New and Noteworthy: Apple downplays importance of 'Opener'; Mac OS X 'World's Safest'; more

Apple downplays importance of 'Opener' Echoing MacFixIt's original assessment of the 'opener' scare, Apple has issued the following statement via its PR agency "Opener is not a virus, Trojan horse, or worm. It does not propagate itself across a network, through email, or over the web. Opener can only be installed by someone who already has access to your system and provides proper administrator authentication. Apple advises users to only install software from vendors and websites that they know and trust." More.

Mac OS X 'World's Safest' Macworld UK reports on an Mi2g study that analyzed 235,907 successful digital breaches against permanently connected computers across the world over 12-months to arrive at its conclusions. "The study reveals Linux to have become the most breached computing environment, accounting for 65.64 per cent of all recorded attacks. The number of successful attacks against Microsoft Windows-based machines accounted for 25.19 per cent of all recorded breaches. However, the number of successful attacks against BSD and Mac OS X systems is a tiny 4.82 per cent." More.

Google plans Mac OS X desktop search tool Reuters reports that Google will release a Mac OS X version of its desktop search tool, which may give Mac OS X 10.4.'s Spotlight some healthy competition. "Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt did not set a timetable for a Mac version of Google Desktop, saying it had to be rebuilt from the ground up because of the fundamental differences between the Mac OS and Windows." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Safari Connectivity and Security Updates; potential causes, fixes, and more
• Strange Mail.app bug caused full processor usage in the last hour of October
• Odds and Ends: iPod Download broken by iTunes 4.7

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