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The New York Observer reports that a number of major magazine publishers are nearing an agreement to launch a joint venture that would be focused on digital distribution of their content, aiming to create a digital storefront similar to Apple's iTunes Store.

The company would make up one of the biggest alliances among rival publishers ever formed in print media, with Time Inc., Condé Nast and Hearst all expected to join, houses that together publish more than 50 magazines, including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Esquire and O, The Oprah Magazine.

A report from early last month noted that such a plan for an industry-wide digital storefront was in the works in order to prepare for the probable launch of Apple's much-rumored tablet device in the relatively near future. Today's report, however, goes beyond the previous claims, pointing to the creation of a separate company headed by John Squires, an executive vice president at Time, to manage the distribution of digital content for a wide array of devices, as well as offering standard print media.

The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices. The company will not develop an e-book, but create something that people familiar with the plans compare to iTunes -- a store where you can buy new and distinct iterations of The New Yorker or Time. Print magazines will also be for sale.

A deal has not yet been finalized, but an announcement may be made "within weeks" and may include additional publishers beyond Time, Condé Nast and Hearst.

Mobile advertising firm AdMob today released its October 2009 Mobile Metrics Report, detailing the devices and platforms requesting ads from its network. While much of this month's report focuses on the breakdown of devices using Research in Motion and Android devices, one interesting tidbit revealed in the data is that Apple has finally reached a 50% share of the global smartphone ad request market.

Apple nearly reached the milestone back in May when it hit 49%, but the company's share temporarily dropped back over the next several months before beginning a sharp climb again in September. Apple's U.S. ad request share stood at 55% for the month of October, a strong increase from the 48% share held in the previous month but still well below its high of 69% measured in May.


The reasons for Apple's dip in ad request share earlier this year are not entirely clear, as all indications have pointed to continued strong growth of the iPhone and iPod touch, with the successful introduction of the iPhone 3GS in June presumably having been a driver of that performance.

Google announced earlier this month that it has agreed to acquire AdMob for $750 million in stock. The company's thriving mobile advertising business had been seen as a popular acquisition target, and it was reported soon after Google's announcement that Apple had apparently also considered making an offer for the company.

BusinessWeek reports that Apple is stepping into the Verizon-AT&T spat with two new ads to be released tonight touting the iPhone's ability to handle voice and data connections simultaneously via 3G. That ability has been featured as one of AT&T's talking points to differentiate itself from Verizon's 3G network in an attempt to counter Verizon's ads attacking AT&T's 3G network coverage.

The ads can't help but be viewed against the backdrop of the fight between Verizon Wireless and Apple's partner AT&T, the one that's spawned a lawsuit for Verizon's "There's A Map For That" TV spots. Here we see Apple doing its part as both a good AT&T partner, and touting a great feature of the iPhone all at once.

AT&T filed suit earlier this month over what it calls "blatantly false and misleading" advertising messages from Verizon, but Verizon quickly refuted the charges, noting pithily that "the truth hurts." A federal judge has denied AT&T's request for a temporary restraining order preventing Verizon's ads from being shown, but the full case will proceed beginning December 16th.

Fortune reports on comments last Friday from Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall that have been receiving a fair amount of attention today. The primary item of interest has been Marshall's claim that AT&T's exclusive agreement to distribute the iPhone in the U.S. will expire in June 2010, opening the door for other carriers to begin offering the device. Marshall's comments specifically point to Verizon as a carrier with which Apple would likely look to partner, with rumors of revised iPhone hardware capable of running on Verizon's network suggesting that a late 2010 launch could be possible.

AT&T's exclusivity window has been the subject of much discussion since the iPhone's introduction in mid-2007, with initial reports of the window extending until 2012. Other reports have claimed that the original exclusivity agreement had extended only 2009 but had subsequently been extended until 2010 as part of negotiations surrounding handset subsidies from AT&T. More recently, AT&T has been said to be seeking a further extension of exclusivity into 2011.

One of the questions raised in the move from exclusive to non-exclusive distribution models has been the effect on subsidies paid to Apple by wireless carriers such as AT&T. Marshall pegs the current subsidy paid by AT&T at approximately $450, and includes a shift to a "conservative" subsidy of $300 once other U.S. carriers come onboard. The drop in subsidy, however, would be much more than offset by increased sales volume under a multiple-carrier arrangement, according to Marshall. For its part, Apple has stated several times over the past six weeks that it has in fact been able to maintain subsidy levels in formerly-exclusive markets that have recently expanded to include multiple carriers.

The full video of Marshall's interview on Bloomberg Television is available online.

Boy Genius Report posts a supposed leak of Apple's forthcoming Black Friday sale items. Among the discounted items are iMacs ($101 off), MacBook Pros ($51-$101 off), iPod nanos ($11 off), and iPod touches ($21-$41 off). Also included are the Apple TV, AirPort products, Magic Mouse, iWork, and several other Apple and third-party accessories.


Last week, Boy Genius Report posted a possible leak of a promo e-mail from Apple, although there were serious doubts about its authenticity. The latest claim, however, at least offers a reasonable set of discounts in line with Apple's previous Black Friday sales.

BBC reports that a third worm has been discovered that attacks certain jailbroken iPhones. The malicious software was discovered by security company F-Secure but appears to be isolated and specific to the Netherlands.

It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING. It redirects the bank's customers to a lookalike site with a log-in screen.

F-Secure estimates the number of affected phones to be only in the "hundreds" at this point, though it could theoretically spread. The worm appears to exploit the same users as the harmless Australian worm which displayed a photograph of popsinger Rick Astley. A second worm operating using the same mechanism was found just days later to be capable of accessing personal information. Only individuals who had specifically jailbroken their iPhones, installed SSH and not changed the default password seem to have the potential to be affected.

This particular worm, however, is potentially far more serious as according to F-Secure it also "enables the phone to be accessed or controlled remotely without the permission of its owner."

Update: Additional information from Intego reveals that the worm also steals personal data as well as opens the iPhone up to further access/control.

When active on an iPhone, the iBotnet worm changes the root password for the device, in order to prevent users from later changing that password themselves. It then connects to a server in Lithuania, from which it downloads new files and data, and to which it sends data recovered from the infected iPhone. The worm sends both network information about the iPhone and SMSs to the remote server. It is capable of downloading data, including executables that it uses to run and carry out its actions, as well as new files, providing botnet capabilities to infected devices

Update 2: The Loop reports that Apple has issued a brief statement regarding the latest threat:

"The worm affects only a very specific set of iPhone users who have jail broken their iPhones and hacked it with unauthorized software," Apple spokesperson, Natalie Harrison, told The Loop. "As we've said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones, and for good reason. These hacks not only violate the warranty, they will also cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably."

Despite the massive success of the App Store, the actual app approval process has been a constant source of criticism for Apple. A couple of well known developers have recently quit from developing iPhone apps altogether due to the process. Businessweek recently interviewed Apple's senior vice-president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller who predictably defends the process:

"We've built a store for the most part that people can trust," he says. "You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you'd expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works."

Schiller goes on break down the major types of rejections. He explains that 90% of rejections are due to technical errors or bugs while 10% of rejections are due to inappropriate or illegal content. Meanwhile <1% of app rejections fall into a legal gray area that require additional research before they can make a decision. One example of such an application was one that teaches you how to cheat at gambling in casinos (in this case, it was rejected).

The source of frustration for developers have frequently come from inconsistent review standards and vague communications from Apple. Apple has been making some efforts to improve the transparency of the approval process, but obviously not enough yet to fully appease many developers.

As expected, Apple has announced that they will be holding a one day shopping event on Friday, November 27th. In the U.S., the day after Thanksgiving is called "Black Friday", which is historically one of the busiest shopping days of the year. MacRumors reader @chrisrooke let us know that Apple has begun emailing international customers this teaser page about the sale day.

Come back to the Apple Online Store this Friday for a special one-day-only shopping event.

Over the past several years, Apple has participated with one-day specials at both their retail Apple stores as well as the online Apple Store. Questionable rumors were spread last week suggesting that Apple would be offering substantial discounts on iPods and Macs this year, but Apple's Black Friday discounts have always been very modest. Previous year's price lists can be found in our guides page.

We had previously reported that magazine publisher Condé Nast is already taking steps to produce tablet-specific content for their publications in anticipation of the Apple Tablet (and competing devices). Condé Nast publishes the technology magazine Wired amongst others.

Condé’s plan, meanwhile, is to create digital versions of its magazines that will work on all the upcoming tablets, using new software from Adobe (ADBE). Those tablets aren’t actually on the market yet, but the publisher says it’s confident that we’ll soon see multiple versions of machines featuring large color touchscreens and wireless connections.

The company claims it has no special knowledge about Apple's device, but there have been reports that the New York Times has already been approached about producing content for the device.

A new video demonstrates their vision for content delivered on a tablet device:


Again, the company claims not to have any specific knowledge of an Apple tablet device, but expectations are building for exactly such a device.

Following up on early benchmarking tests that showed Apple's new quad-core Core i5 and Core i7 iMacs boasting significant performance improvements compared to their Core 2 Duo-based counterparts, Macworld has utilized its own Speedmark suite of real-world tests and found similar results.

Speedmark is Macworld Lab's standard test tool for benchmarking new and upgraded systems running Mac OS X. It uses real-world applications and everyday tasks. It is a general-purpose suite that includes tasks everyone from a high-end user to a new user performs every day.

Macworld Lab follows a detailed script to perform the 17 tasks. Each task is performed three times. We compare the results to a 2.13GHz MacBook with 2GB RAM (Mid 2009), which is assigned a score of 100. We then take the geometric mean of the normalized scores.

Macworld's tests compared the new quad-core iMac models with the base-level Core 2 Duo-based 21.5" and 27" models, as well as the entry-level 2.66 GHz previous-generation 24" iMac, revealing the expected significant performance improvements. Macworld also compared the new models to Apple's latest entry-level quad-core and 8-core Mac Pro models, with both new quad-core iMacs even out-performing the Mac Pro in this real-world battery.


Speedmark 6 Composite Scores
Detailed scores for individual tasks available in article
As Macworld notes, the new iMac is an attractive option for even professional users, comparing extremely favorably with the company's latest Mac Pro models.

With the new 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac and the 2.8GHz Core i7 iMac, Apple has not only blurred the line between consumer and professional systems, it's darn near erased it. The 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac offers faster performance at most tasks than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro. The Core i5 iMac also has more memory and more storage space than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro, while being $500 less (plus you get a 27-inch screen with the iMac). Unless you absolutely require additional PCI cards, multiple internal hard drives, or a lot of RAM, the Core i5 iMac makes a strong case for the being the go-to system for most Mac professionals.