Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Apple announces iLife '09, iWork '09 & 17" MacBook Pro
The final keynote address to the attendees of MacWorld was given by Apple VP Phil Schiller this morning, and included updated iLife '09 & iWork '09 suites, and a boxed set that includes both, as well as Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard". Also announced today was the long-awaited update to the 17" MacBook Pro. The new laptop, the final one to be updated to the 'aluminum brick' manufacturing process, is said to have improved battery life, powerful graphics capabilities and environmentally-safe components.
Along with software and hardware announcements, Schiller also described upcoming changes to the iTunes Music Store. Apple will eliminate DRM in the music tracks they sell, as well as adjusting the pricing and the delivery - iPhone users can download tracks directly to their phones from the iTunes Music Store. In a statement, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said, “We are thrilled to be able to offer our iTunes customers DRM-free iTunes Plus songs in high quality audio and our iPhone 3G customers the ability to download music from iTunes anytime, anywhere over their 3G network at the same price as downloading to your computer or via Wi-Fi, and in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points—69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29—with many more songs priced at 69 cents than $1.29.”
Apple has stated that this year will be the last in which they participate in the annual conference.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Choosing good passwords in Mac OS X
Summary
Mac OS X is designed to give you a safe and secure computing environment, often by the use of passwords. One of the best things you can do to keep your information and computer secure is to use good, hard-to-guess passwords.
- Consider how good of a password you need to secure different things. For example, with low-risk areas, such as an online news website, you can use an easy-to-remember password—you might even use the same password for other low-risk things. For very sensitive items, such as your system administrator password or an online bank account, use a unique, hard-to-guess password for each separate area, and do not reuse it elsewhere. This way, if one password is compromised (that is, someone figures it out), your other areas are not affected.
- For most people, you probably have a high number of items that require extra security, and it's very difficult or impossible to remember really good passwords for each item. Instead, store them all in a secure location, such as in a file on an encrypted disk image, on a USB memory storage device to which only you have access, in the System Keychain, or even on a piece of paper that's locked away in a secure location.
- Do not share your password with anyone else; that also means don't send it via email. Do not enter a password for a sensitive item, like a bank account, into an unprotected location, such as a non-secure website. It is possible for someone monitoring network traffic to obtain it.
- Use a long sequence of random characters. Include a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and (if the site or item supports it) characters typed while holding down the Option key.
- For easier-to-remember passwords, begin with a phrase, verse, or line from a song. Omit certain letters, and transform others into numbers or punctuation marks that resemble the original character. You might want to insert additional punctuation and numbers too. For example, the phrase "You will be welcomed" could be turned into "UW1llBvv3lc0meD;". And, of course, don't use our example password - everyone who sees this document will know it!
- Good passwords are over 8 characters long and contain a mix of many different character types. Avoid using city names, street names, names of people (real or fictional), pet names, words found in a dictionary or popular book, phone numbers, birthdays, anniversaries, or simple combinations of these. Avoid using a recognizable spatial pattern of keyboard characters, such as a couple diagonal lines of keyboard keys, such as "njimko."
- The administrator account password. This password is required to perform many tasks on the computer, including setting system preferences, installing software, and administering user accounts. An administrator password is an administrator user's login password.
- User account passwords that allow users to log in to their home folders. This is often referred to as a "login password." Make it a good one.
- Your keychain can store passwords for various applications and resources on the computer in a secure manner. Your keychain password "unlocks" the keychain so that the passwords inside it can be used. Your keychain password is the same as your login password when you first set up your account, but can be changed via the Keychain Access utility.
- The optional master password that can be used in the event that a FileVault-protected user (Mac OS X 10.3 or later) forgets his or her login password.
Jobs issues statement about his health
Deciding to discuss the rumors of his declining health the day before the 2009 MacWorld San Francisco show, Steve Jobs issued a statement through Apple today to address his weight loss over the past year; it reads in part:
As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.
Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.
The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.
Technorati Tags: apple, steve jobs
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Macs cited as 'most reliable' in survey
Macs have once again been judged as 'most reliable' by computer services company Rescuecom. According to the Computerworld article, "Apple's Macs beat machines sold and supported by Panasonic, Lenovo, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard, according to Rescuecom Corp.'s third annual reliability report. Apple, which took the top spot last year, more than doubled its score from 2007 and again trounced the competition, this year posting a score 43% higher than next-best Panasonic Corporation of North America."
Monday, December 15, 2008
Mac OS X 10.5.6, Security Update 2008-008 released
Mac OS X 10.5.6 has been released, containing updates to Address Book, AirPort, Client Management, iChat, Graphics, Mai, MobileMe (improvements to syncing), Networking, Printing, Parental Controls, Time Machine, Safari and the security-related issues addressed with Security Update 2008-008.
Security Update 2008-008 addresses critical security issues in ATS, BOM, CoreGraphics, CoreServices, CoreTypes, Flash Player Plug-in, the Kernel, Libsystem, Managed Client, network_cmds, Podcast Producer, and UDF.
Technorati Tags: mac os x, apple, software update, security
Friday, November 21, 2008
iPhone 2.2 software released
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
MacBook & MacBook Pros upgraded; new LED Cinema Display
Steve Jobs, along with Jony Ive and other senior Apple VPs, today announced a major refresh to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup. The new systems incorporate a new manufacturing process, are machined from a single slab of aluminum, as well as being manufactured with components that are free of toxic materials such as arsenic, brominated flame retardants, PVC and mercury. The new models are powered Intel Core 2 Duo processors and by nVidia graphics chips; they are delivered with processor speeds of 2.0 and 2.4 GHz for the MacBook models, and 2.4, 2.53 and 2.8 for the MacBook Pro models. The MacBook Air has received a refresh, as well, with improved graphics and optional 128GB solid state hard drive.
Also announced was an upgrade to the Apple Cinema Display - the latest incarnation has an LED, thin profile 24" display with a built-in iSight and an integrated power adapter for MacBook and MacBook Pro systems.
Technorati Tags: macbook, macbook air, macbook pro
Friday, October 10, 2008
Security Update 2008-007 released
Monday, September 15, 2008
Mac OS X 10.5.5, Security Update 2008-006 released
Friday, September 12, 2008
iPhone 2.1 software released, includes security update
As promised at the special event on Tuesday, iPhone 2.1 software was released today. Improvements include:
• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation
Beyond those improvements and bug fixes, the iPhone 2.1 update addresses eight security issues that have been discovered.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Apple announces updated and colorful iPods, iTunes 8
Steve Jobs took to the stage today and announced the rumors surrounding his death, as Bloomberg news service reported this past month, were greatly exaggerated. Along with this health update, he also announced a newly redesigned and refined iPod family in time for the holiday season, including beautifully colored models of the iPod nano, the second generation iPod touch and the newly redesigned iPod classic.
Also announced, and released today, iTunes 8 with a new feature called Genius which will create playlists containing songs that 'go together', using technology that utilizes the millions of other iTunes user libraries (those who opt to have their music libraries scanned and incorporated into the 'cloud').
Touted as "Genius makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together." the details about how the Genius feature works in iTunes 8 can be found online.#10Technorati Tags: apple, ipod, itunes, mac os x, software update, windows
Saturday, August 09, 2008
MobileMe launch debacle prompts management changes
Apple's ambitious attempt to nearly simultaneously 1) rebrand the .Mac service into MobileMe, and 2) debut iPhone 2.0 software, and 3) launch the iPhone 3G, and 4) launch of the App Store on iTunes was, in hindsight, not a very good idea. All four of these things happened within 48 hours of each other, and none of four went very smoothly. The .Mac/MobileMe service was unreachable for some users for days, and despite efforts by Apple to make the transition as smooth as possible, around 1% of users lost several hours worth of e-mails. The day of the iPhone 3G release put an incredible strain on servers and bandwidth provisioned by Apple, as hundreds of thousands of new iPhone customers began attempting to activate their phones. For me, it took several hours to get a completely activated iPhone (and this is after many hours in line), but for a small minority of users, problems with activation and setting up voicemail, persisted for days.
This week in a letter to employees, Steve Jobs put Eddy Cue in charge of the MobileMe service, as well as the rest of Apple's online services. Jobs, who was not very pleased with the launch of the rebranded MobileMe hopes that Cue will bring the same success to MobileMe as he's brought to other online areas of Apple.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Apple fixes serious DNS flaw with Security Update 2008-005
Technorati Tags: apple, mac, mac os x, open source software, security, software update, vulnerabilities, zero-day
Friday, July 11, 2008
Apple's iPhone 3G launches today with minor hiccups
I didn't even need the alarm clock this morning at 4:45 a.m.
After swilling some tasty organic Sumatran coffee, I got on the road, arriving at one of the newer AT&T stores here in San Diego by 5:15 a.m. - placing me around 25th in line. Some early adopters were still snuggled in their sleeping bags as I drove up, the sun barely beginning to illuminate the overcast sky.
The store had eight folks ready to assist in activating the iPhones, and it took nearly 1.5 hours after the 8:00 a.m. opening for my feet to cross the threshold. As luck would have it, they ran out of the 16GB models by the time I could get into the store - the final 16GB model leaving with the girl just ahead of me in line... I would have preferred the 16GB model, but after nearly 4 hours in line, I'd settle for the 8GB.
The activation process went a little long at the counter, and I was sent home with an 'activated' but non-functional iPhone, leaving the store by 9:50 a.m. Arriving back home, I plugged the shiny new 8GB iPhone 3G into my desktop Mac, and to my disappointment, iTunes was unable to contact the iTunes Music Store. This was a necessary step in order to finalize the activation process - the store was likely overwhelmed with new iPhone 3G activation requests, so I made a cup of tea. The iTunes connection problems didn't take too long to be addressed by Apple and by 12:30 p.m. today, my old phone number had completely ported over, and I was using the iPhone for both incoming and outgoing calls.
The one thing that is still not functioning for me is the data connectivity. Using my Wi-Fi connection, I'm able to surf the web, download email and install iPhone apps, but data connectivity doesn't seem to be working if I'm off Wi-Fi, and using AT&T's 3G service. I'm willing to give AT&T the benefit of the doubt, and give them a day or so to ramp up to this extraordinary number of new devices coming onto their networks, or it could be my data plan wasn't properly activated. Regardless, the phone is fantastic, and it will be a great addition to my workflow and playflow!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Microsoft stops selling Windows XP
Despite pleas to the contrary from users worldwide, Windows XP saddled up on the mule, and began a slow, slow walk into the setting sun today.
June 30th was the extended, extended, and extended again final drop-dead date for Microsoft to stop selling Windows XP. Microsoft has said they will provide support for the world's most widely deployed OS "until 2014".
So, I guess this is it: so long, Windows XP...
I know we had our differences, and you never really forgave me for relegating you to simple "gaming duty" after making my primary systems Mac OS X. But that was years ago, and you really should have gotten over it by now.
Good news is, you'll still be around for a long time. I think we'll spend many more evenings together, but I want to keep you pure. To that end, you've lost your internet privileges - you seem to catch every little thing that comes your way.
What a tramp!
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