If a purported flyer is true, then Apple may be gearing up for some pretty significant discounts for Black Friday.

The deals, leaked to The Boy Genius Report,  claim that Apple will discount all Macs by up to 25 percent, all iPods (excluding the iPhone and Shuffle, but not the touch) by 30 percent, and all accessories by up to 15 percent.

We've put in a request to Apple for comment, and will update this post if and when we hear from them.

Apple's 2008 Black Friday discounts included $101 off of the 13-inch MacBook and just $11 to $21 off of selected iPods, which would imply that the more substantial discounts are bogus. But maybe this year Apple will be a bit more recession-friendly.

The New York Times reports on an Apple patent that was disclosed last month (the same day as the Windows 7 launch, incidentally) that would embed ads within the Apple OS, possibly as a way of subsidizing its hardware.

The claims are eye-opening: "A computer-implemented method for providing an advertisement in a device, the method comprising:providing an operating system of a device with at least one advertisement, the operating system configured to temporarily disable a function thereof and present the advertisement in the device while the function is disabled; and receiving a report from the device confirming that the advertisement has been presented."

What this means, in plain English, is that an Apple device could be configured to lock down at least a portion of it until the ad itself was acknowledged, most likely through a button click. And the ads, not surprisingly, could be used to help defer the cost of the product.

 "In return for paying attention to the advertisements, the user can receive a product or service for free or at reduced cost, or otherwise receive a benefit," the patent notes. Users could also "unlock" an ad-free mode through a payment.

The Times raises the question that Apple could lose its "cool" reputation by embedding ads in the OS. It's not clear that it will; Apple doesn't have to act on its patents, although a significant number of them (such as multitouch gestures and the Magic Mouse) seem to end up as products of some form or another.

RadioShack (or should I say, the Shack?) has entered into a deal with Apple that will allow the electronics chain to begin selling the iPhone nationwide next year. Select locations are getting a jump on the action, stocking the iPhone 3G and 3Gs this month.

Wal-mart and Best Buy already stock the handset, but news of the deal still caused a jump in the RadioShack's market outlook. Note that this isn't the first deal between Apple and RadioShack. The chain has been carrying iPods since 2005.

A hacker has made good on Apple's warnings about security issues on jailbroken iPhones: Owners of infected handsets are greeted by a new wallpaper featuring the image of 80s pop star Rick Astley and the message, "ikee is never gonna give you up." iPhone owners, you've just been Rickrolled.

The worm reportedly doesn't do anything malicious--well, nothing more malicious than resurrecting an old 4chan prank. Of course, this may well just be a proof of concept hack from its programmer; the door to more malicious attacks, it seems, is now wide open.

Apple sent a note to Apple TV users on Saturday, warning them that content may disappear from the system until it is resynced. Fortunately, a patch is available, which will upgrade the Apple 3.0 software to Apple 3.0.1.

"This prevents content from temporarily disappearing until it is resynced," Apple said.

Users are advised to hard reboot the Apple TV by unplugging and reinserting the power cord. From there:

"Select *Settings > General* from the main menu
Select *Update Software*
Select *Download and Install*.

Apple has also posted a support document describing the issue.

Apple just released software version 3.0 for Apple TV.  Bottom line is that the user interface has been completely redesigned and users can now browse iTunes LP, compile Genius Mixes, and listen to Internet radio stations.  Check out the full story on PC Mag.com, which includes screen shots of the new interface, and check out the video above to see the new interface in action.

The Apple Store's dirty little secret? Its employees are using Windows-based PDA handhelds to help you out with your purchases. That may well change this holiday season, however. The company is reportedly transitioning its stores to an "EasyPay" checkout system comprised of an iPod Touch, credit card reader, and barcode scanner.

Apple has apparently already begun the transition--rolling the devices out in its Santa Clara-based Valley Fair Mall location, which, as Apple Insider points out, is the closest store to Cupertino.

What's this? A fuzzy photo of the Apple Tablet? Well, yeah, kind of. It's a photo from around right around 1990 of a an unreleased tablet from the company--the Pen Mac. It's a full-on Macintosh with a pen-based touch screen. According to reports, the whole thing was roughly an inch thick and had a port for a keyboard.

The image comes from Michael Arrington who is calling the thing an exclusive. The guy in the picture is Samir Arora, the current CEO of Glam Media, who worked on the project and recently informed the TechCrunch founder of its existence.

The device's demise came when Apple's then-CEO John Sculley vetoed the device in-favor of the not especially well received Newton.

Are you a mom who wears headphones on your belly to help pass the time for your unborn child? Well, I have good news: "There's an app for that!" It's called iTunes, and you can pair it with the new Lullabelly Prenatal Music Belt, available now for $49 or $55 (with packaged headphones for mom, too). I haven't tried one out yet (know any unborn babies looking for freelance work?), but the device seems straightforward enough--and I doubt your kid will start kicking if the speakers lack rich-sounding bass.

The Prenantal Music Belt from Lullabelly ships in three colors--Pink, Green, or Blue with polka dots--and is available as a Standard Package (speakers only) for $49, or as a Deluxe Package (with a dual earphone adapter and earphones so you can listen along) for $55 from Lullabelly.com.

I don't suppose this would be news were it not part of a much larger pile of evidence that Apple is, in fact, prepping a tablet for early next year. During an in-house speech to his staff, New York Times executive editor, Bill Keller, said this,

We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices. I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that.

See, toward the end there he made mention of that much anticipated device. The reason why people are jumping on what might otherwise be regarded as pure speculation is the fact that The Times is rumored to be a content partner for the device, so Keller and company may, in fact, have some inside information, something compounded by the fact that the editor never really expected the speech to get leaked to the Internet.

How could something like that happen in a room full of reporters, anyway?

For plenty of folks in the tech community, this week was all about Windows 7, sure, but Apple has never be one to be outshone. Earlier this week the company launched refreshes to much of its hardware line, including new versions of the Macbook, iMac, and Mac Mini. The company also introduced the hyperbolically-named Magic Mouse.

Apple sent along a number of these products along for review in the PC Labs. Over at PCMag, you can check out the recent reviews of the Macbook and iMac. We've also got some exclusive hands-on video with those two devices and the brand new Magic Mouse after the jump.

We recently got our hands on the new MacBook (on the left, next to the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch), and our laptop analyst Cisco Cheng took a few photos of the unboxing. According to Cheng, "the rejuvenated Apple MacBook (Unibody) has had a major overhaul, as it now comes with Unibody enclosure similar to that of MacBook Pro laptops." For more details, check out our full review of the MacBook, and take a look at our unboxing photos after the jump.

Shure's SE115  recently joined the realm of iPod and iPhone-friendly earphones. The SE115m+ incorporates Apple iPod and iPhone remote controls and a microphone into its cable. Fully compatible with the iPhone 3GS and the latest generations of iPods, the SE115m+ features three buttons for adjusting volume, audio and video playback, and menu navigation. The mic can be used for phone calls and recording voice memos, as well. Available later this month, the SE115m+ goes for $119.99--$20 more than the non-Apple version of the SE115.

In addition to revamping its MacBook line Tuesday, Apple also unveiled a new remote for the iPhone, iPod, or Mac as well as upgrades to the AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule.

The Apple Remote will allow users to control an iPod that is connected to a home stereo, powered speakers, or TV set, provided you have an iPod Universal Dock, an iPod with a dock connector, or any iPhone.

"Ready to move on to the next song? No need to get up. Just press the Next button on the Apple Remote. Getting a call on your iPhone? Press Pause, then pick up where you left off," Apple said on its Web site.

The remote is also compatible with any Mac introduced in 2005 or later that has a built-in infrared receiver. "When you press the Menu button, your desktop fades and the sleek Front Row interface takes its place to give you control over your music in iTunes, your photos in iPhoto, the videos in your Movies folder, and your DVDs," Apple said.

The remote retails for $19.

Meanwhile, Apple has made improvements in antenna design on the AirPort Extreme Base Station. The upgrades will provide up to 50 percent better performance and up to 25 percent better range than previous base stations, Apple said. The device will run you $179.

Finally, the $299 Time Capsule now includes new technologies and refinements intended to make backing up the device in Snow Leopard 60 percent faster than before.

What, you thought Apple would neglect the poor iMac with today's refresh? The company updated its perennial favorite all-in-one desktop today, with 21.5-inch and 27-inch 16:9 backlit displays (1,920 x 1,080 and 2,560 x 1,440 resolutions, respectively), with 178-degree viewing angles. The systems ship with the Apple wireless keyboard and the brand new Magic Mouse.

The models also feature an i-Sight camera, four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, a bu8ilt-in SD card slot, and Gigabit Ethernet.

The 21.5-inch 3.06 GHz model runs $1,199 for 500GB of storage. You can bump that up to 1TB and ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics for $1,499. The 27-incher starts at $1,699 with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. At $1,999, you get a 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5 quad-core processor/ The price bump also upgrades the ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics to ATI Radeon HD 4850.

The new iMacs are available today.