Mac OS X - Infoworld

Macs take on the enterprise

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Change can often be slow. It took many years for the Mac to begin to even threaten the PC in the enterprise. It is still a slow process, but Apple is making up ground on Microsoft.

For many years, Macs were perceived as being more for the creative folks, such as art designers, but had no role in a workplace where data processing was the main job. So when companies made bulk purchases, they turned to Windows and Office.

But the times they are a changin'. According to IDC, Apple’s U.S. market share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 jumped from 10.5 percent to 11.3 percent.

Apple updates Lion, patches 51 bugs in Mac OS X

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:02:16 +0000

Apple this week patched 51 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, most of them critical, in 2012's first security update.

Both Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, and 10.6, better known as Snow Leopard, were updated with fixes. The two operating systems were last updated in mid-October 2011.

Virtualization no silver bullet for Macs or mobile

Galen Gruman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

In 2006, Apple's Intel-based Macs opened the door to running Windows via desktop virtualization; suddenly users could have their personal Macs and business PCs in one box. It's a big reason, I believe, that Mac market share has continued to grow faster than overall PC market share for the last five years. The shift to Intel and the accompanying ability to run Windows gave people the security blanket they needed to make the switch.

Dig deep into Lion: The best overlooked, underrated features

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Apple billed this summer's release of Mac OS X Lion as having more than 200 new features, but most coverage of Lion in the intervening months has focused on only a handful of them. While iOS-like navigation and app-launching interfaces, autosave/restore capabilities, AirDrop file sharing, and an emergency restore partition are by all means important, there are a lot of helpful tweaks and enhancements that can easily be missed.

2011: The year Mac malware got interesting

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:37:38 +0000

For years, security professionals have argued that Mac OS X is just as prone to digital attack as the latest Windows system. Yet, Mac users have felt safer because, let's face it, few attackers focus on Macs.

Apple loses bid to block Mac OS X copy protection secrets in clone case

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:36:12 +0000

A federal judge this week denied Apple's request to keep secret the technical information that describes how the company locks Mac OS X to its hardware.

The Monday ruling by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup was the latest in the still-not-quite-dead case between Apple and now-defunct Mac clone maker Psystar.

Mac OS X Lion's top 20 features: The InfoWorld visual tour

Galen Gruman — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:12:27 +0000

Dek:

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion has dozens of new features, big and small. Here are the top 20 for professional users

Source:

InfoWorld

Redirect Unpublished Slideshow to:

http://www.infoworld.com/slideshow/21853/mac-os-x-lions-top-20-features-the-infoworld-visual-tour-181421

Teaser Thumb (large) Image:

Mac OS X Lion disc HP

Mozilla ponders demise of Firefox for Apple's Leopard

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:23:55 +0000

Mozilla is mulling the end of Firefox support for Mac owners running Leopard, the Apple operating system released four years ago, developer discussions show.

In a message Wednesday to a planning thread, Mozilla engineering manager Josh Aas proposed that the company pull the plug on Mac OS X 10.5 in six months.

12 valuable tools for managing business Macs

Jason Snyder — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

The knock on managing Macs in business environments has long been Apple's ambivalent attitude toward providing significant enterprise support. Apple does, of course, offer tools for deploying, configuring, and managing Macs. But to move Macs beyond a departmental setting, IT will often find it necessary to look to third parties for help.

VMware yanks Mac OS X client virtualization 'feature'

David Marshall — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:31:30 +0000

When Apple released Mac OS X 10.7, known as Lion, it became the first client version of Mac OS X that Apple gave express permission to run as a guest operating system within a virtual machine. Sure, it still needed to operate on top of Apple hardware, but users could finally virtualize a client OS without searching for answers in dark and seedy places online.

Macs in your business: InfoWorld's expert management guide

Galen Gruman — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Macs may be a minority of PCs in any business, but these days they are used by most businesses. And as more companies roll out "choose your own PC" and "bring your own PC" policies, IT will only need to be more familiar with managing Mac OS X systems.

Is Mac OS X Lion adoption stalled?

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:00:36 +0000

Adoption of Mac OS X 10.7, also known as Lion, has stalled, according to statistics from online ad analytics company Chitika.

Linux loses its luster as a darling among developers

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:09:24 +0000

Linux had a big birthday recently -- its 20th -- but the event may have been a tad bittersweet for its most devoted fans. According to recent results of the annual application development survey from Santa Cruz, Calif.-based researcher Evans Data Corp. , Linux has slipped to third place in popularity, behind Mac OS and, of course, Windows.

OS X is now the primary development platform of 7.9% of developers, the survey found, while only 5.6% of developers use Linux.

Researchers bypass the restrictions of Mac OS X default sandbox profiles

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:08:25 +0000

The restrictions imposed by Mac OS X generic application sandbox profiles can be easily bypassed, researchers from Core Security Technologies found.

Apple does not believe this poses a security problem, but is considering a documentation change to better communicate limitations of the sandbox profiles, the security experts said.

Hackers port ancient Linux Trojan to Mac OS X

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:15:47 +0000

Hackers are testing new Mac malware that they've ported from a nine-year-old Trojan horse originally written for Linux, according to security experts.

The malware, dubbed "Tsunami," has been circulating in limited numbers since last week, said researchers at the Slovakian antivirus firm, ESET Security.

Mac OS X Trojan steals processing power to produce Bitcoins

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:06:16 +0000

A newly identified Mac OS X Trojan bundles a component that leverages the processing power of GPUs to generate Bitcoins, a popular type of virtual currency.

The new Trojan was dubbed DevilRobber by antivirus vendors and is being distributed together with several software applications via BitTorrent sites.

IT's guide to managing Macs in the OS X Lion era

Jason Snyder — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:00:00 +0000

No longer relegated to the fringe, Macs are fast becoming integral to today's business organization. As a result, IT can no longer rely on one or two dedicated "Mac guys" to maintain its Mac fleet. Instead, Mac management has become an issue that any CIO or systems administrator may be faced with on any given day.

iOS and OS X: Two evolutionary paths

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:58:01 +0000

In the four years since its debut, Apple's iOS has come a long way. Launched as the on-board operating system for just one device, it now powers three: the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad. And while it started life in a pretty polished format -- perhaps not surprising, given that it was based in large part on OS X's underpinnings -- iOS continues to add worthwhile new features, capped off by iOS 5's arrival earlier this month.

New Trojan horse uses your Mac to attack websites

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:05:44 +0000

Software security company ESET reports that hackers have successfully ported older Linux-targeting malware to Mac OS X.

OSX/Tsnunami.A is a new variant of Linux/Tsunami, a malicious piece of software that commandeers your computer and uses its network connection to attack other websites.

JetBrains adds IDE for Apple iOS, Mac OS X development

Paul Krill — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:01:02 +0000

JetBrains says it now enables developers to deliver Xcode-compliant projects to the Apple App Store without ruffling any feathers, thanks to its AppCode IDE for Objective-C application development introduced Tuesday.