July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Apple wasn’t clear yesterday about which Macs will run its new desktop operating system, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, but it looks like current Mac owners won’t have to worry too much.

Judging from a test version of OS X Mavericks released to developers yesterday, it will run on just about every Mac that can run last year’s OS X Mountain Lion, AppleInsider reports. That means you’re in the clear if you have a Mac from 2008 or later.

Developers tell the site that Mavericks will work with these specific Mac models:

• iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

It’s not unusual for Apple to leave behind older Macs when upgrading OS X, especially one that seems to have so many fundamental improvements. Mavericks adds a slew of power-saving features, tabs and tags for the Finder, and some interesting twists on multiple display support, among its many other features. As Apple describes it, Mavericks should be able to help your existing Mac laptops get better battery life (in one demo, we saw the CPU load from a processor-intensive website completely disappear when its browser window was placed in the background).

While Mavericks seems like a nice incremental upgrade, I’m left wondering when Apple will finally break out of the OS X cycle. With Windows 8, Microsoft has bet on touchscreens in a big way. And even though Apple pushed touchscreens to the mainstream with the iPhone and iPad, we still don’t have any sense of how the company will tackle touchscreens on laptops.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

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Talk about irony: With the latest version of Bluestacks’ mobile app player, Mac users will be able to run just about any Android app — even though Apple fans still have no method for running iOS apps on OS X.

Bluestacks is today releasing a free beta version of its mobile app player on Macs, which lets Mac users download and install every Android app on the Google Play store. A previous version of Bluestacks for Macs only ran a few preinstalled Android apps.

The company’s Windows client for running Android apps landed last March, and it has been installed on more than five million Windows PCs so far.

Bluestacks’ virtualizes Android to run the platform’s mobile apps, similar to how VMWare lets you run a virtualized version of desktop operating systems. The company calls its patent-pending virtualization technology Layercake, and it’s also partnered up with Asus and AMD to bring Android apps to their devices.

While most people probably aren’t clamoring to run mobile apps on their desktops, Bluestacks is useful for those rare occasions where you need to run an app with no desktop equivalent. For example, there’s currently no way to use Instagram without an iOS or Android device. I haven’t had a chance to test out Bluestacks’ Mac player yet, but I found its Windows sibling to be fast and seamless.

The Campbell, Calif.-based BlueStacks has raised $15 million so far from Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Venture Management, Citrix Systems, and others.

Image via Rob Bumahn/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Apple is reportedly gearing up to move the production lines of its Mac Mini computer to the U.S., along with its manufacturing partner Foxconn, according to Digitimes.

While Digitimes has had a rocky history with Apple rumors (mainly because it reports every single thing it hears), this news makes a lot of sense. Mac Mini shipments are on the rise, after climbing more than 40 percent this year to around 1.4 million units. It’s also quickly becoming a powerful little device: This year’s Mac Mini upgrade includes an option for a fast quad-core Intel Core i7 processor running at 2.3 gigahertz.

Apple announced earlier this month that it will spend more than $100 million to bring some Mac production back to the U.S. next year, but it didn’t specify which models would get the special treatment. Previous speculation pointed to the Mac Pro, Apple’s massive desktop, though that model hasn’t received a major design upgrade in some time (and it’s been overshadowed for years by innovations in Apple’s iMac and MacBook lines). It makes more sense for Apple to focus on a device that’s on the rise for its triumphant U.S. return instead of one that’s on the decline.

Digitimes notes that Mac Mini shipments are expected to rise another 30 percent in 2013 to 1.8 million.

While desktops are falling out of fashion, an inexpensive and tiny computer like the Mac Mini could end up being a worthy alternative for many. It’s already packing a fast processor — now all Apple needs to do is give it better graphics capabilities to satisfy gamers and media professionals.

Mountain Lion, Apple’s latest Mac operating system, may be released to the public within the next 48 hours. The company seemingly accidentally opened the Up-to-Date portal this morning that allows those with Macs bought on or after June 11 to request a free upgrade.

As CNET notes, the portal has since been taken down after people started submitting their requests for Mountain Lion. Apple promised those who purchased Macs on or after June 11 that they would get Mountain Lion for free, while those with older computers with OS X Lion installed can upgrade for $19.99.

When Mountain Lion was debuted at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, the company also announced the operating system would “ship” in July. Well, Apple only has eight more days in July to push the OS out, and many expect it will announce its arrival this Tuesday on its earnings call. Indeed, during Apple’s 2011 third quarter earnings call, the company announced that OS X Lion would be released the following day.

Mountain Lion will come with 200 new features total, including an updated version of Apple’s browser Safari, support for Twitter, voice dictation, a notification center, and iMessage, the messaging system that allows those with iOS devices to effectively text for free.

Last quarter, the company  sold four million new macs. At WWDC, Apple said that six million people overall use Macs, 40 percent of whom run OS X Lion, the latest operating system available to date.

Check back Tuesday for full coverage of Apple’s earnings call, including whether the company releases OS X Mountain Lion.

Photo via Heather Kelly for VentureBeat

We’ve heard so much about the Mac Flashback Trojan in the last month, but what is its goal? Turns out it’s financial gain (who knew) in the form of ad revenue.

Security researchers at Symantec have found that the Flashback Trojan downloaded an “ad-clicking component” through a Java vulnerability. From there, it would hijack clicks on ads through Google. You know the links that show up in a yellow box at the top of your Google search query? Yeah, those make the search giant a ton of money. Ninety-six percent of Google’s overall revenue comes from advertising revenue through its search engine and other advertising programs. And when your revenue sits at $37.9 billion for 2011, cyber criminals have an incentive to steal some of that.

The people behind the Flashback Trojan may have been making up to $10,000 a day, according to Symantec. They did this by infecting the Mac’s browsers (Firefox, Chrome, or Safari). The Trojan then waited until someone searched for something on Google and clicked on an ad. From there it redirected the user to a site of its choosing, getting in between Google and the advertising click, and eventually collecting the revenue from that click.

Symantec looked at a search query for “toys” made on an infected machine.

“We can clearly see a value of 0.8 cents for the click and the redirection URL highlighted in red. This redirected URL is subsequently written into the browser so that the user is now directed to the new site, in effect hijacking the ad click Google should have received,” Symantec wrote in a blog post. “Considering the Flashback Trojan measures in the hundreds of thousands, this figure could sharply rise to the order of $10,000 per day.”

The Flashback Trojan enters a computer through a hole in Java, which Apple has since patched.

Trojan image via Shutterstock

Apple released a second update to its form of Java today that will clean up “the most common variants” of the Flashback Trojan affecting Mac computers.

The Java update will not only clean up these variants, but will also disable automatic execution of Java applets. You can turn these back on in the preferences tab. If no applets are run in a certain amount of time, however, the Java plug-in will re-disable automatic executive of Java applets. Prior to this update, Apple had patched the hole in Java, but hadn’t yet released a way to get rid of the virus. Get the update here.

Yesterday security company F-Secure released its own tool for cleaning up the Trojan. To use F-Secure’s tool, all you have to do is download a zip file found here, unzip it and follow the instructions. The program will then both identify and quarantine the virus — if it’s present on your machine — into a password protected file. From there, it will give you instructions how to remove the Trojan. F-Secure chief research officer Mikko Hypponen noted his surprise that Apple had not created its own cleaner in a blog post on the tool.

The Flashback Trojan enters computers through infected websites. When a user visits the infected website, they are prompted to download a browser plug-in, such as Flash, in order to see more content. When they download the “plug-in,” the malware accesses a hole in Apple’s customized version of Java and thereby gain access to the computer.

Users are easily tricked into downloading the malware because asking people to download a plug-in is common practice on the Internet. It’s hard to decipher between a legitimate request (especially when a website you trust is infected) and malware.

Flashback has reportedly only hit around 600,000 Mac computers, but the surprise comes from those who believed Macs were impervious to the virus. Indeed, Macs are vulnerable to attack, but given the high proliferation of Windows computers, it is more profitable for the hacker to target that mass market.

hat tip MacRumors; Janitors image via Shutterstock

Intel will likely debut its much-anticipated Ivy Bridge processors — which offer energy efficiency while still being powerful — on April 23, according to a Digitimes report.

The report contradicts news we heard in February that Intel would push back the debut of Ivy Bridge until June. It’s possible that Intel has changed its timeline to make way for a staggered rollout that will start this month and go wide in June.

PC manufacturers including Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, Sony, Toshiba and HP will likely incorporate Ivy Bridge processors into their second-generation ultrabook laptops starting in May. And there’s word that Apple will be soon release a new version of the MacBook Pro, which could use Ivy Bridge chips as well. Apple’s iMac computers will almost certainly get Ivy Bridge eventually.

On top of energy-efficiency, Ivy Bridge prioritizes strong graphics and multimedia processing. It’s also the first Intel chip to support USB 3.0 and incorporate 3D transistors.

Processor image: iDesign/Shutterstock

The iPad might not be the only Apple product to get a gorgeous new Retina Display upgrade.

The latest developer release of Apple’s operating system OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion indicated that some Mac computers will upgraded with Retina Displays. The dev release hints at support for double-sized graphics within some OS X applications, which would make them ready for a higher-resolution display, according to an Ars Technica report.

For those not privy to why the Retina Display is a big deal, then let me explain: It’s Apple’s marketing term for a high-density pixel screen that displays images better than the human eye can perceive. Just like with the new iPad, a Retina Display on a Mac would put your HDTV to shame, and would also allow the macs to support full 1080p HD video.

However, finding double-sized image support in apps isn’t exactly new. For instance, Apple’s beta version of its new native instant messaging application Messages also contained support for high-resolution images.

More realistically, Apple could be trying to future-proof its developer community. The company’s strategy is leaning towards making the experience within OS X and its mobile operating system iOS more similar. In doing so, Apple may try to guide developers to create one application that can be optimized for whatever device its used on. (Obviously, that might not be true for all applications, but certainly for simple apps such as Twitter’s desktop client).

The other problem with higher-res displays on PCs is that they also make text look tiny. But given that Apple was able to squeeze a Retina Display into the new iPad without changing its text formatting, the company can likely optimize its fonts for larger resolutions.

If Macs do gain a pretty new Retina Display, we’re likely to see them when Mountain Lion is released to the public this summer. As for which Macs will get the upgraded screen, I wouldn’t bet on anything larger than 15-inches. That cancels out all iMacs and the 17-inch Macbook Pro.

My guess is that Apple will probably put a Retina Display on the Macbook Air first, or perhaps to an upgraded slimmer 13- and 15-inch line of Macbook Pros.

New information from Apple’s recently launch Messages Beta application for OS X may indicate that the company plans to upgrade its line of Mac computers with a beautiful Retina Display.

The Retina Display offers a much better screen resolution for displaying images, HD video, and more. It’s currently only used on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, but we have heard rumors that the next generation iPad will also sport a Retina Display.

The reason some think Mac computers will also get the Retina Display treatment has to do with the iOS-like “@2x modifier” support for images within the developer resources of Apple’s Messages Beta app, according to Macrumors. On Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, developers can use this to enable high-pixel density images to take full advantage of the Retina Display.

I’m a bit skeptical of Apple adding a Retina Display to any of its Macs, if not only because the company just released a new $999 27-inch Thunderbolt Display with a 2560-by-1440 screen resolution. Giving Macs a Retina Display would make them superior to the Thunderbolt Display’s screen. However, if Apple did decide to go this route I’d expect the only model to get the Retina Display treatment would be the MacBook Air. A better screen may help some consumers justify the higher price of the Air over other MacBooks. At the same time, the Air wouldn’t cannibalize sales of Apple’s MacBook Pro, iMac, or Thunderbolt Display.

But putting that aside, this information could have something to do with Apple’s initiative to bring its main operating system more in line with iOS. Since the full release of Messages isn’t due out until the release of Mountain Lion OS X, it’s possible that Apple is trying to get developers to make one single application that can be used on a variety of devices rather than making separate versions of each.

What do you think about Apple adding a Retina Display to Macs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Apple products, not cloud computing, will be the real force behind computer equipment sales in 2012, according to a report by analyst firm Forrester.

“Analysts have been predicting that cloud computing — specifically, infrastructure-as a service (IaaS) — will reshape the server and storage market,” the report read, “Actual adoption of IaaS remains limited.”

Meanwhile, there’s another trend that’s picking up: People are increasingly bringing their own devices to work, and those devices are frequently Apple products, since Apple is known globally for making products that are easy to use, easy to set up and that quickly proliferate to the masses. The “bring your own device” culture that began infiltrating the workplace in 2011 will mean companies will have to make technology plans around Apple, as opposed to the “less pressing” IaaS.

Cloud computing is a big switch that IT managers are dealing with. It’s new, it’s shiny, but it also means huge change, which causes doubts. In the second fiscal quarter of 2011, Forrester surveyed a number of companies and discovered that 14 percent had plans to introduce IaaS into the company structure. Only 3 percent said they were implementing these plans in 2011. Forrester believes the global economy will put a bigger strain on chief information officers’ budgets in 2012, however. Thus, early worries about spending money on new equipment supporting IaaS, will cause CIOs to cut these purchases out of the budget.

Forrester estimates that in 2011, Apple sold $6 billion in Macs as well as the same number of iPads to businesses, despite the fact that Apple does not target the corporate market. The iPad in particular is an easy-to -use technology that is less of an investment than a suite of Mac computers. This may be appealing to CIOs, and it show in Forrester’s 2012 and 2013 predictions.

In 2012, the firm predicts Apple will increase sales to the business sector, as growth in the overall tech market is expected to remain stable at a projected 6 percent per year through 2012 and 2013. Apple should sell $9 billion in Macs and $10 billion in iPads to government and businesses in 2012. 2013 looks even better, with a predicted $12 billion in Macs and $16 billion in iPads sold to the same segment.

In a recession, CIOs will turn toward easy, simple solutions, and thus Apple is the likely winner. IaaS may still play a big roll in shaping what the future of equipment may look like, but for now the iPad is still the executive’s favorite work toy.

Apple will open its latest Apple Store location in New York City at the famous Grand Central Terminal on Friday, the company announced today.

This isn’t just another Apple Store opening; it’s a big deal for a few reasons. First, Grand Central is iconic and featured frequently in New-York-based movies and television. Second, at 23,000 square feet, this location will be one of the world’s largest Apple Stores. Third, the location will have a different look than most other Apple Stores because of its surroundings.

The store takes over the spot the Metrazur Restaurant held in Grand Central, and Apple reportedly paid $5 million to get the spot. The massive store will offer two Genius Bars with 12 seats each, 45 display tables for Apple products, three walls of accessories and 315 full- and part-time employees. Unfortunately, there will be no public restrooms like most other Apple Stores have.

Business Insider has posted a few photos outside and one shot inside of the store (including the one above). It looks like a place tourists will go when checking out Grand Central.

The Grand Central location’s hours will pair nicely with that of commuters using Grand Central to travel all over New York and surrounding states. It will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Watch out later this week for a full gallery of shots from inside the store.

Florida-based Operating System Solutions has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, the website Patently Apple reports. But the surprising part is that the patent in question was originally owned by LG Electronics.

Count 1 in the court’s document reads, “Apple sells or offers to sell within this district, computer systems, including but not limited to the MacBook Pro, that utilize the Mac OSX operating system that infringes at least claim 1 of the OSS [Operating System Solutions] Patent.”

The patent abstract describes it as “a method for quickly booting a personal computer system using boot configuration information on memory and the attached devices that was created and saved in a hard disk at the preceding boot process.” Its quick boot method is a multi-step process (see flow chart below) that involves saving a computer’s boot configuration to memory so that it can boot up more quickly in the future. According to the lawsuit, Apple’s OS X violates this method in the patent.

Patently Apple points out that the original owner of the 2002 patent was LG Electronics, but it was subsequently reissued to Protimus Technologies in 2008. It’s unclear how the patent found its way to OSS — a company which can’t even be located via a Google search — or if LG still has any ties to the patent. Since OSS has no Internet presence, it’s likely that it’s a patent holding company (also known as a patent troll).

It looks like it’s time for a new Macbook Air model.

Reports are trickling in that Best Buy and Amazon are suddenly scaling back their MacBook Air shipments. For those not adept at reading Apple’s tea leaves, this typically means a model refresh is on the way.

The big box retailer tipped its hand late Sunday when its web site changed the MacBook Air’s status to “Not Available for Shipping.“

Best Buy usually tries to forecast when out-of-stock products will resume shipping, but the availability of Air isn’t listed anywhere on the retailer’s site. Amazon has reflected a similar pinch in its MacBook Air supply, making a new product announcement look all but inevitable.

This isn’t the first time Best Buy has telegraphed a product release with its inventory system. But even with the retailer taken out of the equation, most of the industry agrees that the timing makes sense.

For months, speculation about Apple refreshing its darkhorse notebook has simmered as the company readies for the OSX Lion update. Earlier this month Apple threw the tarp off Lion at WWDC quoting a July release date, effectively setting the stage for a product refresh in the coming weeks.

Though the speculation surrounding the Air isn’t as active as the iPhone rumor mill, the notebook is still reportedly due for a hefty upgrade. Reports of a switch to Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor would add much-needed horsepower to the slender Air, and rumors of a new Thunderbolt port would nudge the notebook even closer to the flagship MacBook Pro.

Such a move is nothing to sniff at either. Apple moved 3.76 million Macs last quarter alone (up 28 percent year-over-year), and the market is already betting that an upgraded Air will spur unprecedented demand.

Sources in the Taiwanese Apple supply chain tell the site that their production lines will be running in full gear throughout July to keep up with demand. The MacBook Air is expected to be refreshed within the next month with Apple’s new high-speed Thunderbolt interface, more efficient Intel Sandy Bridge processors, and Mac OS X Lion.

It’s not difficult to imagine why the new MacBook Airs will be a smashing success — although having the computer double all Mac sales from last quarter is certainly hard to believe. Last year’s redesign of the computer brought with it a razor-thin frame and lower price ($999 for the 11-inch model, $1299 for the 13-inch). There’s also plenty of pent-up demand for a new Air, as many expected it to be released this month, but Apple is reportedly holding it back until July for the release of OSX Lion.

I’m in the market for an ultraportable myself, and I’ve already decided that I’ll pull the trigger on a new Air as soon as they’re available. Samsung’s recently released Series 9 ultraportable was a worthy competitor, but it’s more expensive than the Air at $1,699. It’s tough to imagine that we’re in a world where the Apple alternative is a better deal, but here we are.

Via BGR

A few screen issues are being reported: Some users are seeing a flickering display and horizontal lines after waking up their Air from sleep mode or plugging in another display. Others are seeing their screens fade from light to dark after coming out of sleep mode. One temporary fix Apple’s memo offered is to put the computer to sleep again by closing the lid for 10 seconds, and then opening the lid to wake it up.

The memo states that the “issue has been isolated and will be addressed in an upcoming software update.” Hopefully, a software fix is enough to correct the issue — as the video below demonstrates, it seems to be a pretty glaring screen problem for some users. If it’s a hardware issue, Apple will have to issue a recall for its new Macbook Air computers.

Air users are also reporting that their computers are facing system crashes via kernel panics (a term used to describe major system crashes on Mac OSX and Linux machines). Apple’s memo didn’t mention that issue specifically, but a software update could potentially fix it as well.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Microsoft announced that it will release a tool later this year to let Mac users sync “select content”, Engadget reports. In other news, we finally have some idea of how the platform will handle external storage, thanks to technology reporter Paul Thurrott.

While I don’t think Microsoft’s announcement means that we’ll see a full Zune client on Macs this year, it’s a clear sign that the company isn’t willing to ignore Mac users this time around. Microsoft has long been criticized for only making its Zune media software available on PCs, which in turn prevented its Zune portable players from finding much of an audience with Mac users.

It’s a wise move because Windows Phone 7′s flashy user interface could appeal to some Mac aficionados, and many users also own both Macs and Windows computers. Hopefully, it will also lead the way to a full-fledged Zune client on the Macs — a program that I vastly prefer to iTunes on Windows.

As for external storage, something that Microsoft has long said won’t be supported on Windows Phone 7, Thurrott explains how some phones on the platform will offer it:

Supported devices (not all Windows Phones will be expandable) will include a micro-SD card slot, which by Microsoft’s requirements must be placed under the battery cover (i.e. next to the actual battery) and not be externally accessible. That’s because this functionality isn’t designed to be something that is swapped out, used with a PC, or whatever. Instead, the micro-SD-based storage will work in tandem with whatever storage is available inside the device.

Microsoft is apparently offering a compromise between easily removable external storage and none at all. On supported phones, you’ll be able to stick in a micro-SD card of your own between 8GB and 32GB, and the OS will combine that storage with the device’s built-in storage. So if you add a 32GB card to a phone with 8GB of storage, the phone will register it as 40GB of total storage.

Thurrott explains that you won’t be able to eject the micro-SD card and read it on your computer due to “technical limitations.” Similarly, you won’t be able to remove the micro-SD card without performing a hard reset on the device, and there’s no way of telling what data is stored on the external card.

Thurrott mentions that Samsung’s Focus supports external memory, which is yet another reason to consider it the most compelling Windows Phone 7 launch device.

Getting content noticed is a challenge for everyone making apps. Join us at DiscoveryBeat 2010 and hear secrets from top industry executives about how to break through and profit in the new cross-platform app ecosystem. From metrics to monetization, we’ll take an in depth look at the best discovery strategies and why they’re working. See the full agenda here. The conference takes place on October 18 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. To register, click here. Hurry though. Tickets are limited, and going fast.