Apple hosting an event on March 24th for desktops?

It’s not confirmed yet, but there is a rumor going around interwebs-town about an event that Apple plans to hold on March 24th. In other words, rumors of Mac Mini and iMac refreshes are now revived for the 6,432,871st time. Yay! Sources for this are unconfirmed, but word seems to be coming from more than just one place which is never a bad thing. If things pan out we can only hope Apple has something big in store for that date, especially since many of us have been left longing after being bombarded with so many iMac and Mac Mini rumors. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as news comes our way.

T-Mobile brings $50 unlimited voice plan to rest of America

Well, that “trial” didn’t last long at all, now did it? Just days after teeing up a $50 unlimited voice plan in the great city of San Francisco, T-Mobile USA has reportedly taken said plan nationwide. Users are already buzzing about the widespread availability, though it should be noted that the same “loyalty requirements” from the San Fran pilot are still in effect for the rest of the nation. In other words, you have to have been a T-Mob subscriber for at least 22 months and have been in good standing the whole time. Oh, and being cute probably helps.

iPods and iPhones forbidden at Gates home

While we knew that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had forbidden his offspring from using competitors’ products like iPods and, yes, even Google, we always thought his predecessor, Bill Gates, hovered above the fray, unconcerned with such earthly matters. Alas, it seems our otherworldly faith in Mr. Microsoft might have been misplaced.

Geeksugar reports that in an interview in this month’s issue of Vogue, Bill’s wife Melinda says that Apple products are among the persona non grata (objecta non grata?) in the heavily fortified Gates compound.

“There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids.”

I would say that those poor Gates children might feel a little left out when all their peers show up at school sporting the hippest new iPod, while they’re just staring at their Zunes. However, then I recalled that they arrive at school every morning on talking golden unicorns and my anger on their behalf was, shall we say, assuaged.

For her part, Mrs. Gates does occasionally find herself succumbing to iPhone envy: “Every now and then I look at my friends and say ‘Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone.’” There’s your opening, Cupertino—time to exploit it. Wait until she finds out that Bill’s been hiding a MacBook Air in a manila envelope in his office.

Apple releases Battery Update 1.4 for all MacBook models

Apple on Monday released Battery Update 1.4, an update for all MacBook models designed to improve the ability of MacBook batteries to maintain a charge when shut down and not used for an extended period of time.

To determine if you need the firmware update, Apple says to open System Profiler on your MacBook and click on Power under the Hardware section. If you see a device name of ASMB016 or ASMB013 in the serial number, a Pack Lot Code of 0002, and a battery firmware version of 0110, your battery needs updating.

To run the update, you must be using OS X 10.5.6.

iPhone Dominates U.S. Mobile Web Usage

AppleInsider has passed on a report by Net Applications that confirms the iPhone dominates the mobile web market.

According to the report the iPhone controls over 66% of mobile web usage, which turns out to be over nine time more than its closest competitor, WindowsMobile, which is reported to handle just 6.91% of mobile traffic. Google’s Android and Symbian were tied close behind Microsoft at 6.15 percent, while Research In Motion’s BlackBerry OS trailed behind all, including Palm OS devices, at 2.24 percent.

The Net Applications report backs up data presented by AdMob which stated that the iPhone commanded more than half of the smartphone traffic in the U.S. and a third of that worldwide. It also presents a strong case for competition from Android, which gained control in four months, the same amount of mobile web usage that Symbian took to garner in years.

This news (and rumors of the release of revised desktop machines) may bring some relief to Apple afficianados concerned with the company’s recent drop in share prices.

AMD Releases Version 2.1.6 of its Overdrive Overclocking Tool

Normally we don’t track every software revision to every overclocking utility on the net, and for good reason. If we did, we wouldn’t get any other work done. The overclocker’s tool kit consists of dozens of applications to vary the speed of the fans, set and modify clocks, and a few more for benchmarking and checking stability. The ability to wrap all these utilities up into a single easy to use application was the goal of AMD when it created its Overdrive Tool, and the new version 2.1.6 delivers some impressive improvements. The new version has several stability and bug fixes as well as support for newer chipsets and full compatibility with Catalyst 9.2.

For those that haven’t been following the utilities development, the goal of the project was to create a single overclocking utility for AMD / ATI customers that would be a one stop utility for tweaking your system. AMD Marketing Manager Sami Maekinen has also released a series of video demonstrations showing how both enthusiasts and novices alike will find everything they need to dial in the best performance.

Have you given the Overdrive utility a spin? If so hit the jump and let us know how it’s been working for you.

Street Fighter IV and Guitar Hero World Tour PC-Bound

Console gamers have been melting faces and bashing skulls under mountains of plastic peripherals for years, but what about those of the PC persuasion? Where are our seemingly Skittle-riddled, Fischer Price-friendly hunks of electronic bliss?

They’re in the future. Like jetpacks.

First up, Street Fighter IV – apparently afraid of being associated with this week’s feature flop – is laying low until summer. Well, probably. Capcom vice president, business development and strategic planning, Christian Svensson’s exact words were: “Let’s say summer.”

The game will likely come bundled with some “sticks and pads” – if you catch Svensson’s meaning. (We assume he means arcade sticks, though “Mad Catz” were also mentioned. This is why videogames confuse old people.)

In other, slightly vaguer peripheral-related news, Intel basically confirmed the existence of Guitar Hero World Tour on the PC. The King Kong of processors passed along a press release that acknowledged the game, and then just sort of stopped, as though the employee writing it finally reached the end of his/her Quake Live queue and abandoned their work to–

Thieves Target Sidekick More Than Any Other Phone

Although it’s not one of the best selling cell phones in the United States, the T-Mobile Sidekick likely leads all other cell phones when it comes to number of thefts. NPD Group has never listed the Sidekick as one of its top five selling cell phones, but the popularity of the phone among young people because of the “cool factor” has made the phone easier to resell.

“It’s more attractive to a thief if it’s a SIM card-enabled cell phone,” said Adrian Portlock, CEO of a company specializing in tracking stolen cell phones. “They have the maximum ability to turn them into cash,” he said when explaining why thieves target the Sidekick. “It’s that young market, Internet savvy, trend-driven market where they’ll buy a used cell phone, no questions asked.”

The phone’s ability to use SIM cards makes it even easier for thieves to remove the SIM card and erase all the information from the phone before selling it.

Thieves routinely unlock the phone so it can be used on AT&T, then will scratch out the Sidekick’s identification number before selling it over the internet. Using an unlocked Sidekick on AT&T will disable some of the phone’s features, but the inability to use AOL Instant Messaging may not be enough to stop people from using the unlocked phone.

It seems several cities reported Sidekick thefts led to an increase in overall theft, with police agencies warning phone owners to be more discreet about their texting and general phone use in public.

T-Mobile is aware of the problem, and says it has “a long history of working with law enforcement agencies across the country on their investigations.” It’s unknown if T-Mobile will be able to reduce the amount of Sidekick thefts in the United States, unless it changes how the phones are activated or modified.

Defense Contractor Leaks Obama’s Presidential Helicopter Plans to Iran

When it comes to national security, one of the keys to keeping the American President safe is the fleet of executive aircraft — from presidential helicopters, to the ultra-high-tech jet fortress, Air Force One. Thus it came as quite a shock to the security community when security firm Tiversa discovered blueprints of the Barack Obama’s presidential helicopter, Marine One, being hosted by an Iranian IP address.

The leaked plans included details on the helicopter’s communications and engineering. Describes Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, “We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president’s helicopter. What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly sensitive blueprints for Marine One.”

Mr. Boback believes the leak may be innocent in nature. He points out that many file sharing programs automatically share the contents of your entire hard drive. The employee may merely have downloaded a P2P client to download music and videos and ended up unwittingly leaking the highly confidential information on Marine One. Says Mr. Boback, “When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive.”

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who consults with Tiversa, says that at least the breach has been fully traced. He states, “We found where this information came from. We know exactly what computer it came from. I’m sure that person is embarrassed and may even lose their job, but we know where it came from and we know where it went.”

According to Mr. Boback, they have notified the appropriate authorities, which are taking steps to safeguard the President. He states, “They are working through a process to maintain the security of the president.”

Iran is just one of several nations in the Middle East to comb P2P networks, he says. He states, “We’ve noticed it out of Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar, and China. They are actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is a great source of intelligence.”

Rep. Jason Altmire (D – PA) said he was disturbed by the incident, and called on measures to monitor P2P networks more carefully for classified information. He states, “Well, I’m very troubled to hear this because there are obviously elements in Iran that are not friendly to the United States and it would be an understatement to say that this type of information could be very detrimental were it to fall into the wrong hands.”

Retired Gen. Clark aptly points out, “Once it’s out there, it’s hard to get it back. I don’t think the full ramifications of this have been understood by the watchdog agencies.”

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