Apple Ships New IPods With Virus And Blames Microsoft For Making A Bad Operating System!

From Apple: "We recently discovered that a small number - less than 1% - of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free. 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."

This sounds really interesting, almost purposely done. It has been known that Apple is going to start a massive marketing campaign this winter advertising mac computers to raise their holiday sales. Their main reason to switch is security vulnerabilities within Windows.

I personally hope Apple gets sued up and down over this, especially from Microsoft. Does anyone remember Sony's rootkit issue?

iPhone Release Coming Soon?

Apple Computer is moving closer to releasing its rumored mobile phone, analysts revealed on Monday, moving the company into areas of the consumer electronic industry previously untouched.

The Cupertino Calif.-based company may begin to compete in the cell-phone market as early as March of 2007, analyst believe, introducing one phone with video capabilities, and another slimmer version with music playback abilities.

"Based upon our recent checks, we expect Apple to unveil two models of its widely anticipated cell phones in early [Calendar Year] '07," said Jesse Tortora, research analyst at Prudential Equities.

"We have learned that one model will be a smart phone, including integrated keyboard, video and music capability, while the other model will be a slimmer phone with music capability. At least one of the models will include WiFi."

Though the quantity of the new phones are not available, Tortora believes that the computer maker will ship in limited supplies initially, giving the firm time to test the market and observe consumer response. The phone's numerous features may be its downfall, he remarks.

"Although these phones represent significant upside earnings potential for the company, there are some concerns regarding market acceptance and battery life, given the number of functions included in the phones," he adds.

Rumors of an Apply phone first surfaced when an Apple senior vice-president alluded to Apple's ability to compete in the cell-phone market last May. During a conference call with analysts, Apple's Peter Oppenheimer said that he was "very confident" his firm's ability to compete in the cell-phone marketplace, and stated he was "very excited about what we have in the product pipeline."

Analysts expect the phone to be officially announced at Apple's MacWorld Conference in January of 2007.

Source: IBTimes

Verizon to get its own MOTORAZR MAXX

Verizon gets a strangely colored variant of a high-end RAZR we didn't even know existed. It looks like a 2-megapixel cam is in the cards, and if the specs mirror its GSM cousin, we can expect a QVGA display, microSD expansion, and 50 odd megabytes of internal storage.

Source: Engadget Mobile

Bubble Helmet Makes You Look Like Bigger Dork Than You Really Are

Is this the way we will all be 'enjoying' our television programmes and computer games in the future?

In this astonishing photo, a model is wearing a new gadget, from electronics manufacturer Toshiba, that enables the wearer to experience a full 360-degree view on a 40 centimetre dome-shaped screen.

But, looking more like the helmet from Neil Armstrong's space suit than the next must-have gizmo, this three kilo full-faced helmet might make it a little tricky to relax with a drink in front of the football.

Source: Daily Mail

Folding@home On The GPU

Most of us have heard about the people at Stanford working on making a folding at home that can be run not on your computers CPU, but on its GPU (your graphics card). They said the graphics cards processors are much more powerfull than todays greatest processors (upto 10x better) at crunching numbers. Finally someone has decided to release some real world number comparision of a CPU vs. GPU in folding at home.

________________Total points__24-hour average___Work units
GPU client___________2640_________377 __________8
CPU client___________899__________128___________6

CPU client x 2*_______1798__________256__________12

Source: Techreport