iPad users on Windows targeted with malware

Scammers are distributing e-mails designed to trick iPad owners into downloading software that they think is an iTunes update. Scammers are distributing e-mails designed to trick iPad owners into downloading software that they think is an iTunes update, but which turns out to be malware that opens a back door on the computer, researchers warned on Monday.

Read more about iPad in ZDNet's Special Report

The e-mails have a subject line that says "iPad Software Update" and offer a link to a Web page that looks like a legitimate iTunes download page, according to BitDefender. Instead, the link installs malware identified as Backdoor.Bifrose.AADY, according to the BitDefender blog.

The malware injects itself in to the "explorer.exe" process and opens up a back door that attackers can use to take control of the system whenever they want, the post said. It also attempts to read the keys and serial numbers of the various software programs installed on the computer and logs passwords to the victim's ICQ, Messenger, and POP3 mail accounts, and protected storage, BitDefender said.

For more on this story, read iPad users on Windows targeted with malware on CNET News.

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Why doesn't the iPad support multiple users?

 The iPad should support multiple users.

(Credit: kottke.org)

It's been just over a month since I got my iPad 2 on launch day. For the most part, I absolutely love it. More often than not, I find myself reaching for it at times when previously I'd open up my MacBook. It's totally filled a void in my tech life I had not known existed, and for that I am grateful.

However, unlike my MacBook Pro, the iPad is curiously missing what I think is a must-have piece of functionality. Why doesn't the iPad support multiple users? I asked a few colleagues around the office what they think are the reasons for such a gross omission and far too often I got responses like, "But the iPad is such a personal device," or "They just want every household to buy one for each person living there."

Regarding the first excuse I immediately call foul. Yes, the iPad is a personal device, but it's no more personal than my MacBook Pro--which has no issues with giving my wife or me that deliciously satisfying cube-rotation animation when logging in and out. When I think "personal device" I think of, say, a toothbrush. Since the iPad is not a toothbrush (yet), it should let my wife and me maintain separate identities or system states so we don't continuously need to log in and out of e-mail accounts, Facebook, Twitter, and the like 20 times a day. Sure, iOS was originally conceived for a phone, but the iPad is not a phone that I carry around in my pocket.

Now comes the "They just want every household to buy one for each person living there" argument. Of course I understand why Apple would want a family of four to spend at least $2,000 (plus tax) on iPads, but I also understand that electricity costs money and food needs to be eaten regularly. I've accepted the fact that Apple has convinced an entire planet that simplicity comes at a premium, but I'm not a believer that these luxuries should have deliberate sharing limitations among two or more people.

OS X's user switching in action.

(Credit: mactalk.com.au)

That's right, I said deliberate. If you think the iPad in all its majesty is for whatever reason just technologically incapable of supporting multiple users, you probably laser-engraved the thing with your Social Security number on the back.

I could sympathize with that school of thought if the iPad were a $99 gadget, but it's not. At $500, it's quite expensive and certainly costs just as much as a solidly performing Windows laptop--a device that a family could easily share. Would supporting multiple users prevent the sale of a few iPads? Sure. But I'm comfortable in saying the iPad's intimidating price tag prevents plenty of would-be customers from pulling the trigger, too.

I constantly get asked of my opinion on other competing tablets--namely Android devices that don't support multiple users either--and I've yet to experience anything that comes close to the intoxicatingly smooth and worry-free performance of the iPad. All I want is to be able to share it correctly with my wife. Is that too much to ask? It's possible June's WWDC--a preview of the future of iOS--might bring us support for multiple users, but I'm not holding my breath.

Note: For now, there are apps that will give iPad users limited profile sharing, but only on a jailbroken iPad.

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