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Think wearable computers are only things Marty McFly can get ahold of? Think again, because Apple is apparently working on designs for wearable computers and has even gone as far as to create a few prototypes, just because they can. Multiple unnamed sources are claiming that a small team at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California are hard at work on these devices, as well as concepts for other wearable computer products.

The New York Times reports that Apple’s wearable computer concept will include devices that transmit data to your iPhone or display information on iPod screens. Apple is also said to be playing with the idea of a wrist watch-style iPod that has a curved glass surface along with a Siri voice control interface.

The curved glass surface idea began as a rumor in the beginning of 2011, though at the time it was also assumed that the glass was for the next generation iPhone. That rumor, however, quickly became debunked when the iPhone 4S was released with the exact same screen format as the previous iPhone 4. Though, maybe the rumor isn’t false and is simply referring to the iPhone 5?

It seems likely that Apple is working on new designs and accessories for these wearable computers since iPods, iPads and iPhones are already extremely portable. Wearable devices seem like the next logical step for Apple though the sources are saying that just because Apple has prototypes does not mean we will be seeing these devices anytime soon.

Regardless, Apple is already teasing consumers with wearable tech with the iPod Shuffle and the new version of the iPod Nano. The new iteration of the Nano includes a lot of watch faces and some companies have even made wrist bands specifically designed to hold the iPod like a standard wristwatch.

Nevertheless, the mere thought of Apple bringing together the iPhone, wireless data technology and Siri onto a single, wearable device is definitely exciting and something that many people are praying the company is actually serious about bringing to life. I just hope they find a way to recreate the hoverboard from Back to the Future. If there is a company alive today that can do so, it is definitely Apple.

Source: The Mac Observer – Apple Working on Wearable Computer Prototypes

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Sparrow, which was previously updated with CloudApp integration and pull-to-refresh with its latest version 1.4 update, has reached an all-new milestone at Apple. This morning marked the release of version 1.5, an update that allows Sparrow to continually integrate Gmail natively with optional loading for remote images and token-based searching for messages.

One new thing that comes with version 1.5 is Dropbox integration. Dropbox integration uploads large attachments to Dropbox as an alternative to CloudApp. If you would rather use Dropbox instead of CloudApp, you can go to the Services tab in the preferences to choose your option. You will have to log out of CloudApp first if you plan on switching to Dropbox and if you upload an attachment that is larger than 25MB, Sparrow will automatically choose Dropbox over CloudApp.

Gmail users should be familiar with the yellow bar located above their email messages that asks whether or not you would like remote images to be loaded into the document. Sparrow also now includes similar functionality like this to protect you from Spam or unknown senders and allows you to choose whether to always show messages from a particular sender or to only show images when requested.

Last, but certainly not least, Sparrow users will notice search tokens are useful for isolating labels and finding specific messages. Gmail’s powerful shortcuts have also been brought over to Sparrow in the same way as tokens in mail with one difference. Tokens can be specific to message statuses, labels, if a message is flagged, etc… Tokens are very easy to use as well. All you have to do is type a keyword, select a specifier and press the tab key to continue adding keywords.

Sparrow 1.5 continues to add functionality to one of the better email clients on the market today for the Mac. You can get the full version of the client on the Mac App Store for $9.99, or you can try out a free lite version from the client’s website.

Source: MacStories – Sparrow 1.5 Hits the Mac App Store with Dropbox Integration and Search Tokens

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A global shortage of traditional, spinning hard disk drives (HDDs) has, coincidentally, come at a time when Apple’s flash-based solid-state MacBook Air is one of Apple’s most popular products. The large success of the redesigned netbook has come with “fortuitous timing” in the face of HDD shortages according to Evercore analyst Rob Chira. Chira believes that Apple is largely insulated from the ongoing component constraints that were caused by flooding in Thailand.

The MacBook Air only features NAND flash for storage, primarily relying on solid-state hard drives as opposed to the more traditional spinning hard disks. NAND memory has been completely unaffected by the floods in Thailand, events that have since put over 600,000 people out of work.

In addition to his previous statement, Chira also believes that the ongoing hard-drive shortage will create an influx of MacBook Air copycat Windows-based devices also using solid-state drives in 2012. Specifically, Chira sees PC makers gravitating towards Intel’s ultrabook design specification, which aims to capitalize on the popularity of Apple’s thin-and-light MacBook Air concept.

However, Chira expects Apple to counter this by refreshing its Air lineup in the first half of 2012 and also believes that Apple’s hoard of money will also allow it to leverage “some unique NAND engineering/supply vs. vanilla (solid-state drives).”

Recent rumors have also hinted at the possibility of Apple adding a 15″ model to its MacBook Air lineup in the early parts of 2012 and that the company is supposedly looking to expand its lineup as the ultraportable notebooks now represent 28% of Apple’s notebook shipments.

As far as Chira is concerned, Apple is in a strong position concerning Macs featuring traditional hard drives as well. He believes that Apple was the fastest hardware maker to react with hard-drive suppliers, putting the company in an advantageous position in the chain of supply.

This opinion also comes a matter of days after AppleInsider reported that build-to-order iMacs with 2TB hard drives had an estimated shipping time of 5 to 7 weeks. The shortage of high-capacity drives for Apple’s all-in-one machine could also be the first sign that the company is indeed being hit by the global shortage as well.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, recently expressed concern about the hard drive shortage during his company’s quarterly earnings conference back in October. While Cook was “certain” there would be an industry-wide shortage of hard-disk drives, Cook said he was “not sure” at the time of exactly how the situation would affect Apple.

Source: Apple Insider – Apple’s MacBook Air has ‘fortuitous timing’ in face of hard drive shortage

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Apple continues to break records as the company’s share of the worldwide PC market has reached a 15-year high. The company’s popular Mac computer has reached 5.2%  of worldwide computer sales, a number that is a 15-year high for the tech giant out of Cupertino, California. News of this accomplishment comes by way of a report from Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf.

Even though 5.2% is only a very small percentage of the overall computer space in the world, it is a very important benchmark for Apple, who has been trying to obtain market share from other major computer makers, including companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and even Acer. Wolf added that Mac shipment growth in the third quarter managed to outpace the total PC market for the 22nd straight quarter by a margin of 24.6% at 5.3%.

In the home segment, the growth of Apple’s Mac was 25.6%  as opposed to the 4% recorded by the overall market. Among businesses, Mac’s increase of 43.8% outpaced the wider market’s 4.8% by a staggering margin. Wolf also stated that Asia Pacific represented the fastest-growing geographic region for Apple with 57.2% growth for the quarter, something also noted by AppleInsider.

In a statement from Wolf, the analyst stated, “The growth of Apple’s sales in China represent a perfect storm between an iconic brand and a rapidly growing middle class that’s more brand-conscious than consumers in most other regions of the world.”

This benchmark probably has more significance now than it would have as Apple is still mourning the loss of co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. With Jobs’ passing, the company will be eager to put the claim that when Jobs died, Apple died with it to rest.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald – Apple’s worldwide share of PC market reaches 15-year high

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Greenpeace just released its newest “Guide to Greener Electronics”. Now, you may be asking yourself what this has to do with Apple? Well, according to the guide, the global environmental group has ranked Steve Jobs’ legacy the fourth greenest company among worldwide device makers. That’s right, the maker of the iPad, iPad and iPhone broke the top five!

The poll ranked 15 different companies across three different categories: energy, greener products and sustainable operations. In addition to that, the report also challenges these 15 companies to reduce their carbon footprint in a plethora of areas and to also set “ambitious” goals for renewable energy.

Apple received a total score of 4.6 out of 10, which landed the company in the fourth spot. While Apple enthusiasts would prefer the company to be higher, this position is five places higher than where Apple ranked in the last Greenpeace report. Apple got high marks in sustainable operations while ranking poorly on energy.

Greenpeace has stated that it believes Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions data needs external verification and also criticized the fact that the company has not yet specified any target to reduce emissions. However, Greenpeace also gave Apple some credit for the company’s improved energy efficiency and use of renewable energy.

While energy was Apple’s lowest point, the sustainable operations category was particularly strong for the company. Greenpeace again gave credit to the company for exceeding its own goals in global recycling in 2010 and also ranked Apple as a top scorer for policies and practices on the sourcing of conflict materials.

In addition to that, Apple also had a very strong showing in the products section with all of Apple’s devices being free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants. Apple also received maximum points for reporting that all of the company’s products meet or exceed the latest Energy Star standards for energy efficiency.

Source: Apple Insider – Apple ranks fourth on Greenpeace’s ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’

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An interesting bit of news came out of Apple recently as the company sent out an email to registered developers that is definitely going to raise some eyebrows. As of March 2012, Apple will require all apps submitted to the company’s app store to implement sandboxing. However, this isn’t an entirely new development as Apple was originally going to require sandboxing starting in November of this year. It appears as if Apple delayed the initiation of the rule for another few months, though the fact that the requirement will exist at all may pose problems for some Mac developers.

Many people are wondering what is prompting this action from Apple and the answer is security. According to the company in a recent statement, “Sandboxing your app is a great way to protect systems and users by limiting the resources apps can access and making it more difficult for malicious software to compromise users’ systems. As of March 1, 2012 all apps submitted to the Mac App Store must implement sandboxing.” While the company’s intentions are noble, the all-or-nothing approach is potentially problematic for sure.

Over recent months, a plethora of some of the biggest developers in the app world have been pointing out the flaws and shortcomings of Apple’s sandboxing approach. These include a buggy Carbon implementation as well as questionable support for most AppleScript-centric automation tools. Other big names in the app community, like Jason Snell and Andy Ihnatko, have also chipped in their two cents with both parties concerned that sandboxing may eventually lead to a dumbing down of the Mac App Store options or the death of AppleScript entirely.

On a lighter note, Apple does allow for a few exceptions to its upcoming sandboxing policy. According to the company, “If your app requires access to sandboxed system resources, you will need to include justification for using those entitlements as part of the submission to the Mac App Store.” However, Apple did follow this up with some bad news saying, “Apps that are being re-engineered to be sandbox compatible may request additional temporary entitlements. These entitlements are granted on a short-term basis and will be phased out over time.”

However, it may do everybody some good to look at the fact that unlike the iOS platform, the Mac App Store is not the only legitimate platform to get apps onto your Mac computer. On the other hand, that probably doesn’t do much for developers who have found the Mac App Store an easier and more lucrative channel for app distribution as opposed to the conventional methods. But then again, who knows how long it will be before Apple restricts all apps on Mac devices to go through the Mac App Store and not another platform?

With all that said, this policy is a bit extreme, much like the rule of “no third-party IDEs” for the iOS platform Apple made last year. This policy also seems to be more like something a committee created that seemed like a good idea at the time. However, it will more likely than not be modified or deprecated once the real-world implications for the Mac platform become evident. The simple fact that Apple has already delayed the launch of the rule by five months indicates that Apple may be working on further reprieves or workarounds for developers with affected products.

Source: TUAW – Apple to require sandboxing in Mac App Store apps as of March 2012

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Apple has just released a very massive security update for Mac OS X as well as a new version of the company’s operating system. However, according to multiple sources, installing the patches may cause your computer to crash and become unbootable.

This new update, known as the Mac OS X Security Update 2011-006, addresses over 70 vulnerabilities found in core components as well as third-party products bundled by default with the operating system. A majority of these flaws have the highest severity rating assigned to them and could result in arbitrary code execution via a remote attack vector.

Two security issues were patched in the Mac OS X kernel with one being patched in CoreStorage, two more in CoreMedia and others in CoreProcesses, CoreFoundation, CFNetwork and the application firewall. Apple is also playing catch-up in terms of security with this update with multiple third-party software packages providing important functionality like Apache HTTPD, BIND, PHP, Tomcat, Mailman, Python and libpng.

One of Apple’s central applications, QuickTime, was also updated with this release, addressing eleven separate vulnerabilities. However, some of these vulnerabilities only affect OS X Snow Leopard. However, even with all the benefits that come with the new update, Apple users should be very cautious about installing it as doing so could result in some more serious problems.

According to a Twitter post by security researcher Dragos Ruiu, “Apple OS X Security Update makes macbook kernel panic at boot.” Ruiu later confirmed that other users have experienced the same problem , more specifically on systems with Lion/Snow Leopard dual-boot configurations. Ruiu added, “If you have two or more os partition on mbp (MacBook Pro) it breaks.”

In addition to Ruiu, Senior Technology Consultant Graham Cluley from Sophos, a Mac OS antivirus provider, reported installation problems with the newly released iOS 5 mobile OS. Cluley was unable to confirm boot issues for Mac OS X but did advise users to postpone updating if they believe that they may be infected.

Source: Computer World – Mac OS X security update causes crashes, say experts

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Many of you remember when malware, known as BlackHole or MusMinim, was discovered by security company Sophos for Mac OS X. If you don’t remember, BlackHole is a backdoor server program Remote Access Tool (RAT) that runs on an infected system and allows a remote user(s) to interact with the system.

The user can then issue shutdown commands, display screen messages, open URLs or request usernames and passwords. In simpler terms, this is similar to a remote desktop utility that is not distributed for productive purposes.

Unlike more recent attempts at getting malware on Mac OS X that attempt to keep hidden and steal a user’s information automatically, BlackHole isn’t very discreet and requires a remote user to actively interact with the system.

That is why many security experts classify it more as a prank or “annoyware” as opposed to malware. Despite that, though, it can still be used for the purpose of stealing information and was not developed as a legitimate piece of software, which technically classifies it as malware.

It does appear as if the developer of BlackHole is refining the malware as Sopho has just released new definitions on a third variant of the malware. When new malware is discovered, definitions of it are usually labeled alphabetically in order to differentiate its variants.

Even though this malware is in no way as volatile as the MacDefender malware and its variants, it does show that even seemingly old malware can be tweaked at any time. Despite the development, there really is nothing new and it presents a very low risk to Mac users.

If you do happen to come across this malware on your Mac, it is advisable that you remove it as soon as possible, if only to be better safe than sorry.

Source: CNET – Sophos tackles new BlackHole RAT malware variant for OS X

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Apple recently released some firmware updates on Wednesday for the latest Mac Mini and MacBook Pro model computers. This firmware update was released to address issues with Lion Internet Recovery as well as Thunderbolt connectivity on both the Mac Mini and MacBook Pro.

Just like the most recent MacBook Air update, which took place on Monday, EFI Firmware Update 1.3, which is for mid-2011 Mac Mini models, offers increased stability enhancements for Lion Internet Recovery as well as an issue fix involving Apple Thunderbolt Display compatibility and performance in Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode.

The MacBook Pro’s patch, known as EFI Firmware Update 2.2, provides similar fixes. However, unlike the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro doesn’t ship with Internet Recovery. The good news is that this update appears to enable the use of Internet Recovery on the device. Internet Recovery allows you to get support and re-install Lion via the internet without a physical Lion Recovery partition in the event of a hard drive crash.

If you want to update your MacBook Pro or Mac Mini computer, all you have to do is download the firmware update from Apple’s support website. After you do that, you will want to have your MacBook Pro or Mac Mini connected to a power source. Your computer will then reboot to a gray screen in order to install the update. You will then be able to track the progress using a status bar at the bottom of the screen.

Source: Computer World – Apple provides firmware updates for MacBook Pros, Mac minis

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