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The Russian security firm Dr. Web has uncovered another malware attempt on OS X systems that tries to exploit users with SMS fraud.

The new malware is a Trojan horse, dubbed "Trojan.SMSSend.3666," and is part of a family of Trojan malware for Windows and other platforms that have affected Windows users for years.

As with all Trojans, these pose as legitimate programs that are made available for download from a number of underground Web sites, with this current one for OS X appearing to be an installer for a program called VKMusic 4, a utility whose … Read more

One feature in Apple's iCloud service for OS X is its lock option, which allows you to remotely set a PIN for your Mac through iCloud's Find My iPhone service, and require that it be entered to boot the system.

This lock is similar to a firmware password for securing Mac systems. Not only does it prevent booting to alternative boot modes such as Safe Mode or Single User Mode, but it prevents loading in special hardware modes like Target Disk and Internet Recovery so the hard disk cannot be wiped or otherwise accessed.

Unlike the firmware password, … Read more

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt believes that Android's war with iOS is just about over -- and that his team won.

Speaking to Bloomberg in an interview published this morning, Schmidt said Android's ongoing market-share battle with Apple's iOS "is of the scale of 20 years ago -- Microsoft versus Apple." He went on to say that in his opinion, "we're winning that war pretty clearly now."

It might be difficult to argue with Schmidt's point. Research firm IDC reported last month that during the third quarter, Android shipments accounted for 75 percent of the worldwide market. … Read more

As with most e-mail clients, Apple's Mail program supports multiple accounts so you can access all of your e-mail from one program, and as such it is not uncommon for people to have different accounts configured for work, home, and other activities that they would like to keep separate. While convenient in some respects, there are times when composing messages using multiple accounts can have you redundantly selecting the account to send from.

By default Mail should use the current selected account as the "From" account when replying to a message, so managing replies or forwarding messages … Read more

Big changes to Firefox's "porn mode" -- the private-browsing feature that turns off recording cookies, history, and temporary files -- landed today in the Firefox Nightly build.

When it reaches the general public a few months from now in Firefox stable, the feature will allow you to run the private-browsing feature in a new window, without closing your regular instance of Firefox. This pulls the browser up to parity with Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Opera. Safari doesn't open private browsing into a separate window.

Firefox's project manager, Asa Dotzler, stated in the blog post announcing … Read more

Twitter has updated its Android and iOS apps with photo filters, following through on the rumors from just a few days ago. The release is timely, considering everyone's favorite photo-filter app, Instagram, just recently pulled integration from Twitter. The benefit of using the Twitter app to filter your photos is that they'll show up natively in Twitter.com and in the mobile apps. Instagram photos appear only as links now, requiring a browser window to view them at Instagram's Web site. If you prefer displaying your filtered photos within Twitter, here's how to get started with … Read more

Apple has released a firmware update that addresses a problem in which displays would flicker to black when used with the 2012 Mac Mini.

The problem, which we reported on in late November, was assumed to be related to one outlined by Intel involving its integrated HD 4000 graphics and a rumor arising from statements made by Intel representatives (which were later changed) that this was a driver-based issue that had been fixed and it would only be a matter of time for manufacturers like Apple to test and release updated drivers.

Rather than drivers, however, yesterday Apple issued an … Read more

Google finally got around to releasing a YouTube app for the iPad, and after using it for a few days, I applaud the search giant's efforts. The app feels quick and responsive, and all of the basic features -- accessing your account, commenting on videos, subscribing to channels, AirPlay support -- are present. (The ability to play audio of a video in the background after closing the app, however, is not.) The app also lets you create playlists, but this feature is somewhat buried. In this post, I'll show you where to go to create a playlist and … Read more

The bad directions issue that led local police in Australia to steer motorists away from Apple's Maps app may not entirely be the iPhone maker's fault.

Apparently there are two listings for the same problematic location in the Australian Gazetteer, the de facto local geographical dictionary that lists some 322,000 locations and their corresponding GPS coordinates.

As reported by The Register, this resulted in two possible results for "Mildura" -- one of which was located in remote wilderness more than 40 miles away from the town of the same name. People were reportedly getting stranded … Read more