Category Archives: Apple

Apple, Tech

China stops fake Apple stores from using trademarks

The Chinese city of Kunming has been in spotlight for counterfeit Apple stores

The Chinese city of Kunming has stopped 22 fake Apple stores from illegally using the company’s iconic trademarks after Apple lodged a complaint with authorities.

 

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Kunming authorities found 20 unauthorized Apple resellers, according to a Friday posting made on the city government’s website. Currently, 11 of those resellers are being investigated. Two other stores were discovered for related violations.

IN PICTURES: Fake apple stores?

The city ordered all unauthorized Apple vendors to cease using the Apple trademarks by August 10, this past Wednesday. This included any decorative logos found on door entrances and clothes. All 22 stores complied with the demand.

Kunming authorities launched the investigation after Apple’s Shanghai office sent a complaint about the fake stores on August 2, according to the government posting.

Apple did not respond to comment. Kunming’s industry and commerce bureau could also not be reached.

News of Kunming’s fake Apple stores appeared last month when a blogger posted photos from one of the vendors. The stores were built to closely match the decor of Apple’s own official retail outlets, with employees even dressing similarly. The products sold, however, were said to be real.

Since the blog posting, the fake Apple stores have received unwanted attention from both the media and authorities. Kunming officials had launched an earlier investigation, in which they had found five unauthorized stores illegally using the Apple logo. Two stores were ordered to be shutdown.

Apple has become one of the most popular brands in China, according to analysts, with the company’s products proving to be a hit among consumers. Last month, Apple COO Tim Cook said the company’s revenue from China for this past quarter increased by more than six times from the same period last year.

But while Apple uses its own network of resellers in the country, the company only has four stores on mainland China, two located in Shanghai, the other two in Beijing. Long lines have formed at those retail outlets in the past when Apple launched its iPhone 4 and iPad 2 products, creating shortages for the products.

a+ certification, a+ certification exam, a+ certification training, a+ certifications, Apple, CCNA, CCNA Certification, ccna exam, Dell, Facebook, Google, IBM, MCITP, mcitp certification, MCITP Training, MCTS, Tech, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Azure

The 5 biggest IT security mistakes

IT security can be a thankless task no doubt and mistakes only magnify problems Like cleaning the windows, IT security can be a thankless task because they only notice when you don’t do it. But to get the job done in the era of virtualization, smartphones and cloud computing, you’ve got to avoid technical and political mistakes. In particular, here are five security mistakes to avoid:

 

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1. Thinking that the business mindset of the organization is the same as five years ago.

It’s not. Your power and influence are being whittled away as the organization you work for flings open the doors to allowing employees to use personal mobile devices at work, and pushes traditional computing resources and applications into the cloud — sometimes without your knowledge. You have to be proactive in introducing reasonable security practices onto what are fast-moving technology choices which are sometimes made by those outside the IT department altogether. It’s a “mission-impossible” assignment, but it’s yours. It may involve developing new policy guidance to clearly spell out risk factors so there are no false assumptions.

VIRTUALIZATION SECURITY: Shift to virtualized environments shaking up security practices

2. Failing to build working relationships with IT and upper-level managers.

IT security divisions are typically small in relation to the rest of the IT department. IT security leans on IT staffers to get basic security jobs done. The security professional may have specialized knowledge and a pocketful of certifications like the CISSP, but that doesn’t mean he or she is necessarily admired or liked because of that — especially as security people are usually the ones saying “no” to other people’s projects.

Moreover, don’t think the power structure is always pointing toward the chief information officer as top decision maker. A fundamental shift is occurring in which the traditional role of the CIO as commander of IT projects is declining in favor of the rise of the chief financial officer having the final say on IT projects. Some evidence shows the CFO doesn’t even like the IT department. The CFO’s ideas about security may only go as far as the general legal idea of “compliance.” The job for the security professional must be to communicate, communicate, communicate.

3. Not understanding that virtualization has pulled the rug out from under everyone’s security footing.

Organizations are well on their way to achieving 80% virtualization of their server infrastructure, and desktop virtualization projects are increasing. But security is lagging, with many incorrectly assuming it begins and ends with VLANs. The reality is that virtualization architectures change everything by opening new pathways that can be exploited. As has happened so many times before in the IT industry, groundbreaking technologies have become available for use with inadequate attention paid to the security impact.

Some traditional security products, such as anti-virus software for instance, often don’t work well in virtual machines. Physical appliances may have new “blind spots.” Today, specialized security products for virtualized environments are finally coming to market — and security professionals need to figure out if any of them should be used, while also keeping up with evolving security plans from vendors such as VMware, Microsoft and Citrix. Virtualization holds tremendous promise in eventually improving security, especially disaster recovery.

Apple, Microsoft, Tech

Hands on: Mac OS X, iOS morph into Lion

Apple goes all in on multi-touch gestures in its new OS

Computerworld – Apple has finally unleashed OS X 10.7 Lion, the revamped operating system for the company’s desktops and laptops. Lion is the latest in a string of major OS revisions released over the past 11 years, and this newest cat borrows some tricks from Apple’s mobile lineup.

 

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In fact, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs first unveiled Lion last fall, he made the point that it would incorporate some of the lessons learned from iOS, including automatic document saves, saved states for apps, and systemwide gestures that until now have been more common to the iPad and iPhone.

[ Visual tour: Mac OS X ‘Lion’ up close ]

In some ways, the rollout of multi-touch gestures may be the biggest change Lion offers when it comes to how you interact with the new OS, but it’s other features, like Auto Save, Versions and Resume, that many users will appreciate most.

The last major desktop operating system from Apple was Snow Leopard, which arrived in August 2009. When that OS was introduced, the iPhone 3GS was all the rage and the iPad was still under wraps. But Apple was already figuring out how it could use swipes, pinches and taps in what would become Lion.

Was the company’s decision to change in a fundamental way how Mac users interact with their computers a desperate bid to emulate the success of iOS or a stroke of brilliance? I think it was both — without the desperation.
Getting started

Lion, which costs $29.99 and is available only through the Mac App Store, requires users to have Snow Leopard in place first. And it has beefed up system requirements compared to Snow Leopard. Chief among them, Apple’s new OS requires an Intel 64-bit processor, so anyone with a Mac that doesn’t have at least a Core 2 Duo chip can forget about upgrading.

Lion also wants at least 2GB of memory to run — 4GB is better — and at least 4GB of free space on your hard drive for the file download. Yes, download. Rather than dashing to the store for a Lion installation DVD, you fire up the Mac App Store, buy the OS online, then download and install it. (No doubt, MacBook Air users will be delighted, since the Air doesn’t have a built-in optical drive.)

The bad news: Anyone on a slow connection is going to be waiting a while for the OS to download, although Apple has offered the Wi-Fi in its stores to help out people who don’t have broadband. The good news: If your household has more than one Mac, you can hop on that other Mac, use your App Store login there, click on the “Purchased” tab and install Lion using the same Apple ID. The bonus? You don’t have to enter a ridiculously long Genuine Protection ID like Windows users do.

For companies worried about updating a lot of Macs in the workplace, Apple has a solution: Enterprise customers with volume licenses can download the Lion installer, which places itself in the Applications folder, and then copy that installer to the machines being upgraded. Apple sent out the info in a PDF explaining what enterprise and education users should do. It also will offer a copy of Lion on a flash drive for $69.99 sometime next month.

Note: If you don’t save a copy of the installer before you update to Lion, you won’t be able to save it later. The installer deletes itself after the installation is complete; if you need it later, you’ll have to download it again from the App Store.

A couple more caveats: Lion no longer allows you to run software written for PowerPC, as the Rosetta framework that allowed older apps to run is now gone. And if your machine doesn’t have a glass multi-touch trackpad, you’ll be missing out on the new gestures built into Lion. (Earlier versions of the trackpad without the glass coating don’t support more than two-finger scrolls.)

Apple, iPad

The iPad goes to war

iPads and other ‘consumer’ tablets are becoming standard tools in the battlefield — and may migrate to other high-stress work

It’s not often you hear a defense contractor promoting “consumer” devices such as the iPad, but in the last few weeks, military manufacturer Harris Corporation has been pitching to journalists the iPad’s utility in the battlefield. The iPad is used to to send video of what the drones see, present real-time tactical maps, and analyze that information to direct military engagements, as well as to act as a communications and command console.

 

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Harris sells communications gear: portable 3G and Wi-Fi setups that let the military create battlefield “bubble” networks when and where needed. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan apparently winding down, I suspect its public marketing effort is meant to entice police and other first responders to consider using its gear in situations like the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, as well as the northern Japanese earthquake and tsunami a few months ago.

[ Read all of InfoWorld’s tablet deathmatch comparisons and personalize the tablet scores to your needs. | Compare the security and management capabilities of iOS, Android, WebOS, Windows Phone 7, and more in InfoWorld’s Mobile Management Deep Dive PDF report. ]

Such “bubble” networks are not new, though it’s clear that they’ve become much more important to today’s military to keep troops, drones, reconnaissance systems, and the like all linked together for the increasingly technological, networked methods of warfare practiced by the U.S. military. What does seem to be new is the portability of such gear; it’s designed to be set up by pretty much anyone, notes John Delay, chief architect of emerging business solutions, so it can be used more often and in more places.

But the iPad? That’s new — in the past, very expensive custom devices would have been created to handle the battlefield communications, view the reconnaissance images, and direct the drones. And they certainly didn’t have the battery life or light weight of an iPad, which are both major advantages in the battlefield.

Of course, those custom devices cost tens of thousands of dollars each, whereas a top-of-the-line iPad 2 costs $830. The military can afford to stockpile lots of iPads at that price, replacing any damaged in the battlefield easily and making them available to many more troops. Plus, an increasing number of troops — who tend to be younger and technologically adept — are familiar with them and with smartphones, helping speed critical training.

Apple, Google, Microsoft

Microsoft rivalling Apple and Google for app growth

Microsoft is claiming that its Windows Phone Marketplace is growing at the same rate as Apple and Google’s mobile app stores.

The Ballmer Brigade used the launch of the new Windows Phone Mango update to announce that it now has 18,000 applications in its store – which is impressive considering there were none last October.

 

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Microsoft also claims that it’s looking to beat the BlackBerry offering within the year, and is rivalling its peers for application development.

Gunning for Apple

Achim Berg, Corporate VP of Windows Phone Marketing, told the press: “We’re about to overtake RIM [in terms of the number of apps available], and we’re already head to head with iOS and Android in terms of growth.”

Microsoft says over 100 apps per day are being added to its Windows Phone catalogue, with that number increasing all the time.

However, there was nothing said about handset sales for people to actually download those applications on – we’re still waiting to find out how things are going on that front – although figures recently released by Gartner suggest that sales aren’t going all that well.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Windows 7

13 features that make each Web browser unique

Many cynical users assume Web browsers do little more than dutifully render HTML. The content is the most important part, they say, so it makes little difference which browser you use.

 

 


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This may be true for basic tasks, but for all their similarities, browsers differ in subtle and significant ways, thanks to the hard work of vendors looking to establish any edge that might attract more users to their stack of code. There are even some features that make each browser unique, and in the technology world, unique functionality often points the way forward.

[ Find out how to hack your browser in 7 easy steps | Also on InfoWorld: “HTML5 in the browser: Canvas, video, audio, and graphics” | “HTML5 in the browser: Local data storage | “HTML5 in the browser: HTML5 data communications” | “HTML5 in the browser: HTML5 forms” | “HTML in the browser: Geolocation, JavaScript, and HTML5 extras” ]

To get a better sense of the evolution of today’s browsers, we compiled the following list of promising features unique to one browser. Don’t think this was an easy task; many of the most important and competitive areas are hard to pin down. For instance, all browsers tap the power of multiple cores and make use of the video card, but each approaches this territory in a slightly different way.

Also note that while some of these features are found on only one browser, many can be imitated on other browsers by installing extra code. Some of these extensions even allow you to change the appearance of a browser so that it looks like another — you get the guts of one and the face of the other.

Given the pace of browser updates these days, don’t be surprised to find the best of the bunch being copied by competitors soon. After all, yesterday’s browser bells and whistles are today’s must-have features. Grab quickly.

Chrome: SPDY
When the https: protocol was designed, Web pages consisted of text and a few images. Today’s Web pages come packed with dozens of style sheets, JavaScript files, and an untold number of images. https: forces browsers to request each item individually, adding to the overhead.

Enter SPDY, an entirely new protocol Google has created to fight this sluggishness. Not many websites speak SPDY yet, but Google claims those that do can deliver their information about twice as quickly. Chrome is the only browser currently working with SPDY-enabled websites, many of which happen to sit in Google server farms.

Firefox: Deep extensions
All of the major browsers have plug-in architectures, but only Firefox offers a deep, sophisticated API. While other browsers allow you to write plug-ins in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, essentially creating a Web page that wraps around the Web page, Firefox goes one level deeper, giving you access to an API that allows you to build full desktop applications out of browser parts. This is largely an accident of history because Firefox was one of the first with extensions, and the other browsers that came along afterward decided the world didn’t need these extra features.

Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Tech, Twitter

Office 365 Beta Testers Run into Mobile, Mac Issues and Other Headaches

It’s been two days since the public release of Office 365 beta and Microsoft forums are lively to say the least. On the Office 365 community forum there are heaps of technical questions and complaints around some very specific problems that beta testers are encountering, as well as a smattering of compliments about the service.

 



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The majority of complaints—the threads with 10 or more posts; focus on issues with Sharepoint Online, Lync interoperability with Mac, and Exchange mobile syncing.

Microsoft beta testers seem to be having a hard time, especially with SharePoint Online. Several posters reported that their initial setup of Office 365 hangs during the SharePoint portion of setup:

“We are doing the standard setup of Office 365 and the SharePoint is hanging.”

“I am having the same issue, seeing ‘..this may take a few minutes’ on the sharepoint online site creation, now waiting for appox. 48 hours.”

“Two days later the sharepoint site has successfully been created. It just seems to take much more than a ‘few minutes’, but otherwise is fine now.”

Another big SharePoint issue, one that is generating multiple threat posts, is a problem with SharePoint sites:

“[The]SharePoint site doesn’t seem to exist. When I login, it either goes into a loop between windows live login and sharepoint.com…”

“None of the user accounts I created can access the sharepoint public or team sites.”

Some of the SharePoint access issues are actually problems with DNS records and not specifically with Office 365.

The majority of beta testers are technology professionals. Many of them have existing Exchange on-premise servers or are currently Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) customers. BPOS users have no choice but to adopt Office 365 since Microsoft is requiring them to transition within 12 months. One poster complained about a problem he encountered after migrating from BPOS, and that he can no longer send email from an external source to Office 365 after adding his company’s domain to the service.

There is an interesting post from a user experiencing problems setting up an Android phone with Exchange online. The user writes that he followed Microsoft’s instructions for configuring the device to sync with mail, calendar, and contacts. After doing so, he got only the cryptic error, “Failed to create the account, Please try again later.” The user noted that the same phone was previously able to sync with an on-premise Exchange 2007 server. A moderator on the forum, presumably from Microsoft, suggested the device be set to accept all SSL certificates and also suggested testing the validity of the connection to the online Exchange server. No response yet from the user if the suggestions worked.

Complaints are also being made about lack of support and the time it is taking to get an email invitation to test the service:

“This is IMO unacceptably slow service: ‘You will receive an email invitation from us as soon as your account is ready. We anticipate that the average wait for an account is approximately 2-4 weeks during the Beta period.'”

“I filed a support ticket…and got the answer to instead post my problem here in the forum.”

Questions abound about interoperability with Mac, particularly with Microsoft’s Lync client. A forum mod responded that while Lync 2010 is not supported on Mac, the Lync Web App—which can respond to Lync invites but not initiate them—can run on Safari and Firefox on Max OS 10.4.8+.

The comments are not all gloomy. One poster called Office 365 a “pretty great service” and another stated that “I’m pumped about being here and being part of the Beta, I also enjoy some of the challenges as I feel they keep your sharp.”

It’s important to note that Office 365 is still in beta and hopefully, Microsoft will have these issues worked out before final release. In the meantime, we have a request for comment out to Microsoft and will update this piece when they respond.