Ian Betteridge

Sigh. I hear this all the time. And it's true: There isn't a self-replicating infectious programme for the Mac. They're no impossible to build (just because you don't have Admin privs doesn't mean it can't be done) but at present, they don't exist.

But you know what? It. Doesn't. Matter.

It doesn't matter for two reasons: First, to someone who's got Mac Defender stuck on their machine, whether it's a virus or a trojan or a god-knows-what doesn't matter - it's messing up their Mac, the one they bought because little-jonny-know-it-all told them "Macs can't get viruses" - and they didn't know that little-jonny-know-it-all had small print at the bottom of his statement saying "Of course, they can get trojans".

Second reason it doesn't matter: By FAR the biggest number of malware threats to Windows aren't viruses either. In fact, most Windows malware writers don't bother with self-replication or even exploiting known security holes, because trojans which use social engineering are far, far more effective - they, unlike viruses, can't be patched out of existence.

But does the average Mac user know this? No. The average Mac user still appears to think that viruses are the biggest threat on Windows, and that malware writers do it for bragging rights. That's a picture that's so far out of date it's not funny.

LOL yeah, the hackers always win. You keep thinking that.

This isn't a big deal. It's not a game changer. And it won't change the world of TV journalism.

But it's fun, and good on him for trying something different.

"On the other hand, my understanding is that, while ThinkSecret was killed by Apple, they paid him a settlement, not the other way around."

Correct. And ThinkSecret never, ever signed an NDA for anything.

@Hexydes The cost of parts alone on an iPhone 3GS has been estimated as $179 by iSupply, and my guess given the newness of the processor the Nexus One is going to cost a little more. Add to that the cost of design and development, the cost of manufacture and the manufacturers margin, packaging, distribution and retailing costs. Then add in the cost of support and updates over the lifetime of the phone. Work it out and the cost to Google with no margin at all is going to be around $400 per phone.

Basically, the people who were predicting this thing would be $200 were fantasists with no concept of what hardware costs to make. Sorry to disappoint you.

@Nilay Patel It's not strange, Nilay. Arrington is highly prone to exaggeration.

Arrington has a less-than-stellar record when it comes to court, and occasionally seems not to understand the law. His recent suing by Sam Sethi illustrated this perfectly. No matter the merits of the case, declining to appear or respond isn't going to get the judge to throw out the case - it simply gets you summary judgement.

That's an SE series - you can tell from the colour, shape, and the kind of mouse it's using.

You can get a custom name - which is how I got "Ian Betteridge" for my avatar - at a $100 set up fee and $50 per year. You can't change an existing name - but reading back, yours was the only story which mentioned name changing, rather than custom names for new avatars.

No, I wouldn't be annoyed. In fact, I would much rather they call so I had chance to respond rather than run off and print a story which may be half-baked. I wish more bloggers were capable of picking up the phone, frankly.