I love Product(RED) items. Particularly the ones from Apple - the red iPod nano has always been something I’ve wanted. I even got the matching V-Moda Vibe earphones ready and waiting. As Wayne Campbell said, she will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine.

The specially-made items are, if you don’t know, editions meant to generate charity funds to fight AIDS and HIV in Rwanda. A portion of the sales from the (RED) items like watches, cellphones, laptops, t-shirts, colognes, credit cards - and iPods - go to this fund. For example, Motorola contributes US$8.50 for each sale of the (RED) Razr, Gap gives 50% of their net profit from (RED) clothing items, and Amex gives 1% of all transactions from their (RED) card. A couple editions of the iPod nano have been made for this campaign, started a year ago by Bono.

After the first year, consumers have generated US$22M for Rwanda, but controversy is heating about the figures, which detractors claim is grossly misrepresented.

Advertising Age magazine reports that the entire campaign has raised only US$18M, but has spent US$100M in advertising collectively. People organizing the campaign claim that they’ve raised US$22M, and have only spent US$50M in advertising. Huh? Ex-squeeze me? Baking powder?

Whatever the case, it’s apparent that they spent more than they raised - and people say that the cause would have been better served if the money spent advertising was given straight to the cause in the first place. Of course, no one really knew this coming in a year ago, but maybe a bit of research and planning might have made the project a bit more worthwhile.

At least they made nice iPods, huh?

More on the issue from The New York Times.

I was in an crowded elevator at the La Salle College of St. Benilde the other week, and I was a bit puzzled at the muzak being piped in. It wasn’t too clear, but I could tell it was a noisy metal band blasting away. Metal muzak? I listened closer and was startled to realize that it wasn’t from the elevator sound system - it was coming from earphones plugged into the ears of a student at the back of the car. Dear God, I thought. Is he deaf?

If he isn’t yet, he will be soon.

iPods are capable of hitting 100 decibels - the equivalent of standing 10 ft from a pneumatic drill running full-tilt-boogie - and just listening at that level for 15 mins can seriously damage your hearing, say experts. New models of iPods can run for more than 12 hours straight, so you can imagine the potential for damage. Even if you don’t crank it up all the way, the cumulative damage from listening at high dBs for 21 hours a week, the average amount of time a typical user keeps the buds plugged in, can be very disastrous.

Telegraph.co.uk reports that Apple is finally acknowledging the problem and has recently put in a patent for a system that automatically adjusts the volume to safer levels in forthcoming iPods and iPhones. Apple’s patent states

Since the damaging effects on users’ hearing is both gradual and cumulative, even those users who are concerned about hearing loss may not behave in a manner that would limit or minimise such damaging effects.”

Apple’s system will calculate the listening levels and length of time the music has been blaring and will gradually lower the audio output to less harmful levels. It will also calculate the “quiet time” between turning it off and then turning it on again so that the level can be raised higher after a significant rest period for the user, although it has been determined if this automatic level control can be optionally shut off.

Ok, ok, we hear ya. We’re turning it down.

The US Army is the latest recruit in Apple’s creeping invasion of territories that used to be exclusive to other platforms.

The American military is integrating Macintoshes into their computer systems to make their setup harder to hack, according to a report from Forbes.com. Lt. Col. C.J. Wallington, a division chief in the Army’s office of enterprise information systems, says that since Macs haven’t been a common target of attacks, fewer hacks have been designed for them and adding Macs to the mix will make the Army’s systems less prone to destabilization with a single attack.

Apple hardware has already been working out well for the military. Wallington says that X Serve servers from Apple, which have become commonplace equipment in the Army’s systems, have proven themselves in use. Of the X Serves, Wallington says

Those are some of the most attacked computers there are. But the attacks used against them are designed for Windows-based machines, so they shrug them off.”

The ongoing Apple - Think Secret legal wrangle is over, with the end result bringing about the demise of the notorious and sometimes uncannily accurate Think Secret rumor site perenially engaged in a running gun battle with the secretive Apple.

This agreement ends a two-year legal action by Apple to try to flush out Think Secret’s source of a leaked story about a Firewire-based input device for musical instruments that was never actually made. The confidential settlement resulted in Apple dropping the lawsuit and not pursuing the identity of the source, in exchange for the shutting down of the site.

Nick Ciarelli, publisher of Think Secret, said of the decision

I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.”

Ciarelli also told Engadget

I’ll just say that I’m very satisfied with the settlement, and that I’d like to thank the Electronic Frontier Foundation and my attorney, Terry Gross of Gross & Belsky, for their support.”

That’s how the beachball bounces.

The Security Update released the other day has its good and bad side, users report.

Good news first: apparently the keyboard glitch that plagues MacBook and MacBook Pro users who’ve upgraded to Leopard where keyboards freeze for up to over a minute when using Carbon apps has been solved with the Security Update.

Bad news: under special circumstances, the new Security Update can cause crashes in Safari. Changes made to address security issues in the app inadvertently crash Apple’s own browser, particularly in handling frames. The Mac Observer’s coding expert, Steven Swift observes the problem -

The error happens when the user tries to submit a form to another target frame or window. Safari stops that, and, in fact, crashes. The idea is to keep any malicious hacker from, for example, trying to load code into a hidden window.

The problem seems to be specific to Safari, and does not affect other browsers like Firefox and Omniweb.