MacRumors

Here are a number of news items that have been circulating over the holiday weekend:

- One story that made headlines was a report that implied that Microsoft had Silverlight working on the iPhone. Silverlight is Microsoft's Flash-competitor. The headline, however, was a bit misleading as the technology demonstrated simply involved Microsoft converting Silverlight video realtime into a format already supported by the iPhone. No actual on-iPhone software actually supported Silverlight.
- Handbrake 0.9.4 - A major update to a popular Mac video encoding application was released. The latest version of Handbrake delivered improvements to H.264 encoding as well as 64-bit support. Detailed discussion of the latest build has been talking place in our forums.
- ComScore released results from Black Friday's online sales and found that online spending was up 11% over the previous year with an estimated $595 Million spent. Apple.com was singled out as one of the top 5 online retailers. Apple reportedly saw traffic growth of 39% year-over-year.
- CyberMonday sales have kicked in and remain summarized in our sales chart. There are still significant discounts on Macs available for today.

A couple of years ago, a company called Axiotron announced an aftermarket modification for the MacBook that converted the Apple laptop into a tablet. The modification remains for sale at $699 and takes a stock MacBook, removes the keyboard and screen, and adds a Wacom pen-based screen to give the device a tablet form factor.

Axiotron originally began marketing the devices as a "TabletMac" as referenced in this 2007 press release and filed a trademark for the term. Sometime in the past year, however, the trademark was transferred from Axiotron to Apple, and Apple is now listed as the owner of the trademark.

Transfer of ownership may not mean Apple has plans on using the term. Apple may have simply contested the trademark due to the potential for confusion between "TabletMac" and their own trademarks. But now Apple could potentially release a product called the TabletMac, and given the overwhelming number of reports of an Apple-branded tablet device, it certainly raises that question.

Still, we're not so sure Apple would really use this term for the rumored device, as the most recent reports have suggested that Apple's rumored tablet will be running a version of iPhone OS rather than Mac OS. It also seems likely that Apple would choose a platform agnostic name if the device was targeted at the broad consumer market.

HardMac reports that Polish website PCLab prematurely leaked performance numbers on Intel's upcoming Xeon Gulftown (Core i9). The results have since been pulled but is summarized by HardMac:

First figures indicate that this CPU is very promising. At equivalent clock speed, it is 50% faster than the corresponding quad core Xeon for parallel tasks. Despite having 50% more transistors, the CPU strongly benefits from 32-nm engraving as it drains 50% less power in idle mode and 10% less in full loading mode.

According to their sources, Apple is planning on using the Gulftown processor in a future Mac Pro revision due in early 2010. When placed in a dual-processor configuration, this would give the Mac Pro 12 physical and 24 logical cores. Such massively multi-core designs have been expected for some time with under-the-hood changes in Snow Leopard specifically preparing for such a possibility.

The use of the high-end Gulftown processor in the Mac Pros make more sense now that we've seen Apple using the Core i7 processors in the iMacs. Benchmarks have shown that the performance of these high-end iMac rivals that of the entry level Mac Pros which cost considerably more. The use of Gulftown would presumably reestablish a larger performance gap between Apple's consumer and professional desktop computers.

iPhone developer Pandav has informed MacRumors that they have spotted usage records for an unreleased iPhone in their app's analytics. The app used was iBART [Free / Paid], a public transportation guide for the San Francisco train system.

PinchMedia who provides the analytics for the application breaks down customer usage including what specific devices are being used. This list of devices is reported to developers using internal device identification numbers assigned by Apple. In this case, "iPhone3,1" was first spotted in Pandav's usage logs in November. This "iPhone3,1" identifier does not match up with any shipping iPhones. The last iPhone released to the public was the iPhone 3GS which carries the identification string "iPhone2,1".

References to "iPhone3,1" was first discovered in the iPhone firmware files back in August, but this seems to be the first time that it has been spotted "in the wild". Apple similarly began testing the iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) back in October of 2008 about 8 months ahead of its launch. At the time, the usage was similarly focused in the San Francisco Bay Area where Apple is located.

There have been few details about what the next generation iPhone might include, though early rumors had pegged a multi-core processor that could enhance performance significantly. There have also been rumors of Verizon compatibility as early as mid 2010.

MacRumors has found a new Apple job listing seeking an iPhone Software Engineer to join the iPhone and iPod Touch Maps team with the goal of taking the iPhone's built-in Maps App to "the next level":

We want to take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things. We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way. We've only just started.

The specificity of the job description is somewhat unusual for Apple, and particularly interesting given recent events.

Apple and Google have increasingly become competitors in the mobile space while Google's mapping data remains an integral part of the iPhone's Maps application. Google has recently stepped up even further with the introduction of many new features for their Android mapping application. This included advanced features such as plain english search, voice search and more. Although Apple and Google are said to be working on bringing the same technology to the iPhone, there's been evidence that Apple is working on their own mapping technology.

Apple recently acquired a mapping company called Placebase which had been known for differentiating itself from Google's offerings. The former CEO of Placebase is now part of the "Geo Team" at Apple, which has led to speculation that Apple is looking to separate itself from their dependence on Google maps.

An AP story indicates that the lead up to the iPhone launch in South Korea on Saturday is a much bigger event than the China launch. KT Corp. reported 53,000 iPhone pre-orders prior to the Korean launch day.

These numbers suggest that the iPhone will be sizable competition for local companies such as Samsung and LG. The current smartphone market in South Korea is estimated to be about 400,000 users as of the end of the 3rd quarter, with the full size of the mobile phone market estimated at 47 million units.

The iPhone does have the disadvantage of not supporting some of the localized features that Korean customers have come to expect. Specifically, the ability to watch live local television is said to be a popular feature on existing Korean phones.

While Apple's Black Friday sales are over, 3rd party sales remain in effect throughout the weekend. See Chart below.

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Apple has officially unveiled their U.S. Black Friday sales for their online and retail stores. The discounts are in line with past year events, ranging from 4-10% depending on the product.

- MacBook Pro ($101 Discount, 4-8%)
- iMac ($101 Discount, 5-8%)
- iPod Nano ($11 Discount, 6-7%)
- iPod Touch ($21-$41 Discount, 10%)
- Apple TV ($21 Discount, 9%)

Other Mac Discounts: Black Friday through Cyber Monday

For more substantial discounts, readers can turn to 3rd party retailers. This year, MacConnection appears to have the most substantial discounts for the majority of Macs by combining instant and rebate discounts. In particular, MacBook Pros are seeing as high as $300 (13%) discounts, with the recently updated iMacs also discounted up to 13%. However, while Amazon may not have the best prices across the board, all the discounts are applied instantly and no mail-in rebate is required.

Prices for MacMall, MacConnection and Amazon have been included, with the best price in bold.

App Store Discounts

iPhone developers are discounting their iPhone apps again this holiday season. A full list of discounts can be found at AppShopper, and major publishers like EA and Gameloft already in on the action. Meanwhile, a list of other iPhone game sales have been compiled at TouchArcade.com

Software / Other

- Parallels 5 is discounted to $69 (normally $79) this weekend
- VMWare 3 is discounted to $63.99 (normally $79) this weekend - use Promo Code "dsktp20sale" at checkout.
- Microsoft Office 2008 (Home and Student) for $89.99 (normally $149.95)
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for $64.99 after rebate (normally $99.99).
- Amazon has a special page for their Black Friday sales.

Several of the vendors listed are affiliate partners with MacRumors and sales benefit the site financially

Apple has launched its "Black Friday" one-day sales in Australia and New Zealand, with other countries set to follow at the appropriate times. As expected, Apple is offering only modest discounts compared to the deals offered by many other retailers for the traditional kickoff of the holiday shopping season.

The only Macs seeing discounts in Apple's sales are the iMac and MacBook Pro, with discounts corresponding to about US$120 on all models, equaling about 8% on low-end models down to about 4-5% on high-end models. The iPod touch is seeing discounts of approximately 9-10% across all models, and the iPod nano is being offered at approximately a US$10 discount (6% off on 8GB model and 4.5% off 16 GB model). Also featured is the Apple TV with a discount of approximately 8%.

Other items included in the one-day sale are Time Capsule and AirPort products, Nike+ hardware, iWork, and Apple's In-Ear Headphones, Magic Mouse, and Wireless Keyboard. Finally, a wide range of third-party accessories and software are also included.

We'll be posting again later today with a full roundup of Black Friday sales as they go live.

Update: AppShopper.com tracks all the App Store sales in two lists: Popular sales and All sales.

Update 2: See updated sales chart

Betanews reports (via The Loop) on data from market research firm NPD showing that Apple garnered 48% of the U.S. PC industry's retail revenue last month.

In October, Mac US retail desktop computer revenue share was 47.71, percent up from 33.44 percent a year earlier, according to NPD. It's a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share.

While NPD's Stephen Baker points to a confluence of events, including Apple's refresh of its iMac line during the month and a decline of PC sales ahead of the launch of Windows 7, as being responsible for Apple's performance during the month, he also notes that the trend is not likely to continue. Data from previous months, however, shows that Apple had been performing quite well even back in April of this year, when it captured 45% of the desktop retail revenue.

NPD notes that Apple's strong revenue performance is a direct result of its average selling prices, which are nearly three times that of Windows PCs. That difference has enabled Apple to claim high revenues despite significantly lower unit market share than top Windows-based PC vendors.

One factor helping Apple is average selling price. The Mac maker has largely chosen not to compete with Windows PC manufacturers below $1,000. While price wars continue at the low end among Windows PC manufacturers, Apple's entry-level iMac starts at $1,199. True, Apple offers the Mac mini for $599 or $799, but the ASP is considerably higher than comparably priced Windows PCs. Low-cost Windows PCs typically come with monitor, keyboard and mouse, which are all extra-cost items for Mac mini unless the buyer uses existing gear.

Apple's performance isn't as strong in the notebook segment, where it commands only a 34% share of the industry revenue, although that number still ranks Apple as a major player in the notebook field.

InformationWeek reports (via 9 to 5 Mac) that Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against an Anaheim, California company selling "knock-off" power adapters for Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro models. Apple claims that the company sells third-party power adapters that infringe upon an Apple patent filed in 2001 and granted in 2003 for the design of Apple's laptop power supplies.

Apple's complaint charges that Media Solutions Holdings, through the Web sites www.laptopsforless.com, www.laptopacadapter.com and www.ereplacements.com, sells "various consumer electronic accessories at retail, including knock-off power adapters for use with genuine Apple portable computers."

"Through various Web sites and otherwise, the Defendants market these knock-off power adapters for use with Apple portable computers, such as the MacBook," the complaint states.

The power adapters apparently in question remain listed on the company's websites, but the specific product pages and ordering functionality appear to have been removed.

BBC News reports that supermarket and retail chain Tesco, the UK's largest retailer, will begin offering the iPhone 3G and 3GS through its Tesco Mobile arm, a joint venture with wireless provider O2.

A spokesperson for the firm said that it hoped to offer the phone "in time for Christmas".

Although Tesco has not revealed tariffs, the spokesperson said that its prices were "competitive".

Tesco has also posted an information page to provide details on its iPhone offerings as they become available.

O2 had held an exclusive agreement with Apple to distribute the iPhone in the UK since its introduction in November 2007, but other companies have recently gained the right to sell the iPhone there, with Orange beginning sales earlier this month and Vodafone set to follow early next year.

Nearly a month before Apple updated its iMac line, French site Mac4Ever published a wide-ranging article revealing a number of tidbits on various topics obtained from its sources. At the time, the report was simply one of many circulating rumors about Apple's upcoming product announcements.

Mac4Ever's details, however, proved to be remarkably accurate once Apple made public its new products. The report correctly predicted the inclusion of an SD card slot and quad-core processors in the revised iMac, as well as pinpointing the Magic Mouse and the new aluminum Apple Remote. In fact, the only piece of information from Mac4Ever's report that has been shown incorrect was one source's claim that Apple might even go so far as to use Intel Xeon processors in the new iMacs.

Given the accuracy of most of Mac4Ever claims, a re-examination of the report's other, longer-term predictions seems appropriate. First, the report claimed that Apple was well on its way to updating its iLife and iWork applications to move to 64-bit and to take full advantage of the improvements included in Snow Leopard.

On the software side of things, Apple is probably deep into switching its group of iApps over to 64 bits, and taking full advantage of the new Snow Leopard technology. We've also been told that Leopard's compatibility hasn't been settled on yet, but that the 2010 suite would only support Macs with Intel-based processors.

A transition to Intel-only compatibility for the next-generation of iLife and iWork would not be a major surprise, as Snow Leopard itself dropped support for PPC-based Macs. What might be considered a bigger surprise is the possibility of the next version of iLife and iWork not supporting Mac OS X Leopard. Depending on when that software revision occurs, it could mark a very short turnaround from Snow Leopard's release in late August to discontinuation of support for Leopard, the immediately previous operating system version, in the iLife and iWork suites.

The question of when we can expect to see the next generation of iLife and iWork suites has also yet to be answered. Early in its development, iLife revisions were issued on a yearly basis each January at Macworld San Francisco. But as the suite matured, release cycles have slipped to closer to 18 months, with iLife '06 having been released in January 2006, iLife '08 in August 2007 (skipping an "iLife '07" release), and iLife '09 in January 2009. iWork releases have coincided with iLife updates since the productivity suite's introduction in January 2005.

Consequently, if Apple holds closer to its ~18-month release cycle going forward, users could expect the next generation of iLife and iWork suites to possibly be released in mid-2010, probably to be branded as "iLife '11" and "iWork '11" if 2007's pattern is any indication.

Apple has also recently dropped the "'09" designation from its iLife and iWork web pages and retail boxes, suggesting that the company is planning to continue selling the current versions of those suites well into 2010 and does not wish their names to make them appear outdated.

The second still-outstanding claim from Mac4Ever relates to Apple's much-rumored tablet, which has recently been reported to be delayed until the second half of 2010, although the veracity of the claim is unknown. Mac4Ever's claim, however, provides only a vague suggestion that the tablet will be unlike any concept designs or renditions that have been floating around in recent months.

Concerning MacTablet, it will indeed be produced, but it will be far different from the concepts that have been announced so far on rumor sites.

The article offers no further information on what we can expect to see when Apple's tablet finally makes its appearance, but this claim and the report regarding iLife and iWork do carry some additional weight and bear close watching in the months ahead due to the accuracy of other claims made at the same time.

Concert promoter Live Nation today announced that it has partnered with Apple to launch a new initiative focused on audio and video recording of live concert events for distribution via Apple's iTunes Store. Apple has also launched a dedicated section of the iTunes Store to feature the content.

Live Nation, the world's largest live music company, has joined with the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com), the world's #1 music retailer, to launch a new live music program, which debuted today. Live Nation Studios will now offer exclusive recorded and filmed concerts from its network of "wired" venues for purchase and download only on iTunes. Exclusive live recordings from OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Saving Abel, A Fine Frenzy, Duffy, Plain White T's and Ziggy Marley, to name a few, have been released this week, with many more to follow.

Live Nation notes that it has "wired" more than 80 venues in its network of concert sites, providing the infrastructure to allow performers to easily extend the live concert experience to recorded audio and video content.

Engadget reports on a growing number of complaints from purchasers of Apple's high-end 27" Intel Core i7-based iMac who have received new machines that either refuse to power on or arrive with cracked screens directly out of the box.

Apple's new Core i7-based iMac might be a performance monster, but it looks like the whole family's having some problems getting out of the gate: in addition to the previously-noted performance issues with the Core 2 Duo models, a quick glance across Apple's support forums and on other Mac boards around the web reveals that some machines are showing up DOA and / or with cracked screens. We're a little more familiar with the DOA issue, since the new i7 we just bought doesn't boot at all, but the cracked screen issue seems to be equally common and mostly affecting the bottom left corner, from what we can tell.

Reports of problems have surfaced in Apple's support forums (#1, #2), as well as in our own forums. It is unclear at this time just what proportion of the new iMacs have been affected by the issues, but the volume of complaints suggests that these may not be isolated incidents.

The 27" iMac appears to have experienced several issues since its introduction last month. In addition to these new complaints from purchasers of Core i7-based model that only recently began shipping, early users of the Core 2 Duo-based models reported performance issues related to Flash video playback. That issue, however was reportedly addressed with the release of Mac OS X 10.6.2 earlier this month.