Gangnam-gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/15/2011 -- Apple released Mac OS X Lion last week, and in its full review, PCMag said it was "hands-down the best consumer OS on the market today." But would you pay $4,000 for it?

According to MacRumors, John Christman bought Lion on July 23 for $31.79, the price after tax. But then, for unexplained reasons, his PayPal account was charged another 121 times, adding up to a grand total of $3,878.40.

Christman certainly didn't mean to buy Lion for himself and 121 of his friends. He said Apple and PayPal blamed each other, and neither company would claim fault for the mistake.

"Apple blames PayPal, PayPal blames Apple," he told MacRumors. "They both are claiming to investigate but I am stuck broke for three days now. Apple claims there was only one transaction. When I told PayPal to dispute them, they closed the cases and marked the items as refunded on the 23rd. Bear in mind this money was taken and never returned yet."
So what caused the overcharge? Christman thinks it could be tied to an iCloud feature that lets iTunes automatically download past purchases. He told MacRumors he "fresh installed Lion" because his system needed to be upgraded before installation.

"I logged into our developer account and got the latest iTunes Beta, and installed it," he continued. "iTunes has a cool new feature to download all your purchased apps for you. I clicked download all. As each download started, it charged me $31.79. Some apps came fast, some took longer, but the timing was directly related to when a new app started to download."

In all, he downloaded 116 apps, though some downloads had to be restarted before they were complete. Meanwhile, the accidental charges have left Christman in the red, despite his PayPal account marking the purchases as "refunded."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389271,00.asp

By Leslie Horn

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Gangnam-Gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) --07/19/2011 -- A Homeland Security official confirmed last week that tech components imported from overseas, many of which end up in some of the most popular American gadgets, are often infected with malicious software.

"This is one of the most complicated and difficult challenges that we have," Greg Schaffer, acting deputy undersecretary at DHS' National Protection and Programs Directorate, said during a Thursday hearing.

Schaffer was responding to questions from Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations.

"Clearly, supply chain risk management is an issue that the administration is focused on," Schaffer said when asked how the U.S. was battling this problem. When pressed for details, Schaffer was reluctant to expand except to say, "I am aware that there have been instances where that has happened."

"The range of issues goes to the fact that there are foreign components in many U.S. manufactured devices," Schaffer continued. "There is a task force that DHS and DOD co-chair to look at these issues with goals to identify short-term mitigation strategies and to also make sure that we have capability for maintaining U.S. manufacturing capability over the long term."

Chaffetz expressed concern that the private sector was not in the loop with what the government was doing on this issue, but Schaffer insisted that DHS does indeed consult its private-sector partners.

This is not the first time this issue has been raised. In a 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review, the White House said "a broad, holistic approach to risk management is required rather than a wholesale condemnation of foreign products and services. The challenge with supply chain attacks is that a sophisticated adversary might narrowly focus on particular systems and make manipulation virtually impossible to discover."

Of course, while "foreign manufacturing does present easier opportunities for nation-state adversaries to subvert products; however, the same goals could be achieved through the recruitment of key insiders or other espionage activities," the White House said.

"The best defense may be to ensure U.S. market leadership through continued innovation that enhances U.S. market leadership and the application of best practices in maintaining diverse, resilient supply chains and infrastructures," the administration concluded.

For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388361,00.asp

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Gangnam-Gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/12/2011 -- Greek communists gather in Athens Thursday to rally against the government's austerity measures. Prime Minister George Papandreou vowed to stay on... View Enlarged Image

Financial Crisis: As heavily indebted Greece continues to implode, threatening to drag Europe down with it, Americans should remember one key fact: Repeated bailouts don't work, only fiscal responsibility does.

Make no mistake: Greece's wounds are self-inflicted. The socialist government of George Papandreou has been chronically unable to agree on badly needed cuts to push the country onto a sound fiscal path.

Now, Papandreou is fighting for his political life, trying to reshuffle his cabinet and win support for austerity reforms that will bring more European Union bailout money, even as he faces riots in the streets and demonstrations against his government's austerity.

Problem is, Greece's debt is unsustainable, yet the public — which voted an economically inept socialist government into office — seems to believe the welfare state gravy train never has to end. But it will. It must.

Greece owes close to $240 billion to European Union governments and banks that it can't pay. Roughly half of that is owed to France and Germany, and right behind Greece are some much bigger debtors that really scare the Eurocrats. They include Ireland ($870 billion in debts), Italy ($1.4 trillion), Spain ($1.2 trillion) and Portugal ($290 billion).

This is why the EU has decided to throw good money after bad, doubling the size of its bailout fund from $1 trillion to more than $2 trillion. It fears political chaos, widespread bank failures and a collapse of the euro.

The bailout must be big enough, notes European Central Bank governor Nout Wellink, "to frighten the market and to convince the markets that governments are prepared to really defend, to the end of their days, Europe as it is and the monetary union." That's panic.

But what, really, are they defending? The Greek government's right to spend far more than it takes in? Or the Greeks' pathetic refusal to understand that other Europeans won't pay for their welfare state?

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As the Financial Times noted, "Even if Greece successfully raised ($45 billion) from privatizations, met all its tight budgetary goals and grew in line with the optimistic official forecasts, its government debt would still equal about 150% of gross domestic product in 2014."

Seen in that light, the bailout really isn't about Greece's economy at all. It's about saving the EU from financial contagion and political chaos. Unfortunately,bailouts merely replace old debt with new. Studies show that cutting spending, not raising taxes, is the way to fix a nation's finances and get its economy growing.

Time's running out. At a minimum, the recent crisis means the EU's cradle-to-grave welfare state is dead.

In its place, Europeans need to restore a sense of self-responsibility, hard work and market discipline, and pare back their demands from government.

As for the U.S., we can neither ignore this crisis nor gloat about it. If we don't do the same, we'll be next.

Fisher Capital Management Scam Reviews : Editorial: Greek Crisis Is A Warning To Europe, U.S.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Gangnam-gu, Seoul -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/29/2011 -- Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L) today warned profits from its Spanish division could drop by up to £110 million for the year ending 30 September 2011 compared to previous guidance.

The cigarette manufacturer said it was responding to price cuts from competitors in recent weeks, which have impacted all market participants in the Spanish market, and the company has moved to protect its market position.

Included in the £110 million cut in forecast, the company said £40 million of this represented a one-off non-recurring impact on the logistics division.

The company's share price dipped last month when members of the Spanish media reported that its Altadis subsidiary was planning to cut the price of its blonde tobacco brands following an aggressive pricing move by rival Phillip Morris.

In a statement delivered to the London StockExchange, the company said it is continuing to monitor the position closely.

Despite today's announcement, Imperial maintained that the overall group performance is unlikely to be materially impacted when the financial results are released on 30 September, saying they remain in line with the board's expectations.

Throughout Western Europe, Imperial has a presence in most markets through its Davidoff, West, JPS and Golden Virginia brands.
As at 0845hrs, Imperial Tobacco was already trading down at 2,059, 1.25 per cent down on Friday's close.

Fisher Capital management Warning : Imperial Tobacco issues Spanish profit warning
http://www.whatinvestment.co.uk/trading/share-dealing/uk-companies/1630083/imperial-tobacco-issues-spanish-profit-warning.thtml

FTSE 100, Imperial Tobacco

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For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm