Archive for Mac

Newer Entries »

Review: Diskwarrior For Mac 4.4

Posted in Products with tags , on August 22, 2012 by itnerd

One thing that a lot of people never think about is what tools you need to have if disaster strikes. As a computer consultant, I have to think about that because my clients pay me to. In the Mac universe, that means that I need to have Diskwarrior in my toolkit to save my Mac customers from disaster. What is Diskwarrior you ask? It’s an app made by a company called Alsoft that comes in the form of a bootable DVD which will prevent and repair common directory issues on a Mac hard disk. Not only that, if your disk is non-bootable, Diskwarrior can often recover your data to the point that the disk becomes bootable again.

Diskwarrior is simple to use. Simply insert the DVD into your Mac and restart it while holding the “C” key (you can let go when you see the Apple logo and hear the DVD drive reading the disk). It will take quite a while to boot (like up to 10 minutes), but once it’s up you simply have to click on the rebuild button. The program will then scan your hard drive and work its magic to repair issues on the hard drive of your Mac. Not only that, but it will construct an optimized directory and allow you to replace your current directory with it. This is also the same methodology that it uses to recover data from a non-bootable hard disk. The big plus is that anybody can use Diskwarrior. Seriously. When I say anybody, I do mean anybody. Another thing that I should note, I have used Diskwarrior since 2002 and I have yet to find a Mac hard disk that it won’t fix… Unless it’s physically damaged of course. At that point you better have a recent backup handy. The fact that I can say that about any disk utility shows you how good Diskwarrior is.

A couple of things to note. Diskwarrior works with every version of OS X all the way up to Mountain Lion. However, the current version of the DVD won’t boot the latest MacBook Pro models that were introduced in June. But Alsoft is really good about getting Diskwarrior updated. Thus I don’t think that it won’t be too long before updated DVDs as well as downloadable disk updaters for existing users are available.

Diskwarrior is $99.95 USD direct from Alsoft. But you might be able to find it at your local computer store as well. If you want my advice, run it once a month to keep the data on Mac safe.

If you want something in your toolbox to protect the data on your Mac, you should get a copy of Diskwarrior before you actually need it.

Leave a comment »

Review: Undercover For Mac

Posted in Products with tags , on August 21, 2012 by itnerd

Having been the victim of a break in and losing my Mac in the process, I’ve wanted to make sure that I had a shot at getting it back if it happens again. So I figured that I’d use some sort of application that allows me to track my Mac live on the Internet. At the time I did some research and found an application called Undercover For Mac that suited my needs nicely.

Now someone is going to point out that recent versions of OS X do come with a feature that allows you to locate your Mac using iCloud called Find my iPhone/iPad/Mac. It can track your Mac and even send a message to the screen of the Mac or it can send a command to erase the computer remotely. Granted. That’s all good and there’s nothing wrong with that. But Undercover For Mac does so much more. Once you install the software (and there’s nothing on the computer that says that the computer has Undercover on it and there’s no way to get rid of it by the way), it will silently monitor the location of your Mac in real time. If your Mac gets lifted, simply go to www.undercoverhq.com and that where the magic begins. Here’s what you can do once you’re logged into the site:

  • You can see all the locations of your Mac has been
  • You can activate your Mac’s FaceTime camera to take pictures of the thief
  • You can take screenshots so you can see what the thief is doing
  • You can log the keystrokes of the thief

All of this is done silently so that the scumbag thief has no clue that he’s being monitored and tracked, and all of this can be bundled up into a “Thief Report” and handed over to your local police. That’s sweet. But it still gets better. Let’s say that none of this helps get your Mac back. No problem. There’s always “Plan B” which simulates a hardware failure on your Mac so the thief has no choice but to take it into an Apple Store for repair. Once you track it to the Apple Store you then send a command to the Mac to display a message on the screen saying the Mac has been stolen and to call police. Very sweet! If you combine all of those features with the Find My iPhone/iPad/Mac feature in OS X that allows you do a wipe of the data as well as using iCloud to log into the Mac, then you have the ultimate security solution for your Mac.

If you have a Mac, you must get Undercover. It’s a must buy as far as I am concerned. The cost is $49 and it’s a small price to pay to protect your Mac. By the way, there’s versions of this software for your iPad, and iPhone called Undercover Mobile. I haven’t used this myself, but seeing how good Undercover For Mac is, it’s worth considering if you’re an iPhone or iPad user.

Leave a comment »

Review: OS X Mountian Lion – Part 3: My Impressions

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on July 30, 2012 by itnerd

So I’ve used OS X Mountain Lion for almost a week now and my impressions of it are very good. It’s not any faster, but Apple didn’t say it would be. So that’s fine. Having said that it feels like Apple spent a lot more time and effort than they did with Lion to make it feel polished. And to boot, it’s fixed a couple of annoying bugs that I had with Lion. For example, VNC connectivity under Lion quite frankly sucked. It had some serious problems in terms of VNC clients connecting to a computer that have been well documented. Those have thankfully been fixed. Finally, Mountain Lion hasn’t broken any of my apps. Thus this is a no brainier upgrade. If you’re running Lion, upgrade today. That’s right, don’t bother waiting for the bug fixes to appear. Don’t bother being conservative. Join the three million or so people who have already upgraded. You’ll be glad you did.

Microsoft, the bar has been set pretty high. Let’s see if your Windows 8 OS is up to the challenge.

1 Comment »

Review: OS X Mountian Lion – Part 2: The New Features

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on July 28, 2012 by itnerd

I’ve used OS X Mountain Lion for almost two days now. There’s over 200 new features in this release of OS X. There’s no way I can cover them all. But here’s the key ones that you should care about:

  • If you have an Apple TV on your HDTV, then you can mirror the display of your Macbook to the TV over WiFi. The iPad has had this feature for some time so why not every other Apple product? There’s a problem though, you have to have the hardware to run it. Here’s the list of hardware that works with this feature:
    • iMac (mid-2011 or newer
    • Mac mini (mid-2011 or newer)
    • MacBook Air (mid-2011 or newer)
    • MacBook Pro (Early 2011 or newer)
  • Notification Center makes an appearance in Mountain Lion. A rather plain graphic added to the upper-right corner of your desktop’s toolbar: three parallel lines, the one in the center slightly shorter than the other ones. Click it and a panel opens up on the right. You can see everything from Tweet replies to e-mails. Facebook will be added later this year. Any notifications that you see are subtle and they can be tweaked in the control panel.
  • iChat is dead. Long live Messages. If you’re used to it on your iPhone, it works the same way in Mountain Lion. Text, video, it’s all there.
  • Game Center that has been in iOS for some time is now in Mountain Lion. There’s only a handful of games in there at the moment and currently there’s nothing that will make me want to dump my copy of Steam.
  • There’s more integration between the App Store and the OS. Click on Software Update and the App Store opens up for example. Clearly Apple wants you to use the App Store for your software needs.
  • There’s a bit more security in Mountain Lion. Gatekeeper is a new feature that keeps you safe by letting you know when apps do something that you may not like. It will even step in and stop an app from running if your security preferences are set to keep it from running. That may be good, that may be a sign of increasing control from Apple. Maybe both. We’ll see how that works.

In the next part of my review, I’ll give you my impressions of the OS and wrap things up.

Leave a comment »

Review: OS X Mountian Lion – Part 1: The Install

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on July 26, 2012 by itnerd

Normally, I don’t install any new OS the second it comes out. I usually wait until the first few bug fixes or service pack in the case of Windows comes out before diving in. That changed last night when I dropped $19.99 to get OS X Mountain Lion onto my MacBook Pro. It’s only available from the App Store and once you pay your money it starts a download of 4.3 GB. Make sure you’ve got a fast connection or that will take a while. Once that’s done it will start an installer that will do three minutes or work and then reboots your computer. The install then continues for the next 40 minutes or so and then there’s another reboot. At that point you’ve got Mountain Lion. Sound familiar? It’s basically the way you got OS X Lion last year. It’s clean and and simple. Anyone can do it.

Now, having had the OS installed for 24 hours I can say that I have not had any problems thus far. All my apps work and I haven’t had to re-learn anything the way I did with Lion. That’s a good thing. I can also say that it fixed a few annoyances that I had with Lion. More on that later.

The next part of this review will cover the new features that are part of this OS.

Leave a comment »

Free Anti-Virus Apps For Mac…. All The Protection You Need At No Cost To You

Posted in Products with tags , on April 17, 2012 by itnerd

So now that the faith of every Mac user has been shaken because of a couple of high profile trojans, it’s time to think of Anti-Virus apps for the Mac. The good news that there are a number of choices that are 100% free that you can choose from:

  • The first and longest running free Anti-Virus app for Mac is ClamXav. I used to run it and it worked quite well. Configuring the application takes a bit of work, but it’s doable by novices. Once configured, it will scan your hard drive automatically and it will check your incoming e-mail for anything “nasty.” While the app is free, the author does ask for donations. So if you use it, please consider flipping the author a couple of bucks.
  • My current Anti-Virus app right now is Sophos. It is much more user friendly than ClamXav and was one of the first of the big Anti-Virus companies to step into the Mac space. One thing to note, it is for home users only. Business users need to purchase their business class product.
  • Avast! Mac Security is currently in a public beta and is made up of three components. Web Shield and Mail Shield combine to check the vast majority of incoming data from the Internet, while File Shield scans all programs stored and executed from your hard drive. If you don’t mind running beta software, it’s worth a try.
  • Another recent entrant to this market Avira Free Mac Security. It has a very simple interface that allows you to configure the app to do what you need it to. Novice users might want to take a good look at this app.

One key thing to remember is that with the exception of ClamXav, everything that I’ve mentioned is made by a top tier Anti-Virus company. But in all cases, you are going to be able to protect your Mac for the evils of the Internet that threaten the Mac platform.

Welcome to the new normal Mac users.

1 Comment »

Today’s Mac Trojan Uses MS Word To Do It’s Evil Deeds….. Fanbois Now Hysterical

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on April 17, 2012 by itnerd

It just gets worse for Mac users. ZDNet is reporting that a new Mac Trojan is making the rounds and it uses a MS Word exploit to get onto your system and run amok:

The new version of the Trojan uses malformed Word documents to open a backdoor for remote hackers to steal information or install further code. Just like many recent variants of Mac-specific Trojans, OS X users may be caught off guard as there is no prompt to enter your username or password when the malicious software installs itself onto your Mac.

One key point. It doesn’t require any user interaction other than opening the infected Word document. Now how do you protect yourself? Make sure that your copy of Office for Mac is up to date. The exploit that this Trojan uses dates back to 2009. So if you’re up to date, you’re safe. Of course this shouldn’t stop you from running an Anti-Virus application. I’ll be posting a list of such applications later today. Watch for it.

In the meantime, Mac fanbois will continue to weep openly now that their myth of Mac superiority in the security realm is proven to be false.

Leave a comment »

Another Day, Another Mac Trojan….. Mac Fanbois Weep

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on April 16, 2012 by itnerd

So, hot off the heels of the Flashback Trojan comes news of another Trojan. Called SabPub, this one is interesting according to a blog post:

This new threat is a custom OS X backdoor, which appears to have been designed for use in targeted attacks. After it is activated on an infected system, it connects to a remote website in typical C&C fashion to fetch instructions. The backdoor contains functionality to make screenshots of the user’s current session and execute commands on the infected machine.

So far it appears that not many Mas are affected by this (yet), but those that do not have the latest Java updates from Apple are potential targets for this. So the message is clear. Update your Mac with the latest version of Java and you should run an Anti-Virus product as well. I will be compiling a list of such products in the next day or so so that you know what options are available to you.

So Mac fanbois, are you feeling smug these days about the security of your operating system?

Leave a comment »

Flashback: The First Widespread Trojan On The Mac Platform [UPDATED x2]

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on April 10, 2012 by itnerd

So Mac users, still think you’re safe? Think again. The Flashback Trojan may already be on your system. So far it’s said to have infected 500,000 Macs and the number is likely growing. To see if you’re one of those 500,000 who are infected, here are some instructions on how to detect and remove the Trojan. I’ll warn you that it requires you to use terminal commands, so it’s not something that’s for novice users.

So let’s say you’re not infected, how do you protect yourself? Here’s a list of things you can do:

  1. Install the latest Java update for Macs. You can get it via Software Update or you can download it here.
  2. Run an anti-virus app. I’ve got an article about a free one from Sophos here.
  3. If you’re really paranoid, consider disabling Java as very few Mac applications need it. The Java Preferences utility is in /Applications/Utilities; uncheck the boxes next to the versions listed in the General tab.

Clearly this is a legitimate threat to the Mac platform, which means the days of making fun of PC users are over…. Although I’ve argued for a while that the party was over years ago.

UPDATE: ARS Technica is noting that a new utility called Flashback Checker that will help novice users check to see if they have this trojan. It won’t help you to get rid of it, but it is a start.

UPDATE #2: Better late than never I suppose. Apple has posted a document on Flashback and they are apparently developing software to detect and remove Flashback.

1 Comment »

Mac Sales Drop…..PC Sales Rise…..Fanbois Crap Their Jeans

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 18, 2009 by itnerd

It seems that the party is over for Apple in terms of gaining market share on their PC competitors. It looks like the PC empire has finally decided to strike back and according to eWeek, the February numbers pretty much speak for themselves:

U.S. retail Windows PC unit shipments rose 22 percent in February, despite the weak economy. By comparison, Mac unit sales fell nearly 17 percent. Apple’s stronger category, notebooks, could no longer defy gravity. Windows laptop unit sales jumped 36 percent year over year, while Mac notebooks declined 7.5 percent.

The author of this article does suggest a good reason why this might be the case:

The obvious answer is upfront pricing. Consumers and small businesses pay more to join the Mac club because the entry-level prices are higher. Perhaps Apple sells computers for more than most consumers or small businesses are willing to spend right now. Apple’s iMac starts at $1,199 and MacBook at $999. In February, the average selling price for Macs was $1,500, down from $1,628 a year earlier but up from $1,482 in November. By comparison Windows PC selling prices continue in a downward direction from $668 to $555, February to February, and $572 from November.

True, the price is higher up front for something from the Apple universe. But fanbois many would argue that you get much more for your mone in terms of hardware and software up front as well. But given the times that we live in, that may not be enough to sway people to the Mac. A companion article written by the same author has some additional reasons:

I see three factors benefiting Microsoft and its OEM partners. In order from least to most important:

  • Some cost-conscious would-be Mac switchers are choosing cheaper Windows PCs.
  • Netbook sales are rising, giving additional uplift to Windows laptop sales.
  • “Windows. Life Without Walls” marketing is doing what it’s supposed to.

I’ll buy into the first two points, but I’m skeptical about the third. Maybe the cute little kids do make some sort of difference in terms of making PCs/Microsoft look better. But from talking to my customers, the cute kids aren’t making Vista any more appealing to them.

But then again, numbers don’t lie…. much.

Leave a comment »

Newer Entries »