Development

Apple is shelling out about $200 to make each 32GB iPhone 4S, which the company will ultimately sell for $749, not counting the carrier subsidy.

At least that's the initial estimate from research firm UBM TechInsights.

Analyzing the overall cost history and the breakdown of each major component, UBM has calcuated a manufacturing cost of $203 for each 32GB model of the new phone. That's about the same range as Apple paid to make the iPhone 4 last year, giving the company around the same profit margin. This preliminary projection includes expenses of $26 for the new A5 … Read more

This article was originally posted June 6, 2011, and updated on October 4, 2011.

Along with introducing the new iPhone 4S, Apple gave a brief look at iOS 5 at Apple's "Let's Talk iPhone" event (full event and iPhone 4S coverage here) this morning in Cupertino, Calif. Tim Cook opened the event, but he turned to Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone software, to show off highlights of a promised 200 new features in iOS 5. Available for free, iOS 5 will be compatible with the iPhone 4S, the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, both versions of the iPad, and the third- and fourth-generation models of the iPod Touch.

In today's event, we saw a recap of features originally debuted at WWDC including the new notification system, Twitter integration, and Reminders, but also some new features added to the list with Find My Friends, Cards, and Siri, a voice-controlled assistant that will only be available to iPhone 4S users. iOS 5 will officially become available over the air for free starting on October 12. … Read more

Using a tried and true method to make up for lost time, Adobe is acquiring two companies, Nitobi and TypeKit, to give it more strength in a fast-moving area where it's playing catch-up.

For years Adobe advocated its Flash Player technology for advanced Web design, but now it's wholeheartedly on board with the biggest alternative, Web standards including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Today, in conjunction with its Adobe Max developer and designer conference populated with the very people wrestling with that transition, the company announced the two acquisitions.

Overall, both acquisitions make sense strategically. Each gives Adobe a solid new starting point for aspects of new-age technology. Terms weren't disclosed, though, so it's not clear whether Adobe had to pay a premium for the companies. The TypeKit acquisition is complete, but the Nitobi buy is subject to closing conditions that should be met this month, Adobe said.

Nitobi makes PhoneGap, an open-source programming tool for creating Web apps that run on a variety of mobile phones. That aligns well with the cross-platform approach Adobe has favored with Flash: give programmers the ability to create what they want, and let the tools worry about the differences from one system to another. … Read more

Back in February of this year a malware utility called BlackHole, or MusMinim by security company Sophos, was found for OS X. BlackHole is a backdoor server program RAT (Remote Access Tool) that runs on an infected system and allows a remote user to interact with the system by sending shutdown commands, displaying screen messages, opening URLs, and requesting usernames and passwords. In essence it is similar to a remote desktop utility, but is not distributed for productive purposes.

Unlike more recent malware attempts on OS X that try to keep hidden and steal information automatically, the BlackHole malware is … Read more

As expected, Apple will be holding an iPhone event next Tuesday at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.

The company sent an e-mail to select reporters earlier today, saying the event will start at 10 a.m. PT next week with an "executive presentation." Although Apple didn't specifically mention the iPhone 5 by name, speculation abounds that the company will unveil one, or perhaps two, iPhones at the event.

Rumors have been swirling for months over when Apple would finally unveil its next iPhone. In previous years, Apple has shown off a new version of its popular smartphone at … Read more

In the past week or two, OS X users have seen a couple of new malware threats surface that join the recent MacDefender scams in the small collection of malware that has been developed for OS X. These threats are not very prevalent and do not circumvent the security of OS X, but they do try to take advantage of naive users and trick them into believing they are installing legitimate software.

These type of phishing and Trojan horse attempts are nothing new for PC systems, and to tackle them, Apple introduced its XProtect system in OS X Snow Leopard, … Read more

These days when people think of malware and OS X the first name that comes to mind is likely MacDefender or one of its variants, which were rogue utilities designed to trick users into giving up personal and financial information. As the Mac gains in popularity there will undoubtedly be more attempts like this, and recently a new Trojan horse attempt for OS X has surfaced that tries to steal users' personal information.

The malware was first seen in late July of this year, and has been identified by security firms F-Secure and Sophos as "Trojan dropper" and "backdoor" utilities that both work in tandem to install on the system.… Read more

Remember the duo who released an Angry Birds spoof application last fall in effort to highlight some of Android's vulnerabilities? If so, perhaps you also recall hearing that Google had to implement the remote kill feature in Android about the same time. Well, those guys are back and, judging by their latest finding, things still don't look to be all that secure.

A quick primer: Jon Oberheide and Zach Lanier put an app in the Android Market back in November 2010 that was a proof-of-concept that malicious developers could install additional applications without a user's knowledge. Google … Read more

The crew at CyanogenMod has gotten a few steps closer to fully running Android on an HP TouchPad.

Known for designing customized builds of Android for different mobile devices, CyanogenMod has managed to enable Wi-Fi, sound, and a working accelerometer on one of its TouchPad demo devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Noting the team's latest developments on its TouchPad thread at the RootzWiki Web site, one of … Read more