Report: Apple's 'Black Friday' deals cut Mac prices 8%

Apple will cut prices of its low-end iMac and MacBook Pro systems by 8% for a one-day-only sale on Friday, according to reports on the Web.

Apple's Friday prices, however, would still be higher than those currently posted by some authorized online resellers.

As first noted by Boy Genius Report, Apple's "Black Friday" specials will include the entry-level iMac and MacBook Pro models, both which will be priced at $1,098, an 8.4% reduction from the usual $1,199 price tag.

Prices on other models will slip less, according to the leaked brochure that a source provided to Boy Genius Report. The top-end quad-core iMac, regularly priced at $1,999, will be sold Friday for $1,898, a 5% discount. The price cut for the 17-in. MacBook Pro will be an even smaller 2%.

Apple will also discount the iPod Touch by approximately 10%, sell the Apple TV for 9% under list and promote Microsoft's Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student with a $98 deal.

Although Apple has announced it will offer online-only deals on Friday, the company has not spelled out prices.

But several online sellers have already dropped the prices for some Macs -- in some cases, below that of the reported Apple discounts.

MacMall, for instance, currently lists both the low-end 22.5-in. iMac and the 2.26GHz 13-in. MacBook Pro for $1,094.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate. MacMall's sale ends Tuesday just before midnight Pacific.

Best Buy has also cut the price of Macs in a sale that runs through Wednesday. The electronics retailer's Web site currently lists the low-end iMac and MacBook Pro at $1,099, a dollar more than Apple's Black Friday special. Other Best Buy deals include $100 off the usual $1,699 for the 3.06GHz 27-in. iMac, and $200 off the list price of $2,499 for the 17-in. MacBook Pro.

Last week, Microsoft launched a promotion for Office 2008 for Mac that dropped the price of Home and Student Edition to $129.95 and the price of Business Edition to $349.95.

In 2008, Apple's Black Friday special priced the entry-level MacBook at $898, a $101, or 10% savings, from the regular $999.

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Ashampoo Cover Studio 2 adds editor improvements

Mac User can run Ashampoo .

Ashampoo has launched version 2 of its Cover Studio for Mac, delivering more covers, an enhanced editor and new features. Ashampoo Cover Studio is designed to help create disc labels, covers and booklets, and supports both modern direct-to-disc printing and importing tracks. The upgrade improves the apps editor with new geometric shapes, an integrated undo function, new auto-scroll controls when dragging an object, and the ability to rotate text and objects freely to any position.

Ashampoo Cover Studio 2 includes more ready to use themes, and now enables the saving of user designed templates for later use. Printing features have been enhanced to support both high-resolution printers and printing up to four labels per a single page, as well as automatic saving of the printing calibration settings. Lastly, the app now includes artist’s names within the contents table and supports exporting projects as XML files.
The program works with any Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and is available as either a free trial or the full version which is priced at $20 for a single licence. For an additional $10 a second license can also be obtained during the purchase process.

New Malicious Worm Affects Jailbroken iPhones in Netherlands

Worm can be in iPhones. For iPhones lovers.. beware

BC 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