The Newton Virus spreads joy

Remember back in the old days, when men were men, dogs ran free, and computers were the size of small countries? It was a time when viruses weren't malicious, rather, they delivered cherry popsicles, unicorns, and nuclear joy-beams. Well, now you can return to a simple time of laughter and love thanks to the Newton Virus and related dongle, created by the design collective Troika. Instead of gnashing your files, spamming your address book, or giving you "The Finger" repeatedly, this virus engages just once, and creates a playful desktop mishap that will undoubtedly inspire the victim to hug the nearest person. Though the virus was coded way back in 2005, it's now being shown at the MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition. Watch it all go down, literally, in the video after the break.

[Thanks, H&M]

[Rafer @ Mar 7th 2008 3:06PM]

Where can one such as myself get my paws on one of these.

[Blackstar @ Mar 7th 2008 6:36PM]

iLike it.

[Aguiluz @ Mar 8th 2008 12:09AM]

Kind of reminds me of the game "Warioware: Twisted!"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=raSFGxDxjVM

Wait... If the Macbook has a gravity sensor, why not make a game taking advantage of it?

[Raymond @ Mar 8th 2008 1:52AM]

Its not a "gravity sensor". Its called an accelerometer. Its meant as a means of detecting the movement of the laptop and thus protect the hard drive. It was never intended as an input device like, say, a SIXAXIS or Wii controller.

Anyway, pretty cool video! :D

[LukeA @ Mar 9th 2008 12:25AM]

@Aguiluz

Google 'Neverball'

[applefreak @ Mar 7th 2008 3:07PM]

haha, you just made my day..... :)

[mortzz @ Mar 7th 2008 4:01PM]

I love apples, but this is getting a little ridiculous.
Over half the page is apple products!

[Kyle Hance @ Mar 7th 2008 5:25PM]

This post isn't about Apple at all! Holy crap! Everybody keeps saying that, but it's about the art (program) that the guys made. NOT Apple! Man people, read!

[Mikey @ Mar 7th 2008 6:00PM]

As Kyle said: this isn't specifically on the computer/an apple product, its about the "virus". Besides, deductive reasoning would lead us to the conclusion that it is acceptable for Apple related posts to be here.

Apple = computer manufacture
Computers = Technology
Technology Blog = Engadget

Therefore: Apple = Engadget

[Ironhide @ Mar 7th 2008 3:10PM]

That is ingenious.

Too bad everyone else out there making viruses want to either destroy your computer or get your personal information.

[KC @ Mar 8th 2008 4:41AM]

Wait, I thought Mac's couldn't be infected? =p

[gamesrule_0 @ Mar 8th 2008 11:42AM]

Mostly all viruses are for pc's not macs

[ssuk @ Mar 8th 2008 10:39AM]

KC, theoretically you can infect any electronic device with a 'virus'-like program. Sometimes though, there's just no point. As is the case with Mac OS'.

[Ghen @ Mar 8th 2008 9:48PM]

Its not a virus, it doesn't spread. Its an exe that runs when the laptop invokes autoplay (or whatever the crazy mac people call it) on the thumb drive.

[[e-mail] @ Mar 7th 2008 3:17PM]

Why don't you 'artists' go paint something...

[Michael LaFramboise @ Mar 7th 2008 4:51PM]

Why don't you go make a pie chart or a spreadsheet.

[Abuzar @ Mar 7th 2008 6:30PM]

I think I will go edit a movie on my Mac partition and then go play some Crysis :)

[Matthew C @ Mar 8th 2008 12:30AM]

Abuzar, no matter how witty your comments are, no one will ever vote for them.

Why?
- Because you have a zune as your avatar.

[Abuzar @ Mar 8th 2008 7:31AM]

Seems high ranked to me :)

The Zune rocks, so I don't know what you are talking about.

[Rainier @ Mar 7th 2008 3:12PM]

Haha, oh wow, I'd love to use this on some of my unsuspecting buddies at work, hehe. Well, the ones with a good sense of humor anyways - the rest would kill me, hahaha!

[atrain @ Mar 7th 2008 3:17PM]

Why don't they offer a download link? :(
I can imagine so many fun things to do with something like this :D

[Bani-Banan @ Mar 7th 2008 6:05PM]

unfortunately, Not that many pc/laptops have motion detection like the apple laptops :(

[speakafreaka @ Mar 8th 2008 8:39AM]

The Lenovo T series do

[atrain @ Mar 8th 2008 11:26PM]

What about for macbook/pro/air users though!
Most modern laptops do include the motion sensor, I'd I'd be happy if they only released a mac version (already build, don't have to port it).

[DarCowAlways @ Mar 7th 2008 3:17PM]

lol, I wish this was available for the PC.

How does it know its position like that? That's really cool!

...and when does it go away? :D

[SimonRichards @ Mar 7th 2008 3:22PM]

The macbooks have an accelerometer inside them. Just as the iPhone/iPod Touch do. So it knows its orientation exactly.

So, wouldn't work too well with a PC, all it would be able to do is the initial part, but it wouldn't be able to tell which way is down on a normal laptop.

[Dean @ Mar 7th 2008 3:25PM]

if you have a thinkpad with hard drive active protection, there is an accelerometer, so you CAN have a similar thing in windows if someone was to make it.

[Gordon @ Mar 7th 2008 3:55PM]

Several Laptop PCs these days include accelerometers to protect the HD. Perhaps this virus could be adapted to a PC.

[insertAlias @ Mar 7th 2008 3:26PM]

I know that ThinkPads have accelerometers, and I believe that a few other brands do too.

[qwerty613 @ Mar 7th 2008 5:59PM]

Is that for all macbooks, or only pros? Anyway, I would love one of those. Just think of the uses...

[StrangeBum @ Mar 7th 2008 3:34PM]

By position I assume you mean the way the laptop is being tilted. If you noticed, they were using an Apple MacBook Pro (or Powerbook, I can't tell) which has an accelerometer built into the machine. So basically, you would need to do this on an Apple laptop for it to be usable. Which is why he states, rather humorously, that it would need a 'flawless piece of technology'.

The MacBook Pro is indeed amazing, and I plan on purchasing my first very soon, but even I know that it isn't flawless. No piece of technology will ever be without flaws, not that we will stop trying to make it, or the fanboys will stop saying it about [insert fanboy product here]

[Jeff A @ Mar 7th 2008 5:36PM]

Look at the irony. People are now ASKING for a virus.

[Danny @ Mar 7th 2008 7:52PM]

I don't think it would be as impressive on a PC. For one, the taskbar won't have far to fall...

[Yours Smugly @ Mar 8th 2008 7:58AM]

@ qwerty613: Yes, 'non-pro' MacBooks also have the accelerometer. It has been used in some funny little apps like the MacSaber: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21732

[MEAT! @ Mar 7th 2008 3:19PM]

I'm sick of all this cutesy Apple bullcrap! Admittedly that prank is pretty funny, but I'm tired of this whole motif of sickeningly sweet video clips and commercials, complete with smug little sentences and an overabundance of short, tart little phrases that end with periods.

I think Apple products have some appeal, but I'm starting to agree that Engadget is laying it on a little thick.

[David Vogt @ Mar 7th 2008 3:30PM]

I agree. Even in this post, someone is trying to hide yet ANOTHER apple reference. This would have been okay by me if the SDK didn't get over 11 separate posts yesterday.

Engadget, please make a Macgadget to keep them separated! I'm tired of having to filter through 2000 mac posts to see one I'm actually interested in!

[nd @ Mar 7th 2008 3:35PM]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/

sheesh.

[ReggieXuk @ Mar 7th 2008 3:36PM]

same here, its getting sterile

Troika are weird, they project SMS messages on people for fun ... wtf

[Drew @ Mar 7th 2008 3:37PM]

Umm... what? Since when did this post say a single thing about Apple? Just so happens it's a virus... for an Apple computer. Something Apple fanboys say never happens so if this is skewed in any way, it's towards Windows.



When in actuality it's not skewed any way.

[StrangeBum @ Mar 7th 2008 3:37PM]

There pretty much is a Macgadget guys...it's called TUAW.com 'The Unofficial Apple Weblog' it's actually a sister site to engadget in vain of joystiq.com and autoblog.com

So please...just scroll down to the bottom of the page and take a look for yourself ;-)

[MEAT! @ Mar 7th 2008 3:44PM]

Well if there's already a Mac-centered blog, it's not helping the state of Engadget. I'm not saying that Engadget shouldn't cover Macbook, iPhone, and other Apple product stories, so that link, nd, where they say, "...so for those of you...[who] wanted to opt out of our iPhone or Apple coverage, we hear ya! We whipped up some slightly modified Engadget RSS feeds..." isn't helpful. I don't want to exclude stories, I just want balanced coverage.

We don't need to hear about every little potential Apple development or rumor. If the posts were skewed in, say, Microsoft's direction I'd be just as upset (if not more so).

[Raptor007 @ Mar 7th 2008 3:57PM]

@Drew
It's not actually a virus. It's a program they loaded on their USB thumb drive. What they omitted from the video (remember this is an art project) is them opening the program -- there is no "AutoPlay" on Mac OS X.

[Jordan @ Mar 7th 2008 5:11PM]

Shut up. I hate you. Fuck fanboys.

[batt @ Mar 7th 2008 7:04PM]

so much hate in your little heart...

[Rob Conway @ Mar 7th 2008 7:04PM]

@ Raptor007
you're right, it's not really a virus at all. and there must be some shit omitted for the video, because it wouldn't just extract it's self onto the HD. the drive would mount and then you would need to either a.)play the video or b.) enter a password to install a program or c.) have an apple script or automation already on their mac to either play the video or install the program.

[ugg.tryptophan @ Mar 7th 2008 10:11PM]

the "flawless piece of technology" claim is a litte ambitious

[YoMomma @ Mar 7th 2008 3:20PM]

where can i get one?

[atomicthumbs @ Mar 7th 2008 3:35PM]

Unfortunately, there's no virus. The video itself was the art piece. :(

[Only morons take this seriously. @ Mar 7th 2008 3:47PM]

Does that mean it is a full screen application (swf or the like) pretending to be the desktop? Or can you access all of the screen objects in OSX to actually make this work?

[Raptor007 @ Mar 7th 2008 3:58PM]

Probably not SWF... more likely it was built using Quartz Composer. I suspect you can't use the objects, but I don't know for sure... that'd be cool if you could!!