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The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
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Why Mac Security Matters: OS X Rootkit Hunter
After blogging about the need to use and maintain an anti-virus solution for your OS X systems, an anonymous reply questioning the need to use security tools at all on OS X systems gave me pause. You do not need me to link to the numerous articles flying around the internets that report on how one reason switchers are flocking to OS X is because of the lack of prevalence of malware. Folks are tired of viruses, worms, trojans, etc. hammering their systems. They are even more harrowed by having to maintain vigilance over their anti-virus programs, hoping they are not too far out of sync with the current “DAT”. However, switching to run OS X to avoid running anti-virus programs may not be the wisest choice.

To answer the “do we really need security tools for OS X?” question in a slightly different way than you’ve seen from many technology pundits, I’d like to turn your attention to utility called rkhunter or “rootkit hunter”. As most TAB readers should know by now, OS X has it’s origins in Unix (the “darwin” base comes from FreeBSD), and most folks believe *nix variants (linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc) to be extremely secure, free of the problems that plague those sad, sad Windows users. If you fall into that camp, please take a moment and browse the Secunia FreeBSD 5.x artchives. Secunia reports show over 91 vulnerabilities, with critical ones impacting core services such as file sharing and remote access. This should not be surprising since Unix systems have been favorite targets for hackers as they provide such a powerful base to launch further exploits. One of the more gnarly hacks is the installation of a rootkit - a program that can take surreptitious control of your system. And, guess what: your Mac OS X workstation/server is susceptible to rootkits just like any other Unix system, even with Leopeard’s enhanced security features. How can you fight something you can’t even see? You need a tool to help. Modern anti-virus products can and usually do cover rootkits, but the rkhunter tool may cover additional rootkits and may update rootkit signatures more frequently than a traditional vendor.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to get rkhunter installed on your Mac since it will require some enhanced Terminal-fu. Thankfully, Christian Hornung understood the need for such a tool and built a wrapper for it called (surprisingly enough), OS X Rootkit Hunter [dmg], complete with installer. After installing the package, navigate to Applications->OSXrkhnter and run the “Rootkit Hunter” app.

It’s good practice to update the rootkit database (similar to a virus engine DAT update) before each scan since there may be new rootkit signatures from new or altered exploits. When you start the scan, you will see a password dialog - just as you would with any operation that requires additional privileges to run - since OS X Rootkit Hunter needs to look in places your normal account user account cannot. You will also see Terminal windows displaying a running report of what rkhunter has or has not found (since this front-end does not free you from all the gory details of what lies beneath Aqua).

While you can download and run OS X Rootkit Hunter, I would strongly suggest that less technical users obtain one of the commercially available malware scanners since the output from OS X Rootkit Hunter can be a bit daunting. The presence and history of this tool should be enough justification for the need to run security software on your systems.

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/23/why-mac-security-matters-os-x-rootkit-hunter/#comments
Nothing But Air?
I think Apple made a few too many assumptions when creating the MacBook Air (MBA), but will that translate to a failed product? I highly doubt it.

The Developer Assumption

I think Apple made three assumptions when developing the MBA for the subnotebook demographic:
- Subnotebook users regularly use WiFi hotspots
- Subnotebook users will not use their notebooks at home
- Subnotebook users have another computer at home
I've found free WiFi hotspots in my area and I seem fortunate enough to be surrounded by a few, but I imagine the average traveler would rely more on an Edge/3g card than a hotspot. So while you're MBA may be completely wireless, I would argue not as many folks will use it now as in the future.

As a subnotebook, I imagine the MBA will suffice for day to day chores: internet surfing, document editing, etc. Does that mean I can't use this at home more heavily? Will I not be able to edit photos? Edit films with iMovie? Maybe I'm an extreme case, but from Panther to Tiger, I ran my life around nothing more than an iBook G3 with 900 MHz. Slow yes, but it worked. So I have a bit of faith for the MacBook Air. Will it work as well as a MacBook Pro? That's a resounding "NO." So why differentiate into this new market? Frankly, because of the third assumption.

What People Expect Isn't What They Need

Apple has to assume you have another computer at home to make use of the MBA. I think that's another reason people are puzzled over it. People seem to equate SUBNOTEBOOK for a CHEAP entry into the Mac lineup. You want cheap and entry you get a Mac Mini. You want thin and portable, you get the MacBook Air. That said people may think Apple has stepped too far too quickly. In doing so they short-sided functionality with form. So I question, if you're unhappy with the MacBook Air, why? What would you add to it that wouldn't have you opt for a MacBook or a MacBook Pro instead?

People said the same thing with the Smart Phone market when the iPhone was released. It faced strong criticism that the market was too small for any new, dominant player to take over. So why can't the same be said for the subnotebook market? Perhaps with Apple's entrance into it, a revitalization will occur, and people will begin to find niche uses for it. Think of the student. I could see the MacBook Air becoming the dominant dorm staple. It'll get you to class, it'll write your papers, it'll hook up to an external monitor, and it'll edit a movie or song for you. It won't do it as well as the MacBook Pro, but it will do it in an extremely small, justifiable space. I think cost then, would be the only deterrent for this product. If cost is an issue, why aren't you settling for a MacBook?

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/22/nothing-but-air/#comments
Multi-touch on the MacBook Pro
A rumor surfaced on the internet this weekend hinting that the next revision of the MacBook Pro will have the same multi-touch abilities as the Air. That’d be logical, after all - the MacBook Pro’s haven’t been updated in a while, and that would be a nice feature, right?

The only problem with that is that they’ve already got it. Doubt me? Check out the page on Apple’s website discussing the various multi-touch gestures. (For everyone’s convenience, I’ve copied that picture here.) There are ten gestures, outlined below.

Scroll: This gesture is simple; place two fingers on the trackpad and slide them around. Easily done on the MBP. (It even does sideways and - in Leopard - diagonal scrolling, provided the appropriate checkbox is ticked in System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Trackpad.)

Swipe: This seems like scroll - two fingers and sliding. However, in the demo, it is used to slide quickly between images. This one, I cannot get my MBP to do; it will scroll happily to the right or left of the selected image, then stop. Further study does make this look like three fingers.

Pinch and Expand: The name is pretty explanatory - pinch to zoom out, and expand to zoom in - and the gestures look just like the iPhone! Sadly, also a no-go on the MBP.

Rotate: Again, obvious.

Screen Zoom: Hold the control key and slide two fingers forward and back on the trackpad. The MBP does this perfectly.

Tap: I don’t know why Apple even bothered listing this as a multi-touch gesture, but okay. Again, the MBP is more than capable of it. (It needs to be selected in System Preferences.)

Click and drag / click, drag, and lock: Two gestures on the Apple demos, one on here, and again, the name is explanatory. The MBP can do both of these, provided the user has checked the appropriate boxes in the Trackpad preference pane.

Secondary click A / secondary click B: As was discussed in another article’s comment thread, all Intel laptops and certain PowerPC ones can support a right click by tapping on the trackpad with two fingers. There also seems to be a correlation between Leopard and this functionality; older iBooks running Leopard have this feature, while newer ones that are still using Tiger do not. (This also requires selecting non-default options from the Trackpad preference pane.)

Now, according to my calculations, the MacBook Pro can do seven of the actions that Apple describes as ‘multi-touch gestures.’ Those seven are scroll, screen zoom, tap, click and drag, click, drag, and lock, secondary click A, and secondary click B. The other three gestures - swipe, pinch and expand, and rotate - do not. Seventy percent of a feature that it doesn’t even supposedly have isn’t bad in my book.

However, only one of the unsupported gestures requires more than two fingers, which the MBP has already shown that it can handle. As was noted by one commenter on this article - thanks, James! - it can detect the difference between two fingers and three. This, then, makes me assume that we will see the full palette of multi-touch gestures on the MBP - but not as a hardware update. That, in turn, is further supported by the appearance of some limited multi-touch abilities in older PowerPC machines running Leopard - perhaps Leopard even contains the frameworks for all of the above gestures, just waiting to be unlocked. There are also certain third-party utilities, of which SideTrack may be the most well known, that can add some of these functions.

10.5.2, anyone?

(All of this research was performed on a 2.16Ghz MacBook Pro specimen, birthdate April 2006, running Leopard 10.5.1, with no third-party enhancements that would affect trackpad functionality. I attempted to duplicate the Apple demos as closely as I could. I opened a folder of pictures in Preview and tried the same finger motions. The presence or absence of gestures was secondarily tested on a 867Mhz iBook, also running Leopard 10.5.1, and also without enhancements.)

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/21/multi-touch-on-the-macbook-pro/#comments
Bento: Big On Ease, Style & Stretch

FileMaker's new personal database, Bento is big on style and ease. Watch the tutorial movie and in less than five minutes you will be comfortable using Bento's main features.

Bento comes with a set of libraries (databases) that relate directly to OS X's Address Book and iCal. Whatever changes you make in these Bento libraries — called, not surprisingly, Address Book, iCal Events and iCal Tasks — appear in OS X's Address Book or iCal and vice versa.

When you install Bento, it imports your Address Book and iCal data, recognizes what Address groups you've created and calls them Collections that have their own icon in the Source List.

And by creating additional libraries of your own and using Bento's relational fields, you can extend OS X's functionality: the organizational world you create in Bento will interrelate with and stretch the features of Address Book, iCal, Numbers and Keynote. And you can view it all with one swift glance at the Source List (Bento's left-hand panel).

The price is easy too, $49 for a single-user license, $99 for a family license — five license keys for use on different computers in the same household.

You can test it free for 30 days. (Note: Bento only works with Leopard.)
(more…)

Комментарии к сообщению:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/21/bento-big-on-ease-style-stretch/#comments
Community Activity: January 21, 2008
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http://theappleblog.com/2008/01/21/community-activity-january-21-2008/#comments