Week in Review: McKinnon faces US extradition

Gary McKinnon had some very bad news yesterday, as Home Secretary Alan Johnson ordered the extradition of the Asperger's sufferer to the US to face hacking charges.

McKinnon and his supporters have argued that he should stand trial in the UK, and his fragile mental state could put him in danger of committing suicide if he's held in a US prison.

His lawyers are filing an appeal, and many hope McKinnon is returned to the UK after the trial. Regardless how you feel about the case, it's impossible not to feel for his mother, who posted on Twitter: "Really, really worried about Gary."

Symbian software ruins Sony Ericsson's Christmas

Two handsets have now been pulled from shelves - virtual or otherwise - after issues with software led to a high number of returns.

Firs the Satio was pulled, over software problems. Then, the Anio was pulled. But don't worry Sony Ericsson, it's not like anyone buys phones in December anyway.

Wikipedia losing editors

A report out this week showed that Wikipedia lost 49,000 contributing editors in the first quarter of this year - after losing just 4,900 in the same period the year before.

While some suggested the site is in a death spiral, with volunteers calling the environment "hostile", the Wikimedia Foundation said the decline isn't all that dramatic, and has held steady for the past 18 months.

Jail-broken iPhones turn into zombies

Another worm hit iPhones this week, and it isn't a joke this time.

Security firm F-Secure also said it's impossible for third-party anti-virus to run on the iPhone, so it can't be counted on for protection.

Still, the only worms to hit the Apple icon so far have targetted jail-broken devices, so as long as you're on contract, you have no worries - yet.

The young gentleman who first drew our attention to the security holes in jailbroken iPhones with his Rick Astley prank won himself a development job this week, so at least someone's getting something positive out of all this.

The rest of the week...

American courts jailed the "godfather of spam", while Italian prosecutors seek prison sentences for Google executives.

Twitter said it would rather go public than sell out, while LinkedIn said it has long-term plans for an IPO.

And, the iPhone is set to go on sale at Tesco, taking the device about as mainstream as it gets, just in time for Christmas shopping.

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