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MacBook Pro 2Ghz Reviewed
The HD Boycott Begins Now
Triple Threat To Mac OS X Largely Academic
The Idiot's Guide to Mac Viruses For Dummies 101
OS X 10.4.5 Security Broken...Already
Apple Poised For In-Line Or Better March Quarter
Steve Wozniak Slams Apple Over iPods, Intel
HDD Diet: Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation
eWeek Scoop: RIM Notches Second Patent Win
RIM To Judge: BlackBerry Too Important To Shut
This Week's Tech Night Owl LIVE Update
The Mac Night Owl: The Night Owl Review: A Look At Two Anti-Virus Applications
Digital Books Start A New Chapter
eWeek: Vista Coming Into Focus



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MacBook Pro 2Ghz Reviewed

stuffmagazine.co.uk says:

Yesterday I received one of the first 15.4in MacBook Pros to be given to any journalist. I've been buzzing ever since....

The MacBook Pro does nothing to damage Apple's appeal as a status symbol. But nor does it mark a great leap forward for the brand - the design is the familiar, as are the functions. Battery life is acceptable. Performance is roaring with Universal applications, but less so with unoptimised software.

For the full review visit here:
http://www.stuffmagazine.co.uk/hotstuffarticle.asp?de_id=1307

MacBook Pro Reviews also at:
http://www.macworld.com/2006/02/reviews/mbpromain/index.php
and
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2006/02/macbooknotes/index.php







The HD Boycott Begins Now

A Writers Block Live Editorial says:

This is important. I really want you to understand what's going on with the video industry's push towards HD. They are engineering a complete removal of the concept of fair use. They are setting up systems that will completely control how, when and where you can use content that you buy. Even worse, they can retroactively change the rules!

Today the AACS (aggressive automatic consumer screwing) organization announced availability of the interim version of their system for protecting content providers from their criminal customers. Their noble intentions are pretty well summed up in this choice excerpt:

The AACS specification accelerates the ability of consumers to enjoy exciting, new, flexible entertainment experiences and storage options, while continuing to provide the traditional, straightforward playback mode, for the next generation of prerecorded and recordable optical media such as Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Additionally, AACS is designed to create unprecedented flexibility, portability and security for entertainment content to be enjoyed on networked home, portable PC or CE devices.

I especially love the concept of a 'traditional, straightforward playback mode'. Rest assured they have top minds working on making sure nothing will be straightforward in the future.

Further, if you download the AACS agreement itself, you find the frightening concept of the 'analog sunset' (it's on page 82). This is where device manufactures agree to not make analog devices after certain preset dates.

Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have embraced this draconian system, and the studios are salivating at the prospect of you never actually being able to own content again.

My reaction to this abomination is simple: no way in hell. I will not buy any product that uses this crap, and I hope you'll join me in that boycott. Let these morons see us early adopters stay away in droves.

Please pass this on; post it on your blogs, 'digg' it; slashdot it; whatever it takes to stop this insidious plan.

You can check it out at:
http://writersblocklive.com/part-156






Triple Threat To Mac OS X Largely Academic

critical-error.com's Robert Lemos says:

At first blush, the past two weeks have not been good for the image of Apple's Mac OS X: Public descriptions of two worms and a trivial exploit for a serious software issue in the operating system appeared on the Internet.

However, the three programs are hardly a threat to systems running Mac OS X, according to security professionals.

For the full report visit here.
http://www.critical-error.com/Article3959.phtml







The Idiot's Guide to Mac Viruses For Dummies 101

macinquirer.com's "auntievirus" says:

Tech pundits and other media weasels have been falling all over themselves in the race to describe the recent "Mac virus" scandal in the purplest possible prose. Meanwhile, much of the Mac-centric community has bent over backwards to deny that there's anything to get excited about, some even saying the recent events don't technically rise to the level of a true "virus attack" in the geektionary sense of the term.

The Inquirer thinks the truth lies somewhere in the middle: Attempted hack attacks on the Mac are likely to increase with the growing popularity of the platform. This doesn't mean they'll be successful attacks. Still, hackers do love them some publicity, and the schadenfreude of some in the PC press over Macs being allegedly pulled down off their virus-free pedestal has proven that, should there ever be a hAXx0rOU812-type who actually does some real Windows-strength damage on Macs, he/she is in for the Mother Of All Myth-Making Press Frenzies.

In the interest of context, and with a little help from our way-smarter friends over at Wikipedia, we humbly present the Macinquirer Short Attention Span Guide to Viruses and Junk:

For the full commentary visit here:
http://macinquirer.com/index.html#unique-entry-id-47






OS X 10.4.5 Security Broken...Already

osx86project.org reports:

Questions about the TPM security of Apple’s OS X continue, now that the infamous Maxxuss has struck again. Patches for 10.4.5 are now spreading across the web only nine days after the official 10.4.5 release. It seems that Apple included no significant security changes in this update, which was released on the same day that Maxxuss introduced his hacks for 10.4.4.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.osx86project.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=2






Apple Poised For In-Line Or Better March Quarter

Forbes' Kate DuBose Tomassi reports:

Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster maintained a rating of “outperform” on Apple Computer, saying the company is poised to post results that are in-line to slightly above expectations for the March quarter.

Checks with specialty resellers and unit shipment data from the NPD Group show Apple tracking in-line or better for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 ending in March, the research analyst said in a report Friday.

For the full report visit here.






Steve Wozniak Slams Apple Over iPods, Intel

Forbes' Leah Hoffmann reports:

Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak bit into the company yesterday, calling its recent pact with Intel "like consorting with the enemy" and advising it to spin off its iPod business as fast as possible.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Wozniak recalled Apple's long tradition of "saying the enemy is the big black-hatted guys." That tradition will be difficult to maintain, he asserted, when Apple computers run on the same chips as Microsoft. From an engineering standpoint, however, Wozniak admitted that the move to use Intel chips could be beneficiary, though he said he still had lingering questions about whether or not the move was truly necessary.

For the full report visit here.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/24/wozniak-jobs-apple-cx_lh_0224autofacescan05.html






HDD Diet: Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

digit-life.com says:

The problem of power consumption and heat dissipation in modern computer components does

not need any special substantiations or introductions. It exists and should be somehow dealt with. It's especially critical with the present-day processors and video cards. But the object of this article is another computer element, critical to overheating — hard disk drives (HDD). Manufacturers measure off quite a modest range of operating temperatures — from +5 to +55°C as a rule (occasionally from 0 to +60°C), which is obviously less than in case of processors, video cards, or chipsets. Moreover, reliability and durability of these drives depends much on their operating temperatures. According to our research, increasing HDD temperature by 5°C has the same effect on reliability as switching from 10% to 100% HDD workload! Each one-degree drop of HDD temperature is equivalent to a 10% increase of HDD service life.

It goes without saying that servers and professional data storage systems pay special attention to cooling hard drives — drives are installed into special metal cages and cooled by fans. In such cages the HDD temperature stays within 30-40°C even under heavy load (sometimes it's even close to the environment temperature), which drives away all overheating concerns.

However, much less attention is paid to the problem of HDD cooling in more consumer-like cases, including personal computers (from hardware integrators or self-assembled), workstations, and even entry-level servers, to say nothing of growing increasingly popular "computerized" consumer electronics with hard drives inside (play stations, personal digital video recorders, etc).

For the full report visit here.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/storage/hddpower.html






eWeek Scoop: RIM Notches Second Patent Win

Updated: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejects the second of five NTP patents at issue in the ongoing patent infringement case that could shut down BlackBerry service.

Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1931025,00.asp





RIM To Judge: BlackBerry Too Important To Shut

IDG News Service's Grant Gross reports:

A judge should not shut down Research in Motion (RIM) Ltd.’s BlackBerry mobile e-mail service in the U.S., even though a jury ruled that it infringes another company’s patent, because BlackBerry devices play a “crucial role” in important industries such as hospitals, utilities and banks, RIM’s lawyers argued in court Friday.

Even with an exemption allowing government workers to continue to use BlackBerry service, a court injunction against RIM in its legal battle with NTP Inc. would harm the public interest by cutting off important private businesses and limiting government workers’ ability to communicate with private citizens, Henry Bunsow, a RIM lawyer, said in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

For the full report visit here.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/02/24/rimcourt/index.php?lsrc=mwrss






This Week's Tech Night Owl LIVE Update

With both the technology and mainstream press filled with reports about those newly-discovered security threats to the Mac platform, we devoted a fair portion of the February 23rd episode to the subject. We invited Intego's David Loomstein back for a brief visit, and we caught him on the road in crowded LA traffic. His headphone system wouldn't operate, but he was game and managed to deliver the basics via his standard mobile handset. Author Kirk McElhearn worked with Macworld to actually examine the Oompa-Loompa virus and see how it did its dirty deeds, and he appeared during the first third of the show to explain what it could do and what it couldn't. Although it hasn't been generally reported, the iChat users potentially impacted by the virus are confined to your local, or Bonjour, network, and not AIM and .Mac users at large.

Here's the URL for this week's update on the show:
http://www.macnightowl.com/newsletters/2006/02/326.htm#update

Note: You can also access our show's Podcast feed, available at its new location:
http://www.techbroadcasting.com/nightowl.xml






The Mac Night Owl: The Night Owl Review: A Look At Two Anti-Virus Applications

The need for software to protect you against Mac malware is debatable. Some say it happens so rarely that just installing Apple's security updates as soon as they appear and being careful about downloading files should be more than enough to protect you from possible harm. Others say that this approach ignores the larger PC world, that the current Mac security situation is just the tip of the iceberg and more threats are in the offing.

Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#applications

Note: You can also access our RSS feed, available at:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.xml






Digital Books Start A New Chapter

msnbc.msn.com reports:

Richard D. Warren, a 58-year-old lawyer in California, is halfway through Ken Follett's novel Jackdaws. But he doesn't bother carrying around the book itself. Instead, he has a digital version of Follett he reads on his Palm Treo each morning as he commutes by train to San Francisco from his home in Berkeley. He's a big fan of such digital books. Usually, there are around seven titles on his Treo, and he buys at least two new ones each month. "It's just so versatile," he says. "I've tried to convert some friends to this, but they think it's kind of geeky."

Geeky? For now, maybe, but not for much longer. Many experts are convinced that digital books, after plenty of false starts, are finally ready for takeoff. "Every other form of media has gone digital â€" music, newspapers, movies," says Joni Evans, a top literary agent who just left the William Morris Agency to start her own company that will focus on books and technology. "We're the only industry that hasn't lived up to the pace of technology. A revolution is around the corner."

For the full report visit here.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11488283/






eWeek: Vista Coming Into Focus

"Microsoft is expected to deliver the next Windows Vista milestone, the February Community Technology Preview release, this week-most likely on Feb. 21, according to testers briefed last month by Microsoft.

Around the same time that it releases the updated test build of its next version of Windows, Microsoft also is expected to launch a beta of deployment tools designed to help corporations implement Vista."

Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1929474,00.asp





Charles W. Moore

Tags: News ï Tech-Industry ï

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