Here’s some news for you:

Mac OS X is, and always has been, vulnerable to trojans.

The whole point of trojans is that they exploit the most serious security problem of all: gullible users. A trojan does not take advantage of any holes in the code, all it needs is to persuade someone to click an “OK”, or to run an installer, and it has done its job.

The problem with a lot of the reporting of malware, especially by traditional media, is that the word “virus” is widely used to mean “malware”.

Most of us who are half-way to computer literate know the difference between a trojan and a virus, but most of the rest of the world has no idea.

That’s why we’re seeing news articles about “Mac viruses”, and we shall continue to see them in future. That’s also why your Windows-using friends are going to be smirking at you, saying: “Heh. And you said you didn’t get viruses on your Mac. Bet you feel stupid now, huh?”

Any computer is vulnerable to trojans. The security hole they exploit is not in the operating system, it’s the one sitting in the chair and tapping on the keyboard.

Wanna keep your computer clean? Next time you’re surfing some random porn site and a pop-up tells you to “Install a codec” so you can watch the movies, it’s a good idea to click Cancel.

If you want to use a racy photo as your iPhone wallpaper it will have to be strictly DIY now that Wallpaper Universe has been pulled from the AppStore.

Some will say this turn of events confirms Steve Jobs’ promise to keep ‘porn’ off the iPhone. Others point out that it highlights the inscrutability of Apple’s review process for selecting what does, and what doesn’t make it into the AppStore catalog.

Leaving aside for the moment the question of whether Apple should retain exclusive gatekeeper authority over apps that can be legitimately run on the iPhone, many would be satisfied if the process for AppStore certification was more transparent, according to MG Siegler, writing for Venture Beat.

Last weekend’s snafu over the release of Google’s voice search update, the punting of approved apps on a third update, debacles such as the I Am Rich app – all raise legitimate questions over the capriciousness of Apple’s distribution of tickets to the big show.

Via Industry Standard

The HP TouchSmart laptop computer will get attention from curiosity seekers when it debuts on November 28 because it is the first consumer-grade full touch-screen-capable notebook computer. If you watch the video demoing the the device above, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking HP may be in a bit of an awkward position once the actual sales numbers from this product start to get tallied.

Watch how taking advantage of the touch screen’s functionality requires two hands – one to hold the open screen steady at the side or the base, and another to actually perform the touch gestures on the screen. It also seems from this demo (which is apparently not a final release version of the product) the screen is not especially sensitive to touch gestures, that many “commands” have to be “repeated” twice and three times before the screen registers them. The screen itself is high-gloss and, well, I know how I feel about finger oils on a glossy glass surface. If these machines do end up taking off for some reason, there ought to be a bull market in screen wipes.

When Apple introduced the iPhone in June 2007 it rocked the mobile computing world almost as much as it rocked the mobile phone world. And with the launch of the AppStore this past summer, Apple’s business and iPhone software development exploded, with both continuing to outpace a clearly struggling global economy.

I don’t expect HP is going to have nearly the impact iPhone has had, despite introducing the kind of product many have been clamoring for from Apple.

What does it cost to hold an employee’s future on ice? IBM reportedly has paid $3 million in exchange for a preliminary injunction stopping Mark Papermaster from joining Apple.

Last week, Federal District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas determined Papermaster, a 25-year veteran of New York-based IBM cannot join Apple as the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s senior vice president of hardware engineering.

Along with granting the preliminary injunction, the New York judge required IBM to post a $3 million security bond to ensure any losses by Papermaster while the court challenge is underway. Before the injunction, Apple had announced Papermaster’s hiring and set a salary.

Worldwide PC sales will see only a single-digit increase in 2009 with growth next year reaching only 4.3 percent – a nearly 75 percent reduction over prior expectations of a 11.9 percent increase, a research firm announced Thursday.

The picture for Apple sales appears brighter than the glum outlook for overall PC demand. Earlier this week, Piper Jaffray’s Apple watcher Gene Munster said he expects Mac sales to grow 8 percent to 16 percent when Apple reports in December.

Researchers at iSuppli said the drastically lower expectations were due to the embattled economy.

Travis Hammond is a graphic designer located near Baltimore, Maryland. He works for a private auction firm and a local magazine, and does freelance photography and design work. He’s also a bit of an Apple nut, if these among many other examples of his Mac, iPod and iPhone inspired creativity are any indication.

See more at his website and his Flickr pages

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Apple’s new MacBooks are great — but as a proud owner of one of the milled wonders, I can confirm that the much-vaunted glass trackpad did have issues. Not constant ones by any means, but it would miss clicks quite often — probably one in ten times.

Having finally downloaded and installed Trackpad Firmware Update 1.0 yesterday, I can also confirm that the problems have completely gone away now. No fuss, and every click counts.

My experience has not been universal, however. MacFixIt reports that many users are having difficulty installing the update, and I’ve even heard of some people getting kernel panics and other bad news. Install at your own risk, obviously, but it’s a very welcome update — makes the already good significantly better.

Microsoft, a day after slashing prices of its Zune media player, Thursday threw a bone to fans of DRM-free music, offering a $15 per month Zune Pass subscription for essentially $5.

Microsoft said it would allow Zune Pass subscribers to keep 10 songs (worth around $10) per month that they can own, even if the subscription ends. Previously, copy-protection meant songs downloaded from the Zune marketplace would be disabled if the $15 per month subscription service expired.

“People want the freedom to listen to whatever they want across millions of songs, combined with the confidence that they can keep their favorite tracks forever,” Chris Stephenson, Zune’s general manager of global marketing, said in statement.

When you switch on Voice Search in Google’s Mobile App for iPhone, you see a little bit of warning text underneath which reads:

“Voice Search only works in English, and works best for North American English accents.”

Tish and piffle, I thought to myself when I read that. I’m sure it’ll understand my humdrum Estuary English accent perfectly well.

But you know what? The warning was put there for a reason. Because so far, every search I’ve done has failed when I use my normal voice, and worked when I put on my appalling attempt at an American accent.

So thank you Google for giving us voice search, which is officially the New Best Thing Ever (better than the last Best Thing Ever, at any rate). But curse you, Google, for making me sound like a complete idiot every time I want to do a voice search for something in public.

There’s been a lot of hoo-hah about Apple’s video DRM restrictions that make it impossible for some content you own to be displayed on some display screens you also own.

OrbLive is an iPhone app that that streams video from a Windows PC to the iPhone. It can deliver any video or audio that’s stored on the the PC, YouTube content and, most important, live television if you have a TV tuner installed on your PC.

Orb is the first application to deliver such functionality through the App Store with a streamlined interface that also allows access to live Internet television and cable/antenna television with a properly configured tuner.

Orb Networks says the application is “coming soon for Mac and Linux computers.”

But who knows how long this party will last? Apple recently banned Cast Catcher, a streaming Internet radio application in the same vein as AOL Radio and Pandora (both of which have been available through the App Store almost since its inception), because the application “transfer(s) excessive volumes of data over the cellular network.” Orb, with full video and audio streaming over 3G, ostensibly falls into the same category.

Via iPhoneAtlas