Clapway: os x

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Poor #Siri, now even Mac users may experience #Cortana! - http://clapway.com/2015/08/19/mac-finally-gets-cortana-support-thanks-to-parallels-desktop-11-113/

Parallels, a company well known for its cross-platform solutions, has a surprise for Mac users: they’ve managed to bring over Windows 10’s virtual assistant software, Cortana, to their Parallels Desktop 11 users.

Cortana Gets More… Virtual

Parallels has been in the business of bringing OS-virtualization software for many years now, and they’ve grown to be quite good at it. Version 11 of their newest software is bringing a host of new features to the platform, but Cortana might be the most noteworthy, if not the most novel one.

Now, anyone familiar with Parallels, or their products, knows there is one caveat to this: Parallels Desktop is a virtual machine. That means that you won’t be installing the Cortana software directly onto your Mac computer in the same way you might install Photoshop. Instead, the software creates a virtual instance of a licensed version of Windows 10 in a blended sort of way.

This means that you are essentially running Windows 10 inside a window on your Mac. It’s a confusing concept to understand when you’re not experiencing the software yourself.

When Worlds Collide

Parallels is most notably known for the way they’ve been able to seamlessly blend virtual machines into Mac OS, and they’ve done some cool stuff with Cortana, too. For instance, Cortana will pop up from the OS X dock if you say “Hey, Cortana,” similar to how it works on Windows 10. It can also launch Mac apps in addition to its normal functions like checking the weather, searching the internet, and the usual.

Cortana aside, Mac users can also use features from OS X on Windows apps. For instance, Macs that sport Force-Touch touchpads can use them to look up word definitions in Microsoft Word.

Get it Now

Parallels Desktop 11 will be available on Wednesday, so if you’re reading this article then you can go check out their site now to pick it up. You will need a Windows 10 license though, and if you don’t already have Parallels Desktop then the standalone will set you back $79.99. Current users will have to pay a $49.99 upgrade fee. There is also a Pro edition, which features developer tools and cloud storage for $49.99 a year.

Here’s the link for the new Cortana-wielding software.

Now, you can get the latest tech reviews from Clapway Trends:

Mac Finally Gets Cortana Support Thanks to Parallels Desktop 11

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

If #MacOS is in it with #malware, what exactly is the point? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/05/who-says-mac-os-is-malware-free-how-hackers-are-exploiting-macbooks-through-serious-flaw-353/

If you ask most casual Mac OS X users why they made the switch from Windows to Apple’s OS X, an overwhelming amount of them will talk about ease of use and the lack of malware. For many Apple fans, having the sense of security that Mac OS provides is more than enough to pay the premium associated with Apple products.

On Monday, security researchers at Malwarebytes stumbled across an installer that is capable of exploiting systems without the need for a system password.

What’s the Skinny?

In a recent update to OS X — affecting 10.10.4 and 10.10.5 versions of OS X — developers overlooked standard safeguards which have allowed hackers to view and create files with root privileges. This severe exploit has allowed hackers to infect Macs with adware and junkware through malicious installers without needing the user’s password to gain root access to the system.

In a recent blog post Malwarebytes goes into deeper technical detail about how hackers are able to exploit the flaw.

Users Running 10.11 Are Golden

Stefan Esser, a security researcher at Malwarebytes, has said that the flaw is currently present in 10.10.4 and possibly in some versions of 10.10.5 of OS X. Esser said on Twitter that the exploit is apparently fixed in the 10.10.5 beta “2”. Users currently running 10.11 have nothing to worry about since researchers are unable to reproduce the bug while running this version of OS X.

Wait for the Patch

The fix in the 10.10.5 beta and the absence of the bug in 10.11 is a good sign that Apple is currently hard at work trying to patch the flaw for users across the board. Unfortunately, for systems still running 10.10.4, there is no real fix available at the moment. Esser has produced a third-party patch, but says that this could also potentially be a problem since it isn’t made by Apple.

So, for users currently at risk, browsing the internet is potentially dangerous. Esser’s patch can be found here, but Apple advises against installing any type of third-party patches, and suggests users just hang tight until they can get an official patch out soon.

Get a bit out of your tech reviews with Clapway Trends:

Who Says Mac OS Is Malware Free? How Hackers Are Exploiting Macbooks Through Serious Flaw