Hasta La Gadget!

Android owners–be afraid. A new botnet-lke bit of malware for Google’s open mobile OS has been discovered in China–and it ain’t pretty. The Trojan, named “Geinimi,” has been called “the most sophisticated Android malware we’ve seen to date” by security firm Lookup.

According to the firm, Geinimi can “receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone.” The malicious little bit of software sneaks onto phones by being “grafted” on to games and other non-malicious mobile apps.

“The affected applications request extensive permissions over and above the set that is requested by their legitimate original versions,” says Lookup. “Though the intent of this Trojan isn’t entirely clear, the possibilities for intent range from a malicious ad-network to an attempt to create an Android botnet.”

Lookup recommends that users download from trusted app stores, check permission requests on apps, monitor suspicious activity on their handsets, and download a mobile security app to help avoid the wrath of Geinimi.

I’ve spent much of my past week on planes and in airports. I understand air rage, really, I do. I also understand getting upset when people talk on their phones at inopportune times. That said, I’ve never actually punched anyone over either of these things.

As of this week, the same cannot be said about one Russell E. Miller of Boise, Idaho. The 68-year-old man was so enraged by a fellow Southwest Airlines passenger that he punched him. Apparently the offending teenage wouldn’t turn his iPhone off during the flight.

Flight attendants instructed the plane to turn off electronic devices as the plane started its descent, but the 15-year-old went right on listening to music and playing games on the device, so Miller punched him in the arm. The 68-year-old was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery.

Rovio may have introduced its wildly successful game Angry Birds to the Android platform, but make no mistake which operating system the company prefers to develop for. In a recent interview with the site Tech Marketing, Rovio executive Peter Vesterbacka let it be known that Apple’s iOS is still the top dog in his eyes.

“Apple will be the number one platform for a long time from a developer perspective, they have gotten so many things right,” he told the site. “And they know what they are doing and they call the shots. Android is growing, but it’s also growing complexity at the same time.”

Android also has a fragmentation problem, according to Vesterbacka. “Device fragmentation not the issue, but rather the fragmentation of the ecosystem,” he explained. “So many different shops, so many different models. The carriers messing with the experience again. Open but not really open, a very Google centric ecosystem. And paid content just doesn’t work on Android.”

Not that he’s saying that Apple is, you know, better, or anything. It’s just that, in the mobile world, fragmentation is sort of a way of life,

That doesn’t mean that model is superior, it’s just important to understand that Apple is Apple and Google is Google. Different. And developers need to understand that. Different business models for different ecosystems. And wouldn’t forget about Nokia and MeeGo either, new leadership always tends to shake things up and create opportunity. And HP-Palm. And RIM. And even Microsoft. It’s a fragmented world.

Rovio’s Angry Birds was the number one paid app for the iPhone in 2010.

Those wacky kids in the Star Wars universe had it figured out a long, long time ago. If IBM’s recent predictions are any indication, we may finally be catching up.

The company this week issued its yearly “Five in Five” list, which outlines bold technology predictions for the next five years. At the top of the list: holographic phones.

The phones will beam holographic, 3D images of, one assumes, the person calling you. Also on the list, batteries that breathe air and cities that are powered by the heat of their own servers.

“All this demonstrates a real culture of innovation at IBM and willingness to devote itself to solving some of the world’s biggest problems,” IBM VP Josephine Chang told Bloomberg in an interview. Bold, sure, but a company that spent $5.8 billion (about 6.1 percent of its revenue) on research and development is allowed to dream big, right?

To put things into perspective a bit, it’s worth noting that the company was a bit off with its 2006 predictions (though it does have a year to go, I suppose), predicting such things as instantaneous speech translation ala Star Trek.

Man, is there anything the iPhone can’t do? Police arrested a man after holding up a Connecticut-area Indian restaurant, this week. Jerome Taylor, the 20-year would-be robber told restaurant workers that he had a gun. The cooks weren’t willing to hand over the cash so easily, grabbing knives and standing up to him.

Taylor apologized, adding that the robbery was a joke and he needed money to support his kids, quickly fleeing the scene. When the cops caught up with him, he confessed to the crime–everything but the iPhone part. According to Taylor, he was actually wielding an iPhone.

If Steve Jobs were present, I’m sure he’d let Taylor know that he was holding it wrong. Officers arrested Taylor, despite the restaurant’s insistence on not pressing charges.