It's the Google Phone - Not Really

Google put the gPhone rumors to rest Monday with the unveiling of the Open Handset Alliance and Android. Android is an operating system, and application set for mobile devices. Google is teaming with other companies to bring its technology to a wide range of devices from several companies. Open Handset Alliance members already includes Motorola, Sprint Nextel, LG Electronics, T-Mobile, Intel, Broadcom, and more.
Google is hoping to work around the limitations developers have been constrained to thanks to proprietary systems and cell carrier demands.
Developers interested in coding for Android can look for the SDK next week, but customers hoping to try out an Android-based cell phone will have to wait until late 2008.

www.macobserver.com—05.5.shtml

Leopard Sells 2 Million Copies in the First Weekend

www.apple.com—30macosx.html

Apple today announced that it sold (or delivered in the case of maintenance agreements) over two million copies of Mac OS® X Leopard since its release on Friday, far outpacing the first-weekend sales of Mac OS X Tiger, which was previously the most successful OS release in Apple’s history. Sales included copies sold at Apple’s retail stores, Apple Authorized Resellers, the online Apple Store under maintenance agreements and bundled with new Mac computers

Apple Updates MacBooks and MacBook Pros

www.macworld.com—index.php

The MacBook is now available with a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo up from the 2.16GHz. The processors of the new chips have also been upgraded to the Santa Rosa architecture. The MacBooks now support up to 4GB RAM, up from 2GB in the previous models; the frontside bus has been increased to 800MHz from 667MHz; and the graphics have been updated to the Intel GMA X3100 with 144MB graphics allocation — previous models had the Intel GMA 950 with 64MB.

As for MacBook Pros, If you choose a custom build-to-order system, you can choose a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor and a larger hard drive

New Virus Targets Macs

www.macworld.com—index.php

Intego on Monday issued a security alert about a new Trojan Horse called OSX.RSPlug. Trojan has been found on several pornographic Web sites. When trying to view a movie, the user is told that “Quicktime Player is unable to play movie file. Please click here to download new version of codec.”

When the user clicks the link a disk image (.dmg) is downloaded to the desktop. When the user installs the software, they are actually installing the Trojan, not a free video codec. The Trojan is installed with full root privileges, which means it has access to all files and commands on the system.

When the malicious DNS server is active, it hijacks some web requests, leading users to phishing web sites or to web pages displaying ads for other pornographic web sites.

The Trojan also installs a root crontab which checks every minute to ensure that its DNS server is still active

iPhone Named Invention of the Year

www.time.com—0,8599,1678581,00.html

5 Reasons Why:

Pretty

Touchy-feely

Will Make Other Phones Better

Not a Phone, a Platform,

The Ghost of iPhones to Come

AT&T Reports Record New Subscribers

www.macdailynews.com—exclusive_apple_iphone_carrier_atampt_reports_record_net_gain_of_2m_subs

during the first full quarter of iPhone sales, it managed to attract 2.0 million new wireless subscribers. Meanwhile, it has also been estimated that up to 250,000 of them may have purchased iPhones for the purpose of unlocking them from the AT&T network.

AT&T Releases International Data Plans - No more $15,000 roaming bills!

www.wireless.att.com—affordable-world-packages.jsp

iLounge reports that AT&T has introduced international Data roaming plans. A $60/month plan offers 50MB of international EDGE data access, while a $25/month plan offers only 20MB. Both plans offer service in 29 countries, and require a domestic iPhone plan. In addition, overages will be charged 0.5¢ per kilobyte in those 29 countries, and 1¢ per kilobyte at all times outside of that area.

iPhone "revirginizer" is released

www.tuaw.com—iphone-elite-team-announces-revirginizer-release

The iphone-elite team has released their revirginizing tool, which is designed to rebuild your iPhone's seczone lock table. After using this tool, the team suggests, your 1.0.2 unlocked iPhone will return to its pre-unlocked state and be safe to upgrade to 1.1.1.

Apple Limiting iPhone Sales

www.news.com—8301-10784_3-9806637-7.html

Apple last week stopped accepting cash and gift cards for iPhone purchases and reinstated a two-per-person sales limit in an effort to curb the black market for unlocked versions of the touch-screen handset. The new policy began Thursday, Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris

"Customer response to the iPhone has been off the charts, and limiting iPhone sales to two per customer helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift," Kerris said. "We're requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers."

Apple's website does not list any limits on gift cards other than you cannot purchase other gift cards or itunes gift cards with them.

Many states have laws regulating the use of gift cards.

Is It Illegal?

blog.wired.com—the-iphone-cash.html

Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender." United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.

According to Wired: What that means, however, is that all U.S. money (be it bank notes or coins) "are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor." In fact, there is no federal law that prohibits a private business, a person or an organization from dictating what currency or coins they do accept for payment for goods and/or services. Indeed, businesses like Apple are free to develop whatever crazy cash policies it likes unless there is a state law which says otherwise.

May be against credit card policies- It is suspected that this is done to aid tracking purchases, since shoppers are limited to two phones per person, a measure to prevent bulk purchases for the gray market, whether domestically or in Europe, where the phones must also be hacked.
However there is a global standard called PCI DSS. This is meant to protect users against privacy violations, specifically by detailing how information from a card can be used. If Apple is tracking customer data via credit cards, this may violate a PCI DSS policy that numbers should only be used to complete transactions. This policy is also reflected in some agreements formed between card issuers and credit companies, as well as laws in various regions.

www.macnn.com—iphone.credit.card.policy

Features - Leopard

Impressions after using Leopard for A Week or So

Reports on Leopard Problems and Incompatibilities

docs.info.apple.com—article.html

Blue Screen of Death caused by APE. Can be resolved by performing an Archive and INstall or removing the APE module via command line. As Gruber points out, however, the same problem can affect people who have installed the Logitech Control Center software that comes with Logitech mice and keyboards, because LCC apparently uses APE behind the scenes. - Is Apple to Blame?

Running Time Machine backup or restore operations while Aperture is running may lead to inconsistencies in the Aperture database. Temporary fix is to not back up the /Pictures/Apeture Library via Time Machine preferences.

docs.info.apple.com—article.html

Adobe said Premiere Pro CS3, After Effects CS3 Professional, Encore CS3, and Soundbooth CS3 will each require small compatibility updates, which the company plans to release over its Adobe Updater mechanism for free this December. Meanwhile, Acrobat 8 Professional and Adobe Reader 8 will also require Leopard compatibility updates that are scheduled for release in January 2008

www.adobe.com—leopardsupport.pdf

In order to remove BootCamp Beta after it's expired, Apple is suggesting users set their computer's clock back before September 30, 2007.

docs.info.apple.com—article.html

Reminder: DiskWarrior and other maintenance tools, especially those that modify or rebuild the directory of volumes should not be run after installing Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) until further notice or updates from the developers of these tools.

www.macfixit.com—article.php

MacRumors has an excellent guide listing applications that are not currently compatible with Leopard.

guides.macrumors.com—List_of_Applications_Not_Compatible_with_Leopard