Happy 10th Birthday Mac OS X

image found on MacRumors.com

Today (March 24, 2011) marks the tenth birthday of Mac OS X. It made its first debut on March 24, 2001 as the memorable Mac OS X 10.0. Mac OS X was a major change for the famous Mac OS. It integrated NeXT company technology (OPENSTEP OS) and FreeBSD UNIX. In the beginning it did have some issues as quoted below, but what company's great products doesn't have some little bumps along the road to greatness.

"Mac OS X shows tremendous promise, which is a nice way of saying that the 10.0 release is not quite ready for prime time. This is most certainly an early adopter's OS release. Interface responsiveness and effective stability are the two biggest fundamental problems, but missing features and compatibility issues rank just as high if you actually intend to use OS X as a full Mac OS 9 replacement: the 10.0 release cannot view DVD movies; printer drivers are still scarce; CD burning is not yet supported, even by Apple's own iTunes CD authoring application; and a lot of hardware (like my G3/400's serial port adapter to which my printer is attached) seem destined to be orphaned forever."

Mac OS X Public Versions:
10.0 - Codename: Cheetah, released March 24, 2001
10.1 - Codename: Puma, released September 25, 2001
10.2 - Codename: Jaguar, released August 24, 2002
10.3 - Codename: Panther, released October 24, 2003
10.4 - Codename: Tiger, released April 29, 2005
10.5 - Codename: Leopard, released October 26, 2007
10.6 - Codename: Snow Leopard, released August 28, 2009
10.7 - Codename: Lion, expected released Summer 2011

The next install of Mac OS X is known as Lion (10.7) and is expected to come roaring through sometime this summer with the theme of "Back to the Mac", an effort to come full circle with some of the great features we know and love in the iOS platforms.

So Happy 10th Birthday Mac OS X, you've come a long way and it shows. We all love you and wish you a bright and happy future..

Apple unveils Safari 4 Beta for Mac OS X and Windows Platforms

(image found on PCworld)
Today, Apple launched its new beta version of Safari 4. The new browser is available for Mac OS X and Windows Platforms. Safari 4 introduces a few cool new features such as a smart address field, a full history search and a full-page zoom. Apple is touting that Safari 4 runs faster because of its new JavaScript Engine(dubbed “Nitro”). Also, according to the company, Safari 4 loads JavaScript "up to 30 times faster than IE7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3." As for HTML pages, Safari, "loads [them] three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3." Safari 4 is also the first browser to pass Web Standards Project's Acid3 test. The beta browswer is available from Apples Web site for download which will require 107MB of disk space.

Here is a review from PCworld with someone who had a chance to download and take the new browser for a test drive.

I gave Safari 4 a spin, and while I noticed quite a few elements 'borrowed' from Google's Chrome browser, I was impressed with Apple's offering.

One of the most noticeable changes is the new Top Sites feature, a page that displays your most visited or favorite sites. It can be configured as either your home page or as a page you see every time you open a new tab. Chrome offers a similar feature, but Apple's iteration offers more eye candy, with a 3D display and its iPhone-like ability to rearrange sites. Pages that have been updated since you last visited them, will be marked with a blue star in the corner.

Safari 4's title bar also gets a Chrome-like look, with new tabs displayed there, instead of in a traditional tabs bar under the address field--making better use of your screen real-estate. Tabs can be rearranged, or you can drag them out and create new browser windows. And, as in previous versions, Safari 4 can merge all of your open windows into one multi-tabbed window.

Your browsing history is now brought to life with Cover Flow, so you can flick through your recently visited Web pages like you do with your album art in iTunes. The new Full History search feature can prove to be extremely useful, as it goes through all of the pages you have previously browsed and the text they contain. If you know you saw a certain term somewhere, but you can't remember where, you can simply search for it, and all pages containing it in their body text and name will be displayed.

The Smart Search Field in Safari 4 is now integrated with Google Suggest, and one you start typing, the field suggests search strings. This means you'll no longer need Safari plugins, like Inquisitor, to get this kind of functionality. The Full Page Zoom feature lets users zoom in and out on a page (by using keyboard shortcuts or menus) without distorting a page's layout or losing quality. Mac users were able to perform a similar task before, but now it's available to both PC users, too.

As for speed, Apple claims Safari 4 is the world's fastest browser. While I can't verify that claim, I can say that the new browser, running JavaScript 4.2, surely feels faster and page-loading time is indeed shorter. Safari 4 also includes HTML 5, a technology that allows wed-based applications to store information locally without an Internet connection.

I really like the new version of Safari. It definitely feels faster--an improvement that alone should give headaches to Microsoft and Mozilla. Add in the other nifty features and eye-candy Safari 4 brings, like Cover Flow, and this browser should give them plenty to think about.

Even though some of Safari 4 new feature seem like they are borrowed from competitors' applications, it clearly sets itself apart as a top-class Web browser.

Some very interesting new things added to Safari. I will be downloading and testing it myself later on today. I will post my feelings and feedback from what i experienced using the new beta browser.

Hands On: Apple Safari 4 Beta (PCWorld)
Apple Releases Safari 4 Browser Beta (PCmag)
Apple squeezes JavaScript juice from Safari 4 beta release (the Register)

Pirated Mac versions of Photoshop CS4 infected with Trojan in Crack

(image found on photoshopsupport.com website)
"Well when it rains it pours" the old saying goes. This can be no truer then with Apple Mac OS users when it comes to using pirated software. Last week it was one thing and now its another. It turns out that pirated versions of Mac Adobe Photoshop CS4 are clean but the crack used to get around the serial number forced registration come with a Trojan horse for users that implement it.

"As of 6 a.m. EST on Jan. 25, nearly 5,000 are believed to have downloaded the Trojan, according to the advisory.

After downloading this version of Photoshop, users will run the crack application to be able to use it, the advisory continues. The crack application extracts an executable from its data and installs a backdoor in /var/tmp/, which is not deleted when the computer is restarted.

The crack application then requests an administrator password and launches the backdoor with root privileges, the advisory continues. The program saves the root hash password in the file /var/root/.DivX. In addition, it listens on a random TCP port, answers requests such as GET / HTTP/1.0 by sending a 209-byte packet and makes repeated connections to two IP addresses.

“Since the malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet, the creator of this malware will be alerted that this Trojan horse is installed on different Macs, and will have the ability to connect to them and perform various actions remotely,” the advisory reads. “The Trojan horse may also download additional components to an infected Mac.”"

So the moral of the story, beware of links bearing gifts........

More Malware Targeting Users of Pirated Software for Mac (eWeek)

Mac Malware tide on the rise (The Register)

New Mac Trojan Spread By Pirated Adobe Software (ChannelWeb)

Apples Snow Leopard is starting to Purr

(image found on appleinsider.com)
More information is coming out about the next Release of Mac OS X, dubbed "Snow Leopard". This new release will offer a 32 or 64 bit operating system to the end user to use.

"Snow Leopard is only designed to run on a relatively small number of higher end PCs, all made by Apple. Rather than trying to get lots of vendors on board as Microsoft must, Apple will be supplying the majority of kernel-level drivers for Snow Leopard.

While Microsoft has sold a 64-bit version of Windows for Intel x86 PCs since mid-2005, actual 64-bit adoption has been slow. Apple has incrementally supported 64-bit background servers and applications in Mac OS X since the release of the PowerMac G5 in 2003; all 64-bit capable Macs can already run 64-bit Mac OS X software because Apple doesn't offer two versions of its operating system; the same version of today's Leopard runs both 32-bit and 64-bit code."

This is an interesting time seeing how Microsoft just released their Windows 7 beta for the public to see and is working on getting everyone to forget Vista and move forward. This year should be very interesting seeing that rumors have it that Apple will be releasing the New OS in summer of 2009 Microsoft could have a major uphill battle to deal with if Apple is as successful as it has been in the consumer market place.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard vs. Windows 7: the Show Must Go On (efluxmedia.com)
Windows 7 vs. Mac OS X Snow Leopard: Apple ups the ante (Apple Insider)

Pirated Copies of Software are like a box of Chocolate, Ya never know what your gonna get...

(image found on informationweek.com website)

No where is this more true then with the people who downloaded the Pirated Apple iWork 09 software. Intego (Mac security software company) on Wednesday has announced it has identified an unknown Trojan software that affects machines running Mac OS X. The Trojan was found in pirated copies of Apples new software iWork 09 on various site where pirated software is illegally distributed. Intgo has identified the Trojan as "iWorkServices". The item is installed when the pirated copy of iWork09 suite is installed on the machine.

"The installer for the Trojan horse is launched as soon as a user begins the installation of iWork, following the installer's request of an administrator password (in older versions of Mac OS X, 10.5.1 or earlier, there will be no password request)," the company said. "This software is installed as a startup item (in /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices, a location reserved normally for Apple startup items), where it has read-write-execute permissions for root."

Once installed, the malware connects to a remote server over the Internet, potentially allowing the malware author to steal information, control the compromised computer remotely, or trigger the downloading of additional malicious components. Intego claims that at least 20,000 people have downloaded infected versions of iWork 09. It urges Mac owners not to download iWork from disreputable sites."

Hopefully, more Mac OS X owners will heed this warning and not download this illegal software suite and just go buy it if they need it. I think to many people have gotten to comfortable in the Mac world and forgotten that they can too be susceptible to little nuances that PC owners have become use too.

Mac OS X Trojan Found In Pirated iWork 09 (Information Week)
Mac Trojan Targets Pirated Apple iWorks (ChannelWeb)
Trojan hides in pirated copies of Apple's iWork '09 (Computerworld Security)
Plagiarized iWork software contaminating Macs with Trojan horse (themoneytimes.com)