QuickTime Flaw Update

A few days ago, there was a report that there is a new QuickTime flaw that has been discovered. It was confirmed that it can be exploited on Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

Earlier today, The Register has posted an article about the flaw which tell the readers that it can also be exploited on Mac operating systems, particularly on Tiger and Leopard versions. The exploit works on both Intel processors and PowerPC chips according to a researcher named Lorenzo Hernandez.

There is a belief that Internet Explorer and Opera browsers are more resistant to this attack.

Source: The Register

Well people there is bound to be an update to quicktime shortly. Now since apple knows about this it wouldn't surprise me.

Upgrade Your Hackintosh to OS X 10.5.1

A couple of weeks ago, I detailed how I built a Hackintosh Mac on the cheap from start to finish. The build benchmarked incredibly well, and I've been using it as my main PC every day since. A few days ago, I decided it was time to upgrade my Hackintosh to Mac OS X 10.5.1, the first update for Leopard. Here's how it works.

First... Did It Work?

Yes, updating to 10.5.1 worked (and continues to work) very well, and if you're installing Leopard with my previous guide, it only adds a couple of extra steps. However, I did run into a snag which I'll detail later.

A good article on how to upgrade a hacktosh. Go check out how to at lifehacker!

View the Contents of a Zip File in Quick Look with Zip Quick Look

Mac OS X only: View the contents of zipped files in Leopard's Quick Look without unzipping the archive with freeware plug-in Zip Quick Look. Just download the plug-in, drag it to /Library/QuickLook/, and then restart Finder (right-click Finder in the Dock while holding the Option key and select Relaunch). Next time you Quick Look a zipped archive, you should get a look at the contents as well. The Zip Quick Look plug-in is freeware, Mac OS X Leopard only.

Zip Quick Look Plugin

This is for the Mac Users only, I told you I'd keep you in the loop and here it is!!

Leopard 10.5.1 Update Coming, Here's The List of Fixes

It looks like the 10.5.1 update has just hit, bringing with it fixes to Airport, Disk Utility, iCal, Mail, Printing, Security, Finder, and Time Machine. The big fixes that we can see are the finder network data loss problem that was reported last week, re-wording the firewall to reflect what it really does, fixing a read-only network share issue, and improving Back to My Mac functionality. Big list of changes after the jump.

Gizmodo has the list on there site it is quite extensive and all. Go check it out.

Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins

Open source Mac utility Quicksilver isn't just an application launcher—it's a comprehensive keyboard interface. Launching applications and documents is just Quicksilver's gateway drug: the more you get used to doing things with Quicksilver, the more things you want to do with it. Out of the box Quicksilver comes with the barest essentials, but once you add the right plug-ins that interact with menus, apps, documents, and settings, you can accomplish more and more complex tasks from that familiar three-paned prompt. After the jump, check out top 10 favorite Quicksilver plug-ins, and how to set them up.

Here something for the mac users, go check out the full article for details!!

Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800

If the high price tag for Apple hardware has kept you from buying a Mac but you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get adventurous, you can build your own "Hackintosh"—a PC that runs a patched version of OS X Leopard. What?!, you say. Apple's move to Intel processors in 2006 meant that running OS X on non-Apple hardware is possible, and a community hacking project called OSx86 launched with that goal in mind. Since then, OSx86 has covered major ground, making it possible for civilians—like you and me!—to put together their own Hackintosh running Mac OS 10.5. Today, I'll show you how to build your own high end computer running Leopard from start to finish for under $800.

Right now the cheapest Mac on sale at the Apple store is a $600 Mac Mini sporting a 1.83GHz proc, 1GB of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. For $200 more, your Hackintosh can boast a 2.2GHz proc with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB drive, and a completely upgradeable case for expanding your setup in the future.

This is a way to make your own Macitosh without having to buy the an expensive Mac. I think this is a good alternative to buying a Mac! Go read the full article at lifehacker, I want to give them Credit for the story!

Overlay Drawers onto Your Dock's Stacks

Mac OS X Leopard only: One of the nice things about Stacks—or annoying things, depending on how you look at it—is that the topmost document icon appears on your Dock, instead of an indicator of which folder contains it. To solve this problem, the icon designer at Optica Optima's offering a set of icons for download that add a drawer-like image to your Stacks. The screenshot above displays the Downloads, Applications, and Documents folders as Stacks sporting the drawer icons. Pretty! To add the icons to your Stacks, just download and unzip the package, and move the appropriate icon to the folder. For more fun along the same lines, here's how to add custom icons for your Mac hard drives.

Stacks Overlays [XD via OS X Hacker]

Well, I might not have a mac but I do want to be fair when it comes to tips and tricks for the mac!!

How to enable Time Machine on unsupported volumes

Although we've been mostly happy with Leopard, one of the features we were most looking forward to was the ability to set Time Machine to use a NAS volume like Airport Disk, thus making laptop backups wireless and sexy (well, sort of sexy) instead of wired and cumbersome. Sadly, Apple cut the feature at the last minute, but as with all things OS X, nirvana is usually just a defaults write command away, and Volker Weber has got it sorted for us. Just pop open a terminal window and enter:



defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

and you should be able to select NAS volumes in the Time Machine prefs. Of course, you should only re-enable this for giggles -- we don't know why Apple turned it off to begin with, and it could very well be full of bugs and hose your data. Considering some of the other glitches that have cropped up in Time Machine, we'd actually recommend staying well away from this one, but if you're desperate, by all means -- go for it and let us know how it works in comments!

Since I do not have a mac, I do not know how well this works. If anyone tries it let me know!

Two Possible Mac Data Loss Issues Still Unadressed by Apple

Although no official word has been released by Apple, there appears to be two serious data loss issues that could affect MacBook owners and users of Mac OS X Leopard. According to blogger Tom Karpik, Leopard's Finder has a bug in its directory-moving code that can result in massive data loss when transferring large files—regardless of the type of destination drive. Apparently, this flaw has been around since the days of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, so it could represent an ongoing problem that Apple has failed to address.

The other issue involves a flaw in certain 2.5-inch Segate SATA drives with a firmware version 7.01. As mentioned last week on Giz, the flaw causes read/write heads to fail and scratch up the drive. Again, these issues are not official, but you may want to take steps to back up your data just to be on the safe side. [TomKarpik via AppleInsider]

I guess they still have problems with the mac OSX just like Windows. I do hope they fix the problems!!

Trojan horse targets Mac OS X

A new trojan horse designed specifically for Mac OS X systems has been discovered on several pornography websites that can hijack Web traffic, according to security firm Intego. Affected systems are used to hijack some Web requests that lead users to other phishing sites, or simply display ads for other pornographic websites to generate ad revenue. Phishing attacks may lead users to believe they are surfing to eBay, Paypal, or various banks when in fact they are accessing specially-crafted mockups designed to retrieve usernames and passwords for those sites. The trojan, titled OSX.RSPlug.A, is rated as a critical risk by Intego, and is known to affect Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger as well as Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Intego is testing prior versions of Mac OS X, but believes them to be vulnerable as well.

The trojan claims to install a video codec necessary for viewing free pornographic videos on Macs, but when users click on the still images to view the content they are directed to a Web page stating that they must download a new version of a codec to play the movie file with QuickTime. Safari users who have checked the "Open 'Safe' Files After Downloading" option in General Preferences will find that the disk image which is downloaded to their Mac automatically mounts, and the installer application will automatically launch.

Thought it was going to happen soon, Now since apple is getting bigger they are going to have more hackers wanting to get into the system.

Enable Leopard's Off-By-Default Firewall

Computer security firm publication Heise criticizes Mac OS X Leopard for shipping without its firewall enabled by default like Windows Vista and advises users to turn it on. To do so, in System Preferences' Security area either block all incoming connections or set explicit exceptions for services that can communicate through the firewall, like file or screen sharing, as shown. (More on that in an upcoming post.)

Holes in Leopard's firewall [CNET]

Does anyone remember XP lauch having the firewall off. Hmm, sounds almost like a windows problem!!! Haha, just shows that not even apple is perfect!!

Leopard's Revamped Terminal Sports Tabs and More

Mac OS X 10.5 only: Command line-lovers who've upgraded to Leopard will also love its new tabbed interface and fine-grained window control. To create a new tab, hit Cmd+N Cmd+T, and to cycle through tabs, use Cmd+} and Cmd+{. You can also drag and drop an existing tab into its own window, configure and save window groups, and skin Terminal windows using prefab or custom themes. After the jump, see the theme options ("Pro" pictured here.)

Go Check out the full article, I thought this was a good article to show people!!

Leopard Disk Utility Format Issue Screws With Time Machine (But There's An Easy Fix)

The bad news is, we have discovered a Leopard-related issue that may very well throw a monkey wrench into your Time Machine. Anyone trying to use Time Machine with a previously PC-formatted drive could be at risk. The good news is, there is an easy—albeit none-too-obvious—fix. Here's the dilly-o:

After I upgraded my MacBook Pro to OS X Leopard, the first thing I did was grab a brand-new Maxtor USB drive and format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility, just like I had countless times before. As soon as I erased the disk, Time Machine popped up as promised, and asked if it could use the disk for backup. I said yes, and was on my merry way. Only I wasn't.

Time Machine ran for a bit, and then crapped out after about 10GB. I went into Disk Utility and saw that although the partition was formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled), the volume itself still said FAT32. I clicked Erase to reformat the drive, and got the format failure error you see above.

I tried this with FAT-formatted drives from Seagate, Iomega and HP as well. Each time I saw the same thing. I could reformat the partition to Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and Time Machine would recognize it. Get Info would say that it was formatted correctly. But Disk Utility showed that the volume was formatted for PC. Inevitably, if the Time Machine backup was greater than 10GB, there were problems. Worst of all, if I dared try to format the volume for Mac, I would get the dreaded error, and the disk would be temporarily unmountable.

Go read the full story to find out how to fix the problem. I thought it was funny because Windows does that to!!

Manage Your Tasks with Leopard's To Dos

One thing that Windows and Outlook have always had up on the Mac's default email and calendar apps, Mail and iCal, is Outlook's integrated to-do manager. Today the game changes. Leopard's new Mail and iCal applications introduce their own take on the email- and calendar-integrated to-do list. So now the question is: Is it any good? The answer: Yes. And no. But probably yes. The To Do manager, at the moment, is a bit of a mishmash of some very good and a few bad—or at least unrealized—features.

The Mail.app To Do feature resides in the Reminders panel of the Mail sidebar below Notes. Mail to-dos can be organized by due date, priority (high, medium, low, or none), title, and calendar (that's right, they also integrate with iCal). You can create a new to-do in a couple of ways.

A good article for the Mac users!! Go check out the full article!!

Leopard hacked for Intel PC consumption

We've come to expect our Apple-related hacks early and user friendly these days, but we've still got mad respect for the folks at OSx86 Scene who've managed to get Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard up and running on Intel PCs on launch day -- the day before if you felt like being a bit less upright about it. The hack requires a minimum of trickery on your part: just a burnable DVD, USB thumb drive and a bit of luck. Not everything's super tested just yet, and OSx86 Scene will be expanding support and simplifying the process as time goes on, but this is sure a promising start.

[Via dailyApps, image courtesy of mac.nub]

Hmm, Wonder if that will work on a Dual Core system? Might try it later!!

Leopard vs. Vista: feature chart showdown

There's no doubt, Vista and Leopard are both extremely advanced, feature rich consumer operating systems. But way back in January when Vista launched knew we had little choice but pit the two in a head to head chartngraph Thunderdome competition. We know we're not even going to be able to stop the epic fanboy arguments about break out over this one, so we just ask that you try to keep it fair. Leopard vs. Vista: it's on.

NOTE: This chart is only for out of box features, and does not take into account 3rd party software. We realize that with a few choice apps this chart would look completely different -- but that's not what we're after here.

• Green indicates a category with more and/or better features, and generally a better user experience.
  
• Red indicates that a category not quite up to snuff. Either it doesn't yet exist in the OS or it just sucks more than the alternative.
  
• † (dagger) indicates a category we think are too subjective or not similar enough to judge. These do not have any clear winner.
• ‡ (double dagger) indicates a category that is in many ways subjective, but that we feel one category is still ahead. Your own tastes may vary.
  
• Notes help out with a little background, where appropriate.

A great article on the differences and Similarity of Vista and Leopard!!

Leopard Review: First Apple OS X Leopard Reviews by The Mainstream (Verdict: It's Good)

Three reviews are in from USA Today, WSJ and NYT and they're all positive (though some more positive than others). That's Mossberg's video, above, but the rest of the reviews are summarized below.

USA Today Review: Ed Baig says it "hits all the right spots"—a obvious pun, but it gets right to the heart of his review. He continues to say that OS X is superior to Windows (especially with the latest iteration), but points out the Boot Camp feature for people who need both. Upgrading for him was super easy, as was using Time Machine for backing up or migrating files, the iChat video chat/theater, the upgraded Mail.app, and the improved desktop, Finder (file browser), and .Mac features. It reads like a shortened Leopard feature checklist with the praise preceding or following each item, which shows how much of a thumbs up Baig is giving the new OS. [USAToday]

Mossberg WSJ Review: After his headline ("Leopard: Faster, Easier Than Vista") and on a short history tour of Apple as a company, Mossberg moves on to say that while Leopard is good, it's evolutionary, and not revolutionary—but still manages to keep Apple's "advantage over Windows". He does have some gripes. He says the menubar is translucent (it's actually not, in the final version), the icons are "dull and flat and less atractive than Vista's" (we disagree), Time Machine, although described as "sexy", has limited backup locations. And that none of Apple's 300 new features are a major breakthrough. However, Leopard doesn't have any of the upgrade problems (when upgrading from Tiger) that Vista had from XP. Mossberg then goes into feature list mode, but ends by saying that Leopard isn't a must-have, it just adds a lot of value on an existing machine. [WSJ]

Pogue's NYT Review: After spending half the first page (and 1/4 of the whole piece) talking about how Time Machine works, Pogue moves on to Spaces, parental controls, Boot Camp, screen sharing, and iChat upgrades. Although backup features and virtual desktops have been around for a while, Pogue says the point of Leopard is that Apple takes all those apps, improves on them, and integrates them well into the OS. But he too has complaints.

Stacks are a bit awkward and inconsistent, see through menus are hard to see (he may be using an old version because the final version looks fine), as well as occasional glitches in Spaces and program switching. Final thoughts: it's polished and offers few disappointments. Looks like a buy from Pogue. [NYTimes]

I thought people would like to see the latest reviews on Leopard!

Heavy Leopard Pre-orders Caused by Vista

Some solution providers have reported that the pre-orders for Apple's Leopard are more than double for the same time prior to Tiger's release. They cite Leopard's new features and customer dissatisfaction with Vista as key drivers, according to ChannelWeb on Thursday.

"We've probably doubled the backorders of Leopard, compared to what we did with Tiger," said Patrick Brown, CEO of Brown Computer Solutions, in Brattleboro, Vermont, a solution provider and Apple specialist. "With the Intel Macs, Apple has significantly increased the installed base. We do expect a very successful launch."

With Vista having so many flaws does that mean Apple will be the next Microsoft?