Last month a Dutch iPhone user demonstrated how careless jailbreaking can cause trouble. Namely, after finding users who enabled SSH with the phone's default password intact, he sent those phones a message that read, "Your iPhone's been hacked because it's really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files." A similar worm caused phones to rickroll their owners.

They could have done worse. This week, someone has. Again from the Netherlands and again finding jailbroken iPhones with SSH enabled, F-secure reports that this infraction puts up an ING Direct login page that lets the hacker gather login credentials and, we assume, move funds to wherever they please. This version also changes the 'alpine' password to block users from getting to the phone via SSH.

We'll have more on this as the story develops, but the moral is this: If you jailbreak your iPhone, you should know what you're doing -- and you should change your SSH password.

[via Engadget & ZDnet Asia]

In 1979, the Apple II Plus was a badass piece of hardware, and the Apple Graphics Tablet was a flashy accessory. At $650US, it let users sketch with a wired stylus. Measuring 3/4 in x 15 1/2 in x 15 3/4 in, the Graphics Tablet was eventually discontinued when the FCC discovered that it caused radio frequency interference problems.

Sure, the wired stylus is a kludge, as is the general design (don't look at the back), but remember that 1979 was 5 years before the first Macintosh was released and computer mice became ubiquitous.

Edible Apple has some additional photos and an old ad promoting the tablet and Utopia software. Go and check out an interesting piece of Apple history -- complete with vintage scotch tape!

This morning, Data Robotics doubled the size of their Drobo storage line with two new products equipped with the proprietary BeyondRAID technology -- the Drobo S and the Drobo Elite.

The Drobo S (at right) is a performance storage device designed to answer the question "Why isn't there a Drobo with an eSATA interface?" Not only does the Drobo S have the eSATA interface that many have requested, but the device is now equipped with an even faster ARM processor for enhanced FireWire 800 connectivity.

Like the DroboPro, the Drobo S can offer protection from two simultaneous drive failures. To do this and still offer a large amount of protected storage capacity, the Drobo S has five drive bays instead of the four on the original device, while still maintaining a small desktop footprint. The dual-drive redundancy option can be switched on or off at any time.

As with the DroboPro, the new member of the Drobo family has self-healing technology built-in. The device constantly examines the blocks and sectors of all drives, and flags questionable areas. By scrubbing the drives, data is only written to "healthy" areas on drives in the array.

Mark Fuccio of Data Robotics told TUAW that the eSATA interface provides data transfer up to 50% faster than what was available with FireWire 800, or about 90 MB per second.

Earlier in 2009, the DroboPro brought even more expandability to the Drobo line with eight available drive bays and an iSCSI (Gigabit Ethernet) interface. While the DroboPro had immediate success in locations with a single server, it couldn't multi-host -- in other words, it couldn't be used by multiple servers simultaneously.

It should be pretty obvious by now that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. What's not as obvious is that it might be bad for your Mac, too. According to The Consumerist, two different people got turned down for AppleCare maintenance because their Macs were used in a house with a smoker. Both people appealed their cases all the way up to Steve Jobs, and both of them lost.

I've opened up a few computers that spent time in a house full of heavy smokers, and the insides weren't pretty. There was this disgusting brown resin built up all over everything, and it pretty much smelled like an ashtray stuffed full of 5-year-old cigarette butts. Though it's probably a stretch to call this "a biohazard" like in one of the cases The Consumerist cites, AppleCare agreements are worded loosely enough in their limitations of coverage that Apple seems perfectly within its rights to deny coverage in these two cases:

The Plan does not cover:

Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse (including faulty installation, repair, or maintenance by anyone other than Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider), unauthorized modification, extreme environment (including extreme temperature or humidity), extreme physical or electrical stress or interference, fluctuation or surges of electrical power, lightning, static electricity, fire, acts of God or other external causes.

It's that "other external causes" clause that's the catch-all, although you could probably argue that an atmosphere filled with smoke counts as an "extreme environment" as well.

Bottom line: if you have to smoke, you might want to step away from the computer first. With the investment that your Mac represents sitting there on the desk, why take the risk of messing it up in an easily preventable way?

Here's a great video assembled by applemctom that presents the history of Apple (more or less) in two minutes. There are some huge leaps in time and some obvious errors (Apple Mac II? MacIntosh?), but that's OK. It isn't easy to cram decades of history into 120 seconds.

There's much nostalgia for old-timers like me, as the Pippin and Newton make an appearance. Though I still use my Newt, I've never had the pleasure of a face-to-face meeting with a Pippin. The dark days described in the video (the early 90's after Steve left) is exactly when I started using Macs in earnest. It's amazing that I stayed a customer after bloodying my hands on a 7100's beastly innards.

The video ends with the introduction of the iPhone, so don't expect to see anything beyond that. Still, it's a bit of fun. Check it out.

This sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me: Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software engineer, told a Professional Developers' Conference earlier this week that it wasn't the apps that would make or break the smartphone platforms. Of course, that's what most press and blog outlets seem to be focusing on (maybe because we all already know what the hardware is like -- apps change every day if not every minute, and the hardware only changes occasionally), but Ozzie says customers won't buy a phone for the apps. The biggest apps, he says, will eventually be available on every platform. To put it in as few words as possible, you'll be able to tweet from everything in the future.

And he's got part of a good point there: it's true, the major functionality of "killer apps" will be available across platforms. But Ozzie forgets (or is just ignoring) that that's already the case on desktops. While yes, you could claim that porting to the various smartphones is easier than porting to the various PC platforms, that doesn't avoid the fact that I can tweet, IM, email, browse, edit photos and movies, and do whatever else I want on both platforms as well. And for some reason (ahem, the hardware and the way both software and hardware are designed), I'd rather do them on the Mac. People love their iPhones not just for the apps but for the way it fits in their hand, and how just plain slick it is.

That's not to say that the smartphone platform war is over -- no way, it's only beginning, and we consumers will take innovative ideas wherever we can get them. But Ozzie saying the apps don't count (and echoing his fellow Microsofters in trying to separate Apple from their software strategy) seems to mean that even he thinks he's already lost that race -- they certainly do play a large part in which platform consumers eventually choose.

DigiTimes stories are fun. They just are. Sometimes they provide insight into the components side of tech. Other times they make me wish I hadn't given up my dreams of writing fiction.

Today, unnamed sources from unspecified component manufacturers say Apple is postponing the launch of its amazing wonder tablet, moving the date from next March to the second half of 2010. According to the shadowy sources, Apple has decided to switch some components, and now plans to produce a tablet using a 9.7" OLED panel from LG Display. The panels would be provided under Apple's five-year, US$500 million display deal with LG Display revealed at the beginning of the year.

The nameless talkers say construction of the devices will be done by three companies, and that there will be two, distinct units, the previously mentioned 9.7" OLED screened unit, and a 10.6" TFT LCD screened version. OLED's are very expensive compared to LCD displays, a cost that will be passed on to consumers. Sources figure the OLED tablet will have a retail price of about US$2,000, though that could come down with subsidies from telecom partners. The LCD unit with its 0.9" larger display is expected to be priced between US$800 and US$1,000.

There are advantages to OLED versus LCD displays, but would consumers pony up twice the money for an untried device when they can get a bigger screen at a lower cost?

Thanks to Paul for the tip.

[via DigiTimes]

OnLive is a company that has been claiming to do the seemingly impossible -- they plan to set up a sort of "cloud gaming" console, where instead of hardware in individual houses (like we have now; you buy a console for your home), they'll have hardware over the Internet, and stream your game to you like watching television. All of the processing and coding will be done on a remote server, but with signals flowing from your controller, it'll seem like you're just playing Xbox at home. It all works in theory, but in practice, Internet connections aren't solid or stable enough to send commands and full HD video back and forth without enough lag to make things unplayable.

Still, without actually releasing a product so far, OnLive claims they can do it, and now they're claiming to do it on the iPhone as well. AppleInsider reports that at a recent event in New York, OnLive showed off the same game service running on "2 iPhones, a tv, and a computer" simultaneously, with gamers on all the devices able to communicate and watch each others' gameplay. CEO Steve Perlman admits it's a "tech demo," but doesn't go into detail on what that means (it could simply be a demo running separately on the devices, to show what it would be like, or I've heard of OnLive events where the server is sitting in the room next door). And of course, there's no date or information on an actual release yet.

OnLive's service definitely sounds possible someday -- as Internet connections get faster and hardware gets even cheaper, it's not a stretch to think we'll eventually move the heavy processor lifting to another location, leaving much tinier consoles and PCs taking up space on our desks and TV stands at home. But so far all it seems they've got is an idea (and the money that excited financiers have put into the project). We'll have to believe it works when we see it.

People have had their chances to put their grubby hands on those "incredible" iMacs that got released a few weeks ago, and the results are in. And they're great, apparently. First up, MacRumors has a collection of a few sets of benchmarks on the new machines, and the Core i7 processor (a $200 upgrade from the still very powerful Core i5) especially kicks up the speed to a place where it's competing with even the Mac Pro. In fact, in the second comparison, when pitted up against the single CPU Mac Pro, the iMac is virtually identical. Not only is it slightly cheaper depending on options, but you get that nice monitor for free.

Electronista has a much more qualitative analysis, but they still love the new machine. Their "biggest" problem (aside from the usual complaints about the glossy screen and a lack of easy-to-reach ports) seems to be just the size of it. The 27" iMac is a big machine no matter how thin it gets. But they agree: with the i7 in there and all of the extra options, the iMac is a monster, matching up to the Mac Pros sitting in the lower atmosphere.

Good stuff. I'm not personally in the market for a new computer, but man -- if I was ready to spend $2000 on a quality machine, it's tough to consider anything else a better purchase than the new iMac.

UPDATE: Chart graphic is from Timon Royer, we regret the omission.

Sonos, best known for wireless music systems that link to your iTunes library and internet services like Pandora, Rhapsody and Napster, is offering a one piece, 5 speaker system that can be placed in any room. It's called the Zone Player S5 and it's US $399 direct from Sonos or dealers around the country.

Sonos shipped me a review system to try for 30 days, and I thought the sound was great. I already had a mutli-room Sonos system so adding the new portable player was just a matter of plugging it into AC power and pressing two buttons on the S5.

If you don't already have a Sonos system, you have to plug your unit into a router to connect to your music library and the internet. If that doesn't work in your home layout, you can buy what Sonos calls a Zone Bridge (US $99) that plugs into your router and lets the S5 make a wireless connection. Once that basic pairing is made, you can add as many other Sonos music systems as you like, all connecting over a wireless mesh network.

The system sounds quite good, given the limits of the small desktop-friendly size (8.5 x 14.4 x 4.8 inches). There are 5 speakers, two tweeters, two 3" mid-range drivers, and one 3.5" woofer all driven by individual amplifiers. The woofer is a ducted port design and the rear port serves double duty as a carrying handle.

Yesterday, Judge William Alsup, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, dealt Psystar a crushing blow in its ongoing litigation with Apple over whether or not Psystar could market and sell non-Apple computers running modified copies of Apple's operating system. If you're not familiar with the circus case, I refer you to, well...grab a coffee and click here. The two companies, embroiled in litigation since early last year, recently completed pre-trial discovery and each filed cross motions for summary judgment.

Judge Alsup put the ultimate hurt on Psystar when it granted Apple's motion for summary judgment and denied Psystar's motion for the same. In a sweeping order (courtesy Groklaw), the court agreed with Apple's take on the case and dismissed all of Psystar's defenses, both on the merits and for having waived and failed to properly plead.

The end result was a dramatic and startling court order in an ongoing series of dramatic legal squabbles between the two companies. And at least one of Psystar's attorneys saw this coming. The litigation doesn't end here; various issues still remain for trial such as breach of contract and trademark infringement, but Psystar has been gutted. The court is clearly unsympathetic to Psystar's core position and while damages on the copyright issues falling in Apple's favor in the order have not been ruled upon, it would probably behoove Psystar to start looking under the couch cushions for spare change.

A hearing is scheduled for December 14 on the remaining issues and for damages.

Read on for a more detailed analysis of the court's order....

What's better than a handful of sensors for determining if some hostile enemy has set off chemical weapons in a city? How about hundreds of thousands or millions of sensors? If research being done by NASA Ames Research Center under the Cell-All program in the US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate is taken into production, your next smartphone might contain chemical-sensing circuitry.

A recent article in OnOrbit described a proof of concept that was developed by Jing Li, a scientist at Ames, and a group of other researchers. In order to test out the tiny nanosensor-based chemical sensing circuitry, Li and his team created a device that plugs into the dock port of an iPhone.

To quote the original post,

The new device is able to detect and identify low concentrations of airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane. The device senses chemicals in the air using a "sample jet" and a multiple-channel silicon-based sensing chip, which consists of 16 nanosensors, and sends detection data to another phone or a computer via telephone communication network or Wi-Fi.

A newer version of the sensor has 64 nanosensors built-in and is less than 1 cm on a side. Isn't it cool that your iPhone is getting to be more like a Star Trek tricorder every day?

[via Gizmodo]

Say what you will about Psystar, the community that continues to sell computers running OS X, despite bankruptcy, constant legal problems with Apple, and a case so slim even their own legal team gave up. Sure, they're out of reason, out of room, and way out of line, but at least they've got plenty of cojones, as the locals say.

Why else would they say the things they do in this Miami Times article? Our friends at Engadget lay out just what's wrong with that piece, from Robert and Rudy's Pedraza's claims that they "cracked the code" behind OS X, to the suggestions and hints that what they're doing just might not be a contract violation. Whether or not Apple's EULA is enforceable is, of course, one of the arguments at issue in Psystar's case, even though plenty of shrinkwrap licenses have been upheld in court before. Apple's also got a copyright infringement claim against Psystar; this will be one of the topics at today's summary judgement hearing in California.

But the kicker in all this is the statement that Rudy Pedraza makes about the famed Hackintosh scene -- a community of people who persist in running OS X on hardware and devices that it wasn't supposed to run on (not nearly as much of a problem to Apple, as they don't sell the capability like Psystar does, but still not technically allowed by the license agreement). Surely, you might think, this is where the Pedrazas could find friends; surely, despite all of the commotion they're causing, this is the place where they could find a kind ear and a helping hand. Nope. From the article: "The first thing you have to do is unlearn everything you've read online about how to make this work," Rudy says, "because it's all wrong."

Nice. Way to alienate the one group, the one community that might still support your cause. I wish Psystar the best of luck -- not, mind you, because I need to buy or run any of their machines (I buy Apple because I appreciate both the hardware and the software), but just because their story continues to be so darn entertaining.

Now this is how we like our rumors: Cheap, fast and totally unsubstantiated. Phil Schiller told Gizmodo that Apple's holiday lineup is in place, but the rumor mongers seem not to care. Last week we heard that AT&T was considering an 8GB iPhone 3GS.

The latest speculation to hit is that a new iPod touch will be released before December, according to iPhone Alley. Citing a "reliable source" who couldn't go into details (mmm-hmm), iPhone Alley speculates that it could be the touch with a camera that we all expected several weeks ago.

Given that the iPod is typically updated in September and that some people have already begun holiday shopping (not us, of course), we'd be more than a bit surprised if this happened.

Talk about burying the lead -- Shufflegazine did a piece on Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Hwang during a visit to Dubai recently, in which he talks about how much he and his family love their Macs, and Apple's machines add value, and in his house it's just "Mac, Mac, Mac," and OH MY GOD, what is that SITTING ON THE TABLE in front of him? OK, it's probably not definitely not an Apple tablet (yet), as there's no clear Apple logo on it, but man that's a nice looking tablet device, and even Engadget says they have no idea what it is.

The thing is, this picture just appeared with Shufflegazine's piece, and while Hwang did go on and on about how much he loves Apple stuff (and yes, the two companies have a long history of sharing some hardware), there's not word one about that tablet or anything like it in the piece, no hint of any other hardware or partnership announcement. It could be a prototype, it could be another tablet we're just not recognizing, or yes, Hwang could have just thrown it down on the table during the interview, and Shufflegazine could have just completely missed it. [They didn't. -Ed.]

Though if that last one is true, we have no idea how it happened. How do you cover Apple and their gadgets and avoid being drawn to that tablet. It's so... thin and well-designed. We'll be honest, if we were in the room, we might have licked it then and there to claim it as our own.

Thanks to Nemanja for the tip.