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The iPod's Big Brother Apple's latest computer is as cool and sleek as its best-selling music player By CHRIS TAYLOR Monday, Sep. 13, 2004 The best way to describe Apple's iMac G5, which goes on sale later this month, is to say it looks like an iPod on growth hormones. It's what you'd get if you stretched the pocket-size music player until it was 17 in. wide and 2 in. deep, squished a supercomputer into the casing and mounted the whole thing on a metal stand. The resemblance is not coincidental. More people buy iPods than iMacs these days, and...

AN FRANCISCO, June 28 - Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, demonstrated on Monday his answer to one of computing's most pressing problems: searching for files and information stored on desktop computers. At a meeting here of some 3,500 software developers, Mr. Jobs showed off a coming feature for Apple computers, called Spotlight, that will allow users to search quickly for words and concepts stored on a hard drive by using search technology borrowed from the company's iTunes online music service. The feature will be part of the next version of the Macintosh operating system, called Tiger,...

With WWDC just days away, the first Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) information and screenshots appears to have been leaked. According to unconfirmed sources, Apple will reportedly provide developers with a Mac OS X 10.4 Preview copy at WWDC on Monday. These screenshots provided reportedly come from this upcoming developer preview. (Of note, the screenshots come from a previously unconfirmed source, and as a result may spark the usual debates of legitimacy -- though on casual inspection, do appear real (Tiger Read Me PDF) Overall Mac OS X 10.4 is said to not hold any dramatic changes from Mac OS...

Key enhancements include: improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS), PPTP, and wireless networks improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers improved disc burning and recording functionality iPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and iSync additional FireWire audio and USB device compatibility updated Address Book, Mail, Safari, Stickies, and QuickTime applications improved compatibility for third party applications previous standalone security updates For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: OSX 10.3.4 update info

A security hole still threatens Mac OS X users after a patch issued by Apple Computer last week failed to fix the underlying problem, security experts said on Tuesday. The security issue could allow an attacker to transfer and then run a malicious program on a Mac, if the Mac's user can be enticed to go to a fake Web page on which the program has been placed. "This, in my mind, is the first critical vulnerability on OS X," said Richard Forno, a security researcher and the former chief of security for domain registrar Network Solutions. "Downloading the patch...

Although Apple issued a patch late Friday afternoon, the security firm warns that users of the operating system still remain vulnerable to an "extremely critical" security flaw. By George V. Hulme Security firm Secunia warned Apple Computer users this past weekend that they remain at risk to attack even if they apply a patch Apple published Friday to fill a security hole. "It is still possible to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable user's system, just as easy as before Apple issued Friday's security update for Mac OS X," Secunia's security advisory states.

Mac OS X LaunchServices Vulnerability And The Need For Paranoid AndroidA whitepaper by Jason Harris Executive Summary This is a nasty security vulnerability and you'd better install Paranoid Android until Apple fixes it. Background Information Apple's OS X has seen its first major security vulnerability. Apple hasn't yet released a fix (although they are purportedly working on one), and there's been lots of rumor, speculation, and flat-out incorrect fixes coming from the user community in the meantime. This paper is an attempt to explain the issue, explain why other fixes are incomplete, and present the rationale for Paranoid Android,...

Apple Computer on Friday issued an update to Mac OS X to address flaws that security firms said could allow malicious code to be run on a Macintosh. The update fixes a pair of flaws that could be used to create a virus that spreads through a Web link sent via e-mail messages. An attacker also would have to create a Web site with special programming to exploit the vulnerability. The issue was made public this week, although the person who discovered the problem claims to have notified Apple in February. Security information service Secunia on Tuesday rated the issue...

A Secunia advisory on the Mac OS X Help vulnerability rates the problem "extremely critical" Two vulnerabilities have been reported in Mac OS X, allowing malicious web sites to compromise a vulnerable system. The problem is that the "help" URI handler allows execution of arbitrary local scripts (.scpt) via the classic directory traversal character sequence using "help:runscript". It is reportedly also possible to silently place arbitrary files in a known location, including script files, on a user's system using the "disk" URI handler. Various variants of the URI handler vulnerabilities are currently being discussed.   This has been confirmed...

New work-bundling software for Macs could make Windows users envious Because of their meager ranks (currently about 3% of the personal-computing universe), Macintosh users have long been given second-class status in the software world. Sure, Apple has created some nice products, such as iTunes, for its computers. But most third-party programs are written for Windows PCs and then adapted, sometimes poorly and often months later, for Apple machines. A notable exception arrives later this month when Microsoft releases the latest version of its ubiquitous Microsoft Office package for the Mac. My verdict: Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac is clearly superior...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will preview Mac OS X Tiger at the company's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco on June 28, 2004. Jobs will give the keynote address for the conference on Monday, June 28, 2004 at 10:00 am. Each major revision of Mac OS X to date has introduced new technologies and a more refined user experience, in addition to new features. While Apple is mum on specific details of the upcoming preview Apple Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations, Ron Okamoto told MacCentral on Monday that many of the "To Be Announced" sessions at WWDC...

A researcher has again taken Apple Computer to task for not adequately labeling the seriousness of the security flaws described in its advisories. Five vulnerabilities released Monday affect various components of the Mac OS X operating system. The greatest threat is a buffer overflow in the Apple file-sharing system that could allow a remote attacker to take over control of the system. But the company described it as a correction "to improve the handling of long passwords." "They are not characterizing the issue so that people can make a security decision about it," said Chris Wysopal, vice president of research...

04 May 2004 Apple releases range of patches for known and unknown vulnerabilities. By Kieren McCarthy, Techworld Apple has released a range of patches for security holes - both old and new - for its Mac OS X operating system, which it advises users to download immediately. The company is downplaying the issue but one security company at least is concerned that the vulnerabilities could be extremely serious. Secunia has given the five - yes, five - patches a "highly critical" rating and warned that they may allow hijacking, security bypass, data manipulation, privilege escalation, denial of service and system...

Like to carry around a notebook that delivers exceptional power at an affordable price? Then pick up an iBook G4. With a faster PowerPC G4 processor running at speeds up to 1.2GHz — optional DVD-burning SuperDrive, expanded memory capacity, advanced wireless networking capabilities, and the impressive stability provided by Mac OS X version 10.3 “Panther,” iBook G4 brings truly impressive performance to everyday life. And with pricing as low as $1099.Perfect for the activities you engage in each and every day — surfing the web, getting and sending email, chatting up a storm, doing your homework, playing games, listening...

<p>Thanks to Apple Computer's rising star in the world of digital music, Mac OS X has become a target for malware authors.</p> <p>A Trojan horse, called MP3Concept or MP3Virus.gen, has been discovered that masquerades as an MP3 file. It hides in ID tags of the file and becomes activated when unwary users click on it, expecting to play a digital song.</p>

<p>Intego today said it released an updated virus definitions for Intego VirusBarrier to protect Mac users against the first Trojan horse that affects Mac OS X. This Trojan horse, MP3Concept (MP3Virus.Gen), exploits a weakness in Mac OS X where applications can appear to be other types of files: "The Trojan horse's code is encapsulated in the ID3 tag of an MP3 (digital music) file. This code is in reality a hidden application that can run on any Macintosh computer running Mac OS X. Intego says the malicious application can delete files, propogate itself by sending a message to other users, and also infect other MP3, JPEG, GIF or QuickTime files.</p>

We've posted similar rumors in the past, but more recently we've begun to gain a clearer picture of what may really be going on behind the considerable delays of PowerPC 970FX-based Macs. Large-scale purchases of Xserve G5s by high profile educational and scientific customers like Virginia Tech are well known to be playing a part in the shipping delays affecting Xserve G5s - particularly the dual-processor model. According to new reports out of Cupertino, Austin, Apple's contractors in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, demand for those publicly acknowledged purchases is definitely strong, stronger than Apple's already optimistic projections. But Apple...

My friends are scratching their heads these days and staring blankly at me. For the benefit of those that don't know me, let me tell you a brief story. I am married to Microsoft. I have been married to Microsoft for the better part of 15 years. It began when I became a Windows 2.0 (286/386) programmer. I have been using SQL Server since it was owned by Sybase (and Ashton Tate, but we won't go there). I have written seminars for Microsoft, spoken internationally for them at their events, written training and shot video tapes on Microsoft C/C++, MFC,...

To many Mac users, the recent news report of an Apple OS X security vulnerability seemed like an anomaly. While Windows users are greeted almost weekly with a new virus or worm, OS X users tend to view their systems as impervious to such concerns. The steady stream of Windows bugs is a phenomenon far removed from their computing experience -- or so it seems. But the late February security report cast Apple in a new light. Chris Adams, a systems administrator in San Diego, discovered a flaw in the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), a tool in OS X 10.3,...

Noah Johnson: Folding Proteins at Home By Barbara GibsonIn what is rapidly becoming a new world of democratic computing, Noah Johnson’s three Power Macs are humming quietly away, helping Stanford University scientists solve a complex problem that, one day, may help them fight disease. As part of a groundbreaking distributed computing experiment, Johnson and half a million other people are donating their spare computer capacity so Stanford can remotely simulate protein folding, an essential biochemical process that controls vital body functions. The project, called Folding@home, represents a sort of ad hoc democracy because anyone with an Internet connection can...