George Hotz, who you may recall as the teenage hacker who originally unlocked the iPhone, has let loose a jailbreaking app for the iPhone 3GS code named purplera1n.

Holtz notes that he normally doesn't make tools for the general public and wouldn't rather wait for the iPhone dev team to do that.

John Biggs over at CrunchGear is among those who have already given already given purplera1n a go and declares the jailbreaking process "amazingly simple."

In shipping the software, Acer, Sony, and Lenovo have defied cease and desist letters from US software maker Solid Oak, which claims that Green Dam includes code pirated from its Cybersitter net-filtering tool.

"Not only does it block access to a wide range of web sites based on keywords and image processing, including porn, gaming, gay content, religious sites and political themes, it actively monitors individual computer behavior, such that a wide range of programs including word processing and email can be suddenly terminated if content algorithm detects inappropriate speech."

This is confirmed by Brian Milburn and Solid Oak. If you type certain words related to Falun Gong, for instance, Green Dam shuts down your notepad.

Microsoft has been sticking to a strict "No comment" on rumors that a version of the upcoming Windows 7 operating system will be available on a USB memory stick.

Unlike the Vista and Windows XP Starter editions, the Windows 7 Starter will have the ability to run more than three concurrent applications on a PC, boosting the potential productivity of the netbook.

Windows 7 Starter Edition not only blocks end-users from swapping the original Windows-provided wallpaper, colors, and sound schemes - OEMs and partners aren't allowed into the personalization options either.

At least Microsoft no longer plans on limiting the number of applications Starter Edition can run at once - so extremely desperate users can always fall back to running Notepad in the background for makeshift ASCII art.

Google has released versions of its Chrome web browser for Mac OS X and Linux, however the outfit has warned that they are rough developer previews and are still being worked on.

It is a little odd that Google, which is an Open Sauce enthusiast, is so slow when it comes to a Linux version of its Chrome browser.

Trustwave uncovers malware on 20 ATM machines in Russia and Ukraine designed to allow hackers to swipe everything from cash to PIN codes.

ccording to the company, roughly 20 ATMs were infected with malware that captures magnetic stripe data and PIN codes from the private memory space of transaction-processing applications installed on the compromised ATM.

Each of the compromised ATMs studied by Trustwave ran Microsoft Windows XP.

"The other piece is following security best practices on the system itself, having anti-virus installed on it, having (locked) down USB ports, making it very difficult for someone to actually-if they were to open up the machine-to do anything to the operating system itself," he said.

Far too many people who use computers every day, and have them in their homes, aren't even capable of applying the system updates that Microsoft and Apple automatically send out, leaving them with buggy and insecure systems vulnerable to all sorts of attack.

Those whose understanding of IT stopped at learning how to use bold font in a word processor will be at a significant disadvantage, one that we should work hard to overcome before it is too late.

Windows 7 pricing is potentially an obstacle to Windows 7 adoption for some users, though in just about every other aspect the operating system is beating Vista, according to a Dell marketing executive.

"Schools and government agencies may not be able to afford (the additional cost). Some of the smaller businesses may not be able to enjoy the software as soon as they'd like," Ward said.

The app is nothing special -- just a sound box of semi-crude noises, not unlike some other apps out there. They were a bit surprised when the app was rejected for "objectionable" material. So, they reskinned the interface, to make it look a lot nicer, called it Prudebox and resubmitted it. The actual app (and all the sounds) were identical. And... of course, in Apple's arbitrary wisdom, they approved the new app.

OK, Ubuntu is no Windows and Microsoft will say Windows is far more complicated. It has millions more lines of code. It is far more integrated with other products and has a larger ecosystem of hardware and software that it must ensure that it works with.

However, Windows 7 was finished ages ago. Yes, we had the beta in October - but since then very little in the build appears to have changed.

Plus, Windows is so baked that Microsoft partners are already using Windows 7 on their PCs instead of Windows Vista.