News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
If you're using Apple's Safari browser, PayPal has some advice for you: Drop it, at least if you want to avoid online fraud. Safari doesn't make PayPal's list of recommended browsers because it doesn't have two important anti-phishing security features, according to Michael Barrett, PayPal's chief information security officer. "Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do, to protect their customers," Barrett said in an interview. "Our recommendation at this point, to our customers, is use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera." Safari is the default browser on Apple's Macintosh computers and the iPhone, but it is also available for the PC. Both Firefox and Opera run on the Mac. Unlike its competitors, Safari has no built-in phishing filter to warn users when they are visiting suspicious Web sites, Barrett said. Another problem is Safari's lack of support for another anti-phishing technology, called Extended Validation (EV) certificates. This is a secure Web browsing technology that turns the address bar green when the browser is visiting a legitimate Web site.
Robert McMillan | Feb 29, 2008
Confounding the rumour sites that couldn't decide whether to predict a MacBook Pro revision this morning or just a MacBook revision, Apple has unveiled updated versions of both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. That ought to keep them guessing. Both lines have been updated with faster processors, plus larger hard drives and, in the case of the Pro, faster graphics by NVidia. Most significantly, the MacBook Pros now feature the same multi-touch trackpad as the MacBook Air.
Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 27, 2008
This evening, Adobe will release the first full version of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), while revealing early adopter customers who are building both business and consumer applications using the technology. AIR 1.0 is now available as a free technology, said Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch. He said hundreds of thousands of developers have downloaded the software development kit (SDK) for AIR during the beta process, which began in June. Some of the first applications built using AIR also will be available tonight.
Elizabeth Montalbano | Feb 26, 2008
Apple has quietly discontinued its Xserve RAID enterprise storage product line. It disappeared from the online Apple Store shortly after the company introduced Xsan 2 this morning. Industry analysts don’t believe the discontinuation will have a negative impact on the company’s enterprise market. Apple struck a deal with Promise Technology to have its RAID systems qualified for use with Xsan 2, so users are not left out in the cold. Apple said the Promise product delivers on the features its customers have been asking for and it also delivers significantly greater performance.
Jim Dalrymple | Feb 20, 2008
In the first major upgrade to its Storage Area Network (SAN) file system, Apple on Tuesday introduced Xsan 2, adding a new feature called MultiSAN and making it easier for first time users to get up and running. “The feedback we’ve heard from customers is that a SAN is too difficult to set up, so one of the goals in this release was to make SAN simpler,” said Eric Zelenka, senior product line manager server & storage software.
Jim Dalrymple | Feb 20, 2008
In the middle of the night, Apple dropped the price of the 1GB iPod shuffle from $99 to only $65, while at the same time introducing a 2GB model, the price of which was not released at 4:15 in the morning. The 2GB model will be available later in the month, but is not yet available for pre-order from the Apple Store. The iPod shuffle has remained virtually unchanged in its present form factor for the last 18 months, a fact which led some analysts to blame the shuffle for the apparent slowdown in iPod sales towards the end of last year.
Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 20, 2008
Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc. The company will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. It will reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail markets and aims to cease the businesses altogether by the end of March. But the Japanese electronics giant pledged to provide full product support and after-sales service for owners of Toshiba HD DVD products. Rumours of Toshiba's pending action had been circulating for days beforehand, but it was only once Toshiba made an actual announcement that an official proclamation could be made: the HD format war is over, and Blu-ray Disc won.
Dan Nysted and Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 20, 2008
Aperture 2 adds more than 100 features, a streamlined user interface and a new image processing engine, according to Apple. New imaging tools have been added, to help photographers recover highlights, bring out colour vibrancy, manage local contrast definition, do soft-edged retouching and vignetting, and fine-tune RAW images.
"The theme of this release is performance, simplicity and imaging," said Kirk Paulsen, Apple's senior director, application Product Marketing. Aperture 2 lets users post their image portfolios on .Mac web galleries, or to the iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Users can switch between the Viewer and Browser modes using a single key command; an all-in-one heads up display lets users toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls using a single tabbed inspector.
There's a new All Projects view that's been modelled after iPhoto's Events view. It provides a "poster" photo for every project and the ability to skim through the photos inside quickly. An integrated iPhoto browser helps you access directly any images and events you have stored in iPhoto.
Apple on Wednesday released an update to QuickTime, version 7.4.1. Available for download from the Software Update system preference, QuickTime is also available from Apple's downloads web site. Separate updaters have been posted for Mac OS X v10.3, 10.4 and 10.5. The update "addresses security issues and improves compatibility with third-party applications," according to Apple. Apple provided no additional details about those changes in the release notes, but confirmed that this update addresses a previously reported incompatibility between QuickTime 7.4 and Adobe After Effects. According to a separately posted note on Apple's web site, QuickTime 7.4.1 also includes a security improvement that can prevent a malicious web site from causing an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
Peter Cohen and Robert McMullen | Feb 7, 2008
At long last, Apple has launched a local version of its iPhoto printing service in Australia, meaning that prints, calendars, greeting cards and, yes, books, can now be ordered directly from iPhoto. The service has been available in other territories for some time, while Australian users have watched enviously (or found convoluted ways to order the prints and books from overseas).
Matthew JC. Powell | Feb 6, 2008
Apple has hired Kevin Swint to head up the company's growing efforts to distribute television and video entertainment content abroad via the iTunes Store. Swint comes to Apple from Wal-Mart, where he spearheaded the retail giant's now-defunct efforts to distribute music and movies electronically.
Peter Cohen | Feb 5, 2008
Intel will offer a first look at technical details of its low-power Silverthorne processor during a presentation at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) this week, setting the stage for a concerted push into the market for ultraportable devices.
Sumner Lemon | Feb 5, 2008
As I type these words, I am waiting for Apple's Developer Connection web site to ease up sufficiently for me to download the long-awaited Software Developer Kit for the iPhone (and iPod touch, just by the by). In a way, I hate developer-oriented announcements — "here's a really cool thing we're working on, and it's available now, and hoi polloi can have it in about six months". Actually, it's the six months I hate.
