Thanksgiving might be over, but with a new year right around the corner, it’s time to think about whether we should be thankful for Apple in 2016.

It hasn’t exactly been a spectacular year for Cupertino, but it certainly hasn’t been boring. We’ve gotten a new iPad Pro, iPhone 7 with big improvements, a greater Apple Watch, and the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID.

But was all that enough? Is this a year you’ll look back on fondly as an Apple fan, or is it one to forget? Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we decide whether we’ve been thankful for Apple over the past 12 months.

This post is brought to you by Withings.

Don’t let shopping stress you out and spoil the holiday spirit. Gifts that are useful and beautiful are always a safe bet, and these Black Friday deals on health and fitness products from Withings — one of our favorite purveyors of quality gear — mean you can save up to 70 percent on the perfect gifts for 2016.

But don’t delay: These excellent deals on Withings fitness trackers, home health gadgets and smart scales won’t last forever. Prices go back up Tuesday!

Black Friday has begun and we are seeing the best pricing on game consoles to adorable little robot vacuum cleaners, so we worked with the team at TechBargains to source the web for the best Black Friday Deals. These prices are among the lowest and might be the best pricing you see until next year. Act fast as deals go fast.

Target had a record-breaking day of online sales on Thanksgiving — and Apple devices were one of the big movers.

The retailer singled out the iPad as a particularly hot seller. The Apple tablets helped Target achieve traffic and sales that blew past numbers for last year’s Cyber Monday event.

We’re in the thick of Black Friday season and the deals are coming at us left and right. We’ve rounded up some of the best of the special deals at the Cult of Mac Store, from a lifetime of geo restriction-free streaming, to a 3 pack of MFi-certified Lightning cables, a lifetime of VPN access and a camera that redefined the photograph. Each is half off or more, and by entering the coupon code ‘BLACKFRIDAY15’ at checkout, you can get an additional 15 percent off pretty much everything at the Cult of Mac Store.

Apple generously gives new Apple Music subscribers a three-month free trial before demanding its monthly fee, and now Google is beating it.

For a limited time, the company is offering four months of free access to Play Music and YouTube Red for new customers.

Everyone might be talking about OLED displays, wireless charging and a new glass enclosure as the big selling points of Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 8, but a new report suggests the camera might be in for a major upgrade as well.

According to a report citing folks in the supply chain, Apple is investigating the possibility of a camera module boasting a 3D array, allowing for possible 3D depth mapping.

Apple has been hit with another massive fine in Europe, as French tax authorities recently issued the company with a 400 million euro ($422 million) bill, according to French newspaper L’Express.

As with a lot of Apple’s other tax issues, the complaint reportedly relates to Apple’s tax optimizing strategy of channelling profits through its Irish subsidiary.

This week on The CultCast: Is a secret Apple project stalling Mac updates? It wouldn’t be the first time. Plus: Apple teases Black Friday deals; AirPort routers are walking dead, and the Mac Pro might be next; the future of Time Machine; why iPad should be an iOS/OS X hybrid; and Jony Ive’s new role designing Apple itself.

Apple’s one-day Black Friday event is now live in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and other markets around the world. Just as expected, there are no discounts to take advantage of, but Apple is giving away free gift cards with eligible orders.

In the last decade or so, lots of companies have gotten design religion. Design has been brought in-house, where it can shape products from the very get-go. There’s an obvious source for this idea — Apple.

This week on the Kahney’s Korner podcast, I talked to Oliver Seil, senior design director of Belkin International’s Innovation Design Group. We discussed Belkin’s products and design process; the surprising complexity of USB cables (and why they cost so much); and why Apple has had such an enormous influence on design and manufacturing.

You can listen to the podcast or read a full transcript of the interview below. (Or dive into the show notes.)

Apple is taking part in Black Friday this year, but it looks like it won’t be slashing any prices.

The company’s promotion has already gone live in Australia and New Zealand and it brings free gift cards with eligible purchases rather than tasty discounts. But don’t expect to get those gift cards with the latest Apple products.

Whether it’s its new heartwarming Christmas ad or its giant iPhone 7 billboards, Apple frequently leads the way on both quality and quantity for its advertising.

But according to Apple’s most recent 10-K annual report, recently filed with the SEC, it’s no longer revealing what it spends to get to this point.

We’re all expecting Apple to deliver something spectacular for the iPhone’s tenth anniversary next year, but what comes after that? According to some analysts, it will be a “decade-long malaise” that will cause Apple to fall.

It’s amazing how many peripherals there are for expanding the functionality of the already very useful iPhone. We’ve rounded up some of the coolest and most affordable iPhone add-ons, from a tripod you can fold up and store in your wallet, to a module to turn your phone into a universal remote, a 32GB storage upgrade and a 3-pack of extra long, MFi-certified Lightning cables. Read on for more details:

Jony Ive’s vision for Apple stores includes plenty of live trees, so who can be surprised that the “Christmas tree” he and BFF Marc Newson designed for a swank British hotel turned out to be a minimalist fir with not a bauble in sight?

Unusual as it is, Ive and Newson’s creation is far from the most offbeat reimagining of festive firs in Claridge’s history. Check out previous Claridge’s Christmas trees, which range from truly ostentatious to totally bizarre.

Sources in Apple’s supply chain have corroborated claims that the company will launch a 10.5-inch iPad in 2017.

The device is thought to be aimed at the enterprise and education sectors, where the 9.7-inch iPad is considered too small and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is too expensive.

The best shopping week of the year is finally here! Score some all-time price lows on iPads, iPhones and more.

Bid goodbye to your free time because Microsoft just brought Solitaire, arguably its greatest creation, to Android and iOS.

The game has been a staple of the Windows operating system for 25 years and boasts 119 million players on Windows 8 and Windows 10 alone. Now it’s jumping to third-party platforms for the first time ever.

My shiny new MacBook Pro finally arrived. What kind of YouTube channel would Cult of Mac be running if we didn’t film a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar unboxing?

In today’s video, I open up my new space gray laptop, fire it up for the first time, and record my first hands-on impressions. Check it out below.

Samsung’s desperate to boost Galaxy S7 sales following the death of the Galaxy Note 7, so it’s turning to Apple (again) for inspiration.

The South Korean company is planning a “glossy black” version of its flagship smartphone that will take on the insanely popular jet black iPhone 7.

Holiday season means travel, and that means putting the ‘mobile’ in your mobile devices to the test. These four accessories will make sure your mobile tech is up to the challenge, from keychain-sized charging cables to gumdrop-sized earbuds, a pocket sized personal battery and a sturdy car mount. With these, all you’ll have left to worry about is avoiding political talk at the dinner table. Read on for more details:

If you watched the most recent Mac media event, you already got a preview of Final Cut X — thanks to the on-stage demo showing how it worked in conjunction with the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar. But there’s a whole lot more to the Final Cut Pro 10.3 update than that.

To check out what you’ll find in the latest update for Apple’s video-editing software, check out our comprehensive video below.

The rumored decision to adopt a glass chassis for the next-generation iPhone is reportedly fueled by a desire to improve wireless charging, another key feature supposedly coming to Apple’s 2017 phone.

The report comes from notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that all 2017-era iPhones will boast the long-awaited wireless charging tech.

Tim Cook and President-elect Donald Trump haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye on a number of issues previously.

However, during yesterday’s meeting with The New York Times editorial board, Trump revealed news about a recent phone conversation he had with Cook, containing details Trump thinks Apple has reason to “be happy about.”