macOS Archive

Why Do We Claim Mac OS X Is Subsidised at Retail?

Thom Holwerda 2009-07-03 macOS 85 Comments

Whenever we talk about Mac clone makers such as Psystar, we all more or less accept as a fact that Apple is selling copies of its Mac OS X operating system at a price lower than it would have been if Apple did not have a hardware business. Even though we treat this statement as fact - recently, I've been wondering: where is the proof?

Apple Finally Fixes Critical Java Vulnerability

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-15 macOS 11 Comments

The critical Java vulnerability in Mac OS X which we reported on earlier has finally been fixed by Apple. "Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and later." The fix for this vulnerability is in there.

From NeXTSTEP to Cocoa

Submitted by johan 2009-06-11 macOS 17 Comments

"Although OS X is relatively new, it is built on top of technology that has been under development since Steve Jobs founded NeXT in the mid '80s. Erik Buck, author of Cocoa Design Patterns, has been working with this platform for over two decades. His perspective on the development of Cocoa, from its beginnings in NeXTSTEP and its evolution through the OpenStep specification, provide some interesting insights."

Snow Leopard Server Details

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-09 macOS 13 Comments

Between all the updated MacBooks and Snow Leopard news items across the web, you'd almost forget that Apple also has its own server operating system which will also got updated from Leopard to Snow Leopard yesterday. It benefits from the same improvements as the client version, but of course also has a set of its own, server-specific improvements.

Guest post by snydeq 2009-06-08 macOS No Comments

"Despite its public diffidence about enterprise adoption, Apple has made Snow Leopard an easier fit for the enterprise. ActiveSync support, the death of AppleTalk, and various security enhancements are of little use to the consumer audience that Apple formally targets," InfoWorld reports.

Building a Hackintosh Apple Can’t Sue You For

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-26 macOS 101 Comments

Getting Mac OS X up and running on a computer without an Apple label has always been a bit of a hassle. You needed customised Mac OS X disks, updates would ruin all your hard work, and there was lots of fiddling with EFI and the likes. Ever since the release of boot-132, this is no longer the case. Read on for how setting up a "Hack"intosh really is as easy as 1, 3, 2.

Submitted by kaiwai 2009-05-21 macOS 15 Comments

OSNews regular Kaiwai, who we all love and hate at the same time, has written a fairly detailed article about the latest Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard build, seed 10A355. He covers the changes made, the status of the transition to 64bit, and more.

9 Month Old Critical Java Vuln. Still Not Patched in Mac OS X

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-19 macOS 34 Comments

Six months ago, a certain security flaw in Java was fixed by Sun. This flaw was present in OpenJDK, GIJ, icedtea and Sun's JRE, but it got fixed in those. There's one important shipping Java implementation that still has not been fixed to remove this security flaw: Apple's Java.

Submitted by REM2000 2009-05-12 macOS 36 Comments

After a long gestation period, Apple has updated its Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system to version 10.5.7. This latest update comes packed with lots of bug fixes for several components of the Mac OS X operating system. Update: Various security updates for Tiger and Safari:Win were also released.

First Mac Botnet Activated, Engages in DDoS Attacks

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-18 macOS 113 Comments

Remember the Mac trojan that we reported about earlier this year? A trojan was found piggybacking on the back of copies of iWork and Photoshop CS4 found on warez sites and networks, and it would install itself after the user had entered his or her administrator password during the software's installation. This trojan didn't seem like much of a threat back then, but as it turns out, it's now in use in the first Macintosh botnet.

Getting Leopard on an Unsupported G4 in a Few Clicks

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-08 macOS 20 Comments

Back when Apple introduced Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, there was a bit of a minor controversy around the artificially implemented cut-off point; you could only install Leopard on machines with G4 processors of 867Mhz or more, leaving out capable machines like the dual 733Mhz or dual 800Mhz. The community soon found ways around this limitation, and recently, I found myself in a situation where I had to do the same.

Rumours: Snow Leopard To See August Release

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-31 macOS 10 Comments

More and more rumours and bits of news are making their to the web about Apple's upcoming Snow Leopard operating system. With the date set for Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in early June (as usual), rumours have shifted focus away from features, but towards Snow Leopard's release date. AppleInsider now claims to have the answer.

Is Aqua on Its Way Out?

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-25 macOS 42 Comments

The omnipresent "people familiar with the matter" have told AppleInsider that Apple's upcoming Snow Leopard operating system will have more to show for itself than "just" under-the-hood changes and improvements. Apparently, Apple is preparing an updated theme for Snow Leopard, to replace the Aqua one.

Apple Says Sorry for Mac Perl Breakage, Promises Fix

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-23 macOS No Comments

Apple has apologized for breaking Perl with its latest Mac OS X security update, saying it will distribute a solution to the problem with a future update. In a note to The Reg and a post to the Apple support forums, Senior Apple programmer Edward Moy apologized for "the unforeseen problems that the 2009-001 security update has caused" with Perl.

Reverse Engineering Apple’s OS X

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-17 macOS 8 Comments

"A number of folks have asked me what tools and techniques I use to reverse engineer Cocoa executables. I thought it would be worth taking some time out from documenting undocumented APIs to show you how easy it is to do the same thing for yourself. With all these tools in your arsenal, reverse engineering Cocoa executables is actually very simple. In fact, it's a good deal more straightforward than most Windows executables, with the exception of Delphi and .NET where - like Cocoa - a good deal of runtime type information is contained within the executable."

Snow Leopard QuickTime Player Ditches Titlebar, Window Frame

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-09 macOS 23 Comments

This weekend, we learned that Apple's upcoming Snow Leopard operating system would have a minimal user interface for the QuickTime movie player. Thanks to AppleInsider, we now have more information on the new interface, and it seems like Apple is again - just as with the Safari 4 beta - using some radical interface ideas.

Snow Leopard Gets Smart with Text, Continues Cocoa Push

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-07 macOS 62 Comments

Thanks to Ars Technica, we've got some Snow Leopard goodness for you. As always, Apple is quite secretive about its upcoming operating system, so even though test builds are released every now and then, information is scarce. An Ars reader has given some more insights into the latest Snow Leopard build, released on Friday.

Submitted by itomato 2009-02-26 macOS 46 Comments

A few days ago, we concluded (yes, we did!) that it was cool to run Windows 3.1 on your Nokia N95 using Qemu. Of course, the Apple world couldn't stay behind, and now we have one of Apple's obsolete operating systems running on the iPhone: System 7, also using Qemu.

Snow Leopard Gets “Put Back”, Folder Navigation in Stacks

Thom Holwerda 2009-02-13 macOS 27 Comments

Two interface changes coming to Snow Leopard have been revealed by those who have access to the developer releases of Apple's upcoming operating system. The trash gained a feature to directly move files back to their original locations, and the stacks feature has been improved by making directories browseable within the stacks themselves. They join ZFS, on-demand printer drivers, and location awareness as new features for Snow Leopard.

Submitted by poundsmack 2009-02-10 macOS 22 Comments

Some more details concerning Apple's upcoming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard release are trickling onto the web. First of all, as expected, Snow Leopard will include more thorough support for ZFS, but it's reserved for the server releases. In addition to that, printer drivers on Snow Leopard will be delivered on demand, shaving off a few gigabytes of space off a default Mac OS X installation. The drivers will be obtained via Software Update if necessary.