that MAC and Milk offer could easily be an advantage that sees a further shift in the lineup of both locations.

Whether it’s from the front row or in front of a computer screen, we’ll be watching.

Special? Definitely. Best deal? Not on everything.

Lots of Mac fans were happy to hear that Apple, notorious for not discounting their products, would be getting into the spirit of Black Friday but if you’re really looking for the best deal on a Mac, your best bet may be with an Apple reseller.

First, some clarification: if you’re looking for a deal on an iPod or iPad, then the Apple store is where you want to shop. On every iPod and iPad model, the Apple Black Friday specials offer the best price. If you’re in the market for a computer though, we did the shopping around and for quite a few models, you’ll save slightly more by going with a reseller. Here’s a model by model breakdown.

Update: Apple’s Black Friday prices may have been one day only, but most of the resellers still have sale pricing available.

MacBook Pro

15-inch MacBook Pro – 2.4GHz

$1698 with free shipping at Apple (all MacBook Pros can be seen at the same link)

$1660.99 with free shipping at Amazon

MacBook Pro 15-inch – 2.53GHz

$1898 with free shipping at Apple

$1834 with free shipping at Amazon

MacBook Pro 15-inch – 2.66GHz

$2098 with free shipping at Apple

$2029 with free shipping at Amazon

$2043.99 with free shipping at MacMall

MacBook Pro 17-inch – 2.53GHz

$2198 with free shipping at Apple

$2054 with free shipping at Amazon

$2094.77 with free shipping at Mac Mall

MacBook Air

MacBook Air 11-inch with 64GB memory

$999 (no promotion) at Apple (all MacBook Airs can be seen at the same link)

$948 with free shipping at Amazon

$948 with free shipping at MacMall

MacBook Air 11-inch with 128GB memory

$1199 (no promotion) at Apple

$1139 at Amazon

$1139 at MacMall

iMac

On the 21.5″ iMac models, there’s promotional price parity, but on the 27″ iMac versions things get a bit more competitive. Apple’s Black Friday price on the Quad-Core 2.8GHz model is $1898 with free shipping. The same version can be found on Amazon for $1859 + $25.49 shipping ($1884.49 total) and at Mac Mall for $1894 with free shipping.

Prices on the 2.93GHz model are the same – $2098 or $2298 depending on how much memory you go for – at Apple and resellers.

It looks as if Apple’s iPad might be doing better than their traditional computers.  According to one analyst, iPads may be outselling Macs at a ratio of two iPads to every one Mac sold.  Based on his data, Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets is saying that Apple is managing to sell  more than 200,000 iPads per week in the US {Mashable}.

That means the iPad is selling at a rate just a little lower than the iPhone 3GS.  That’s without the upcoming iPad international launch, which will mean even more sales.  While it may not be surprising to those who own or have spent time with the iPad, it does bode well for those looking for new, interesting apps for the device.  More devices in people’s hands means there are more opportunities to sell apps, and more competition to make better apps. And as publishers decide to push the boundaries, perhaps better websites.

Fashion models may be missing a nipple or two since publishers are self-censoring editorial content to avoid raising the ire of people on the other side of Apple’s sometimes unclear approval process {Shiny Shiny}; but the publications who have gone all in on iPad app development have added video and lots of integration to take full advantage of the new platform. And for app makers and publishers who prefer to go the unfiltered route, HTML5 websites are proving to be worthy – perhaps superior competitors.

At Google’s I/O technology conference, Sports Illustrated showed off an HTML5 version of the website that was strikingly similar to an app. {TechCrunch} The benefit, of course, being that there are far fewer restrictions on websites compared to apps. While apps that interact with the device (think games and touchscreen heavy apps) are unlikely to be affected, ones that are primarily content based could see heavier usage on all devices if the app experience can be replicated for the traditional computers that remain more prevalent than the iPad or any other tablet device.

What remains to be seen, however, is how the iPad will do a year or so after the release.  Once the initial wonder wears off and usage patterns start to emerge we’ll see if sales slow down.  Competitors who run tablets based on Google’s Android OS, or even WebOS could put a dent in sales as well, or prove to be a driving force in the adoption of web applications. Google is already hedging their bets on the last part with the creation of a web application repository.  For now, however, there are a lot of iPads out there and they’re still tough to get hold of, which is a good sign.

Read More {CrunchGear}

Read More{Engadget}

Read More{Gizmodo}

Watch the video {Makeupbag.net}