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You may have heard that Apple’s stock took a hard drop yesterday.  This is one case however, where analysts are still suggest buying it.

According to Peter Burrows of BusinessWeek, “Wall Street got hung up on Apple’s skimpy forecast for Q2 earnings, despite knowing full well that Apple always offers up skimpy forecasts.”

“Yes, Apple’s forecasted earnings were 15% below consensus estimates, compared to the 9% difference that Apple has typically guided to over the past seven quarters, according to Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster,” added Burows.  “But then, we are heading into a possible recession. It makes sense that a company that routinely lowballs would do so even more at a time of such uncertainty. ”

iPods have been in a sales slump, but are still performing well.  Macs however, have been selling like hot cakes.

Robert Scoble posted a quick tip the other day on enhancing the sound quality of a MacMini:

Dave Winer gave me a little tiny adapter for my MacMini. What does it do? It plugs into the audio-out port of the Mini and converts that port into an optical out one. So, now my optical cable plugs into that adapter instead of my headphone jack. My receiver has optical ports. If you have a recent receiver your receiver probably has optical ports too…

A commenter notes that you can get an optical cable for about $15 that comes with an adapter for each end.

Has anyone else tried this?

Security professionals seem to pretty much be reaching the same consensus: security is becoming more of a concern for Macs.

Trend Micro’s David Sancho says: “The rising popularity of Macs may be luring malware authors to test profits on these platforms. Tides are turning and what many security experts have predicted is coming true: the days of malware-free Mac are numbered.”

Recent talk about Mac security stems from a a piece of “scareware” targeted at Macs discovered by F-Secure. MacSweeper is the name of this malware that deceives the user by alerting them of fake security issues on their machines. Once MacSweeper is installed, it alerts the user that it must purchase it’s software to get rid of the so-called problems.

“So what does the first Mac rogue application really mean? It means that with Mac’s growing popularity and growing user base comes certain problems that can’t be ignored…It doesn’t mean that Mac is becoming less secure in and of itself. But it does mean that Mac users will have to watch out for social engineering tricks just like Windows users have had to do for years,” writes F-Secure security response manager Patrik Runald.

If you ask me, it’s pretty amazing that it has taken this long.

According to a study conducted by Mindset Media , Mac users are more open minded.

VNUNet reports:

The survey of 7,500 users revealed that people who are highly open minded or, in Mindset Media parlance ‘Openness 5s’, are 60 per cent more likely than the general population to have purchased a Mac.

These purchasers are also more liberal, less modest and “more assured of their own superiority than the population at large”, the company said.

I’m taking this information with a grain or two of salt, but it’s kind of interesting.

The MacBook Air wasn’t the only cool mobile device showcased at MacWorld.  Axiotron showed off an updated version of it’s Mac Tablet - the Modbook which it introduced last year.

The tablets are aimed at artists and designers and are made by Axiotron with Apple’s permission out of MacBooks the company purchases from Apple.

Features included on the tablet are:

• Mac OS X Leopard
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• Built-in iSight
• Apple Remote
• Wireless 802.11b/g/n & Bluetooth
• 1.0GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
• AnyView 13.3″ Wide Screen
• ForceGlass Screen & Camera Cover
• WACOM Penabled Digitizer
• 512 Levels of Pressure Sensitivity
• Axiotron Digitizer Pen
• WAAS enabled GPS Built-In

Notice that keyboard is absent from that list. If you want that, you’ll have to buy it separately.

There are 2 versions of the Modbook with either a 2.0GHz or a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 processor pricing at $2,279 and $2,479 respectively.

You may have caught some of the hype about the next game from Will Wright, the creator  of the ever-popular SimCity and Sims games.

It’s called Spore and in it you start out a single celled organism and work your way up the evolutionary chain until you achieve as far as I can tell, something like God-status.

The game is very highly anticipated and Electronic Arts has announced  that it will not only be released for PCs, but for Macs as well. This is huge news for Mac gamers.

“We couldn’t be happier to bring Spore to the Mac at the same time as the PC version. Spore is a highly creative game and I look forward to seeing what the players come up with to fill the universe they design,” Wright stated.

Perhaps more companies will start releasing games for Macs at the same time as PCs.