A female employee from Panda Research Blogs found a malware on her newly purchased HTC Magic smart phone. The malware was identified as a program that steals Lineage passwords.

For those not familiar, Lineage is a Korean made MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). It is an old title and has a slowly dwindling player population –mostly thanks to the newer Lineage II game sequel that has come out several years back.

Anyway, the malware has not caused any major damages and this is the first report of such an occurrence so there is the possibility that this report may be an isolated case. But in the event that it is not, the malware itself is not incredibly destructive (unless you actually play Lineage). The only real worry here is that Vodafone actually failed to protect its customer.

As a mobile network operator that provides handsets to their clients, it is also their responsibility to ensure that the product gets to the hands of the clients without any problems. Despite the fact that the problem can be rooted to many other reasons (internal employee mischief, supplier problems and others); the accountability of Vodafone in this instance is undeniable.

In any case, Vodafone is still in the middle of doing some serious cost cutting that has forced the company to close down 6 stores. About 375 job positions have been relieved of work due to redundancy. Some have raised concerns that Vodafone’s decision to just suddenly fire employees instead of giving them prior notice.

It would not be surprising that this malware incident may have been caused by a distraught employee. It is reported that union groups CWU and Prospect have already taken steps in helping out the 375 employees and are in talks with Vodafone regarding support and compensation.

Get to know more about the malware found on the HTC Magic at Know your Mobile.

Like those people who believe writing things out by hand or on typewriters is better than writing on a computer, those people who believer phones should come with full-QWERTY physical keyboards are, well, just plain wrong. They may deny it, they may even spit in your eye for suggesting it, but you can hankie out the phlegm happy in the knowledge that you are right, they are wrong, and that’s the end of it.

And it seems like HTC have cottoned on to the fact, because the HTC Magic, the follow-up to the first-ever Android-running phone, the keyboard-sporting G1, has done away with its keyboard. Huzzah, we say, whilst sticking our middle finger up towards the tweed-jacket wearing keyboard supporters as they weep into their pints of CAMRA-supported real ale. Because the HTC Magic is 100%, absolutely, completely, undeniably better for the addition… or the subtraction, as it were. It’s far, far lighter (coming in at a bikini-friendly 116g, just in time for summer). It’s slimmer, a Special-K-tastic 13.6mm, no more or less. And, the fantastic touchscreen thingie that’s replaced it is great. Boo-hoo Mr Keyboard Fiddler, it might take you all of four minutes to get used to the sensation of touching a screen rather than pounding some poor defenseless key. Waaaa, Mr Caps Lock Caresser, your fat fingers are too fat for the portrait mode… then flip it you imbecile, because this keyboard does what your favoured thing can’t – it rotates to fit the screen whichever way you turn it. And, thanks to the G-sensor, you can turn the Magic anyway you want, even upside down.

Anyway, that’s our keyboard-based rant over. Got to get that out of the system once a month at least. What’s that? You want more specs? More details? Bah! You’re so demanding. Check out the HTC Official page for some opinionated guff, or check out this HTC Magic Review, for some slightly different opinionated guff.