2006 February

Early adopters are reporting that the MacBook Pro units that they ordered right after Steve Jobs announced their availability in his latest keynote are finally shipping. A few lucky buyers put up screenshots of their shipping confirmation for all to see, showing the ship date, along with the change in processor speed (Apple recently bumped [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
Just a day after what is believed to be the first virus to target OS X was discovered, another one appears.
Read more about Inqtana Here
[tags]os x,realtechnews,security,virus,michael santo[/tags]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
Remember Alice’s story on ice machines? Made you think twice about using them, didn’t it? Well, this’ll make you think twice about using mice at Internet cafes or cybergaming facilities … or the library, for that matter.
Read More about Germs and Mice Here
[tags]germs,realtechnews,michael santo,mice[/tags]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
I was wondering if and when this would happen. Two sites, the OSx86 Project and Win2osx.net were offline today. The main OSx86 Project site is actually up, but the front page of its forum says:
“Welcome! We’re sorry to report that despite our best efforts, the OSx86 Project has [...]

We’ve been hearing a lot about TV coming to the super small screen - or in other words, the cell phone, but what does it mean to really use a device like that? That’s the question on my mind as I took the Samsung A920 with Sprint’s Power Vision service for a spin. Power Vision [...]

Jimmy Daniels of RealTechNews writes:
How is that for a resume, gold medalist and adware distributor. Aussie Dale Begg-Smith won the Olympic gold medal in the Men’s Moguls, but, as Wayne Porter puts it, All that Glitters is not gold, according to StopScum.com he is also distributor of adware through his AdsCPM website. When asked by [...]

Prediction: Not a lot of tears are going to be shed over this one. Personally, I have to say I experienced a demi-pang over the news, because I started messing around with HTML with Microsoft FrontPage and learned the various quirks. Sometimes habit is harder to break - hello IE users? I also read a [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
David Lazarus of the San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece today about a surprise Wells Fargo online customers had this week when logging into their accounts on the Internet. They were presented with an online access agreement, consisting of 11,000 words, that they had to accept before they would [...]

It’s quite trendy to use a Weblog as a bully pulpit to complain about something or other, and every so often I can’t resist the siren song myself. It’s hard not to be upset, though, when watching the 2006 Winter Olympics coverage on NBC TV, however, with its endless commercials, insipid background vignettes, and idiotic [...]

Jimmy Daniels of RealTechNews writes:
Looks like Apple users may have one less thing to brag about, as Times Online is reporting that Sophos, an online web security firm has found the first apple virus to target the Mac OS X operating system.
Read More about the First OS X Virus Here
[tags]mac,os x,apple,realtechnews,virus,jimmy daniels[/tags]

Don’t do it! Don’t hack OS X to pirate it! You’re risking your karma!
At least, that’s what Apple says. Apple confirmed on Wednesday that it has embedded poetry in places in the OS that presumably would need to be accessed to hack it, which warns against piracy.
Read More about Anti-Piracy Poetry [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
I remember when deskspace was at a premium with old CRTs, but more because of their depth than anything else (and was a 21-inch CRT deep — and heavy!). Here’s something that might take up a lot of your desk … Sharp has announced that in March it will start selling [...]

How old is old? I mean, really, is thirty too old or too young? Fifty is a milestone that we all either look forward to or run away from. In terms of the Internet, old can be measured in terms of less than twenty years. That is why today’s site is one that is kind [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
As David wrote earlier today, rumors about Dell and AMD have been flying lately. This latest round of rumors actually started in early January. Today, in a post-earnings release conference call, CEO Kevin Rollins squashed the rumors and indicated that Dell has no plans to use AMD CPUs.
Read More [...]

Chief Gadgeteer of RealTechNews writes
No surprise here really. After all, students have been audio recording their lectures for as long as portable recorders have been around. The mildly interesting part is that there are a couple of companies in the education field that have gotten together to make this a way more polished product than [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
It’s new terminology, at least. Although the first thing that came to mind when I saw the term was the movie “Invasion of the Body Snatchers“. A U.S. security expert has created an application that can fill an iPod with business-critical data in a matter of minutes. The [...]

When I think of hybrid automobiles, my mind instantly says Hybrid = Battery + Gasoline Engine. Not any longer. The folks at Mazda are preparing to release a new sort of hybrid - a “Dual Fuel” vehicle that runs on Gasoline and Hydrogen. Because an all-hydrogen car is at least a decade away (hype translation: [...]

David Johnston of RealTechNews writes:
It looks like a Dell-AMD deal is now imminent and I really can’t complain about what it’s doing to the value of my stock portfolio.
Read more about AMD here
[tags]amd,dell,realtechnews,david johnston[/tags]

Jimmy Daniels of RealTechNews writes:
Just finished reading a really interesting article from the Washington Post called, Invasion of the Computer Snatchers, where they actually interview this kid who lives with his parents, and controls over 13,000 computers from his laptop.
Read More about the Botnet Master Here
[tags]realtechnews,security,jimmy daniels,botnet[/tags]

Optimized for performance and mobility, these special-edition notebook PCs feature a new processor from AMD, a unique design bearing the LIVESTRONG message, and Lance Armstrong’s autograph as a tribute to his inspirational fight against cancer and to the 10 million people living with cancer. For every special edition notebook PC purchased, the Lance Armstrong Foundation [...]