Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.” – Douglas Adams
This week we blathered on about a few different iPhone apps. I was quite enamoured with Layar, the augmented reality app we discussed on the show a while ago. Whereas Gareth was impressed with the new Photoshop Mobile app, I might be as well, if it’s ever available on the UK app store. Also Gareth has changed alliegience, VMWare over Parallels it’s a Snow Leopard thing.
Then on to the stories…
Sneaky Microsoft plug-in puts Firefox users at risk – Not content with with making their own software a hackers paradise. MS are offering free updates so those nasty people can pwn Firefox as well. By installing a windows update, users also installed a plug-in into Firefox, which opened up a great big hole there, as well as in Internet Explorer. They’ve fixed the exploit now. But for a while MS could have honestly claimed that Firefox was as vulnerable as IE, they’d have known, because they’d have made it that way.
An open letter to Steve Jobs. Fix Apple TV – A concerned user wants Uncle Steve to pour some love on Cupertino’s media player. It would be a nice for Apple to invest some time and effort in their ‘hobby’, it could be a killer product. Like as suggested, make the hard drive optional and beef up the streaming, with Netflix perhaps. And add a ‘bag of hurt’, otherwise known as a Blu-ray player. Oh, and Safari for surfing the web from your sofa, would be nice, too. All in all, it’d be easier to just stick an HDMI port on a Mac Mini.
Mac Pro to get the exclusive on Intel’s new six core Xeon – It is rumored that Apple will get another exclusive on a new ‘top of the line’ chip. The rumors of other goodies, 10Gb ethernet, support for upto 128GB of ram, make this sound like a beast of a machine. Cue another arbitrary Terminator reference….no, you get the idea.
Apple prepping a radio app for the iPhone – Bringing a whole new meaning to wireless, on the iPhone. Apple are rumoured to be enabling the FM radio built into the RF chip. I’m quite stoked by this news, Radio 4 without needing Flash for the BBC’s iplayer. Gareth on the other hand, is less then impressed with option to listen to, and I’m paraphrasing here, radio of generally inferior quality.
Newest iPhones jailbreak proof? – It is popular for some people to jailbreak their iPhones as soon as they get them. Whether to enable multi-tasking, or install unapproved apps. But Apple are throwing a spanner on the works, with a new boot-rom to stop the hackers. Of course it’ll get broken and probably very quickly, as well. And it does seem a lot of effort to go to, just to keep Google Voice ‘under review’.
New hardware for the Amiga OS - Like Haiku, keeping the Be OS flame alive, before it. Morph is doing likewise for the old Commodore Amiga OS. The strength of the user community is such that the makers of Morph are releasing new hardware for it. Well they aren’t, but Apple are. And new might be a bit of a stretch. Actually, it can run on a G4 Mac Mini. You’ve got to admire those retro computer guys, three year old hardware, an even older OS. Cutting edge stuff.
WiFi Direct, who needs Bluetooth – Ad-hoc peer to peer WiFi networks where ever you are. Hot spot not required, just two devices with WiFi chips. At up to 30 times the speed of Bluetooth, file transfers should be a breeze, but the headsets will make you look even more of a dork.
