Charles Miller has made his reputation hacking Macs. His most recent exploit earned him $10,000 by exposing soft spots in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Safari in March. It was the third year in a row he hacked into a MacBook at CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacker contest.

Mac Directory sat down with Miller, whose Wikipedia entry describes him as a “security researcher,” to to talk about Apples weaknesses, his rep and whether Apple devices are still safer than PCs.

Question:> It is said that “Apple products” are safer than Windows-based products. Is this really true or are hackers too busy hacking PC-based devices?

Charles Miller > Both of your statements are true. They are safer exactly for the reason that not many criminals are looking at them. Most malware is written with the purpose of compromising as many hosts as possible, and that means Windows. There is nothing inherently more secure about Macs, in fact they’re probably a little easier to break into, but really they are protected for the moment by their limited market share.

Apple has updated its Game Centre overview page today to provide details on which devices will be supported when the social gaming network goes live on Wednesday with the release of the new iOS 4.1 update.

The list of supported devices includes the second-, third- and forth-generation iPod Touch models, along with the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS. Unfortunately for those still clinging on to their trusty iPhone 3G, Game Centre is another feature you’ll miss out on in iOS 4.1.

By letting citizens get information about road conditions, pay for parking and complain via iPhone apps city governments in the UK have reportedly saved about $350 million (£230m).

According to a report released by the The Local Government Association (LGA), in 2009 these apps cut costs considerably. There’s a wide range of iGovernment apps, from five city councils who put the hygiene ratings of local eateries on iPhones to real-time info about bus schedules and vandalism-complaint apps that require the snap of a picture to send the info to city hall.

“Whether it’s bin men working smarter, fewer phone calls to inquiry centres, freeing up staff from time-consuming checks or reducing parking ticket machine maintenance costs, making the most of modern technology and data sharing has seen huge cash savings across the country,” said David Parsons, chairman of the LGA’s improvement board.

Parsons also added that he expects that further use of iPhone apps could potentially save city councils up to £372 million ($569m) by 2014-15.

We’ve written about a lot of US city governments going app-happy — for reporting potholes and complaints — have you used any of these services?

Do you think that they make local government more efficient?

Via ZDnet

SUV owners not only drive like jerks, but now instead of just taking up three parking spaces and cutting you off, they may be out for your iPad.

A pair of iPads were snatched from their owners in a Seattle neighborhood, both of the crooks used SUVs as getaway cars.

One happy hour customer at Julia’s had a decidedly unhappy few minutes when another patron grabbed his iPad and ran out. The manager gave chase but was left in the dust when the crook jumped into a dark blue SUV. The iPad snatcher was described as a “a white male in his 20s, with dark hair and wearing a t-shirt.”

Not too far away that same day, another man had his reading interrupted when a thief ran into Philadelphia Fevre sandwich shop and took his iPad. This iPad grabber is said to drive off in a white SUV.

Here’s hoping the thieves get nailed for a typical SUV driving habits and get nailed for the thefts.

We start out the holiday-shortened week with a hardware deal and two iPhone offers. First up is a number of MacBook Pro laptops, starting at $1,299 for a 13.3-inch unit powered by a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo processor. Next is Fuzzle, a free game for the iPhone or iPod touch. We wrap up our spotlight deals with Adult Swim Games for the iPhone, including “Meowcenaries”, “Amateur Surgeon,” “Robot Unicorn Attack” and “Floater Pro” — all 99-cents each.

Along the way, we’ll also check out the iHome iPod portable speaker system, animation software for your mac and other gadgets. As always, details on these and many other bargains are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Back in tip number 5, we had a look at how the Dock is laid out. Application shortcuts are on the left, folders on the right.

It’s pretty clear what the shortcuts do: they open an app for you. If it’s already open, they switch you to it. You can change which ones stay in the Dock all the time, so that you’ve got quick access to the applications you use most often. But what happens with the folders on the right, and how do they work differently?

The idea with folders in the Dock is to make it easier to get to what’s inside them. When they’re in the Dock, they’re known as “stacks”.

From Vienna comes news of one of the most striking homes (and Mac home offices) I’ve ever seen. Designed by architects Najjar & Najjar, the owner of Villa F is an IT entrepreneur and aficionado of Macs and Lamborghinis.  He wanted a living space that reflected his passions.  The futuristic result is something which wouldn’t be out of place on the Starship Enterprise.

There is a vast open space that connects the entrepreneur’s working space with a lounge area, a bar and a kitchen.  Almost everything inside the Villa F is digitally controlled.  There are Plasma TVs, a huge aquarium with computer generated graphics, LED lighting and sound systems that respond at a click of the mouse. [Born Rich]

PlayNice from PocketMac is a new utility that enables syncing between Windows and Mac OS X. It is designed to be a replacement for MobileMe syncing and it doesn’t require an annual subscription.  You can sync contacts, calendars, and tasks between iCal and Address Book on Mac OS X and Outlook on Windows.

Linux fiends have a new operating system to hate in the OS wars, according to web traffic firm Net Application: iOS overtook Linux as the third biggest browsing browsing platform in uly of this year.

According to Net Applications’ data, iOS represented 1.06 percent of all web traffic in July, compared to the 0.93 percent share of Linux. Google’s Android operating system, which technically bests iOS’ numbers when it comes to installs, is only 0.18 oercent.

It gets worse. In July, iOS encompassed 1.13% of all web traffic, while Linux shrank even more to 0.85% and Google’s Android shot up to 0.20%.

iOS is now the third most popular web browsing platform in the world, behind only Windows and OS X. And it doesn’t have far to go before it knocks out Snow Leopard, which accounts for just 2.59 percent of all web traffic. Wow.

[via Apple Insider]

The full import of the announcement didn’t exactly sink in at the time, but when Steve Jobs announced last Wednesday that AirTunes was becoming AirPlay, he was really announcing that media-streaming on Apple devices was getting a lot more open. Not only would AirTunes be extended to hardware beyond AirPort Expresses, making every AirPlay-compatible peripheral capable of sucking up tunes across the room, and not only was he opening AirTunes to an expanded gamut of media types including video and photos, but he was also opening the door for iOS devices to stream media directly to other devices, with no iTunes intermediary required.

I have to admit that as someone with three AirPort Expresses, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t realize immediately how cool this was. Thankfully, third-party accessory makers were quicker on the uptake than I was, and iHome has already announced their first AirPlay compatible wireless speaker system. Scant details so far (except for a rechargeable battery) and obviously — since this is just a speaker — it’s humble beginnings. But just you wait. An AirPlay compatible television is coming, mark my words.

[via TUAW]

Loathe — absolutely loathe — the new iTunes 10 look? The grayscale sidebar icons? The hypocritically wonky horizontal windows controls? That ghastly new CD-less icon? ^*Damien Erambert has put together a handy new package which allows you to roll back iTunes 10’s more egregious changes back to a more palatable iTunes-9-style aesthetic bliss. Not that that looked all that great either, you understand.

* – Okay, this download won’t change the icon… but it’s easy enough to do.

Look, we’re four generations in. If you still crave a physical hardware keyboard on your iPhone, you’re basically barking up the wrong tree: hey, look over there, there’s RIM, a succulent hydrant for you to whiz upon. Apple’s just never going to be there for you.

That said, there’s scarcely an itch the constabulary of third-party accessory makers won’t scratch for you, given enough dosh. So here, have this Mini Key case for the iPhone 4, complete with sliding, backlit QWERTY. It adds significant bulk, no batter life, and will cost you $60 when it’s released at the end of the year. You’re welcome.

Over the weekend, AdAge managed to get their hands on some data showing how much big companies spend on Google Adwords.

Google’s none too happy about the breach, saying: “We’re now looking into the possibility that someone improperly disclosed confidential information about our clients, and [we] will take all appropriate action.”

But Apple can’t be happy about the leak either, particularly since it highlighted the fact that Apple spends a million dollars a month on Google Adwords adverising… despite the fact that they have a competing network called iAds.

Of course, a million bucks a month is just a drop in Apple’s coffers, and Apple can’t trust iAds alone to promote their own products successfully yet, given its limited rollout to iOS devices. Still, Apple ultimately intends to go head-to-head with Google Adwords for the mobile space… a blip in the headlines saying they are giving money to their rival has to be annoying, no matter how inconsequential the amount.

[via 9to5Mac]

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q0jVRwHy00&feature=player_embedded#!

If you’re an iPhone 3G owner wondering if iOS 4.1 is going to save your device from the slow mercury hell of a sluggish post-3.1.3 device, good news. The fine lads and lasses over at Lifehacker find the last point iteration a marked improvement upon its predecessor, and to prove it, posted this chipper, chiptune-backed side-by-side comparison.

All I can say is, “Wow.” iOS 4.0 was that slow for 3G owners? How did Apple even let that update get out the door?

Like the iPhone before it, the iPod Touch is now a a haptic handset for the teledildonically inclined.

It appears that a new hardware feature in the iPod Touch is a small, whirring engine capable of delivering a vibrating alert when a FaceTime call is incoming to your pocket.

Pretty neat. It is, of course, unknown whether or not there will be an API call allowing app store developers to trigger the vibrating functionality at will. Here’s hoping: putting aside any reference to possible pelvic-grinding perversions, rumble functionality would be a very welcome addition to the iPod Touch for gaming alone.

[via Mac Rumors

When we posted on Friday that iTunes 10 had killed off old Automator workflows, it had all the hallmarks of a bug… and as it turns out, a but it is.

As it turns out, the problem is caused because Automator detects iTunes 10 as being a lower version number than iTunes 9, because Automator apparently sorts version numbers alphabetically instead of numerically.

As it turns out, the fix isn’t entirely onerous: simply open up the info.plist inside the packages of your non-functioning workflows and manually change the version number. If you absolutely can’t live without your iTunes Automator workflows until Apple managed to issue a Software Update, here’s your stop gap solution.

Nike has released its Nike+ GPS app in to the App Store this morning, and it allows users with a GPS enabled device to track their runs without the $19 Nike+ shoe sensor accessory. Record your pace, distance and the route you ran using just your device’s built-in GPS and accelerometer.

It’s a $1.99 app and it does a whole lot of impressive stuff: motivational messages from Nike’s top athletes aim to push you further to improve your workout and reach your goals, while your personalized ‘PowerSong’ is designed to give you that extra boost.

Voice feedback as you run to tells you how you’re doing and when you’ve finished, you can upload your stats to your Nikeplus.com account (free) to compete with friends, join challenges, set goals and connect with the rest of the Nike+ community.

At just $1.99, the athletes among you will save themselves a small fortune by not having to fork out for the shoe sensor running accessory.

Nike+ GPS is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch (2nd generation and above), running iOS 4.0. Get it in the App Store here.

Just like the crazy photo-warping effects on Apple’s own Photo Booth app that comes standard on every Mac, Real-Time Distorter can create some freaky cool images — but on an iDevice.

My nephew and I have been playing around with the app this weekend, and we’ve managed to squeeze way more fun than I’d thought from the buck I plunked down. Only four or five of the 11 effects are real winners, but that’s more than enough to play around with; not all the results end up being funny, but even the ones that lack wackiness can be interesting. Added bonus: The app can make video clips. Hopefully developer MacPhun will add Facebook and Twitter sharing in a future update.

Well, our insightful new columnist Mike Elgan certainly nailed it: mere hours after he received his new touchscreen iPod nano, Flickr user Kei Ogikubo has already added a watchstrap and turned the nano into an iWatch. Crap. I was skeptical before, but now I want one.

Got Ping? Wish you’d not bothered?

You might be over the moon about Apple’s baby social network, but on the off chance that you’re not, here’s a quick’n’simple guide to de-Pingifying your iTunes. It’s not difficult.

What is it?

SplashShopper is an app that allows you to make shopping lists of all kinds on your iOS device or Mac (and Windows to if you are so inclined).  The lists can be managed and synced across platforms with the Mac OS X or Windows companion software. If you are Santa Klaus or someone who cannot live without lengthy complex shopping lists in your life you’ll find SplashShopper to be very useful.

I suspect I’m like a lot of iPhone owners: when out and about, I tend to keep my phone in the pocket of my jeans.

But iPhones are fragile, as I discovered when I dropped my 3G on the concrete floor of a warehouse. It survived, amazingly, with just a small crack in the rear case. But the iPhone 4’s rear case is glass and I’m sure would have shattered on such an impact.

So wrapping it in some sort of case is a good idea. But I wanted one that wasn’t so bulky that it would prevent me keeping the phone in my pocket.

When Apple announced the free cases program for iPhone 4 owners, I took a careful look at the cases on offer and plumped for the Speck PixelSkin HD. I’m very glad that I did.

It’s taken me 20 years to finally find a task manager I’m happy with. No variation in any PDA I’ve used has passed muster: either they’ve lacked features, or suffered from confusing interfaces, or both — and I’d inevitably end up abandoning them for a simpler system. Then I started playing around with 2Do from developer Guided Ways Technologies. Search over.

This week’s must-have iOS games include the graphically stunning Epic Citadel that was recently introduced at Apple’s music event, adrenaline-fuelled sprinting across rooftops in Mirror’s Edge for iPhone, using your powers as Spider-Man to save the city of New York, and a whole lot more to keep you entertained this weekend.

Check out a few of our favorite games from the past week after the break!

This week’s must-have iOS apps include the universal release of the official Twitter client, a fun and unique way to make music, and an app that turns your device in to a USB memory stick.

Check out a few of our favorite apps from the past week after the break!