The latest headline states 600,000+ Mac users infected by a Trojan called “Flashback”  Also, “Mac users need to wake up and start using Anti-virus software”  Well should we be concerned?  Probably, but it’s important to understand some of the over-hyped statement and inconsistencies first.

This latest attack against the Macintosh system is a trojan based malware that affects users that have a security hole in the Java system of their browser.  Java is a language that allows you to run extra programs through browsers such as Safari.  It’s not used too much these days, never really was that prevalent in my opinion.  On newer Mac systems Apple does not even have it installed by default (nor do they make Java, it’s by Sun Microsystems)  if you want to use it something will pop up if you visit a site needing Java and Apple will provide an easy way to install it.  This however will even be changing down the road to where users will have to manually install it from Sun.

Anyways if you had a version of Java that had a security hole in it then you could get this trojan.  The trojan reportedly can watch your keystrokes or find other ways to get passwords or other personal information. Supposedly over 600,000 Macs are infected.  This number is starting to get a little bit of a skeptical eye looking at it as it’s not conclusively Mac users included in this number but from best guesses it’s mostly Mac users.  Even at 600,000 it’s probably less than one half of one percent as the amount of Mac users in May 2010 was estimated at 94 million.

Apple has come out with a security patch in the Java system they provide (for now) so that if you apply this through your normal software updates you will be protected.

Another thing to keep in mind is this shouldn’t be classified as a virus or a trojan virus.  There are three separate classifications of malware out there for the most part they are virus, worm, and trojan.  Virus and worms can self replicate a trojan does not – it gets people to install it by acting as a legitimate program.  Most of the time you will only get a trojan by visiting a lesser legitimate site in the first place so you will likely not get it from going to Apple, Amazon, etc.

A lot of the latest news sites now say Macs users should wake up as this is proof they can get a virus where once experts said they could not.  This annoys me first of all because it’s not a virus, but more importantly I don’t remember anyone ever saying that.  Maybe some home user zealots could have said something like that but at most what anyone would have said is that Macs could be less susceptible to a virus.  This is probably still true but but not guaranteed forever.

Should you install Anti-virus software on your mac?  In the past another reason why it was nice to not have to load virus software on your Mac was so that you didn’t have to take a small hit on your performance like PC users have been dealing with for years.  If you are in a company it makes sense to install it to be safe and you don’t want to take any risks in a business setting.  As a home user it would still be a good idea if you feel like you might get tricked into one of these trojans and you don’t keep your software and security patches up to date.  Two virus programs that are free and seem to not bog down your computer too much are:

http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx

http://www.clamxav.com/

I am going to install Anti-Virus on my machine just so that I can stay informed if anything big actually starts hitting, but I have yet to see this trojan affect anyone that has tested their machine so far.

Hello, it’s been awhile since I have blogged.  I tend to prefer keeping up on the micro updates with Facebook and Twitter.  Business has been well and not a lot of time has gone into blogging but I felt that I could not go without sharing my thoughts on Steve Jobs passing.

First, a little of the history of my experience with Apple.  I remember clearly as a kid getting my first Apple II computer.  It was an Apple IIc with a monochrome monitor and a 5 1/4 floppy drive.  One of the first Apple computers Apple made.  This was back in the early 80′s when “personal computers” were first starting to come out and not a lot of people had them yet.  I owe a lot to my dad being a hobbyist and getting a computer and me having the opportunity to play on them growing up.

From there we gradually upgraded as Apple came out with new models.  I remember clearly one of my favorite computers was playing with the Apple IIgs (the first color computer Apple made) and all the cool – but simple – games and graphics things it could do.  I appreciated technical stuff and some basic language code programming, I even took apart some things, but for me it was more the big picture and whole experience that the Apple computers brought.

From there we migrated into the first Macintosh computers that came out and some of the first laptops that Apple made.  Basically I stayed an Apple fan through thick and thin.  I remember in the 90′s when many people thought Apple was going to go out of business and less and less people were considering getting an Apple computer.  I started my college studies in the late 90′s to early 00′s and decided to get a degree in IT.  Again I thought, I did not want to be a programmer.  I could do support stuff but it would likely have to be Windows support which I didn’t love.  My main plan was to go into computer networking.  But slowly the tide was starting to turn.  I remember clearly about Steve Jobs coming back to the company in 1998 and introducing the iMac.  Sure it was kind of a colorful computer and not always “manly”  but it was a radical idea and had a great operating system.  Apple was pushing back into the consumer market and getting people to buy a neat product that wasn’t a boring PC

Yes the tide was turning.  I also remember going to a developers conference and hearing the excitement about the first iPod coming out.  Really in my opinion that was one of the most revolutionary things to come out that Apple did and got them back on track.  As revolutionary as the walkman or the diskman.  It changed the way we portably listen to music and paved the way for the iPhone and iPad.  Along with this though Apple was starting to make great computers.  The Mac Pro tower, the newer iMacs, and of course their always great laptops.  This was exciting and more and more people were getting Macs again.

Of course the iPhone and the iPad has really pushed Apple over the edge to becoming a hugely successful company and has gotten people (that would never consider a Mac) to consider getting one now.  I get calls on a constant basis of small businesses wanting to switch over to Mac.

I started my Apple Consulting business back in 2004 full time and before then was not sure if there would be enough business to be a purely Apple person.  But it has grown since then and me and my customers have enjoyed the ride that Apple and Steve Jobs has brought to us.  Steve Jobs is partially responsibly for my livelihood today.  I am very sad he passed.  It’s hopefully a great rest for him now after battling cancer.  I also have confidence in the company Apple as it stands today and feel they will be on the right track for a very long time.  There are quite a few good men in there that can keep things going.

But yes Steve Jobs was visionary.  Of all the comparisons I like best is when he is compared to Walt Disney (which is apropos as I used to work at Disneyland also)  May we all remember his vision and hopefully it can help us in our lives also.

I sometimes get asked if I know anyone who does PC work.  With more Mac users considering using Parallels and loading Windows on, it brings a new level of dual computing on their machines.  I know enough Windows stuff to get along, but there are sometimes more complex issues that come up.  Or the customer might have some other PC’s in the office and don’t already have someone that they like working on them.

I have tried to find some good companies or people in the past that I can recommend but nothing has stood out.  Some recommendations have even brought forth complaints from the customer.  Is there no good PC consultants out there?  Do any PC guys live and breath the hardware and O.S. like us Mac fanatics do?  Or is it just a job for them?

If you are a PC consultant or know someone who is, please contact me.  But to recommend you I require you to have excellent customer service skills.  Knowledge is important also, but it is a close 2nd for me.  They also have to be able to have a good synergistic relationship with me and not bash Macs.  I do not bash PC’s when customers want them for the task they have at hand.  (I just prefer to use a Mac   Also they should not be afraid to troubleshoot windows issues under Parallels VM on the Mac.

As you may have heard by now Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) has now been released.  Snow Leopard brings upon us a very unique release of an operating system.  At first glance, it does not bring any new “whiz bang” features to the table, but upon further investigation this release in our opinion is one of the best operating system updates to have been released.  The best part is Apple has dramtically lowered the price of the operarting system to $29 per machine (or $499 for unlimited client license Server operating system)

Snow Leopard speeds up your computer in most cases and in all cases will free up some disk space.  In our tests it averages about 9 gig’s of extra disk space upon install.  Snow Leopard implements 64-bit processing as much as it can.  This means the ability to use memory more efficiently and process tasks.  Think of it as adding more lanes to the freeway so you will not get as many “bottlenecks”  There are also many behind the scenes and undocumented features that you will notice along the way that makes your day to day tasks better.

Snow Leopard Server also brings many speed enhancements to the table.  Wiki and ical server have been much improved in this release, and the addition of “push” features make it ready for prime time iphone instant up-to-date availability.

Snow Leopard only works on intel machines, so check to make sure you are not running a G5 or older, but all intel machines should eventually be upgraded to Snow Leopard.   We would suggest Server installs to wait a little bit to evaluate some outstanding bugs and fully test it out.  Desktop clients so far seem to be pretty reliable on Snow Leopard, so it’s a good time to start considering it.  As always the biggest thing to consider is evaluate what software is on your machine to make sure it will work with Snow Leopard.  Some software may need to updated to work well or at all with Snow Leopard.   We can help you through this process and install Snow Leopard for you.

Please let us know if you have any other questions about Snow Leopard, and have fun working on your Mac!

There has been a strange issue affecting some users starting today.  For those with or without the 3.0 update yet.  If your iPhone is not showing up in iTunes, go ahead and redownload iTunes and install it.  That should help.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

June is in full swing and now is the perfect time to spring clean your Mac before the temps warm up for good.   For example, did you know that programs get loaded up in the startup items over time just like a PC? (but to a much smaller extent)  This can cause your computer to slow down if you do not need them running all the time.   Another example is all those lovely icons on your desktop.  The more you have, the more processing it takes to show all those icons especially on an older computer.

Just like a car mechanic we can provide a multiple point inspection of your computer to check over it including looking at logs, running disk check utilities, checking over auto start programs, and give you general training on how to help keep it clean.  Not only that but we can help you backup your computer for free as long as you have an external Hard Drive.  An ounce of protection in the case of computers is definately worth the time and small cost compaired to the potentially thousands of dollars you can loose if it was to crash without a backup.

Have a happy summer, and remember to keep your computers up to date with any software updates that come out!

At KingsleyMac Consulting we pride ourselfs in being able to resolve most issues on site and the first time we stop by.  Occasionaly though there are issues that constitute a hardware repair that would be better handled by Apple directly, or times where we need to research out an issue that is either too new to know the answer to or may not have an answer yet due to some bug in the programming.  Apple provides a service called Applecare that customers can call if they are in warranty and need general help.  As an official Apple Consultant we can call Applecare on behalf of the client for their computer.  This can even be done on-site and we have a direct tie in to get high level support right away so that issues are solved quicker than if you were to call yourself.  What’s more is that even if your computer is out of warranty, in most cases we can call in for free to get troubleshooting taken care of.   This is just one more way that we can provide you the best service in Utah for your Apple Macintosh needs.

I will be attending Macworld this week from Jan 5-9 in San Francisco.  This wonderful event is where many new products, services, and ideas are presented for the first time for Mac enthusiasts around the world to see.  I often see a lot of great new things at the conference, therefore I will be updating my twitter page with cool things that I see.

Follow me at www.twitter.com/mckingsley

The latest Apple Security Update 2008-008 if applied when running Pro Tools 7.3.1 will cause it to break and not be able to open up anymore.  To get it working in the mean time:

Navigate to your Pro Tools Application in the Applications folder.

Right click on the App and choose, ‘Show Package Contents’

Open the Contents Folder, and then open the MacOS folder

Double click on the Pro Tools Icon that is in here.

This will bypass the regular opening of the program through the normal icon interface and open it as a unix executable.  You will have a Terminal window open in the background but you can ignore it and continue to use the program as normal.  Something in the latest security update must have broken the binding of opening the program the normal way.

Have you ever been confused with all the hype out there with “Media Servers” or ways to view movies and tv on your computer?  Xboxes, PS3, Windows Vista Media, etc?

Of course, from Apple we have the lovely AppleTV.  It is a great device, as I have on, and I recommend it to anyone.  It will do an excellent job of playing any video that you can get into itunes, and can even rent and buy movies and TV shows directly from the device.

Well what if you don’t want to pay for your TV shows and just want to watch them the way they view on regular TV with some commercials?  What if you have some video formats that are a type the AppleTV cannot play without converting (and loosing some quality in the process)  Boxee is a media player for your Mac that can solve many of these problems.  What I have noticed so far is the ability to play many different TV shows from CBS, ABC, WB, etc that they allow for streaming over the web – for free of course.  You can also play your Netflix instant viewable titles through it. You can also play youtube and other common online videos.  Of course you can also play pretty much any type of video file you may have on your hard drive including RIPed DVD’s.  But where this can really excel is if you have a Mac Mini – you can hook it up to an LCD screen and make it a media player and watch these things on a big screen.  Plus, boxee will even allow itself to be controlled by the apple remote, so it makes it that much more desirable to sit back and control.

Boxee can also be installed directly on an AppleTV to give it some extra features such as the TV show viewing.   It is in an “Alpha” state right now which means it still has to be worked on a bit before it is ready for prime time, but I have found most of it to be very stable.  They have a closed invite system right now, so if any of you want to check it out let me know.  Kingsley Macintosh Consulting can help you install this and set it up if you would like and we already have some clients that are getting ready to try it out.

Check it out at:

http://www.boxee.tv/