More Mac malware spotted

Malware like viruses, Trojans and spyware are so rare on the Apple Mac that it's a big deal when one is spotted. Every so often one pops up, but to have two in one week is like being struck by lightning - twice!

It is becoming increasingly common to hear of malware on the Mac although there is still has a long, long way to go before it ever gets anywhere near the situation we have on Windows computers. Malware for the Mac is definitely a reality though and you do need to be aware of it. Don't assume that you are safe just because you run OS X. An operating system is only as effective as the weakest link, and that's you, the user. Malware is socially engineered to trick people into installing it, running it and entering their administrator passwords when needed.

Security company F-Secure recently discovered a new malware attack on the Mac which they have called Trojan-Dropper:OSX/Revir.A. This malware is disguised as a PDF file and it opens on the screen to distract you while it downloads a backdoor (a method used to gain access to your computer), Backdoor:OSX/Imuler.A and installs it on the system in the background. The PDF is actually some Chinese document and is unimportant because by the time you see it, you're already infected. Fortunately, the malware doesn't actually do anything harmful yet, but the capability is there and you need to watch out for it.

Security company Intego has discovered a new malware program that masquerades as a Flash installer. The Mac Flashback Trojan tries to trick people into thinking they don't have Flash installed or have an outdated version of Flash and they need to install a new version.

It appears as a link on a website and visitors may think that they need to click it to download and install Flash. By default, Safari automatically runs files that are downloaded and so the malware installation automatically starts. The malware injects code into apps when they are run and this connects to a remote server to send details about the Mac.

If you think you may have been tricked into installing this malware, open a Finder window and see if you have this file: ~/Library/Preferences/Preferences.dylib (~ means your home folder). If you don't, you're OK. If you ever see a message stating that you need Flash or need to update it to the latest version, always go to www.adobe.com and get the real version, not by clicking a link on some other website. You may want to consider getting an anti virus program for your Mac, such as Intego's VirusBarrier X6.

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Keep the tablet OS off the desktop

Ten years ago Windows was so popular that Microsoft believed that if it could be ported to other devices then they would be equally successful too. They made a version for tablet computers and for mobile phones. Yes, tablets aren't a new phenomenon and ten years ago there were tablet PCs. Mind you, they weren't the thin and light devices we enjoy today and they were more like laptop computers with the screen folded flat on top. Their weight wasn't measured in grams, but in kilograms!

There was a version of Windows on hand-held organisers like the iPAQ and mobile phones too.

Windows is a great operating system on desktop computers when used with a mouse, but it doesn't work very on small screens with relatively large stubby fingers. Even if you use a stylus or pen as a pointing device, it is still unsuitable. The whole interface is simply wrong for a small screen.

It isn't surprising that tablets and hand-held devices failed to catch on all those years ago. Tablets sold particularly poorly and hardly anyone bought them. It wasn't until smartphones came along that operating systems were written specifically for small screens, hand-held devices and fat fingers. iOS, Android and other mobile operating systems work great on tablets and hand held devices. They are hugely popular these days with many millions being sold each year.

We previously had a problem of a popular desktop OS being put on a hand-held tablet and it didn't work. Now we have the reverse situation and because tablets are so successful it is assumed that we want tablet and smartphone operating systems everywhere, even on desktop computers.

Apple has incorporated iOS features into OS X Lion running on its Macs. Microsoft has put the Metro interface from its mobile phones in Windows 8, its next desktop operating system. Ubuntu has the Unity interface which is optimised for small screen devices and has tablet-like features too.

Desktop computers are not the same as tablets! Stop putting tablet features into the desktop! I rarely want to run full screen apps on a desktop computer with a large monitor where 22in screens and bigger are common. The iMac has a 27in screen, so why would you want to run a calendar, web browser or word processor full screen? The tablet way of displaying grids of icons for apps works well on small devices, but it's not half as useful desktop computer with  a big screen and a mouse. What's wrong with a menu?

Lion, Unity and Metro could irritate desktop computer users with their tablet-like features. Some people will simply turn them off. I ignore iOS-like features in OS X Lion on my Mac as much as I can and have disabled Unity in favour of the Gnome desktop in Ubuntu 11.04. It remains to be seen how easy it will be to switch to a standard desktop in Windows 8. At the moment you have to click through menus to get it, but it's still only a beta so it may change. Let's hope so.

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Malware mail attachments

Malware comes in many forms and you always need to be on your guard against it. One of the most common ways that it will get on your computer is as an email attachment. It always pays to be highly suspicious of messages with any form of attachment.

Usually the email has some sort of message that either tells you right out to open the attachment or it is worded to make you curious about it and want to open it. Here is an example of the former:

DEAR CUSTOMER , Recipient's address is wrong Print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our department.

The message claims to come from a postal service, but it is a fake and the attachment will infect your computer with some sort of malware if you open it.

Here is another type:

Service: xxxxxxxx. com 9232 Girls Currently Online

Fotos: 6 fotos in attached file.

You might be tempted to open the attachments and see what the girls are like just out of curiosity, but if you do this you are likely to be infected by malware.

Apparently in one single day in mid August 25 billion emails with malicious attachments were sent. Is this really true? I don't know, but even if it is an order of magnitude out, it's still an incredible number of malicious mails. I think a large number of them ended up in my email inbox. They just got deleted though.

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Why Amazon's tablet will succeed

Tablet makers are having a rough time competing with Apple's hugely successful iPad and some are suffering from poor sales, some are suffering from legal action from Apple, and others have abandoned the market altogether. On the face of it, it doesn't seem like a good time to launch a new tablet. Will Amazon succeed where everyone else has failed?

The thing about an iPad is that it isn't just  hardware. Apple could sell the ipad at cost price and still make a healthy profit from the tablet market. Most other tablet manufacturers simply build and sell the hardware and they must generate a profit from the sales.

Apple has an app store and takes a large cut of every sale that is made. The only place you can get apps for the iPad is at Apple's app store. Most other manufacturers don't have this, but Amazon does. It launched its own app store. Although it is based on Google's Android and has the same sort of apps that are in the Android market, Amazon could tie its tablet to its own store and generate income from every sale.

Apple sells music for the iPad and takes a cut of every sale of every music track. Other tablet manufacturers don't make any money at all from the music downloaded to their tablets. Amazon sells music, has online storage for music and can stream music. It also makes money from every sale of every music track. It's another source of income for Amazon.

Apple sells movies for the iPad through the app store and as with all the other media, it makes money from it. Other manufacturers do not have this source of income, they only sell the hardware. Amazon, however, does sell movies and it generates income from the sales. Movies could be accessed and played by the Amazon tablet.

Apple sells books for the iPad too and this also generates income for the company. It's another thing that other tablet manufacturers do not have, but Amazon does. It has an excellent range of ebooks.

Amazon is basically emulating Apple and its tablet will no doubt be closely tied to Amazon's music, movie, ebook, and app stores. The company does not need to make a huge profit from sales of the hardware because of the income each one will generate from media consumption. Amazon is also well known for cutting costs to the minimum, so it is likely that the tablet will be cheap too and rumours of $250 are floating around.

So Amazon has multiple sources of income all generated by the tablet and users get all the media they need from Amazon. It's very similar to Apple's setup and it is hard to imagine how it could fail if Amazon's tablet is anywhere half way decent.

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HP TouchPad sales take off

The announcement that HP has abandoned tablets and that it is to stop making the TouchPad is sad news for everyone that likes these devices, and a lot of people do. One of the reasons, perhaps the main one, is that sales were poor and few people bought them.

Is it a bad product? No, it is actually quite good and both the hardware and operating system are quite attractive. So why didn't it sell?

The main reason is that it was against the iPad and Apple's tablet is very good indeed. In fact, all Apple's products - desktop computers, laptops, phones and iPods are very good. It is very difficult to compete head to head with an Apple product. If you're going to make a £400 tablet and grab a slice of the iPad's market you are going to have to make it better than the iPad and that is difficult.

The same is true of iMacs and MacBooks. If you want to sell laptop computers in the £1,000 to £1,500 price range then it's up against the MacBook Pro which is a great computer. The iMac is in the same price range and if you're looking for a desktop computer with this much cash to spend then it is a good buy. In the price ranges Apple sells in it does very well and it has a good market share.

The huge market share that Windows PCs and laptops have is mainly because they are cheap. Many people either can't afford £1,000+ computers or don't want to spend that much. They buy millions of cheap Windows PCs and are happy with their bargain.

The same is true of mobile phones and although the iPhone sells really well, it actually only has a small part of the overall market. That's because it has one expensive smartphone. It is outsold by millions of cheap alternatives and Android phones are set to dominate the market.

The tablet market doesn't have any cheap alternatives to the iPad. Tablet makers saw the great sales of iPads and though that there was a huge market for a premium priced products. There is, but Apple was in there first and continues to dominate it. To grab market share from Apple you'd have to create a better iPad.

This doesn't mean that there isn't a market for other tablets and since HPs announcement to stop the TouchPad the price has been dropped to a fraction of its original selling price. What happened is that sales shot through the roof and the last remaining stocks are selling out so fast it's hard to find one. The demand is huge.

This means that there was nothing wrong with the HP TouchPad and it was simply sold at the wrong price point. It shows that there is a big demand for cheap tablets and it just takes someone brave enough to create one.

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Chrome Web Store problems

One of the great features of Google's Chrome web browser is the way that it can be enhanced by adding extensions. One of the reasons why Firefox has grabbed such a large market share from Internet Explorer is because if the huge range of add-ons and extensions. Chrome is catching up fast, both in terms of extensions available and market share. Perhaps the two are related in some way, who knows?

Finding and installing extensions for Chrome is very easy and Google has built an online store. Just click the spanner icon in the top right corner and select Tools, Extensions. Then there's a link to go to the store. Well, store isn't quite the right word because most extensions are free. You just browse the categories, find one you like and click the button to install it. It's a piece of cake, or is it?

It is not hard to find people having problems accessing the Chrome Web Store though and some people have the curious problem of the images not displaying. The text is fine, but most or even all the images just appear as broken link icons. If you manage to browse the store and find something you want (even though you can't see it), clicking the install link fails to install it. You just get a message stating that the app is currently unreachable.

If you search the web for this error message you will find other people with the same problem. Many people offer solutions in forums and help pages, but they rarely work or they worked for one author and not
for anyone else.

I had this Chrome Web Store problem for weeks and tried some of the suggested fixes, but none of them helped. One thing that did work though, was to clear Chrome's cache, Click the spanner, Tools, Clear browsing data. Restarting Chrome and going straight to the store afterwards then enabled it to work, but only briefly. Just enough time to grab an extension. I installed Chrome in a virtual machine running Vista and the Chrome web store worked straight off. However, it soon stopped working. Perhaps it briefly worked because the cache was empty and when it was full it stopped. It's weird.

There are reports of people having this problem and they find it suddenly fixes itself. I had this. It wasn't working for weeks, then one day I tried it and it worked perfectly. It is still working. I didn't change any settings, install any software or do anything special. One day it just started working. I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it and no-one else seems to either. Just keep clearing the cache and trying it each day. One day it will work.

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Should I upgrade to OS X Lion?

Apple recently launched OS X Lion and it is very cheap and very easy to download from the Mac App Store, providing you have a fast internet connection that is. Does this mean that upgrading the the latest version of the OS is a no brainer? Should you upgrade? If not, why not?

Instead of asking yourself whether you should upgrade you should ask what you want to achieve. What do you want to do with your Mac? Can you do it with the current version of OS X? If you can't and whatever it is that you want to do can only be done with Lion then definitely upgrade. For example, if you are still running Tiger or Leopard and you want to be able to purchase software in the Mac App Store then you need to upgrade, at least to the latest version of Snow Leopard with all the patches and updates and preferably to Lion.

Each new version of the OS enables you to take advantage of new technologies and software. So if you're still running Tiger you won't have the Mac App Store, Time Machine and so on. Lion brings some new technologies and one of these is Auto Save, which automatically saves files without you having to click File, Save. It automatically stores previous versions in Time Machine fashion, but without needing Time Machine or an extra hard disk drive. It will sync with iCloud, an online storage service that will work across all Apple devices too. Is this a technology you need or can you live without it?

There are many more new features, such as extra support for trackpads on MacBooks and the Magic Trackpad, LaunchPad, Mission Control and so on. Do you need them or can you live without them? There is no doubt that they are nice to have, but are they really essential? Will the iOS-like full screen apps and menu system really increase your productivity?

If you can do everything you want with the current OS X then there is no advantage in upgrading and there are several disadvantages. As the operating system becomes more complex it grows in size and becomes more demanding of the hardware. It takes more disk space and it uses more memory. These are important factors if you have a Mac that is a few years old and you may find that it is struggling to run the latest OS.

Compatibility is an issue too and there is always a small risk that some hardware you have won't work after the upgrade. A scanner, printer or NAS (network attached storage) device may not be compatible. It's software may even conflict with Lion when you install it. Some people have found that NAS devices used for Time Machine no longer work after upgrading to Lion for example.

There is software compatibility to consider too and Rosetta, a technology that enabled modern Macs to run old software written for the PowerPC, is not supported. Do you have any old software that you rely on? It may not work if you upgrade. It's a risk you need to consider.

I have always found OS upgrades to be a case of two steps forward and one step back. Overall they are worth it and the all the advantages outweigh the few disadvantages.

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