Patent application from Microsoft. Words fail me. Read what Wired.Com had to say.

They are sleek, they are powerful, and they are a wish list standard.  Smartphones, like iPhone and BlackBerry, are creating a collective buzz that can be heard worldwide.

The hype is well deserved.  Mobile devices have matured and with their coming of age we now have capabilities that seemed far-fetched only a few years ago.  For employees and executives the world over, smartphones make corporate data and applications available anytime, anywhere.

But just as a smartphone is now capable of downloading data and applications wirelessly, so can it download viruses, spyware, even pornographic content, without a user’s consent.  The use of flash memory cards on some phones opens yet another door for malware to spread to these devices.

The threat is real and growing.  A recent PC World article reports that malware writers are ramping up their activity in the mobile arena, learning from proof-of-concept threats and fine-tuning the amount of user interaction required to propagate the damage.

According to SMobile Systems, a company that specializes in mobile security, there are over 400 wireless threats currently, and more are predicted to arise by year’s end.  The threats can take many forms.  Among the attacks are those that attempt to delete data, those that

Apple’s successes with the iPod are finally translating into real momentum for its computer business, if statistics from Net Applications are any indication. The market research firm measured a 40 percent increase year over year in Mac usage on the Internet in September. As of the end of the month, 6.6 percent of Internet users were accessing the Web via Macs, up from 4.7 percent in September 2006. Read the full article on BetaNews.Com [found via SwitchingToMac.Com]

Puremobile seems to have re-thought their pricing model for unlocked iphones over the long weekend cutting prices for the units in half.  Canadians will now pay $1,149 for an unlocked iPhone while US customers will pay $1,081. While this pricing is significantly more realistic than Friday’s $3000 price tag, it’s still a lot to pay for a hack that one could do themselves for free using widely available DIY instructions on the net.

A nexus of events, iPhone current and projected sales and possible iPod announcements on Wednesday have listed Apple’s stock dramatically, according to MarketWatch on Tuesday. Analysts, including Gene Munster, are also expecting Apple to sell 2 million Macs this quarter. Mr. Munster has set an “outperform” rating for AAPL and a target price of US$211. Read the full article on macobserver.com

(The predicted 2 million Macs sold would equal a minimum of $2,398,000,000 for Apple based on the lowest end iMac, or $1,598,000,000 if they were all Mac minis. Either way, my money will be in there too somewhere.)