The second ad is called “Orchestra” and showcases the iPhone 5′s noise cancellation abilities. You can check them out below:

It looks like Apple is gearing up for the holiday season – which usually means a blitz in electronics shopping. This always includes Apple, who is once again having an online and in-store Black Friday sale this year. The iPhone 5, along with the iPad mini and the new new iPad are at the center of Apple’s new product lineup this season – as long as they can meet demand, of course.

This year, Americans get to vote on which turkey will get the presidential pardon and be declared the 2012 National Thanksgiving Turkey. And they get to choose via Facebook.

The White House’s Facebook page has posted two pictures of two different turkeys, one named Cobbler and the other named Gobbler. Whichever turkey receives the most “likes” and “shares” will be declared the winner.

The White House3 hours ago

Want Cobbler to be the 2012 National Thanksgiving Turkey? “Like” and “share” this post to vote for Cobbler: http://wh.gov/turkey

Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  364 comments

The White House3 hours ago

Want Gobbler to be the 2012 National Thanksgiving Turkey? “Like” and “share” this post to vote for Gobbler: http://wh.gov/turkey

Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  115 comments

“Born on the same day on a farm in Rockingham Country, Virginia, Cobbler and Gobbler may look alike, but they’re no birds of a feather. Cobbler craves cranberries, is known for his strut, and enjoys the musical stylings of Carly Simon. Gobbler, a patient but proud bird, loves to nibble on corn and enjoys any music with a fiddle.”

What happens to Cobbler if Gobbler is chosen or Gobbler if Cobbler is chosen?

“It’s all gravy — no turkeys will be harmed during the selection of the National Thanksgiving Turkey. After the pardoning, both turkeys travel to George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens to reside in a custom-made enclosure at Mount Vernon’s nationally recognized livestock facility. Additionally, if for any reason one turkey is unable to perform the duties of the National Thanksgiving Turkey, his alternate will take his place during the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation,” says the White House blog.

We can only assume that despite what the White House says, the Turkey that doesn’t win the Facebook vote will be stuffed and served to Joe Biden.

Or receive this fate:

They cooked the epic meal for Someone Cares, a California soup kitchen that has served the needy 300 meals a day for the past 20 years.

It’s that Epic Meal Time craziness for a good cause. Sure, it’s not the most healthy thing to serve the homeless, working poor, unemployed, and the elderly – but hey, it’s lot of food for those who need it. And who says only the fortunate are allowed to indulge themselves once a year?

Where Rebecca Black sang her way through a typical Friday, getting dressed, having cereal, picking which seat to take in the car – Nicole Westbrook takes us through a typical Thanksgiving. Yes, that means turkey, mashed potatoes, and a reminiscing about the dates of other major holidays. Yes, April was Easter.

This comes to you from Patrice Wilson, as in the guy who brought you “Friday.” He makes an appearance in the video, as you would expect.

You gotta hand it to him. He’s doing what he’s doing. Haters gon’ hate. Earlier this year, Wilson even recorded his own song which was dedicated to all the haters out there. It was called “Happy” and you can check it out here.

[via reddit]

According to a comScore report, in relation to online retail, spending during Black Friday saw an increase of 26 percent when compared to 2010. The total for online Black Friday spending, by comScore’s numbers, is $816 million. Not only are the numbers promising, but the methods in which online shoppers conduct their business is expanding beyond the home/work computer.

Mobile devices in reference to online shopping is increasing as well. In fact, the rise in mobile technology adoption gives potential online shoppers a degree of flexibility the home computers do not. No longer are you required to be at computer at a certain times, all because of the freedom these mobile devices provide. In fact, the impact of mobile devices in regards to this flexibility have some speculating about the death of Cyber Monday, because shoppers are no longer required to be tethered to a non-mobile computing device:

But the loss of Cyber Monday, which got its name when most people had to go into their offices to shop online, shows how far broadband, and now mobile, have come.

In reference to the loss of Cyber Monday, Giga Om’s article offers an update:

Akamai noted on Monday night that Thanksgiving evening experienced the peak traffic of the holiday season, making this the year that turkey day topped Black Friday’s and Cyber Monday’s peaks.

This makes sense considering the explosive growth of smartphones. With these connected devices, users no longer have to worry about running to their workstation or their home rig to take part in these online sales, and because of the increased accessibility, more and more online shoppers don’t have to wait until they are in front of a computer to participate.

Over at Shop.org, the mobile device holiday shopping increase was forecast thusly:

One quarter of Cyber Monday shoppers anticipate using mobile devices. The real standout this year, of course, is the continued rise of mobile devices for Cyber Monday shoppers: 14.5% of all Cyber Monday shoppers expect to use a smartphone and/or tablet device for at least part of their shopping, double the number we saw last year (6.9%). Among online shoppers this year, however, that’s actually a whopping 23.8%. For a retailer, that’s another golden opportunity to proactively make an offer to a specific customer, especially if that retailer can tap into location-based mobile advertisements with a specific call to action.

Clearly, people want to spend during the Thanksgiving sales season, which kicks off the holiday shopping season on an annual basis. Furthermore, with more and more consumers acquiring mobile devices, it only makes sense that mobile device shopping increases as well.

While this is becoming less and less of an issue, especially for the bigger consumption sites, it is still wise to make sure your site is mobile-friendly, especially if you’re planning on capitalizing on this willingness to spend.

View more daily infographic round-ups here.

Chow looks at what to bring to Thanksgiving:

Coyle media looks at sports and smartphones:

Sports Marketing from Coyle Media, LLC.

Bankrate looks at weight loss and saving money:

So when grandma’s recipe book just isn’t cutting it anymore – here are some online resources to help you make your loved ones happy. Or at least to help you from totally ruining Thanksgiving.

(Note: There are plenty of wonderful, smaller food blogs out there. Look around, go deep into the internet food culture. You can find some amazing little resources that can be highly specialized for your needs. Don’t be afraid to jump off the beaten path when it comes to this sort of thing. This list is a starter list of sorts, with some of the big names in online recipes and food tips)

The New York Times Dining & Wine

This big dog of the food world is doing something interesting this year. They have set up a “Thanksgiving Help Line” that is there to answer reader’s questions on Turkey, Wine, Dessert, Side Dishes and much more.

Readers are asked to submit their query directly on the site or via Twitter, using hthe hashtag #ThanksgivingQs. An example of how the NYT is helping holiday chefs, many of the responses to questions like “Why won’t be cranberry sauce gel?” and “How do I get the lumps out of my mashed potatoes?” are in the form of video tutorials.

Epicurious

Epicurious, and its partners bon appetit and Gourmet, have dedicated part of their site to Thanksgiving, providing links to Thanksgiving essentials, vegetarian recipes, and “pie perfection.” They offer a beginner’s guide to Thanksgiving and have checklists that you can use to make sure you don’t forget anything.

Epicurious also allows you to sign up for email alerts for their “Thanksgiving Countdown” messages.

Chow

Chow has an entire section designated for Thanksgiving recipes. Easy to navigate tabs allow you to browse their best recipes from five years of existence. There are multiple recipes for thinks like stuffing, gravy, pies & tarts, and even cranberry sauce. A pretty awesome bonus section shows you great ways to utilize all of those leftovers.

Food Network

Food Network’s site has also created an Thanksgiving section, where they provides recipes and how-tos for pretty much all of the traditional courses you’ll need. They have a pretty extensive selection of how-to videos in their “cooking school.” And of course, there are recipes and videos from the network’s personalities like Alton Brown and Ina Garten.

Serious Eats

Serious Eats has a basic but useful collection of recipes and tips for a stress-free Thanksgiving. They also provide a drink-pairing guide as well as their “Taste-test” section that tells you which brands of frozen apple pies, stuffing, store-bought gravy, etc. are the best – just in case you don’t have to time to make absolutely everything at home.

eHow Food

eHow Food offers Thanksgiving help in the form of tips on Thanksgiving on a budget as well as tips from “in-house” contributor Rachel Ray. eHow food has plenty of recipes, including some instructional videos like how to set a great Thanksgiving table and how to crave the perfect turkey.

Of course, there are many more outlets out there to help you pull off the big meal. But these are some great places to start. What’s your favorite holiday dish, both to prepare and to eat? Let us know in the comments.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Canadian multiplatinum recording artists Nickelback would be playing the halftime show at this year’s Thanksgiving Day NFL game between the visiting Green Bay Packers and the hosting Detroit Lions. According to the Oakland Press, “It’s not known what Nickelback will perform, but the group will be promoting a new album, “Here and Now,” which comes out Nov. 21.”

And things had just started to turn around for the Lions this season…

If you’ve seen discussion of this news on Twitter and Facebook over the last couple days, you probably realize that this isn’t the most popular decision that’s been made in the interest of the NFL.

And now, angry fans have started an online petition at popular site change.org to protest the choice of musical entertainment. The petition asks the Detroit Lions to replace Nickelback as the halftime performance at the all-important Thanksgiving Day game. Here’s the petitioner’s rationale:

This game is nationally televised, do we really want the rest of the US to associate Detroit with Nickelback? Detroit is home to so many great musicians and they chose Nickelback?!?!?! Does anyone even like Nickelback? Is this some sort of ploy to get people to leave their seats during halftime to spend money on alcoholic beverages and concessions? This is completely unfair to those of us who purchased tickets to the game. At least the people watching at home can mute their TVs. The Lions ought to think about their fans before choosing such an awful band to play at halftime.

The petition just reached 1,500 signatures and is growing rapidly.

In the “why people are signing” comment area, here are some of the top reasons:

They could not have chosen a worse band? What are you trying to do to your loyal fans?

Nickelback is the worst band ever.

The Lions are having a remarkable season for the first time in… well, quite some time. *Quite some time.* I honestly understand what a pain in the ass it would be to reschedule this appearance, but please, at least 80% of anyone cognizant of Nickelback’s presence during halftime will be utterly disgusted, whether it’s a legitimate feeling or not. Also you could probably get Kid Rock to do it for free.

Twitter is pretty amused by the prospect of Nickelback playing the halftime show:

Will you sign the petition? Let us know in the comments.