It looks like ultrabooks - essentially the Windows world's answer to the MacBook Air - are taking off, and the arrival of Acer's $999 configuration of the Aspire S3 will likely help things along, even if it does mix magnetic and solid-state storage. Announcements of dozens of new ultrabooks from a variety of vendors are expected in January, and reports are circulating that Apple is preparing to respond by refreshing the MacBook Air family with new 11.6in, 13.3in and 15in models during the first quarter of 2012.

A price reduction for the existing 11in and 13in models (which currently start at $1099 and $1449) is tipped ahead of the introduction of the new-look Airs.

There are also reports that 2012 will see a revamped and slimmer MacBook Pro.

Returning to the present and switching to the software front, Apple has updated Safari to version 5.1.2. Available for Lion, Snow Leopard and Windows (XP or later), changes include stability improvements, fixes for hangs and excessive memory usage, and the display of PDFs within web content. The update is also supposed to "Address issues that could cause webpages to flash white", which could be the problem that led me to stop using Safari as my everyday browser.

I've downloaded the update, but as it requires a restart I haven't yet had time to install it.

And on the subject of updates, Apple has been slow to update the XProtect malware definitions (used by Mac OS X to block malware downloads via Safari, Mail and iChat) for the Flashback Trojan. And it reportedly does not detect current Flashback variants.

Arguing that people should be able to avoid malware through sensible practices isn't completely unreasonable, but Apple clearly believes some form of automated defence is warranted, so XProtect wouldn't exist at all. Since it is part of Mac OS X and it is being updated, is it too much to ask for those updates to be released promptly? After all, as time passes more and more users become aware of any particular threat and how they can avoid it, so it's more important to have protection in place as soon as the malware is detected.

Third-party vendors such as Symantec and Sophos are much quicker off the mark, and Sophos even makes its software available free of charge to home users.