OS X

About those gangs of Russian hackers targeting Macs

"Hey Dimwitt here's a pcworld article about russian hackers targeting Macs. http://tiny.cc/dL4Yi."

I assume that message, sent via Twitter by "chalupatime" Saturday afternoon, was directed at me because I wrote something a few weeks ago called "Why are there no Mac viruses?"

My tortilla-loving friend is correct. There is indeed an article by Gregg Keizer in PC World (as well as in Computerworld) about Apple (AAPL) computers being targeted for malware.

Keizer's source MORE

Why are there no Mac viruses?

There are, as far as we know, no Mac OS X viruses in the wild.

To prove that assertion wrong, you only have to name one.

Academic proofs of concept and theoretical vulnerabilities don't count. Neither do computer worms, Trojan horses, spyware, adware, spam or any of the other nasty species in the zoology of malware.

That eliminates Inqtana-A, iBotNet, MacSweeper and a handful of other examples of Mac malware usually trotted out at MORE

iPod touch Net share grew 36% in April

The growing popularity of the iPod touch -- Apple's (AAPL) iPhone without the phone -- finally registered in the Internet market share data gathered every month by Net Applications.

Stuck for three months running with a 0.11% share of Web traffic, the iPod touch's share in April jumped to 0.15% -- a 36% increase in one month, according to preliminary data released overnight Friday. See the chart below:

The iPhone also gained MORE

Windows 7: Trouble on the upgrade path

Fasten your seat belts. There could be some bumpy nights ahead in the IT department.

When the information technology guys discover how painful it can be to upgrade their current PC hardware to Microsoft's (MSFT)  Windows 7 -- the successor to the much-maligned Windows Vista -- they may be tempted to switch to Linux or Apple's (AAPL) Mac OS X.

That's the conclusion of the product specialists at CRN's Channel Web -- MORE

15 reasons Macs trump Windows PCs

This seems to be the season of lists, the bread and butter -- however stale -- of journalists facing a slow news day.

This one trods the most familiar ground in computerdom, pitting Apple (AAPL) Macs running OS X against PCs running Microsoft (MSFT) Windows. But it comes from APC, the longest running computer magazine in Australia, and it's unusually insightful.

I post only the intro and the topic headers here because MORE

Mac 'market share' hits record 8.28%

The presence on the Internet of both the Mac and the iPhone grew smartly this summer, registering record numbers for each operating system in the Net Applications survey issued overnight Wednesday.

The Mac's share of Web hits grew 5.34% to a record 8.28% last month, according to the Web metrics firm's September survey. The iPhone's share, having surged 57% -- from 0.19% to 0.30% -- in August (see here), grew another MORE

Mac climbs to record 7.95% share in Net Applications survey

Microsoft (MSFT) Windows continued its downward drift and Apple's (AAPL) Mac OS X inched up to a record 7.95% in the market share survey issued Tuesday by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications.

The biggest gain, however, was recorded by the open-source operating system Linux, which jumped more than 16% in June -- albeit from a small base -- to hit 0.79%.

The iPhone held steady at 0.16%, reflecting a leveling off of MORE

Survey: iPhone gained share, Mac dipped slightly in Feb.

After showing impressive gains in December and January, Mac OS X's slice shrank a bit last month in the latest Net Applications survey of operating system market share. The iPhone's share growth, meanwhile, continues to outpace every other category except "Other."

As Net Applications measures it (more on its quirky methodology below), the Mac's market share dipped to 7.46 percent, 1.45 percent off its January record high. Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, meanwhile, MORE

Survey: Mac OS hit record 7.57% in Jan.; Windows lost a little ground

The news was almost lost yesterday in the Microhoo hoopla: even as Microsoft (MSFT) was trying to buy its way into some kind of parity with Google (GOOG) by gobbling up Yahoo (YHOO), a new survey showed that Apple (AAPL) had taken another little bite out of Redmond's core business.

According to the latest market share data from Net Applications, Mac OS X's slice of the computer operating system market grew MORE

Survey: Mac OS hit record 7.3% share in December; iPhone up 33%

Reflecting strong holiday sales of both MacBooks and iPhones, Apple's (AAPL) market share grew sharply in December, as measured by a Net Applications survey released today.

The Mac hit a record 7.3% share, up from 6.8% last month. The iPhone also hit a new record, .12%, up from .09% in November. That suggests that better than 1 out of every 1,000 people on the Internet are browsing the Web using an MORE