Author Topic: Apple: iPod has Virus for Windows (Read 7881 times)

Ceric · « **on:** October 19, 2006, 06:47:49 AM »

Here is the Story
This is unprecedent. Apple should have strict control over what goes onto a new iPod. So I'm leaning towards this not being a real "accident." No offense to anyone but you can easily see that Apple has already propagated the whole Windows is full of Viruses and Worms. Someone gets an iPod which has a virus but since its from Apple it can't have a Virus they think. Hook it to there PC which then gets a virus. Gets killed and the user had already thought about Apple and this sort of thing would make them fed up with PC's and they get a Mac.

That's not what happened though. All the Virus did was send out peoples information and didn't actually mess up the computer.

Quote
"We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and more upset with ourselves for not catching it," an Apple website statement said.

Then fix it. Nothing is stopping you from releasing OS X for PC or making software for Windows. Microsoft makes it for you.

couchmonkey · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2006, 07:49:33 AM »

Err...personally, if I hooked up an iPod and got a virus on my windows machine, I'd toss the iPod and never buy Apple again. In fact, I was already specifically planning not to buy an iPod, and this just makes the decision that much easier.

Ceric · « **Reply #2 on:** October 19, 2006, 08:36:48 AM »

Most people wouldn't put the two together since all of Apples products are suppose to be immune to viruses in every way.

Nick DiMola · « **Reply #3 on:** October 19, 2006, 09:06:02 AM »

Wow, Apple really f-ed that one up. How did they manage to ship a product with a virus on it? I love Apple's computers, personally not an iPod fan, but I think the "We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses" is a really pompous statement. I mean they messed up, I understand Windows is very vulnerable to viruses but that doesn't have crap to do with the fact that you shipped your product harboring a virus. A simple "We apologize to all of our faithful iPod customers using Windows. We have fixed the issue on future iPods, and are offering assistance to all infected users. Any questions or comments, please contact us immediately at 1-800-123-4567." would've sufficed.

Ceric · « **Reply #4 on:** October 19, 2006, 09:26:16 AM »

Would have more than sufficed but thats not the type of company Apple is. No offense.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #5 on:** October 19, 2006, 10:37:36 AM »

A USB device can get arbitrary memory access even under BSD if it's done right. If anyone bothered to write a USB-stick propagated virus for BSD, that is.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #6 on:** October 19, 2006, 11:02:07 AM »

This is only the beginning of the crusade to cleanse the world of the Winfidels.

Ceric · « **Reply #7 on:** October 19, 2006, 11:02:08 AM »

Well thats true. Not going to even argue that. It's fact. More that Apple who should have tight control of what goes on an iPod before its sent out had this happen.

18 Days · « **Reply #8 on:** October 19, 2006, 10:07:15 PM »

I support Apple's legendary move here. I mean let's face it, Microsoft would do the same iven the chance, and theirs would be intentional. We're talking about the company that blocked rival browsers from it's websites afterall.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #9 on:** October 19, 2006, 11:41:54 PM »

We're talking about the company that blocked rival browsers from it's websites afterall.

We're also talking about the company that now made even WGA compatible with other browsers.

MS would do many things but they know that a virus is too much. Apple is liable for any damage caused by that virus, if it was intentional they could also get persecuted for that.

Nick DiMola · « **Reply #10 on:** October 20, 2006, 02:15:47 AM »

I highly doubt it was done on purpose, but it most certainly is unacceptable. I think Apple understands how important the iPod is to their financial success and wouldn't do something so foolish to try and gain users. I'm sure it was a god's honest mistake, but that doesn't excuse their pompous attitude towards the situation. When you do something wrong fess up, tell people how you are going to fix their problems, fix the problem with your product and then go on your merry way.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #11 on:** October 20, 2006, 12:28:35 PM »

SH*TTY JOURNALISM ALERT! SH*TTY JOURNALISM ALERT!

Let's see if we can find the error in journalism by the linked website in this following sentence, shall we?

Quote
"We are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and more upset with ourselves for not catching it," an Apple website statement said.

WTF is an "Apple website"? PGC is a NINTENDO website (the only criteria being that it's a site which covers NINTENDO news and products), meaning that they could lift a quote like "Ken Kutaragi is, without question, a pedophile." from this VERY forum and consequently get away with the following quote:

Quote
"Ken Kutaragi is, without question, a pedophile," a Nintendo website stated today.

Ah random sensationalism, what WOULD we do without you?

Ceric · « **Reply #12 on:** October 20, 2006, 01:28:34 PM »

It bad journalism. I'll give you that. Though it doesn't say how that got through quality control.

wandering · « **Reply #13 on:** October 20, 2006, 02:53:32 PM »

Fortunately I found a link to the apple page in question, from a site with less sh*tty journalism (ars technica.) And here it is.

Apple's response is indeed hideous. Do they think people don't know Windows is prone to viruses? Do they think that by explicitly pointing out, when they were the ones who made the mistake, they will win themselves fans?

jasonditz · « **Reply #14 on:** October 20, 2006, 09:13:43 PM »

Compared to the Sony spyware, this is really a non-starter. I'd love for there to be some insidious alterior motive here as well because it makes for interesting news, but when the effected iPods were only a small percentage of one particular model and coming from a particular contract manufacturer the accident story is plausible.

The more interesting story here is what this says about the shady contract manufacturers they use. We've heard about the horrid working conditions in some of these places, now their half-assed quality control has led to them shipping virus-ladden products. I know price is important, but it seems to me that the company's flagship product is too important to leave to chance.

Ceric · « **Reply #15 on:** October 21, 2006, 09:16:57 AM »

Whats up with light purple being support?
With what I'm sure they make on each iPod sold. (I'm sure they have an in-house figure that tells how many songs on average they sell on iTunes per iPod sold and then the actual profit from the hardware itself.) They would make sure that quality issues like that wouldn't happen.
Then there response on there official site. Someone should proofread things before they come out. Even something like that "more hardy" yeah...
I'm not surprised that only 25 people would have made the connection.
Last paragraph should have been the first.
I just don't get much chance at a public scrutiny of some of Apples quality issues. Here I've got a server that came with a disconnected heat sink. It's not attached to the chip it was suppose to be and it took them a couple months to fix it and we have the Apple Warranty. (AppleCare I believe.) We've had problems with some other of their hardware and the tech the send out is pretty incompetent. These things happen with hardware.

Smash_Brother · « **Reply #16 on:** October 21, 2006, 10:17:04 PM »

Wow, they actually DID say that...

...but they also have instructions on that same page for how to fix it so the barb is minimal.

And Apple doesn't care: either you buy their products already or you don't.

How many people were likely on the "fence" about their next computer then decided against a Mac because Apple made a slight joke?

KDR_11k · « **Reply #17 on:** October 22, 2006, 06:12:45 AM »

One occurrance won't hurt them but if comments like that happen more often Apple will get the image of being a bunch of donkeyholes.

Rhoq · « **Reply #18 on:** October 23, 2006, 05:51:09 AM »

Unfortuantely Windows users are stuck in the middle of the new Apple/Microsoft war which started back in August at Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference. It was there that one of Apple's banners promoting the upcoming release of Leopard (MacOS-X v10.5) read something along the lines of "Introducing Leopard: Windows Vista 2.0". Microsoft retaliated at that conference by announcing that Visual Basic support was being pulled from the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac which will effectively cripple any Mac user that needs to run macros or any other VB dependant feature - forcing them to run the Windows version of Office either under Virtual PC (for PPC Mac users) or under Boot Camp/Parallels/VMWare (Intel Mac users).

Today Microsoft dealt another blow to Mac users by announcing that the 2 "cheap" (Home Basic and Premium) versions of Vista will not run under virtualization (it will run, but 90% of it's features will be disabled). Only the expensive (Business and Ultimate) versions of Vista can be used in a virtual enviornment. Microsoft, knowing that Intel Mac users prefer the just-as-fast virutal solution instead of dual booting into Windows, made this decision as a way to hurt those who were looking to run Vista, but refuse to do it with Boot Camp.

There is speculation that the virus was deliberately placed on the iPods as a message from Apple to Microsoft and it's users. Nothing says "get a Mac" like exploiting just one of the many reasons why people should switch in the first place. As a Mac user, I find the whole thing very funny (my apologies to those who might have been affected by this virus). Most people aren't smart enough to know that you NEVER trust a pre-formatted drive. The first thing you should do when you receive a new computer or bootable device is reformat - for this very reason. You never know when a bad file (virus, corrupt or other) might enter the datastream and end-up "pre-installed".

Nick DiMola · « **Reply #19 on:** October 23, 2006, 06:10:14 AM »

Rhoq, I'm an Mac user as well, but I do find the whole situation awfully pompous. True as it may be, this will not attract users to your platform. Viruses are one of the most frustrating part of owning a computer, and to purposely put this on someone's computer is not exactly going to make them all that excited to hop over to your camp.

Galford · « **Reply #20 on:** October 23, 2006, 06:30:55 AM »

I was expecting this thread to turn into another flame war, but it didn't...

This recent "Leopard vs Vista" is just Apple pandering to it's base, nothing more.
It seems a lot of people online buy Macs because they hate Microsoft.

On a side note, I'll give +2 mod points to KDR for another obscure BSD reference.

Rhoq · « **Reply #21 on:** October 23, 2006, 06:38:01 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Mr. Jack
Rhoq, I'm an Mac user as well, but I do find the whole situation awfully pompous. True as it may be, this will not attract users to your platform. Viruses are one of the most frustrating part of owning a computer, and to purposely put this on someone's computer is not exactly going to make them all that excited to hop over to your camp.

Here is the thing. I don't believe that Apple planted the virus onto the iPods, at all. Apple entrusts Foxconn to manfacture their iPods and Apple's own QA can only catch so much when your product is being manfactured overseas. Was this deliberate? Probably. Did Apple "plant" this virus onto the iPods? no. Is Apple responsible? Ultimately, yes.

**** happens and Apple has to take the hit because someone at the Foxconn factory acted maliciously. However, I still see this as a wake-up call to Windows users - deliberate or not. This should also serve as a message to us Mac users. The lesson to be learned here is that despite what we have always known to believe, the truth is: Apple is not perfect.

I'm a full-fledged cult member, but I am also willing to accept the fact that Apple too, has falacies. At the end of the day, all of the pros in regards to Apple far outweigh the bad, especially when comparing both hardware and OS to other PC manfacturers and Windows - at least for me.

Ceric · « **Reply #22 on:** October 23, 2006, 06:52:41 AM »

*shrug* I'm not in love with OS X and the price of entry is to high for me right now, I do mean more than just money. I actually do use OS X on an almost daily basis in a lab setting. Windows is to OS X as Nano/Pico is to Vim. Windows lets me get things done while OS X is more powerful but there is a learning curve to unlock that potential.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #23 on:** October 23, 2006, 08:22:10 AM »

Learning curve? I thought the primary purpose of OSX is to be userfriendly (*cough*onebuttonmouse*cough*)? If you want powerful but difficult to learn you grab a more open Unix and cut and trim it to your liking.

Rhoq · « **Reply #24 on:** October 23, 2006, 08:33:03 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Learning curve? I thought the primary purpose of OSX is to be userfriendly (*cough*onebuttonmouse*cough*)?

That comment is a bit misleading, especially since MacOS-X supports right-clicking and Apple's current "Mighty Mouse" is right-clickable - without having to press CTRL like with Apple's older one-button mice. BTW - I've been using a 2-button mouse since MacOS 9.

MacOS-X supports right-clicking. Apple's current mouse is right-clickable. I fail to see your gripe other than the fact that Apple's mouse designs are some of the worst ever (which they are).

News:

Author Topic: Apple: iPod has Virus for Windows (Read 7881 times)