Showing posts sorted by relevance for query OS. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query OS. Sort by date Show all posts

Mac App Store Upgrade: Will OS X Lion be Apple's Vista

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/07/2011 04:01:00 pm


The first thing that came to mind when I heard that Apple may seed OS X 10.7 Lion via the Mac App Store to all users running Snow Leopard: Windows Vista.
The new Apple OS is due out this summer, but the idea of upgrading purely through a digital download does not appeal to me and I think it spells trouble for Apple. Just as Windows users found going from XP to Vista, an upgrade to Lion may be more of a hassle than it's worth.
Sure, developers have been grabbing Lion on the Mac App Store for months now. But there's a big difference between allowing a small group of technically proficient people to do this and opening the process up to the larger public.
Regardless of how solid Apple's download process might be, sometimes you want to use a physical disc to install software. In my opinion, a major operating system upgrade qualifies as one of those times. Here's why.

Smells Like Vista

Some people prefer to wipe their hard drives and do a fresh install instead of dealing with potential software conflicts and other pitfalls during an OS upgrade. But if you have to reinstall Snow Leopard first and then download Lion, the fresh install process becomes a real pain.
Just like Windows users who wanted to wipe their hard drives before upgrading to Vista from XP, it sounds like OS X Lion users will end up tied to a double OS installation.

Installs Fail

Now, I admit, I have upgraded many computers running versions of Windows, OS X, and Linux, and I have never run into a problem. Perhaps your experience is the same, but I bet you know someone who has had an OS installation nightmare.
For that reason alone, the idea of upgrading to OS X without a physical disc makes me queasy. If your Internet connection fails or the power goes out in the middle of your installation, it's best to have the new OS on a DVD or USB stick so that you can reboot and try to install again. If not, I guess it's back to the Snow Leopard disc for you and then another run at Lion.

Refresh Yourself

Believe it or not, even on a Mac you may find you want to wipe your hard drive and do a fresh install of OS X as your machine ages. You may find simply find that a fresh install would do it some good.
Or what if you decide to run Windows in a Boot Camp partition after you've had Lion going for a year or two? Chances are to make room for Windows you'll have to either defrag your hard drive (good luck with that on a Mac), or tinker with Disk Utility, or take the easy way out and just reinstall OS X. Without a Lion disc that probably means a double OS installation for you.

Boot Camp

If you want to run Windows using Boot Camp you need specific drivers from Apple before Microsoft's OS will work properly on a Mac. Most of the time you get those drivers through your OS X installation disc, although you can also get them from Apple as a download via Boot Camp Assistant.
But if you have problems downloading Apple's Windows drivers -- as I did when I tested the system this morning -- I guess you're out of luck, unless you have an OS X installation disc.

Look to Linux

If Apple really does seed OS X Lion as a download in the Mac App Store, I hope the company will offer the capability to burn a disc image the way Linux distributions do such as Ubuntu and openSUSE. That way you get the best of both worlds: an OS X Lion download and a physical copy of the OS as a safeguard.
The downside to that approach is you'll have to use Disk Utility to burn your disc, which might scare off the average user. Then again, Apple could create a simple wizard that burns the disc for you and all you have to do is insert the blank storage media when prompted. Maybe that's not as painless as a simple download, but a major OS X upgrade via the Mac App Store could give Apple the lion's share of tech headaches this summer.

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'Indian OS' DRDO Introducing It's Own Operating System to Harden Cyber Security

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 12/25/2012 02:12:00 am

'Indian OS' DRDO Introducing It's Own Operating System to Harden Cyber Security 

On the 3rd Worldwide Cyber security Summit, Telecom and IT Minister of India, Kapil Sibal said the Indian Government will invest $200 million in coming 4 years. This high tech plan of Indian govt in now getting executed, as Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) along-with other premier institutes is developing India's own operating system (OS), which is likely to be ready in next three years. One of the key purpose of developing this operating system named "Indian OS" to enhance cyber security and strengthen the cyber and digital fence of India. In September the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh  said the government is working on a robust cyber security structure, and this project of introducing the own and secure OS can be calculated as one of the very major part of that very robust cyber security system. 
Speaking to newsmen on sidelines of NAVCOM-2012', two-day international conference on Navigation and Communication that began here, Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, said, "We have already started a major programme and are one-and-half-years into that programme. It (Indian OS) is a major effort requiring large number of software engineers working together." In his speech the Director-General of DRDO said "One of the major elements of cyber security is having our own operating system because today we are dependent on all OS systems which are imported whether it is based on Windows, Linux which is likely to be having malicious worms/things and hence it is essential that we have our own OS" 
He also said that 150 engineers were working across the country on creating Indian OS, and added it will take at least three more years for getting the Indian OS ready.

So, till that time being, we have to keep patience and wait. We the Team VOGH congratulates DRDO for making such a fruitful Operating System (Indian OS). We strongly believe that day by day the cyber fence of India will be safer and secure. Along with this, the Indian OS will definitely strengthen the nation's cyber security. 


 -Source (TOI)




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Is upgrading to Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard still sensible??

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/29/2011 09:53:00 pm


While it might seem to some like buying a ticket to the ball game after the seventh-inning stretch, in a helpful article this week, MacFixIt's Topher Kessler advises a qualified "affirmative" to a number of readers still running older Intel Macs that came with OS X 10.5 Leopard or even 10.4 Tiger and are wondering whether they should upgrade to version 10.6 Snow Leopard. Kessler thinks that even with Apple's release of Mac OS X v10.7 Lion not far off, the OS 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade—available on DVD for upgrading from Leopard or Tiger installations at a modest $29—is still a good idea. I agree unreservedly.

Kessler presents several good reasons why one should still upgrade to v10.6, not least of which that Snow Leopard may be the earliest OS version supporting a direct upgrade to the new OS. He also notes that for MobileMe users, it's a no-brainer. A couple of points in favor he didn't mention are that upgrading to OS v10.6.6 and later will also give you immediate access to the Apple Mac App Store, if that appeals. Also, compatibility with a number of newer software applications for which Snow Leopard is a minimum system requirement already, and there will be even more in the future.

Another point is that Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade DVDs will likely not continue to be available from Apple for long, if at all, after the v10.7 Lion release, at least if past history is any reliable guide. Therefore, it might be a good idea to snag an uprade disk for possible future reference even if you don't install it right away.

The minimum Mac hardware for installing Lion has not been announced by Apple yet, but it's pretty safe to surmise that some early Intel Macs—possibly models with single-core processor silicon—will be bumped off the bottom rungs of the ladder of Mac OS X v10.7 support. So, for some, Snow Leopard will be the end of the Mac OS upgrade road and a requirement for future-proofing for at least a few more years.

Consequently, for $29, the Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade is a pretty sweet deal if you have a Mac that will support it; especially an older model. The only downsides I've noticed compared with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard is that Snow Leopard makes my 2.0GHz unibody MacBook run somewhat hotter, resulting in more cooling fan cycling.

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Mac OS X Lion Login Password Vulnerability

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 7/29/2011 05:00:00 pm



A password recovery company has advised users of the Mac OS X Lion to disable the ‘automatic login’ feature of the operating system from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) due to a vulnerability that was discovered recently.
The vulnerability of the recently released Mac OS X Lion reportedly exposed the login passwords whenever the Mac is in sleep mode or is locked according to Passware, which provides password recovery software applications to law enforcement organizations. The same issue also affects the earlier version of the OS from Apple, the Snow Leopard.
The company indicated that it was necessary for users of the Mac OS X Lion to connect with the FireWire port of the Mac for them to retrieve the password through direct memory access. Sales of the latest OS from Apple started a week ago at the App Store with a price tag of $30. Apple has pointed out that the Mac OS X Lion provides numerous new features.

Fortunately this issue can be easily resolved by users when they disable the automatic login feature on the Mac OS X Lion. The users can also opt to shut down the computers since the passwords will not be saved in the memory once the computers are turned off. The FireWire port can also be disabled by the users to guard against this vulnerability on the Mac OS X Lion.
The company also indicated that its newest offering, the Passware Kit Forensic will be able to deal with the vulnerability on the Mac OS X Lion since the software will reportedly recover the login password.
When the automatic login feature is disabled, the computer will be secured even if the passwords are recoverable while the Mac is in sleep mode. With the automatic login feature in the Mac OS X Lion, anyone who works on the computer can access the device.
Users will have to type in their password into the computer using their profile in order to disable the automatic login feature of the Mac OS X Lion. Passware has indicated that it has already used the same system of accessing apparently secured data as ut was able to decrypt some hard drives that were encrypted using TrueCrypt and BitLocker.

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Now Mac OS X 10.7 Lion can be Installed in a Virtualized Environment

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 7/03/2011 03:04:00 pm


Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will bring quite a few new features from a user interface stand point. However, it looks like Lion will also bring a long awaited capability for the more advanced users. Apple will allow users to install Mac OS Lion client in a virtual environment. In 2007 Apple allowed Mac OS X Server to be installed in a virtualized environment, like VMWare Fusion and Parallels, but now Mac OS X Lion client will be possible to install in a virtual machine.
According to the end-user licensing agreement for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, users can install up to two additional copies or instances within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer they own.
Why is this important? As we mentioned, this might not affect the everyday user but if you are a developer, you will be able to test your application in a virtualized environment without affecting your base installation. Or, if you like to test new software, you will be able to do so in a virtualized environment and then decide if you want to move that new software in your base, everyday desktop. And, if you buy/try an app from the Mac App Store, following the Mac App Store rules, you are entitled to install that app on all your Mac OS X installations, including the virtualized ones.
What makes this possible? We believe Apple is realizing that Mac OS X it self is not a huge stream of money. This explains the price of Mac OS X Lion at just $29.99 (Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was priced at $129 in 2007). Where is Apple making its money? This is from the Mac App Store. The more Mac OS X environments out there, more potential customers for developers, more money for Apple (Apple is getting 30% of the app revenue).
The licensing agreement specifically mentions that users are entitled to install Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on virtual environments running on a Mac. So, if you are a Windows user, or have Windows computers at home, you are not allowed to run a virtual machine with Lion on these machines. However it will be interesting to see if users can easily port such a virtual machine on a Windows environment running VMWare Workstation or Parallels for Windows.

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AnonOps- Anonymous-OS Is Fake & Wrapped In Trojans (Anonymous Vs. Anonymous)

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 3/16/2012 07:33:00 pm

AnonOps- Anonymous-OS Is Fake & Wrapped In Trojans (Anonymous Vs. Anonymous)
Yesterday we cover the release of Anonymous-OS, which was claimed to be the first Operating System made by hacker collective Anonymous. But now we are facing a complete different scenario. After the release of the OS one of the so called official twitter account of Anon tweeted about the OS "The Anon OS is fake it is wrapped in trojans". From this tweet the controversy begins which takes two direction, one saying Anonymous did not release their own operating system and other saying the OS have certain backdoors, malware & trojan installed. In a SourceForge project page this Anonymous-OS was first made available but later the SourceForge Authority said that they have removed the page and also the distribution from their server as significant concerns were raised concerning the software bundle's authenticity and possible maliciousness. According to their official blog post :- 
Yesterday we starting hearing some buzz about a new project called “Anonymous-OS” - people claiming that it was not affiliated in any way with the group referring to itself as “Anonymous". We looked at the project, and decided that although the name of the project was misleading (we see no evidence that it is connected with Anonymous) it appeared, on initial glance, to be a security-related operating system, with, perhaps, an attack-oriented emphasis. We have, in the past, taken a consistent stance on “controversial” projects - that is, we don’t pass judgement based on what’s possible with a product, but rather consider it to be amoral - neither good nor bad - until someone chooses to take action with it.
VOGH Review:-
Anonymous-OS was based on Ubuntu 11.10 with number of hacking tools like HOIC, Sqlmap, Havij, Zenmap & so on. Basically the OS was represented to be a pentest distro. But just after the time of release a controversy came while saying - is the OS safe? In this issue the previous track record of Anonymous was not good. Remember few days ago in a report Symantec have discovered that a piece of Anonymous-recommended DDoS software called Slowloris contained an insidious Trojan that was stealing financial info from people using it. In #OpMegaupload, the largest attack ever where 5,635 Anon people bring down the websites of Universal Music, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Recording Industry Association of America while using one of the world's most popular and vastly used DDoSer LOIC. But in reality thousands of people has been tricked by Anon in the named of cause and justice. Here again the history repeated. In the so it's Anon Vs. Anon.


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VMware vSphere 5 to add cloud virtualization support for Mac OS X Server

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/01/2011 11:34:00 am


The upcoming release of VMware's vSphere 5 virtualization platform is reported to include guest OS support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, indicating new options for enterprise use of Apple's server platform without the now discontinued Xserve.

VMware's plans for the next release of vSphere, as discussed in February at the company's Partner Exchnge conference, have been detailed in a posting by Virtualization.info, including mention of support for Mac OS X Server.

The vSphere product allows companies to build a private of public cloud of pooled infrastructure, offering enterprise planners more flexible capacity management than if they were required to allocate dedicated hardware to every server instance.

The product also helps data center managers to automate disaster recovery plans and monitor and manage performance while accurately reporting the costs needed to provide IT services.

By pooling server hardware, VMware says businesses can reduce their requirements of power, cooling and server storage, cutting energy cost by as much as 80 percent.

Formerly named VMware Infrastructure 4, the cloud-enabled vSphere platform is built upon the company's core virtualization hypervisor called ESXi, which runs as a low level microkernel OS on actual server hardware, and facilitates flexible, virtual deployment of guest OS virtual machines on top, moving around virtual images to use available hardware as necessary.

The product currently supports Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Oracle Solaris 10, as well as enterprise versions of Linux from RedHat, SUSE and Ubuntu. By adding support for Mac OS X Server, VMware will give its enterprise customers an option for virtualizing the deployment of Apple's server features without having to dedicate rack space to Mac hardware.

While Apple has backed out of the dedicated server hardware market, first by discontinuing the Xserve RAID and then by terminating its Xserve rack mounted server, it continues to develop its Mac OS X Server product, with the next major version adding the formerly premium server features to the standard edition.

Mac OS X Server includes WebDAV-based calendar and contact management, easy to use wiki services for building group collaboration tools, and under Mac OS X Lion Server 10.7, will incorporate expanded support for iOS mobile devices, including WebDAV file sharing for iPhone and iPads, expanded Push Notifications for messaging services, and a new Profile Manager that provides setup and management features for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac OS Lion computers. 

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Another OS X Malware App Pops Up, But Danger is Still Limited

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/03/2011 12:03:00 am


Cyber criminal community's interest in attacking Apple users is growing, but still lacks discipline
According to a handful of dedicated hackers of Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) computer operating system, OS X, the OS is actually less secure than Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows.  But thanks to the OS's small market share (traditionally 5 percent or less) most cybercriminals haven't felt it worthwhile to target the platform.  Also, some hackers have misgivings about attacking Unix-like operating systems (e.g. Linux, OS X).


Still, Apple's growing market share and boastful claims of security have lead to an increased interest in attacks and some OS X malware has been popping up of late.

The latest malware to target OS X is dubbed "MACDefender".  Attack pages for the new malware exploit the way Apple's default Safari browser handles Javascript, running a script that auto-initiates the download of a script file.  If the user has opted to open "safe" files, the archive will then auto-open and initiate an install dialogue.

The risk is minimal as users must approve of this dialogue and enter an administrative password to complete the installation.  Still it may be a bit more widespread as the attack pages have boosted themselves to near the top of many search results, thanks to search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning.

It is unclear what the software does when active, though it appears to be logging user activities.  Users who accidentally installed the software can still delete it by killing its process and dragging it from the Applications folder to the Trash bin.

Members of the Apple Support community first noted the malware last Saturday.

On Monday, security firm Intego released an advisory, calling the risk of the malware "low".  Intego writes:
When a user clicks a link after performing a search on a search engine such as Google, this takes them to a web site whose page contains JavaScript that automatically downloads a file," Intego said. "In this case, the file downloaded is a compressed ZIP archive, which, if a specific option in a web browser is checked (Open 'safe' files after downloading in Safari, for example), will open.
The malware unfortunately shares its name with a legitimate OS X software firm.  MacDefender is a small software firm that makes geocaching software, including GCStatistic and DTmatrix.  The company has released a statement emphatically saying that it is not affiliated with the rogue software.

The company writes:
IMPORTANT NOTE: As it seams (sic) someone wrote a virus/malware application named mac defender (MacDefender.app) for OS X. If you see an application named like this DO NOT DOWNLOAD/INSTALL it. I would never release an application named like this.
In recent months botnet-forming worms and trojans have targeted OS X.  Most of these pieces of malware have been amateurish efforts, though, or works in progress.  Nonetheless it remains a very real possibility that Apple could one day see a serious attack.

For its part Apple has suggested users get an antivirus program, though it still claims in advertisements that its platform does not suffer from malware like Windows.  Apple has refused to provide customers with free antimalware software like Microsoft does, so security firm Sophos Plc. has picked up the ball offering free basic protection to Mac users.  Some other smaller firms also offer free Mac antimalware suite

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Google begins war against Windows

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/13/2011 11:02:00 pm



Google does battle with Microsoft in most of its business areas, but it's gearing up to tackle the big daddy of them all: Windows.

With Windows -- and Macs and other PC operating systems -- Google sees an inefficient, costly, and decidedly 20th century mode of computing. Data is stored on each PC's hard drive, so if a laptop is lost or damaged, all the data stored on it could be gone forever too. And when PCs break, they're expensive and time-consuming to fix.
 
That's especially true in the corporate world. Gartner estimates that each desktop in a corporation costs between $3,000 and $5,000 per year to manage. Laptops can cost even more.

Ironically, all that spending means offices end up with old, rickety computers that the users would never buy for themselves. The high cost of tech support makes it prohibitively expensive for many companies to keep their hardware and software up to date. Services firm NetApplications says that more than 50% of computers are still using Windows XP -- a 10-year-old operating system.

Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) solution: Chrome OS, a Web-based operating system that is set for release on June 15.

On computers running Chrome OS, all of a user's information is stored in the cloud, in remote servers controlled by Google or other companies. Instead of a desktop software model, which relies on installed apps like Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Outlook and Word, customers will use on Gmail or another Web mail program, and Google Docs or Office 365, which exist online only. (Yes, you can run Microsoft's cloud Office software on a Google Chrome device.)

That goes for IT departments too. Intricate administrative software is replaced by a Web page that allows tech staff to manage all Chrome OS PCs. And Chrome OS automatically updates with the newest version, saving businesses from spending a fortune deploying new software versions.

"We're venturing into a really new model of computing," Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, said at a press conference this week. "This head-to-toe software model eliminates a lot of complexity. Complexity is torturing everyone, and that's a flawed model."
0:00 / 2:51 Google's 'me too!' music cloud

Google believes it can save businesses at least 50% on their desktop support expenses if they switch to Chrome OS.

But Google has a long, long uphill battle to fight against the entrenched corporate behemoth that is Microsoft Windows. More than 90% of the world's computers run Windows.

Not every business is ready to simplify its hardware, since many rely on high-end software that does not yet exist as a Web application. And Google has had a shaky relationship with the enterprise in the past, gaining only tepid support for its cloud-based business applications suite.

Also, this has been tried before with practically zero success.

Nearly 20 years ago, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison predicted that "thin client," hard-drive-less desktops connected to and managed by a server would be the future of business computing. Sun Microsystems -- now owned by Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) -- also tried and failed to get businesses to adopt thin clients.

Google acknowledged past failures but says that this time, it's different. The company surveyed 400 businesses of all sizes and found that 75% said they could migrate to Chrome OS.

People are now more accustomed to running applications out of a browser, Google executives say. The company partnered with virtualization giant Citrix to allow Chrome OS computers to run Windows applications hosted in the cloud, letting businesses run Adobe (ADBE) Photoshop, for instance, on Chrome OS.

Also, unlike pervious attempts, Google is providing both the operating system and the computer as one package: For $28 per user per month ($20 for government offices and schools), companies can rent "Chromebook" netbooks from Google and get support included.

"For the first time, hardware and software are being packaged together as a service," said Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Chrome. "We think this can fundamentally change the way people use computing in companies."

As evidence that companies of any size can deploy Chrome OS, Google itself is in the process of switching over to the new operating system.

"We will be deploying them increasingly internally," Brin said. "I hope to report next year that we have a very small percentage of anything other than Chromebooks at Google."

Google thinks it can change the face of computing. The only obstacles: The world's largest software maker, notoriously stubborn IT departments and decades of history going against it.

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Flashback Trojan Infected Over 600,000 Mac-OS Users, Apple Pushes Out Fix Again

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/09/2012 12:38:00 pm

Flashback Trojan Infected Over 600,000 Mac-OS Users, Apple Pushes Out Fix Again 

Russian anti-virus vendor Dr. Web spotted a Trojan affecting nearly 600,000 Macs around the world. The near immune image of the Mac OS X has simply crumbled. So much for Macs being relatively safe against malware attacks. That idea took a punch to the stomach this week when the news broke about the Flashback trojan affecting more than half a million Macs worldwide. Flashback is essentially the malware equivalent of a smash-and-grab thief. Exploiting a Java vulnerability, the code installs and runs when the user visits a compromised or malicious website, intercepting private data, like passwords, and sending it back out over the internet. According to Doctor Web, sources claim that “links to more than four million compromised web-pages could be found on a Google SERP [search results] at the end of March. In addition, some posts on Apple user forums described cases of infection by [the latest variant] BackDoor.Flashback.39 when visiting dlink.com.” The trojan, Backdoor.Flashback.39, can infect computers via an infected web page. The vulnerability itself lies in Java, a product which is not Apple’s
About 57% of infected machines were in the US, 20% in Canada, 13% in UK and 6% in Australia. Apple has already issued patches that curb the vulnerability, but it does not necessarily mean that all users have applied the security patch on their Macs. Even Mozilla has block listed all the older and vulnerable Java plug-in from Firefox. Users are recommended to install the recent Apple Java update to close the hole which allows malicious web pages to drop the trojan onto a system and to always check which application is actually asking for your password when requested.

Update: To detect if a system is infected with Flashback, run each of the following commands in the Mac OS X Terminal:-
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

If all these commands respond with "The domain/default pair of ... does not exist", then there is no Flashback infection. Otherwise consult the F-Secure advisory for manual removal instructions.

If you’re running Mac OS X v10.6.8, Mac OS X Server v10.6.8, OS X Lion v10.7.3 and Lion Server v10.7.3, be sure to hit up Software Update in your System Preferences.



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VMware Fusion 4.1 Allowing Virtualization of Mac OS X

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 11/21/2011 06:31:00 pm


VMware Fusion 4.1.0 released for Mac OS X. Last last week VMware released an update to its popular virtualization software that adds many improvements and bug fixes. The biggest improvement is the applications ability to run older versions of Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. Apple changed the Mac OS X licensing terms with the release of Mac OS X Lion. The new software license allows users to install and use virtual machines running the client or server version of Lion on their Mac.  It doesn’t mention anything about older versions of Mac OS X so it is assumed that you still aren’t allowed to run either of them in a virtual machine.
Apparently VMWare is leaving the decision whether or not they virtualize either of the older versions of Mac OS X to the user. If a user tries to install Leopard or Snow Leopard in Fusion 4.1 they will be prompted with a dialog that asks: “Verify that the operating system is license to run in a virtual machine. ” If you select Continue then Fusion will go ahead with the installation of the operating system leaving the decision to go ahead entirely in the user’s hands.

For More Information & To Download VMware Fusion 4.1 Click Here


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Up-gradation of Firefox 5.0.1 for MAC OS X Has Been Fixed

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 7/14/2011 01:32:00 pm


Mozilla has released version 5.0.1 of Firefox. As previously reported, the maintenance update to Firefox 5 addresses problems with Apple's upcoming Mac OS X Lion operating system that could cause the browser to crash. Firefox 5.0.1 also resolves an issue caused by one of Apple's latest Java updates (Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 10) that prevented the Java plug-in from being loaded. Although the release notes mention only changes affecting the Mac OS X version of Firefox, updates to the Windows and Linux versions have also been released.
Further information about the update can be found in the release notes. Firefox 5.0.1 is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux from the project's web site. Alternatively, users can upgrade to the new versions either by waiting for the automated update notification or by manually selecting "Check for updates" from the Help Menu.
Update: To avoid a crashing problem on the upcoming version of Mac OS X, Mozilla has released an update to the 3.6.x branch of Firefox, version 3.6.19, that disables downloadable fonts when running on Mac OS X Lion. The developers say that they hope to enable them again in a future release. In a post on the Mozilla Developer Center blog, the developers also note that Windows and Linux users "do not need and will not see the update offer" for Firefox 3.6.19 or 5.0.1.

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Anonymous-OS Alpha -First Operating System Released By #Anonymous

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 3/15/2012 10:37:00 pm

Anonymous-OS Alpha - First Operating System Released By #Anonymous
Earlier hacktivist Anonymous has released several DoS tool like LOIC, #refref, HOIC and so on but now we have all in one. Anonymous has officially released their first Operating system named Anonymous-OS. Basically its a live ubuntu-based distribution and created for educational purposes, to checking the security of web pages. In short Anonymous-OS can be regarded as a penetration testing distribution like BackBox, BackTrack and so on.

Preinstalled Apps on Anonymous-OS:-
- ParolaPass Password Generator
- Find Host IP
- Anonymous HOIC
- Ddosim
- Pyloris
- Slowloris
- TorsHammer
- Sqlmap
- Havij
- Sql Poison
- Admin Finder
- John the Ripper
- Hash Identifier
- Tor
- XChat IRC
- Pidgin
- Vidalia
- Polipo
- JonDo
- i2p
- Wireshark
- Zenmap

As expected in a sourceforge project page the OS is made available for download. For Additional information & to Download Anonymous-OS click Here. 





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HTC Is Going To Release First Windows Phone 7 Handset (HTC Kaixuan) For China

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 3/09/2012 05:50:00 pm

HTC Is Going To Release  First Windows Phone 7 Handset (HTC Kaixuan) For China

Finally the Microsoft Mobile OS reached the key market of China. Taiwanese smart phone maker HTC has planed to release what could be the first Windows Phone 7 handset for mainland China. The HTC Kaixuan (triumphant return) will be launched later this month, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. HTC is already accepting pre-orders for the device on its online store in China for 4,399 yuan (US$698). Microsoft had said it expected its Windows Phone 7 mobile OS to launch in China during the first half of this year. Handset makers Nokia and ZTE also plan to release Windows Phone 7 smartphones in 2012.
HTC, however, said the Kaixuan is different in that its Windows Phone 7.5 OS has been localized for Chinese users. For instance, the Kaixuan comes installed with Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter. Windows Phone 7 is however coming to China at a time when Google's Android OS is dominant, with a 56 percent share of the market in 2011, according to research firm Canalys. Android's open source nature has been the big reason behind the success of the OS, said Canalys research director Nicole Peng. This has allowed Chinese companies and developers to build a strong ecosystem around Android, resulting in localized versions of the OS and apps specially built for average Chinese consumers, she added. To compete with Android, Microsoft will need to develop the same kind of ecosystem for its Windows Phone 7 OS, which it so far lacks in China. "For Windows Phone 7, the biggest problem is the system is not localized enough," Peng said.



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Apple Released Mac OS X Lion v10.7.3 & Closes Security Hole

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 2/02/2012 08:45:00 pm

Apple Released OS X Lion v10.7.3 & Closes Security Hole

As expected Apple has released security update 2012-001 for Mac OS X 10.7.3 and, for Mac OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. In this release they have addressed a number of vulnerabilities in the company's desktop and server operating systems. According to Apple through this release they have patched more than 50 security holes such as remotely execute arbitrary code on a victim's system, gain access to private information or cause a denial-of-service (DoS).
The Client and Server updates fix issues in Address Book, ColorSync, CoreAudio, CoreMedia, CoreText, CoreUI, OpenGL, Internet Sharing, ImageIO, and in the QuickTime media player and various libraries used by Mac OS X. Other problems addressed include vulnerabilities in Apache, the libpng reference library, the PHP scripting language, Subversion and X11. Security Update 2012-001 also corrects problems in Tomcat and SquirrelMail.
Users can download Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (Client Standard Update 997.01 MB, Client Combo Update 1.2 GB, Server Standard Update 1 GB, Server Combo Update 1.34 GB) and Security Update 2012-001 (Client 192.73 MB, Server 212.09 MB) from Apple's Support Downloads page. Alternatively, Mac OS X users can upgrade to the latest releases using the built-in Software Update function. 
Additional information can be found on the support page.

For security issue all the users are advised to update their system as early as possible.


-Source (Apple, The-H)



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Apple Releases iOS 6 With 200+ New Features & Mountain Lion 10.8.2 With Facebook Integration & Game Center

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 9/23/2012 12:05:00 am

Apple Releases iOS 6 With 200+ New Features & Mountain Lion 10.8.2 With Facebook Integration & Game Center

As expected, here comes double bang from Apple. Apple has also released  iOS 6 along with OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and made available for public. In case of users of recent iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch models can obtain the update either by connecting their devices to iTunes and clicking the "Check for Update" button or checking for over-the-air updates on their devices. iOS 6 adds over 200 new features, including Apple's own Maps app, Facebook integration, Siri improvements, Apple's new Passbook digital wallet app, and more. iOS 6 is compatible with the third-generation iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and fourth-generation iPod touch. It will also ship on the iPhone 5, which launches on Friday, and on the fifth-generation iPod touch launching next month. The operating system arrives as the golden master build 10A403 for existing devices, and Apple has also posted a special 10A405 build for the iPhone 5 and a 10A406 build for the upcoming fifth-generation iPod touch.

With iOS Apple quietly pushed out 10.8.2, the second minor update to Mountain Lion since it was released in July. The update is currently available via the Software Update functionality in the Mac App Store. The update includes a number of enhancements, most notably Facebook integration and Game Center. It also includes support for several features integrating with iOS 6, such as Passbook passes and  iMessage/FaceTime access via phone number. 

This update is recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users, and includes new features and fixes:
Facebook 
• Single sign on for Facebook
• Adds Facebook as an option when sharing links and photos
• See Facebook friends' contact information and profile pictures in Contacts
• Facebook notifications now appear in Notification Center



Game Center
• Share scores to Facebook, Twitter, Mail, or Messages
• Facebook friends are included in Game Center friend recommendations
• Added Facebook "Like" button for games
• Challenge friends to beat your score or achievement



Other new features
• Adds Power Nap support for MacBook Air (Late 2010)
• iMessages sent to your phone number now appear in Messages on your Mac
• You can now add passes to Passbook (on your iPhone or iPod touch) from Safari and Mail on your Mac
• FaceTime can now receive calls sent to your phone number
• New shared Reminders lists
• New sort options allow you to sort notes by title, the date you edited them, and when you created them
• Dictation now supports additional languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Korean, Canadian English, Canadian French, and Italian
• Dictionary app now includes a French definition dictionary
Sina Weibo profile photos can now be added to Contacts

* Requires iOS 6


General fixes
The OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 update also includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac, including the following fixes:


• Adds an option to discard the changes in the original document when choosing Save As 
• Unsent drafts are now opened automatically when launching Mail
• Receive Twitter notifications for mentions and replies from anyone
• URLs are shortened when sending tweets from Notification Center
• Notifications are disabled when AirPlay Mirroring is being used
• Adds SSL support for Google searches from the Smart Search Field in Safari
• Adds a new preference to have Safari launch with previously open webpages
• Resolves an issue that may cause the "Enable Autodiscover" checkbox to always remain checked
• Enables access to the Mac App Store when Parental Controls are enabled Support for @icloud.com email addresses
• Resolves a video issue with some VGA projectors when connected to certain Mac notebooks
• Addresses an issue that may prevent Active Directory accounts from being locked out
• Resolves an issue that may cause the policy banner to re-appear prior to logging in
• Improvements to SMB
• Addresses an issue with NIS users when auto-login is enabled
• Addresses an issue in which the Keychain may not be accessible
• Ability to pre-authenticate a FileVault protected system
• Addresses an issue that may cause Xsan to not automatically start after migrating from Mac OS X Snow Leopard 


Direct downloads of OS X 10.8.2 is also available through Apple's site form the following links-



-Source (Apple & MacRumors)                             




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Apple Releases 3rd Developer Build of Mac OS X 10.6.8

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/30/2011 09:59:00 pm


Apple released the third build of Mac OS X 10.6.8 to developers, who can now download the 1GB file named 10K531. The areas that would be tested in this build are Airport, Mac App Store, Graphics Driver, QuickTime, Networking and VPN. Apple released developer builds of the Mac OS X every week, which started two weeks ago with the first build. The second build was deployed last week. This way the company can come up with a stable version faster than before.
There is no word yet whether the Mac OS X 10.6.8 will feature the fix that would seek and destroy the Mac Defender malware. Apple would most likely release the security patch as a standalone. The company did promise to release an update to the Mac OS X that will solve the issue with the fake antivirus software that would automatically download a phishing scam that would ask for users’ credit card. The Mac Defender first appeared early this month and most security experts downplayed it as just a simple phishing scam rather than a viral attack.
Apple is set to launch the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion this summer. It would contain various features and improvements that are drawn from Apple’s iOS mobile platform. 

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New BlackBerry 7 OS promises improved performance but no Android apps Flash

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/04/2011 05:52:00 pm


Research In Motion's (NASDAQ: RIMM) upcoming BlackBerry 7 operating system for smartphones won't include several of the key features that were added to RIM's new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, a RIM executive said during the company's annual BlackBerry World event.
RIM's vice president of handheld software product management, Andrew Bocking, said smartphones running the new OS will not support Android applications. The PlayBook launched last month with two optional "app players" that provide a runtime environment for BlackBerry Java applications as well as apps running Android 2.3.
Flash also isn't included in the BlackBerry 7 plan as RIM is putting its focus on the new QNX OS to support Flash content in the web browser. The upcoming BlackBerry 7-based Bold 9900's 1.2 GHz processor is supposed to fulfill Adobe's hardware requirements for Flash support, PCMag.com noted.
Bocking also said that BlackBerry 7 will not be backward-compatible with previous BlackBerry smartphones. This new OS runs solely on dual-core devices, and the existing RIM portfolio does not include any dual-core units.
BlackBerry 7 smartphones are expected to go on sale this summer and they promise improved performance and built-in support for Near Field Communications technology. BlackBerry 7 powers the new Liquid Graphics touchscreen, which touts faster, smoother performance for touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video and graphics-intensive gaming. According to RIM, Liquid Graphics offers up to 60 frames-per-second performance with instant UI action/response. In addition to Liquid Graphics performance gains, the new BlackBerry 7 browser includes a new just in time JavaScript compiler to improve web page load time speeds alongside support for additional HTML5 elements.
The other new features are voice-activated search and BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal content from corporate content on the smartphone.
It's not known exactly when the PlayBook's QNX OS will run on smartphones, but Al Hilwa, program director of applications development software with IDC, said it's clear that the OS will come to smartphones in the next year.
"Major platform transitions take time and what the Playbook launch shows, if anything beyond a really capable piece of hardware, is that rushing devices to market before they are baked doesn't help anybody," he said. "RIM should take its time to bring out QNX phones incrementally and with the right capabilities. The Playbook rollout has been a tough software experiment, but it is an experiment that will help the QNX phones be that much more robust when they come."

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Nmap 6.25 Released! With 85 New Scripts, Windows 8 Enhancements & Better Performance

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 12/05/2012 07:33:00 pm

Nmap 6.25 Released! With 85 New Scripts, Windows 8 Enhancements & Better Performance

Gordon Lyon also known as Fyodor, the author of world's most popular security scanner 'Nmap' announced another update. Almost after five months we got this new version that is Nmap 6.25. This release of Nmap  contains hundreds of improvements, including 85 new NSE scripts, nearly 1,000 new OS and service detection fingerprints, performance enhancements such as the new kqueue and poll I/O engines, better IPv6 traceroute support, Windows 8 improvements, and much more!  It also includes the work of five Google Summer of Code interns who worked full time with Nmap mentors during the summer. 

Here are the most important change since 6.01:
  • Integrated all of your IPv4 OS fingerprint submissions since January (more than 3,000 of them).  Added 373 fingerprints, bringing the new total to 3,946.  Additions include Linux 3.6, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Mac OS X 10.8, and a ton of new WAPs, printers, routers, and other devices--including our first IP-enabled doorbell! Many existing fingerprints were improved.
  • Integrated all of your service/version detection fingerprints submitted since January (more than 1,500)!  Our signature count jumped by more than 400 to 8,645.  We now detect 897 protocols, from extremely popular ones like http, ssh, smtp and imap to the more obscure airdroid, gopher-proxy, and enemyterritory. 
  • Integrated your latest IPv6 OS submissions and corrections. We're still low on IPv6 fingerprints, so please scan any IPv6 systems you own or administer and submit them to http://nmap.org/submit/.  Both new fingerprints (if Nmap doesn't find a good match) and corrections (if Nmap guesses wrong) are useful.
  • Enabled support for IPv6 traceroute using UDP, SCTP, and IPProto(Next Header) probes. 
  • Scripts can now return a structured name-value table so that results are query-able from XML output. Scripts can return a string as before, or a table, or a table and a string. In this last case, the table will go to XML output and the string will go to screen output. See http://nmap.org/book/nse-api.html#nse-structured-output 
  • [Nsock] Added new poll and kqueue I/O engines for improved performance on Windows and BSD-based systems including Mac OS X. These are in addition to the epoll engine (used on Linux) and the classic select engine fallback for other system.  
  • [Ncat] Added support for Unix domain sockets. The new -U and --unixsock options activate this mode.  These provide compatibility with Hobbit's original Netcat. 
  • Moved some Windows dependencies, including OpenSSL, libsvn, and the vcredist files, into a new public Subversion directory /nmap-mswin32-aux and moved it out of the source tarball. This reduces the compressed tarball size from 22 MB to 8 MB and similarly reduces the bandwidth and storage required for an svn checkout.
  • [NSE] Replaced old RPC grinder (RPC enumeration, performed as part of version detection when a port seems to run a SunRPC service) with a faster and easier to maintain NSE-based implementation. This also allowed us to remove the crufty old pos_scan scan engine. 




For additional information and to know the full change log of this release click Here. To download Namp 6.25 (Source Code & Binary Packages) for Windows, Linux, Mac, Unix & few other OS click Here






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Microsoft Earns 79% of the $30 Billion Global OS Market

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/02/2011 02:34:00 am


We all know that Windows dominates the OS market in terms of market share, but rarely do you see someone talk about the most important number in the OS wars, revenue. Today Gartner offered up its estimations on the various OS player’s, and the results put Microsoft in a dominate lead, with $8 out of every $10 spent on operating systems ending up in the companies coffers. The results, which include server products, give the Redmond based software giant a 78.6% share of the pie, with Apple scraping by on a mere 1.7 percent. When you consider that in 2010 the OS market was worth $30.4 billion, the stakes here are definitely worth pay attention to.
Some analysts have called out the report as a success for Apple, not because of the overall market share numbers, but because of growth. Apple’s OS revenue grew by 15.8% compared to Microsoft’s 8.8%. Of course you could make the argument that percentages often favor the smaller guy, but clearly they are still doing something right. Linux comes up short in the results primarily because the vast majority of users simply download the latest and greatest version every few months for free. Red Hat, a popular Linux support service did make the list, but only earned enough revenue to place fifth.
The scientific method behind gathering these results wasn’t mentioned in Gartner’s blog post, but in general this is a pretty respected research company. I think it’s safe to say they’ve done their homework.

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