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Apple OSX gets high marks

I’m so proud. Last month I purchased a new Apple eMac with a few extra modifications – some extra RAM here, a SuperDrive there so I can burn DVDs, a larger hard drive.

I’m so proud.

Last month I purchased a new Apple eMac with a few extra modifications – some extra RAM here, a SuperDrive there so I can burn DVDs, a larger hard drive. It was my biggest single purchase since I bought I bike last year, and I sweated every penny of the cost.

I did a lot of research before I made my decision, shopping online at Dell, HP, Futureshop, IBM, AMD, Sony, eMachines, and more to find the best possible system for the best possible price.

At last I decided on Apple, and I’ll tell you why.

The first is that it’s compact and self-contained into a single box, and that’s a plus when you’ve just moved into a smaller place and want to keep it roomy enough to swing a cat.

The second is compatibility – we use Macs at the Pique, and I like having the ability to move files back and forth without worrying about what might happen in the conversion.

The third reason is price. Although Apple systems used to be a lot more expensive than PCs with comparable components, the difference really isn’t all that huge anymore. Apples also come with a lot more software than in the past, which sweetened the deal considerably. All in all it wasn’t the cheapest computer I could have bought, but it made the most sense.

The fourth reason is the operating system, Mac OSX. I like the interface, the simple design, the awesome Safari Web browser and Mail service that come with it, and the fact that it’s Unix-based. As a result, it’s hard to crash, more secure, and more difficult to sabotage with worms and viruses.

I’m not saying that hackers couldn’t hack, hijack or destroy my system if they really wanted to, it’s just that Apple still represents less than five per cent of the home PC market and has been ignored by the people looking to do some real damage.

There have been two security alerts in the last three months for OSX, neither of which resulted in any problems. In the same timeframe PC users have weathered literally hundreds of viruses and several security flaws. According to Sophos, there were 959 new viruses on the Internet in May alone, the most in a single month since December of 2001.

So it would appear that I made the right decision. Sort of.

The Salk Institute of San Diego gave Apple and OSX overall high marks when it comes to security, but – and this is a big but – they said the company needs to move faster on security issues when they are discovered. Furthermore, the institute found that Apple’s communication is lacking when it comes to informing the public about security issues and holding discussions with the people who discovered the flaws in the first place. In some cases Apple has downplayed serious security concerns.

The report was assembled by the Salk Institute after a coder known only as "Lixlpixel" went public with a security flaw in early May that he had identified back in February. Apple never publicly acknowledged the flaw or Lixlpixel.

Caught with its pant down, Apple did go public, but maintained that it was only a small glitch compared to a massive vulnerability their own programmers found in the code. They’ve since released a partial patch, but a gaping hole remains that’s going to take a little while to fill.

So far there are no known attempts to exploit this glitch, which once again suggests that virus writers have better things to do than target a mere five per cent of the market. According to the Globe and Mail, there are an estimated 55,000 viruses out there that affect Windows and none that affect Mac OS.

OSX also appears, on the whole, to be pretty well-designed.

Since the first version of Mac OSX was released, the company has only identified one critical security flaw in 43 security updates. Meanwhile Windows XP had 77 security updates in the same period, more than two-thirds of which were considered critical.

It’s possible that these statistics only reflect the fact that there are almost 20 times as many XP users as OSX users out there, and as a result the Microsoft product is given a lot more scrutiny.

Either way, I feel pretty safe with my decision to go with the new eMac. Sort of.

Movie theatres to go digital?

Recent advances in digital projection technology by Sony may put projectionists out of work, enabling theatres to ditch film reels in favour of downloading movies to projector hard drives or shipping motion pictures on disks like DVDs.

Last week the Japanese electronics giant announced plans to test a new digital cinema chip that will reputably double current digital image resolution, producing sharper images and more intense sound. The Sony SXRD chip can project a resolution of 4096X2160, twice the pixel count of the next best digital projection chip on the market.

The new chip could save movie producers millions of dollars by eliminating the costs of duplicating film. At the same time directors will be able to ditch film as well, going entirely digital with their productions.

More obnoxious cell phones

At last the people of Nokia have found a way to make cell phones even more obnoxious, enabling users to disturb a greater number people than ever before.

In restaurants and parks, on buses and at bus stops, cell phone users will no longer have to rely on loud one-way conversations and deafening rings to annoy the general masses. Noka’s new 3220 model can actually display messages so that they appear to float in mid-air, an illusion that can be seen at a distance of six meters in broad daylight.

Because of limitations with the technology, the text messages will be limited to 15 characters initially, which is slightly less than four swear words. Princess Leah-style holograms are likely several years out.

Nokia says the phones can be used by people to communicate across crowded rooms or at open air concerts. Other potential uses include insulting random people, courting members of the opposite sex in food courts that are easily impressed with gadgets, and cheating on high school and university exams.

For more information, and a demonstration of how this new technology can annoy those around you, visit www.nokia.com.