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When Apple launched the App Store, they suggested that the use of DRM'd and signed applications could allow them to protect the iPhone from malicious applications and suggested that they could deactivate such applications remotely. Jonathan Zdziarski, author of iPhone Forensics reveals

For some time, Mac fans have argued that, feature-for-feature, Apple's computers aren't really that much more expensive than their PC competitors. When the processors, memory, hard drive and screens are all matched up, the price premium on a Mac was negligible, they insist, and sometimes non-existent. But does that still hold true? read more | digg story

Tittle speaks for its self... read more  |  digg story

From IT Week Speaking in a hotel conference room near Tower Bridge late last week Dr Lew Brown, president and CEO of Eneco , is trying to convince a roomful of sceptical investors that its new chip technology will revolutionise the way we generate electricity. It has to be said that he is doing a pretty good job. "This chip compares with the invention of the transistor, or the TV, or the first aircraft," he says. "It is a genuinely disruptive technology." Now if a claim like that won’t get investors' attention I'm not sure what will. As reported last week , Eneco is a development stage company that claims to have invented and patented a "solid state energy conversion/generation chip" that will convert heat directly into electricity or alternatively refrigerate down to -200 degrees celsius when electricity is applied. As one potential investor who has flown all the way from Scotland for the two hour presentation confides: "I had to come...

Apple's iPod documentation reveals that the touch-screen iPod is coming. You can verify it yourself. read more  |  digg story

A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, his company said on Tuesday. Jon Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old Norway native who lives in San Francisco, cracked Apple's FairPlay copy-protection technology, said Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist, the company that plans to license the code to businesses. 'What he did was basically reverse-engineer FairPlay,' she said. 'This allows other companies to offer content for the iPod.' At the moment, Apple aims to keep music bought from its iTunes online music store only available for Apple products, while songs bought from other online stores typically do not work on iPods. But Johansen's technology could help rivals sell competing products that play music from iTunes and offer songs for download that work on iPods as they seek to take a bite out of ...

Apple Computer warned on Tuesday that some of its latest iPods have shipped with a Windows virus. The company said that a small number of video iPods made after Sept. 12 included the RavMonE virus . It said it has seen fewer than 25 reports of the problem, which it said does not affect other models of the media player, nor does it affect Macs. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company apologized on its Web site for the problem, but also used the opportunity to jab at Microsoft, its operating system rival. "As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it," Apple said on its site.

A recent interview between Apple founding CEO Steven Jobs and Newsweek editor Steven Levy was most instructive with respect to the differences between Apple and Microsoft when it comes to fighting piracy of music and software. To be clear on what we are talking about, both Microsoft and Apple have been wildly successful in creating dominant - in Microsoft's case monopolistic - market shares in their respective areas of desktop software and portable music players. In the case of both companies they have had to contend with the thorny issue of piracy. In many ways, their successful approach has been exactly the same - to turn a blind eye to it. The Jobs interview, which marked the fifth anniversary of iPod, revealed that the Apple co-founder claims that if you charge the market a price it will accept for music, users will forgo illegal downloads and pay iTunes to download tracks. Jobs is indeed correct when he says this strategy has worked - iTunes has had something like 1.5 billion...

A user on the apple support forum finds a solution to poor sound quality on iTUNES 7 before the experts at apple even realize that there is a problem. Kudos NOWOOL I salute you. read more  |  digg story

It's that time of the year again, when Apple rumors bloom with the fall foliage and the press is inundated with hype and wishful thinking. MP3 Newswire has a reasonably sober article addressing 17 of those rumors, even giving odds on the validity of each. From the article: 'It is the peripheral manufacturers that now have a heavy sway on what features the iPod will add to its 6th generation. The peripheral market has done more to cement Apple's proprietary technology as a standard than Apple itself, adding to the iPod's dominance. Mr. Jobs will not upset that balance without good reason and Apple's recent deal with Creative to make iPod peripherals shows he wants to feed it further. But the iPod needs something new to keep it fresh and ahead of the competition.'

Microsoft Corp. is developing a music and video device to compete with Apple's iPod and creating its own music service to rival Apple's iTunes, sources familiar with the plans said on Friday. Robbie Bach, a rising star at Microsoft who headed development of the Xbox video game business, is overseeing the project, one source said. The company has held licensing discussions with the music industry and is already demonstrating the entertainment device, the sources told Reuters. Microsoft declined to comment. The news comes a day after Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced he would ease out of a day-to-day role at the company he built into the world's biggest software maker. Bach was promoted to president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division after it was restructured in December. At that time, he wrote in an e-mail to co-workers, "While I will continue to play an important role in the games area, I will spend more time thinking about our broader challeng...

Japans' Nihon Keizai Shimbun appears to have confirmed the persistent rumours that Apple is planning to launch a cellular phone with iPod functionality, claiming it is being developed in conjunction with Japanese company Softbank, which has just purchased Vodafone Japan. Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that Softbank president, Masayoshi Son and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs had met and reached a basic agreement on the partnership, and that they would release a 3G iPhone for the Japanese market sometime in 2006. It said the phone would be sold in the Vodafone shops acquired by Softbank as well as volume electronics retailers, and that Softbank would carry other Apple products at its cellphone shops. read more  |  digg story

Hackers are increasingly focusing on Apple's Mac OS X, and the number of newly discovered vulnerabilities has surged. Such a switch could mean big implications for Apple's user base, which has traditionally not had to concern itself too much over security. It's been an impressively quiet year so far on the PC virus and worm front, and hackers seem to be focusing their attention elsewhere. One such area is Apple's Mac OS X. Once mostly ignored by malware developers, there appears to be a growing interest in this "alternative" OS. Details Have you noticed the dearth of serious PC virus and worm threats out there lately? Well, it isn't a figment of your imagination -- according to vnunet.com, viruses are no longer the top security threat . While serious attacks are still likely to emerge, the bottom has apparently fallen out of the PC antivirus market -- just as Microsoft begins a big push into the security market. One cause of this drop-off is solidif...

The outfit's flash-memory factories and penchant for feature-packed, low-cost players may help its fight against the iPod juggernaut Competing against the iPod has been known to cause corporate injury. Take Creative Technology, the Singapore-based consumer-electronics company, for example. Creative for two years has tried to position its products against Apple Computer's megahit music player but has had a tough time of it, reporting a loss for fiscal 2005 and numbers in the red for the second quarter of this year. Rio, the brand name that effectively launched the MP3 player category in the late '90s, exited the business last year. Apple certainly isn't making it easy for its competitors, especially after locking up exclusive supply contracts for flash-memory chips from vendors such as Samsung, Hynix Semiconductor, Toshiba, and a newly formed flash-memory joint venture owned by Micron Technology and Intel. PIE-IN-THE-SKY GOALS? So of all the things Eli Harari could be...

Apple is planning a new iPod nano with twice the storage for its September quarter, reports AppleInsider. An analyst said, "Our most recent checks indicate the current 2GB and 4GB nano models will see their storage doubled to 4GB and 8GB capacities." read more  |  digg story

Benjamin Daines was browsing the Web when he clicked on a series of links that promised pictures of an unreleased update to his computer's operating system. Instead, a window opened on the screen and strange commands ran as if the machine was under the control of someone - or something - else. Daines was the victim of a computer virus. Such headaches are hardly unusual on PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. Daines, however, was using a Mac - an Apple Computer Inc. machine often touted as being immune to such risks. He and at least one other person who clicked on the links were infected by what security experts call the first-ever virus for Mac OS X, the operating system that has shipped with every Mac sold since 2001 and has survived virtually unscathed from the onslaught of malware unleashed on the Internet in recent years. "It just shows people that no matter what kind of computer you use you are still open to some level of attack," said Dain...

FoxNews Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) will soon adopt an environmentally friendly twist for buyers of new Macintosh computers by offering to recycle their old computers for free. The Cupertino-based company said its expanded take-back offer will begin in June. U.S. customers who buy a new Mac through the Apple store online or any Apple retail store will receive free shipping and recycling of their old machines. Currently, Apple retail stores accept old iPod music players for free recycling. In addition, Cupertino residents may drop off old Macs at company headquarters, while others pay a $30 recycling fee to drop off or ship their computers. Environmental advocacy organizations that have criticized Apple's recycling initiatives in the past applauded the computer maker's expanded program, saying it is now closer in line with those of other major PC makers, notably Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Dell Inc. (DELL). But the environmental groups contend Apple still needs to do more and ...

Needham & Co analyst Charles Wolf is maintaining a 'Hold' rating on Apple stock - but has hopes that Mac sales will surge once the entire range move to Intel. He expects the full product transition to complete by the first quarter of 2007. And he thinks that Boot Camp will be integral to future success. "Mac shipments could surge on the strength of the ability of Macs to run Windows applications," he wrote. No Photoshop for Intel slows sales The transition isn't without risks, the analyst said, citing the non- availability of Adobe Photoshop for Intel processors as an example. "MacBook Pro and forthcoming PowerMac sales could experience sale postponements that extend into 2007," he wrote, "because Adobe is unlikely to introduce native versions of Photoshop and other design programs until early 2007. Apple's professional audiences, which are heavy users of these products, are likely to postpone their upgrades until they arrive,...

Apple Computer is planning to build a new, 50-acre campus near its present headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., company Chief Executive Steve Jobs said. "What's happened at Apple is that our business has basically tripled in the last five or six years," Jobs said on Tuesday evening at a Cupertino city council meeting, which was recorded and viewable as an archived Webcast. He said the company "has gone from $6 billion in sales to $20 billion in sales, basically." Analysts expect Apple to post $20.3 billion in revenue for its fiscal 2006 ending in September, according to Reuters Estimates. Jobs said it would likely take three to four years to design and build the campus that could accommodate 3,000 to 3,500 employees. An Apple representative, who was present at the meeting, confirmed the company's plans to build the second campus. "We're pretty thrilled," Jobs told the city council members. "Since we're your largest taxpayer, I thou...

PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a very popular device and has sold a few million units, but when compared to Apple’s iPod , the PSP lacks storage space. Luckily, the PSP has a built in WiFi card to make up for this disadvantage. With a few simple steps, all of which are included in this tutorial, anyone can stream any non-copyright music from their iTunes library to their PSP. To get started, you will need to have the following: PSP With Firmware v2.60 Networked XP Home/Pro Comp. WiFi (802.11b) Network Router Apple iTunes v6.0.4 Installed Songs in iTunes Music Library At Least 1 Playlist With Music The 5-Step Setup Procedure: 1) Download iTunes-PSP-Server.exe and save it to your desktop. 2) Disable any firewalls and/or keep port 8080 open. 3) Launch iTunes and then click on the iTunes-PSP-Server after. 4) In IE/Firefox open the page “http://localhost:8080″ 5) Setup is complete if an “iTunes RSS Server” page appeared. If the iTunes RSS Server page didn’t appear make sure your fire...