Of bugs and Bagels

Shields up! The latest variant(s) of the malicious Bagel virus/worm is hitting inboxes all over the Windows world. And thanks to the dodos who still can't grasp that unexpected attachments are not for opening, its tremors will still be reverberating into next week as the code propagates via stupidity.

For the record, Bagel comes with an executable attachment named price.exe or joke.exe. Windows users should update their virus software. Everyone else should relax, as usual.

Read more at Symantec.

Finally, a couple of bugs worth noting have been fixed in Apple's QuickTime for Windows and Real Player. Check this CNet story for details.

Licence to print money revoked

Think printer ink costs too much? Thankfully, a court finally agrees. Printer giant Lexmark had sued a competitor making replacement cartridges on the basis that the upstart had no right to bypass the circuitry in its machines designed to prevent such an outcome.

Happily for consumers, the US federal appeals court judge has ruled Lexmark was out of of order and the rival is free to go ahead and sell cheaper refills. Lexmark isn't the only offender trying on this caper but maybe the printer moguls might be less inclined in the future to muscle out the little guys, leading to more competition and lower prices for the rest of us.

After all, this is an industry which charges seven times more for its product than the equivalent amount of vintage champagne.

Wear a (digital) condom ... please

Despite dire warnings every day about the vulnerability of the average Windows computer connected to the net, no one seems to be listening.

For your own good, do something about it. Get a firewall, scan for spyware and charge up your virus software.

Oh, and don't fall for the 10 most common cyber-myths either.

And to no one's surprise ... the black iPod

The worst-kept secret is fully out ... U2 have got into bed with Apple (again) to endorse the U2 iPod, in natty black with a red scroll wheel and with the band's signatures engraved on the back. The black I can handle, the autographs are definitely naff.

Available in mid-November for about €390 (that's €50 more than the current and otherwise identical 20GB model), you won't, as predicted, get the new album thrown in for good measure. But, at least in the US, you will get a coupon for $50 off a new digital box set of U2's music, which will include at least some songs from the forthcoming How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

Feast your eyes here.

If the BonoPod does not whet your appetite, there's always the new colour-screen version, the iPod Photo, which can display your photos as well as album art. The €550/€660 newbie comes in 40GB and 60GB flavours and, hallelejah, promises 15 hours' battery life. The extra juice is unquestionably down to a bigger battery, which explains why the units are a little thicker than standard iPods.

Ireland misses out on iTunes again

As exclusively predicted last week, Apple's expansion of the runaway-successful iTunes Music Store today has overlooked Ireland. It's a fair bet that licensing issues are the problem and it'll certainly be 2005 before we have any hope of getting access to the largest online record shop.

Apple added nine countries in Europe to the list which already included the US, Britain, France and Germany. Now in the club are Austria, Belgium, Fínland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg (Luxembourg?!), Holland, Portugal and Spain.

Anorexic Mac

In this week's column, you can read Ireland's first hands-on review of the new iMac G5, the one where Apple's hidden the whole computer in the flat screen.

Short version: It'd be flat-out gorgeous if Apple had bitten the bullet to make the whole thing wireless and not have trailing cables from the keyboard and mouse.

Also this week, in games, FIFA 2005 fails to topple Pro Evo 4 as football league leader. And skate supremo Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is more of the same only better (is that possible?).

GT4 skids past Christmas

First Sony threw out the online multiplayer in eagerly awaited PS2 racer Gran Turismo 4 in an attempt to get the game out the door for the Christmas market. Now it's blaming "localisation" for shunting the European release into 2005.

To add insult to injury, the bloody Americans and Japanese will still get it in time for their Santa stockings. Sigh.

Mini Killer

Got to play with Creative's latest MP3 player for a little while today. It's their latest answer to the iPod juggernaut. Under the battery cover was still the internal codename for the project: Mini Killer. But to the public it'll be called the Zen Micro when it launches next month for about €280.

Certainly, the specs put it ahead on points: 5GB storage (versus iPod Mini's 4), plus an FM tuner and, of course, longer battery life (about 12 hours, which the Creative people kept harping on about, though frankly most users don't care so much).

In response to the Mini's five colours, Creative gives you 10 to choose from (but only four at launch time). Creative has finally realised that design matters as much if not more than technology and the Micro looks a good deal better than its predecessors.

But for my money the anodised finish of the iPod Mini still wins out. The other features, however, may sway your opinion towards the Micro. Have a butcher's yourself at Creative.

BonoPod, anyone?

The rumours are true - the black U2-branded iPod is coming. That's from a source inside the U2 camp who actually saw one a couple of weeks ago. The insider describes the music player as having a picture of Bono and Co as a decal on the rear.

Everyone loves the iPod (it has an 90%-plus share of the HD MP3 player market, you know) - and none more so than U2: the whispers have been growing louder for weeks about the BonoPod as nobody calls it (yet). It's believed to come complete with the new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, pre-installed, along with several other of their long-players on-board too.

U2 used to claim they would never get mired in the corporate rock thing. You know, the mucky world of sponsorship and product plugging, etc. But they certainly seem to love Apple. Bono helped launch the Windows version of iTunes and the Music Store last October where he said: "I'm here to kiss the corporate ass, and I don't kiss every corporate ass."

Then Vertigo, the first single from the new album, which is due next month, was an exclusive on iTunes for a short while. The band even shot a video in silhouetted iPod-ad style for the song (you can see the two-minute version free at Apple).

The announcement of the BonoPod is expected on October 26.

This event is also probably going to announce the extension of the iTunes Music Store to other countries in Europe besides Britain, France and Germany. But, after a chat to an Apple Deep Throat, my suspicions are that Ireland won't be included, at least not in this tranche.

Sony's defence against Halo 2

Microsoft will put its massive marketing might behind the imminent launch of Halo 2 on November 11. Good game or not (and no one knows, because MS has refused to preview the single-player game until next week. Which is a little bit suspicious), it's bound to sell a million and get PS2 owners thinking: maybe I should get an Xbox for Christmas. Mind you, GTA: San Andreas is bound to be another PS2 smash, reinforcing the platform's desirability this Christmas.

Yet Sony still seems a little worried about Halo 2. What's it got in reserve to combat the Halo effect? I think I saw the answer last night and its name is Killzone, a war-based FPS exclusive to the PS2 which is due on November 26. It look terrific, plays well and builds in 16-player online multiplayer. Sweet.

Many gamers tend to buy purely on the strength of the ads, so the size of marketing budget will have a strong influence on the outright winner. Sony Ireland is furiously pushing Killzone and is believed to be setting aside €250,000 in the marketing kitty to pump up the sales.

Looks as if this will be the mother of all skirmishes in a game of my ad is bigger than your ad. Nonetheless, given the number of PS2s sold in Ireland and hence the number of potential customers, the smart money's on Killzone coming out as top gun.

Bye bye IE

A hundred (ish) different reasons why you should stop using Internet Explorer: see BrowseHappy.

AutoRoute trips up

In this week's column, Microsoft's trip planner AutoRoute 2005 gets the once-over. In many ways, it beats the hell out of loading web page after web page at some of the online map sites. But the maps are a bit dodgy on the Irish front, so how can you trust it with the rest of Europe? Read the full review in today's paper.

You can also get skinny on the Irish heats of the Xbox-based FIFA Interactive World Cup. Come along on Sunday October 31 if you think you're hard enough.

Meanwhile on the games front, the peerless Pro Evolution Soccer 4 has been taking up far too much of my invaluable time. Also reviewed are Def Jam Fight For NY (not bad if you're into brawlers and certainly heaps better than the original), Tiger Woods PGA 2005 (same old stuff but brilliantly done if you like that kind of thing) and NHL 2005, which (ho-ho) leaves me cold.

At last, Last Minute is a bit Irish

The deals on Lastminute.com often look tasty (30 quid flights to Budapest, that kind of thing) but bridging the gap to London from where most of the bargains start usually puts the kibosh on any savings.

Enter Lastminute.ie. The site seems a bit wobbly in its early incarnation (a few 404s, the odd script error). No doubt too the best destinations still involve the Heathrow hop. The "hot deals" so far are a bit tepid but this could be one place to keep an eye on if a boring weekend looms and you've got a few bob burning a hole in your phoca.

C'mere, langer

Completely scurrilous and deeply funny. Skirting the libel laws but not the boundaries of good taste. Probably just a one-trick pony. And judging by the whois, it may have nothing to do with the langers of Cork.

But visit Langerland anyway.