Security News

Howdy, Intego readers! We’re introducing a new weekly series on our blog called the Mac Security and Tech News Roundup. Every Friday we’ll bring you some of the week’s most interesting or valuable Mac security information, as well as notable news from around the tech world. We may even sprinkle some funny or offbeat stuff in, too. So without further ado, here’s what we found interesting this past week.

Security News

Macworld has a great article about understanding iOS passcode security, including an overview on how the passcode works, its weaknesses, and how to pick a better passcode.

From the Intego Blog

• Want to hear our CEO and our Senior Security Analyst talk about Mac threats and our new product line? Humor me and pretend you do — check out Jeff Erwin and Lysa (pronounced “List-uh” without the ‘t’, in case you were curious) Myers on the Tech Night Owl.
• Evernote got hacked and reset their users’ passwords as a precautionary measure. Make sure you change your Evernote password, and if you use that password on other sites, it’s a good idea to change those ones as well.
• Oracle released Java SE 7u17 with emergency security updates that resolves two vulnerabilities affecting Java running in web browsers. Make sure you update if you haven’t already.
• Malware writers have been trying to gain people’s trust with faked certificates for ages, and they’re at it again with Java.
• If someone gets access to your computer, everything on it is now in their hands. This sudo vulnerability is just one way of many ways to get full control.
• Having problems determining if the Adobe Flash Player update you came across is valid? This handy how-to gives an overview of what a plugin is, the security concerns surrounding them, and how to verify the update you’ve found is legit.

Apple News

• Apple’s plans to create an Internet radio service similar to Pandora or Spotify has hit a snag. The tech company is stuck in licensing negotiations with music companies. The service was slated to launch early this year but looks like it will be delayed to later this summer.
• iOS is taking enterprise market share from Android. Interestingly enough, according to the study by Egnyte, in Q3/Q4 2011 the iPad had 40% marketshare to iOS’s 28%, but for 2012 the percentages pretty much swapped — now iOS has 42% to the iPad’s 27%. For Q1 2013, the iPad stands at 30%, the iPhone at 48%, and poor Android has dropped from 30% to 22%.
• Is Apple Maps starting to hold their own against Google Maps? They had a rocky start when they debuted with wonky, bumpy terrain and roads leading to nowhere, but columnist John C. Dvorak compared Apple Maps to Google Maps and Waze for a driving test and found that Apple Maps provided better directions.
• Apple’s senior vice president Phil Schiller made fun of Android’s security issues on Twitter, seemingly forgetting about Apple’s own recent embarrassing malware breach.
• Apple’s tossing around the idea of letting their users “loan and resell used iTunes purchases” and has developed a way to transfer digital content while protecting publisher rights. If this gets solidified, it’d be pretty awesome to be able to sell or transfer your “used” apps, music, books, and other content to friends and family.

Notable Tech News

• Facebook is rolling out changes to the News Feed. The new look will be heavily inspired by their mobile app (first developed for iOS), including a left-side navigation browser. The goal is to “reduce clutter and focus more on stories from the people you care about.” What this means to you is you get to enjoy reading complaints from your friends to “bring back the old Facebook” for the next few weeks.
• Google debuted their new travel-oriented virtual tour guide app called Field Trip. Available for iOS, Field Trip identifies your location and pings you when you’re near something interesting, such as restaurants, deals, museums, historical landmarks, etc. It’s an awesome concept for an app, but I feel bad for all the khaki shorts and knee-high socks-wearing tour guides that will be put out of business — they’ll have to fold up their maps, take off their whistle necklaces, and find another profession.
• Skype updated its iOS app to fix a large number of bugs as well as make some improvements to the calling experience.

Random Awesomeness

• Marvel Comics has debuted Marvel Unlimited for iOS. It acts as a Netflix for Marvel comic books, where users can subscribe for $10 a month and access over 13,000 back issues of Marvel comics. It’s a pretty awesome way to enjoy Marvel Comics without accumulating thousands of issues and figuring out where to store them.
• Back in the day, Apple hired Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) to create illustrations for a Mac brochure distributed to college students. Groening also did some other artwork for Apple, including various posters and t-shirts. VintageZen has a collection of some of these illustrations that are definitely worth geeking out over.
• When Steve Jobs debuted the iPhone, he called a nearby Starbucks and jokingly ordered 4,000 lattes to go. Six years later, Apple fans still occasionally prank call the same Starbucks to make the same order. (FYI, in case you were wondering, 4,000 lattes would apparently take 48 hours to make at an average of 44 seconds per latte).
• Check out this feel-good story from Chris Gonzales about the coolest experience he had as an Apple Store employee. It’s a nice reminder to be decent to your fellow human beings.
• Apparently if you tell Siri “I’m so f*cked up,” she’ll offer to call you a taxi (below screenshot is via an iPad, but you get the idea). Or you could use this iPhone breathalyzer accessory.

And lastly, check out the iOS alphabet:

What were your favorite stories from this past week? Share them in the comments section! Also, make sure you follow us on Twitter and Facebook to catch more of the stories and fun stuff we share throughout the week.