Apple

In what appears to be a first, Apple is recommending that Mac users install antivirus software.

But don't read this as an admission that the Mac operating system is suddenly insecure. It's more a recognition that Mac users are vulnerable to Web application exploits, which have replaced operating system vulnerabilities as the bigger threat to computer users.

Apple quietly signaled its shift with an item titled "Mac OS: Antivirus utilities" posted on its Support Web site November 21: "Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult."

The item offers three software suggestions: Intego VirusBarrier X5 and Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh, both available from the Apple Online Store, and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.

Brian Krebs, who first reported on the Apple antivirus recommendation Monday in his Security Fix blog at The Washington Post, said an Apple store employee told him he didn't need antivirus software when he purchased a MacBook three months ago.

Apple urges Mac customers to use anti-virus software, signaling a shift away from the long-time message that Mac users are immune to security issues.

(Credit: Apple)

Apple didn't cut prices as much as some had expected on Black Friday, but it didn't seem to matter to consumers.

(Credit: CNET)

Few analysts were prepared to call Apple's Black Friday performance a blowout, but in general they thought consumers responded well to Apple's products and pricing last week.

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers, and Maynard Um of UBS have weighed in with their thoughts on Apple's sales during the first official shopping day of the holiday season. Expectations had been muted going into the weekend, which many had thought would be dismal given the economic environment.

But the overall picture wasn't as bad as some had feared. And despite sticking with its historical Black Friday discount strategy rather than rolling out aggressive price cuts, Apple fared well, according to Munster. Checks at various Apple retail stores indicated that "Mac sales were better than expected" and iPhone sales were about in line with expectations, he wrote in a research note Monday.

Kaufman's Wu wrote, "Despite modest 5 percent-10 percent discounts by AAPL itself through its retail stores and website, our distributor and retail checks indicate strong foot traffic at AAPL stores and that iPods and Macs did fairly well, helped by bigger promotions by third-party retailers and unadvertised price matching by AAPL." There had been reports that Apple was planning to discount its products more steeply than in the past in response to concerns over the health of the economy, but the company stood pat.

UBS' Um also noted that Apple resellers, such as Best Buy and MacMall, were willing to discount prices more aggressively than Apple as well as apply discounts to products that Apple wouldn't touch in its own stores, such as the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Apple and Homer Simpson hooked up earlier this year at Macworld 2008.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

The only thing they forgot was a desperate attempt by old Gil to sell an iPod Hi-Fi.

Springfield got its first Apple store during Sunday night's episode of The Simpsons, allowing the show's writers to devote a good chunk of the show to satirizing Apple (Mapple), CEO Steve Jobs (Mobs), and "myPods." The show makes several tongue-in-cheek references to Apple cultural touch-points like the Power Mac Cube, the "Braniac Bar," and the famous 1984 commercial in a scene featuring Comic Book Guy, who is definitely a Mac user.

You can find the episode on Fox.com and Hulu, but the Fox lawyers seem to have placed a call to the YouTube people already.

It's not the funniest Simpsons parody ever, but that show lost its fastball a long time ago. Apple references have been popping up in The Simpsons for years; perhaps the most famous one came when one of Springfield Elementary's bullies tried to take a memo on his Apple Newton to "Beat up Martin," which the quirky handwriting recognition software translated to "Eat up Martha," prompting the bully to just chuck the thing at Martin.

A new front has opened in the ongoing arms race between Apple and iPhone hackers, with one hacker group making the iPhone boot with a Linux 2.6 kernel.

The announcement of the successful kernel porting was made on the Linux on the iPhone blog, complete with instructions and source code.

Although a bootloader, kernel and a Busybox terminal are able to be loaded -- many features of the iPhone remain unimplemented: touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, networking. Input to the terminal must be made via a USB interface from another device that the iPhone is attached to (humorously summed up by Geek Hero Comic).

The group that ported the kernel is derived from the iPhone DevTeam group that has been responsible for jailbreaking previous iPhone software.

iPhone Linux Demonstration Video from planetbeing on Vimeo.

How many iPhone apps does it take to make 10,000? It all depends on how you do the counting.

(Credit: 148Apps)

Apple watchers this weekend have been ruminating on the overall tally and on the counting methods following a report on 148Apps, a site that keeps tabs on iPhone applications, seen here in its entirety:

In just 142 days, the iPhone OS app store has added over 10,000 apps! An amazing feat for any platform. To commemorate this we've put up a special page. More on this after the weekend.

10,000 apps!

(We'll hazard a guess that there are actually on the order of 10K mini icons on that "10,000 apps!" special page. A listing to the right side of all those icons gives the total number of apps as 10,091.)

MacRumors.com, meanwhile, quibbles with the overall number, even as it says the actual 10,000 active app mark should be reached "in the next few days":

While several sites have reported that 10,000 iPhone Apps have been released into the App Store, the actual number of active iPhone apps that can be downloaded is about 9,676 as of today's count. The discrepancy comes from the fact that many apps have been removed from the App Store for various reasons (trademark infringement, discontinued apps, pulled and released).

The biggest category of iPhone apps, according to 148Apps, is games (2,333), followed by entertainment (1,122), utilities (1,015), education (737), and productivity (517). The average cost of the apps is listed at $3.12; about one-quarter are free of charge, while one is listed at $899.99.

Apple rolled out a QuickTime update Tuesday night that should alleviate some of the concern over the addition of some copy-protection technology to the new MacBooks.

Apple customers who bought one of the company's new MacBooks or MacBook Pros introduced in October were annoyed to discover that the Mini DisplayPort on those systems uses a copy-protection technology called HDCP. That technology is supposed to prevent those owners from playing HD movies purchased from the iTunes store on external projectors that don't also support HDCP technology. But several owners reported that standard-definition movies were also declared off-limits by their new systems.

The QuickTime update should allow standard-definition movies obtained from Apple to play on those older projectors, but HD movies will still need an HDCP-compliant projector to be shown anywhere but the laptop screen. The update hasn't shown up on Apple's site yet, but it should be popping up in Software Update if you own one of the new systems, according to AppleInsider.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned another iPhone ad after consumers complained it exaggerated the speed of the device.

A recent TV ad for the iPhone 3G stated: "So what's so great about 3G? It's what helps you get the news, really fast. Find your way, really fast. And download pretty much anything, really fast. The new iPhone 3G. The Internet, you guessed it, really fast."

But how fast is it, really?

(Credit: Apple)

The ad showed a close-up of the phone being used to surf a news Web page, view the Google maps service, and download a file -- and all the actions had waiting times of only a fraction of a second.

Seventeen people complained to the ASA that the ad was misleading because it exaggerated the speed of the iPhone -- a judgment upheld by the watchdog, which said an on-screen text disclaimer stating "network performance will vary by location" was not enough to dispel the impression that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the ad.

The ASA failed to be convinced by Apple's counterargument that the claims made in the ad were relative rather than absolute -- and that it was intending to demonstrate the 3G iPhone allowed downloads and Internet access that was "really fast" by comparison to the previous Edge device.

The ASA said in its adjudication: "Although we acknowledged that the majority of viewers would be familiar with mobile telephones, we considered that many might not be fully aware of the technical differences between the different types of technology. We also noted the ad did not give an explicit indication of a comparison with the older 2G iPhone."

The ASA has ruled the ad must not appear again in its current form.

This is not the first time Apple has been scolded over iPhone ads. In August the ASA banned another advert for the iPhone -- which promised users access to "all parts of the Internet" on their Apple device, despite the phone's inability to display Flash or Java web content.

Natasha Lomas of Silicon.com reported from London.

Google acknowledged breaking the official rules of Apple's iPhone software development kit when it created the latest version of the Google Mobile application for the iPhone, but denied a more serious charge.

A Google spokesman confirmed Tuesday that Google Mobile uses undocumented APIs (application programming interfaces) in order to use the iPhone's proximity sensor to prompt a verbal search. iPhone developers were only supposed to use the APIs that Apple published in its SDK when they create their applications under the terms of that agreement.

Google has denied, however, a more serious charge that it was linking to private or dynamic frameworks in the Google Mobile application. That's considered a big no-no in the development community.

The problem with using undocumented APIs is that your application code could break in the future as Apple updates its software, but a lot of developers appear to have taken that risk in order to deliver a cool feature, such as Google's verbal search prompt.

Under the original terms of the SDK, however, applications using such techniques were not supposed to make it through to the App Store. As a result, other developers who played strictly by the SDK rules would not have felt it possible to create an application that duplicated Google's voice prompt using the proximity sensor, whereas those who had the resources to quickly rewrite anything that ran afoul of the App Store gatekeepers could push ahead and test Apple's limits.

Given Apple's uneven process for approving applications onto the App Store, the question has continued to come up as to whether Apple's ability to keep up with the flood of applications into the App Store has been stretched to the breaking point. It's not clear whether Apple knew Google was using the undocumented APIs when it approved Google Mobile, or whether it simply missed that code.

Google might be forced to rewrite the code for Google Mobile or change the way the application uses the proximity sensor if Apple decides to enforce the terms of the SDK. A number of Apple representatives appeared to be on vacation this week, and so requests for comment are not likely to be immediately returned.

Apple retail stores will match the prices of products sold by other authorized retailers.

(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

Apple has started reminding its store employees that they have the authority to match the prices of other Apple resellers.

IfoAppleStore reported earlier Tuesday that managers at Apple retail stores can honor the prices for Macs and iPods posted on other authorized outlets like Best Buy or Amazon.com. This has always been Apple's policy, according to AppleInsider, but it sounds like the company wanted to make it crystal clear ahead of a holiday season in which consumers are expected to be bargain hunters.

Apple posted some information on its Web site on Tuesday about the deals it will be offering through its online store this Friday, otherwise known as Black Friday. The company is believed to be planning "aggressive" discounts for the so-called biggest shopping day of the year.

Despite the fact that Apple has yet to produce an iPhone chip based on its own design, and that IBM doesn't design smartphone chips, the judge overseeing the Mark Papermaster noncompete case views the two companies as chip competitors.

Judge Kenneth Karas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York filed his opinion Monday (click here for PDF) on why former IBM executive Papermaster should not be allowed to join Apple as head of the iPhone and iPod hardware engineering team. Karas' decision to grant a preliminary injunction preventing Papermaster from working at Apple was revealed a few weeks ago, but the reasoning behind the opinion was delayed until IBM and Apple had a chance to review the opinion to make sure it did not disclose any confidential information.

There's no dispute that Papermaster signed a noncompete agreement in 2006 that would forbid him from working at any company deemed a competitor of IBM's for a year following his departure from Big Blue. Papermaster's lawyers are attempting to argue that since the only overlapping product between Apple and IBM--servers--is one that wouldn't be part of his official duties at Apple, and since he won't be running Apple's P.A. Semi chip design team, the noncompete shouldn't apply.

Judge Karas appeared to agree that since Apple's server business is such a small portion of its business and Papermaster will have nothing to do with that group, that experience isn't really at issue. But in his opinion, IBM and Apple are competitors in the chip market because both companies produce or will soon produce chips that wind up in mobile phones--regardless of whether those chips are similar or even whether those chips were designed by company employees.

Of course, the court recognizes that IBM does not sell MP3 players or cell phones that compete with the iPod or iPhone. But, IBM does sell the microprocessor technology that provides the electronic brains for those products and competes for that business. To profit from the manufacture and sale of such products, IBM relies heavily on its "Power" architecture, and has employed Mr. Papermaster as its top expert in the development and application of that technology.

Karas leans on a declaration filed by Rodney Adkins, IBM's senior chip executive, in forming his opinion that IBM's chip group competes for design wins in products like the iPhone and iPod Touch. Adkins wrote, "Steven Jobs, Apple's CEO, told the press recently that 'P.A. Semi is going to do system-on-chips for iPhones and iPods.' IBM designs and manufactures microprocessors suitable for each of those applications." System-on-chip, or SoC, is a term used to describe a single chip that comes with all the technology needed to run a system, such as the applications processor, communications hardware, and other vital parts.

That led Karas to believe that IBM has a healthy business selling similar SoCs for mobile phones or iPods. "Apple announced its intention to have P.A. Semi develop the very type of product that IBM sells to the market generally, and would like to sell to companies like Apple," Karas wrote in his opinion, referring to Adkins' statements.

But IBM doesn't appear to have any customers for those mystery microprocessors referred to by Adkins as potential products for the smartphone market. An IBM representative was unable to provide the names of IBM-designed microprocessors or SoCs for smartphones or handheld computers.

And the Power architecture--where Papermaster's expertise lies--is not a serious player in smartphones or handheld mobile computers like the iPod Touch; the ARM architecture dominates this market. No major smartphone maker uses a Power-architecture applications processor in its phone, and as far as I can tell, none is really considering it.

Power-architecture processors are generally used in products other than modern smartphones or handheld computers.

(Credit: Power.org)

Power.org, the industry organization dedicated to advancing the Power architecture, doesn't even consider mobile phones as potential applications for that architecture. Power-architecture chips these days are found in gaming consoles, telecommunications equipment, and other embedded applications, according to an IBM developer page linked from the Power.org site.

The only way IBM currently participates in the mobile phone market is by making chips for other companies that design the inner workings of the chip themselves. IBM runs a chip-manufacturing business (known as a foundry) for companies that design chips but don't have the billions of dollars required to build and maintain a modern semiconductor factory.

"We manufacture and sell customized chips to specific customers who make products that compete with the Apple iPhone. We do not 'advertise' these specific customized chips since we are dealing with a specific customer. Chips are made to the customer's specification," wrote Fred McNeese, an IBM representative, in an e-mail message.

Those chips do not appear to be the SoCs that P.A. Semi is developing; rather, they appear to be lower-level components that are needed to run modern mobile phones, such as controllers and digital television chips.

It's possible that IBM is worried about Papermaster's knowledge of IBM products or technologies that have not yet come to light. Likewise, power-management techniques that are used in the design of Power-based server processors or the components IBM manufactures could have some applications for P.A. Semi's group.

But the issue here is competition. IBM's position seems to be that even though it doesn't appear to have a single customer for the unspecified processors suitable for mobile computers, IBM is a potential SoC supplier for Apple's iPhone who could be shut out because Papermaster could improve Apple's P.A. Semi team by sharing trade secrets regarding an architecture that Apple does not appear to be planning to use.

It's a bit surprising that Apple waived its right to an evidentiary hearing that would have allowed it to challenge certain parts of the declarations filed by IBM, said John Siegal, a partner with Baker Hostetler in New York. However, that would have probably involved having to put several Apple executives on the witness stand to explain Papermaster's role and the plans of the P.A. Semi organization, and Apple is not known for its willingness to speak publicly about its future plans.

The two parties were to have discussed a schedule for "expedited discovery" and a trial at a status conference last week. It's not known what emerged from that conference; Papermaster's lawyers have declined multiple requests for comment, and IBM representatives have not commented on the conference.