Mac fanboys love to point out the fact that Windows users must waste immense systems resources to protect themselves from the millions of viruses, trojans, and spyware that live on the Internet. Even Apple makes light of this Windows malware problem in its commercial entitled Viruses in which Mac says to PC, “I run Mac OS 10 so I don’t have to worry about your spyware and viruses”. Sadly, however, Macs are no more protected from such attacks as is the Windows operating system. With holes and security vulnerabilities found in OS X and its default applications, such as Safari’s Zero-day exploit, Apple needs to start taking some defensive moves as it increases sales of its shinny machines to unsuspecting “switchers”.

Point in case, today SecureMac is reporting that the AppleScript.THT Trojan Horse runs hidden on a Mac and , “Allows a malicious user complete remote access to the system, can transmit system and user passwords, and can avoid detection by opening ports in the firewall and turning off system logging. Additionally, the AppleScript.THT Trojan horse can log keystrokes, take pictures with the built-in Apple iSight camera, take screenshots, and turn on file sharing. The Trojan horse exploits a recently discovered vulnerability with the Apple Remote Desktop Agent, which allows it to run as root.” Ouch! The trojan is distributed through web sites, iChat, and Limewire. This trojan only effects OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

There are a few ways to protect yourself from this trojan. One, do not download an AppleScript named ASthtv05 (60 KB in size), use sharing services such Limewire, or use a virus scanner such as SecureMac’s MacScan. SvenOnTech does not endorse this product; however, it would recommend it over Norton or McAfee as we have tested those on the Mac and they are horrible.

President of SecureMac, Nicholas Raba, cautions OS X users by telling SvenOnTech, “The increased number of threats, security advisories, and security updates is an indication that Mac users must pay attention to computer security issues. As Apple’s market share continues to grow, so will security research and hack attempts against OS X.”

Recommended reading: MacForensicsLab Malware document.

Remember the first version of Windows Media Player that came with Windows95? Ya, it was a joke. A big one. When compared to Apple’s QuickTime (QT), Microsoft had a long road of acquisitions ahead of it. Instead of standing still Apple pushed the envelope with QuickTime and added innovating features such as QuickTime VR. QT VR allowed a user to “spin” an object 360 degrees around and look up and down a bit with the movement of their mouse. This was a decade before it showed up in Flash on web sites! As the web became popular, Apple’s attention to it gave programmers interaction (QTi in 1998) with its users.

But Apple’s direction seemed to have made a change by 2002 when it released 6.x. Now supporting the competition through Flash 5 and scriptable ActiveX controls, outside of MPEG-4 support, there was little innovation anymore. Certainly the release of 7.x and H.264 was a great addition; however, by this time, less and less use of QuickTime could be found on the web. Flash was king and QuickTime seemed to no longer sing. While Adobe was thrusting user interaction features to developers in Flash, Apple seemed to slowly add a bread crumb here and a bread crumb there to QuickTime ignoring the flashy San Jose-based company’s web progress.

What used to be considered an excellent medium for multimedia presentation on the web is now not even considered by most web developers today. Apple’s limited supply of user interaction has left it in the cold of consideration and oddly enough, Apple doesn’t even seem to care. Using the same underlying architecture created in 1991, QuickTime is the heart and soul of iTunes and thus seems to be Apple’s only true intention for this multimedia maverick. With all the money Apple paid Apple Records, Ltd. in settlement fees all those years ago, one would think any company with half the brains of Apple would push such a ground breaking application. So why the disinterest? What happened? While Apple announced QuickTime X this week at WWDC 2008, it won’t be out for at least another year in which its market share will have been even more eroded. Even upon release, will it deliver?

SvenOnTech has spoken to and heard many developers complain about QuickTime. The complaints range from how heavy QuickTime is now (does Microsoft make this?) to its near zero user interaction interface. Even though it looks great for movie trailers and other video footage, the latest version of Flash handles this just as well if not better because of all the other goodies that come along with it. QuickTime is just not usable anymore. Sad. Once die-hard fans of the multimedia application are now completely ignoring it, just like Apple.

It seems I’ve been throwing a lot of difficult problems toward Apple Care to become baffled on. I wrote about my odd iCal problem back in December of last year that neither Apple Care nor Microsoft could figure out (to which I later solved on my own genius bar) and now I have another one to add to the list.

I purchased one smokin’ Mac Pro last July and it was pretty much at the top end when all the features where added. Even with a 10% discount, the baby was a tad under 5k. So when after a month I started experiencing some really annoying slow downs due to constant hard drive spinning, I got on the phone and gave Apple Care a holler. After getting over the hurdle of what “swap” space was, I attempted to explain to the customer care representative that my hard drive was spinning more than an old 78 rpm record. After not getting anywhere with the first tech, I was sent to the second level. I defeated Level 2 as well. No answers. No wait, reformat and install was a suggestion which I had already tried prior to the call. So I lived with the spin for nine months.

Yesterday I added two more drives to my Mac Pro filling up all available slots. I now had the original drive and three added drives. I like cleaning out the inside of my computers every so often, so I pulled out the two already installed SATA hard drives and got a can of air and sprayed until it was exhausted. I secured back the two hard drives as well as added the two new ones. I closed up the Mac Pro and booted up. Guess what? No more hard drive dance floor spins!

So what could have caused the constant hard drive spinning is hard to say. It could have been a number of things such as dirty contacts on the SATA interface, not a fully seated hard drive, or the hard drive controller freaking out on just having two hard drives plugged in. I doubt it was that later and most likely just a hard drive not fully seated. Dirt could be it, but I really think it was the hard drive not being fully secured.

So, if you’re having a similar problem and Apple Care along with its forms offer no help, then give this a try. It may help.

With the rumors running rampant on the Internet of 3G iPhones to be subsidized by AT&T for a final cost of $199 with a two-year contract, it seems that time is running out for supposed exclusive carrier for US iPhones. Signs seem to indicate that this rumor has substance. Apple’s reported recent deal with Italy’s Telecom Italia Mobile to sell the iPhone unlocked and with a lack of firmware updates from Apple here in the states to re-secure an easily hacked 1.1.4 release in February, one would presume Apple desires more sales than headaches.

Seeing the huge demand in China alone for hacked iPhones, Apple can no longer ignore the demand for the Super Phone it released nearly a year ago last June. If the Cupertino iCompany does indeed decide to sell an unlocked iPhone, then AT&T needs to find another way to lock in its customer base. It will have to do it the old fashion way by eating a loss on the phone hardware in exchange for two years of your life. At a 50% discount of the initial cost of the phone, this will surely spawn new sales to the phone as well as retain current iPhone users desiring the faster mobile data access and possibly other hardware upgrade goodies such as rumored GPS (which I say is most unlikely.)

With a lack of a large GSM pool in the States, there may be not a huge splurge in unlocked iPhone sales locally, but where GSM is king, such as Europe and China, Apple could make a killing on the next generation iPhone if it truly will be sold as an unlocked device. Apple stands to make a greater profit with this business plan than skimming a few dollars a month per AT&T customer as it is suggested it is doing currently. While Apple is nearly half way to Steve Jobs self-commissioned 10 million phones sold by the end of 2008, sales have sagged in the last few months. International sales are even lower. An unlocked phone will change all that and meet, if not exceed, that 10 million mark for sure.

Have you noticed the built-in camera lens on the iPhone doesn’t really bring in those far away scenes very well? Well, if you’re adventurous, then you may want to try out the Flexii Telescope-snap zoom lens from Vavolo. This lens will bring objects in your iPhone’s camera viewer up to six times (6x) closer! While Vavolo’s description suggests you can now get a snap of your favorite rock star on stage from way back away from the stage, we do think this will help get a tighter shot in more realistic settings such your kids playing at the park on those fun bridges and slides.

Vavolo’s site continues to tell us that the Flexii will, “Incorporate a new design to allow ray effectively avoid the contortion of image, and makes the super wide angle, the larger luminous flux, the higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction, which makes the high quality of photography. ” That’s a direct quote and we think it means it’ll improve your image, too.

At $19.99 plus $6 shipping, it may not be too costly to be, well, adventurous like we first stated. Who knows, it may very well at least work as a zoom lens and that could be cool all in itself. Plus, imagine all the conversations you’ll get into when people see this thing on your iPhone.

Looks like Apple may have a surprise for us all on March 6th, a week later than Apple’s originally announced February release of its iPhone SDK. In its invite, Apple specifies that, “Some exciting new enterprise features,” will on the agenda at the Town Hall in Building 4 on Apple’s Cupertino campus on March 6th. Could this be the Exchange Direct-Push SvenOnTech first reported on last January that Apple is working on?

With e-mail push for corporate customers the number one request of the iPhone, such an “enterprise feature” would put another boast into iPhone sales for sure and finally giving Blackberry some mean competition. It’s clear Apple is aware of business men and women’s needs based just on this statement contained within the invite. It’s even possible that Apple may announce support for Blackberry BAS (push) server as well which would then cover the two most popular methods of receiving e-mail for business professionals.

Time will tell and it is our hope that Apple will impress with such an announcement next week.

This story sits a little close to home as I have been personally been installing T-Mobile HotSpots for nearly two years nearing 200 stores installed in Northern California in that time period. With Starbucks’ announcement yesterday (and I had an install for Sacramento called off minutes before pulling into the Starbucks parking lot), AT&T customers have much to benefit starting this spring. Those with AT&T broadband services will have unlimited Internet service at any of 7,000 Starbucks stores. Starbucks Card holders will receive 2 hours a day free with an option to purchase a “session” for $3.99. Unfortunately the statement does not explicitly state if AT&T cellular (formally Cingular) customers will obtain free or discounted Wi-Fi access. The statement did say, “AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.” Hopefully that means smartphone users, i.e. iPhone. If you do not fit any of the above described users, than you can pay $19.99 per month and have access to an additional 70,000 other hotspots world-wide.

Analysts are a bit surprised as to why Starbucks has left T-Mobile for its Wi-Fi access but having spoken to many “partners” (Starbucks terminology for employees) myself, it’s obvious why T-Mobile lost a great contract. The number one complaint I heard from partners was why did customers have to pay for the access? The second major complaint was that partners also had to pay for the access. Now both of these complaints are answered with the AT&T deal with more than 100,000 partners and, again, all AT&T broadband customers receiving unlimited free Internet access. Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer of Starbucks Coffee Company, echos this in his statement released Monday, saying, “This is what our customers have been waiting for — free Starbucks-quality Wi-Fi.”

What does this mean for iPhone users? Outside of the unclear statement for free Wi-Fi access, it does open a world of possibilities for Apple’s smartphone holders. AT&T has provided point-of-sale systems for Starbucks for ten years and now with a public Internet connection in all Starbucks’ locations by year-end, it will make for a perfect synergy to let Apple exploit its already golden relationship with Starbucks. Apple’s free iTunes use at many locations today could expand to the ability to order a Latte or pound of Komodo without even being in the store. Based on Starbucks statement of “comprehensive communications agreement”, it’s easy to see Apple adding the capability to iPhones and Wi-Fi enabled iPods to make an order without having to walk up to the register. The user would simply make payment via their iTunes account and walk over to the Barista and pick up their drink. What market potential for both Apple and Starbucks to offer its customers. This would aid Apple in future sales and help Starbucks increase traffic to its stores. With T-Mobile, a competing carrier of AT&T, this would have been a bit difficult for Apple to work out. Now, it seems it’s just a matter of sending Steve Jobs down to San Antonio and speaking to some of the brass at AT&T corporate.

Other incentives for iPhone and iPod users could come from this deal with AT&T and Starbucks which may not make Apple’s rumored five year exclusive contract with AT&T so bad after all.

You will finally be able to truly conquer Time Machine and Spaces with Apple’s latest update, 10.5.2. With the ability to turn off Space’s funky spring view of the folders, you’ll be able to go back to that great simply listing of Tiger. Also fixed is Time Machine’s inability to see some external hard drivers as well as automatically popping up the status window when running. Also noted by Apple is, ” Improved general stability when running third-party applications.” That would be nice since 10.5.1 seems to crash so many of my applications when I was on that awful rev. No specifics if Windows Network shares are fixed, but this comment, “Addresses a hanging issue that may occur when connecting to an AFP network volume,” on Apple’s release notes seems to indicate maybe you mixed network folk should have no more issues.

Leopard users can initiate download via there Software Update on their Mac.

For a complete list of fixes in the near 400 MB upgrade, take the leap below…

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