Security Update 2007-004

The fourth security update of 2007 keeping security update for this year to one a month.

Security Update 2007-004

This update addresses flaws and issues with AFP Client; AirPort; CarbonCore; Help Viewer; Installer; SMB; WebDAV; WebFoundation; and more.

There have been some minor reports of issues occurring on some systems after the update. "login loop" issue being the most common. I successfully and it on my Macs without incident.

Files include, booting in safe mode and running 'fsck', booting from another volume or system CD and deleting the 'loginwindow.plist' files, and logging into a good administrator account and using a terminal command to change the password on effected accounts.

iTunes contact negotiations will get pushy

A Reuters piece point out that Apple will likely push hard on Universal, Sony, and Warner Music to follow EMI's lead and go DRM free on iTunes

The labels are expected to push back and ask for variable pricing, subscription services, more bundling and promotion of tracks on iPods and in iTunes, and possibly Zune like cost sharing.

Apple probably has the upper hand with it's dominant (~80%) digital music download dominance, but the negotiations will likely get heated.

There have been rumors that Apple is considering a subscription option for iTunes. I think they will go the eMusic route rather than use the classic Napster, Rhapsody style model.

Apple TV expanding Big Box presence

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple Tvs are surfacing at retailers other than Best Buy

Reports of sightings at Circuit City and CompUSA with a rumor that Target has plans to carry the device by the end of April.

Target will even display demo units hooked to HDTVs at some locations.

MacBook Pro successfully hacked in security contest

2 MacBook Pros were set up at CanSecWest security conference for their "PWN to OWN" contest. If they could be successfully hacked then the hacker would own the respective MacBook Pro literally and figuratively.

After the first day organizers had to relax the rules a bit. A

The final "zero-day" exploit required a conference organizer to surf to a malicious Web site using Safari on the MacBook.

Hacker shane Macaulay teamed with Dino Dai Zovi, formerly of Matasano Security to develop the exploit, which is Dino's design, in about 9 hours.

Dino is letting Shane keep the MacBook and plans to apply for a USD$10,000 bounty offered recently by TippingPoint, a division of 3com, for any previously unknown bug in Mac OS X.

So far Apple PR has only responded with their "canned" response that hey take security very seriously and point to their track record of fixes flaws before the reach "the wild".

The 2nd MacBook Pro remained uncracked and required a hack to gain complete root access to garner the prize.

BBC iPlayer will be coming to the Mac

Tim pointed me to a BBC News article that says the BBC iPlayer service, offering catch-up TV via the web and cable TV, would be re-engineered to work with Apple Macs.

720x304 video on iPod confusion

I started the piece with talking about 720p resolution of Apple TV being a hot topic and then transitioned to iPod video

Made it sound like I was saying 720x304 (2.35:1 Cinemascope) video was 720p.

720p for HD refers to vertical resolution, not horizontal.

My point was that the iPod is stated to support 640x480 as it's max resolution, but it will play 720x304.

The benefit to this is it will play on the iPod and on an apple TV and a 720 pixel wide video should look better on AppleTV than a 640 wide video.

Feedback on OS X Active Directory Support

From Adam

Mac OS X 10.3 & 10.4 play very well with AD (Active Directory), especially 10.4 which is easy to bind to AD and authenticate a local user account and/or network services on both AFP SMB servers, AD is actually very flexible now, even true single-sign-on services. It is completely possible to convert a local account into a full AD account flawlessly, even caching the local credentials so if the authentication server dies you can still work. What’s really cool is the ability to embed AD users in local OD (Open Directory) groups on a Mac OS X Server so you can manage Mac shares with very granular control. The big political challenge is getting the AD Admin to extend the AD schema so you can manage client MCX (preferences/Home Directory). You can still do a lot without this extension though. 10.5 is going to make all this stuff even better which will use OD4 (Open Directory v4). OD4 doesn’t need the AD schema extended in short.

The best web sites to use are:
afp548.com (the directory services product manager for Apple is a moderator here)
macwindows.com

Listener Jonathan notes that while Mac OS X's support for Active Directory is great, not every Active Directory is ready for Macs. It can take some finagling with your IT department to get things working. He recommends simply trying the binding, via Directory Access and see if you can make it work.

Listener Ray mentions another company call Centrify that offers Active Directory products centered around integrating AD into UNIX environments, including Mac OS X

www.centrify.com

Tip for Exchange Server Client from Todd

Novell Evolution 2.6, works with calendar, email, address book, etc.

Novell Evolution 2.6

Needs X11 to run, and I wasn't successful in using it on my Intel MacBook Pro under 10.4.9 yet.

Buy your software, please

I had a listener email recently about someone who was concerned by the amount of cracked and illegal software a friend was using on their Mac.

He wanted to know if they could get in trouble when his Mac went in for AppleCare service and also how to encourage their friend to stop

Stealing software hurts everyone in many ways

It denies the developers the money they deserve for their hard work and efforts

It reduces the amount of software available for the Mac. Who wants to develop if people just steal from them

It drives software prices up. The vicious circle.

It's just bad ju-ju

Review of El Gato eyeTV Hybrid

Pros

eyeTV Hybrid

Small USB "key" style device

Easy to set-up and configure

Supports free to air HDTV (ATSC).

Good performance with my Intel Mac Mini, minor skips. 720p resolutions with Dual g5 or Intel Core Duo Mac or better.

Easy guide and recording setup. Easy conversion to iPod (new update, Apple TV) formats.

Has breakout for capturing external sources, cable box, video game system, etc.

Remote included

Cons

IR remote sensor on side of the device, so position is key. Can't really connect to back of Mac. Does include extension cable.

Buttons on remote, not well labeled

Combo Updater can be magic fix

Listener Josh lost his system menubar icons (clock, spotlight, etc) after applying the latest security update. 3rd party ones were still there.

Using the latest 10.4.9 combo updater for his system might fix the issue

I have used this in the past when other standards, repair permissions, zapping the PRAM, clearing caches, etc don't work.

Basically restores systems files that may have been corrupted.

Quick playlists in iTunes

From listener Tal

In iTunes 4.9 select the tracks you want in the playlist from the library (Command+Click to select different tracks). Also can select entire albums, etc.

Choose File-->New Playlist from Selection (Command+Shift+N).

Thoughts on re-downloading purchased content from iTunes

Play comment from Meeno

Why Apple doesn't allow for re-downloading

Impact on servers and bandwidth costs

Licensing issues

The future of digital media management

Paid for monthly "storage locker"

Bulging MacBook Pro batteries

Listener Elaine had an issue with her 17" MacBook Pro battery and she is not alone

There seems to be widespread reports of this with several reports on Apple's own support forums, reports at Engadget and the like.

The issue seems to manifest itself with general battery, power, and trackpad issues.

So far most report that calling AppleCare and getting the battery replaced is the best solution and Apple has done an excellent job in most cases of making the exchange process pleasant.

No reports of batteries exploding, but many of the images are fairly gruesome.

To date Apple only has a warranty extension program for some 15" MBP batteries.

Apple sees significant market growth

A recent Gartner research study estimates Apple's market share of the retail PC computer market at 5% in Q1 of 2007, up 1% from 2006. This put them at #5 just behind Toshiba (5.4%) in overall PC market share

The increase is a 30% growth in market share from Q1 of 2006. Other PC manufactures didn't fair so well in the same time frame. Dell saw a 15.5% decrease in market share from Q106 to Q107 and Gateway saw a 6.3% 06 to 07 drop. HP and Toshiba did better with 25.8 and 26.8% share increases respectively.

Keep in mind that many home users (Dell and Gateway prime markets) had been holding off for Vista before upgrading.

That's not to say we can gloat a bit, but just remember to keep it in perspective.