Recent weeks have seen renewed discussion about the security vulnerabilities of Macs and the OS X operating system, though, as usual, it is primarily PC interests who say, “your day of reckoning is gonna come” and Mac interests who say, “Apple computers are the safest computers under the sun.”

Meanwhile, Apple released a security update on Tuesday that quashed 21 security bugs, news of which was taken by those on both sides of the debate as evidence their argument is right.

What better time, then, for Norton/Symantec to release Internet Security 4 for Mac and Internet Security for Mac Dual Protection, designed for those running Boot Camp or other Windows virtualization software on the Mac. Both products integrate all-new firewall and antivirus protection with tools to help protect against the increasing instance of identity theft.

I spent some time this week going over the UI and program features with Symantec’s Mac Product Manager, Mike Romo, and I was impressed with the granularity built in to the software’s control features and pleased to see Symantec has paid attention to creating a UI that says the designers have seen and used Macs themselves.

While automatically blocking attempted exploits using different protocols, Norton Internet Security for Mac’s firewall now also offers application control, which allows users to manage the applications that are connecting to the Internet, protecting Macs from spyware. New location awareness controls let users specify different connection settings for different networks to which a computer may be connected. The software is also integrated with Symantec’s DeepSight Threat Management System, an evolving database of known bad actors. Firewall rules are automatically updated at least once a day to protect against the latest attacking IP addresses.

This is powerful software that should appeal to rabidly security-conscious Mac users – especially the growing cadre of multiple-user businesses, schools and enterprise customers who have adopted the OS X platform – who will be happy with its degree of configurability as well as the extensive live monitoring and event logging it makes possible. Those who want to “set it and forget it” can also feel secure from phishing, malware or hacking threats they believe are lurking out there for the Mac.

Available now for the US from the Symantec online store and through various retail outlets, Norton Internet Security 4 for Mac is US$79.99, which includes a one-year subscription to Symantec protection updates. The suggested retail price for Norton Internet Security for Mac Dual Protection is US$89.99, which also includes a one-year subscription to Symantec protection updates.

In a nod to Apple, the world’s first MP3 recording guitar is a sleek, all-white number called iDea.

You can record riffs as you play, along with vocals on a built-in condenser microphone or use the built-in MP3 player to add backing tracks. It holds up to 100 minutes of music.

A USB port lets you transfer your music to a Mac or PC. The iDea comes with pre-loaded tracks, plus six lessons and an amp. The whole shebang is controlled from the top side of the guitar, no word on whether there’s a left-handed version, too.

Tech-strummers Ovation created the guitar, it comes with a $600 price tag.

If you love the idea but are more of a Mac-loving DIYer, you may want to check out this hack Brian Green made by adding two iPod Touch devices to his guitar, calling it the iTouch guitar.

As he explains in the video:

“The ipod closest to the guitar pick ups is running Itouch Midi’s Martix app which I’m using to send midi to Ableton Live on my Macbook via wifi.”

Sounds complicated, but it’s a cool project.

Via Dvice

Treo-maker Palm has unveiled the Palm Software Store, the latest company to take a page from Apple’s successful iPhone Apps Store.

The new store allows Palm device owners to purchase and download either Windows Mobile or Palm applications directly to handsets. Palm users were required to download applications to a computer first and then transfer the software.

The Palm Software Store holds 5,000 applications.

Despite Apple’s attempt to convince investors otherwise, Oppenheimer & Co. told clients new questions about CEO Steve Jobs’ health made the Cupertino, Calif. company a risky long-term bet.

The investment house downgraded Apple’s stock to “perform” from “outperform” following Tuesday’s announcement Jobs would not appear as keynote speaker at the Macworld 2009 tradeshow – the last year Apple would attend the annual event.

“Whatever the reason, the unexpected announcement has underscored the greatest risk to Apple’s long-term success — its dependence on Jobs’ health and its apparent lack of a succession plan,” analyst Yair Reiner wrote investors.

Eating just one Belgian truffle can make you “significantly more likely” to desire a Mac than your more self-controlled neighbor, according to a study due to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Professors Juliano Laran (University of Miami) and Chris Janiszewski (University of Florida) conducted a two part study in which one group of participants was given a chocolate truffle, while the other group was required to abstain. In part one of the study, the researchers found, not surprisingly, the group of truffle eaters was more likely than their pleasure-restricted peers to to unleash a “what the hell” syndrome, and revealed a desire for additional treats such as pizza, ice cream and potato chips, while their abstaining counterparts found it easier to resist temptation.

Part two of the study again had people eat or resist a chocolate truffle and asked them to indicate how much they desired several products that are symbols of status [for example] an Apple computer… “People who ate the truffle desired the status products significantly more than those who had to resist the truffle,” write Laran and Janiszewski.

The answer to Apple’s flat Mac sales, then, would appear to be free truffles for every visitor to an Apple Retail Store. Someone get an advance abstract of Behavioral Consistency and Inconsistency in the Resolution of Goal Conflict to Cupertino, stat!

Via The Register UK

Politics, not platelets, are why Steve Jobs is turning over the Keynote responsibility to Phil Schiller at next month’s Macworld Conference & Expo, according to CNBC correspondent Jim Goldman.

Citing “sources inside the company,” Goldman writes that Jobs’ demurral from the Keynote address for Apple’s last appearance at the venerable trade show in San Francisco is assuredly not a product of any inability on his part to perform for health reasons, but is rather a result of the company’s “trying to separate itself from Macworld for some time.” Amid the growing trend of big companies scaling back participation in traditional trade shows world wide, Apple has also in recent years taken the lead in producing its own product release events, such as the ones that introduced the company’s new iPods this summer and new notebook computers in the fall.

Apple also directly reaches millions of visitors who come weekly to its growing chain of world-wide retail stores, and millions more who receive the company’s carefully designed and controlled messaging through visits to the company’s iTunes stores.

Knowing how the Apple-interested universe’s collective pulse begins to race with every inkling of Jobs’ mortality, it’s no surprise to see Monday’s announcement generate lots of speculation and extra volatility in the movement of the company’s stock price. As Goldman writes, however, the party to be concerned about is not Jobs, and not Apple, but Macworld. For some time now it’s been fashionable to imagine scenarios about Apple in the inevitable post-Jobs era. But will there even be a Macworld in the post-Apple era?

Nearly 70 percent of companies say they will permit employees to use Macs in the workplace – double the number just 8 months ago, a survey found.

Macs “could very well represent a viable alternative to PCs” in companies, Laura DiDio, principal analyst of the Boston-based Information Technology Intelligence Corporation.

A survey of businesses found the top reason was the “consumerization of IT,” followed by the increased availability of Windows applications through Boot Camp and other virtualization.

Amazon MP3, the DRM-free digital music store, is far from a rival to Apple’s iTunes, claims a Tuesday report. The MP3 arm of online retail giant Amazon.com has only 5 percent to 10 percent of the market, compared to more than 70 percent for iTunes, according to All Things Digital.

The report’s estimate cited an unnamed label executive.

The one year-old MP3 store “has failed miserably” as a rival to iTunes, Peter Kafka wrote. Amazon earned $39 million on $82 million in sales – the bulk going to Universal Music Group, the report suggested.

iBend marketing materials call it “the thinnest stand for the iPhone and iPod Touch.”

$5 gets you what appears to be two pieces of plastic or maybe laminated card stock (the website doesn’t say) cut in such a way they could be mistaken for “Snidely Whiplash”-style fake mustaches, but that, when “bent” just so, will hold your device in place on any flat surface so you can look at it (and the video or slideshow you’re watching on it) without having to hold it in your hand. The iBend is thin enough to fit in your wallet, pocket or purse.

iBend is patent-pending and manufactured in California.

What will they think of next?

Via Edible Apple

Chimp 65 Productions announced Monday the premiere of its documentary film “MacHEADS The Movie” at the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo. The attendees-only special screening is scheduled for Wednesday, January 7, in room 131 of the North Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

MacHEADS is an in-depth examination of the cultural phenomenon of Apple fandom, using events from Steve Jobs’s historic Keynote addresses, the iPhone’s first release in NYC, and other historic moments in recent Apple history to explore the loyalty of Apple followers and their obsession. The film also combines visual evidence from archives of early Macworld Expos.

“Two years after shooting the first reel at Macworld 2007, we’ve come full circle with this special premiere at the leading event of the Mac community,” says producer Ron Shely. “Macworld Expo & Conference 2009 is truly the natural place for telling the story of Apple and its followers. We are thrilled to screen the movie at the Moscone Center a place of tradition and innovation.”

Director Kobi Shely added, “We wanted to answer the core questions: ‘How was a community formed around a brand, and how did this phenomenon contribute to Apple’s success? During the film-making process, it became obvious that there is a community and there is Apple. Although they correlate, in many ways they are separated.”

The film features several key Mac personalities in the company-community ecosystem, including one-time Apple Chief Evangelist Guy Kawasaki; Apple’s first official employee Daniel Kottke; and a special guest appearance by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Authors including Adam Engst, who created the first Apple newsletter, Tidbits and Chicago Sun-Times tech columnist Andy Ihnatko are also featured in the film.