You can protect your Mac from malware by following three simple rules. First, keep your Mac up-to-date. Second, only download from sites you trust. Third, stay informed. This videos shows you how to accomplish each of these steps.
Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference next week. In an unusual move, they have pre-announced the topics for Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation. As expected, he will show Lion, the next version of Mac OS X due out later this year. In addition, a new version of the iPhone and iPad operating system will be discussed. Also, the new iCloud service will be unveiled. The keynote will take place on Monday, June 6 at 10 a.m. in San Francisco.
In a rapid series of events this week, Apple began battling it out against a recent attack of trojan malware. Apple released a security update for Snow Leopard on Tuesday that identified and eradicated the Mac Defender malware. But the next day a new variant of the trojan appeared that looked different enough from the original that it was not detected. Apple responded on Thursday with an update to the security definitions that catches that version as well.
Another classic board game comes to iOS with The Game of Life For iPad and The Game of Life Classic Edition for iPhone. Both build upon the old game, and if anything are more fun because you don’t have to set up and clean up or manage all of that paper game money.
In the Finder you can use File, New Finder Window or Command+N to open a new window. But what should appear in that new window? You can set that in Finder, Preferences. It can be your home folder, your Documents folder, your hard drive, or any folder you choose. So if you have a projects folder or something you access all the time, you may want to use that instead for the quickest access.
“I hear that Apple is getting into cloud services.”
“Good. Maybe I can finally upgrade my harp with some new apps.”
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the first Apple Store, all of the stores received an upgrade this week. The upgrade consisted of new table displays with iPads next to each product displaying prices and details. Customers can also use the iPads to call over a store employee.
When Lodsys threatened to sue iOS app developers, claiming that they owned the patent on in-app purchases, it sent a chill through the app development community. Apple came to their defense this week firing back at Lodsys saying that they had licensed the patent from them, and that Apple’s license covers developers. Developers reacted enthusiastically to Apple’s support.
There are a lot of musical instrument apps for the iPad, but what about the most fun musical instrument of all? Ukulele HD has just about every virtual instrument mode you can imagine. You can press buttons to play chords or finger the chords yourself in several ways. You can play individual notes too.
If you look in Safari’s preferences, under Bookmarks, you can check off “Include Bonjour” in one of the three bookmarks sections.For instance, you can turn it on for Collections so it shows up on the left when you Show All Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu. Many wifi printers and other devices will broadcast the location of their local admin web page using Bonjour. You can see these appear here and get quick access to their admin pages with information and controls.
“Don’t worry dear, you can come up with another superhero name.”
Dealing with malware on Macs has been a non-issue until recent weeks. The “Mac Defender” trojan seems to have affected many Mac users, particularly the ones active on the web. Thankfully this is a weak trojan horse that is difficult to get, easy to remove and doesn’t cause any real damage. Most importantly, it does not try to spread itself like a virus.
MacMost has launched a new section, the Mac Virus and Malware Information Center. Here we have posted information and a video about the Mac Defender trojan. You can find out how to avoid it and how to remove it. In the future, we can update that section and post information there about other malware that may spring up.
Sometimes an app idea can seem ridiculous, but after trying it, you feel compelled to use it again later. Then again. Then the next thing you know it is one of your top apps. Foursquare is a location game. You “check in” at a restaurant, park, airport or wherever and get points for your check-ins. You link up with friends and compete against them to see who gets around more. You can also share notes, tips and pictures of places with friends and the whole world. It goes without saying that this isn’t for someone concerned about privacy. With the right group of friends, you can have fun and discover new places.
So you know those icons that appear in the upper right part of your screen in the menu bar? If you want to re-arrange them, all you need to do is hold the Option and Command keys down, and then click and drag the icons left or right. You can also remove an icon by dragging it down and out of the menubar.
“Using AirPlay on my iPad I can show you my vacation photos on the big screen! Isn’t technology great?”
“Uh, sure.”
“We have to go…”
Learn about the Mac Defender/Mac Protector trojan horse malware attack. See how it works. Find out how to protect yourself from it. Watch step-by-step how to remove it. This piece of malware tricks you into download and installing it with frightening, but completely fake, virus warnings. What it really wants is your credit card number. Fortunately it is easy to avoid and easy to remove.
