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AT&T recently did away with their unlimited data plans. Forcing folks into plans for either 200 MB a month or 2GB a month, with fees if you exceed these caps. Now Apple, AT&T and IPhone forums are a buzz with many people complaining about unexplained transfers of data occurring between 1AM and 3AM via AT&T's 3G network. All this data is being billed against your data cap. many people are seeing up to 10MB per night being used and AT&T nor Apple can explain where its going, or why. iPhone 3GS is sending lots of data on its own! Unknown...

Apple silently updated its Snow Leopard malware protection in this week's Mac OS X 10.6.4 update, targeting a Trojan that disguises itself as iPhoto. Though the new protection wasn't specifically listed in any of Apple's documentation accompanying Mac OS X 10.6.4, security firm Sophos discovered the update in the XProtect.plist file, which contains signatures of potential Mac threats. The new threat, dubbed HellRTS by Apple, has been distributed by hackers since April in the form of iPhoto. Referred to as OSX/Pinhead-B by Sophos, the Trojan monitors browser activity unbeknownst to Mac users. It also makes a machine remotely accessible to...

Dear Mr. Jobs, I have something to say. Since I don't imagine you'll be strolling through Brooklyn's Sunset Park any time soon, I won't be able to say it to your face. Under your leadership, Apple (AAPL) has recently committed the following unreasonable acts: 1. Refused to allow Adobe's (ADBE) Flash technology on your mobile devices; 2. Unfairly blocked certain iPhone Apps; 3. Exaggerated the capabilities of iPhone 4's Retina display; 4. Refused to allow iTunes on rival devices; 5. Along with AT&T (T), failed to prepare your systems to handle iPhone 4 preorders; 6. Closed the iAds system to...

Apple today unveiled a completely redesigned Mac mini, featuring up to twice the graphics performance, a new HDMI port and a new SD card slot, all in an amazingly compact aluminum enclosure. Mac mini is the world’s most energy efficient desktop and starting at $699, is the most affordable way to enjoy Mac OS, iLife or Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server. “The sleek, aluminum Mac mini packs great features, versatility and value into an elegant, amazingly compact design,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the press release. “With twice the graphics performance, HDMI...

Dear Macintosh, I hate to tell you this, but my guess is you’ve probably been sensing it already. I don’t know any good way to say it so let me just be blunt: You’ve been dropped. Dumped. It’s over. I’m sorry. I know this hurts. But you need to face up to the truth–Steve Jobs just broke up with you. This happened yesterday at the World Wide Developers Conference. I know–why couldn’t he just do it in private? Well, you know Steve. He loves the spotlight. So what did he talk about? He talked about iPads, and the App Store,...

Geoffrey wrote in a comment on Friday’s article: “I’m not a Microsoft (MSFT) fanboy by any means, but I don’t see them disappearing or losing significant maketshare.” I agree that Microsoft isn’t going to disappear, but I think it will begin losing PC market share faster as the tide that’s seen Apple’s (AAPL) growing share among individuals moves to companies. The corporate preference for PCs has long been the argument in favor of Microsoft’s continued dominance. As the owner of a small company myself, I can tell you that the cost argument doesn’t hold up anymore when viewed in terms...

Free at last.Apple Safari has become the first major browser to be purged of one of the web's longest-running privacy defects: The ability for any site owner to effortlessly steal a complete copy of your recent browsing history. The browser history disclosure leak is as old as the World Wide Web itself, and it afflicted every major browser – until now. Starting with versions released Monday, Safari no longer coughs up the list of websites a user has visited. The change is one of almost 50 security fixes Apple engineers added to versions 4.1 and 5.0 of the browser. In...

• Steve Jobs takes the stage
• WWDC 2010: Over 5,200 attendees, 57 countries, sold out in just 8 days
• Jobs: "iPad is an incredible success."
• Apple sells an iPad every 3 seconds. • Shipping in 10 countries today
• iPad video trumpets positive press attention, reviews worldwide
• Steve shows email he received: "I was sitting in a cafe with my iPad and it got a girl interested in me. Now that's what I call a magical device!" (audience laughter)
• There are now 8,500 native iPad apps in the App Store.
• Steve touts developer success stories...
• Theo Gray, Wolfram Associates, email to Steve: "I earned...

And customers gripe that $20 tethering fee comes minus data allowance Computerworld - iPhone owners who want to use tethering must give up their unlimited data plan, AT&T confirmed today. The new feature, which turns the iPhone into a mobile hotspot that a laptop or other device can use to connect to the Internet, will be available when Apple ships iPhone OS 4, its mobile operating system upgrade. Apple is expected to unveil details of iPhone OS 4 -- including its release date -- on Monday when CEO Steve Jobs delivers the opening address at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference...

Steve Jobs’ assertion that personal computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system are in a permanent decline has been met with surprising agreement. In an onstage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference on Tuesday night, Mr Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said Windows computers would decline in popularity as people used other means to connect to the internet, consume content and work. He compared the PC with trucks, saying that the vehicles were pervasive when most people lived on farms, but faded in importance as most of the population moved to cities and suburbs. Some people still want trucks,...

PAHRUMP, Nev. — It's usually past midnight when Ron Wayne, co-founder of Apple, leaves his home here and heads into town. Averting his eyes from a boneyard of abandoned mobile homes, he drives past Terrible's Lakeside Casino & RV Park, then makes a left at the massage parlor in the shape of a castle. When he arrives at that night's casino of choice, Wayne makes a beeline for the penny slot machines. If it's the middle of the month and he has just cashed his Social Security check, he will keep battling the one-armed bandits until 2 a.m. Wayne is...

As the visionary of our generation it isn't very often that Steve Jobs gets it wrong but he sure was missing on a few key points during the All Things Digital interview. It might be argued that he was purposefully ambiguous with his statements in order to illustrate the structural weaknesses of the cable television industry but I'm going to take him at his word and refute the following claims: No. 1. Jobs said that cable operators "give everybody a set-top box for free, or for $10 a month. That pretty much squashes any opportunity for innovation because nobody's willing...

We first heard rumors of this policy change a couple of months ago, but now it's made the papers: the Financial Times is reporting that Google is phasing out the use of Windows internally, as employees are migrated to either Linux or Mac OS X on machine turnovers or new hires. The policy change was precipitated in large part by the security breach attributed to Chinese hackers; Google's IT leaders apparently feel that Microsoft's OS represents too great a risk across the enterprise to leave it in place. The story says that in January, subsequent to the security breaches, Windows...

7 anti-Apple cliches that need to dieby Chris Rawson (RSS feed) on May 29th 2010 at 8:30PMPC vs. Mac flamewars are older than the web itself, but it seems like the more popular/successful Apple gets, the more heated the argument gets on both sides. Almost any debate about the relative merits of one platform or another is guaranteed to degenerate into an all-out shouting match. In the midst of all the fighting and name calling, the oddest thing happens: almost every time, you'll see a lot of the same points being raised by both sides again and again. Some of...

Apple's new iAd proposition has been generating a great deal of discussion lately, most of it positive, and most of it remarkably short-sighted. It seems most people, including Steve Jobs, have forgotten the basic lessons of computing and the internet. People who forget history are doomed to repeat it. The iAd has no future, and neither does the iPhone/iPad. I will show why iAds must inevitably die, and how Steve Job's strategy for iPhone and iPad will inevitably lead Apple into becoming at best a marginal niche player, at worst an ex-business.Layered modelWe need to start by remembering what the...

The U.S Federal Trade Commission has issued the following statement, verbatim: The Federal Trade Commission has voted 5-0 to close its investigation of Google’s proposed acquisition of AdMob. The decision was a difficult one because the parties currently are the two leading mobile advertising networks, and the Commission was concerned about the loss of head-to-head competition between them. The Commission reached this decision based on important developments in the mobile advertising marketplace, particularly actions by Apple that should mitigate the anticompetitive effects of Google’s AdMob acquisition. Google and AdMob today are the leading competitors among mobile ad networks, which drive...

Nothing sucks more than being on stage in front of a bunch of techies and having your demo crash on you twice. Actually, the only way that sucks more is if you’re Adobe and it’s Flash that’s crashing on a mobile device, forcing folks to wonder if Steve Jobs was right about the stability of Flash. This incident happened last week at FlashCamp Seattle, according to a blog post by Jeff Croft, a Seattle developer who also moderated a panel at the event.

Thursday, May 06, 2010 - 04:28 PM EDT"Apple shares, which had climbed nearly 80 points to more than $270 in the three months since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, briefly lost it all in Thursday's wild trading," Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. "In the space of 20 minutes, between 2:35 and 2:55 p.m. EDT, it plummeted from nearly $248 a share to $199.25, before bouncing back at high volume to where it started," Elmer-DeWitt reports. Elmer-DeWitt reports, "Apple, which closed Wednesday at $255.99, ended Thursday at $246.25, down $9.74 (3.8%) for the day." Full article, in which P.E.D. reports...

Flash - under fireOpera has joined in the argument over Flash, with the company telling TechRadar that it will support Flash for the time being, but that Adobe needs to start embracing web standards if it doesn't want to come under constant attack. Opera's growing influence in browsers has been illustrated by the huge take-up of the Opera browser for iPhone, but as that company shocked the tech world by actually getting the product through Apple's vetting process, Adobe found itself under fire from Steve Jobs himself. Opera's product analyst Phillip Grønvold believes that support for Flash is critical at...

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs sharply criticized Flash, which is used to produce videos and games for many Internet sites on Thursday. Apple has banned Flash from its iPhone and iPad. A Microsoft executive pitched in later that day, saying while the ubiquity of Flash makes it easy for consumers to access video on the web, the standard has flaws. "Flash does have some issues, particularly around reliability, security and performance," said Dean Hachamovitch, general manager for the Internet Explorer browser. He said that Microsoft is backing the same protocols for delivering multimedia content over the Web that Apple is...