Apple

Apple looking for Psystar's backers

Apple has amended its lawsuit against Psystar to allow for the possibility that other parties are backing the company.

When companies file lawsuits, they'll often tack something like "John Does 1-50" onto the list of defendants, in order to allow for the possibility that other parties to the case who have yet to be discovered could be added at a later date. Apple did not do that the first time it filed suit against Mac clone maker Psystar, but has tacked such a paragraph onto an amended copy of its lawsuit against the company, as noted by Groklaw.… Read more

iPhone app promo codes trickle out

On Tuesday, the first promotional codes that will make iPhone apps free to some users began trickling out of the App Store.

Apple is finally bequeathing apps developers with a way to let some media testers review an app at no expense and reward or attract a few lucky users. (The first invite has already floated into my in-box.)

This is Apple, so there are limits. Fifty promotional codes per product, to be exact.

Also, as wonderful as it is to see the passcodes allowed and implemented, they are not free trials. Developers angling to hook new customers will still … Read more

Apple deletes Mac antivirus suggestion

Updated 7:45 p.m. PST with expert comment, at 7:20 p.m. PST with context on previous coverage, and at 7:08 p.m. PST with background.

Apple removed an old item from its support site late Tuesday that urged Mac customers to use multiple antivirus utilities and now says the Mac is safe "out of the box."

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesperson Bill Evans said.

"The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out … Read more

Analyst says iPhone kept smartphone growth alive

One analyst thinks that if it wasn't for the iPhone, smartphone growth would have slowed to a crawl last quarter.

Charlie Wolf of Needham & Company released some data Tuesday, as captured by MacNN, and said he believes that Apple's iPhone accounted for virtually all the sequential growth in the market during the third quarter, which totaled 28.6 percent. That's when Apple launched the iPhone 3G and sold 6.9 million units, putting it in second place among all smartphone vendors with 16.6 percent of the market.

At first glance it seems a bit of … Read more

Entertainment dominates top iPhone applications

It's clear from the list of top applications downloaded from the App Store this year that iPhone and iPod Touch users are looking for entertainment.

Every year around this time Apple releases the most-downloaded songs and videos on iTunes, and this year is particularly interesting because it's the first year of the App Store. Six of the top 10 paid apps were games, including Apple's Texas Hold-Em and the heavily promoted Super Monkey Ball from Sega, but Koi Pond's mesmerizing virtual aquarium led the way as the top-selling paid application for the iPhone and the iPod … Read more

Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software

Updated 10:50 a.m. PST December 2 to correct that Apple previously recommended antivirus software to Mac users, and at 1:50 p.m. PST with call back from Apple and link to 2002 Apple anti-virus item. A follow-up blog will be posted that goes into more detail about the coverage.

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.

On November 21 Apple updated a technical note on its Support Web site that says: "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.

MacDailyNews unearthed the same note posted by Apple in June 2007 and published it on Tuesday,a long with a link to a March 2002 note from Apple urging people to use an anti-virus program.

Apple representatives did not respond to e-mails seeking comment on Monday, but did return a call on Tuesday. A spokesman said he would look into the matter.

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.

… Read more

Modest Black Friday discounts help Mac sales

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 … Read more

D'oh! The Simpsons bite Apple

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 … Read more

Hackers boot Linux on iPhone

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 … Read more