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Orange, France Telecom's mobile provider, will whisk the iPhone into at least 10 more European, Middle Eastern, and African countries.

The iPhone is becoming quite the world traveler.

The deal with Apple, announced Friday, will bring the popular device later this year into Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Portugal, Egypt, and Jordan, as well as into unspecified countries in Africa and--back on the home side of the Atlantic--the Dominican Republic.

Until recently the iPhone has been available in just a handful of countries outside the U.S., including the U.K., France, Germany, and Ireland.

But announcement after announcement of foreign outreach keep popping up. Since late April, the list of target countries has frenetically expanded to include Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, the Philippines, South Africa, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

No doubt, that list is incomplete.

Safari users are at risk of littering their desktops with malicious software because the browser does not ask for user permission when downloading files in the way that Firefox and Internet Explorer do, a security researcher said Thursday.

In a blog post titled "Safari Carpet Bomb," Nitesh Dhanjani describes how a rogue Web site can easily download resources to the Windows desktop or downloads directory on the Mac.

"Apple does not feel this is an issue they want to tackle at this time," he writes.

An Apple representative told Dhanjani that an "enhancement request" for an "Ask me before downloading anything" preference would be filed with the Safari team. "Please note that we are not treating this as a security issue, but a further measure to raise the bar against unwanted downloads," the Apple representative wrote in an e-mail to Dhanjani.

That issue, coupled with the fact that Safari doesn't warn users when a local resource, such as an HTML file, attempts to invoke client-side scripting, creates a risky situation for most browser users, Dhanjani said in an interview. "People are starting to expect more from browsers today," he said.

The Apple representative told him that the company has been "investigating the potential for a 'safe' mode for local HTML."

Meanwhile, Apple does plan to fix a high-risk security vulnerability that Dhanjani discovered. It could be used to remotely steal local files from a user's file system.

An Apple spokesman did not return a phone call and e-mail ... Read more

Apple plans to debut an iPhone platform development track at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month, as the computer company seeks to become the Johnny Appleseed of iPhone features.

The iPhone platform will be one of two development platforms set to take center stage at Apple's developers conference next month. Mac OS X Leopard will be the other showcase platform.

The event will run June 9-13 in San Francisco.

Under the iPhone track, developers can work with Apple engineers to design applications that focus on the device's multitouch user screen, animation technology, and APIs.

iPhone sessions will also be held to cover the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including iPhone SDK and the App Store. These sessions are designed to show developers how to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod users.

The Mac track will focus on development techniques for OS X Leopard applications, ranging from interface design to application frameworks, security, localization, and networking.

Other sessions during the five-day event will include Cocoa Touch, Interface Builder, and Xcode. Developers will be allowed to bring code to the labs, where they can work with Apple engineers.

I'm not a big fan of surveys, so I don't quote them often. But a recent Consumer Reports survey about PC manufacturers listed Apple as No. 1 in tech support, with Lenovo second, Dell third, and HP dead last. I should also say that Dell came in second in desktops.

I thought the headline should be "Survey says leading PC maker HP dead last in tech support." But that's not what happened. The media hailed Apple, trashed Dell, and gave HP a pass.

Horror stories about Dell's support are all over the blogosphere. Why is that? I mean, why does the media give Dell such a hard time?

Because perception is reality. But aside from being a pithy statement, what does that really mean? ... Read more

Google's Vidnik lets users take videos, trim them, and upload them to YouTube.

(Credit: Google)

Google has released basic software called Vidnik that lets Mac OS X users record video with a Webcam or built-in camera, trim its length, add tags and a title, then upload it to YouTube.

The software also can be used to upload other videos to the company's video-sharing site, and other editing software can be used on the videos taken by Vidnik, David Phillip Oster of Google's Mac team said in a blog posting.

The software is among a host of Mac applications the company has produced. (Another interesting one is Visigami, which lets people search for images on Flickr, Picasa, and Google Images and use the results as an animated screensaver.)

Google has an increasing stable of software that runs on people's computers--Google Desktop is one good example--and is working on mobile phone applications, too, through its Android project. But don't be confused by all this attention to what's known as client software: the company's higher priority is to make the Internet the application foundation of choice.

A remote-desktop access feature found in some Macintoshes is being credited with leading police to two suspects in the burglary of an apartment in New York.

In addition to flat-screen TVs, iPods, and DVDs, the thieves made off with two laptops, one of which belonged to Kait Duplaga, an Apple store employee, according to a report in The New York Times on Saturday.

While police in White Plains, N.Y., were coming up empty with their investigation, Duplaga learned that her computer was being used on the Internet, and she turned on the Back to My Mac feature installed on her Mac from another Mac, according to the report.

The feature allowed Duplaga to see immediately how the computer was being used at the time, as well as operate it remotely. Recalling that she had a camera installed on the computer, the fast-thinking Duplaga snapped images of one of the burglary suspects before he realized what was happening, according to the Times. Duplaga showed the image to friends, who recognized the suspect as someone who attended a party at the apartment.

The photo led police to arrest two suspects on Wednesday and recover nearly all the stolen property.

"It doesn't get much better than their bringing us a picture of the guy actually using the stolen property," Daniel Jackson, the deputy commissioner of public safety in White Plains, told the newspaper. "It certainly made our job easier."

The Back to My Mac feature, which runs on Leopard-based Macintoshes, requires

Correction 6:18 p.m. PT: I misinterpreted the announcement; Inquisitor founder David Watanabe isn't joining Yahoo.

Inquisitor augments Safari by autocompleting search queries and showing results.

(Credit: Yahoo)

Yahoo has acquired Inquisitor in a move to improve how search results appear on Apple computers.

The Safari browser plug-in offers autocompletion of search queries and shows a pane with search results as users type queries. The plug-in, now in version 3, is a free download.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Inquisitor founder and developer David Watanabe will continue to work with Yahoo on the software.

"I look forward to assisting Yahoo in refining and extending the Inquisitor user experience beyond where it is today.," Watanabe said on his blog.

"David and our team of Macphiles will continue to innovate on both form and function for Inquisitor," Ariel Seidman, director of search product management for Yahoo, wrote in Yahoo's blog posting.

Apple is offering a $45 credit to Canadian owners of older versions of its popular iPod, a move that strikes of deva ju over a similar settlement agreement reached in 2005 with U.S.-based iPod owners.

Under the proposed settlement, as reported in the Montreal-based Gazette newspaper, Apple Canada plans to offer a $45 credit to iPod owners who purchased their music players before June 24, 2005. The credit can be used at Apple's online retail store.

The settlement is over allegations that the iPod batteries failed after three hours in-between charges, compared with its advertised claims of an eight-hour battery life. Up to 80,000 Canadians are expected to be eligible under the proposed settlement, according to the Gazette.

This means the Canadian settlements, which are expected to be wrapped by June 20, could cost Apple up to $3.6 million.

Apple did better with the two Canadian class-action settlements than with its U.S. lawsuits. Under the 2005 U.S. settlement, Apple agreed to provide a $50 store credit and extended warranties to iPod owners who purchased their device between its introduction in 2001 and May 2004.

U.S.-based iPod owners alleged their devices remained charged for four to five hours, verses the 10 hours that were advertised. Up to 2 million U.S. iPod owners were eligible to receive the settlement, pushing the price tag up to $100 million for Apple.

Microsoft may not be the only one looking to develop its own Wiimote-like game controller. Apple is researching a 3D remote of its own, according to AppleInsider.

The Apple TV and its current remote control.

(Credit: Apple)

The research, reportedly outlined in a November 2006 patent filing disclosed this week, describes a device that would work similarly to the Nintendo Wii controller "in video games to position a user's character or to otherwise track the movement of the remote control in a user's environment." The remote would apparently be designed to work with Apple TV as its console.

The device would also use some of the multitouch features seen on other Apple products, including the iPhone and MacBooks. According to the filing, it would "zoom into and out of an image or a portion thereof based on the absolute position of the remote control."

Patent filings are never any guarantee of actual products, of course. But there will be particular interest in this one because a move by Apple into the game industry has been rumored--and hoped for, by loyalists--for years. So if nothing else, it will keep that flame alive at least a little while longer.

Vodafone is the latest cell phone company to get Apple's iPhone, the company said Tuesday.

Telecom Italia also said Tuesday it's going to sell the iPhone in Italy.

Vodafone will be distributing the iPhone in 10 countries, making this the first time that Apple has sold the phone through two different operators in the same market.

(Credit: Apple)

Vodafone subscribers will be able to get the iPhone in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and later this year in Turkey.

Almost a year after the iPhone hit store shelves in the U.S. market, it's still only available in a few countries outside the U.S., including the U.K., Germany, and France.

Canadian wireless operator Rogers Communications recently announced it has the exclusive contract to sell the popular touch-screen device there.

Apple watchers believe the company will soon come out with a 3G version of the iPhone. Apple has cut prices of the iPhone in the U.K. and Germany, which some believe is an indication the company is getting ready to launch the 3G version of the phone this summer. T-Mobile is currently selling the 8GB iPhone in Germany for 99 euros until the end of June. Subscribers who get the phone at the price have to agree to a hefty service contract.