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WWDC 2011: Keynote Preview
011 months ago
The Apple rumor mill is in high gear with only a few hours left until Steve Jobs kicks off the keynote speech at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The company has already said it plans to talk about Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion,” iOS 5 and a new cloud service called iCloud, but nobody knows for sure what surprises each new product will offer users.
Apple has already previewed OS X Lion and developers have had beta versions of the new OS for several weeks. However, there is a rumor that Lion could be available for purchase as early as next week via the Apple Store and, reportedly, the Mac App Store.
Apple has had almost nothing to say about iOS 5 and iCloud so far. Most believe that iCloud will include some kind of music streaming service that makes your music collection accessible on any device with an Internet connection. Apple’s iOS 5 is said to be getting new social networking integration, beefed-up speech recognition, widgets, and a new notification system.
Many critics are also saying that Apple execs are feeling very excited and bullish about today’s event. So whatever happens, it sounds like today’s WWDC keynote event could be a game changer for Apple device users. Here’s what to expect during today’s keynote including the latest rumors, prognostication, and predictions.
iOS 5
Photo Credit: TechCrunch Twitter Integration: Deep iOS integration with Twitter is expected in the next version of Apple’s iOS. This will reportedly include a one-touch button that lets you share a photo via Twitter using the social network’s new image sharing service. But there could me more to this new feature as well. Uber blogger Robert Scoble recently said via Twitter that today’s announcement would be “huge” for Twitter fans.
Voice Recognition: It’s not clear what this new feature might be, but most expect Apple to revamp voice recognition in iOS 5. Apple acquired Siri in 2010, an iPhone productivity app with excellent voice recognition. The company also recently made a rumored deal with Nuance Communications, makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking.
Revamped Notifications: Apple could also reveal a new notifications system for iOS that improves upon the modular red buttons the mobile OS uses right now. Apple recently hired Peter Hajas, developer of MobileNotifier an iPhone app for jailbroken devices to help with the effort, according to Apple Insider. One theory floating around is that notifications may pop down from the top bar where the iPhone and iPad currently display the time, battery power left and so on, according to TechCrunch.
Automatic Downloads: Apple may introduce automatic over-the-air downloads to iOS devices for third-party applications. It doesn’t appear this expected new feature would be a background updating solution.
Widgets: Taking a page out of Google’s Android OS (not to mention OS X’s Dashboard) iOS may be getting widgets–small programs that quickly deliver basic information such as flight times or weather.
iCloud
Music Streaming: Apple reportedly has deals in place with all four major U.S. labels to let you stream to any device via the Internet. The new service will reportedly scan your hard drive and then automatically let you start streaming your music with no physical uploading required by you. This functionality is similar to Lala, a service Apple acquired in 2009. What’s not clear is whether automatic music streaming will extend to your entire collection or just your music purchases.
Video Streaming: A more uncertain rumor is that Apple is hard at work on allowing you to stream music and television rentals and purchases to any device as well. But Apple reportedly doesn’t have the deals in place to make this a reality.
iCloud = MobileMe: Another rumor being floated about iCloud is that it will either replace or absorb MobileMe functionality including contacts, email and calendar sync.
iCloud = iTunes, literally: Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber, who has a respectable record when it comes to Apple predictions, expects iCloud to be more than just music streaming or a revamped MobileMe. Gruber expects that iCloud will literally be able to replace iTunes by saving backups of your phone’s apps, videos, music, contacts, calendar, bookmarks, notes and files stored in any apps (such as PDFs in iBooks). But don’t take this iCloud rumor to the bank as Gruber says this rumor comes from a fourth-hand source.
iCloud + Time Capsule = Dropbox: Cult of Mac believes new Time Capsule hardware could debut at WWDC that be a cloud-local storage hybrid. The current Time Capsule is a home Wi-Fi router and external hard drive for Time Machine backups that comes in 1 TB and 2 TB storage sizes.
The rumored new Time Capsule would use the iCloud service to sync files across all your devices similar to the seamless way Dropbox works. You would have a dedicated “Home Folder” where you store files you want to sync, and they would be updated across your multiple devices. But instead of storing your files on Apple’s servers, the data would always reside in your Time Capsule hardware. ICloud servers would be used instead as a delivery system to move updated and new files between devices. Time Capsule would also continue to work as a backup solution and may work similar to backup services such as Carbonite that allow you to access all your stored data across multiple devices. However, it appears the new rumored service would only push file changes back to Time Capsule for data stored in the “Home Folder.”
Another interesting rumor is that both Time Capsule and Apple’s AirPort Express Wi-Fi router are going to have iOS under the hood.
OS X 10.7, Lion
Apple has already talked about Lion a fair bit so much of what is going on in Lion is already known, although Apple may surprise us with a few new features.
June 14: 9-to-5 Mac has heard that Apple may release the latest version of OS X as early as next Tuesday, June 14.
Find My Mac: A late rumor that came out last week is that Apple plans to introduce a Find My Mac feature in Lion similar to the Find My iPhone service. This would allow you to locate the general location of your Mac on a map, send it alert messages to display such as “Help! I’m lost please call 555-555-5555,” and maybe even a remote wipe feature.
No PowerPC: Apple is rumored to be killing backwards compatibility with PowerPC software in Lion. Apple switched to Intel processors for its hardware in 2006, and Intel Macs came loaded with an emulator to run programs written for PowerPC-based computers.
iOS inspired: LaunchPad, is a new feature that will let you view your Mac’s installed applications on one screen. Lion will also come with support for full screen apps similar to what Apple did with iLife 11.
For more about the next version of OS X check out Macworld’s “What to expect from Mac OS X Lion including freeze and resume, always on, version history and autosave, and new versions of iCal, Mail and Address Book.
[Article taken from pcworld.com]
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How to Remove/Avoid Mac Defender (Mac Malware)
0A recent phishing scam has targeted Mac users by redirecting them from legitimate websites to fake websites which tell them that their computer is infected with a virus. The user is then offered Mac Defender “anti-virus” software to solve the issue.
This “anti-virus” software is malware (i.e. malicious software). Its ultimate goal is to get the user’s credit card information which may be used for fraudulent purposes.
The most common names for this malware are MacDefender, MacProtector and MacSecurity.
“In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove Mac Defender malware and its known variants. The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware.”
In the meantime, the Resolution section below provides step-by-step instructions on how to avoid or manually remove this malware.
Products Affected By Mac Defender
Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS X 10.5
How to avoid installing this malware
If any notifications about viruses or security software appear, quit Safari or any other browser that you are using. If a normal attempt at quitting the browser doesn’t work, then Force Quit the browser.
In some cases, your browser may automatically download and launch the installer for this malicious software. If this happens, cancel the installation process; do not enter your administrator password. Delete the installer immediately using the steps below.
- Go into the Downloads folder or your preferred download location.
- Drag the installer to the Trash.
- Empty the Trash.
How to remove this malware
If the malware has been installed, we recommend the following actions:
- Do not provide your credit card information under any circumstances.
- Use the Removal Steps below.
Removal steps
- Move or close the Scan Window
- Go to the Utilities folder in the Applications folder and launch Activity Monitor
- Choose All Processes from the pop up menu in the upper right corner of the window
- Under the Process Name column, look for the name of the app and click to select it; common app names include: MacDefender, MacSecurity or MacProtector
- Click the Quit Process button in the upper left corner of the window and select Quit
- Quit Activity Monitor application
- Open the Applications folder
- Locate the app ex. MacDefender, MacSecurity, MacProtector or other name
- Drag to Trash, and empty Trash
Malware also installs a login item in your account in System Preferences. Removal of the login item is not necessary, but you can remove it by following the steps below.
- Open System Preferences, select Accounts, then Login Items
- Select the name of the app you removed in the steps above ex. MacDefender, MacSecurity, MacProtector
- Click the minus button
Apple will soon Laucnh a software update which will kill this Mac Malware named Mac Defender, but for now follow the above steps to avoid/Remove it!
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Malware attack on Mac User’s (Mac Malware)
2Malware: Software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.
Macintosh users are being targeted with malware that poses as an antivirus warning and tries to trick people into paying for software they don’t need.
This ruse isn’t new. So-called rogue antivirus has been hitting Windows machines for years. But this is the first time this type of malware has been written to target the much smaller Mac market.
Mac Defender (This is how it looks like)
A few weeks ago, a piece of malware known as MacDefender started spreading to Mac OS X users. The software, also known as MacProtector and MacSecurity, warns a victim that his or her computer is infected and goes through a complex installation process for the rogue antivirus. The ultimate goal of the malware is to retrieve a victim’s credit card information.
What is Mac Defender?
Mac Defender is a fake antivirus program that tries to trick you into installing it on your OS X system (there is also a Windows variant). The program can be automatically downloaded to your computer through a malicious site or a pop-up might appear in your browser trying to convince you to download the rogue app.
Once Mac Defender is running on your system it will try to trick you into handing over your credit card information. Mac Defender tells you that your system has malware and claims that apps such as the Terminal are infected. It may also open browser windows and visit porn sites in an attempt to scare you into thinking you have a virus. Then the rogue app offers to fix your problem if you purchase the full version of Mac Defender. Once it has your credit card information, the porn pop-ups disappear, but now the bad guys have your credit card details.
Does Mac Defender Have Other Names?
The fake antivirus also goes by other names including MacProtector and MacSecurity, as well as Mac Defender.
Is this Malware related to MacDefender.org?
No.
What is Apple Doing About this?
Apple recently posted a Mac Defender support page on the company’s site promising a software update for OS X. The update will search out and destroy Mac Defender malware if it’s on your system. The security update will also alert you against downloading the scam app whenever you come across Mac Defender online.
Stay Tuned, we will post how to avoid from Mac Defender shortly!
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