Filed under: iPod Family
Some 5.5 gen iPods ship with Windows virus
This certainly isn't amongst the new features that Apple has touted for their latest rev of iPods. It would seem that a 'small number' of iPods shipped after Sept. 12, 2006 may be carrying a Windows virus by the name of RavMonE.exe. Apple says that less than 1% of Video iPods are infected, and they have seen less than 25 cases reported. The most interesting sentence of this note is, 'As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.'
Nice spin, Apple. 'Umm.. yeah, so we shipped something with a virus on it, but Windows shouldn't get viruses! Yeah, that's the ticket.'
Apple suggests scanning your iPod with an anti-virus program and restoring the iPod's software using iTunes.
iPod shuffles, nanos, and OS X are not affected and all currently shipping iPods are 100% virus free.
Thanks, Zack.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jarland Donnell said 4:00PM on 10-17-2006
Now I'm always one to run in & defend Apple, but there's no excuse for that. That's the only thing that worries me about Apple getting more popular, that the increase in demand can cause their products to become a little more like to competitors that we dislike. Oh well, Apple products could probably drop in quality by about 50% and I'd still want them.
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Sam said 4:11PM on 10-17-2006
Here's a spin on it...
What it Apple put it there on purpose and 'found it' at around the same time as another MP3 player manufacturer announced the same problem. Apple would get away with their less than 1% problem, make a point about OS X not being affected and be able to use the term 'This WINDOWS virus affects..' several times in their press release.
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Jootec from Mars said 4:17PM on 10-17-2006
What I'd like to know is: How the heck does a virus get on a brand new product in the first place?
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Pilster said 4:29PM on 10-17-2006
next 'Get a Mac' ad.
Mac: "Hi I'm a Mac"
PC: "and I'm a PC". (PC scratching groin vigorously.)
Mac: "What's up PC"
PC: "Well I had this thing going with your girlfriend..." (enter Gisell style generic supermodel, looking sheepish) "....iPod and, Mac, I think I have something to tell you"
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GadgetGav said 5:20PM on 10-17-2006
This is going to run and run...!
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Macskeeball said 5:26PM on 10-17-2006
Unacceptable, and I don't even use any MS products.
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Dave M. said 5:56PM on 10-17-2006
Jootec from Mars, It's really quite simple. The iPod has to be formatted as FAT32 in order for Windows boxes to be able to read/write to them. How else does one format a FAT32 file system other than with Windows. OK, that's not entirely true, you can format FAT32 with Linux too I think.
However, it's simply a matter of the overseas manufacturing company having a virus on a device that formats and installs the software on the iPod HD's.
Ironically, if Apple had never opened the iPod up to Windows users, this would have never happened. They would be formatted as HFS+ and that would be the end of that.
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Adam Coates said 6:40PM on 10-17-2006
Number 7:
A Mac can format a disk to FAT32.
Still I'm with Number 2. No such thing as bad publicity and this is a prefect time to be bashing Windoze as the Vista releases get better and nearer to being on the shelves.
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Ash said 7:09PM on 10-17-2006
I wouldn't point the finger at apple right away on this one. From reading a few apple discussion threads about it, I have a feeling the virus is one that was present in Windows BEFORE the iPod was connected! It's a virus that then goes on to infect any removable storage device attached.
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Gandhi said 9:35PM on 10-17-2006
Reading reports on the internet suggest that the machine used to make the iPods was runing Windows, and infeced the iPods during the manufacturing process.
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GadgetGav said 10:06PM on 10-17-2006
Cheap shot from Apple to say that Windows shouldn't be susceptable to worms like this. I'm disappointed. It's one thing to mock Windows viruses in ads, but it's another to ship them out even by mistake. This should have been a time for humble pie, not jokes and cheap shots.
Saying what they did only promotes the 'Mac users are smug' syndrome and leads to cigarettes being poked into eyes.
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Callum said 3:40AM on 10-18-2006
i remember getting a virus of an AOL Install disk many years ago, say '99. i remember being amazed - how the hell did that happen - trawled the web and found out that it happens all the time.
same old windows problems, sad. its not like Apple MADE the virus., it IS like Microsoft didn't ship windows with Antivirus until it was waa-y too late. does vista come with Anti-Virus built in? well, i don't care anyway.
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Colin Keigher said 3:55AM on 10-18-2006
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/archive-102006.html#00000997
The same problem happened with McDonalds and their MP3 player promotion with Coke. Except, all of them had the trojan and it was stealing passwords. :)
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Ron K said 2:27PM on 10-18-2006
Viral Marketing from Apple, in its lastest form :-)
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Justin Bell said 2:45AM on 10-19-2006
"...and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it."
It seems like you are doing the most spinning here, as they put most of the blame on themselves.
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