Apple:

We recently discovered that a small number - less than 1% - of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free.

I’m somewhat curious — but in no hurry to check — if the new iPod my wife just bought arrived with this RavMonE.exe Windows virus. We are using the iPod only with our Mac so this doesn’t really apply even if the virus came packed with the iPod. We have a shared MP3 folder where we store all the MP3 we’ve burned and imported those from the Mac. The iPod has not been plugged into any of our Windows machines yet.

A number of people have pointed out the sentence from Apple after the one quoted above that reads:

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.

Cheap shot. They would have been far less arrogant and wiser to simply say: “As you might imagine, we are upset with ourselves for not catching it.” Not Apple’s way, I guess.

Nathan sees this as a classless move too:

You used to let your products speak for themselves. Show some class, or at least stand behind your products, not your bitter and arrogant attitude. I get the feeling that when the tide turns (and it always does), you won’t have a lot of friends bemoaning your demise.

This is weak, but it won’t hurt Apple’s momentum. Their ardent fans will raise their fists and say: “yeah, down with Microsoft.” The platform agnostic like me will just shake their heads. The people who already hate Apple will only despise them more.

At the end of the day I don’t think Apple is going anywhere any time soon. The Zune is going to be about as successful dethroning the iPod as Tablet PCs replacing laptops en masse.

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