Apple Quick Tips Newsletter Vol V

We have to start this newsletter by touching on the recent reports of an Apple computer targetted Trojan 'virus' called Flashback. Flashback reared its ugly head last week and has caused widespread hyperbole and minor panic. It's the first legitimate virus most Mac users have encountered and has resulted in a flood of "I told you sos" from the PC community. So far it has infected over 650,000 computers. Evidently this piece of malware poses as a Flash installation tool. Upon infection the trojan targets specific webpages, modifying them with the intent of committing pay-per-click fraud.

If you're running Lion 10.7.3 or Snow Leopard 10.6.8 you are not in any danger. Apple has already released a patch that fixes the hole in the Java application, and if you do a simple software update you will have no problems with this Trojan. Apple has also announced that it will release a removal tool in the next few days.

For Macs running Mac OS X v10.5 or earlier you can protect yourself by disabling Java in your web browser's preferences.

For anyone confident with using the Terminal command line interface, you can check for the existence of the virus (and remove it if it is there) F-Secure has posted the instructions here, and recently added a more user-friendly detection tool. Feel free to contact me for more information.

Now on to the tips.

iTunes Home Sharing. This is one of my favourite features in iTunes, perfect for a home with multiple computers, mobile devices and iTunes libraries. Simply go to the advanced tab in your iTunes menu bar, turn on Home Sharing using your Apple ID and do the same for all your devices. You can find the control in your Music settings of your iPhone and iPad. Once Home Sharing is on you can access all the music and other files in any of your iTunes libraries from any of your devices.


Creating Multiple iPhoto Databases As our iPhoto libraries continue to grow, thus gobbling up computer space and speed, it can become necessary to run multiple iPhoto libraries, for example a working library, an archived library, or a topic-specific library. You'll probably want to export photos from your main library to add to the new library, then close the iPhoto progra. Now hold down the Option key while re-opening. You're given a dialogue that will allow you to either create a new library or toggle between your existing libraries. Give the new library a name and then import the selected photos into your new library.

Four Favourite iPhone Apps
Everlight Free - A flashlight app right on your phone.
Remote - Allows you to control your iTunes library or Apple TV from your phone
Shazam - This app is for music lovers, it will help identify untitled songs in your iTunes library or on the radio.
Dragon Dictation - Records your voice and transposes it into text. Actually works.