Newton Virus is a computer virus designed by London collective Troika, that causes icons on your computer desktop to fall towards the ground as if affected by gravity.
The non-destructive virus is transferred to a colleague’s Mac via a specially designed USB device (above).
Newton Virus, created in 2005, is on show at the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at MoMA in New York until May 12. The movie shown here has not been seen before.
Here’s some info from Troika:
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NEWTON VIRUS
In the beginning were harmless computer viruses. Viruses born out of the wit of early computer adopters, viruses whose sole purpose was to surprise and amuse. A non-destructive form of artificial life.
We wanted to revive this golden era, and went on to create our first computer virus. We chose to do it for mac as the platform is still a virgin territory 
Spice up your colleagues’ day with our Newton Virus, the first virus to introduce gravity to your laptop, causing the desktop icons to fall down as if subject to the gravitational pull from the real world.
Newton Virus comes on a USB key for manual infection. Simply plug the key into a computer and the virus will automatically copy itself on the hard drive.
The virus will then hit at random, but only once. It will not replicate itself, mail itself to your friends or destroy any of your files, but instead provides you with moments of blissful surprise and magic.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Posted by Marcus Fairs
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Lol! This is too funny…
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Reminds me of when I was in middle school, Use to install a mac virus that would tell the mac not to turn on the monitor at start-up so you would get people turn the machine on and off thinking it was broken lol. harmless fun >;)
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 pm
lo!
March 4th, 2008 at 12:50 am
While that’s fun, it is a little bit frightening in that it means people are targeting Macs now because they are “virgin systems.” And they can do it. There could be major email mac viruses in the near future. Alack.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:44 am
sweeet
March 4th, 2008 at 2:54 am
so cute.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:56 am
but wicked.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:54 am
To Matthew:
Yes, all mac users now should be scared of the evil world. This is a new form of terrorism against us, the United Fear of America. I’m quite sure Osama made this up together with Iran, so let’s bomb Iran for, well, we’ll have to find a reason afterwards, but let’s bomb it.
Anyways, this is a really hilarious thing these guys develeoped here and imho if more people would break the boundaries of virtuality and reality like they do, virtual art can really be taken serious.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Yikes – virus for Mac shocker! More worrying is the fact you might actually want it! Very cool…
March 4th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I’d seen this before. It’s A M A Z I N G.
It’s also funny that even a ‘virus’ looks cool on a mac.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Try that, PC!
March 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
super cool. i want that virus! if it isn’t harmful to my mac
March 4th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Very nice and impressive.
Rather than the virus I would prefer a Screen Saver or app creating the same effects, so I can see it more often.
Good idea?
March 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Cute app, but misleading terms. Computer viruses replicate by injecting themselves into host software, like real viruses do to cells. If it doesn’t replicate, it’s not a virus. This is just malware.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
It’s a movie !!! Where is the proof that there is a virus. It could be an OS X application that is launched with a timer or via bluetooth connection.
How can you think that photos or vidéos show the truth todays with all the tricks and special effects available to everybody.
I need a true demonstration in front of me to be sure, but like this, it has no value for me. The only fun is the gravity effect
March 4th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Hey, since when the macbook includes a gyroscope?
March 4th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Hahaha, now macs even have the better looking viruses.
March 4th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
A gyroscope is not necessary, only a multi-axis accelerometer. As long as there’s gravity to measure, you can measure which way it’s pulling to figure out which way is up!
March 4th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
It has actually a gyroscope it’s called Sudden Motion Sensor… you can check it out, it’s initially intended to detect a fall a protect the hard drive…
March 4th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Well, the pedants and fanboys are already here so it’s only a few more posts before it all descends into a Mac vs PC flame war.
Virus? Malware? Another reason to love your Mac? I doubt you can really buy one though, but who cares, I call it amazing work. Love the product design too.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Since when does OS X allow something on a USB drive to execute automatically upon connection. I buy the rest of it, I know about the Sudden Motion Sensor (seen a great light-saber sound effect tool come from it), but the auto-run part has me stumped.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
ahahahahahahaahahahaha coglioni!
March 4th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Where to download it ?
March 4th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I love it! but lets not get things confused again, a virus is a distractive application that is hard to get rid of, that is malicious in intent, and causes damage to something on your computer and you need a virus scanner to get rid of it or a clean format. This to me looks more like a fun app.
Calling this a virus is like calling a vegetarian a terrorist!
March 4th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Use “Manual Over Ride”.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I didn’t know about the sudden motion sensor. Now it makes more sense for me.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
The Sudden Motion Sensor, and apps that leverage it to do this sort of thing, are quite real.
The ‘virus’ aspect of this, and the suggestion that it was created in 2005 (prior to the SMS introduction on the mac), are patent hogwash.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Correction: the SMS was introed in 2005, with the G4 12″ and other G4s. So, I retract the 2005 statement. The ‘virus’ statement stands.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:14 am
I doubt it even counts as malware. Until someone can explain how code from a USB dongle is executed without setting something up on the Mac first, I’ll call the distribution method a hoax. The effect is cool though and I’d like a copy of the code to show off to friends.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:45 am
So ridiculously cool, where can I get one?
March 5th, 2008 at 2:47 am
So this “virus” can only be programmed to run on a Mac because of the SMS?
March 5th, 2008 at 2:50 am
Oh another comment, don’t try this when the person is doing their work, it could get physical
March 5th, 2008 at 5:39 am
pretty cool.
But I think the ‘biting teeth’ of the USB should be facing the slot. So it looks like its biting at the macbook when its plugged it
Thanks,
~LVS
March 5th, 2008 at 6:14 am
I with Craig, it looks like hoax method of distribution, but dock activation would be a great screensaver.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:06 am
this newton program is a misuse of the word virus. get with it. use the word as it is actually defined.
it’s a prank program or logic bomb. it may be malware, depending on how it’s used.
a virus self-replicates and/or infects files. this does neither.
spyware reports identifiable user information secretly from the client computer. this does not do that.
it is not a virus. please understand what a definition is before using the word.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
how do you turn it of again then?
March 5th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Well ! .. where is it then ? where can I download it !
March 5th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
shame its useless. real workaholics NEVEr leave their position.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Would be cool if steve had this in his demo computer on upcoming macworld, but he did know about it and acted all surprised! It does show of the graphic engine and the advanced motion sensors built in to macbook/pro. i can hear whooowho in the room
March 5th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Forget about it.
No login – no viruses.
It’s a UNIX!
March 5th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
1) Does it run only on Mac?
2) Is it downloadable?
March 5th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Cool USB Gadget for my iMac G5
thanks
March 5th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Oh let me get it as a screen saver. Please.
)
March 5th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
how do u fix the virus?
March 6th, 2008 at 3:45 am
I think is an application too, but very funny =D
March 6th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
This was fun! I wan’t it for my mbp:)
March 6th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Were do i buy it?
March 6th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
wow! gimme a version for windows! awsome little thingy
March 6th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Ahhhh! I’m not leaving my macbook by itself anymore!! NOOOO!! But it does look fun! But it does go back to normal…right?
March 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Totally awesome!! If they designed one for windows, i’d totally buy it.
March 6th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Even the Mac “Viruses” are more elegant and useful than their Windoze counterparts.
LOL
Good Job Troika
March 7th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Windows… don’t be rediculus… MS can’t even make their own graphics display right.
BTW, While I agree with Denis (mostly, it’s BSD) the display generation for the desktop icons and menu bar is in the user’s space, so applications running as the users would have access to those memory registers. Additionally, while there is no autorun on mounted disks such as USB drives, there is the resource fork where the icon of the volume is stored. I could very easily see a buffer overflow in Finder as part of the loader.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:26 am
I do not know how people can say this is harmless.
I’ll agree its a great idea, and lots of fun.
But, this is also a very dangerous security exploit,
and by changing the executed program into a real virus or malware,
the chances of the exploited getting back to work will be very slim.
(really, it doesnt matter if the name definition is correct or not. )
Could someone report on how the “virus” gets inside the host PC ?
March 7th, 2008 at 10:45 am
about damn time macs get some sort of attention that wasn’t from macfags.
or atleast, macfags that can’t code shit.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
There is 1 thing that is really amazing with the Mac.
Its really easy to shut down. Really, all you have to do is look at the screen or be working on something, and then *poof* its gone. I didnt click anything, I didnt even save. It’s awesome.
Unless you actually wanted the Mac to turn off. Well, that’s a bit different.
You close a program, and it freezes, then you press clover leaf and some other uselessy named button, then the whole thing freezes, so you press the power button, that does bugger all. Unplug it? Well let’s hope your not on a Laptop, then you gotta try and figure out how to remove the battery.
Seriously? Why does anyone waste time with Mac’s?
And worst of all Mac user’s are usually quite smug about the fact they use an OS that is incompetent, useless and incompatible with pretty much anything else.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Remember MacPuke?
I got it installed on my SE/30 which was my first Mac and it think I worn out the floppy drive during that day!
I was laughing everytime I ejected the floppydisk.
Those were the happy days.
March 9th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Where can you download this shit?
btw good work!!!
March 9th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I have never seen this much comments!!!!
someone said true design is something that attempt debates.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Newton Virus another step for the virtual solid geometry in space …without Terra… interesting invention
March 10th, 2008 at 5:38 am
the best ever….
March 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Warbz: that’s not been my experience, and I speak as someone who’s been using both Mac and PC at work and at home for nigh on fifteen years…
…could just be me though…
March 10th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
wiiicked!! i want it… we need to contact these guys..
March 10th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
this is not a virus. this is complete stupidity.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Totally awesome!! If they designed one for windows, i’d totally buy it.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Warbz: I see someone has been looking at videos on youtube.
Only problem whit that video is that the guy confuses MacOS 8/9 whit Mac OS X
and mixes it all up.
March 14th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Damn. I can just think that’s just the beginning.
Oh, Drew: Pleeeeeease… don’t let me think you’re that dumb…
March 14th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Drew,
Its a shame you know so little yet profess that you do.
U3 drives (Cruzer) are written for PC’s, plugging this into a Mac doesnt install anything on the machine, if an application wishes to install anything on the Mac then an admin password has to be entered..pure and simple.
One more thing, your argument that there are no Mac virus’ because they arent popular enough is totally flawed. It is quite sad when blatant fanboys start posting on these threads.
I would best describe the video of this as a piece of art, look at how many posts and how much internet interest it has generated.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
hello guys, very nice!
where to buy it?
March 18th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Its only a program, how does it sense gravity?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I would just like to say to everyone who thinks it isn’t possible for a Mac to get a virus be logical here, no matter what you call it a Mac is a computer, it has a processor, it can be coded. Therefore it can have a virus if someone has the inclination to write one. It is possible to write a virus for a washing machine! You just alter the assembly code and you can make it do anything within the constraints of the machinery. If you can code it then you can write malicious code
Oh and mike just a thing about the Newton virus, it doesn’t install, it runs locally, you can auto run on a Mac just like on a pc and that’s just running an application off the drive, the Newton virus is just an app that’s stored in the machines ram, doesn’t need to be installed, doesn’t even touch the hard drive it just copies itself into ram.
Not a single system is completely 100% secure the idea that Mac’s are completely virus free and will never have a virus is foolish, it’s just sheer lunacy. Did you know that the first ever recorded computer virus in the wild was actually on a Mac?
Sooner or later there will be a destructive virus on the Mac, no ifs or buts it will happen I can promise you that. I can also promise you that all the Mac fan boys who believe that the Mac is perfect and will laugh and not believe a word I have said will end up losing everything on their Mac. I can only hope that someone sees sense and takes precautions
March 25th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
This is oh so cheeky, my wife shit a brick when i did it to her…
March 25th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
A Mac is not JUST a computer, I think we’re all aware of its super mechanic abilities…don’t be stupid Mr. Tetley.
March 29th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Where can you get that virus?
March 29th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
If you want to play with tilting the computer, try the game Bubblegym! Very cool.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
oh like that virus i want to have that
April 1st, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Greggory, i’m interested if you actually understand what a computer is by definition
i’m also interested in what super mechanic abilities a Mac has
if i were to dismantle a Mac and PC and lay the components side by side unless you were very well trained you could not tell them apart
you can install Windows on a Mac and OS10 on a PC
if you get down to the code they’re both written in the same language C++
a Mac might have a few differences in what has been coded but it is still a Personal Computer
April 1st, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Look.
1. It’s an ART program. Give it the poetic license to call it the Newton Virus, which whether it’s malware or a virus or program. It’s specifically for an artistic purpose. It’s a virus in the same sense that hamburgers aren’t actually ham….
2. It’s a pretty neat bit of code, and the same effect can be achieved on any operating system, but only on a computer with the SMS, Sudden Motion Sensor.
3. Saying the virus looks sexier on your OS is retarded, see 2.
4. The reason the mac appears to get/have fewer viruses and mac-specific malicious software is that mac represents a far smaller population of computer users, as backed up by the following article, CNET News:
“Although Apple sales typically represent less than 5 percent of the overall U.S. personal computer market, 8.2 percent of Americans who surf the Web at home do so using a Mac, according to the study. Nearly all the rest of those who go online–89.4 percent–do so using a Windows-based PC.”
It is not worth the time to code a bit of software to target 8.2% when you can, with the same amount of time, increase yields/infections of the virus by 10 times.
5. And just to add fire to the age-old flame war between PC’s and macs, can your mac right click?
Kthanks. x)
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
“5. And just to add fire to the age-old flame war between PC’s and macs, can your mac right click?
Kthanks. x)”
yes it can
April 8th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Ok, this question hasn’t been answered anywhere in this post-off, WHERE can you download this “virus” ?
April 10th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
This is just a joke…. it’s ART man. It’s either not real, (meaning it’s a picture) or it’s an application using the motion sensor in the mac. Amazing piece of code though.
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 am
You want something to make a Mac lover freak out? Just walk up to his computer and covertly press Ctrl+Option+Command(Apple Key)+8 to instantly invert all colors. Press the same combo again to revert to normal – but not before having some fun. ^^
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 pm
wtf? very flexible man
April 28th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Fake!
Or mac have a gyroscope or motion sensor like new gen videogames?
April 29th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
vreau si esu virusu asta
May 16th, 2008 at 8:51 am
a cute concept, but it also shows some video trickery going on during the filming. First of all you can’t auto copy and run a program from a USB flash disk. OSx doesn’t allow for that… but even if you did get their program in the Mac you’d still have to know the password, so it’s a fake video. a virus by default has to replicate itself and go from machine to machine without user intervention and that’s impossible on a Mac… that just can’t happen because of launchd.
but again, it’s a cute way to show off the accelerometer an all-newer Mac laptops and iphones.
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
very flexible
June 6th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Totally a work of art. I don’t think autorun scripts will work for USB port devices on a Mac. I think they had the computer set up with a color key gradient, recorded the color key video, then generated a script to make the animation based on the position of the color key, keystoning the image where necessary. “Interaction” is recorded through blips on the color key gradient program. The last thing that would need to be done, if there are light-reflecting objects, is to map a reflection on those objects.
It’s a Hollywood way of seamlessly superimposing a video within a video.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
i want to have this!
where can i buy it?
greetz, N.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:41 am
can someone tell us where to dl it or buy it!
July 8th, 2008 at 7:03 am
I don’t get it. This can’t possibly be a real virus. It can’t possibly be a real application even. What in the computer could tell this so-called “virus” that the computer has been rotated, or even moved? There is no motion sensor in a mac (at least not that I know of). Furthermore,
July 8th, 2008 at 7:04 am
how is it a “virus” if it doesn’t actually hurt the computer, or duplicate itself?
July 16th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Whre can you get it?
July 27th, 2008 at 3:06 am
I’m not going to repeat Tetley’s and Mitch’s comments, which both sum up the correct statement that the only reason macs don’t have virii is the fact there is so few of them. And if I wanted to join in a PC vs. Mac flame war, I’d point out how inefficiently Macs use the hardware they run on (except for Vista prior to the service pack, they’re the worst system for hardware efficiency… I’m writing this from slackware linux btw ;] so I’m stating from an unbiased point of view).
Anyway, nobody so far has pointed out that this isn’t actually a virus, even if it did autorun from the pendrive, which could happen, as it doesn’t install so wouldn’t need a password (which could be circumvented anyway by any well-coded virus, it’s called stealth/invisible installation; macs are NOT immune to this), it just runs from the RAM. A virus replicates itself to survive (sending itself via email, copying to removable media/redundant folders/etc), which this claims not to, making this a [prank] malware application, if it’s genuine.
Still, giving the creators artistic license to call it a virus… This is genius use of motion detector hardware, I like it!
August 6th, 2008 at 4:15 am
a good side of a virus.. love the concept !!
September 13th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Thank god for the linux man. I switched over to linux from windows and started studying on macs to see if they were as secure as is said. They are not at all secure. With windows at least if you’re smart about the internet then most viruses will not get you but in a mac you can kill it if you so much as sat on a website too long and a cracker monitoring the server sees you.
Mac people and windows people switch to linux. You can get it for free and it’s more secure I promise.
BTW i suggest Sabayon linux since i work on the project.
September 29th, 2008 at 12:39 am
haha funny how windowze uzerz are jealousy of mac cool users hahahaha, mac power hahahahaha funny screensaver, virus? nooo hahahahaahah, when will the virus come? when mac users gets great balls? hahahahhahah windows users stop with your jealousity!!!! remeber mac is power! peace
October 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Take a look at some of these comments about this “virus”. If you know anything about computing whatsoever this should disuade you from joining the “mac crowd” Mac is power… pfft. Mac is fad. A “virus” is called such because it replictes itself within system files. What’s funny is, while there aren’t many mac viruses out there, that’s simply bacause most coders don’t give two shits about writting a mac virus. It’s simply a waste of time. What’s funny though is that you people want to put a virus on your system that fomr a group you know little about. Ever heard of rootkits? They’re extremely hard to find on non-unix systems. Easier on a mac running os x, than say, on windows but still more difficult than on a true unix system. Unless you’ve annalized this code from one end to the other, you don’t know what it contains and you don’t know what your’re allowing into someone’s system. If you want a real state of the art machine then build one. If you want a real OS then get Linux.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Jjejeje very fun for this y use SOKX PRO 1.0
Official website: http://sokxpro-en.blogspot.com/
It is a software application whose function is to protect the USB devices of the autorun.inf file, which active the file .exe, .com or .bat that contains viruses that infect both the USB device as a PC desktop or a laptop into which they are connected.
SOKX PRO 1.0 works with USB flash devices without software pre-installed from the factory (eg U3), mp3 players, external USB hard drives and in general with any USB storage device.
November 28th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
great news there releasing a download for it i sent them an email asking and they replied the flowing
We are just working on a downloadable version which should be available over the coming few weeks. I will tell you when it is ready for purchase.
Thanks
Ulrik
February 4th, 2009 at 1:45 am
You guy’s don’t get it, do you? Nobody’s going to resolve their little Mac vs. PC battle here, so shut the **** up.
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
lol thats funny
May 10th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Why is this app so impossible to find?
We all want it.
Does someone has heard that somebody got it or downloaded it?
September 1st, 2009 at 7:09 am
http://rapidshare.com/files/274148827/Newton_Virus.zip.html
enjoy
ps: isn’t a auto-run u gat to put it on a usb key then open it from the usb key on the victim’s computer eject it then wait a few and it should run
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
this is something a human must buy and use it as a prank