Apple Update Firmware of Airport Extreme

Apple has updated its AirPort Extreme firmware to version 5.3 for Mac OS X and Windows networks. The 1.5MB download is available from Apple's support Web site and is not for use with the original Graphite or Dual Ethernet/Snow AirPort Base Stations. Explanatory notes on the software available from Apple state that the release "includes support for the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) specification for the base station." WPA increases data-protection and access-control on wireless networks.

Apple has released security update for Mac OS X

Security Update 2004-01-26 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. It includes the following components: AFP Server; Apache 1.3; Apache 2; Classic; Mail; Safari; and SystemConfiguration. It offers security enhancements to Mail, Safari, the Apache Web server software, Classic, and Windows file-sharing.

New worm alert

A new email worm is spreading rapidly on the Internet, clogging mail servers and staging an attack on the Web site of Unix vendor The SCO Group, antivirus software vendors said. The worm surfaced Monday and has been given several names by antivirus software vendors, including Mydoom, Novarg and Mimail.R. Experts don't all agree on the worm's payload, but they do agree that it is spreading faster than Sobig-F, the worm that topped the charts for the most widespread email worm last year.

Euro music biz 'delaying iTunes'

A reluctant European music industry is delaying the launch of Apple's iTunes and Roxio's Napster music stores. A Reuters report captures short interviews with executives at Europe's influential Midem conference in France. "Old-fashioned red-tape" and Europe's legacy of localized music business set-ups, along with the absence of vital pan-European agreements among royalty-collecting agencies there are posing problems.Operators such as Apple also face "a maze of licensing contracts, music release dates that differ by country and incompatible billing systems," the report states.
Because Europe's music business operates territorially, with each country label holding rights to different artists and running at different business schedules, fans of a band in one country may have to wait weeks to buy music that's already available. They don't call Europe the "Old Country" for nothing!