MacRumors

The holiday season has become more relevant for those looking for a discount on Apple computers as there has been an increasing number of vendors willing to hold short term sales/rebates on Macs over the past few years.

Due to a variety of circumstances, this year's holiday season is likely to be particularly strong for Mac sales. Apple has recently revised the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook, while the MacBook Pro revisions are only 5 months old -- and without an Apple attended Macworld looming in January, there is a low likelihood of any imminent updates to most of the Mac product line.

MacMall is kicking off early with a weekend sale that incorporate instant discounts as well as mail-in rebates across Apple's current lineup. This particular sale ends on Sunday at 11:59pm Pacific Time, and the Mac line-up is organized in this table. As an affiliate partner, sales through these links benefit this site directly.

Apple, themselves, will likely also hold a Black Friday sale both online and at their retail stores, though their discounts have always been very modest. Like last year, we'll organize the most interesting sales for a Black Friday summary.

AT&T today published a public response to a recent series of advertisements from rival Verizon attacking AT&T's 3G network coverage. The latest spat between the two companies began last month with Verizon ads using map-based representations of AT&T's and Verizon's 3G coverage areas, with Verizon's network being touted as covering five times the area of AT&T's.

Earlier this month, AT&T filed suit against Verizon for misleading advertising, claiming that the ads implied that AT&T offered no coverage outside of the highlighted 3G areas, when in fact the vast majority of those areas are covered by the company's EDGE network, which the company claims is virtually identical to its 3G coverage with the exception of data transfer speed.

Today's release from AT&T takes its argument directly to the public in an effort to "set the record straight" on what AT&T has to offer. While the release does not directly mention the iPhone, it is clear that the much of the dispute over AT&T's 3G coverage has centered on the popular device.

As the U.S. market leader in wireless data service, we typically don't respond to competitors' advertising. However, some recent ads from Verizon are so blatantly false and misleading, that we want to set the record straight about AT&T's wireless data coverage.

In the release, AT&T details the three types of technology used in its wireless networks (3G, EDGE, GPRS), the functionalities offered by each technology, and the respective coverage areas by population in the United States. The company also touts the breadth of popular smartphones available to customers and the availability of over 100,000 applications, both obvious references to the iPhone. Finally, AT&T notes that it has the "nation's fastest 3G network", which also offers the ability to handle voice and data simultaneously.

Apple has quietly launched iTunes Preview, a feature that shows what music is available on iTunes from the convenience of your Web browser. Yes, even Internet Explorer 6. iTunes Preview lets anyone browse through the entire iTunes catalog's worth of music, info, and user reviews for any region.

The report notes that the feature is currently available only for music content, and it is unclear if or when it will be extended to additional iTunes Store offerings.

Apple is currently offering access to the iTunes Preview in several locations on its iTunes pages, including a feature near the bottom of its "What's On" page and through its "iTunes Charts" page. Links copied directly from the iTunes Store will also reportedly generate corresponding iTunes Preview pages on systems where iTunes is not installed.

Hints earlier this week regarding the release of an official beta version of Google's Chrome browser for Mac have been confirmed. TechCrunch contacted received the news yesterday from a Google spokesperson, who stood by earlier reports that the Mac beta of Chrome will be available by the end of the year.

We asked Google about it and here's what they had to say, "As I'm sure you know, we generally don't comment about timelines for releasing specific features or products. But we've been quoted a few times saying Chrome for mac should be out by the end of the year." I was then pointed to an Reuters article from September that quoted Google's Product Management Vice President, Sundar Pichai, as saying that Chrome for Mac would be released by year's end.

Google's spokesperson also confirmed that the Mac version will follow a similar model as the Windows version, launching initially as part of a Beta channel for active development, with refined versions periodically promoted to a Stable channel for users looking for "rock solid" performance without the need for the latest features still undergoing development.

In other Google news, TechCrunch also reports that the company's Chrome OS, a browser-based operating system built on Linux, is expected to be launched as an early beta or development version for download within the next week.

We expect Google will be careful with messaging around the launch, and endorse a small set of devices for installation. EEE PC netbooks, for example, may be one set of devices that Google will say are ready to use Chrome OS. There will likely be others as well, but don't expect to be able to install it on whatever laptop or desktop machine you have from day one. Google has previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the project.

Ground Floor of Apple's Upper West Side Retail Store

Apple realized they were going too small with their stores, so now all of their stores will be at least "three tables wide." In other words, they're going to be bigger. They're also going to be opening more stores next year, more like 50. More of them will be "significant stores," iconic ones like the Fifth Ave. store with the Apple Cube. And they'll be going more international, adding stores all over Europe, like the UK, Paris and two in Shanghai getting those "significant stores."

Johnson also noted that the company's retail stores are averaging approximately $26 million in yearly revenue, only slightly below that of Macy's, Target, and Best Buy, but with much smaller stores leading to per-square-foot sales five times that of Best Buy. On the topic of Microsoft's retail stores, Johnson acknowledged the competition but offered up a simple response to the challenge, claiming "It's nice to have a 10-year head start."

Finally, Gizmodo offers up an inside look at the Upper West Side store, calling it a "temple" to the company's products.

I can't tell you - and the pictures can't show you - how utterly open and expansive the room feels. Apple says it has more demo units than any other store in the world. To give you an idea of the space, the walls are 45 feet tall, and could fit 11 Apple 5th Avenue Cubes inside. It's the spareness that's breathtaking. It's cold. Not literally, but the stone walls, the glass, the sheer space rob it of any sense of warmth or feeling. The only sense of life in room is the products. It's a temple to them, really.

Basement of Apple's Upper West Side Retail Store

Glass Staircase in Apple's Upper West Side Retail Store

Illustrative Diagram of "Tablet" Allowing Pen-Based Input and Output

In particular, the described invention relates most specifically to handwriting recognition and the use of an "ink manager" to determine phrase being entered by the user before sending the phrases on to a handwriting recognition engine for deciphering.

To tell the truth, the patent app has little to do with a tablet computer per se. It's mostly concerned how to make digital ink recognition/interpretation process better, especially when filling out various forms. And it achieves that by trying to recognize full ink phrases, instead of a separate ink strokes: The ink manager collects separate ink strokes, determines when a whole phrase have been entered and passes that phrase to handwriting recognition engine.

Apple has placed a great deal of emphasis on its multi-touch technology used in the iPhone and iPod touch as a differentiator from what it has perceived as inferior stylus-based input methods. But the patent application published today indicates that the company has not completely abandoned such technologies and is in fact seeking to continue improving their functionality.

The patent application's lead inventor is Larry Yaeger, a former Apple researcher who was instrumental in designing the handwriting recognition software used in both the Apple Newton and the Inkwell feature of Mac OS X. He is currently a professor at Indiana University.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales in 3Q09 in Thousands of Units (Source: Gartner)

Apple's worldwide smartphone share reached 17 per cent as iPhone sales totalled 7 million units in the third quarter of 2009 following the continued rollout of the iPhone 3GS in new countries. Its ASP is holding steady and sales in the fourth quarter should be even stronger as Apple starts selling in China, through one additional carrier in the UK, and in an additional 16 countries.

Overall, the mobile phone market experienced only 0.1% growth over the year-ago quarter, but smartphones continued their strong performance, growing 12.8% year-over-year.

Apple's share of the smartphone market has fluctuated significantly since the device's 2007 introduction as purchasing patterns have been affected by the company's product release cycle, seasonal variations in the industry, and introductions into new countries or wireless carriers. The general trend, however, indicates that Apple continues to outperform its competitors in the mobile phone industry as it builds market share in the fastest growing segment in the industry.

At night the store is a beacon visible for several blocks, especially for those approaching by car or on foot from the south. The glow of the ceiling lights, the backlit logo and the back-lit wall graphics are brighter than anything on Broadway. As you approach closer, the towering height of the storefront becomes apparent. Once in front of the building, you realize that Apple opted not to create another Boston or Regent Street (London) store, with a mezzanine level. They took the Scottsdale Quarter (Arizona) store and did it one better -- this single space is about two and one-half times the volume of the Scottsdale building, and with a second level hidden away below ground like Fifth Avenue (NYC).

Numerous workers were busy Wednesday night cleaning the interior and exterior of the building in preparation for the store's opening. ifoAppleStore has also posted a gallery of photos of the new store, demonstrating the sparsely-arranged ground floor, towering ceiling, and low-profile spiral staircase to the lower level.

Update: Apple has published a press release announcing the store opening.

Set beneath a breathtaking all-glass arched roof, the street level of the Apple Store Upper West Side offers more Macs, iPods and iPhones than any store in the world for an incredible hands-on experience. The lower level features the largest area ever created by Apple for personal training and technical support, including a 45-foot Genius Bar. Located on Broadway at 67th Street, the Apple Store Upper West Side is just minutes from Lincoln Center and Central Park.

Apple today released Safari 4.0.4, bringing improvements for JavaScript and History search performance, stability improvements in a number of areas including third-party plug-ins, and fixes for a handful of security issues.

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:

- Improved JavaScript performance
- Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items
- Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Safari 4.0.4 is available via Software Update and Apple's Safari download page. Versions for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Leopard, and Tiger are available, as well as a single version for Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

A new study from market research firm Gartner pegs Apple's share of the personal computer market in the UK at 5.0% for the third quarter of 2009, ranking the company fifth among all vendors. The company's unit shipments increased 26.6% to move up considerably from a market share of 3.8% in the year-ago quarter.

Gartner's UK PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q09 (Thousands of Units)

Most of the vendors are facing a difficult time. "Interestingly, two vendors at either end of the price spectrum are winning the battle. At one end, Acer continued to provide price-conscious products through multiple channels to attract a wider buying audience. At the other end, Apple leveraged the "halo" effect of the Apple brand created by the iPods and iPhones into the PC arena, dominating the mid to higher price brackets."

The report notes that Apple only barely claimed the fifth position in the rankings, as Samsung generated outstanding growth of over 200% year-over-year to leap to 4.8% market share.

Gartner's data also covered individual statistics for France and Germany, as well as broader numbers for all of Western Europe, but Apple was unable to break into the top five vendors in any of those surveys.

Apple has traditionally performed much better in its home market of the United States than it has in international markets, with the company claiming 8.8% of the US market during the same quarter. The new UK results, however, demonstrate even stronger growth there than in the US over the past year, suggesting that Apple's continued success has spilled over to its international markets significantly enough to begin ranking with the market leaders there.

Security firm Intego reports that it has spotted new malware, termed iPhone/Privacy.A, that is capable of allowing hackers to access personal information stored on certain jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches. Non-jailbroken iPhones are not vulnerable to the malware.

While full details of the tool are not disclosed, it is reported to utilize the same method as the "Rickrolling" worm deployed in Australia late last week, suggesting that the new malware would only affect jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches whose users have installed SSH for remote access capabilities and failed to change the default password. It is unclear the extent to which the tool has been seen in the wild, although Intego currently categorizes the risk of the malware as "low".

When connecting to a jailbroken iPhone, this tool allows a hacker to silently copy a treasure trove of user data from a compromised iPhone: e-mail, contacts, SMSs, calendars, photos, music files, videos, as well as any data recorded by any iPhone app. Unlike the ikee worm, which signals its presence by changing the iPhone's wallpaper, this hacker tool gives no indication that it has invaded an iPhone.

Intego notes that the tool works by being installed onto a computer and then scanning the computer's network to find vulnerable iPhones.

This hacker tool could easily be installed, for example, on a computer on display in a retail store, which could then scan all iPhones that pass within the reach of its network. Or, a hacker could sit in an Internet caf and let his computer scan all iPhones that come within the range of the wifi network in search of data. Hackers could even install this tool on their own iPhones, and use it to scan for jailbroken phones as they go about their daily business.

While antivirus software can protect computers from serving as hosts for the malicious software, Intego also notes that because no software is installed on the iPhone or iPod touch during the process, no external protection for users who are vulnerable to the malware can be deployed. Vulnerable users must change their default SSH passwords in order to thwart access attempts.

Earlier this week, we noted that customers were receiving notifications that their quad-core Core i5-based 27" iMac orders had begun shipping. At the time, we had not received word about the status of order for machines carrying Intel's Core i7 processor, a $200 upgrade over the Core i5 models.

A number of readers have now reported, however, that their Core i7-based iMac orders have been shipped, with the majority of customers reporting delivery scheduled for next week.

Apple's new 16:9 widescreen iMacs in 21.5" and 27" sizes were released last month, with all 21.5" models and Intel Core 2 Duo-based 27" models shipping immediately upon launch. High-end 27" models carrying the desktop-class Core i5 and Core i7 processors, however, were announced as not shipping until November.

New orders for all 27" models are showing some delays in shipping, with Core 2 Duo models currently showing shipment in 7-10 business days and Core i5 and i7 models still simply listing a "November" shipping date, but customers who placed early orders for the machines should expect to receive them in fairly short order.

MacMall is offering MacRumors readers an exclusive 3% off iMac purchases on top of existing rebates. 3% additional discount applied at checkout.