I got an email today from some friends who run a Bay Area IT consultancy. They deal almost exclusively in the PC trade but are Mac savvy themselves, so I was startled a bit by the subject line for their monthly Good News / Bad News newsletter: Two Very Bad Mac OSX Viruses.

Of course, I knew from chatter over the summer and from more recent conversation that the days of Macs being impervious to viruses and malware are probably numbered and sure enough, even Apple Support now officially recommends users install antivirus protection on Mac systems:

Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.

The Apple knowledge base article goes on to recommend programs from Intego, Symantec/Norton and McAfee, all of which are commercially licensed products.

My consulting friends recommended iAntivirus, which is a free program, and said, “We have never used it but reviewers say it is good for being a free program. Download and use all free software with caution!”

Another free Mac virus checker (though the developer gratefully accepts all donations) is ClamXav, an updated version of which was released on Monday; the program gets 4.25 stars at Mac Update.

So, is that it? Are we all going to opt for the flu shot from now on? If you’ve installed antivirus software on your Mac, tell us how it’s going and what you like. If you haven’t, or don’t plan to, tell us why in comments.

The file management software Belvedere is a portable software program. The source code is provided as well on the program’s homepage. But what exactly are the features of the file management software?

Belvedere in its current stage can be used to define file management rules on certain folders of the system. The software program is capable of moving, copying, renaming, deleting or opening files that match conditions specified by the user.

Conditions for the name, file extension, size or dates can be configured. It would for instance be no problem to create a rule to move all files with the file extension xyz to another folder. Conditions can be combined so that Belvedere will automatically start the process when any or all of the conditions are met.

Belvedere is running in the background and checking automatically if any files meet the conditions set by the user. If that is the case it will automatically start the action defined by the user. A few things are problematic for now which hopefully will be changed in newer versions. It is for instance not possible to copy or move a file into a new folder if a file of the same name already exists in that folder.

Users working with extensions should also make sure to only add the extension and not the dot. Belvedere comes with a test button that can test the rules before they are added which is a good indicator if the rules have been properly configured.

You can download version .3 of the file management software over at Lifehacker.

File Management Software Belvedere

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Autobahn speeds up iTunes downloads and transfers by establishing multiple connections to the iTunes server. This stabilizes streams and increases downloads from iTunes which is especially important for large downloads or streams.

The only indicator that Autobahn is running is a system tray icon after its installation. It depends largely on the Internet connection if the service is able to speed up the transfers noticeably. It is obviously not possible to achieve higher transfer rates than possible.

The application is using quite some computer memory while running (26 Megabytes) and it is therefor recommended to only run it when it is needed.

Speed Up iTunes Downloads With Autobahn

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BitTorrent client uTorrent which was available on Windows PCs only, is now available for Mac as well. uTorrent is one of the most largely used application of BitTorrent. The company started working on their Mac project two years back. The alpha version of the release was leaked a few months back but the official release contains some improvements and is much better. Currently in Beta, the latest release can only run on Leopard/Intel Macs.

According to the VP of Product Management at BitTorrent, Simon Morris:

We’re obviously really psyched that we finally got this beta out there. This is indeed a port of the uTorrent source on top of OSX.

On Windows, uTorrent is by far the best BitTorrent client out there on a power:performance basis. Following on from uTorrent’s roots, we have continued to focus on only features that users really want, and we have avoided bloating up on lots of clutter. We’re now looking forward to bringing that specialness to the world of Mac-lovers.

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Related Articles at Startup Meme:

Microsoft has positioned itself at the top, a top that is targeted by hundreds if not thousands of companies. They have spread themselves from their core identities and they are opening themselves up for a loss of market share. For this article market share is defined as a broad term where Microsoft will lose users from its user base to its competitors.
Reason #6: The Juggernaut
Microsoft has always been viewed as the corporate beast that it is. It's always easier to degrade those that are on top than those who are up and coming. Microsoft is in a position of corporate and personal dominance. With total control of the Windows environment and the Microsoft Office platform, they can determine exactly when users are able to upgrade. People, in general, like choice and as it stands at this current time there is no competitor to Microsoft Office that is widely accepted. It can be argued that Open Office is a competitor but it has not been taken as serious as Microsoft Office has been. It's easy to target those on top but it's even harder to please all of those below you.
Reason #5: Lions, Tigers and malware Oh my!
It's a simple idea that if you're going to try and destroy something you target the largest audience; Microsoft has the largest user base of any software company. When a hacker or cracker decides to target a group it makes the most sense to target the Windows platform as it dwarfs all of the other competitors. Microsoft works diligently to combat these threats but with an ever changing environment it's nearly impossible to thwart all tangible threats. Also, the tech world expands rapidly which creates more drivers, languages, protocols, and lines of code to be written that are expanding the possibilities of vulnerabilities in software. Microsoft has to work twice as hard as the hacker or cracker does to keep them out, defense is much harder than offense, predicting as opposed to directing makes Microsoft's job endless.
Reason #4: Google
Google is no longer the underdog and is now a behemoth of a company, a company with a large pocketbook and resources. Google grew up right before many of our eyes. Starting out small and blooming into the massive corporate empire it is today. One thing Google has been able to maintain is that its name has never been tarnished by poor quality products, not to mention most products are free. It's the free mentality of Google that is the threat to Microsoft. Google has dominated the online landscape and is now moving into more traditional Microsoft territories. With the launch of Google Chrome and Android, Microsoft finds itself on the offensive against free products. While it is true that IE does not cost the user anything; the powerful and well trusted name behind Chrome will eventually give it the leg up on its Microsoft competitor. Android is a new mobile phone OS that Google is distributing for free as compared to the pay for OS, Windows Mobile. Free to a manufacturer of cell phones is a lucrative idea as they are able to have a greater margin of profit per handset sold. Google continues to slowly dig into Microsoft's market share on several different fronts with free products that are of high quality.
Reason #3: Open Source
The open source community continues to grow. From an OS offering of Ubuntu to the web browser Firefox; the community backed programs are beneficial and free option to the consumer. It's these types of initiatives that as they mature will become direct threats to Microsoft's offerings. One could argue that open source projects are vulnerable and inferior and that argue is made only by those who have never tried the products. There isn't much to be said about open source other than its free, community backed, growing daily and is quickly becoming a viable alternative to Microsoft.
Reason #2: Vista
Regardless of what state Vista is in today it launched to a very rocky start. When Microsoft lowered the initial PC requirements it shot itself in the foot. It allowed many users to install Vista on laptops that were not suited for the OS. It also gave users a very negative notion of Vista as compared to the rock solid performance of Windows XP. Today Vista has matured enough to become a well usable and stable OS but the consumer has already decided, regardless of its current state, that Vista is not acceptable. Microsoft has sold boatloads of copies of Vista but it would have sold a lot more if initial public reaction was that it was the hot new OS that everyone needs.
Reason #1: Apple
Although we said last week that OSX would never become mainstream, Apple has taken a huge leap in marketshare in the wake of the Vista fiasco. Apple saw an opportunity to advance its market share and directly attacked Microsoft's most recent offering. It's these attacks, or advertisements for OSX, that landed Apple at the number 1 spot. No other company spends millions of dollars to directly reduce Microsoft's presence in the home PC market like Apple does. It is also the best option, in terms of an OS, available to the consumer for a problem free PC experience. Apple has built itself on the legacy that "it just works" for there hardware and operating systems. If Microsoft produces another big blunder with Windows 7, Apple may be able to take a considerable stake in the market share.

source http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/11/21/six-reasons-microsoft-will-continue-to-lose-market-share

So if you are developing for the iPhone you might find some gems in this one to pick up!

Download: Pangea Software’s Ultimate Game Programming Guide for Mac OS X

TUAWNew Mac OS X malware - OSX_LAMZEV.A originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The new 4.01 updater for Premiere Pro now allows you import FCP projects (also supports OMF & enhanced AAF export).  This is perfect for Adobe video workflows needing to work with FCP projects. One example would be a 3D Studio Max, Maya, or Maxon Cinema 4D (my favorite) user needing to work with FCP users and their video timelines. Instead of exporting a single movie, you can now export an FCP XML file and import directly into Premiere Pro CS4 (4.01) From there you can goto Encore CS4 for Bluray output or import the Premiere Pro CS4 sequence directly into After Effects CS4.

Click here to see it in action:

Here’s a quick workflow step by step guide:

• Export your FCP project using FCP Export XML feature.  Note that PSDs & nested FCP sequences also import. Titles will import but you need to watch the font mapping and size. Make sure the same Apple codec is on the CS4 computer you are planning to use. Apple ProRes is now available for OSX & Windows. I highly recommend buying Quicktime Pro.

• From Premiere Pro CS4 (Windows or OSX) goto File >Import and import the FCP.xml file. Next, you’ll be prompted to locate the project assets.  If you get an error telling you that the video file is unsupported, then you have a codec issue. Again, make sure you have the same codec on CS4 machine. On macs, the codecs are located here: Macintosh HD>Library>Quicktime>….component. Some codecs are installed by FCP and the license requires you have to FCP installed.

• Once the import completes you’ll either see a folder in the Project panel or a message letting you know if there were any conversion issues. You can review this report and see what had issues converting. Some transitions or effects may not have mapped correctly and this will give you a complete list. If there are parts of the FCP timeline that would not covert (like Motion) , then they will be listed as off line but show up as place holders on the timeline to allow you to manually fix. Currently, there is no way to import Motion files.

•  If you need to jump to After Effects, you have 2 options.

Option 1: After you import your FCP project, you can save your new Premiere Pro project and quit. Next, launch AE and File>Import > Premiere Pro sequence. This will give you access to the same clips & effects that were available to Premiere Pro. (in this workflow, Premiere is working as the importer for AE workflows)

Option 2: From Premiere Pro, Select All clips on the timeline (CMD/Control A) and right click on any clip and use select “ Create After Effects Composition” This uses Adobe DynamicLink to allow you to jump back and forth between Premiere & AE.

Also remember that with CS4 at anytime you can File>DynamicLink.Send to Encore. This will allow you to get  your FCP timeline into Encore to create blu-rays , DVDs, and a ninteractive Flash webpage. By using this method, you can go back and forth between Premiere and Encore to make changes without need to render each time. With CS4, you only need to render during the Build process (last step).

TUAWCreator of Flick Fishing interviewed originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I am lucky enough to attend MAX this year, but have not blogged a single peep about it. That's not because it's been terribly dull, with no great announcements or code insights or geeked out super nerds with kilts playing Unreal Tournament on bean-bag chairs. Ho, no. There's been a ton of that. Sadly, there's also been a broken VPN client on my MacBook.

The problem was Heisenberg quirky for a while, such that any time I had some spare time and would swear I would figure out how to fix it, the problem would stop occuring. It only seemed to occur when I was stressed for time, at the client, or already grinding my teeth over some other problem. Luckily, if you use Google to search for 'Error 51: Unable to communicate with the VPN subsystem', you get two entries, one of which explains the whole thing. Note that, if you type 'Area 51', you will get considerably more than two results.

First, the word on the internet is "the Cisco VPN client tends to break with most OS X updates.". Like a good solider, I tend to accept OSX updates from Apple, mostly because I hope it will fix various annoying broken things, like the kernal panic when unplugging my Apple keyboard. While that issue persists, it looks like I've gained a new hassle by having an intermittently broken VPN. Expect it stopped seeming intermittent, starting last week, just before MAX and all the fun things I wanted to blog while sitting on a bean bag at Moscone West. So I'm fixing it.

The page continues; 'I've found the Cisco VPN client to be the least reliable VPN client I've ever used. In fact, I think it breaks during most updates, possibly because Cisco (a) doesn't bother to write a more modern launchd version, and/or (b) they put their StartupItem in the System/Library/StartupItems folder, which (unless I'm mistaken) is intended to be reserved for Apple software."

The best part of all was finding the solution. There is nothing that delivers greater nerd joy than a shell command for punching a troublesome process in the kidney. Since the console log reported "com.cisco.VPNClient[301]: Could not attach to driver. Is kernel module loaded?", the idea of giving the VPN driver a kick seemed worth a try. Here's the command:

sudo /System/Library/StartupItems/CiscoVPN/CiscoVPN restart

Which I ran as such:

Type that into terminal, along with your password, and you should be up and running. More on MAX in a bit; it's my turn (finally) to play some Unreal Tournament.