Filed under: iPod Family, Bad Apple, Apple
Microsoft speaks about virus laden iPods
Yesterday Apple announced that a small number of 5.5 gen video iPods were infected by a Windows virus and then shipped off to customers. They took this opportunity to mock Windows, which was in poor taste. Apple, you made a mistake and you should have just fessed up to it without the childish name calling.
Microsoft told Rueters, 'We encourage all third party vendors to follow best practices and help protect their users regardless of platform through careful scanning of the software they ship, so that they do not expose their customers to unnecessary risk from malicious software.' That pretty much sums it up right there.
It isn't often that I side with Microsoft against Apple, but this is one of those times.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Chris Nee said 5:12PM on 10-18-2006
name calling? apple stated they were upset at windows but they also said they were MORE upset with themselves. so they did fess up.
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Ryan said 5:19PM on 10-18-2006
sure they did fess up, but Apple did take the chance to bash Microsoft once more.
It's childish, and what's more it's starting to get annoying.
Admit you screwed up and fix the problem, the blame is SQUARELY on Apple.
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Damien said 5:28PM on 10-18-2006
How on earth did the virus get into the iPods in the first place? That's a shocking lapse in Apple's quality control.
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John Calsbeek said 5:30PM on 10-18-2006
Honestly, the first thing I thought about when I saw the story was the irony of Apple shipping a Windows-only virus. I think the "we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses" statement is an acknowledgement of the irony, not an attempt to mock Windows (any more than they do elsewhere, at least). It's kind of refreshing to see a bit of (attempted) humor as opposed to endless politically correct corporate web sites.
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jimmie geddes said 5:34PM on 10-18-2006
I'm a huge Mac fan, but I thought it was in such poor taste what Apple posted on their website. Sure they said they are even MORE upset at themselves, but they didn't have to insert the Windows comment. Take responsibility for your own mistake. I also don't side with Microsoft often, and I was happy to see this article on TUAW!!
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dansonthemove said 5:38PM on 10-18-2006
i agree. it was way immature and childish to use YOUR problem as justification to call out someone else.
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Sam Katz said 5:51PM on 10-18-2006
Once more, I was dissappointed that they recommended Norton. I was disappointed that they didn't write their own automated cleaner or something, or at least partner with some other antivirus vendor to provide it.
--Sam
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Sam Katz said 5:51PM on 10-18-2006
"through careful scanning of their software"
really? I thought it was the hardware that needed to be scanned.
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Object-X said 6:19PM on 10-18-2006
Microsoft deserves criticism and I support Apple's boldness to speak up and put the blame where it really belongs. Microsoft created this mess by writing defective software. They should be apologizing to their customers for this sad state of affairs. Apple is expressing their frustration that Windows is so horribly flawed that it's impossible to avoid this. It isn't one or two viruses, it's thousands and they are everywhere. Apple admitted they were mad at themselves for this mistake, but this situation is so ridiculously out of control. Why are people not outraged at Microsoft's incompetence? Why should we accept this?
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Microdot said 7:00PM on 10-18-2006
@Object-X
finally someone that see's the larger picture.
yes... apple screwed up. then vented off a little frustration about having to deal with an operating system so fragile. who here hasnt cussed microsoft at 3am in the morning cleaning up the latest worm attack on a pack of servers? i have... several dozen times.
so.. is it apples fault? absolutely.
is it microsofts faults as well? ABSOLUTELY. they share as much, or more blame than apple.
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Tee said 7:35PM on 10-18-2006
Microsoft might take a revenge by shipping Zune's with the first real virus ever for OSX. :P
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Richard said 7:52PM on 10-18-2006
You need to edit that photo to show a BSOD on one of the ipods.
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Brent said 9:30PM on 10-18-2006
I think the important thing here is determining *where* the file came from. One thing of note, it is a Windows executable, and has to be executed by the user in order to do any damage. I'm sorry, but I don't go randomly clicking and launching programs on any type of removable media. It would be a different story if the CD that ships with the iPod was infected and autoinstalled the virus, but it appears to be a very, very small number (under 25 last I read) of affected iPods. Apple claims it is less than 1%, which could originate from something as simple as a rogue line worker that thought it would be a good prank. I place blame on both Apple and M$. As for quality control not catching it, again, it would appear that around 25 out of 250,000 have this issue....a percentage that is *totally* capable of escaping Quality Control.
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mike said 12:07AM on 10-19-2006
Microsoft might take a revenge by shipping Zune's with the first real virus ever for OSX
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Brilliant. And Zune's won't work on the Mac, and no Mac user would consider buying or touching one of those. Hilarious.
I think what Apple was saying stands: If you're on Windows.. you already have antivirus software... no harm no foul
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Wes said 11:09PM on 10-18-2006
To Object-X and Microdot, lets play a thought experiment...
Let's say Johnson & Johnson had inadvertently contaminated a line of pills somehow. They release a press release that says: "As you can imagine, we’re upset that the human body is not more hardy against cyanide, and even more upset that poison has appeared in our product." J & J was just venting some frustration at having to deal with an organism so fragile. Really, who hasn't sworn to God at 3am after having to clean up puke from a toilet because some kid caught ill, or ingested something poisonous? God just made a creature so horribly flawed that he is felled by sickness or nasty chemical.
(I took the J&J analogy from K-Dub commenting on Red Sweater Blog and ran with it...)
http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/207/taking-the-blame#comment-18886
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n29 said 11:42PM on 10-18-2006
childish comments from Apple...whats wrong with them these days, quality problems with their products - check out www.appledefects.com - esp. the macbook and macbook pro page, never seen so much of quality problems with a product. Childish bashing of windows...get a life apple!
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Macskeeball said 11:53PM on 10-18-2006
In my mind, the blame in this case falls almost entirely on Apple's shoulders. As for Brent, they said 25 *reported* iPods. I'm sure that much more went unreported or even unnoticed.
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Padriac said 11:52PM on 10-18-2006
I'm asking, in all seriousness, at what time and in what forum can Microsoft be taken to task for the lack of security in their operating system. I get that people don't like Apple teasing them when Apple played a large part in creating the problem. But when can somebody, anybody, mention it? People are treating Windows viruses as an unavoidable fact of life... THIS IS THE PROBLEM. Apple is trying to remind people that they can avoid the whole goddamn mess by avoiding Microsoft.
The human body analogy is completely inappropriate and falsely applied because humans aren't given a choice between a "Microsoft" human body and an "Apple" human body at birth. Of course it's pointless to bitch about what you have when there are no alternatives. There are alternatives with the human body
Here is a proper analogy:
Let's say there are two kinds of pain pills: Apple pain pills and Microsoft pain pills. Microsoft pain pill are much more susceptible to contaminants encountered during storage in the home because they ship in really crappy bottles. Because of this contamination, a small percentage of Microsoft Pill users will experience vomiting. Apple brand pills don't have this side effect. So if I go to the doctor and tell him I've had back pain and thus have been taking Microsoft brand pills but I want to stop vomiting all the time, what's he going to tell me? Is he going to tell me to install an anti-contaminant air system in my home? No, he's going to tell me to stop taking Microsoft pills and to start taking Apple pills instead.
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Gil said 11:53PM on 10-18-2006
"Posted at 11:41PM on Oct 18th 2006 by n29 "childish comments from Apple...whats wrong with them these days, quality problems with their products - check out www.appledefects.com - esp. the macbook and macbook pro page, never seen so much of quality problems with a product. Childish bashing of windows...get a life apple!"
Childish? How so? It's ironic at how you are bashing apple for bashing Microsoft! As many above comments mentioned, apple is frustrated at the fact of having to deal with all of Microsoft's bugs in their operating systems. Of course, but MOST of them work and it works a LOT better than Windows. Apple was just "frustrated" and didn't say Microsoft was stupid or it was ALL their fault. Grow-up. No one ever said that apple is perfect, but we rather claim that Apple is better.
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David said 12:55AM on 10-19-2006
My bad guys, could someone tell me what platform the virus was written for?
Word!
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