App Store and iTunes Accounts Hacked

Over the weekend a number of publications received tips from readers about their iTunes account being hacked. According to Engadget and The Next Web, some users saw hundreds of dollars spent on Vietnamese ebooks.

The hacking is said to be the result of one developer trying to 'game the system' to bring his applications to more prominent positions in the App Store. Engadget yesterday afternoon reported that 42 of the top 50 books by revenue are from the seller Thuat Nguyen, whose company website ("mycompany") leads to parked site www.home.com. A lot of the books were released in April and have no customer ratings or reviews.

The books have since disappeared from the App Store suggesting Apple smelled a rat and moved quickly to remove the offending applications.

The Next Web claims these hackings are more widespread than one developer. TNW reports that countless iTunes users have had their accounts compromised and the apps purchased were not exclusive to Thuat Nguyen.

First Phones with Intel Chips to Hit in 2011

Cell phones these days are based on some pretty powerful CPUs. Indeed, if a phone doesn't have a 1GHz processor, it's considered out of date before it even launches. It's also an increasingly competitive market and it's one Intel is about to enter.

Intel's Moorestown platform has long been talked about for MIDs and tablets, however, the company is hoping the CPU will also represent a successful foray into the smartphone market. Intel has talked about Moorestown for smartphones on mulitple occasions and although we can expect to see many Moorestown devices this year, it seems we won't see any smartphones packing the chip until 2011.

While speaking to Wired.com about Moorestown-based tablets, Intel CTO Justin Rattner fingered the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas next January or the Mobile World Congress conference in February as 'windows of opportunity' for showing Moorestown phones.

Though it will likely be 2011 before Intel can put a cell phone into the hands of the consumer, ntel CEO Paul Otellini gave us a peek at an Intel smartphone at CES 2010. He didn't mention specifics about the device's release, but we do know the LG-manufactured GW990 features a 5-inch screen with 720p HD video playback, two cameras, 16GB of built-in flash memory, 512MB of RAM and Intel's Linux-based Moblin OS.