In some very exciting news this week it was announced that 1366 x 768 is now the most popular screen resolution on the internet, dethroning 1024 x 768 which had long been the leader. 1366 x 768 now account for 19.3% of all internet traffic while 1024 x 768 has dropped to 18.6% (1024 x 768 was up to 42% 3 years ago). This might not be the most exciting story, but its interesting to see how higher resolution screens are finally starting to take over, TechCrunch has more details.

Screens with a 1024×768 resolution are a bit like Windows XP: there have long been better options, but they still remained the most often used screens on the web. That is, until now. According to the latest data from StatCounter, 1366×768 screens just surpassed 1024×768 as the most popular screen resolution used by the visitors to StatCounter’s global network of sites. Three years ago, 1024×768 still accounted for almost 42% of all visitors to the roughly three million sites that use StatCounter. Today, that number has fallen to 18.6% and 1366×768 screens now account for 19.28%, up from just 0.68% in May 2009.

Apple has finally admitted that they have a bit of a virus problem on their hands and is now working on removing it and will be releasing a removal tool shortly. The "Flashback" malware has spread to approx. 500,000 systems in the past week and secretly harvests your personal information and sends it across the internet. Its nice to see that Apple is now working on it and has finally acknowledged it, more info on this latest virus can be found over at TheNextWeb.

The Flashback malware had spread to some 500,000 infected systems as of last week, by taking advantage of a security flaw in Java which had been discovered in February. The security of Mac computers at large was obviously in question, so it’s good to see Apple take decisive action, although it would have been nice to see it a bit sooner, as this was a known vulnerability.

In an attempt to shut down this botnet, Apple has also tried to shut down the security firm that announced this exploits website by saying that they were a "command and control" server. I'm sure they weren't happy that this Russian-based security firm announced the exploit publicaly, its just funny that they tried to shut them down as well. Forbes has more on this.

“They told the registrar this [domain] is involved in a malicious scheme. Which would be true if we weren’t the ones controlling it and not doing any harm to users,” says Sharov. “This seems to mean that Apple is not considering our work as a help. It’s just annoying them.”

News is pretty light today, so we'll start off with a few peripheral bits to get things rolling.

ROCCAT Kone Plus Max Customization Laser Gaming Mouse - TweakTown --=-- Corsair Vengeance M60 Mouse - HardwareSecrets --=-- Rosewill RK-9000RE Mechanical Keyboard - Vortez --=-- Corsair Vengeance M90 Gaming Mouse - TechwareLabs

HardwareHeaven has a look at the Zotac ZBOX Blu-Ray AD05 Plus Mini PC and gives it a full review.  This little box packs in an AMD E-450 APU that includes Radeon 6320 series graphics - making this one capable little machine.  Take a look and find out more.

If that unit is a little big, and you want something without an optical drive that you could probably put in your pocket, check out the Zotac ZBOX Nano XS AD11 Plus.  This thing is a little larger than a hockey puck and it's a full-blown PC running pretty much the same hardware as the much larger AD05 above.  

Looking first at APU temperatures the ZBOX Nano comes surprisingly close to the AD05 with only a few degrees separating the two at load. No drive temperatures are present for the new system as the SSD does not support that reading but system temperatures are very good with power use also showing a drop over the AD05, no doubt down to slightly fewer components such as the lack of optical drive.

As we keep up the push to maintain a manageable inbox, we've got a collection of basic hardware that you'll need to build and keep your new hardware cool.  We've put our affiliates case, power supply and cooler reviews all here for you to enjoy on this fine spring morning.

Cases:

• Bitfenix RAIDER Midi-Tower - NikKTech
• Spire Sonex 6010 - XSReviews 
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower - HiTechLegion
  
• In Win MANA 136 - NikKTech
  
• SilverStone GD06 Home Theater PC Case - ComputingOnDemand 
• SilverStone Fortress FT03 - Vortez 
• Cougar Evolution Full Tower - NikKTech
  

Power Supplies:

• NZXT HALE82 750W - APHNetworks
• OCZ Fatal1ty Series 1000W - TechPowerUp 
• FSP Aurum Pro Gold 1200W - TweakTown
• Super Flower Golden King 500W - TechPowerUp

Coolers: 

• ARCTIC Freezer Extreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler - Vortez
• NZXT HAVIK 120 - APHNetworks 
• Thermaltake Massive23 GT - XtremeComputing 
• Enermax ETD-T60-TB CPU Cooler - HardwareLook
• Prolimatech Lynx CPU Cooler - VR-Zone
  

It seems that the government of the USA is suing Apple.  I'm sure that this will make a few more lawyers even richer, but the issue on the table is that Apple has been price-fixing eBooks.  This was obvious from the launch and I'm glad someone is taking action.  I'm surprised that the government of a country is the one stepping up.  ABC News has more.

Also on the wrotten Apple side of things is their failure to patch security holes and the fact that they were caught trying to take down the security firm that let the world know that there was a hole is OSX.  The same flaw was found in Windows - but Microsoft patched it - six weeks ago.  Nicely done Apple.  It's always awesome when you willingly let your customers be part of a zombie network.  More at TheRegister.

Apple went out of its way to make life difficult for the Russian security firm that first alerted the world to the spread of the now infamous Flashback Trojan on Mac computers, it has emerged. However the fruitbite-branded firm has now pledged to resolve the problem, well after security firms - and Microsoft - had acted.

If you like to enjoy your audio privately, perhaps the Clar1tyOne EB110 Earphones over at TechPowerUp is what you're looking for.  These are from a Canadian company and will set you back over $100.  You may want to find out how they perform before you drop that much money.

If you are looking to share your sound from your PC, perhaps the Olasonic TW-S7 USB Speakers at EverythingUSB are more up your alley.  They aren't that much cheaper though.  

I know.  Wires can be a pain.  That's why the Auna PS-7801 Wireless Speaker System at XSReviews is getting all the press.  These look pretty awesome but unfortunately, that's about where the awesome ends.  MissingRemote has a look at the Aperion Audio Zona Wireless Speakers and at $399, I hope these are decent.

It's Tuesday and that means it's time to empty the big old stack of storage reviews that have collected in our inbox.

• LSI Nytro WarpDrive XD - TweakTown
• Micron RealSSD P400e 6Gbps 200GB Enterprise SSD - TheSSDReview 
• OCZ Vertex 4 512GB / 256GB - HardwareHeaven --=-- TweakTown --=--TheSSDReview --=-- TechReport
  
• Icy Dock MB971SP-B DuoSwap 2.5"/3.5" SATA Hot Swap Drive Caddy - HiTechLegion 
• Micron RealSSD C400 128GB mSATA - TheSSDReview
• Corsair Force Series GT 180GB SSD - TweakTown
• OWC Mercury Enterprise Pro 6G - TheSSDReview
• Icy Dock MB994SP-4SB-1 Full Metal Quad Bay 2.5in HDD & SSD Backplane - HiTechLegion
  

HardwareHeaven takes a break from their main test-bench and sits down on the couch with their controller and "tests" out the Devil May Cry HD Collection as well as the new Kinect Star Wars.  Even though the Kinect Star Wars game may be a bit of a gimmick, I had a ton of fun back in the day playing Star Wars on the Wii and this would be even more physical and fun. 

As well as jumping around the room with full body motion controls which include various saber swings, kicks, jumps, crouching and dodging we also have the use of force powers with our empty hand. This takes the form of the ability to grab items by outstretching our arm and then throwing/moving or pulling close to our body to create a charge before pushing towards the screen to send out a burst of power or force an enemy away.

Episode #154 of Weekly Tech Update is now available on iTunes and the Zune Marketplace.  This is our weekly podcast that covers the hottest stuff in tech - not only around BCCHardware, but also the world.  Check it out over here - as well as a free download in the iTunes store and the Zune Marketplace.

In this episode we will be discussing Samsung may open a store in Canada, Instagram is worth $1 Billion to Facebook & 5000+ artists like the Pirate Bay.  We have those stories and more...

Download Episode #154
Subscribe to the feed.
Subscribe in iTunes!
Subscribe in Zune Marketplace!