A rare Trojan horse attacked the Mac community last week and its name is AppleScript-THT. The Trojan exploits Apple Remote Desktop Agent in OSX 10.4 and 10.5 to grant it root privileges and compromise the system. Once the system is infected, hackers can log your keystrokes, take pictures with your iSight camera, and capture screenshots.
Before you run to your bomb shelter remember this is a Trojan, which means that it has to be downloaded to be effective. Hackers will most likely distribute it via iChat or Limewire. All you have to do to be safe is not download anything that you don’t trust. This means that if you’re frequently downloading illegal music you’re going to be at risk (this is why I have been buying my music for years now).
Even though this kind of thing is bad for a lot of people, for Apple users as a whole it’s a good thing. As Apple’s market share grows it will start to look more appealing for hackers to exploit it. This means that Apple will start to look at improving is security issues. So in the end this will just push Apple to make their already great platform even better.
Today at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Steve Jobs announced the 3G iPhone. The launch date is set for July 11th with a retail price of $199 for the 8 gigabyte (currently $399) and $299 for the 16B gigabyte.
After my contract is up with Sprint, I plan on getting an iPhone. Since they are now a price I will consider paying. Also, I wonder if Apple plans to drop the price of the 8 gigabyte Touch, which is a $100 more than the 8 gigabyte iPhone (with 2/yr contract). Maybe in the July they will change, so I would wait if you’re planning to buy one.
With the launch of the new phone, Apple is also letting outside developers create applications for the iPhone and Touch. They will be able to sell or give them away through the Apple App Store. So now you will no longer have to jailbreak your phone to install your favorite apps. Techcrunch.com has put together a nice list of the upcoming startups working on apps.
Also, announced at the event was Mobile Me, a service that lets you sync your life. It’s basically an upgraded version of the now debunked .Mac with a slick web 2.0 interface. The release date is early July and will cost only $99 a year with 20 gigabytes of space. You will be able to sync emails, photos, contacts, calendars, and other information between your iPhone and different computers.
I really am excited about these new announcements. The iPhone is now in my price range. The new App Store will allow me not to sacrifice my enjoyment of apps (I use a handful on my Centro) when I get one. The new Mobile Me will help me keep my email and calendar in sync no matter where I update it.
Let me know what your favorite announcements are via comments. If you’re not a Mac fanboy, you can still let me know your thoughts on the new iPhone.
Sony used to rule the music playing world with it’s Walkman line, but ever since the iPod, it’s struggling to regain street-cred. An attempt to wow the masses is a dancing, blinking, and music playing egg, called the Rolly.
If you are looking to spice up your music listening experience, the $400 Rolly could be your new jamming buddy. You can upload two gigs of music and program the dance moves via PC. If you happen to have a Bluetooth-enabled gadget you can also send music to the Rolly wirelessly. Just like any other music player it has all the controls you need to enjoy your music; like volume, play, and stop (just to name a few).
What makes the Rolly standout form the pack is it rolls around on the floor and plays music out of the two little speakers that flip out of the side of it. I really dont understand the point of this. Is there really a market for an expensive music player that plays music poorly and moves around? My guess is people that have ADD or people that have kids would love this thing. It may also be a good time to program it to chase the cat while it plays Motorhead. But even with all that fun potential, $400 seems a little much.
This is a tasty little video showing the evolution of cellphones, starting in 1985 and ending in 2007. Before watching, you might want to mute the sound. Especially if you are watching this in a public place. If you don’t, the people around you may think you’re watching an adult film from 1987.
[via boing boing]
The Grand Theft Auto games for the PS2 killed a lot of my free time in the past. Now with GTA IV out this week for the PS3 I am wishing I had money to spend and time to waste. But maybe it’s for the best that I can’t get this game, since I know it would suck the life right out of me. Or if you believe all the negative hype about it, it might turn me into some kind of murdering maniac.
Anyway, there are so many new features and toys in this game it would be a chore to list them all. The one that I am most excited about are the new multiplayer modes. Some of the new modes are death matches, turf wars, cops n’ crooks, and carjacking. So now instead of wasting time alone, you can waste time playing with other humans. Unlike the other GTA games this one should not get old after a while because of the multiplayer modes. Rockstar deserves a pat on the back for that one.
When I get my “last ditch effort to stimulate the economy” check in the mail I will have to make a hard choice. Pay bills or buy a Playstation 3. Maybe I could save the money and just wait until one of my friends gets the game. Then just make up reasons to stop off at their house every few days to get my fix.
If you played this game let me know if it’s worth getting a PS3 for.
The sun is shining and the warm breeze feels fantastic, it must be spring! Since the dark and cold winter months are gone, bright colors are starting to catch my eye again. While reading a few of my favorite blogs I spotted two posts that made my color seeking eyes jump for joy.
The first post was entitled “Eneplug: Colorful 3-pack of USB chargers ships in May”. It’s about this colorful and highly useful adapter to charge your USB devices. This would be great for people that have rechargeable devices that need to be plugged in to your computer’s USB port to charge. I am sure things like this have been out for a while but I don’t think they were ever hot pink.
The second post I found was called, “HOWTO make a non-timekeeping wristwatch bauble”. It talks about these hipsters that think it’s cool to spray paint old watches “hot” colors. I don’t know if I like this idea or not. I hate to wear things on my arm and this would be extra annoying since it servers no real purpose. I should spray paint an old laptop (screen and all) I have lying around and pretend to use it at a coffee shop. Now that would make a statement.
These were just a few “bright” posts I wanted to share. Feel free to share your own in the comments.
So after I got my Macbook I starting looking for programs to fill it up with. The first one I downloaded was Adium, which I explained in a previous post was better than iChat. The next program I started looking for was a good image editor. I wanted something cheaper than Photoshop but could still handle everything I need.
The first thing I found was Gimp. I found it to be powerful but the complicated user interface made that power too hard to handle. Soon after getting that off my Macbook I found my dream photo editing tool called, Pixelmator.
Pixelmator is sexy, user friendly, and can handle everything I throw at it. I would compare it to Photoshop Elements. The price is just right too, only 59 bucks to unlock all the power of the program. If you go to their site and check out the screenshots you will notice it’s interface is a lot like Photoshop’s. If you’re familiar with Adobe products you should be ok and the learning curve will be low. Thankfully there are some differences with the interface, so I don’t think Adobe will try to shut down or take over (like they did with Macromedia) this competitor.
If you are in the market for an inexpensive photo editing tool and don’t need all the fancy filters and effects Photoshop comes with, then you should give Pixelmator a try. You can download a demo on their website.
