Hasta La Gadget!

Hate him or love him, but this man lead some of the most talented bands of engineers in the history of the planet to create gadgets that have changed the way we understand technology. Here are his greatest works. More »

They don’t make ’em like Steve anymore. Not only was he clairvoyant about technology but he’s always had a zinger ready to go and he was never afraid to use it. Here are our favorite Steve Jobs quotes: More »

With less than 24 hours under his belt as the new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook has sent a letter to the company’s staff this morning, thanking his predecessor, and predicting bright things for Apple’s future. The note reads, in part,

I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.

Read the full text of the letter after the break.

Continue reading Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook addresses employees in staff letter

Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook addresses employees in staff letter originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 9to5 Mac  |  Ars Technica  | Email this | Comments

Android malware jumped 76 percent since last quarter. Image credit McAfee

According to a report by antivirus software maker McAfee, Android is now the “most attacked mobile operating system,” with a jump in malware attacks of 76 percent in the last quarter. This impressive win is even more so when you consider that Android “outpaces second place Java ME threefold”.

While we are normally skeptical of scary announcements from anti-malware companies, this is McAfee’s regular quarterly report outlining the state of general security, so the numbers are probably good.

Interestingly, you’ll see that iOS doesn’t appear on the above chart at all. It seems like Android’s “open” nature is indeed open, in that anyone can put any software, including malware, on your phone. John Gruber of Daring Fireball sums it up thusly: “Remember the old argument about Apple platforms not getting malware only because they weren’t popular enough to attract attention?”

So what’s the solution? Crapware! Over at PC Pro, Mike Jennings got a new Android phone to play with.

On Friday, I eased the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini Pro from its box, turned it on, and was greeted with a message urging me to set up McAfee WaveSecure before I’d even set up the phone with my Google account.

While this scary first experience might help to make Windows users feel at home, there’s no way we should have to deal with this kind of crap on our mobile devices, especially as we have a lot more personal information on there than we do on our computers. It certainly makes a powerful argument for Apple’s conservative, controlled approach.

McAfee Q2 2011 Threats Report Shows Significant Growth for Malware on Mobile Platforms [McAfee]

Malware slams Android, but not iOS [The Loop]

See Also:

• Android Malware Found in Angry Birds Add-On Apps
• Malware Sneaks Into Android Market
• Android Malware Surfaces in Chinese App Markets
• Android App No Malware, Says Google

Let there be no question: ours would be a very different industry, were it not for Steve Jobs. Few, if any individuals have had so profound an effect on their given spaces; a unprecedented track record that began in 1976 with the co-founding of Apple. In earliest incarnation, the company would prove the driving force of the personal computer explosion of the early ’80s, beginning with the Apple II — one of the industry’s first hugely popular microcomputers. The Macintosh shook things up yet again, a launch celebrated by the debut of the “1984” ad during that year’s Superbowl. That line helped break both the graphical user interface and the mouse to a massive audience.

Soon after, Jobs would resign, going on to form NeXT. The company never managed sales figures anywhere near the previous endeavor, but its products would prove highly influential, forming, among other things, the basis of Apple’s paradigm-shifting OS X operating system. While Steve Jobs was focused on NeXT and The Graphic Group — the company that would later morph into the far more familiar Pixar — Apple suffered a series of defeats.

Continue reading Steve Jobs’ Apple: a timeline

Steve Jobs’ Apple: a timeline originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments