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Security software vendor PC Tools has watched the rise of two cause-and-effect security factors in the Mac OS X world — first, the growing popularity of Macs along with increasing market share, and second, the accompanying attention of malware that’s targeted directly at Mac users. Consequently, PC Tools has launched a beta edition of iAntiVirus, a new antivirus and antispyware tool designed specifically for Mac OS X. While the Mac maintains an industry-leading reputation for being generally healthy, some troubling Mac-focused security vulnerabilities have recently come to light.

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A lot of us are focused on Microsoft and Bill Gates this month as Bill’s last day at the company he founded and ran to dominance passed last Friday. I’ve met Bill several times but only really once spoken to him. From a personal aspect, he has mostly been cordial, and he once personally came to my rescue back when my career as an independent analyst first started, something I’ll never forget. Something else I’ll never forget was the Windows 95 launch, which in my mind and evidently his, was the high point for Microsoft.

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Since the release of the iPod, the market has flooded with accessories ranging from the mundane to the radical. All are meant to further incorporate the tiny device into another aspect of daily life. Many of these add-ons are innovative solutions for common problems. Others are just gimmicks targeting consumers with a taste for silly novelty items. The iBreath, for example, is an accessory for the iPod that allows you to transmit your music on an FM radio frequency as well as test yourself or others for intoxication.

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Apple’s presentation at WWDC of an alternate approach to background processes for the iPhone, compared to Microsoft’s ActiveSync, has implications for both developers and users. It requires developers to invest in new systems and takes away some of their direct control of the iPhone, but it also improves the user experience and allows Apple to develop an enterprise revenue stream. Historically, many smartphones have used background processes to respond to external push notifications and e-mail.

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Wait. Scroll. Scroll. Tap-tap. Wait. Wait. For many years, that was the typical experience of someone surfing the Web using a mobile phone or PDA, at least in the U.S. Although some content providers offered stripped-down versions of their sites specially designed for mobile users, most did not, and reading a page designed to be viewed on a PC on the small screen was about as much fun as sitting in a dark room reading a newspaper by flashlight.

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