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Shariah-compliant banking, sometimes called Islamic banking, is growing in popularity in the Western and Islamic worlds. But critics say American interest in the system at a time of economic crisis is opening the door to increased Islamic influence in the American banking system. Worse yet, some fear the banks may be helping to finance international terrorism. In Shariah-compliant banking, lenders may not charge interest and investors cannot make money from forbidden industries like gambling, alcohol, pork and pornography. Selling debt, devising derivatives and short selling are also prohibited, and investments must be closely tied to actual assets. In the U.S.,...

In a move that could backfire, according to one security expert, Apple pulled out of a prominent hackers' convention taking place this week in Las Vegas. Apple abruptly canceled what would have been its first appearance at Black Hat, an annual event in Las Vegas that features presentations from the world's most preeminent security researchers – a.k.a. hackers – according to Computerworld. Speakers typically highlight security shortcomings in a number of different technologies, including operating systems, e-mail and the Internet itself. Taking one's lumps at Black Hat is a right of passage in a technology's security evolution, as companies like...

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple products, including the Mac and the iPhone, are increasingly being targeted by computer hackers according to new research, shattering years of relative safety for the Apple camp. This year has proven to be a banner year for the Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics maker. Apple's hardware have sold more than any other year, but the larger user base makes it increasingly more enticing for hackers with malicious intent. Apple sold 2.1m Macs in the third quarter, up from 1.1m in the first quarter of 2006, according to Gartner, the research group. "Mac's market share is now significant enough...

Former US Vice President Al Gore appeared on BBC television today, and thanked Apple CEO Steve Jobs for proposing him as the next President of the United States. In May Jobs stated that Gore - also an Apple board member - would win the presidency if he ran for election. "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," Jobs told Time magazine. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see." Today, appearing on the...

According to a report on The Middle East Media Research Institute, Apple's NY Fifth Avenue store has been slammed by "an Islamic website" as a "new insult to Islam". The reason? Well, it resembles the Muslims' sacred Ka'ba, situated in the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca:....

LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Apple Computer is not liable for trademark infringement against Apple Corps, the music company owned by the Beatles, a judge in London's High Court ruled on Monday. Apple Corps, owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison, argued the computer company has violated a 1991 trademark agreement by moving into the music business through its market-leading iTunes online store. Apple Computer argued in court hearings in London earlier this year that iTunes was primarily a data transmission service, permitted by the agreement. The 1991 out-of-court...

Excerpt - update Apple Computer confirmed on Tuesday that it plans to introduce some "fun new products" next week, but declined to say more about what those products might be. In an e-mail sent to journalists, the company merely said the invited scribes should come to Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters next Tuesday to learn more. "Come see some fun, new products from Apple," the company said in its invitation. Unlike past invitations, which hinted at which product Apple was targeting, the current invitation includes just a picture of a calendar with only the date Feb. 28 on it. ~snip~

Apple Computer cried "uncle" Tuesday, and promised it would replace defective iPod nano screens that have cracked. It won't, however, deal with users who claim that the device's case scratches easily. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, a "vendor quality problem" caused cracking on a small number of iPod nano screens, said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. The problem affected "less than one-tenth of 1%" of the nanos shipped, Schiller said. Users had posted messages on Apple's own support forums as well as other sites -- including financial services consultant Matthew Peterson's flawedmusicplayer.com...

2GB iPod Nano costs $100 to make - researcher By Tony Smith (tony.smith at theregister.co.uk) Published Friday 23rd September 2005 14:54 GMT Market watcher iSuppli has disassembled Apple's iPod Nano and, beneath the shiny but not entirely scratchproof (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/23/ipod_nano_scratching/) casing, it has found almost $70 worth of assorted chippery. The 2GB Nano retails in the US for $199. Of that, iSuppli reckons, less that half - $90.18 - goes on components. Chuck in $8 per unit labour costs, and Apple's base margin is a whopping $100.82. You can probably add a little more for software development - they're paid in...

Apple's Jobs Tells Graduates About Dropout By JUSTIN M. NORTONThe Associated PressMonday, June 13, 2005; 9:13 AM PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Apple Computer Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates Sunday that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made because it forced him to be innovative _ even when it came to finding enough money for dinner.In an unusually candid commencement speech, Jobs also told the almost 5,000 graduates that his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer reemphasized the need to live each day to the fullest."Your time is limited...

WASHINGTON - Gay and transgender workers were more likely than ever to receive domestic-partner health benefits last year, and more companies are adopting nondiscrimination policies to protect them, a leading gay- activist group reported. But gays' workplace gains have slowed since the '90s, according to figures that the group, the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, compiled for its annual "State of the Workplace" report. That's probably because of the rising costs of health benefits. Social conservatives said their resistance to such efforts was a factor. Fortune 500 companies were most likely to protect gay and transgender workers, according to the survey....

Excerpt, subscription required - SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer Inc. is expected to announce Monday that it will begin shifting its Macintosh computer line next year to Intel Corp. chips, people familiar with the situation said. The move is a major change in strategy by Apple, a high-profile win for Intel, and a potential blow to International Business Machines Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc., suppliers of the PowerPC chips that Apple has long used in its Macintosh systems. [snip]

SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc.'s quarterly profit rose more than sixfold, paced by strong sales of its iPod digital music players, the Mac mini and new PowerBook notebook PCs. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, said on Wednesday that net income for its fiscal second quarter ended March 26 rose to $290 million, or 34 cents per share, from $46 million, or 6 cents per share, on a split-adjusted basis. Revenue surged 70 percent to $3.24 billion from $1.91 billion.

In yesterday's (March 27) Los Angeles Times, media reporter and critic David Shaw demonstrates Oscar Wilde's maxim that modern journalism is important—if only because it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Giving every indication that he's read a lot of stories about bloggers but not that many actual blogs, Shaw disparages the form as the error-filled rants of amateurs in his piece, "Do Bloggers Deserve Basic Journalistic Protections?" It's a "solipsistic, self-aggrandizing journalist-wannabe genre," Shaw writes. Without naming a specific offender—except Matt Drudge, who he acknowledges really isn't a blogger—Shaw generalizes about bloggers for 1,300 gassy...

You can't flip through a newspaper or wander around the Internet these days without stumbling across a debate over whether bloggers are journalists. This isn't trivial. Journalists often get access to places and information that others don't. Because they're surrogates for the public, they can get close to the action when emergencies break out. They benefit from the California Shield Law, which allows them, in most instances, to keep secret sources secret.... The Federal Elections Commission soon will explore whether campaign-finance laws apply to partisan bloggers whose work may, in effect, be akin to donating their services to campaigns.... It's...

Jef Raskin, the human-computer interface expert largely credited with beginning the Macintosh project for Apple Computer, died Saturday at age 61. Raskin, the author of The Humane Interface, died of cancer, according to a man who answered the telephone Sunday at Raskin's Pacifica, Calif., home. Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as employee No. 31, but left the company in 1982 amid a well-documented dispute with Steve Jobs. The Macintosh was launched in 1984. Reskin was an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the 1970s when...

Experts: International domain names may pose threat The new trick is a variation of the 'homograph attack' The new trick is a variation of a known technique called the "homograph attack" and takes advantage of loopholes in the way some popular Web browsers display domain names that use non-English characters. It could allow malicious hackers and online identity-theft groups to trick unsuspecting users into divulging sensitive personal information, according to an advisory from The Shmoo Group, a hacker collective, and from Secunia. snip For example, attackers could register a Web domain "bloomberg.com," which looks identical to the popular business news...

PlanetOut Network SUMMARY: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) signed a hate crimes bill on Wednesday that includes crimes motivated by a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a hate crimes bill on Wednesday that includes crimes motivated by a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. It was the second time this month that Schwarzenegger, a Republican, signed legislation that protects the rights of LGBT residents in the state. He signed a law on Sept. 13 that required insurance companies to provide coverage to registered domestic partners. Known as the Omnibus Hate Crimes...

<p>Billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs are advising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on economic issues.</p> <p>Kerry, 60, the four-term Massachusetts senator challenging President George W. Bush, ``reached out to them and they're giving him economic advice about the deficit and job creation,'' said David Wade, Kerry's campaign spokesman.</p>

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Internet has played a significant role in the latest increase in cases of syphilis among gay men by introducing partners more likely to practice high-risk sex, according to a study. About 22 percent of homosexual men diagnosed with early stage syphilis reported meeting one or more of their sexual partners through the Internet around the time they were infected, said the study by the Los Angeles Health Department on Wednesday. Researchers at a national conference in Philadelphia on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases also said they found gays who used the Web to meet sex...

The top-of-the-line iPod music player from Apple Computer can hold four solid weeks of music. But what if you just want a little peace and quiet? As it turns out, Apple sells that too - sounds of silence for 99 cents. Steve Halberstadt of Raleigh, N.C., made such a purchase last week after discovering that Apple's iTunes store, the Web's leading downloadable music outlet, had added "The Whitey Album," a 1995 release by Ciccone Youth, a jokey side project of the rock band Sonic Youth. The album's second track album, "Silence," consists of 63 seconds of exactly that. (The band...

<p>The SCO Group has announced it plans to take legal action to block Novell Inc.'s proposed purchase of SUSE Linux AG. The company claims that it has inherited a non-compete agreement, which was part of a broader agreement signed between Novell and one of SCO's ancestors, The Santa Cruz Operation Inc., when Novell sold Unix's intellectual property rights.</p>

American businesses continue to march in lock step with homosexual ideals.America's top corporations continue to take on policies pleasing to homosexual activists. A new ranking shows more companies than ever are rewriting employee manuals to include gay ideals. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that two out of every of three companies on the Fortune 500 list of America's top corporations now specifically protect sexual orientation in their employee codes. The group rated companies on seven criteria, such as offering domestic-partner benefits or diversity training. More than 20 companies scored a perfect 100, representing a 91 percent increase over last...

Martin Luther King Jr.'s image has been used to protest a potential war on Iraq, denounce a gay rights law and sell wireless phone service. The trouble, of course, is that the civil rights leader "is not here to speak for himself," said the Rev. Richard Bennett, executive director of the African American Council of Christian Clergy in Miami. On the eve of the holiday commemorating King's birth, some scholars and civil rights leaders say that while it's not much of a stretch to assert that King would have opposed war with Iraq -- he was an advocate of nonviolence...

<p>To the PC industry, such thinking is lethal. It represents not just the bottoming out of a business cycle, but a seismic shift. It's the death of the business model that drove the industry for the past 20 years. Now, even as computers have raced ahead in speed, sales have slowed -- down 5% last year alone, according to Gartner Group. Declines were unheard of in the 1990s, when double-digit annual growth was the norm, some years even approaching 30%.</p>

Frustration with Microsoft is prompting more companies to consider "un-Windows" alternatives, according to a study released Tuesday. "Corporate user resentment and dissatisfaction with Microsoft and some of its practices is at an all-time high," says Laura DiDio, senior analyst with the Yankee Group and the report's author. That frustration is pushing more companies to consider Linux-based operating systems as well as Apple's OS X, she says. Licensing Hostility The survey, conducted last April and May by the Yankee Group and Sunbelt Software, asked 1500 corporations about their satisfaction with Microsoft. Bottom line: Many customers aren't happy. At the heart of...

<p>LONDON, May 20 — Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.</p> <p>Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying "hi-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.</p>