Blurred screenshot of PDF file deployed by OSX/Revir.A
Late last week, a new trojan threat has targeted Mac users. It consists of two parts, with the first being a trojan downloader known as "OSX/Revir.A" that downloads and opens a PDF document containing "offensive political statements" written in Chinese, and installs a a backdoor known as OSX/Imuler.A that allows to get access to the user's machine.
When the backdoor is installed, it will set up a launch agent on the system that is used to continually keep the malware active on the system. It will then connect to a remote server and send the system's current username and MAC address to the server, after which the server will instruct it to either archive files and upload them, or take screenshots and upload them to the server.
Apple has quickly responded having updated its malware definitions for Snow Leopard and Lion systems so that they can recognize the trojan.
CNET has also reported that another trojan horse, known as OSX/flashback.A, has been discovered. The new trojan masquerades as a Flash Player installer to trick users into installing the package.
Mac minis and MacBook Airs were introduced with a new function called "Internet Recovery" that allows to download and install OS X Lion even when hard drive on your Mac is failed or blank.
If you plan to upgrade to OS X Lion this month, then there is a good resource to visit. Roaringapps.com is a public sourced database that is designed to help you determine whether your application is OS X Lion compatible. The site uses information entered by users about the compatibility of existing apps that run on Snow Leopard or about the need for Rosetta to work properly.
According to Apple’s schedule, next versions of its Mac OS X were revealed every summer. So the next version of OS X, Lion, was also scheduled for a summer 2011, but, as usual, the exact date was not specify. 9to5 Mac today claims that it got some portion of information from several sources that suggests Lion will launch on Tuesday, June 14th.
Apple is said to be planning one of their product launch-indicative “visual updates” for the morning of Tuesday, June 14th
Moreover, the retail supplies of Snow Leopard are dwindling, solidifying the possibility of a mid-June launch of Lion. The report also suggests that the release of Mac OS X Lion will be beginning of reduced software presence within Apple stores, starting with the possible removal of Snow Leopard.
AppleInsider reports that its sources familiar with Apple’s plans claim that this summer the company will offer some iCloud features and services for free for users who will upgrade to Mac OS X Lion. According to recent rumors, iCloud will replace MobileMe.
People familiar with Apple’s plans indicated to AppleInsider that at least one of those secrets is expected to be that at least some of the services included in iCloud will be offered for free to Mac users who make the upgrade to Lion. iCloud is expected to replace the company’s existing MobileMe service, which offers e-mail and remote file storage, along with syncing of bookmarks, contacts and calendar events, at a price tag of $99 per year. That price tag may remain for users who do not make the upgrade to Lion, or for Windows users. But it is expected that the cloud services will become free to Mac users who run the latest version of Mac OS X.
Yesterday we reported that Apple had released the Security Update for Snow Leopard users to automatically find and remove the known variants of the Mac Defender malware. Apple enables OS X to update malware definitions daily to make sure that new versions of Mac Defender and other malware software will be discovered and removed. But despite all Apple’s efforts, there was found a new variant of Mac Defender that manages to circumvent Apple’s new security update and work exactly like Mac Defender.
This Friday Apple has released a second update for Preview 2 of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. A 1.22GB download is recommended for all users running Mac OS X 10 Lion Developer Preview 2 and is available via Software Update. The version of the latest build is reportedly 11A444d.
The latest build of Lion includes some icons which are sized at 1024x1024. That's twice the current 512x512 size of icons in Snow Leopard. Additionally, on April 2nd, Mac blog OSXDaily found some of the default wallpaper resolutions in Lion to be as large as 3200×2000 pixels (see the shot below). A few observers noted that this is higher than any Apple display has ever supported, generating speculation that Apple is preparing for "Retina" display Macs in the near future.
Taking cues from iOS, Apple has reportedly built in support for what it calls "HiDPI display modes". These HiDPI modes allow developers to supply 2x-enlarged images to support double-high resolution displays. Like the iPhone 4's Retina Display, this means that user interface elements will remain the same size, but everything will be twice the resolution and therefore twice as detailed.
Alongside release of iOS 4.3.2, Apple also released Safari 5.0.5 and Security Update 2011-002 for Mac OS X. Safari 5.0.5 seems to simply include the latest security updates. The updates are available through Apple's download pages and through Software Update. Security Update 2011-002 is a small download for Snow Leopard users, but the Leopard versions are far and away larger files including even more changes than their Snow Leopard counterparts.
Apple has released the latest update to the Snow Leopard operating system, Mac OS X 10.6.7. The 10.6.7 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:
Improve the reliability of Back to My Mac;
Resolve an issue when transferring files to certain SMB servers;
Resolved an issue with mid-2010 MacBook Air kernel panics, AirPort driver issues;
Improved brightness on external displays;
Resolved a DVD player playback issue only seen on 64-bit Macs;
Resolved the issue that could cause users accounts to disappear after the system went to sleep.
Along with new architectural features new version of Mac OS X also sports new look for the iCal, Mail and Finder, and some other applications look slightly different due to adoption of design elements implemented in the iPad. AppleInsider received the screenshots of new Lion's interface, and we're posting them below. Read the rest of this entry »
A new report by TechCrunch claims a new update to Final Cut Pro will be released this spring. The publication informs that new version of application for professional video editing will represent "the biggest overhaul to Final Cut Pro since the original version was created over 10 years ago".
The last major update of The Final Cut Suite was back in July 2009, when Final Cut Pro 7 was released. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple today has opened the Mac App Store with over 1,000 apps available at launch and released update Mac OS X 10.6.6 for Snow Leopard bringing the new Mac App Store via Software Update.
The Mac App Store, is a new application users will find in the Dock, and it includes the following features:
According to The Loop, Apple is planning to launch the Mac App Store at 12:00 pm (noon) ET on Thursday. That puts it at about 9:00 am PT where Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, California. The Mac App Store lets you browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, view staff favorites, search categories and read customer ratings and reviews. You can purchase, download and install apps in just one click and start using them immediately like on the App Store. The Mac App Store will be available to Mac OS X Snow Leopard users as a free download through Software Update. Purchased apps can run on all of your personal Macs and updates are delivered directly through the Mac App Store.