Apple-Intel partnership to be rocky?

Both Apple and Intel are companies notorious for their bad partnership skills, says tech columnist Rob Enderle. He looks at the various stumbling blocks that will affect that Intel-Apple relationship. These include the fact that "Intel tends to make decisions critical to the success or failure of the OEMs without adequately taking into account the needs of these companies." And a source of aggravation from the Apple camp could come from its refusal to participate in Intel programs like "Intel Inside." And PC makers aren't too happy about the newfound relationship either. Their concerns stem from the prospect of Apple getting deep discounts and early access to next generation processors. "I'd hate to be the person responsible for maintaining the Intel-Apple relationship," writes Enderle. "Whoever that is, my heartfelt prayers are with them this season."

Symantec readies NAV security patch

Symantec said it was readying a patch for the security flaw in virtually all versions of its anti-virus software--including Mac OS X--that could allow users to take control of the machine via the internet. PC World provided more details on the Symantec NAV vulnerability, which we noted last week: "To create a heap overflow, a malicious hacker sends large amounts of data that overwhelm a buffer, an area used for temporary data storage. This attack, similar to a buffer overflow, lets attackers overwrite portions of a system's memory in order to run their own malicious code. Symantec users are vulnerable to the attack when their antivirus software scans the RAR files for viruses or worms, Wheeler wrote. The attack can be launched via e-mail without the user having to open the message or click on an attachment, he said." While the company has not released a patch for its software, it has releassed a patch that will detect exploits designed to compromise systems using this vulnerability. Users can also turn off the scanning of RAR files to secure their systems.

PC-Mac-Net FileShare 5.4 released

Lava Software is shipping PC-Mac-Net FileShare 5.4, its file sharing and remote movie/music playback controller that operates over local area networks, as well as the internet. The update features remote file and folder searching by name as well as media type, and offers remote media player functions. Playlists containing a variety of media types can be created, and subsequent media playback can be controlled remotely over a wired or wireless LAN, as well as over the internet. The bundled VLC player supports MP3, Ogg, AAC, Avi, DivX 5, MPEG4, QuickTime, WMV2, Sorenson, and H.264 formats. The application is designed to existing hardware into a media center and file server. PC-Mac-Net FileShare standard edition is available for $15, while the upgrade is free to all existing users. The professional edition is priced at $25. All versions are compatible with Mac OS X (specific system requirements were unavailable), Linux, and Microsoft Windows 98/NT/ME/2000/XP.

Apple called 'pacesetter' in industry...

Apple has displaced Sony as the leader in the electronics world. A new column by the Associated Press says that while Apple was "barely an afterthought" five years ago, but that the iPod success and landmark music and television licensing deals have made it the pacesetter of the industry and ingrained in pop culture like no other tech company. "In the consumer electronics world, there's always talk now about Apple, the way people used to talk about Sony," said analyst Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group. "At the water cooler or in boardrooms, they're asking, 'What is Apple doing next?' or 'How do we stay out of their way?'" The column notes that Apple's momentum accelerated in 2005 with the introduction of the iPod shuffle, the Mac mini, the nano, the video-capable iPod, the new iMac with integrated iSight and Front Row software and TV shows for sale at its iTunes Music Store.

iPod among Amazon.com best sellers

Amazon.com today announced that the iPod was among the top three selling electronics items this holiday season. The iPod took the top three spots in the electronics department--the black 4GB iPod nano, the black 30GB iPod video, and the 512 MB iPod shuffle were the top sellers, respectively. The company said it shipped more than 108 million items between November 1 and Christmas Day, noting that the busiest single day was Monday, December 12, when customers ordered 3.6 million items. Amazon's current bestselling list shows the Black 30GB iPod, Black 2GB iPod nano, and 512MB shuffle among the top 5 best selling items. Overall, online sales in the U.S. are expected to jump 24 percent to about $19 billion in November and December as the convenience of Internet shopping and free shipping lures consumers, according to ComScore Networks Inc. The most popular goods on the Web include clothing, electronics and toys.

Briefly: iPod accessories, PGP Desktop

In Brief: The Apple Store is offering--for a limited time--free-shipping on its top-rated iPod/Mac accessories.... PGP Desktop 9.0.4 is a free update to its desktop encryption solution for security and privacy, bringing a fix for SSL-based messaging services and more... The FastIcon has released a new "iPod Christmas" icon set, which contains 4 freeware icons.... NBC and Apple have posted a holiday gift on the iTunes Music Store, offering a free episode of Saturday Night Live ("Lazy Sunday")... Samsung said Monday it may sell NAND flash memory chips to Japanese electronics maker Sony and others, underpinning expectations for surging demand for the chips.

iPod.iTunes 3.0 offers two-way sync

CrispSofties today released iPod.iTunes 3.0, adding the ability to synchronize songs, videos, playlists, ratings, played dates, and play counts in both directions between iPods and iTunes. Ipod.iTunes is designed to keep songs, videos, and playlists on different Macs and iPods up to date, and can perform a full restore of these items after a hard disk failure. The software updates foreign iPods not linked to your iTunes library without deleting content on the device or touching the link, and can update a linked iPod without deleting content on it as iTunes "auto update" does when tracks on the iPod are no longer in the iTunes library. Ipod.iTunes 3.0 offers numerous small changes to the user interface, and includes various bug fixes. Ipod.iTunes 3.0 is available for $35, and requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later.