Linked List: April 5, 2012

Thursday, 5 April 2012

More realistic version of Google’s concept video for Glass.

A Change to Google’s E-Book Retailer Partner Program ★

Where by “change” they mean “completely canceled”.

Apple Investigating iPad (3) Wi-Fi Issues, Tells AppleCare to Replace Affected Units ★

Mark Gurman, 9to5 Mac:

iPads that are affected by Wi-Fi issues are supposed to be “Captured.” According to one source, “Captured” is code for the device to be immediately packed up and shipped to Apple’s engineering centers for examination and investigation. Apple employees are instructed to Capture the iPad itself and included accessories (the charging adapter and USB cord). Apple will replace affected units.

Las Vegas Gaming Chips, 1960s–1970s ★

Gorgeous.

Ferdinand Porsche Dies at 76 ★

Chris Reiter and Alex Webb, reporting for Bloomberg:

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the designer of the original version of the iconic 911 sportscar, died today in Salzburg, Austria. He was 76.

“As creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture that molds our sportscars still today,” Matthias Mueller, chief executive officer of Porsche AG, said in an e-mailed statement. “His philosophy of good design is for us a legacy that we will also honor in the future.”

Arguably the most iconic design in automotive history.

iPhoto’s Mystery Meat Gestures ★

Thoughtful, astute criticism of iPhoto for iOS by Lukas Mathis:

After downloading and playing around with Apple’s new iPhoto for iOS, I felt like I was teleported back to 1998. Touching and gesturing in different ways would make seemingly random things happen. I regularly unintentionally activated features, changed views, opened or closed pictures, and got iPhoto into states I wasn’t sure how to get out of again.

As he says, Apple is sailing uncharted waters with iPhoto for iOS.

Teenagers and the iPhone ★

Melissa Arseniuk, reporting for The Daily:

A new survey shows that 34 percent of U.S. teens have iPhones — while another 40 percent plan to buy one within the next six months. […]

But there’s a big difference between saying you’re going to buy something, and actually following through and making the purchase. The same survey last fall showed 38 percent of respondents indicated they were going to buy an iPhone by now, but new numbers show just 11 percent of them got around to doing so.

Still, his figures found teen iPhone use has doubled in the past year, from 17 to 34 percent, and Munster expects Apple will hold 40 to 45 percent of the teen smartphone market by the fall.

Tipping point. I’m curious how big a factor the free-with-contract 3GS is in this market.

Flashback Trojan Reportedly Controls Half a Million Macs and Counting ★

Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica:

Variations of the Flashback trojan have reportedly infected more than half a million Macs around the globe, according to Russian antivirus company Dr. Web. The company made an announcement on Wednesday — first in Russian and later in English — about the growing Mac botnet, first claiming 550,000 infected Macs. Later in the day, however, Dr. Web malware analyst Sorokin Ivan posted to Twitter that the count had gone up to 600,000, with 274 bots even checking in from Cupertino, CA, where Apple’s headquarters are located.

Cheng links to F-Secure, who has instructions for checking if your system is infected. If you don’t have Java installed (or have it installed, but keep it disabled in your web browsers) you should be safe.

The weird thing to me is that if true, this sounds like the worst malware problem Mac OS X has ever seen — yet there doesn’t seem to be any hysterical media coverage about it. Hypothetical Mac security problems often get hysterical coverage; now we apparently have an actual security problem and it’s no big deal?

Update: I’m curious to hear from any readers who determine that their system’s been infected by this thing.

Update 2: Via email and public Twitter replies, I’ve seen reports from about a dozen or so DF readers who’ve been hit by this. And they all seem like typical DF readers — sophisticated, experienced, if not downright expert Mac users. It’s not an epidemic, but it’s definitely real, and insidious.

And regarding the lack of hype surrounding Flashback, DF reader Paul Hoffman (via email) has a theory:

I suspect that there hasn’t been that much hype is that the hype is normally generated by the anti-virus companies, and (from what I have heard) none of the Mac AV software caught this until yesterday. Whoopsie.