Weekly Mac Security and Tech News Roundup: 4/26/13

Rebecca Kelley

12 years ago

We’re on the cusp of May! Hard to believe that spring is on our doorsteps and summer will be fast approaching. Hopefully you’ll be enjoying some sunshine and warmer weather this weekend, but if not, cuddle up to a warm fire with a hot drink of your choice and enjoy this week’s batch of links.

Security News

As we mentioned in last week’s roundup, more and more spammers are using recent tragedies and newsworthy events such as the Boston bombing and the West, Texas fires to spread malware. Infected videos and articles and fake charity sites have been popping up left and right to capitalize on these popular news trends. Remember to be smart, keep your virus definitions updated, and don’t click on any suspicious links.

From the Intego Blog

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your information likes to hide in various spots on your computer. It’s important to locate your scattered data so you can adequately protect it.
Unfortunately, common sense and utilizing ad blockers aren’t enough to keep you safe against malware infections. Lysa explains why and reminds us that a layered approach to security is the safest strategy.
A new targeted attack against Uyghur Mac users has been floating around. Make sure your Intego antivirus software definitions are updated and you should be protected against this attack.

Apple News

The Guardian has a list of 5 ways Apple has lost its bite since Tim Cook took over as CEO.
Apple has a new, almost wordless iPhone ad. All Things D loves it. What do you think?
The MacBook Pro with Boot Camp was found to run Windows more reliably than Windows PCs.
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference will take place June 10-14 in San Francisco, CA. Tickets went on sale April 25, so if you’re interested in attending, pick up your tickets now.
A redditor went to the Apple “Pop-Up” Museum display in Atlanta last weekend and uploaded some images from the event.
Is Tim Cook facing a mutiny? A “whisper campaign” appears to be targeting the Apple CEO as being a “poor choice to run the company.” He may be an unpopular CEO, but a charity auction offering coffee with him has exceeded $500,000.
Apple allegedly returned 8 million iPhones to Foxconn because of “shoddy workmanship.”
Apple’s share of smartphones has slipped — it posted 6.6% year-over-year growth vs. the entire market growing 41.6%. Smartphones, meanwhile, have outsold feature phones for the first time.

Notable Tech News

Apparently the CEO of Grooveshark is broke. The music startup has faced hard times these past couple years and is losing marketshare to Spotify while battling lawsuits from major record labels.
Last week CISPA, a major cyber security bill, got passed in the House but this week it has been halted by the Senate and is expected to get “shelved.”
NASA recently launched three smartphones into orbit to use them as low-budget, experimental satellites.
A fake tweet claiming the White House had been attacked sent Wall Street in a panic and resulted in stocks plummeting. Once the news had been identified as a hoax, the stock market rebounded but questions arose as to how vulnerable the stock market is if it responds in such a knee-jerk reaction to breaking news that hasn’t yet been verified.
Wired has an interesting article about how Facebook Home is encouraging selfishness.
Windows 8.1 will reportedly bring back the Start button disgruntled Windows users miss so dearly.
Check out a fascinating Ars Technica article about the rise and fall of AMD.

Random Awesomeness

QZ.com has an intriguing article about how someone concocted a fake persona and became “Internet famous” for only $68.
Wired has a list of old websites that have been amusingly frozen in time. Dubbed “Internet archaeology,” the list visits awesome forgotten gems like the website for the 1996 movie Space Jam and the site for Crash Bandicoot: Warped, a Playstation videogame released in 1998.
Sometimes Ghana can’t import the official movie posters for big Hollywood films. When that happens, they improvise.