HACKERS CAN CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD IN LION OS X

Security blog Defense in Depth via CNET has found a glaring security flaw in OS X Lion that enables hackers to change the password of any user on a machine running Lion. “[While] non-root users are unable to access the shadow files directly, Lion actually provides non-root users the ability to still view password hash data,” Patrick Dunstan from Defense in Depth explained in a recent blog post. The result is that anyone could use a simple Python script, created by Dunstan himself, to discover a user’s password. It gets worse. Reportedly, OS X Lion does not require its users to enter a password to change the login credentials of the current user. That means typing the command: “dscl localhost -passwd /Search/Users/Roger” will actually prompt you to set a new password for Roger.

As CNET points out, a hacker could only take advantage of the known bug if he or she has local access to the computer and Directory Service access. CNET suggests disabling automatic log-in, enabling sleep and screensaver passwords and disabling guest accounts as some preventative measures to keep your Mac secure.

APPLE RELEASES OS X LION UPDATE

Apple on Tuesday released OS X Lion 10.7.1 to Mac users. According to Apple it

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

• Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
• Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
• Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
• Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4764.

The update can be downloaded immediately from the OS X update utility.

APPLE'S OS X LION DOWNLOADED OVER 1 MILLION TIMES ON LAUNCH DAY

Apple’s OS X Lion was downloaded more than 1 million times during its first day of availability, Apple said on Thursday. The Cupertino-based company made the announcement just as Microsoft announced its earnings results for the fiscal fourth quarter — merely a coincidence, we’re sure.

Presuming these were paid OS X purchases and upgrades, Apple grossed more than $30 million from Lion in just one day. “Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, in a statement. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.”

LEAK: APPLE PLANNING OVERNIGHT SHIFT FOR OS X LION LAUNCH

Apple has reportedly scheduled overnights for Tuesday night in preparation for the OS X Lion launch. According to 9to5 Mac, Apple Store outlets are already equipped with hard drives to quickly install Lion on the show floor computers, and the stores have been sent new posters to outfit the walls with advertisements for the new operating system.

Apple is also expected to refresh the MacBook Air in the imminent future, however it will not be tomorrow. We’re expecting the new notebooks to pack the Thunderbolt I/O port in place of DisplayPort, Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, and a backlit keyboard.

MAC OS X LION COMING IN JULY

Apple announced that the next major update to Mac OS X, Lion 10.7, will be available for purchase and download exclusively through the Mac App Store in July for just $29. OS X 10.7 Lion features over 250 new updates to the OS including Mission Control, Launchpad, full-screen apps, Auto Save, Resume, and much more.

Press Release:

Mac OS X Lion With 250 New Features Available in July From Mac App Store

SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2011—Apple® today announced that Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps. All Mac notebooks ship with Multi-Touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Full screen apps take advantage of the entire display and are perfect for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos, especially on a MacBook Air® or MacBook® Pro. With a single click your app fills the display and you can swipe from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to your Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces® without ever leaving full screen. iWork® and iLife® apps, as well as Safari®, iTunes®, Mail, FaceTime® and others, all take advantage of Lion’s system-wide support for full screen apps.

Mission Control combines Exposé®, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into one unified experience for a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.

The Mac App Store is built into Lion and is the best place to discover great new Mac apps, buy them with your iTunes account, download and install them. Apps automatically install directly to Launchpad, and with Lion’s release, the Mac App Store will be able to deliver smaller “delta” app updates and new apps that can take advantage of features like In-App Purchase and Push Notifications.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single Multi-Touch gesture, all your Mac apps are displayed in a stunning full screen layout. You can organize apps in any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes a completely redesigned Mail app with an elegant widescreen layout. The new Conversations feature groups related messages into an easily scrollable timeline, intelligently hiding repeated text so the conversation is easy to follow, and retaining graphics and attachments as they were originally sent. An incredibly powerful new search feature allows you to refine your search and suggests matches by person, subject and label as you type. Mail includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Additional new features in Lion include:

Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work;
Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions; and
AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.
Pricing & Availability Mac OS X Lion will be available in July as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US). Lion will be the easiest OS X upgrade and at about 4GB, it is the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and will be available in July from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorized personal Macs.

The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.

APPLE'S WWDC 2011 TO START JUNE 6TH

It's five days of developer love in sunny San Francisco, and this year it starts on June 6th. As ever, Moscone West will be hosting Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, and this year we'll be seeing "the future of iOS and Mac OS" along with "more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers." Last time Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4 to a very willing world at large. Could its successor make an appearance this year?

APPLE'S OS X LION FEATURES UNCOVERED

The next iteration of Apple's desktop OS X, Lion, is scheduled for release sometime this summer. A just released developers preview gives a good idea of what Apple has been working on for this version.

On Apple's website, the company detailed Lion's improved support for multi-touch gestures using a trackpad. In addition to more ways to swipe, pinch, zoom, and more, one notable change is that scrolling now works as it does on iOS devices—drag down on the trackpad to scroll down, drag up to scroll up—complete with "rubber-band" effects at the end of scrollable areas. This is in contrast to all previous versions of Mac OS X, where dragging down scrolls up and vice versa.

Apple also previously mentioned auto-save and auto-resume features last fall, but didn't go into much detail about them. Now we know that apps updated for Lion will gain the ability to autosave all documents as changes are made. Documents can be locked to prevent inadvertent changes, and Apple said that documents will be "auto-locked" after two weeks. Lion also includes automatic file versioning, saving the state of a document every hour it is open and allowing you to step back to any previous state in a graphical Time Machine-like experience. You can go back through previous versions to revert to a previous state or copy and paste data from an older version into the current one.

Apps updated for Lion also gain the ability to automatically save state whenever they quit. When reopened, the application appears as it did when quit, including any open documents and windows. Lion can also automatically resume any open applications whenever you need to log out or reboot. This is especially useful for getting back up and running after performing an OS update, for instance, lessening the pain of lost productivity and increasing the likelihood that important updates get installed instead of ignored.

Apple also disclosed three major new feature additions for Lion on Thursday. One is that Lion will include a new version of Mail that uses a vertical list of e-mails on the left and a full message view on the right, à la iPad. Apple says this new layout works better for widescreen displays and many users of plug-ins for previous versions of Mail that re-arrange the panes in this way would likely agree.

Lion will also include a new file-sharing feature called "AirDrop." AirDrop allows you to view a list of logged-in users of compatible Macs connected to the same network. To transfer a file to any user, you can just drag-and-drop a file to their name in the list, transferring it directly to that user's Downloads folder. If a logged in user is in your address book, you'll see their contact photo, making it easier to identify the right target on a crowded network.

However, the most surprising revelation from Apple is that Mac OS X Server will no longer be a separate product. Mac OS X Lion will include all the necessary serversbits and easy configuration to set up any Mac as a server. It includes all the usual server services, such as user and group management, push notifications, file sharing, calendaring, mail, contacts, chat, Time Machine, VPN, web, and wiki services. A new "Profile Manager" will enable easier set up and management of Mac OS X and iOS devices, integrating with existing directory services. Lion's WebDAV services will automatically allow iPad users to share files remotely, and Lion will also include an updated version of Wiki Server.

MAC APP STORE LIVE; OS X 10.6.6 AVAILABLE

Apple's new Mac App store is now live.  It is similar to the iOS App store, except for the laptop/desktop crowd.  The store comes bundled with OS X 10.6.6, which is available now.  There are over 1,000 free and paid apps available, with that number increasing daily.  The update is 151.2MB in size.   The release text states:

The Mac OS X 10.6.6 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. It also includes the Mac App Store, the best way to discover and buy new apps for your Mac. The Mac App Store, a new application you’ll find in the Dock, includes the following features:

• Discover Mac apps: Browse featured apps, top charts, and categories, or search for something specific. Read detailed app descriptions and user reviews, and flip through screen shots.
• Buy and install: Easily purchase apps with your iTunes account. Apps install in one step and are quickly available from the Dock.
• App updates: The Mac App Store keeps track of all your purchased apps and notifies you when free updates are available.

To learn more about the Mac App Store, visit: http://www.apple.com/mac/app-store.
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4459.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

MACBOOK AIR BUGS ADDRESSED IN OS X 10.6.5

Earlier this month, BGR reported Apple was working on fixes for a string of troublesome MacBook Air bugs. The issues were widespread, and they involved a variety of problems with display flickering, fading and discoloration when affected notebooks woke from sleep. Internal documents revealed by BGR suggested that the problems would be addressed by an upcoming software update and as expected, OS X 10.6.5 appears to have resolved the bugs described in those documents. Apple also issued a new support document on the matter. While Apple’s description of the issues does not appear to encompass all of the problems reported earlier this month, we have confirmed with several affected users that these bugs no longer occur on their devices. [BGR]

APPLE RELEASES MAC OS X 10.6.5

Apple released version 10.6.5 of its operating system OS X for the Mac. Fixes and improvements include:

• improve reliability with Microsoft Exchange servers
• address performance of some image-processing operations in iPhoto and Aperture
• address stability and performance of graphics applications and games
• resolve a delay between print jobs
• address a printing issue for some HP printers connected to an AirPort Extreme
• resolve an issue when dragging contacts from Address Book to iCal
• address an issue where dragging an item from a stack causes the Dock to not automatically hide
• resolve an issue with Wikipedia information not displaying correctly in Dictionary
• improve performance of MainStage on certain Mac systems
• resolve spacing issues with OpenType fonts
• improve reliability with some Bluetooth braille displays
• resolve a VoiceOver issue when browsing some web sites with Safari 5

This is the first in a three step process of software releases this week. iTunes and iOS 4.2 are anticipated to hit this week as well. [BGR]

RUMOR: APPLE iOS 4.2 COMING FRIDAY WITHOUT AIRPRINT

According to MacStories, who cite an AT&T source, iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad will roll out beginning this Friday, November 12, at 10AM PST. Of course, in order to take advantage AirPlay we'll have to see an update to iTunes as well, which is good because iTunes 10.1 is rumored to be coming tomorrow at some point.

MacStories is also reporting references to AirPrint have been disappearing from online documentation in the iOS developer center, leading to speculation that Mac OS X 10.6.5 (also rumored to hit tomorrow) will not have the ability to print wirelessly after all. [Engadget]

APPLE HOLDING 'BACK TO THE MAC' EVENT OCTOBER 20TH

It is time of the annual Mac event held by Apple.  This year's theme will be 'Back to the Mac'.  This event will definitely cover hardware, so a new iMac is probably going to be debuted along with new MacBooks.  Rumor has it the iMac will get a touchscreen display.

Software won't be left out and we expect to see new iLife software introduced as well.  Apple has intimated they will discuss the next version of OS X.

TGG will post a wrap up of the event as soon as possible, so come back next Wednesday to see the highlights. [Engadget]