A friend of mine let me know last night that Australian Apple customers were also emailed about a Black Friday sale. To my knowledge, this is the first time Australia has been included in Apple’s Black Friday sales, in part because Black Friday isn’t a thing in Aussieland. As with other markets getting this sale, the Apple.com/au site has a landing page featuring an Apple Watch, with the message that, “Friday can’t come soon enough.” I’m noting this because it shows a push by Apple to make a splash with this sale. As I said, Black Friday isn’t a thing Down Under. Not only is there no “Thanksgiving” holiday weekend happening (there is a “Thanksgiving” celebration unrelated to our Pilgrims, of course), but holiday shopping has a more general ramp up than it does in the States. That said, American culture pushes out to many corners of the world, and the idea of “Black Friday” as a time for sales isn’t unheard of. It’s merely uncommon. Jeff Gamet and I discussed this on Wednesday’s Apple Context Machine. It’s possible that Apple is feeling the need to goose December quarter sales.

SwitchEasy has a new case for iPhone aimed particularly at Jet Black iPhone 7 owners who want to show off that Jet Black finish and have a case, too. The case is called Glass, and the back is made out of hardened glass (7H on the Mohs’ scale of hardness). The company says it has 90% optical transparency, and it was designed with a 1mm gap between the phone and the back of the Glass. That’s to minimize contact with the case to preserve that Jet Black finish. It has a retail price of $39.99.