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Apple loses bid to seal already public OS information

January 5th, 2012
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A federal judge has denied Apple’s effort to seal information related to its copyright infringement case against Psystar, ruling that information already publicly available on the Internet and in print is no longer protectable.
Apple had attempted to seal documents containing information about its Mac OS X operating system and computer products as a trade secret, presumably to keep others from modifying Apple’s OS to run on unauthorized hardware. Apple argued that because it was not the source of the information that the trade secret protection still existed.
However, U.S. Federal District Judge William Alsup disagreed in a ruling today, noting that the software information was available on the Web site of a book on the OS and a decryption code was available on MacBook Air laptops.
“Apple cannot have this court seal information merely to avoid confirmation that the publicly available sources got it right,” Alsup said, according to a Bloomberg report.
Representatives of Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Apple filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Psystar in 2008 after Psystar bought copies of the Mac OS on the market and began selling its Mac clones. Psystar countered that Apple was misusing its Mac OS X copyright by requiring customers to run the software only on its own brand of computers.
A U.S. District Court sided with Apple in 2009, ruling that Psystar “violated Apple’s exclusive reproduction right, distribution right, and right to create derivative works.” Apple was awarded a permanent injunction against Psystar in December 2009.

Source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57351770-37/apple-loses-bid-to-seal-already-public-os-information/

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Amazon Kindle Fire OS Update: 5 Fixes Outlined

December 22nd, 2011
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Amazon released Wednesday yet another update to the software in its popular Kindle Fire tablet computer. The product, which has already shipped six million units, is only five weeks old but is already on its second software upgrade. This update, revision 6.2.1, addresses five problems that many Fire users found vexing:

Access to Android Marketplace has been opened. Up to this release, Fire users trying to access the marketplace—where Android users go to find and purchase new apps for their devices—were redirected to Amazon’s Android app store. However, most Fire users will only be window shopping at the marketplace since there’s no easy way to link a Fire to a Google account, a necessary prerequisite for installing apps directly from the market to an Android device.
Easy removal of items from the carousel. When apps are opened they appear in a carousel on the home page. Now apps can be ditched from the carousel with a prolonged press and a poke of a prompt. Apps removed from the carousel, though, will reappear when they’re relaunched.
[Click to enlarge] Jail breaking Fire with one-click rooting apps is blocked. Users root their devices for various reasons including to improve performance, remove hardware bottlenecks, install apps on storage cards and add features unavailable to the device any other way. For the adverturous, the rooting limitation in the latest upgrade can be surmounted through use of a pre-root kit.
Ability to impose restrictions on Wi-Fi access. If your Fire is a family device, you’ll especially appreciate this modification of the unit’s software. It allows you to password protect access to any Wi-Fi network from the device, a good way to keep children from accessing the Internet with the unit without your permission.
Under the hood tweaks for better performance. Early reports from users are saying they’ve noticed navigation was smoother and the touchscreen more responsive after the latest upgrade was installed, although the tablet still lacks the fluidity of an iPad.

In addition to its early Christmas gift to Fire users, Amazon also had a goodie for Apple iOS devotees: a new version of its Kindle software, revision 2.9, which added a new scrolling menu for faster access to content, an email to Kindle feature, improved support for reading PDF files, access to more than 400 magazines previously only available to Kindle hardware users and support of print-replica textbooks, which should make life for students easier and help them trim their expenses as well.

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/article/246827/amazon_kindle_fire_os_update_5_fixes_outlined.html

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Multiple OS a challenge

October 31st, 2011
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Computer users who like to play around with multiple operating systems on their machines know some of the challenges of getting multiple operating systems to work together for such things as sharing or accessing USB devices.

Some users like to simply dual boot or even triple boot their hardware, having two or three operating systems coexisting on the same hardware.

When that works it is great, but what if you want to use a program that only runs on one of those operating systems? With a dual-or triple-boot arrangement, that means you have to shut down the operating system you are currently using and reboot in the operating system that contains the program you want to use.

Doing that makes the most efficient use of that specific hardware and software combination, but it is an inconvenience to have to close everything just to get access to one specific program.

On the other hand, there are other ways to get access to that program, without necessarily having to shut everything down and rebooting.

Depending on which is your main operating software, there are software solutions that allow you to access programs from other operating systems from within your current setup.

Commercial programs such as Virtual Machine from VMWare allow you to install a working environment or virtualization of another operating system within your current OS.

There are virtual machine versions for Windows, Mac and Linux. Once installed, the virtual machine can be configured to run any of the other operating systems just as if the machine had been booted up in that system.

The advantage of say, running Windows within a virtual “software container,” as VMWare puts it, on a machine booted up in Linux, is that you don’t have to close down the machine to reboot into Windows.

You simply run Virtual Machine as if it were another program within the Linux environment.

Like most things in life, there is a price to be paid for such convenience. In this case, your guest operating systems will not be as responsive as if you had booted directly into it in the first place. It is much like the trade-off of running independent operating system where you shut down one to run the other.

If you want to try virtualization and are unsure you want to commit the $50 to $100 for the VMWare software, there is a free program called Virtual Box which is part of the open source software community.

Once running on whatever your operating system is, the program walks you through installing a guest operating system. Like Virtual Machine, Virtual Box does not come with the guest operating system. You must supply that. In the case of both Apple and Microsoft, that means purchasing a retail copy of the software. On the other hand, if you are already using the Mac or Windows operating system and simply want to try Linux, there are several distributions of Linux available for free on the Internet.

I say all of this because of something I discovered the other day while fooling around with a Linux installation on my laptop.

Linux is a great operating system with huge user support. But the particular flavor of Linux I am using — LinuxMint — does not provide a great deal of support for my iPod Touch device.

The Touch is essentially a mini-computer in the hand. It does a number of things wonderfully, from keeping an address book of contacts to acting as an e-book reader through applications that can be purchased through Apple’s online store.

Getting e-books on the device is simply a matter of running iTunes in either the Mac or Windows operating system.

Alas, there is no version of iTunes available for Linux.

However, I have discovered there is another way of getting ebooks onto the iPod Touch in Linux. Simply connect the device by way of the USB cable and it shows up as a mounted drive, listing all of the content on the Touch. From there simply drag your e-book into the appropriate program on the Touch and you are good to go.

Source:http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3351457

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Changing work styles demand multi-OS devices

October 11th, 2011
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IT consumerization is changing the corporate environment with various operating systems (OSes) and devices entering the enterprise space. This, in turn, is spurring the concept of having multiple OSes on a single device, regardless of the hardware these systems run on, insiders stated.

Yaj Malik, area vice president for Southeast Asia at Citrix Systems, said while Microsoft’s Windows OS remains an integral element in the traditional desktop setup, the proliferation and evolution of smart computing devices is creating new work styles in enterprises. There is an increased demand from today’s mobile and IT-savvy employees to easily access work files from their consumer devices, he added.

Citing a company survey conducted in July, the executive pointed out in his e-mail that 92 percent of the 700 CIOs polled across four continents said they were aware their employees were using personal devices for work-related tasks. This trend will grow even more apparent as the younger generation of employees–dubbed “Generation Virtual”–become increasingly dissatisfied with their company-provided devices due to the “prohibitive restrictions”, resulting in reduced productivity and stifled creativity in the workplace, he stated.

“Citrix believes that it is timely for organizations to seek a solution that will enable both employers and employees to easily and securely access [company information] and share any type of content, regardless of the OS and device,” Malik said.

“The adoption of desktop virtualization is the way forward to enable multiple OSes…allowing corporate applications to be freed from their traditional physical OS confines.”

The Citrix executive’s views were echoed by Jan-Jaap Jager, vice president and Asia-Pacific general manager at Parallels. In an e-mail, he told ZDNet Asia that “now is the time” for enterprises to proactively enable multiple OSes on employee desktops to better meet end-user needs. He cited an internal study that revealed 53 percent of “knowledge workers” pointed to a Mac running Windows apps without rebooting, as the most useful computer for work.

Jager also pointed to desktop virtualization as a “great way” for running multiple systems on a single device as it gives users the freedom to pick the hardware and OS that they want to use while providing access to corporate computing resources that may not work with that particular OS. He added that most of today’s desktops are well equipped to handle additional OSes given their abundant disk storage and memory.

“Empowering employees with Macs and desktop virtualization to run other OSes such as Windows, Chrome, etc., has additional benefits as they can now instantly use any OS and application they need on one computer to be more productive,” he said.

Deployment challenges
That said, Jager pointed out that standard enterprise IT challenges in deploying multiple OSes on a desktop include “licensing compliance, change management and security”.

Microsoft Asia-Pacific COO Andrew Pickup weighed in, noting that running multiple OSes on consumer devices bring challenges to IT depending on the method of delivery and virtualization technology used. For example, setting up the infrastructure–whether through virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or sessions–to deliver centralized desktops can be “complex and expensive”, and the user experience is dependent on network capabilities.

Alternatively, the IT team could choose to run multiple OSes locally on the client device to reduce the dependency of the user experience on the network, he stated. However, this deployment would require a higher specification device, which adds to implementation costs and would bring about a steeper learning curve for users.

Furthermore, in most cases, using a client hypervisor would require IT to reinstall the existing OS in order for the hypervisor to work and most users would not want them to tinker so heavily on their personal devices, Pickup pointed out.

“One size does not fit all and IT should choose the best technology to solve business needs,” he stressed.

Cross-platform apps more important than multi-OS devices
The Microsoft executive also said that with the exception of “certain narrow business scenarios which might warrant multiple desktop variants”, the vast majority of organizations prefer simplicity and efficiency over the complexity of delivering and managing multiple operating systems.

To that end, the availability of apps optimized for different platforms may better meet end-user’s needs than providing OS alternatives, he suggested, noting that Microsoft offers desktop virtualization products as “choice is critical” for customers.

“We understand that people want a compelling and productive [application] experience regardless of the OS or device they are running. While we will always focus on being first and best on the Windows platform, we are also committed to delivering best-in-class experiences on other platforms,” he said.

The Office for Mac app is a good example of this, Pickup noted. He said the software is “one of the best-selling apps for Apple computers” and as iPhones, iPads and Android-based devices become increasingly important in people’s lives, the software giant is looking at how it can extend the Office product to these users.

Source:http://www.zdnetasia.com/changing-work-styles-demand-multi-os-devices-62302437.htm

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What Apple’s Lion OS and Windows 8 mean for digital signage

September 27th, 2011
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Just when we think we’ve gotten a handle on how consumers engage with screens, Apple and Microsoft release new operating systems. This shouldn’t seem like something we need to think about too closely, but in fact these releases send a serious message to the digital signage world. One that we ignore at our peril.

Up until now, signage technology and implementation has been built around how people use personal computers and online content. Rightfully so, as we’re simply providing another screen, another way to market, inform and engage. And up until now, the operating systems for personal computers were designed to support a consumer that used a mouse and a browser to find information. Apple’s Lion OS and Windows 8 are brilliantly designed to do this, faster, and more organized, while also supporting the touchscreen. This last part — the touchscreen — is a relatively new frame of reference for the personal computer experience. And it’s on the verge of becoming the norm.

Why is this? It’s simple: Tablets. Both of these major operating systems are made for direct manipulation of objects on a screen, a la the tablet screen technology. While many people have quickly become accustomed to swiping and swishing on their smartphones and iPads, this kind of experience is completely different from the way we have worked on computers for … well, decades. But consumers are decidedly drawn to this tablet way of working, so much so that major operating systems have taken this into account. And so should we with digital signage.

Of course, this capability is here now. Earlier this year hardware developers announced digital signage screens with multitouch capability, and screens that could even respond to the wave of a hand. Intel’s AIM suite technology can enable screens to collect visual data and then deliver content specific to the person standing in front of the kiosk, making it an even more personalized experience.

So this changes the expectation for digital signs, doesn’t it? Very soon, consumers will expect that every time they are faced with a screen, they will be able to manipulate it with their hands. People will intuitively do this without instruction because they are already doing it on their smartphones, tablets and eventually their computers. Apple and Microsoft have anticipated this (some might say Apple started it). The digital signage world shouldn’t overlook this as something only significant to the small-screen market.

I’m willing to place a bet that in the next two years, digital signage screens that don’t interact with people like a tablet will be seen as archaic. This statement isn’t meant to make you anxious. In fact, it should do the opposite. Think of how much more important digital signage systems will become for business when they can engage customers in this way? And we can get there, fast.

I’m not saying we should follow Microsoft and Apple’s lead because of who they are. I’m saying we should follow their lead because they’re on to something.

Source:http://www.digitalsignagetoday.com/blog/6487/What-Apple-s-Lion-OS-and-Windows-8-mean-for-digital-signage

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General troubleshooting steps for OS X

September 23rd, 2011
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When problems happen on any computer there are some basic troubleshooting steps that you can take. Unfortunately, many times people have no idea where to start, and problems may seem to be vastly different. For instance, sometimes specific functions, features, or settings of the system may not work properly, or applications may crash, or the computer may just be running slowly and lag all the time.

When these problems happen, there some basic steps you can take to start troubleshooting the problem. Even if you cannot isolate and fix the issue, performing these steps and relaying what you see to a technician, Apple “Genius,” or anyone else helping you may greatly speed up the process and get the problem addressed.

Safe Mode
One of the very first things you should try if a problem starts repeatedly occurring on your system is to boot into Safe Mode by restarting and then holding the Shift key after you hear the boot chimes. Doing this turns off unnecessary system extensions and loads the system in a minimal state. Safe Mode also runs a few system maintenance routines that may help clear problems. Once the system has fully booted in Safe Mode, try rebooting normally.

If the problem goes away when booted in Safe Mode but persists when the computer is booted normally, then the problem has to do with a third-party or nonessential system extension you have loaded on the system. Many applications can install these, including virtualization tools, drivers and hardware managers, and firewalls and security tools.

Peripherals
After attempting a Safe Mode boot, you can try troubleshooting peripheral devices attached to your system, such as external hard drives, scanners, printers, and secondary displays. Disconnect these devices fully from your system (as opposed to merely shutting them down) and reboot to see if the problem goes away. If it does, then you can test each device independently to see if having it attached to the system (by itself or in combination with another device) results in the odd behavior.

Many times specific applications will interface with certain devices, such as scanners and image processing tools. In these cases, you can try using Safe Mode in addition to removing all devices except the one that application uses, to test whether the application interfaces better with the peripheral when running in a minimized boot environment.
General maintenance routine

Sometimes slowdowns and odd behavior can happen because the various temporary files (caches) that the system builds for efficiency become corrupt. When this happens, cleaning these out can be an easy way to rebuild them and thereby speed up the system again. To do this, run a general maintenance routine to fully reset software setups like caches as well as hardware configurations like the PRAM and SMC settings. Resetting these will not harm the system, but may require you to set things like the mouse tracking rate and system volume again.

New user account
Many times problems in the system have their roots either in global resources (resources the whole system accesses), or in a specific user account configuration. OS X separates these by putting global items in the /Macintosh HD/Library/ and /Macintosh HD/System/ folders as opposed to the /username/Library/ folder.

An easy way to test this is to create a new user account on the system and log in to it to see if the problem persists in this account. If not then it is very likely the issue involves a configuration setting in your main account, and you can try clearing configuration files, preference files, and other settings in that account to fix the problem.

While you can use an existing secondary account to check the problem, existing accounts may share similar configurations (especially if they were upgraded, migrated, or restored from previous systems or backups). Creating a new account ensures that the account and its settings are as fresh as the current system can make them.

Activity Monitor
If an application is using system resources, especially if it is experiencing bugs that cause it to eat up memory or CPU cycles, then other programs can suffer slowdowns as the system tries to compensate for the rogue application. To check for available system resources, launch the Activity Monitor utility (in /Applications/Utilities/) and at the bottom of the main Activity Monitor window (press Command-1 to show it if it’s not present), click the CPU, System Memory, and Disk Activity tabs to check those resources on the computer. If any of these sections shows high usage, then you can look to see if a specific program is causing the high activity.

To do this, at the top of the main Activity Monitor window click the “%CPU” column header to sort processes by CPU usage, and if one is showing persistent high CPU usage (especially if it’s at or near 100 percent) then try shutting it down. If the program is not responding and its name is shown in red, you can try force-quitting it to shut it down.

In addition to checking CPU usage, sort the listings in the “Real Mem” column to see if any are taking a large amount of RAM, and quit them. One culprit that may take up a large amount of RAM is Safari, but sometimes background system processes such as “mds” or “mdworker” may also take a large amount of RAM or CPU if they are not working properly.

System Console
In addition to Activity Monitor, the system will show process output (including errors and warnings) in the system console and system logs. These can be exceptionally useful resources for determining if applications and system processes are crashing or not working properly.

To access the system logs and console output, go to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and open the Console program. In here you can select the All Messages section to view live output from running processes, or look up recent crash logs in the System or User Diagnostic Reports sections.
Even if you do not know what to look for, if you see a specific warning or message output to the console when the slowdowns occur then that information may be useful to a technician, and you can easily copy it into an e-mail if needed.

Uninstall or disable features or applications
If the problem is not found to be in the account configuration, then you can next try uninstalling applications or disabling any other recent changes you might have made to the system. This is particularly true for any add-ons, program updates, or new applications you have added.

Unfortunately OS X does not come with an uninstaller utility or other application management tools, but you can use tools like AppZapper to root out and remove applications that did not come with an uninstaller. Alternatively you can contact the developer to ask how to fully remove the program.

If the problem happened right after an OS update, then your only options for uninstalling are to revert to a prior system backup (Time Machine backups are great for this), or reinstall OS X fully and update to the latest version again. This can be done using the OS X installation disc (or recovery drive for Lion).

Once again, these steps alone may not fix the problem for you, but they will help you isolate the issue and see if it is happening because of a specific device, account setup, system process or application you have running, or some underlying system extension or resource. Even if you cannot clear the problem yourself, the information you get from these steps will be useful for others who help you address the problem.

Source:http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20110325-263/general-troubleshooting-steps-for-os-x/

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Changes to UFEI Firmware Specifications Could Prevent Windows 8 Users from Installing Another OS

September 23rd, 2011
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A new report reveals that Microsoft’s forthcoming operating system Windows 8 could block users from installing “unauthorised” OS platforms such as Linux or FreeBSD on their PCs.

Additional reports have surfaced following the news of possible changes to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware specifications. The proposed changes, if implemented, would prevent the installation of any OS, which is not certified by a trusted authority.

Microsoft is pushing these proposed changes to the authorities, so as to, reduce the competition by weeding out companies like Linux.

“This impacts both software and hardware vendors. An OS vendor cannot boot their software on a system unless it’s signed with a key that’s included in the system firmware,” tech blogger Matthew Garrett explains.

“A hardware vendor cannot run their hardware inside the EFI environment unless their drivers are signed with a key that’s included in the system firmware,” he added.

It is still unknown if the proposed changes will go into effect, especially when the core-idea may be a violation of the existing EU competition law.

Source:http://www.itproportal.com/2011/09/22/changes-ufei-firmware-specifications-could-prevent-windows-users-installing-another-os/

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