Tag Archives: legal

Snow Leopard Security Update Kills PowerPC Apps Using Rosetta

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

While the odd “CUI Error” experienced by some users after upgrading to OS X 10.7.3 earlier this week has garnered a fair amount of attention, it appears that a security update released for Mac OS X Snow Leopard at the same time is also causing major issues for users who rely on older PowerPC applications that run under Apple’s Rosetta framework. Security Update 2012-001 was released alongside OS X 10.7.3 on Wednesday in order to bring some of the security fixes found in OS X 10.7.3 to users still running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. But as noted in several discussions at Apple’s forums ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) and elsewhere, users are experiencing a variety of problems with Rosetta apps following the update, including repeated crashes when trying to use any commands from the applications’ main dropdown menus. Users are reporting a significant number of applications being affected by the issue, including Microsoft Office X and 2004, older versions of Adobe Photoshop, Quicken, Filemaker 7, and various other applications that had been written to run on PowerPC chips used in Apple’s older machines. With Apple’s transition to Intel, the company developed the Rosetta framework to allow those applications to continue to function on new hardware. Apple has discontinued Rosetta in OS X Lion, but it was still included as an optional install in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and a number of users have continued to use PowerPC applications on those systems either because they do not wish to upgrade or because newer versions are simply not available. As noted in the Apple discussion forums , one user has worked to create a patch to address the issue, but the patch does not yet appear to work for all Rosetta applications. This is a band-aid and is only recommended in emergency situations. Apple is currently working on a fix, but until that happens, we are stuck with reverse-engineering their update. I hope this helps those in distress from this update. Those who have spoken to Apple customer service about the issue have received varying responses, from notes that the company doesn’t yet know what the problem is to claims that there is no issue and that Rosetta support has simply been discontinued, with the latter being unlikely to be true given that the change occurred with a minor security update. Continue reading →

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iPhone 4S Coming to Indonesia, Costa Rica, and France’s Free Mobile on January 27 [iOS Blog]

Posted on January 25, 2012 by admin

Following a major expansion of iPhone 4S availability to China and 21 other countries two weeks ago, Apple appears to be preparing to make a few more additions to the device’s market reach this Friday, January 27. Apple’s current iPhone partners in Indonesia, Telkomsel and XL have both announced that they will begin carrying the iPhone 4S on Friday. Telkomsel is the country’s number one carrier with over 100 million customers, while XL ranks number three with approximately 46 million customers. Meanwhile, the iPhone 4S will be arriving in Costa Rica on the same day, with newcomers Claro and Movistar joining existing iPhone partner Kolbi in offering the device. iPhone 4S teaser notice from Telkomsel While France already has several carriers supporting the iPhone and the country is typically among the first to offer new iPhone models, the country’s iPhone offerings may be ripe for a shakeup as new carrier Free Mobile will also begin offering the iPhone 4S on January 27. The carrier is currently offering unlimited talk/text/data packages without phones priced at €19.99 per month with no contract. Current customers of Free’s home Internet service pay only €15.99. The carrier has yet to announce pricing for any iPhone plans that could come on contract with subsidized devices, but The Connexion reports that Free’s iPhone plans would be “half the price” of competitors offerings. Continue reading →

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Apple Seeds OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D50 to Developers [Mac Blog]

Posted on January 25, 2012 by admin

Apple has pushed out Build 11D50 of OS X 10.7.3 to registered developers. Apple continues to report no known issues in the seed notes, and asks developers to focus their testing on Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari. The previous builds had appeared to be close to a final release, but Apple is clearly still making some final tweaks to the update. The release description has indicated that the main improvements in OS X 10.7.3 will be support for several new languages and fixes for issues related to smart cards, directory services authentication, and Windows file sharing. Continue reading →

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EFI Firmware Update Brings Lion Internet Recovery to Mid-2010 13-Inch MacBook Pro [Mac Blog]

Posted on January 24, 2012 by admin

As noted in our forums , Apple today pushed out a new firmware update specifically targeting users of the company’s Mid-2010 13-inch MacBook Pro model. The new MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 brings compatibility with Lion Internet Recovery, allowing users of OS X Lion to reinstall the operating system from scratch on a brand-new hard drive without the need for physical recovery media. About MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection on MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) models. For more information about Lion Recovery, please visit this website: http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/ . The update has not yet appeared on Apple’s support downloads site, but weighs in at a small 2.9 MB for the user who posted the Software Update screenshot. Lion Internet Recovery debuted alongside OS X Lion on new MacBook Air and Mac mini models introduced last July. The feature adds a minimal bootable install onto a machine’s firmware to allow it to connect the Internet and download the full Lion operating system for installation. OS X Lion by default installs a recovery partition on the machine’s hard drive for this purpose, but for users who are installing a blank hard drive or whose recovery partition becomes inaccessible, Internet Recovery provides yet another fallback option for Lion installation. Following the July introduction of Internet Recovery on the current MacBook Air and Mac mini models, Apple extended the feature in mid-September to the then-current Early 2011 MacBook Pro models that had been released in February 2011. One month later Apple brought the feature to Apple’s current-generation iMac line , leaving only the aging Mac Pro without support for Internet Recovery. With today’s firmware update, Apple has for the first time reached back to a previous-generation model to bring Lion Internet Recovery to the 13-inch MacBook Pro that was offered from April 2010 through February 2011. Continue reading →

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EFI Firmware Update Brings Lion Internet Recovery to Mid-2010 13-Inch MacBook Pro [Updated] [Mac Blog]

Posted on January 24, 2012 by admin

As noted in our forums , Apple today pushed out a new firmware update specifically targeting users of the company’s Mid-2010 13-inch MacBook Pro model. The new MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 brings compatibility with Lion Internet Recovery, allowing users of OS X Lion to reinstall the operating system from scratch on a brand-new hard drive without the need for physical recovery media. About MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection on MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) models. For more information about Lion Recovery, please visit this website: http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/ . The update has not yet appeared on Apple’s support downloads site, but weighs in at a small 2.9 MB for the user who posted the Software Update screenshot. Lion Internet Recovery debuted alongside OS X Lion on new MacBook Air and Mac mini models introduced last July. The feature adds a minimal bootable install onto a machine’s firmware to allow it to connect the Internet and download the full Lion operating system for installation. OS X Lion by default installs a recovery partition on the machine’s hard drive for this purpose, but for users who are installing a blank hard drive or whose recovery partition becomes inaccessible, Internet Recovery provides yet another fallback option for Lion installation. Following the July introduction of Internet Recovery on the current MacBook Air and Mac mini models, Apple extended the feature in mid-September to the then-current Early 2011 MacBook Pro models that had been released in February 2011. One month later Apple brought the feature to Apple’s current-generation iMac line , leaving only the aging Mac Pro without support for Internet Recovery. With today’s firmware update, Apple has for the first time reached back to a previous-generation model to bring Lion Internet Recovery to the 13-inch MacBook Pro that was offered from April 2010 through February 2011. Update : Users are also reporting that similar EFI firmware updates are available for the Mid-2010 white MacBook and the Mid-2010 Mac mini. Continue reading →

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Apple’s Legal Fees Rumored to Top $100M on HTC Patent Dispute Alone

Posted on January 23, 2012 by admin

In his biography, Steve Jobs was so infuriated by Android’s similarities to the iPhone that he swore to spend all the money Apple had in the bank to defeat the platform. Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons passes along a rumor that Apple has spent $100 million in legal fees on just its first set of claims against HTC. Who knows if it’s true, but if so, Apple didn’t get a lot for its money. [Against HTC,] Apple started out with 10 patents — presumably its best ones — and ended up with a tiny victory on just one. Was that worth $100 million? Apple certainly can afford the legal fees, and shows no sign of letting up. HTC has two claims pending against Apple with the ITC as well, the first one due for a decision next month and the second in April 2013. And then there are other claims, all over the world, against HTC, Samsung and Motorola. But, Lyons notes, HTC, Samsung and Motorola are all countersuing Apple with their own patent claims and Apple already lost a major lawsuit to Nokia and had to pay the Finnish company not insignificant royalties its own patent infringement. Apple has hired some of the best — and most expensive — patent litigators in the world and, after several years of legal wrangling (and many more to come), doesn’t have much to show for it. Lyons points out that whether the $100 million figure is accurate doesn’t really matter. Apple and all the other cell makers are simply jockeying for position and trying to gain leverage for what is likely an inevitable legal settlement. “In that sense, whatever Apple is spending on legal fees is probably money well spent,” notes Lyons. Tomorrow, Apple will announce the most recent quarter’s additions to its cash pile, which totaled more than $80 billion three months ago. Apple can easily afford many more years of massive legal bills. Continue reading →

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Study Finds Wireless Data Consumption of iPhone 4S Doubled from iPhone 4 [iOS Blog]

Posted on January 6, 2012 by admin

Reuters reports on a new study from mobile network consulting firm Arieso showing that iPhone 4S users consume twice as much data as iPhone 4 users, with new features such as Siri driving the increased demand. IPhone 4S users transfer on average three times more data than users of the older iPhone 3G model which was used as the benchmark in a study by telecom network technology firm Arieso. Data usage of the previous model, the iPhone 4, was only 1.6 times higher than the iPhone 3G, while iPad2 tablets consumed 2.5 times more data than the iPhone 3G, the study showed. The spike in data usage for iPhone 4S users is likely not fully explained by the debut of Siri on the device, as a study by Ars Technica conducted soon after the device’s launch revealed an average of 63 KB of data used per query. With even high-use users reporting making an average of fifteen queries per day, that would equate to approximately 30 MB of usage per month if all queries were performed over cellular networks. As noted by ZDNet , other factors such as iTunes Match, iCloud, device speeds, larger photos, and “new toy syndrome” are also all likely contributing to the increased data usage. Data usage has become a major area of concern for carriers as they seek to deal with the surging demand from smartphone users that are growing rapidly in number and in their demands for content. While a number of carriers such as AT&T and Verizon launched the iPhone with “unlimited” data plans, most carriers have now switched to tiered data plans for new customers as they seek to encourage more modest data consumption and extract additional revenue from the heaviest data users. Consequently, customers have had to become more aware of their data usage needs as they determine which data plan to sign up for in order to avoid what can be significant overage charges. Continue reading →

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CloudOn Returns Cloud-Hosted Office for iPad to App Store [iOS Blog]

Posted on January 6, 2012 by admin

Earlier this week, stealth startup CloudOn released a free iPad app that aimed to bring the functionality of Microsoft Office to the iPad. One day later, the company declared the app “sold out” and pulled it until they could expand capacity. It has since been relaunched for some users , and will be opening up to more over time. In a post about the first day of CloudOn’s public availability, the company shares some additional information about its privacy and security policies. We enable you to be productive without overstepping our boundaries as a platform. Our privacy policy can be found at: www.cloudon.com/legal/privacy. We follow this privacy policy diligently across every part of our system. From a security standpoint, none of your files are stored permanently on any of our systems. Your files are pulled only when you need them. Once you’ve finished editing them, they are saved back to Dropbox and wiped from our systems. We encrypt your credentials and also have 256-bit encryption between our servers and your client. We take pains to audit our security processes and improve them on a regular basis. To determine if the application is available for download and if the service is active, visit the Status page on CloudOn’s website. The CloudOn for iPad app is available free on the App Store. [ Direct Link ] Continue reading →

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German Court Unlikely to Award Apple Injunction Against Galaxy Tab 10.1N

Posted on December 22, 2011 by admin

Last month, Samsung released a revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N design in Germany in hopes of avoiding an injunction barring the sale of the device under its original design over claims of infringement from Apple. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1N Arguing that the design changes did not go far enough, Apple quickly filed suit in an attempt to bar the new design as well. But according to Bloomberg , the judge in the new case does not seem inclined to support such an injunction, giving customers credit for being able to distinguish between the devices. The Dusseldorf court that banned sales of the Galaxy 10.1 on Sept. 9 is unlikely to grant Apple an injunction against the Galaxy 10.1N, Presiding Judge Johanna Brueckner-Hofmann said at a hearing today. Samsung has changed the device’s design sufficiently to distance it from the iPad, she said, adding that the view is preliminary. “Consumers are well aware that there is an original and that competitors try to use similar designs, so buyers are vigilant when looking at products,” Brueckner-Hofmann said. “We don’t think that someone buys a Samsung to make his table neighbor at the coffee house believe he owns an iPad.” A final decision on Apple’s request is scheduled to be released on February 9. After several early wins in its efforts to bar sales of Samsung’s tablet devices, the tide has begun to turn against Apple in a number of locations. In Australia, where an injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been lifted, Samsung is now using the legal fight to promote its device, calling the Galaxy Tab “the tablet Apple tried to stop”. Continue reading →

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AT&T Poised to Shatter Quarterly Smartphone Sales Record on iPhone 4S Surge

Posted on December 7, 2011 by admin

AT&T today announced that it sold approximately 6 million smartphones during the first two months of the fourth quarter, already approaching the company’s record for quarterly sales of 6.1 million units set in the third quarter of last year. In particular, AT&T credits the strong performance of the iPhone 4S for the sales boost. AT&T’s strong smartphone sales in part reflect a higher number of handset upgrades from customers who were waiting for the launch of a new iPhone. AT&T previously announced that it activated more than 1 million iPhone 4S’ in the first five days the device was available. AT&T said iPhone 4S sales remain strong. AT&T’s press release was accompanied by a regulatory filing noting that the strong sales will result in a negative impact on near-term earnings as the carrier absorbs the large subsidies it pays out for each handset. But beyond the short-term hit to earnings, the company expects those sales to result in improved performance over the long-term as it recoups those subsidies over the two-year terms of customers’ service contracts. The higher number of upgrades indicates that customers have continued to stay with AT&T in record numbers even in a very competitive environment, with more carriers than ever selling the iPhone. Also consistent with AT&T’s earlier guidance, these record smartphone sales are expected to have a near-term negative impact on margins and therefore earnings. However, AT&T expects that these postpaid customers over time will benefit the Company as, historically, postpaid customers produce stable revenue, reflecting their contract term, and higher average revenue per subscriber, including stronger data usage, than other customer categories. In addition to the iPhone 4S, AT&T also offers the new 8 GB iPhone 4 and is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone 3GS. Those lower-end devices have also proven popular with customers, continuing to drive sales growth for the carrier. Continue reading →

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