Copies of the Transmission BitTorrent client have been found to contain KeRanger ransomware, the first fully-functional ransomware of its kind on the OS X platform. Palo Alto networks provides methods on how to discover if you have been infected by a compromised Transmission installer, as well as removing it from your system. Apple’s XProtect malicious malware system has also been updated. Strangely enough, there doesn’t appear to be any information on what you can do if your files haven’t been encrypted, even if you’ve found the infected version of Transmission on your machine.
The San Bernardino DA says the iPhone at the centre of the FBI and Apple court case could contain a “dormant cyber pathogen”, whatever that means. It sounds scary and all, but if there is some kind of electronic malware on the phone held in check only by Apple’s passcode, don’t we want to keep it there instead of on the world wide web?
Late last week a number of amicus briefs were filed in support of Apple from a number of notable technology companies. Many startups and bigger names including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco, Amazon, and more, have all shared their support for Apple’s position in that the FBI using the All Writs Act to force Apple to assist them in unlocking the iPhone is unprecedented and dangerous.
It’s said Intel will be producing a significant portion of LTE modem chips for the next iPhone. Somewhere in the vicinity of 30 to 40% of iPhone LTE modems will be produced by Intel, with Qualcomm producing the rest.
In Australian news, Transit App has been available in Sydney and NSW for about a month now. Their introductory post on Medium says the entire app has been designed around your next departure, by whatever mode of transport you prefer: light rail, trains, bus, or even Uber. They claim they’re the most popular public transport app in North America, but I’d be interested to see hear how it compares with existing transport apps.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has said Mac support won’t be coming to the platform until Apple builds a good system. He’s refers of course to Apple’s graphics cards, which have never been powerful enough to support any kind of high-end video gaming, with the workstation-class GPUs featured on the Mac Pro better suited to computational tasks than the kind of graphics tasks that suit VR gaming.
Macworld’s Kirk McElhearn answers reader questions about iTunes, including simplifying the interface and moving individual items out of your iTunes library to save space.
Popular communications tool Slack is getting voice calls, with the beta rolling out to its desktop platform first and others later.
Also from iMore this morning is a recommendation of ten Mac apps everyone should own, or at least consider owning.
Touch Arcade covers what may be the last hole of Desert Golfing, a seemingly impossible hole that may not be possible to finish.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/03/monday-morning-news070316/
