APPLE COMPUTERS AND GADGETS INCREASINGLY TARGETED BY MALWARE

Original Story: siliconbeat.com

Apple’s iPhone and Mac, long touted for their security, aren’t nearly as safe to use as they once were, new research suggests.

Record amounts of malware targeted and infected Apple computers and smartphones this year, security researchers say. And next year is likely to be even worse. An Evans internet lawyer represents clients in cyber-crimes, content licensing matters, and identity theft cases.

“Apple remains a relatively safe platform but Apple users can no longer be complacent about security,” Dick O’Brien, a researcher with security firm Symantec, told BBC News.

In 2014, between 10,000 and 70,000 Macs were hit with malware each month, according to Symantec. That was a small fraction of the amount of malware targeting and infected computers running Microsoft Windows. But in the first nine months of this year, the total Apple computers infected by malicious or unwanted applications was seven times higher than all of last year. A Melbourne internet lawyer has experience representing clients in cases of fraud, piracy, an unauthorized computer access.

Apple’s mobile devices, which generally can only get applications via Apple’s app store, are relatively safer. Some 96 percent of all mobile malware is targeted at devices running Google’s Android operating system, according to FireWire, another security firm.

But malware writers are increasingly targeting Apple’s iPhones and iPads. Symantec has identified seven new security threats aimed at those devices. And earlier this year, applications infected with a particular piece of malware — including the popular WeChat messaging app — were listed in the App Store. Apple quickly removed them, but not before they were downloaded by numerous customers. For more information on the power of Organic SEO, click here.

Malware authors are increasingly “finding ways into Apple’s walled garden, and that will ramp up next year,” Bryce Boland, chief technology officer at FireEye.

GOOGLE UNVEILS EVERYTHING APPLE LAUNCHED, ONLY CHEAPER

Original Story: marketwatch.com

Apple: iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Refreshed Apple TV. Enterprise-focused iPad Pro.

Google: Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. Refreshed Chromecast. Enterprise-focused Pixel C tablet.

Those lineups show the similarities between the new products Google Inc. GOOG, -0.01% GOOGL, +0.00% announced Tuesday and those Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.05%  announced earlier this month. The big difference between the two companies’ new offerings is price, with Google undercutting Apple across the board.

Smartphones

Google introduced two new Android smartphones, the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, at a product event on Tuesday. Both phones — manufactured by LG and Huawei, respectively — will be sold as unlocked devices, meaning they can be purchased directly through Google’s digital store or at partner bricks-and-mortar retailers and used with a wide variety of carriers. They will also be compatible with Project Fi, Google’s new WiFi program, part of a trend among Google, Apple and others to take over parts of the wireless business previously reserved for carriers. Google SEO deliver top organic keyword rankings in all of the major search engines.

The 5.2-inch Nexus 5X will retail for $379 and up, while the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P will start at $429. Both devices will come equipped with fingerprint technology similar to Apple’s TouchID, though the sensor is on the back of its phones, and will operate on Android’s upcoming Marshmallow operating system.

Apple’s AAPL, -1.05%  4.7-inch iPhone 6s and 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus, unveiled at Apple’s product event earlier this month, can also be purchased as unlocked phones directly through Apple for $549 and $649, respectively. Apple also is offering a monthly pricing plan that allows consumers to upgrade every time a new iPhone hits the market.

Also Read: Apple breaks another iPhone record, but China was included this time

Google is sweetening the deal by offering a $50 credit for use at the Google Play app store and a free three-month trial subscription to Google Play Music. Apple also offered a free three-month trial for Apple Music.

Enterprise tablet

Tablets for the workplace are all the rage this year. Google on Tuesday launched its answer to the iPad Pro and Microsoft Inc.’s Surface Pro with a new tablet called Pixel C that will start at $499, versus $799 for the iPad Pro. Pixel C will also come with a detachable keyboard, which can be purchased separately for $149; Apple’s keyboard costs $169. Microsoft’s MSFT, +0.75%  Surface Pro 3 starts at $699 and offers a $129.99 keyboard.

Unlike both tablets from Apple and Microsoft, Google is not marketing the Pixel C with a stylus.

Video streaming

Google launched its second-generation Chromecast device that will retail for $35. It will receive support for Showtime content immediately, and Sling TV and Spotify will join within a few weeks. The device already supports Netflix NFLX, -0.14%  , Google Play Movies, HBO Now, Hulu, Pandora P, -0.07%  and many other streaming services. Google also launched a $35 Chromecast Audio device with a plug-in that can turn a user’s existing speaker into a conduit for music streaming.

Earlier this month, Apple unveiled its fourth-generation Apple TV, which comes with a remote control, Siri compatibility, and content from similar streaming services for $149, though Apple’s TV streaming device does not natively support Apple Music’s rival streaming services.

The only place where Google is not trying to undercut Apple by price is music streaming. Both Apple and Google offer music streaming services for $9.99 a month. Google unveiled a six-person family plan on Tuesday that will cost $14.99 a month, matching the price of Apple’s six-person family plan launched earlier this month.

Shares of Google rose ahead of its product event but declined slightly after it kicked off, ultimately closing down 0.3% at $622.61. Apple’s stock declined throughout the day, with the fall accelerating after the Google event, and shares ultimately closed down 3% at $109.06.

GOOGLING ON MOBILE DEVICES SURPASSES PCS IN US FOR 1ST TIME

Original Story: nytimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Google's influential search engine has hit a tipping point in technology's shift to smartphones. More search requests are now being made on mobile devices than on personal computers in the U.S. and many other parts of the world.

The milestone announced at a digital advertising conference Tuesday serves as another reminder of how dramatically online behavior has changed since 2007. That's when Apple released the first iPhone, leading to a wave of similar devices that have made it easier for people to stay connected to the Internet wherever they go. Mobile optimization allows users to stay connected on the go.

The upheaval has rocked PC makers and other tech companies such as Microsoft with businesses tied to sales of desktop and laptop computers. Google has been able to adapt better than most companies, partly because its search engine and other services are embedded in the popular Android mobile operating system, but it hasn't been totally unscathed.

Google's average ad prices have been declining for the past three-and-half years, partly because marketers so far have been unwilling to pay as much for the commercial message displayed on the smaller screens of smartphones. The company, though, says mobile ad prices have been steadily climbing and will continue to do so as marketers recognize the value of being able to connect with prospective customers at the precise moment that they are looking for someplace to eat, or comparing products on a smartphone while standing in a store.

"The future of mobile is now," says Jerry Dischler, a Google Inc. vice president in charge of the company's "AdWords" service for creating online marketing campaigns.

Besides in the U.S., Google's mobile search requests are outstripping requests in nine other countries. Japan is the only other country that Google is identifying.

The Mountain View, California, company isn't specifying just how many mobile search requests it is getting. Google processes more than 100 billion search requests worldwide each month, including queries on PCs.

As part of the mobile transition, Google last month overhauled its search-recommendation system to favor websites that are easier to read and load on smartphones. That change, known as "Mobilegeddon," prodded millions of websites to make changes to ensure they work well on smartphones to avoid being demoted in Google's search results. Mobile friendly websites provide added value to users.

Google also has been introducing advertising formats that tend to work better on mobile devices. For instance, rooms can now be booked within hotel ads, and car ads can now be swiped across a screen to make it easier to comparison shop.

In addition to announcing the milestone in mobile search, Google also introduced on Tuesday a service for comparing mortgage rates in the U.S. The mortgage product expands upon a similar service for auto insurance policies that Google unveiled in California in March. Google is adding three more states — Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania — to the auto insurance service.

Java on Macs - Blocked by Apple

Story first appeared on USA Today -

Some Mac users were taken by surprise Thursday as their computers stopped running programs written using the Java programming language after Apple blocked Java due to security problems.

Java allows programmers to write a wide variety of Internet applications and other software programs and run them on most computers, including Apple's Mac. However, earlier this month the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommended disabling Java in Web browsers to avoid potential hacking attacks. Oracle, which owns Java, has issued updates that fix known vulnerabilities, but the DHS expects that there are more flaws in Java's coding.

Apple sends out virtual "blacklists" to Internet-connected Macs, instructing them not to run certain programs. Apple is blocking the latest version of Java from running on the most recent versions of its Mac operating system, and blocking an older version, Java 6, from running on the older version of its Mac system, called Snow Leopard. The blocks affect programs and online games that use Java in Web browsers.

Oracle had no immediate comment on Apple's action.

Among those Java users inconvenienced by the unannounced block was the photo department of The Associated Press, which relies on a Java application to manage and distribute photos.

"The situation caught us by surprise and a number of our machines could not operate for a time, but we had enough capability to work around the problem in the meantime," said AP spokesman Paul Colford. "We expect the affected machines to be operating by day's end."

New High for Google Stock

Story first appeared on USA Today -

Google's stock climbed to a new high Friday as Wall Street's best known indexes approached record territory, too.

The shares of the Internet search giant peaked at $776.70 during the afternoon to eclipse the stock's previous record of $774.38 reached in early October. It closed Friday at $775.60, up $19.91, or 2.6% for the session. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., went public at $85 a share in August 2004.

Meanwhile, the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average closed above 14,000 Friday for first time since October 2007 — near the bellwether's all-time high of 14,164. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index, which includes Google, was up 1% and also flirting with a record high.

The stock market's rising tide isn't lifting all companies. For instance, the stock of Google rival Apple is 36% below the peak price it reached in September. Apple's shares shed another $1.87 Friday to close at $453.62.

Google's stock has been on the upswing since the company reported fourth-quarter earnings 10 days ago. Google is still enjoying strong growth in Internet advertising as it extends its reach to smartphones and tablet computers.

UK Suing Google for Safari Tracking

A British law firm says that about a dozen Apple customers are suing Internet search leader Google in the U.K. over its alleged secret tracking of their Internet browsing habits.

London-based law firm Olswang said that 12 Apple users were taking the Internet search leader to court over small pieces of tracking code — known as cookies — surreptitiously installed on computers and smartphones.

Google found itself in hot water last year after it emerged that the company had circumvented privacy features on Apple's Safari web browsers to deposit cookies on millions of users' computers. The issue has already cost Google $22.5 million, which it agreed to pay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to settle the claims last year.

Google said it had no comment on the lawsuit.

Mayer (Yahoo) Looking for Mobile Growth

Article first appeared on CNBC -

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is confident that her company will be able to capitalize on the explosion in mobile communication, saying Yahoo will focus on strong partnerships with Apple, Google and Facebook.

"The nice thing at Yahoo is we have all of the content that people want on their phones. We have these daily habits. Whenever you're dealing with a daily habit, and really providing a lot of value around it,there's an opportunity," Mayer said at the World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland on Friday.

"There's really an opportunity for strong partnerships. That's what we'll be focused on. So we work with for example Apple and Google in terms of the operating system. In terms of the social network we have a strong partnership with Facebook," she said.

She played down mobile privacy concerns, saying it would always be "something users should consider."

"But I also think that privacy is always a trade-off. When you give up some of your personal information, you get some functionality in return. It's really about making those trade-offs in a very informed way," she said.

Apple Seperates from Google, Makes Own Maps

Story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

Apple Inc. unveiled a series of software features for its mobile phones and computers Monday that place erstwhile partner Google Inc. squarely in its path.

Speaking at the company's annual developer conference in San Francisco, the Apple chief and other executives revealed no major surprises to its product line as some attendees had hoped. But Apple did show off a number of new software programs that as a whole underscore how the company is distancing itself from Google.

Among the software products are a new mapping and navigation service that will replace Google Maps as the default on iPhones and iPads. Apple executives also bragged about the comprehensiveness of their local search service, which is integrated with its voice activated "virtual assistant" Siri. And the company struck a long-negotiated deal with Google rival Facebook Inc. to integrate various services.

In several places during the nearly two-hour keynote, Apple's senior vice president for iOS software referred to areas where the mobile software called iOS outperformed Google's Android software, such as user satisfaction.

More than 75% of Apple customers checked the top box, very satisfied, compared to less than 50% for the competition. Even Siri, who welcomed the crowd with a light-hearted video intro, took aim. Among her first jokes was a jab at Android's different version names, which are desserts. "Hey, any of you guys been working with Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean? Who's been making up these code names, Ben and Jerry?" she said.

A Google spokeswoman didn't comment on overall competition with Apple, but the company said in a statement it had been working on maps for years and is looking forward to continuing to build the perfect map for our users in the months and years ahead.

With the iPhone accounting for 58% percent of Apple's revenue in the quarter ending in March, Apple is in a constant race to update its operating system to beat back the growth of phones running Android.

Those devices accounted for 59% of global smartphone shipments in the first quarter, according to IDC, compared with the iPhone's 23%. Both are up from 36.1% and 18.3% the year-ago quarter respectively, as rivals like Nokia Corp. and Research In Motion Ltd. have struggled.

The keynote presentation at times resembled a sporting event. Attendees cheered in response to new technical features, such as higher-resolution displays and more memory on new MacBook Pro laptops, along with little tweaks like a feature for iPhones that lets people use the Facetime video chat service on cellular networks.

But many moves could challenge Google, analysts say, even though Google remains the default search provider on iPads and iPhones. The mapping service and enhancements to Siri indicate a clear and present danger to Google's search and ad business.

Developers, about 5,000 of which paid $1,599 for tickets, said they were excited to try many of the new mobile software features—particularly the new mapping application. The service, which Apple has been developing for years, has a mode for viewing areas in three-dimensions, along with a local search service and turn-by-turn driving directions for in-car use.

Apple also moved to address issues that nag consumers, adding a "Do Not Disturb" feature to avoid unwanted messages at night. A new app called Passbook organizes loyalty cards, tickets and boarding passes to display the right card when needed. Users can also scan their phone to use a coupon, prompting speculation that the service was a placeholder for a future payments product.

Apple said its new version of its "virtual assistant" Siri, which has been criticized as incomplete, contains more local business information, supports more languages and integrates with its new mapping app. The company will also be bringing the Siri feature to the iPad for the first time with iOS 6, which will be released this fall.

Apple also unveiled a partnership with Facebook to better integrate the social network into its mobile and Mac operating systems— a deal that had been hotly negotiated for more than a year, according to people familiar with the matter. Users will be able to sync their Facebook contacts and calendar events across Apple devices and to more easily post to and log into their apps from Facebook.

There were few surprises that hadn't been touched upon in press reports and industry speculation. Some Apple watchers were left wanting more, particularly around the company's future plans for software and apps on televisions.

An ISI Group analyst said he was "disappointed" there wasn't more news on that front. But it was positive overall, he said, noting that Apple's innovations for both hardware and software still place it above its competitors.

Apple executives didn't discuss Apple's $99 box for watching Internet content on TVs—a product that the CEO has hinted that the company intends to evolve over time.

Instead, the company devoted much of the keynote to the software that runs inside its computers and mobile phones.

The vice president for the Mac software business, showed off an array of features of its previously announced new computer operating system, Mountain Lion, and said it would be available next month for $19.99.

A new, higher-end model of the MacBook Pro laptop—which along with the high-resolution display is 25% thinner and uses faster chips that other models—was a highlight of the event. That new model starts at $2,199. Apple also updated less-expensive laptops, introducing faster versions of the MacBook Air and existing MacBook Pro lines.

The founder of App Cubby, which makes an array of iPhone apps, says he was impressed with the computer's speed and memory specifications. He said that the keynote, the fourth he had attended at the annual developer event, was slightly disappointing, since he had been hoping the company would unveil a new way to manage how apps notify customers about various things, such as a new message or a piece of news.

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Apple Designer Knighted

Story first appeared in USA Today.

The British designer who helped Apple craft the iPhone and iPad has added "Sir" to his title.

The BBC reports that the head of Apple's design team, received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace for services to design and enterprise.

In a rare interview with the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph, he called the honor incredibly humbling, and delved into Apple's philosophy on creating tech products. Apple tries to develop products that seem somehow inevitable. That leave customers with the sense that that's the only possible solution that makes sense. Apple products are tools and they don't want design to get in the way.

He has lead the design team at Apple since 1996, during which he helped create products such as the iPod, iMac and the company's incredibly popular iPhone and iPad.

The goal was to try to bring a calm and simplicity to what are incredibly complex problems so that you're not aware really of the solution, you're not aware of how hard the problem was that was eventually solved.

As the AP reported last October, Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs thought highly of him, based on his biography.

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Google Concerned About The Freedom of the Web

Story first appeared in The Huffington Post.

The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the Internet's creation are facing their greatest-ever threat, the co-founder of Google said in an interview published by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Monday.

He said that the threat to freedom of the Internet came from a combination of factors, including increasing efforts by governments to control access and communication by their citizens.

Attempts by the entertainment industry to crack down on piracy, and the rise of "restrictive" walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms, were also leading to greater restrictions on the Internet.

There are very powerful forces that have lined up against the open Internet on all sides and around the world.

He said he was concerned by efforts of countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran to censor and restrict use of the Internet.

The rise of Facebook and Apple, which have their own proprietary platforms and control access to their users, risked stifling innovation and balkanising the web. However, the freedom and importance of organic Google SEO still reigns supreme for both the business and the individual.


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Apple Releases Update for Flashback Virus

Story first appeared in The Huffington Post

Apple has followed through with its promise to develop software that will detect and remove the malicious Mac Flashback trojan, which infected more than 600,000 Mac laptops worldwide.

On April 12, the company released yet another Java update that removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware. While the update is meant only for OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6, Apple suggested previously that users with Macs running Mac OS X v10.5 or earlier disable Java in order to better protect their devices from the Flashback trojan.

When the company on April 10 announced it would be developing a malware removal tool, Apple also mentioned it is currently working with Internet service providers (ISPs) across the world to shut down the network of computer servers presumably hosted by the malware authors and currently supporting the Flashback trojan.

This is Apple's third software update to Java in nine days; however, this latest update release is the first one actually designed to detect and remove the Flashback trojan from Mac laptop devices, as well as patch up the Java vulnerabilities of which the trojan took advantage.

According to PCMag, another function of the update is to disable the Java plugin on all Web browsers (not just Safari) and turn off applet execution by default. In addition, Apple explained in its support document for the Java update, "Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets."

The Flashback trojan has been around in various forms since last September, but it wasn't until recently that it seemed to become a huge problem, prompting Java developer Oracle to release a security update back in February.

While Apple has been criticized for its slow response to the Flashback trojan, at least it seems its Java security updates have been working.

On April 12, ZDNet reported the results of a study conducted by security software developer Symantec, which found that the number of infected Macs has dropped to around 270,000 from more than 600,000 just last week.

Then again, it's just as likely the drop in infected devices is due to increasing awareness of the Flashback trojan's existence and to the release of tools to fight the malware by such Internet security companies as F-Secure, Symantec and Dr. Web, the firm that first discovered just how widely the trojan had spread back on April 4.


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