Antivirus researchers have discovered what's claimed to be the first computer Trojan to infect Apple Mac OS X computers. The malware, dubbed Leap-A, spreads via the iChat instant messaging system as a file called latestpics.tgz that infected machines send to contacts on an infected user's buddy list. The malicious file, which poses as a set of pictures, is a compressed Unix shell program. The user is prompted for admin credentials to launch the malicious code, which is better described as a Trojan than a virus. Mac OS X users who do this will find their machines infected.
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Member since:2006-01-02
As does most anything based on *n*x (note that Ubuntu is doing its best to copy OS X's behavior in this, as well, with sudo rather than swapping over to the root user). MS is having to copy things into their OS that have been working for decades on others' OSes. Apple got that part for free.
If someone needed a PC who had never used one before, a Mac Mini (with the DVD burner) and cheap monitor would be the ideal way to go. Sure, it's more than a cheap Dell...but it will also be easier to support, because you just have to explain that those free things that don't run are things that turn a decent Windows box into sludge 
. It will be also be much quieter, and won't take up much room.
"Social engineering is the biggest security flaw on any system, but even OSX has an upper hand here over Windows."
I think most of it is more to do with good design decisions years before we saw OS X (a dumb OS X user will have less capability to screw up their computer, where WIndows needa a smart user for that). If Apple came out with something of similar quality to OS 9, it would not get me even mildly interested. Windows would still be better, with Linux offering the real competition. They were smart, however, and instead, just stuck a nice GUI on a proven system (and had developers that had been working with it for years, too), and used the features already in that system to get the job done. All that *n*xes have lacked in recent years are nice GUIs and easy hardware use. Both are being worked on, but none have a really good package, yet, compared to OS X.
Apple took something that was rock solid at its core, but lacking in presentation, and did what they've been good at for ages: making it presentable. Imagine if MS had taken a similar route, and ditched the underlying OS, working mostly on VS and Office (including Exchange, by association), instead (with a 9x and NT4 encapsulated environment for legacy programs, of course ).
Member since:2005-08-11
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2005-11-10
Totally Agreed. I recently bought a MacMini as a first computer for some friends of the Family. One has never used a computer before, the other had never heard about Macs.
They are both enjoying it immensley. The machine is fast, beautiful, spyware and junk free, but most of all - fun to use. Something that cannot be said of any PC.
I gave them instructions that they're free to customize as they can't really mess the computer up, it will always ask for the password if you're doing something that will actually change the machine. Thus they don't enter the password in fear of "messing it up", except cases where they've contacted me to ask about it.
If Virii become more common on OSX then Apple will upgrade the password box to give a more textual warning about Viruses, and also put in code to prevent modification of App bundles by scripts without a severe warning before hand.
Social engineering is the biggest security flaw on any system, but even OSX has an upper hand here over Windows.