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Report says Redmond will finally get around to shipping devices that can compete with Apple's slate and Android-based devices. Microsoft plans to introduce a range of new tablets powered by its Windows 7 operating system at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, according to a published report. The software maker, which is under pressure to produce a slate that can go head-to-head with Apple's iPad and devices powered by Google's Android OS, will unveil slates manufactured by OEM partners Dell and Samsung, according The New York Times. The Times, citing unnamed sources, said the Samsung devices would be "similar...

Ponca City writes "PC World reports that women are more likely to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone purchase, while men prefer Android devices. According to data collected in October 2010, 31 percent of women wanted to buy an Apple iOS device next, followed by 22.8 percent interested in a Google Android device while among men preferences were reversed with 32.6 percent of men interested in an Android purchase and 28.6 desired an iOS phone. 'So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?' asks Tracey E. Schelmetic. 'More male-targeted commercials that emphasize cool gadgetry versus...

The quantity of malware targeted at the Mac platform has been highlighted since the roll out of a free Mac anti-virus solution. Since it launched its free Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition software, Sophos has reported that there has been 150,000 downloads and from this it has determined the most commonly encountered malware that these Mac users are encountering. The most popular is Mal/ASDFDldr-A, what Sophos detects as malicious files that use the scripting capability of Microsoft Media Player to force your web browser to visit an infected site. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: “Normally the infected media...

ChangeWave survey looks at reactions and impressions of new smart phone owners An onslaught of new smart phones have hit the market recently as manufacturers battle one another to meet the sharply escalating demand for new features and leading-edge technologies. To find out which manufacturers are currently winning and losing this battle, we asked 1,212 consumers who had purchased smart phones within the past six months to rate their new models. The ChangeWave survey was completed November 2, 2010. Customer Satisfaction Ratings First off, we looked at customer satisfaction with the new smart phones that respondents had purchased during the...

Electronista reports, "The iPhone 4's disputed antenna has given Android a virtual sweep of the top phone rankings at Consumer Reports, the magazine's latest ratings showed today." "A decision to avoid recommending the iPhone 4 has made Android-based Samsung Captivate the highest recommended smartphone on AT&T, leaving the iPhone 3GS in second place," Electronista reports. Electronista reports, "When searched separately, the iPhone 4 held on to a 76 point score that would have given it the same ranking as the Captivate... . The magazine nonetheless reiterated that, without an actual design change, it couldn't put the iPhone 4 in the...

Apple today released Mac OS X 10.6.5 which is available via Software Update and contains the following improvements: • Improves reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers. • Addresses performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture. • Addresses stability and performance of graphics applications and games. • Resolves a delay between print jobs. • Addresses a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme. • Resolves an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal. • Addresses an issue in which dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide. • Resolves...

Firefox extension created to shine a light on the problem of unencrypted websites fails, because rather than offering a solution, it only makes it worse. Most people know that public Wi-Fi hotspots aren't the safest connections in the world and probably aren't the best place to be doing things like online banking. But you probably didn't realize just how easy it is to steal logins for email and services like Facebook from other people on a hotspot. Well, thanks to a new Firefox extension called Firesheep, anyone can easily view other people on their network and, with a click of...

Back in June 2008, PrimeSense was looking to sell the technology that would eventually be engineered into what we now know as Xbox Kinect. The first company in Silicon Valley that PrimeSense CEO, Inon Beracha tried to demonstrate the sensor that powers Kinect to was none other than Apple. The technology had been developed by engineers in the Israeli military. When asked about why he thought of Apple first, Beracha told Cult of Mac that "It was the most natural place for the technology." The negotiations didn't go so well. Beracha figured the technology was so good that he would...

Microsoft has been at the top of the heap for almost as long as people have used PCs. They’ve managed to sustain an overwhelming competitive advantage, even after a decade’s worth of antitrust action and the astonishing transformation of Apple into a profit-making machine that has built one billion-dollar business after another while the entire rest of the tech industry is stuck in neutral. Indeed, the presence of Apple and Google as direct competitors suggests that maybe Microsoft is overdue to take a tumble. There is never a shortage of Apple-versus-Microsoft yammering in the blogosphere, but I haven’t seen much...

The sleek new MacBook Air models unveiled late last month are the slimmest computers Apple has ever produced — but the manufacturer still managed to find the space to pack in a few troublesome bugs. Early MacBook Air adopters have taken to various forums as they voice complaints surrounding Apple’s new MacBook Air (Late 2010) models. While Apple has yet to address any of the reported issues publicly, a source informed BGR that the manufacturer is investigating several of them internally. Included among the issues is a bug where the display flickers or shows horizontal lines of varying colors when...

Even before an avalanche of patent infringement suits against Android came down, Apple and Nokia already started to fight each other in court and in front of the US International Trade Commission (USITC, or simply ITC), whom they both asked to ban imports of their respective rival's core products into the US market. Yesterday, different news agencies including Bloomberg, Reuters and the IDG News Service reported that the ITC's staff is so far unconvinced of Apple's allegations that Nokia infringes some of its patents. Here's a quote from the IDG story: In the memorandum, which was written Oct. 27 but...

Let's be honest, Apple's claim that it neglected to preload Flash on the new MacBook Airs so that users themselves could download and install the latest (and safest) version was a bit of a red herring. Behind that thin veil of corporate courtesy, we're now seeing a pretty potent cause for Apple's dumping of Adobe's wares. Ars Technica's review of the 11-inch Air discovered that the machine could crank its way through six hours of web browsing when Flash was nowhere near it, but only four hours with Flash installed and giving it "the full web experience." The primary culprit...

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S outsold its archrival the Apple iPhone in Japan last week. According to a ranking by Japanese market researcher BCN, Samsung's flagship smartphone dethroned the 32GB iPhone 4 as the top-selling cell phone for the last week of October, its debut week there. Apple, however, remained at the top when including sales of the 16GB iPhone 4, which took third place. The two iPhone models had occupied the top two spots on the ranking for 18 weeks since their release in Japan in June. The Galaxy S was launched through Japan's largest mobile operator NTT Docomo. It...

In late October, SecureMac discovered a new trojan that affected users of Mac OS X. On Thursday, the company posted a warning that a new variant of the trojan has been discovered.The new variant was discovered by security firm ESET. The original trojan attempted to trick users into installing the software, but the servers hosting the new variant appear to be hosting updated code for the malware, according to SecureMac.The servers distributing the updated malware also appear to contain keystroke logs from infected machines, including usernames and passwords, the company said.Microsoft has also documented the trojan for both Mac and...

Chengdu, China - As a professional multimedia software provider, MacXDVD Software today announced the release of MacX Video Converter Pro along with time-limited giveaway for both its Mac and Windows version. MacXDVD Software is running this Giveaway offer from Nov 5 to Nov 15 on his official website which usually cost $49.95 to buy that product. It's a good chance for those who are seeking video converter tool to backup video files on Mac/PC or transfer them to portable devices. With MacX Video Converter Pro, you could have your favorite video clips whether downloaded from YouTube, recorded by HD camcorder...

The Apple iPad and its ecosystem are likely to disrupt existing technology use profiles and business models, and CEOs should ensure that its potential is being seriously evaluated inside their organizations, according to a new report from Gartner. "It is not usually the role of the CEO to get directly involved in specific technology device decisions, but Apple's iPad is an exception," said Stephen Prentice, Gartner Fellow and vice president. "It is more than just the latest consumer gadget; and CEOs and business leaders should initiate a dialog with their CIOs about if they have not already done so." Gartner...

Apple on Friday added a new server option to its Mac Pro lineup Friday, with a $2,999 system that is designed to replace the Xserve hardware which will be discontinued in early 2011. The Mac Pro Server comes with one 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor, 8GB of RAM, and two 1TB hard drives. It also has Mac OS X Server unlimited with a client license, and an ATI HD 5770 graphics card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. The new configuration starts at $2,999 and ships in 2 to 4 weeks. Apple's previously available quad-core and 8-core Mac Pro systems...

The three Austrian developers behind Table.Connect have chosen to remain anonymous due to "legal issues," but insist their device is not fake.People said the iPad was just a giant iPhone – so what would they have made of this? Three technology whizzes from Austria have been tinkering on a sleek, 52-inch table with a working iPhone interface, including all the multi-touch capabilities. Have a look at their recently posted video demo of the impressive hardware hack, called Table.Connect, complete with subtitles, Sly Stallone photos and creaky floorboards: Watch the video on YouTube. Using a jailbroken iPhone and unidentified cable,...

SAN DIEGO (CN) - To goose sales of its new iPhone 4, Apple told owners of its third-generation iPhone to download an operating system that the company knew would turn the 3G phones into a "device with little more use than that of a paper weight," irate customers say in a Superior Court class action. The lead plaintiff claims Apple's "upgrade" turned her phone into an "iBrick."       Lead plaintiff Bianca Wofford says Apple told owners of its 3G and 3GS iPhones that the new iOS4 operating system was an upgrade. But she says the "upgrade" made her phone...

A suspected ‘bug’ in the iPhone operating system has caused scores of people to be late for work this morning, after their iPhone alarms went off an hour later than intended.A software bug with the iPhone 4 alarm app meant that scores of people were woken an hour later than intended this morning Users of Apple’s iPhone 4 mobile phone could be forgiven for arriving late in to work this morning – an apparent bug in the phone’s software prevented the handset’s alarm function from working correctly. Although the time on the iPhone 4 automatically updated when the clocks went...