Edible Apple

Some interesting news for a typically slow Friday. The French newspaper Le Figaro relays a few quotes from legendary French designer Fhillippe Starck who recently appeared on a French radio show and said he’s been working on a “revolutionary” new product for Apple that will launch by the end of 2012.

French designer Philippe Starck announced today on France Info that it is working with the U.S. computer group Apple in a project “revolutionary” that would emerge in eight months. “Indeed, there is a big project together which will be out in eight months,” said the designer in the show “Everything and its opposite.” Invoking the “religious cult of secrecy” of the California firm, he declined further detail, except to talk about a project “quite revolutionary (…) if not very”.

Very intriguing, and as noted by Network World, 8 months is just around the time when some analysts predict Apple release the highly rumored Apple HDTV.

Also, remember that Tim Cook, during Apple’s annual shareholder meeting this past February, boldly proclaimed that Apple is working on future products that “will blow your mind.”

Those are some pretty weighty words from the typically understated Cook.

Indeed they are.

We can only hope that Starck is indeed working on something revolutionary and that he’s not hyping up a new pair of ‘revolutionary’ headphones or the like. Interestingly, a glance at Starck’s Wikipedia page reveals that his design expertise has touched on an eclectic grouping of products. That said, perhaps he’s working on a completely new product entirely.

via Network World

Well that was relatively quick, kind of. Apple today finally released a software update that removes the much ballyhooed Flashback trojan that has reportedly infected over 600,000 Mac users (about 1% of Mac users worldwide).

The update, which checks in at about 70mb, is available to Snow Leopard and OS X Lion users via Apple’s software update utility.

This Java security update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware.

This update also configures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets. Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets.

This update is recommended for all Mac users with Java installed.

via Apple

Rob Schmitz is only the second reporter to have been granted access to the factory floor at Foxconn where they assemble iPads. Check out a video tour from his visit there below. Fascinating stuff, and Schmitz has a few more videos worth checking out over here.

With the US Justice Department now moving full steam ahead in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple and an assortment of publishers, antitrust legal experts are claiming that the governments case against the publishers is much stronger than their case against Apple.

CNET reports:

One reason lies in the Justice Department’s 36-page complaint, which recounts how publishers met over breakfast in a London hotel and dinners at Manhattan’s posh Picholine restaurant, which boasts a “Best of Award of Excellence” from Wine Spectator magazine. The key point is that Apple wasn’t present.

The Department of Justice “has a far better case against the publishers than Apple,” says Dominick Armentano, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Hartford and author of Antitrust and Monopoly who’s now affiliated with the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. “If the CEOs of the various publishers got together in hotel rooms to discuss prices, they are sunk” and might as well settle, he says.

Richard Epstein, the prolific legal scholar and professor of law at New York University, goes further. Epstein argues in an essay published yesterday that there are “difficulties” with the Justice Department’s case against publishers as well: “It will take some time to hear the whole story, but the betting here is that this lawsuit is a mistake.”

Yesterday we noted how 3 publishers chose to settle with the Government and agreed to pay out damages to consumers, a settlement offer Apple chose to refuse. Further, the extent of the Government’s case seems to rest on publishers meeting together (sans Apple) without lawyers present to discuss the agency model. But the publishers may very well assert that they were discussing the agency model alone and not necessarily plans to collude to raise prices.

What’s almost amusing here is that Amazon is the world’s largest seller of e-books with a 90%+ marketshare. Perhaps I need to brush up on antitrust law, but it seems strange that Apple is in the equation given their relatively paltry marketshare in ebooks.

Lastly, CNET cites an impassioned letter from Scott Turow, president of the Authors Guild and famed author of One L, a book describing the trials and tribulations of a first year law student at Harvard.

Amazon was using e-book discounting to destroy bookselling, making it uneconomic for physical bookstores to keep their doors open… Two years after the agency model came to bookselling, Amazon is losing its chokehold on the e-book market: its share has fallen from about 90 percent to roughly 60 percent… Brick-and-mortar bookstores are starting to compete through their partnership with Google, so loyal customers can buy e-books from them at the same price as they would from Amazon. Direct-selling authors have also benefited, as Amazon more than doubled its royalty rates in the face of competition… The irony bites hard: our government may be on the verge of killing real competition in order to save the appearance of competition.

With Apple still busying itself while trying to get a handle on the Flashback malware that’s reportedly infected upwards of 600,000 Macs, one security firm has taken it upon itself to step up to the plate and offer their own solution.

Noted security research firm Kapersky Lab, which confirmed the initial findings of the Dr. Web security firm, yesterday announced the release of a free tool users can use to see if they’ve been infected. The tool, so to speak, is actually a website users can visit whereby a program will run a user’s UUID against their database of infected Flashback computers.

• Visit Kaspersky Lab’s site at www.flashbackcheck.com to determine if you’re infected.
• This dedicated site is safe for users to visit and enter their computer’s UUID, which will be checked in Kaspersky Lab’s Flashfake database of infected computers. Instructions for entering user UUIDs are included as well.

I just ran it, and I know you guys are all waiting with baited breath, but rest assured, my computer is safe from infection.

If you happen to find yourself infected, Kapersky Lab has some homegrown solutions for you in the form of a free removal tool that will scan your machine and remove the offending files. It’s a free download, so hop to it if need be.

via Kapersky

After suing Apple and 5 other publishers this morning for antitrust violations, it now appears that three of those publishers targeted by the initial lawsuit have settled with the government. The three publishers in question include Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.

That leaves Apple and two other publishers – Macmillan and Penguin – still in play.

Earlier today, Macmillin CEO John Sargent penned an open letter concerning the government’s suit, writing in part:

The government’s charge is that Macmillan’s CEO colluded with other CEO’s in changing to the agency model. I am Macmillan’s CEO and I made the decision to move Macmillan to the agency model. After days of thought and worry, I made the decision on January 22nd, 2010 a little after 4:00 AM, on an exercise bike in my basement. It remains the loneliest decision I have ever made, and I see no reason to go back on it now.

More pertinent to the case, Sargent writes that while Macmillan was involved in direction negotiations with the DOJ to avoid formal legal action, the terms they were demanding were ultimately too burdensome to accept. What’s more, Sargent writes that

After careful consideration, we came to the conclusion that the terms could have allowed Amazon to recover the monopoly position it had been building before our switch to the agency model. We also felt the settlement the DOJ wanted to impose would have a very negative and long term impact on those who sell books for a living, from the largest chain stores to the smallest independents.

Looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands, folks.

via TOR

In light of the Flashback malware that has infected more than 600,000 Mac users, Apple has issued two security updates to patch the Java vulnerability that lies at the root of the malware.

On top of that, Apple wrote on its website that it’s also developing software that will scan a user’s computer and remove the malware if found.

Yesterday, Apple issued the following support document

Apple released a Java update on April 3, 2012 that fixes the Java security flaw for systems running OS X v10.7 and Mac OS X v10.6. By default, your Mac automatically checks for software updates every week, but you can change that setting in Software Update preferences. You can also run Software Update at any time to manually check for the latest updates.

Apple is developing software that will detect and remove the Flashback malware.

In addition to the Java vulnerability, the Flashback malware relies on computer servers hosted by the malware authors to perform many of its critical functions. Apple is working with ISPs worldwide to disable this command and control network.

There’s no timeline as to when the tool will be released, but we’ll keep you posted.

Breaking news this morning as Bloomberg is reporting that the US DOJ is suing Apple and a host of other publishers alleging that all the parties colluded together in an effort to raise this price of eBooks. The publishers taken to task include Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster.

Apple and Macmillan, which have refused to engage in settlement talks with the Justice Department, deny they colluded to raise prices for digital books, according to people familiar with the matter. They will argue that pricing agreements between Apple and publishers enhanced competition in the e-book industry, which was dominated by Amazon.com.

For its part, Apple has explained that they want to sell as many eBooks as possible and that it’s in their interest to have eBook pricing be as low as possible. And again, given Amazon’s absolute dominance in the realm of eBooks, it’s curious that it’s taking Apple to task for antitrust violations.

The actions under scrutiny here relate to Apple’s implementation of the agency model wherein it lets publishers – and not retailers like Amazon – set the price of eBooks. At the end of the day, this issue boils down to a basic question – do we put the power in the hands of publishers to set their own prices and let the market settle accordingly, or do we let vendors like Amazon and Apple arbitrarily set the price. The former is a boon for publishers and the latter is advantageous for consumers.

The concern is that if publishers set their own prices, they could collude to raise prices across the board.

When Apple came out with the iPad in 2010, it let publishers set their own prices for e-books as long as it got a 30 percent cut and the publishers agreed to offer their lowest prices through Apple. This agency model overtook Amazon’s practice of buying books at a discount from publishers and then setting its own price for e-reader devices.

We’ll keep you updated as more details come in.

via Bloomberg

Last week, Apple’s security woes made the news when security researchers found that over half a million Macs are currently infected with a malware called Flashback which works to incorporate affected machines into a botnet.

Now comes word that Apple had mistakenly, or at least we hope, to take down one of the domains registered to the security firm which first publicized the problem.

Forbes reports:

Boris Sharov, chief executive of the Moscow-based security Dr. Web says he learned Monday from the Russian Web registrar Reggi.ru that Apple had requested the registrar shut down one of its domains, which Apple said was being used as a “command and control” server for the hundreds of thousands of PCs infected with Flashback. In fact, that domain was one of three that Dr. Web has been using as a spoofed command and control server–what researchers call a “sinkhole”–to monitor the collection of hijacked machines and try to understand their behavior, the technique which allowed the firm to first report the size of Apple’s botnet last week.

Sharov said that Apple told the registrar that his domain was involved in malicious activity, which leads Sharov to believe that either Apple doesn’t get what it’s doing or finds his company’s work ‘annoying’.

What’s more, and perhaps symptomatic of Apple’s “don’t contact us, we’ll contact you” approach to just about everything, Sharov notes that Dr. Web actually contacted Apple to share its findings and still hasn’t heard back. But to be fair, the article notes that Apple may simply not have been familiar with the research firm Dr. Web. And to be honest, the name does almost seem like a hoax, but I digress.

In any event, Apple last week did release two OS X patches to fix the Java vulnerability the Flashback malware was taking advantage of.

All Things D is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the opening night keynote speaker at the upcoming, and 10th annual, All Things Digital conference.

If the name sounds familiar it’s because Jobs used to attend the All Things D conferences quite frequently where, in the words of Walt Mossberg, he was always the most popular guest. In one of his more memorable appearances, Jobs took the stage with Microsoft founder Bill Gates where the two reminisced about their history and where they saw technology going.

But it’s a dawn of a new day, and now it’s Cook’s turn to serve as Apple’s ambassador.

It will be Cook’s first appearance at D, as well as his first time being onstage at an event not run by Apple or for investors since he was named CEO last August…

So we are looking forward to hearing Cook’s perspective on where the industry and Apple is going, and perhaps to get a glimpse into what makes its new leader — who is also a longtime Apple vet — tick.

It should be a memorable night, unquestionably. Cook has proven to be an able successor to Jobs and despite his reputation as an “aww shucks” kinda guy, his previous speaking engagements – such as when he recently spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference – have been laden with interesting insight from Apple’s man at the top.

Other personalities expected to grace the stage during the All Things D conference include Michael Bloomberg, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, serial entrepreneur Sean Parker, and famed technologist and alleged patent troll Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures, and Pixar co-founder Dr. Ed Catmull.

Lastly, the conference is schedule to take place from May 29-31 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

For years, one of the chief selling points of the Mac compared to the PC is that the former was much less prone to malware. And while that still may hold true, the growing popularity of the Mac, coupled with the Mac communities general laissez-faire attitude regarding malware, the times they are a changin’.

The Mac is becoming a more popular target for malware authors, a fact clearly evidenced by the recent Flashback malware which has reportedly infected more than 600,000 Macs. Flashback works to steal personal information, so it’s not exactly something to ignore.

To combat the malware, which takes advantage of a vulnerability in Java, Apple last week issued two software updates in order to patch the security hole.

But what about if you’re already infected?

Well in that case, Mac user Juan Leon has put together an app which can quickly check and see if a particular machine is infected with the Flashback trojan.

The downloadable app runs the same three Terminal commands that we outlined in our how-to last week—it either says “No signs of infection were found” or spits back further information if necessary. There is also a link to F-Secure’s instructions for removal, but if you have less-technical family members whose Macs are infected, you’ll likely need to step in and help before they have to start mucking with the Terminal.

And if you are infected and want to remove the malware from your system, F-Secure has instructions in that regard over here.

via Ars Technica

As I type this now, shares of Apple are trading in the $642 range. In the past 6 months, the stock has skyrocketed nearly 65%, and the crazy thing is that it may keep on ascending skyward for some time.

Last week, analyst Brian White put a $1001 stock target on Apple shares. Meanwhile, other firms on Wall St. have generous price targets on the stock, with many falling in the mid-700 to upper 800 range.

It’s not a stretch to say that investing in Apple many years ago would have been one of the most profitable investments in history. But as much as shares of Apple have increased over the past few years, there may still be room for a lot of growth ahead.

Addressing this very issue, CNBC personality Jim Cramer (who, we should note, has been known to manipulate stock prices here and there) recently called Apple the “greatest growth stock of our lives.”

Summarizing a segment from Cramer’s program Mad Money, CNBC writes:

Cramer said Apple has potential for multi-year growth that can easily be valued, such as its popular iMac, iPod, iPhone and iTV products. The market wants to see multiple revenue streams, he said.

Apple has a lot of upside, too, because many of its products aren’t yet dominant in their respective markets. Each of its products continues to take market share.

Going forward, Cramer thinks Apple can continue to be competitive because the company is so innovative.

Cramer said Apple is also returning capital to shareholders. The tech company simply has too much cash, so it has decided to return a big chunk of it to shareholders.

Nothing revolutionary there, and indeed, this echoes what the Apple Bulls have been shouting from the rooftops for years.

Put simply, Apple’s P/E is relatively low and it’s making money hand over fist with just a few products that don’t even enjoy dominant marketshare, save of course the iPad. Apple’s room for growth is immense.

Nice to see that someone finally knocked some sense into Cramer.

via CNBC