Apple: Rate plans for iPhone

Apple has released the rate plans for iPhone - the plans start at $59.99 per month and include unlimited Email/Web data access. Existing AT&T customers can keep their current plans and add Web/Email to the iPhone for $20 more each month.

So, to recap:

iPhone: $499 or $599.
Monthly fees: $59.99-$99.99
Having a cellphone programmed to "wuv you.": Priceless.

NetworkWorld: Can cell phones be hacked? Security experts say yes, but it's not that easy.

One of the concerns about the iPhone is that its internet connectivity could make it as vulnerable to virii as any other (Macintosh based?) computer out there. If this seems unlikely to you - well, you're probably right.

Security experts from IBM, McAfee and Symantec all agree that cell phones of virtually any type can be broken into and maliciously controlled, though it takes a high degree of sophistication to do it.

"It's definitely possible but still something that is limited to a very sophisticated attacker," says Neel Mehta, team lead in the advanced research group at IBM's Internet Security Systems Division.

The concern was brought up by the Kuykendall family, who believes that people are spying on them through hacked cell phone cameras. Not that I doubt their story, but if you wanted to spy on someone, which is easier and less costly: developing a malicious application designed to infect the specific hardware of the specific phones that the target uses, or taking the time and money developing said program and just hiring a private eye?

PC Magazine's John Dvorak: Shut up about the iPhone already!

Sorry, John.

(Look for John Dvorak's next column, entitled: "That's okay, Brian, but don't let it happen again.")

You talk football and the conversation switches to the iPhone. You talk baseball and the conversation switches to the iPhone. TV, movies, stock market, community theater-it all switches to the iPhone. "Yes, what about them Raiders? Many players will buy the iPhone, I bet. Yes. I think so. They will. They will have to, I think."

I swear (though I have unsuccessfully tried taking pictures to prove it), when you look at these people closely, there is a spinning disk in each pupil that you can barely make out. It's like a spiral that turns and turns toward infinity. And, I can assure you, a hard slap won't help.

E-Week: Computer Failure Grounds United Flights

CHICAGO, June 20 (Reuters)-A two-hour computer outage affecting dispatch operations at United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp., delayed nearly 270 domestic and international flights by the No. 2 U.S. carrier on Wednesday.

Twenty-four domestic flights were also canceled as a result of the systemwide failure, the airline said in a statement. United had not determined what caused the problem.

It's that last line that gets me - "United had not determined what caused the problem." To me, if your company is losing millions of dollars in revenue because of 270 delayed flights, it might be a good idea to determine the cause of the problem as quickly as possible.

Time: Cyber Attack Hits Pentagon

(WASHINGTON)-The Defense Department took as many as 1,500 computers off line because of a cyber attack, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Cyber attack? EVERYBODY PANIC!

Gates said the Pentagon sees hundreds of attacks a day, and this one had no adverse impact on department operations….

Hundreds of attacks every day? EVERYBODY PANIC!

During a press briefing Gates said: "We obviously have redundant systems in place. ... There will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences."

Personal inconveniences? EVERYBODY PANIC!

He said the Pentagon shut the computers down when a penetration of the system was detected, and the cause is still being investigated. When asked if his own e-mail account was affected, Gates said: "I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person."

Defense secretary of the U.S. secretly Amish? EVERYBODY PANIC!