Cracks in the Surface.

Think about the shitstorm that would be unleashed if this were an Apple product.

Hey @sjvn ! That’s why Apple is suing.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for ZDNet:

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, has granted Apple’s request to halt the sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which runs Google’s Android operating system. The Galaxy Tab’s crime? It looks like a tablet.

No. I’m not making that up.

and

Apple’s legal case rests on a single design patent, USD504889. In it, Apple claims “the ornamental design for an electronic device, substantially as shown and described.” You can see Apple’s patented design for yourself in this story. Looks pretty much like a tablet doesn’t it? Do you see anything about it what-so-ever that looks unique?

In fact, it looks pretty much like every tablet that’s ever been created in history. That’s because, “It’s A Tablet!!” There is nothing innovative or original about its design. It’s A Tablet!!

Really? Let me show you why Apple is suing:

That’s why. Idiot.

ZDNet’s Ken Hess: Apple doesn’t compete with Android.

Exactly.

Choice cut:

Apple operates in a vacuum. They always have. Apple’s designers aren’t thinking about whether an Android phone has this or that extra battery-consuming port or another useless feature, they’re focused on building a product that people want. And, one that people want to pay a lot of money for. I doubt anyone at Apple says to a coworker, “Hey, dude, did you see my (insert Android-based phone name here), it has this. We should totally put one of those on the next iPhone.”

Nope, not a conversation that you’ll ever hear.

Nothing to add, besides my thought that I don’t believe for one second that Foxconn’s CEO actually talked about an unreleased Apple iPhone vs. the Samsung Galaxy S III. He has been misquoted before, and he’s smart enough to know that this is a huge No-no.

Google didn’t infringe on Oracle’s Java patents…really?

It’s the talk of the town right now: A jury has decided that Google didn’t infringe on Oracle’s Java patents.

Big win for open source, right?

Nope. Why? I’m glad you asked!

Here’s the thing: Can a layman jury really, I mean really, decide on this?
This is a highly technical matter, one which most engineers will have a tough time sifting through, and we expect a bunch of people, randomly picked off the street, to decide such an issue? Really?

I think Google lucked out BIG TIME here.

I like ZDNet’s Steven Shaw’s take on this issue very much. Please read it. It makes sense, unlike the decision handed down by this jury.

Google may have prevailed, but fundamentally it seems reasonable for the owner of Java to expect to profit when others profit from Java.

ZDNet’s Jason Perlow nails it in his follow-up.

ZDNet’s Zack Whitthaker is trolling Apple…again…for Kaspersky…

Over at ZDNet, Zack Whittaker is trolling Apple for antivirus firm Kaspersky, nonetheless.

Yep, you read that right: Kaspersky, having been caught lying about Apple before, is bitching about being denied to write antivirus software for iOS.

Think about that: A company that makes it’s living writing software to protect your computing device calls iOS/OS X unsafe. I wonder why?

Also, just for shits and giggles: Kaspersky’s Flashback removal tool failed hard.

We all know by now that Zack Whittaker doesn’t do fact checking, because it get’s in the way of page hits, but man…now he’s really trolling…

Read it if you must at the above link.

Steven Sande of TUAW nails my favourite troll at ZDNet: Jason D. O’Grady.

Steven Sande at TUAW slams ZDNet’s no. 1 troll Jason D. O’Grady for an unbelievably stupid article.

I was planning on writing a similar post, but after having read Steven’s article, there’s really nothing else to say. Recommended reading.

Fact check fail: Zack Whittaker (ZDNet) style.

Zack Whittaker for ZDNet on why Apple’s Phil Schiller left Instagram:

A senior Apple executive quit Instagram because it “went to Android,” according to reports. Did he jump, or was he pushed? Apple’s closed wall nature points to corporate paranoia.

Apple’s Phil Schiller on why he left Instagram:

Instagram is a great app and community. That hasn’t changed.
But one of the things I really liked about Instagram was that it was a small community of early adopters sharing their photographs.
Now that it has grow(n) much larger the signal to noise ratio is different.
That isn’t necessarily good or bad, it’s just not what I originally had fun with.

Yep.

ZDNet’s Zack Whittaker: My iPhone, the data hog.

Zack Whittaker of ZDNet on why he went back to his beloved Blackberry:

I’ll spare you the details, click the link above if you must, but this piece is so full of stupid I’m almost at a loss for words.

Zack explains that his Blackberry was failing him in Brusseles, and when he got back to the UK, he switched to an iPhone. He then goes on to tell us about the easy setup process, and his travels across the world. He mentions being warned that international roaming is expensive, by his new iPhone, and being the smart traveler he is, he’s not worried about that.
In the end he pays USD 230 for roaming, which makes him switch back to his trusted Blackberry.

He also adds the cost of the iPhone, his having to go home because he forgot his passport, and a new BB Bold to his total cost…
Why is beyond me.

I’m not sure what Zack is trying to tell us either to be honest. Is he implying that his iPhone cost him USD 1.950? Is he telling us his BB wouldn’t have had the same roaming fees, or the same data usage? Well, that would be silly to suggest. Data doesn’t differentiate between devices.
So what is it? It couldn’t be that Zack ignored the warnings, and is now tying to blame his iPhone in a link-bait article, right?

See Jason (D. O’Grady)? That’s how Apple rolls.

Apple last week patched all Macs that were potentially affected by the Flashback drive-by malware.
I’m sure Jason D. O’Grady is happy about that.

How did they do it?

They saw what was happening, they tought about how to best fix it, they implemented two Java updates to fix the underlying vulnerability, rolled them out, and then they issued a third patch that actually removes the malware, and does a few other cool things, like disabeling Java for all users unless it’s been used in the last 35 days. Boom!

Once the patch disables Java, a user has to manually enable it if he needs Java applets to run on his Mac. Most people don’t. This is a totally new approach to a problem like this: Apple is proactively countering the threat. Well played!

Law of Vulnerabilities Blog via Macworld:

This is exciting and to my knowledge nobody has done something like this before. It makes total sense to me: We have been telling users to disable or uninstall Java if they do not need it, but we know very well that only very security conscious users will do so.

See Jason? That’s how Apple rolls.

That’s not how Apple works, Jason (D. O’Grady of ZDNet).

Much entitled-feeling blogger Jason D. O’Grady of ZDNet has another piece of work out. This time about Flashback…somewhat late to the party, but I digress…

Here we go.

If Apple doesn’t act swiftly and decisively on Flashback its squeakily clean image as the virus-free computer platform will quickly become damaged goods.

Flashback is a so called “drive by” malware, not a virus.

On April 4 Russian antivirus company Dr. Web revealed that over 600,000 Macintosh computers are infected with Flashback trojan and Apple reacted somewhat slowly, waiting until April 10 to published a support knowledge base article HT5244 (”About Flashback malware”) which states that it is developing software that will detect and remove the Flashback malware.

This makes it sound like the timeframe is massive. It’s not. Usually companies are notified by the people that find these things before making it public. Sometimes they’re not. The first scenario gives the company time to fix the bug and deploy a fix to it’s users, the latter does not.
Apple doesn’t react in blind panic. Ever. They see a problem, they fix it, and then they deploy it. Which is exactly what they have done. The Java update securing Macs from Flashback (if they weren’t infected by then) was released on April, 3rd. One day before the malware became public knowledge, so O’Grady is misleading his readers, because he doesn’t mention that until later when he quotes Apple’s actual documentation. He talks about a support document…whoppie-frackin-doo.

Apple doesn’t provide a timetable for the release of the disinfectant software but presumably it will come in the form of a Security Update in the coming days or weeks.

Again, this is how Apple works. They say something when they have something to say. They don’t promise something if they can’t do it. We all know that, and Apple says so too:

For the protection of our customers, Apple does not disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until a full investigation has occurred and any necessary patches or releases are available.

…but that doesn’t fit into Jason’s article, so he doesn’t mention it.

The problem is that this is simply too long. Apple should have acknowledged the problem within a day or two, then released a patch within a week. Today marks one full week since the announcement of the Flashback malware and Apple still hasn’t released the patch — which is unacceptable.

So let me get this straight: Apple releases a Java update a day prior to the malware becoming public knowledge, tells us that there’s a problem and it’s working on fixing it for infested Macs, but that’s not good enough? Again: The patch was released a day prior to anyone even knowing of the malware – other than the hackers, and that’s “simply too long“? Ok.

Sure, you can update your Java or disable it outright, but non-technical users are unlikely to do this. I know several users that have their Software Update frequency set to “weekly” and many that wait or never install innocuous and generic sounding updates like “Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7.” The problem is that Apple sugarcoats the issue and goes out of its way to hide the fact that Java “Update 7″ fixes a serious malware infestation that steals user names and passwords to popular websites by monitoring your browsing habits.

Wow…so much bullshit in such a short paragraph…
Most people do not have a need for Java, so Appple doesn’t even include it in Lion and above, and almost all Mac users are savy enough to go into Preferences and click a box I would think, but Jason has anectotal evidence, like he has in most of his articles, so it must be so. Also, if those “several users” “never install innocuous and generic sounding updates” they probably didn’t give Flashback their administrator password, no? And wouldn’t those users not be caught dead on the beyond shady websites especially crafted to host Flashback in the first place? Yeah, thought so…
Software update has a pretty good description about what it’s updates contain btw…but he knew that…

The days of Apple’s “security by obscurity” model are over. The company’s profile has been raised to the point that it has officially arrived on hacker’s radar. Apple’s reputation hangs in the balance on how quickly it handles the Flashback (and other) malware and there’s a lot at stake.

Security by obscurity actually refers to a completely different “concept”…this guy simply has no idea…
Anyhow, Flashback is serious, to quote Arik Hesseldahl of AllThingsD:

The trojan targets a vulnerability in software that is not even an Apple product: Java. You’ll recall that Java is add-on software created by Sun Microsystems and now the property of the software giant Oracle. Rather common, it is no longer shipped as a default add-on to Apple’s Mac OS X beginning in 2011, when Apple first shipped Lion.

Through this hole in Java, certain Web sites are serving up malicious Java applets. Once inserted on the machine, the software then prompts the user to enter the password they use to run the machine. It attempts to trick the user by appearing as an update to Adobe’s Flash video and animation software.

If the user doesn’t fall for the trick, it tries something else. Here again it checks to see if there are any Microsoft Office applications on the machine, or Skype. If there are, it deletes itself.

Then it does something interesting. It scans the contents of the Mac’s hard drive to determine if certain applications are present, and if they are, it deletes itself. Among those applications are security tools such as Little Snitch, a networking security tool, or Packet Peeper, another security tool. It also deletes itself if it sees the user has installed XCode Mac developers tools, and any kind of anti-virus software.

Presuming it finds none of them, it proceeds to contact a command-and-control server for the purpose of downloading and installing more malware. That malware is being used to commandeer the Macs and generate Web traffic to boost revenue for some pay-per-click ads on Web sites, making money for someone who’s behind the scheme.

Lots of “ifs” in there. I’m not trying to make this threat appear to be small, because it’s not, but a lot of things have to allign for Flashback to work. Maybe Jason should do some research…I’d hate to read his books if they are anything like his articles.