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"Let me show you how this all works since you will own us in a few weeks...better give you a quick brush up on things...ok?"

I received this email from COMCAST this morning: Dear Comcast Subscriber: ACTION REQUIRED: Comcast has determined that your computer(s) have been used to send unsolicited email ("spam"), which is generally an indicator of a virus. For your own protection and that of other Comcast customers, we have taken steps to prevent further transmission of spam from your computer(s). Comcast.Net WebMail Users If you use a web browser to access your email, this change will not affect your service. However, it is important that you take steps to remove the virus and secure your computer(s). This can be done by using...

Blame Rests With Dodd Sen. Christopher Dodd's tiresome tactic of affecting outrage when his integrity is questioned is getting stale. Typical is his questioning the oversight of the Bush administration in relation to the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac debacle [Commentary, Sept. 14, "Rein In Fannie, Freddie? Not Dodd"]. Despite numerous warnings, over a number of years, about the weakness in Fannie and Freddie's capital structure, our senator, chairman of the Senate banking committee, did nothing. He, of course, did have the time to collect more than $100,000 in campaign contributions from Freddie and Fannie and managed to get himself a sweetheart...

Apple fans are under attack on multiple fronts.Security researchers have discovered an unpatched vulnerability in Apple's iTunes and QuickTime software that creates an opportunity to crash browser applications. The flaw might also open up a route to inject hostile code onto vulnerable systems, though this remains unproven. Exploitation of the flaw in either case involves tricking surfers into opening a maliciously constructed QuickTime tag contained on a web page or embedded in an MP3 and video clip file. Security clearing house US CERT rates the buffer overflow-based flaw - which affects Apple QuickTime 7.5.5 and iTunes 8.0 - as a...

Excerpt - After dumping its $10 million contract with Jerry Seinfeld after just three ads (only two of which even aired) Microsoft has created new ad copy where regular people and a few celebrities say, “I’m a PC!” One problem with the campaign’s credibility: the ad work was created using Macs. Flickr user LuisDS found that metadata on the creative copy of the “stereotyped PC user” and other photos appearing on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” website revealed that they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. One might expect that Microsoft would use Windows PCs running its own...

Mac clone maker says Apple's hold on Mac OS X lets it gouge consumers. The Mac clone maker that has countered an Apple Inc. lawsuit with one of its own said that forcing the California computer maker to undo an illegal tie between the Mac OS X operating system and its hardware would force it to drop prices, according to court documents filed Thursday. Psystar Corp., a Doral, Fla.-based seller of Intel-based computers, also charged that Apple enjoys "monopoly power" from the licensing link it's forged between its hardware and the Mac OS. In its response to an Apple lawsuit...

I'm rebuilding my personal website using iWeb. The pages have audio files of sermons as well as the text of the sermon or the notes. The text does not load until the audio file finishes streaming. How can I change this? Also, the audio files are mp3's but the site still requires users to download Quicktime. Is there a setting in iWeb to allow WMP to hear the files? Lastly, the users cannot save the streams unless they upgrade to Quicktime Pro (for money). Does anyone know how to disable that and allow visitors to download the files? Thanks in...

If getting maximum efficiency from Microsoft tools is key to your business, an office full of Macs could be the way to go.(Fortune Small Business) -- How's this for the ultimate digital-age, small-business irony: Want the best possible environment for Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Office? Try running it on a Mac. The Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) line of personal computers and peripherals offers the small enterprise a tantalizing - if frustrating - set of risks and rewards. Macs, used as they are intended in their full 64-bit glory, are blazingly fast. Integration of the Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) processing chips...

Some of the coolest OS features are nowhere to be found in Windows XP or Vista. Here are 18 brilliant features that Microsoft should beg for, borrow, or steal--plus tips on how you can add many of them to your PC now. Love it or hate it, Microsoft Windows is the world's most dominant operating system. But when you look at some of the hot features found in competitors such as Linux and Mac OS X, both XP and Vista can seem a little incomplete. From intuitive interface features like Apple's application dock and Cover Flow to basic media capabilities...

What is MobileMe? MobileMe is Apple’s new Internet service for Mac, iPhone, iPod touch, and PC that takes the best of .Mac and adds many new features. With MobileMe you will continue to get services that take advantage of Mac integration such as iDisk and photo sharing from iPhoto ’08. You also get a suite of new web applications at me.com; push email, push contacts, and push calendar; and 20 GB of online storage. For more information about MobileMe features, watch the MobileMe Guided Tour. What happened to www.mac.com? MobileMe has a new home at (www.me.com) where you will find...

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is now acknowledging it screwed up with its initial launch of Windows Vista, and is ready to try again. "We broke a lot of things. We know that, and we know it caused you a lot of pain. It got customers thinking, hey, is Windows Vista a generation we want to get invested in?" So Brad Brooks, Microsoft's VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing, fessed up publicly this week. Speaking at a keynote address at Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference, Brooks signified that Microsoft was ready to admit mistakes and reposition itself to tell a better story...

And to think Microsoft used to be popular with the developer crowd... Not anymore. A recent report from Evans Data shows fewer than one in 10 software developers writing applications for Windows Vista this year. Eight percent. This is perhaps made even worse by the corresponding data that shows 49 percent of developers writing applications for Windows XP. Such appreciation for history is not likely to warm the cockles of Microsoft's heart, especially when Linux is getting lots of love from developers (13 percent writing apps for it this year and 15.5 percent in 2009). The Mac? I don't have...

SAN FRANCISCO—June 9, 2008—Apple® today previewed Mac OS® X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimized for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime® X. Snow Leopard...

Excerpt - With the 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) beginning next week, MacRumors provides this Rumor Roundup as a summary of major rumors circulating around the Mac Web before the big event (previous roundups: 2007, 2006). The 3G iPhone The 3G iPhone will be announced at WWDC 2008. There really can be no doubt. It's certainly been no secret that the iPhone will eventually adopt 3G technology. When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone in January 2007, he specifically said (video clip) that Apple plans on making "3G phones and all sorts of amazing things in the future". Fast forward...

i jammed up my mac. the force-quit methods described in the ma os x book don't work. the rainbow circle just keeps spinning. i think what happened was when i put yahoo.com in the preferences, it erased the instructions from my verizon dsl. my verizon dsl disk is stuck in the computer. when i clicked on firefox, firefox re-named the verizon resume installation disk firefox. thanks, ken

OK you FR MacHeads.   Having had good experiences with a used eMac, I'm considering replacing my 5 year-old main desktop PC with a Mac. Cost is a factor, so I’m trying to decide between a maxxed-out Mac Mini (can use my existing LCD screen, mouse and keyboard) or an iMac (longer useful life) Here are the PC desktop's specs.     CURRENTLY HAVE MAC EQUVALENT OR BETTER? CPU AMD Athlon 2600+, 2.13 GHz ? RAM 1 GB DDR266 SDRAM 184-pin DIMMs ? HDD 120GB ATA/133 ? VIDEO ATI All-In-Wonder 9000 PRO 64 MB DDR AGP with TV display ?...

I am considering getting the Mother-in-Law a new iMac to replace her 5 year old W2K box. I don't know a lot about Mac's but this is the model I have picked out. They are a bit pricey, but I just can't buy her a MS Vista PC. What do you think?

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter ended March 29, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue. Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over...

BREAKING NEWS: Apple's profit and revenue surged, as Mac shipments jumped 51%, allaying concerns of a consumer pullback. Full article coming shortly.

The MAC was supposed to be better than a PC. Does anybody out there know how to use this thing?

The Apple Mac runs Windows Vista better than a PC, according to a shootout conducted by Popular Mechanics magazine. The publication tested two all-in-one desktops and notebooks, one Mac and one PC in each category, using a panel of testers ranging from experts to the I-just-want-it-to-work type of consumer. The results were published in the magazine's May issue. The testers assembled the machines right out of the box and then rated their experiences in performing everyday tasks, such as Web surfing, document creation, uploading photos, downloading Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Acrobat files and playing music and movies. The magazine created its...

This computer rivalry has been elevated to a cultural divide on par with Pepsi versus Coke. Taking it beyond personal taste, PM crunches the numbers—with some surprising results (and detailed benchmark scores). We all know the stereotypes. Apple’s popular commercials have painted the picture in stark terms: There are two types of people, Mac people and PC people. And if the marketing is to be believed, the former is a hip, sport-coat-and-sneakers- wearing type of guy who uses his computer for video chatting, music mash-ups and other cool, creative pursuits that starchy, business-suited PC users could never really appreciate unless...

Excerpt - The iPhone gets the most press and the iPod sells in the largest quantities, but it’s the Macintosh that really drives Apple’s growth, says Gene Munster. In the second installment of a multipart report on Apple’s “3 Cylinder Engine,” Piper Jaffray’s chief Apple (AAPL) analyst looks at the Mac business over the next couple of years and likes what he sees. In particular: Growth: After Apple introduced the Intel Macs, Mac sales grew 37% in 2007, more than double the industry-wide rate of 15%. Munster is modeling 2.0 to 2.1 million Macs for the March quarter (vs. the...

The MacBook Air went first; a tiny Fujitsu laptop running Vista was hacked on the last day of the contest; but it was Linux, running on a Sony Vaio, that remained undefeated as conference organizers ended a three-way computer hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference. Earlier this week, contest sponsors had put three laptops up for grabs to anyone who could hack into one of the systems and run their own software. A US$20,000 cash prize sweetened the deal, but the payout was halved each day as contest rules were relaxed and it became easier to penetrate the computers.

Gone in 2 minutes: Mac gets hacked first in contest by Robert McMillan It may be the quickest US$10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned.He took the first of three laptop computers -- and a $10,000 cash prize -- Thursday after breaking into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest.Show organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and the MacBook as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system, using a...

The heated debate over whether Apple is tricking you into believing you can see millions of colors on your Mac has come to a quiet conclusion. The Chicago Tribune noted last week (spotted by AppleInsider) that Apple has settled a lawsuit brought by two professional photographers claiming that the company falsely advertised the capabilities of their MacBook Pros as being able to display "millions of colors." The plaintiffs claimed that Apple could achieve those heights only through "dithering."How many colors can you see? Thousands? Millions?(Credit: Apple) There's an option in the Displays screen, under System Preferences in Mac OS X,...

For the first time in ages, the sale of new PCs with Windows as a percentage of the PC market is declining sharply. The new winner is the Mac, but, while no one does a good job of tracking the still-new, pre-installed Linux desktop market, it's also clear that Linux is finally making impressive inroads into Windows' once unchallenged market share. The Mac numbers are especially revealing. NPD, a global market research company, has revealed that Apple's share of the U.S. computer market jumped to 14 percent in February 2008. This was up from 9 percent in February 2007. In...

Apple today released Security Update 2008-002 which is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. Previous security updates have been incorporated into this security update. Security Update 2008-002 is available via Software Update and also as standalone installers. More info and download links:• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 (Leopard) - 50MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 (Universal) - 103MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 Server (Leopard) - 108MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 Server (PPC) - 82MB• Security Update 2008-002 v1.0 Server (Universal) - 107MB For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307562.

Yeah, you read that headline right. Apple couldn’t pay for better press than this. Viewers of the Charlie Rose show tonight were stunned to see the normally composed Rose looking like he’d just been in a bar fight. He has a very bad black eye and a bandage over part of his forehead. I contacted the show’s producers to hear what happened. Earlier today, they said, Rose tripped in a pothole while walking on 59th Street in Manhattan. He was carrying a newly purchased MacBook Air and made a quick (but ultimately flawed) decision while falling: sacrifice the face, protect...

Growth in Apple's personal computer business continued to outpace the industry average last month, with Macs accounting for a 14 percent unit share and 25 percent dollar share of all US-based PC retail sales, according to market research firm NPD. The results -- first revealed in an investor note from Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves on Monday -- represent 60 percent unit growth and 67 percent revenue growth over the same period one year ago. At the same time, overall US PC retail shipments grew just 9 percent on a 5 percent increase in revenues. Apple saw particular strength...

Bear Stearns analysts Andy Neff, Bill Hand and Ted Chung sent a note to clients this morning following Apple's (AAPL) announcement of a new developers' platform for the iPhone. Key excerpts: WHY NOW? EIGHT COMPELLING REASONS. Despite current anxiety, we view current weakness in AAPL shares as an opportunity to add to positions based on our assessment of several positive inflection points: 1. WIDgets. With iPhone SDK launch today (3/6), AAPL further extended its lead in the emerging WIDget (Wireless Internet Devices: GPS, email, TV/video, social) market. Making media content portable is a 200mm unit (annual) market; making phones portable...

Popularity of Apple among students, MacBook’s dual-boot option, and the benefits of standardization lead university to offer only Apple MacBooks to studentsNEWBERG, Ore. – Beginning next fall, George Fox University will supply every incoming traditional undergraduate student with a MacBook laptop. While the university has provided a computer to each undergraduate since 1991, the shift to all-Apple brings the university’s Computers Across the Curriculum program full circle. After offering a Macintosh Classic computer to all incoming undergraduates, the university transitioned to all PCs in the late 1990s. For the last several years, it has offered both options and seen an...

Russian security vendor Kaspersky Lab has announced it has virus protection software waiting in the wings, just in case Apple’s Mac OS X suddenly becomes a target for hackers. Kaspersky, based in Moscow, has no immediate plans to release a Mac product, but one could "be ready in just days," spokesman Timur Tsoriev said at the CeBIT show in Germany. Kaspersky's anti-virus technology is flexible enough to work on different operating systems, said CEO Eugene Kaspersky. The company's analysts have also cracked open an iPhone, which runs a slimmed-down version of OS X, to see how it runs. Whether to...

The battery in a MacBook Pro is only good for about a year. If you have a MacBook Pro, get the battery replaced in the 11th month or you will have to shell out $150. Symptom, power meter says 25% left and computer shuts down. Will not turn on again until you plug it in.

"The shock wave caused by the Apple iPhone has been spreading from the US to China at an unbelievable rate. Savvy entrepreneurs have been purchasing hundreds of thousands of iPhones in the US and Europe, then “cracking” the operating system to allow the device to be used on any GSM network. According to China Mobile, the biggest wireless carrier in China, there were about 400,000 cracked iPhones using its cellular network service at the end of 2007, representing one out of every 10 iPhone shipments announced officially by Apple. The figure surprised us as it is fourfold of that we...

http://www.thestreet.com/video/index.html?bcpid=1078966384&bclid=1137812485&bctid=1420178886

Search titan Google and mobile phone carrier AT&T have been stunned by iPhone users usage patterns according to reports in recent days. AppleInsider reports that Google has seen 50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset. They were so shocked, in fact, that they suspected that they had made an error tabulating their data. According to the Financial Times Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile operations, said that if other handset manufacturers follow in Apple’s footsteps and make Web access easier on their handsets the number of mobile searches could outpace fixed internet search...

I love my Xbox 360s, I think Popfly rocks (Silverlight will bring much needed competition to Flash). Plus, I canÂ’t live without Exchange and its server-side rules. I love my Microsoft mouse more than any other mouse in the world. Surface looks totally awesome, too. Microsoft does some amazing things - very amazing things. My choice, however, for a primary desktop operating system is no longer Windows - itÂ’s Mac OS X. Duh. ItÂ’s rather difficult to admit that officially, if only because well, I think Microsoft does amazing things. TheyÂ’ve also been quite supportive of my own efforts over...

Every now and then, someone asks me “why should I buy a Mac?” My response is of course, why shouldn’t you? I’ve been a mac person for my entire computer using life and have no problem with that. Its a good thing. But of course, once in a while, something comes along that serves as a reminder of how well built the Macintosh computer is. I offer it as a good example of why you should buy a mac. Yes, the picture above is an iMac. Your standard 20″ iMac G5. They’re good machines all told. Granted there was an...

When Apple chose the KHTML engine for its Safari Browser in 2003 over the more popular Gecko engine that powers Firefox, a lot of people were surprised. Firefox was way more popular than the Konquerer browser and had a lot more open source developers online. Since then, Apple has really run with the KHTML engine, forking it off, renaming its development version "WebKit" and making it faster and leaner than Firefox on the Mac and both Firefox and Internet Explorer on the PC. While it doesn't have a lot of the functionality of Firefox plug-ins and the ActiveX controls of...

It takes a lot to put on a production on the scale of Sunday night’s Grammy Awards. To present the annual music industry honors to the attendees at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and to home viewers on CBS, show organizers use more than 450 microphones, 155 tons of lighting, 13,000 amps of power, 19 video screens, 94 speaker cabinets—and an endless amount of Macs. You may have assumed that Macs played a large role in putting on what has become the largest audio production on television. But until you sit in on a rehearsal for the telecast, as audio engineers...

Big Mac: The Whole World On Your Plate ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2008) — A burger and fries may be the quintessential North American meal but it can also be viewed as the perfect example of humanity's increasingly varied diet, according to researchers who have conducted a unique study of the plants used around the world for food. In the first-ever study of the "phylogenetic distribution" of the human diet, University of Calgary plant evolutionary ecologist Jana Vamosi, working with a team led by Serban Proches from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, found that humans likely stand alone when it comes...

Hi All, My step mother is looking at buying a MAC and she (and I) really don't know too much about them... Well, let me put it this way: She knows nothing about computers, while I've never even seen a MAC up close, though I work in IT. We both have a number of questions. My first bit of advice to her was to go to an Apple store, sit down with a sales rep, and see if the computer can do what she wants it to do. She currently has a Windows XP PC, and primarily uses paint programs...

Apple shipped a few MacBook Air units to its retail stores Friday, leaving the scant supply to mainly serve as in-store demo units. While our SSD model remains on order pending shipment, we managed to snag the one of the few available HDD-based units from one of the company's San Francisco outlets and have set to work on an in-depth review of its ins and outs. Everyone Can Critique "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position of over those who offer up their work to ourselves and our judgement....

WHAT’S the best-selling notebook computer on Amazon.com? If you guessed the new MacBook Air, guess again. Five of the 10 best-selling notebooks, including the top three models this weekend do not run Windows or Mac OS X. In fact, they are different models of the same diminutive notebook the Asus Eee PC—that runs on Linux. The significance of this development is easy to miss, particularly if you have your head buried in the Windows or Mac OS X world. (The other five models on Amazon’s list over the weekend were versions of the MacBook; there were no Windows machines in...

Microsoft released Windows Vista to the world one year ago with ads likening the new PC operating system to such awe-inspiring moments as the first American spaceflight and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Charles Walling just wants it to work with his printer. The retired Seattle warehouseman has spent hours on the Dell tech support line, installed all the drivers and, yes, double-checked all the cords and plugs. No luck. The cause of the problem isn't clear, but Walling knows one thing: The same printer worked with Windows Vista's predecessor, Windows XP. "You can see the frustration," Walling said...

Please excuse the vanity, but I know many of you have very definite (and often informed) opinions about PC v. MAC. I have an opportunity to upgrade my home desktop and laptop with designated funds from work. In other words, somebody else’s money, enough to seriously soup up a Mac Pro desktop and a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. If I choose PC, then I'll upgrade only my laptop. No need to upgrade my PC desktop - the drudgery of re-installing software far outweighs the little jump I'd make in PC desktop technology. If knowing about my PC use is...

It fits in a manila folder, you can slide it under a door, and if you threw it hard enough you could probably chop someone in half with the thing. It's the thinnest, and if we may say so, sexiest laptop around today: the MacBook Air. But looks aren't everything to everyone, and despite all the rhetoric about being a no-compromises ultraportable, Apple did leave plenty on the cutting-room floor in its quest to make an absurdly thin ultraportable that doesn't skimp on a full size keyboard or roomier 13-inch display. But, as many potential buyers have been asking themselves...

Pros: Beautiful looks, great screen, innovative touchpad, lightCons: Expensive, no expansion, sealed batteryBuying advice: Apple has cut a lot of corners to meet its goal of the thinnest laptop. If you don't mind paying a high price (as usual bulked up further in the UK) and living without no CD drive and only one USB slot, then go right ahead. Apple Macbook Air With various rumour sites predicting a subnotebook Macintosh for weeks - and months in some cases - it didn't come as a surprise when Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the company's new super-svelte laptop at his Macworld...

Apple is running a new multi-banner Web ad campaign in which the top banner states, "'Leopard is better and faster than Vista' -Wall Street Journal" and the familiar Mac (Justin Long) and PC (John Hodgman, who's a Mac user himself in real life) characters begin in a large vertical ad on the right side of the page. Mac stays in that banner, but PC actually moves from one to the other via step ladder as he "fixes" the Wall Street Journal's by stapling a "NOT" sign at the end. After he finishes his task, PC says, "Come on Mac, we've...