Available as a free automatic download later this month, the new software announced today lets movie fans rent movies on the iTunes Store directly from their widescreen TV. With iTunes Movie Rentals and Apple TV - and with no computer required-customers can effortlessly rent movies just by clicking a button on their remote. By the end of February, they'll be able to choose from a catalog of more than 1,000 titles, including over 100 titles in high definition video with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound. DVD-quality iTunes Movie Rentals cost just $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases. High-definition versions are just one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99.

Twentieth Century Fox and Apple today announced iTunes Digital Copy for iTunes, which provides customers who purchase a DVD of a Fox movie title with an additional Digital Copy of the movie. The iTunes Digital Copy can be transferred effortlessly to iTunes and then viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod with video, iPhone or on Apple TV-just like a movie purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store. In fact, the first DVD to debut with iTunes Digital Copy is being released in stores today. It's the Special Edition DVD premiere of the Family Guy "Star Wars" parody, "Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest," and the first of many more to come.

Apple just unveiled their new ultraportable notebook, called the Macbook Air. It features a 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo, which can be upped to 1.8 GHz at a price. There is no optical drive, but a 80GB 4200 RPM hard drive or an optional 64GB SSD drive. The battery should last around 5 hours. The front is just a mere 0.16 inches high, while the back tops out at 0.76 inches. The keyboard is full size and features the same layout as on the new Mac Pro keyboard. It is backlit and has a black finish. The optional USB 2.0 Superdrive is available for $99 USD.

The Macbook Air will sell for 1,799 US Dollars or 1,699€s.

2008 Macworld Conference & Expo kicks off today and will continue during the whole week until January 18th. Macworld Conference & Expo is the world's most comprehensive event for the Mac operating system. During the show dozens of vendors will launch their Mac-related products and show the latest innovations for the Apple Mac, iPod, and iPhone.

An Italian security researcher has posted a proof-of-concept exploit for a zero-day vulnerability in the most current version of Apple's QuickTime media software (7.3.1) which affects both Windows and Mac OS X. According to Luigi Auriemma the bug is a buffer-overflow which happens during the handling of the HTTP error message and its visualization in the LCD-like screen which contains info about the status of the connection. Buffer overflows can often be exploited by attackers to compromise the affected system. In this scenario, that's exactly what this bug can do. It can allow the attacker to take control the affected system. The vulnerability Auriemma has identified has no fix at the moment, so keep it in mind if you use the latest QuickTime on your system. Find out more about the exploit here.

On Monday, Symantec found a Trojan software identified as iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep. "This Trojan claims to be a tool used to prepare the device for an upgrade to firmware version 1.1.3," the US-CERT advisory said. "When a user installs the Trojan, other application components are altered. If the Trojan is uninstalled, the affected applications may also be removed." The Trojan appears to be timed to exploit rumors that began in early December about new features in an upcoming iPhone firmware upgrade. Various online news sites and blogs cited a report published by CNET France that claimed an imminent iPhone update would feature a disk mode, for using the iPhone as a portable flash drive, and a voice recording mode. In a blog post here, Symantec security researcher Orla Cox said that "this is technically the first Trojan horse seen for the iPhone, however it does appear to be more of a prank than an actual threat,"

Apple today announced that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes Store to match the already standardized pricing on iTunes across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Apple currently must pay some record labels more to distribute their music in the UK than it pays them to distribute the same music elsewhere in Europe. Apple will reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.

"This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing."

Apple has put Intel Xeon steroids inside the latest iteration of its Xserve, promising the server to be up to twice as fast as the previous model. Shipping now, the new breed Xserve includes up to two Quad-core 3.0GHz Intel Xeon processors offering 8-core performance. These new systems also boast a new server architecture, faster front side buses, faster memory, two PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots and up to 3TB of storage. As ever, this new version of Apple's 1U server includes an unlimited client licence for Mac OS X Server Leopard, with Xserve prices starting at £1,999 (US$4,000), including VAT. "With the latest Intel processors and no client access licenses, Xserve offers unbeatable server performance and value for under $3,000," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "Xserve's power, storage and Leopard Server make it ideal for supporting Mac clients and mixed platform workgroups."

Apple today introduced the new Mac Pro with eight processor cores and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of its predecessor. The new Mac Pro combines two of Intel's new 45 nanometer Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2 GHz, powerful new graphics and up to 4TB of internal storage to offer the ideal system for creative professionals, 3D digital content creators and scientists. The standard 8-core configuration starts at just $2,799.

The United States Army is quietly integrating Macintosh computers into its systems to make them harder to attack. In an interview with Forbes Magazine, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel C.J. Wallington explains that fewer hack attacks have been designed to infiltrate Macs and adding more Macs to the mix makes it harder to destabilize their system. Jonathan Broskey, who once worked for Apple, argues that the Unix core at the center of Mac operating system makes it easier to lockdown. While the number of malicious software programs targeting Macs has been small in the past, it is beginning to grow. Charlie Miller, a software researcher with Security Evaluators, worries that the Army's diversification plan will not stop a determined intruder. He also explains that Apple's security is a myth and has been proven more vulnerable than Windows.

A few years ago, one of the biggest weapons in a Mac user's arsenal for any Windows vs OS X debate was that Apple's operating system was more secure than Microsoft's. However, the statistics compiled by ZDNet (which are shown in the table below) tell a very different story for this year. Combined, Windows XP and Vista saw a total of 44 flaws, whilst Max OS X experienced 243 - over five times more. Overall, Macs had 234 highly critical vulnerabilities compared to just 23 for Windows, although admittedly Mac OS X had no extremely critical flaws, whilst Windows had four. This would seem to suggest that the tables have turned a little, which could well be linked to the fact that Macs have become more popular over the last couple of years and as a result there is a greater incentive to hack them.

Apple has shipped a major Security Update 2007-009 (10.4.11 Universal), recommended for all Mac OS X v10.4.11 and Mac OS X v10.5.1 users. This update corrects multiple critical flaws and improves the security of many Mac OS apps. Those wanting to know more about the updates may click here.

The first phone posted on our front page, is about to get 3G support sometime next year. Because we're a hardware and gaming site, phone news are not allowed, but since it's an Apple creation and not exactly a phone (it's an iPhone) we can make an exception once. At a meeting of the Churchill Club on Wednesday, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said: "You'll have it next year," when asked when a 3G iPhone would appear. AT&T is the exclusive mobile carrier for the iPhone in the US. Current iPhones connect to EDGE-based networks for intensive data-transmission chores such as browsing and email. EDGE advertises in-the-field download speeds in the 70Kbit/s to 135Kbit/s range, although its technical top end is 384Kbit/s. 3G networks use HSDPA/UMTS technology and boast download speeds between 600Kbit/s and 1.4Mbit/s. The iPhone's reliance on the much slower EDGE technology was roundly criticised before the smartphone was launched in June, and the issue has come up again as Apple released the iPhone in Europe, where 3G-based cellular networks are much more widespread than in the US. But in September, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it plain that the iPhone would stick with EDGE for now because of power and battery issues.

That's right folks, for the low low price of €749, you can go to France and get your very own non-contract-binding iPhone from Orange. The iPhone is normally around €399, with a binding two-year contract. The fees add up as such: You buy a no-contract iPhone for €649, and if you want the iPhone unlocked, it'll cost you €100 more. The fee only applies for the first six months of iPhone ownership, however, so if you wait a while the unlocked iPhone will "only" cost €649. Anyone from the U.K. hoping to pick up a somewhat cheaper unlocked iPhone can expect to spend around £536 for the whole kit and caboodle. The iPhone goes on sale in France tonight.

Apple updated QuickTime to version 7.3 recently to address a much-exploited bug, but a new QuickTime vulnerability has emerged, prompting security agencies to issue warnings to those running QuickTime on either Windows XP or Windows Vista. There is no word yet on whether Mac OS X is vulnerable to the new QuickTime bug. Apple's QuickTime is vulnerable to malware disguised as streaming video, and attack code has been published on the milw0rm.com web site. According to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, QuickTime versions 7.2 and 7.3, and perhaps earlier versions, contain a buffer-overflow bug. "Apple QuickTime contains a stack buffer overflow vulnerability in the way QuickTime handles the RTSP Content-Type header," US-CERT said. "This vulnerability may be exploited by convincing a user to connect to a specially crafted RTSP stream." RTSP is the Real-Time Streaming Protocol, which QuickTime supports. When users click on a link for a malicious RTSP stream, an attacker might be able to execute arbitrary code on the compromised system. Solutions of limiting this vulnerability until a new patch is released, can be found here.

Apple is investigating whether or not faulty Seagate hard drives are to blame for data loss on some MacBooks. Retrodata, a U.K. data recovery firm, reported that certain 2.5-inch Seagate drives used in MacBooks had a manufacturing flaw that causes the drive heads to scratch the surface of the drive and cause major problems. The faulty drives are all Seagate 2.5" Serial ATA drives that are manufactured in China, with a Firmware revision of 7.01. No other drives seem (at this stage) to be affected. If your MacBook has a 7.01, Retrodata advises backing up your data and consider replacing the drive. Apple representative said:

We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it.

Germany is the first country, other than France, to offer an unlocked iPhone. For €999 ($1481/£720), the German citizen can march over to T-mobile and purchase an iPhone devoid of contracts and locks. This is more than double the price of a stock iPhone, which is roughly €399. However, when you think about it, €999 actually isn't all that bad. After the initial €399 cost, T-Mobile iPhone customers are boxed into a 2-year contract. After all fees are said and done, iPhone customers would spend €1575 to maintain two years of service, which they are legally obligated to do, lest they incur early termination fees.

T-Mobile also announced that it would be happy to unlock iPhones already purchased, but did not name a price for this premium service at time of publication.

The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today announced that both Mac OS X Leopard and Mac OS X Server Leopard from Apple Inc. have been awarded a certificate of conformance to the UNIX 03 standard. UNIX 03 is the certification mark for systems conforming to the latest UNIX product standard developed by The Open Group Platform Forum for the Single UNIX Specification version 3. This certification is significant as it further broadens the installed base of UNIX systems in the marketplace to include a popular desktop platform. In addition, Apple's UNIX 03 certification is a milestone for the UNIX certification program since Mac OS X is the first operating system derived from the open source BSD base of historical UNIX products to meet the certification requirements.

Apple has admitted that the firewall in its new Leopard OS X may be misleading to users, after complaints that the "Block all incoming connections" setting was not all that it was made out to be.

The 'Block all incoming connections' setting for the Application Firewall allows any process running as user "root" (UID 0) to receive incoming connections, and also allows mDNSResponder to receive connections. This could result in the unexpected exposure of network services.

As a result, the company has quickly released a patch to fix this issue, which also fixes a flaw that lets processes running as root through the firewall even if they are added to the list of blocked applications, and an issue which means an application needs to be restarted before changes in firewall settings will take affect for it.

The 10.5.1 Update for Mac OS X Leopard is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac. For detailed information on this update, please visit this page. To update to Mac OS X 10.5.1, use Software Update or the standalone installer here.

In Europe, it seems like the iPhone is greeted with nothing but tribulation and joy. After initial sales figures of 10,000 units were reported in the mid-afternoon of the first day of sales in Germany, one of the CEOs of T-mobile exclaimed "we're delighted". British sales were not much different. After stores opened their doors to queues seen camping out overnight, the BBC recorded scenes of "mayhem" in London. The iPhone goes on sale in France on November 29th, twenty days later than it did in Germany and the UK. However, the wait will be worth it: by French law, all mobile phones sold in France must come unlocked, to join whatever network the French customer chooses. Apple is working closely with French telecom companies to make sure that French iPhones do not make their way out of France, where a factory-unlocked iPhone would fetch a pretty penny.

Mobile email company Visto has launched a service that delivers corporate mobile email access on the iPhone. The Visto Mobile service lets iPhone users securely and easily access corporate email without downloading any additional software to the iPhone or requiring any changes to security policies or corporate firewall settings. The service is already available in the US and will be made available across Europe from today through Visto's website. Use of the service is free for the first 60 days, a video demonstration of the service in action is also available. Visto Mobile exploits the iPhone's user interface, which already allows users to send and receive attachments, receive rich HTML email and view e-mails as they were originally sent. Visto Mobile adds the corporate directory search capability, so individuals can search for any contact and either place a call, send an email or obtain driving directions by selecting the contact's phone number, email address or physical address.

Despite the utterly deplorable weather conditions in London last night, a small horde of dedicated iPhone enthusiasts was seen waiting in front of the local O2 store. Graham Gilbert, 22, officially has the honor of being the first man to be seen waiting for the iPhone in London. Graham has "been looking forward to the iPhone since it was announced in January." Once Graham has an iPhone, he plans to stick with O2, and not unlock/modify his iPhone. He his efforts to unlock the phone would be in vain every time Apple released a firmware update. The Apple iPhone die-hards will be able to get their hands on the iPhone at 6PM tonight, local time.

It seems as though the mass adoption of Mac OS X Leopard is bringing Apple more than publicity and sales. The German security experts at Heise Security and security blogger Rich Mogull tested OS X Leopard out for themselves, and found some serious problems. The OS X Leopard firewall works by signing applications that aren't already signed by Apple, so that they are given the go-ahead by the firewall. Unfortunately, when a program changes, that go-ahead disappears. Skype is one of those programs that changes itself, and so it comes as no surprise that Skype users are reporting trouble getting Skype to work on their Mac OS X Leopard computers. World of Warcraft also has this problem, though it's not entirely understood why. World of Warcraft forum members report that reinstalling the game clears the bug right up.

After reports early last month of Apple's latest iMacs experiencing random freezes linked to the Radeon HD drivers used by the machines, Apple has released a patch which should fix the problem. It is recommended for all 20" and 24" iMacs using 2GHz, 2.4GHz or 2.8GHz processors, with separate downloads available for both OS X Tiger and the new OS X Leopard.