Hmm, it looks like there might be more than one reason for Apple retiring their famous Mac/PC commercials -- turns out they've quietly gotten into the malware/antivirus business.
MacWorld reports that Apple has quietly snuck an anti-malware (antivirus) update into the latest round of Mac OS X Snow Leopard updates. An antivirus program was included in Snow Leopard, and last week's Snow Leopard update included an update to the Mac OS X antivirus definition file (a simple Mac OS X plist file).
Mac OS X antivirus/malware information
Sure enough, if you look for a file named XProtect.plist
, like this:
locate XProtect.plist
you'll find that file here:
/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.plist
which you can view with the vi editor like this:
view /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.plist
As the article suggests, you'll find keywords in there like "RSPlug.a" and "Iservice", along with the new "HellRTS".
Is this why Apple really pulled the Mac/PC ads? I don't know, but it's certainly one good reason to quit saying there are no Mac OS X viruses or malware.