By Richard Medugno

So I have had my iPhone 4S for almost a year now and well, we have your basic complicated, modern relationship = love/hate. Okay, don’t worry, I’m not going to share here some intimate conversation I’ve had with Siri – the iPhone 4S’s voice app that responds to any question you ask it – usually with “Sorry, I didn’t get that.”

When I loved my iPhone 4S

Anyway,  I really loved my iPhone on Super Bowl Sunday last February when I was in the state of Washington and my darling daughter Miranda was in the city of Washington – on opposite sides of the USA–and yet enjoying each other’s company chatting in American Sign Language on iPhone’s FaceTime. Miranda was an “early adopter” of iPhones.

She showed me the dorm common room she was in that had a big screen TV with a bunch of college kids watching the big game. Then I showed her some of the guests at the Super Bowl party I was  at watching the game. It was a good clean, father-daughter bonding experience. Kudos to the Apple team for the technology that enabled us to do this.

When I hated my iPhone 4S

Now, I really hate my iPhone when I’m fumbling around trying to type a text message and the letters are coming out close to gibberish and I’m longing for my old Blackberry keyboard. And I certainly don’t feel much love for it when I’m trying to use it surreptitiously and that damn Siri chimes in because I’ve accidentally hit the wrong button.

By the way, did I mention that I don’t get all gaga when Siri answers my infrequent questions…I actually talk to a lot of inanimate objects and I prefer their silence. I feel they respect me more when they aren’t replying with a bitchy: “Sorry, I didn’t get that…”

Needless to say, I’m not one of those Apple lovers who stands outside a store for hours, just waiting so they can be one of the first to get the iPhone 5.  Seems like every family has a least one—someone who thinks that nothing could ever go wrong with their Mac or i-thing—it’s perfect and impervious to threats.) I don’t get that kind of blind loyalty…

I also don’t get why a huge number of Apple owners don’t accept that fact that their devices make a big target for hackers and cybercriminals, and that their precious Macs are threatened. There’s lots of magical thinking going on these days and it’s not just confined to the political arena.

Mac Attacks

There have been several attacks on Mac computers in the recent past and if you follow the money, it’s likely there will be more to come. So Apple owners, whip off those rose-colored glasses and strap on some security software.

Armed with this knowledge and my subscription to Trend Micro™ Titanium™ Maximum Security, which comes with protection for both PC and Macs, I invited my Apple-loving daughter to download security software on her Mac. Miranda assured me she would. This was over a month ago and as of this week…Well, just read the iPhone text chat below to get an idea on where we are at with this:

Exhibit A: Apple users see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil

She’s my daughter and I love her, but one of these days I know I’m going to have to say, “I told you so!”…Again.

I work for Trend Micro and the opinions expressed here are my own.

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