Apple Advocates Use of Multiple Antiviral Programs for Macs

Apple is now advising Mac owners to use “multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.” The company specifically recommended Intego VirusBarrier X5 ($64.99 – Amazon), Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh ($31.99 – Amazon), and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.…

A MacBook Surprise: View-Protected Content

[Update: posted November 26, 2008] Apple released QuickTime 7.5.7 yesterday (currently available via Software Update for new MacBooks). It should now allow non-HD protected content to play on any external display. I guess I should have had a bit more faith in Apple.

Belkin Intros Switch-to-Mac USB Cable

Belkin announced the immediate availability of its new Switch-to-Mac Cable on Wednesday. The USB cable includes a built-in converter that handles the process of transferring PC settings and files from a Windows machine to a Mac. Belkin’s Switch-to-Mac Cable The Switch-to-Mac Cable supports Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and Windows XP or Vista. It…

Sayonara to My TiBook

For the last, gasp, 90 months, my trusty PowerBook G4 Titanium has served me well. And it itis not done yet. In itis new life, itill be used by my church for presentations. That so-called “TiBook” has been an amazing computer. What was once a state of the art Apple Titanium notebook computer has survived…

Tom Bihn Announces 15.4" Checkpoint Flyer & Brain Cell Laptop Bags

The Checkpoint Flyer is a trifold laptop bag designed around recently released TSA guidelines for laptop bags. It, in theory, allows users to not have to unpack their laptops at airport security checks, unfolding in a way the TSA will (supposedly) approve (The company offers a third party video review of the bag that shows…

Developing Cocoa Apps with MacRuby

Appleis Developer Connection recently posted a tutorial on developing Mac apps with MacRuby. The advantage of MacRuby is that it bypasses the technology of the Ruby-Cocoa bridge and sits directly on top of core Mac OS X technologies such as Objective-C runtime, the generational garbage collector, and CoreFoundation. As the tutorial explains, “Creating a bridge…

Absoft Releases Xcode Plug-in for Pro Fortran 10.2

Absoft announced the immediate availability of its Xcode 3.1 plug-in for the Absoft Pro Fortran v10.2 product on Wednesday. The Intel Mac only plug-in allows Xcode development of 32- and 64-bit Fortran applications. It is included free of charge with the Fortran distribution. The plug-in is being released as an alternative to Absoftis own multi-platform…

Traveling with my iPhone (and MacBook Pro) in Japan

I’ve just returned from my 16-day trip to Japan. I travelled from Tokyo to Kyoto and further west all the way to Hiroshima. With me throughout these adventures were my iPhone and MacBook Pro. Originally, I had planned to take only my iPhone, leaving my MacBook Pro at home (not wanting to carry around its…

Intego Advises to be On Guard for MacGuard

Intego, as part of its routine security alerts, has sent out an advisory warning Apple customers to be wary of a rogue security program called MacGuard. The software itself may be dangerous, and also may simply be harvesting credit card numbers, Intego said. The advisory said, in part: “Intego has discovered a rogue program claiming…

AMEX Digital Announces External Blu-ray Drive for Macs

its USB external Portable Super Multi-Drive for Intel Macs. The slot loading Blu-ray drive has the following features: Latest Technology can supports the 12cm and 8cm disc BD-RE/-R (SL) 2X Speed Writing / Reading BD-RE/-R (DL) 1X Speed Writing / 1.6X Speed Reading BD-ROM (SL / DL) 2X Speed Reading Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R…

Apple Upgrades MacBook Air with Larger Storage Options

On Tuesday, Apple announced new storage options for the MacBook Air: a 4,200 RPM, 120 GB hard disk or a 128 GB SSD. The graphics were also upgraded to the NVIDIA 9400M which should run a little cooler than the previous graphics, according to Steve Jobs. The other specifications for the MacBook Air remain unchanged…

Apple to Replace Defective MacBook Pro Video Chips

Apple has acknowledged that the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video processor found in some MacBook Pro models is defective and the company is offering to replace those chips for free. The defective chips have caused problems that include distorted or scrambled video, or no video on built-in or external displays. MacBook Pro models that are…

CW: One More Thing for the New MacBooks - Wireless USB

Last week, Seth Weintraub at Computerworld made a list of likely technologies to appear in the new Apple MacBooks. On Tuesday, he spotted something that caused him to add one more thing to the possible list: Wireless USB. What caught his eye was a photo uploaded to flickr which, while it may not be authentic,…

Google Co-founder: No Mac Chrome an Embarassment

Mac user and Google co-founder Sergey Brin may be happy that his company’s Chrome Web browser is out and in the public spotlight, but he called the current lack of a Mac-compatible version “embarrassing,” according to Valleywag. In an interview with BoomTown’s Kara Swisher, Mr. Brin asked if she would try out Google Chrome, to…

Yager: Skip Chrome, Go Right to WebKit

Googleis Chrome is based on advanced technologies like V8 enhanced Javascript. Even so, developers should just skip the browser framework and write Internet apps that use Webkit directly, according to Tom Yager at Infoworld. “The trouble is that browsers are designed for surfing, not as application platforms. Think about it,” Mr. Yager wrote. “If you…

Final Cut Express 4.0.1 Improves AVCHD Support

Apple released Final Cut Express 4.0.1 on Friday. The update for the video editing application addressed issues with AVCHD camcorders, improved stability when using third-party FxPlug plug-ins, and fixed several bugs. The update is free for version 4 users, and is available for download at the Apple Support Web site.

What a Touchscreen Would do for the Mac

Itis time for Apple to introduce a full-fledged touchscreen Mac to the market, according to Don Reisinger at CNET on Monday. So far, Apple has stopped short of a full touchscreen Mac and restricted that technology to the iPhone. Mr. Reisinger wondered if itis time for Apple to take the risk of introducing a touchscreen…

The Case for SSDs in New MacBook Pros

Apple hasnit made any announcements about the next generation MacBook Pros, but when they do, itis getting to be fairly realistic for Apple to make SSDs an option, especially since Dell is leading the way, according to Computerworld on Wednesday. Some thought it would take several years for Sold State Drives (SSD) to be a…

Net Nanny for Mac Released

ContentWatch announced the release of Net Nanny for the Mac on Tuesday. With the release, Net Nanny is now available for both Windows and Mac users. “With Net Nanny for Mac, users can protect their computers and safeguard their children from unwanted Internet content. Net Nanny for Mac establishes a barrier around your computer with…