Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Thinks Cloud Computing Will Be 'Horrendous'

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak prefers to feel like he "owns" his digital data and feels uncomfortable uploading it to or downloading it from another company's cloud servers.
That's why in a recent Q&A session held after Mike Daisey's play, "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," Wozniak warned the audience of the dangers in cloud computing.
"I really worry about everything going to the cloud," he said, per Agence France-Presse. "I think it's going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years."
According to ZDNet, making a purchase via cloud often means consumers are not actually buying a product, but instead buying a license to use it. This is true even in the Apple App Store's Terms and Conditions, which reads "Apple is the provider of the App and Book Services that permit you to license software products and digital content."
Apple has used cloud technology since the early 2000s, including services such as MobileMe, which then morphed into iCloud last fall. The feature promises to do more than "just store your content," but to also "seamlessly integrate" all iOS devices, per the Apple website.
So is Wozniak knocking the company he helped create?
Maybe -- and that wouldn't be the first time. Earlier this summer, Wozniak criticized Siri, the iPhone's voice-controlled assistant, telling the Times Union that he was a bigger fan of the program when it was simply a downloadable app not owned by Apple.

But his cloud concerns are not completely far-fetched. Just this last weekend, tech blog Gizmodo's Twitter account was hijacked by a hacker who had breeched former contributor Mat Honan's iCloud account, allowing the hacker access to Honan's Macbook Air, iPhone, iPad and Twitter account. Ultimately this linked the hacker to passwords used for Gizmodo's resources.
"A lot of people feel, 'Oh, everything is really on my computer,' Wozniak stated at the Q&A. "[B]ut I say the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it."

Journalist blames Apple tech for allowing iCloud hack

Former Gizmodo reporter says device wipes and Twitter breaches occurred after an AppleCare technician fell victim to a bit of social engineering.

Former Gizmodo reporter Mat Honan is blaming an AppleCare technician for allowing his personal e-mail and Twitter accounts to be hacked, as well as the tech blog's official feed.
The Gizmodo breach, apparently perpetrated by a person or group of people calling themselves Clan W3, was brief but resulted in racist and offensive tweets being sent to the tech blog's 415,000 followers on Friday. Gizmodo initially blamed its former reporter for the tweets and quickly regained control of its account.
But Honan, who currently works for Wired, was not so fortunate. He described in a blog post how he had learned his iCloud account had been breached by a hacker who wiped his devices and gained access to his Gmail and Twitter accounts. Now he says an Apple technician fell victim to social engineering, a technique of manipulating people instead of computers to perform a task or divulge information:

I know how it was done now. Confirmed with both the hacker and Apple. It wasn't password related. They got in via Apple tech support and some clever social engineering that let them bypass security questions. Apple has my Macbook and is trying to recover the data. I'm back in all my accounts that I know I was locked out of. Still trying to figure out where else they were.

Honan says the hacks occurred Friday evening when someone gained access to his iCloud account and reset his password. That led to the remote wipe of his iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air and hijack of the Twitter accounts. The blog also describes the challenges he faced in regaining control of his devices and accounts.
He said he initially suspected the hacker used brute force to learn his seven-digit alphanumeric password, but Honan said in a blog update that someone claiming to be the hacker contacted him, saying he "didnt guess ur password or use bruteforce. i have my own guide on how to secure emails." 

 

Syncing Notes from Mountain Lion Macs to iOS and Android

Apple's new Mountain Lion operating system for the Mac makes it easy to sync jottings from the Notes application between Apple devices. But it's also easy to sync to Android.

One of the nice things about the new Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion release is that the Notes application makes it easy to have notes sync from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad. But what if you're an Android user or want your notes to flow outside the Apple ecosystem for some reason? Yes, it can be done.
I don't take a lot of notes, but I've found it handy to have some things like frequent flyer numbers jotted down digitally in an easy-to-locate format. As a longtime Outlook user, I've used Outlook's own notes feature for my occasional note-taking needs.
It was especially nice that I could sync from Outlook to my iPhone using a tethered connection. These days, I sync through iCloud. That's left my notes effectively trapped within Outlook, unable to flow over-the-air to my iPhone or iPad, much less my Android phone or tablets.

Yesterday, I loaded up Mountain Lion and explored how the new Notes feature might help me get my notes back in sync.
Is it @me or is something wrong?
It seemed so easy. I went to the iCloud settings on my iPhone, toggled the Notes switch to on and figured the sync would begin. Nope. My iPhone demanded that I create an @me address in order to turn on note syncing.
Annoyingly, I already had an @me address. Why wouldn't iCloud just let me enter that? No matter what I tried, I couldn't find a way to enter my existing address. Finally, I allowed it to create a new one for me. Now I have two @me addresses, but problem solved.
Next, there was the small issue of the Notes app continually crashing on my Mac. In the end, the solution for me seemed to be going to Settings; then "Mail, Contacts & Calendars;" then disabling Notes for some accounts I had listed there. I also went to Settings; then "iCloud" and enabled Notes there. The crashing stopped, to my relief.
Testing Notes sync
Time to play. Firing up the Notes app on my Mac, I created a note to see what would happen. Since Notes supports pictures and hyperlinks, I made sure to add these along with some text:

Next stop was the iCloud Web site, which immediately confused me. Where was the online Notes app there? I didn't see it listed alongside other applications such as Mail or Contacts:

Eventually, I went into the Mail app and realized that Notes lives there. I gather that before Mountain Lion, Notes was part of the Mail app (as an Outlook user, I never went into the Mac mail app). I guess it still makes sense for many people that Notes remains part of Mail in iCloud. But for me, using Notes as a separate app for the first time in Mountain Lion, I sure found it confusing that it wasn't a separate app in iCloud.
Anyway, success! There was my note within Mail. The picture didn't display, but it was included as an attachment:

I also found that the note successfully flowed to both my iPad and my iPhone. Similar to iCloud, the picture didn't show:

Unlike in iCloud, clicking on the paper-clip attachment icon didn't download the image for viewing. No worries. My notes all tend to be text, anyway.
From Apple to Google
What's not to love? Well, I live a multiplatform life. If I'm out using my Android phone, I'd like to have quick access to my notes. Since my calendar can sync from my desktop to my iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices, how about my notes?
It turns out to be pretty easy. If you have a Gmail account (or a Google Apps account), on your Mac, go to "Mail, Contacts & Calendars," add the account, and tick the "Notes" box:

After you've done that, syncing still works as it did back with iOS 4. Your notes will flow into Gmail and be given a "Notes" label. Click on that label, and you'll find your notes there. I made a note similar to the one above, and here's how it flowed into Gmail:

The same note also flowed to my Galaxy Nexus, as it did to my iPhone and iPad.
To reach your iOS devices via Google, go to "Mail, Contacts & Calendars" in Settings on your device. Add your Gmail account, if it's not already there. Then move the Notes setting to on.

When you've done this, notes you make on your iOS devices or your Mac will sync between them. It's pretty nice, plus you'll have copies that flow one-way to Gmail.
Three limitations to consider
One-way? Yes. That's one of three big drawbacks to this method:

1. If you edit a note in Gmail, or try to create a new note there, it won't flow into the Notes app on your Apple devices.
2. Notes won't be "instant on" with your Android devices. You'll need a connection to load them, if you haven't already downloaded them.
3. Notes will not flow into iCloud.com.

These limitations are important. If you're living in an all-Apple world, there's not much sense in trying to sync over to Gmail, I'd say. If you live in both worlds, then this might be an option you wish to explore.
A better option is perhaps using a service like Evernote, which supports multiple devices including Windows Phone. You'll have to pay for offline access, however.
Another workaround would include just logging into iCloud from your Android phone and getting your notes that way, when needed.
Some wishes for Google, Apple, and Microsoft
What I'd really like to see is Android get its own Notes application that could talk with Apple's. I'm not holding out much hope on the cross talk. But I do find it odd that Android phones I've used don't seem to have their own standalone note-taking app (the Galaxy S3, with S Memo that can sync to Google Docs or Evernote, is a nice exception, in my experience).
What I'd like to see even more is Outlook on the Mac getting a way to talk to iCloud to sync notes created within Outlook. And contacts. And calendars. These are things Outlook for Windows can do (though it can't do Notes).

Finally, though I love the new functionality of Notes sync, I was greatly disappointed that there seemed to be no way to sync existing notes marked as "On My iPhone" or "On My iPad" to flow into iCloud.
As best I can tell, notes that have never been associated with a cloud-based account can't be added or moved to one.
If you want these notes to flow into the cloud, it seems to be a tedious process of copying them individually from a device-specific account to a cloud-based one.

Windows 7 poised to topple XP as leading OS

The current flavor of Windows came close to surpassing XP in July but will have to wait another month for the title, according to Net Applications.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Windows 7 and XP are virtually neck and neck in their battle to be the dominant OS, according to Web analytics firm Net Applications.
For the month of July, Windows 7 grabbed 42.21 percent of all network traffic recorded by Net Applications. Windows XP eked out a slightly higher share, capturing 42.86 percent. As Windows 7 has been catching up to its 11-year-old counterpart, it will certainly reach the top spot sometime this month.
The latest results show a huge difference over July 2011 when Windows 7 held just 29.6 percent of Net Applications' mobile traffic, while Windows XP had more than 52 percent.
For an operating system launched in 2001, XP has enjoyed a good run. Many businesses and consumers perfectly satisifed with the OS and turned off by Vista had stuck with XP far longer than anticipated. But more people and organizations are migrating to Windows 7, likely for a number of reasons.
Microsoft is cutting off extended support for Windows XP in less than two years, specifically April 2014. That means large companies must upgrade their installations to Windows 7. Otherwise, they face potential security risks when patches, updates, and bug fixes are no longer available for XP.
Microsoft's latest applications have also been giving the cold shoulder to XP and even Vista. Internet Explorer 9 doesn't support XP, while IE10 won't support XP or Vista. Office 2013 won't run under XP or Vista. Of course, these slights are all part of the company's strategy to force people to bump up to Windows 7.
Still, XP will be around for the foreseeable future. I notice a lot of computers running XP at doctor's offices, hospitals, and similar facilities. Such organizations rely on legacy applications and equipment that may not function under Windows 7. And even though Windows 7 offers an XP mode for compatibility, coaxing these companies to totally migrate from XP will continue to be a challenge.
Overall, Windows accounted for 92 percent of all the traffic on Net Applications' network in July. Mac OS X won a 7 percent share, up from less than 6 percent a year ago.

Eve Trains You to Use Keyboard Shortcuts

OS X: Keyboard shortcuts are great: they can save you tons of time and effort—assuming you know them all. If you don't know every keyboard shortcut under the sun, Eve is an OS X utility that teaches them to you. Every time you perform a function or command with the mouse for which there's a corresponding keyboard shortcut, Eve will display the shortcut on screen so you'll learn it and remember to use it next time.
For example, in the Finder, if you click the "Go" menu and select "Connect to Server," Eve will pop up an alert in upper right corner of your screen with the Eve logo and "Command K" in the box so you'll remember to do it next time. Eve remembers which ones you've performed, and only reminds you once in a while so it doesn't become too much of a nag, but it definitely lets you know that you could have performed the same action you just did with the mouse using only the keyboard.
Right now, Eve supports shortcuts in the Finder, Chrome, Safari, and Mail.app, but the developer is working on support for "almost all apps" in the near future—most likely starting with common shortcuts that work similarly in just about every application. Still, if you want to pick up some keyboard shortcuts you may not already know, Eve is a great utility to help you learn

Safari 6 crashing in Mountain Lion

A rare combination of proxy settings and the popular password manager 1Password may result in Safari crashing.
Some Mac users who have upgraded to OS X 10.8 have found that Apple's Safari Web browser is crashing. From the crash reports it appears that the problem is rooted around the use of the password manager 1Password; however, upon further investigation the problem has been found to be on Apple's end.
The crashes only seem to happen for a small number of 1Password users, indicating that the problem is not a major bug in the program but rather a conflict with a specific configuration.

Uncheck these two options in the OS X Proxy configuration for each of your used network ports to prevent the crash from occurring.

After reports surfaced of the crashes, the 1Password development team investigated the issue and found that a bug exists in Mountain Lion's handling of proxy server configurations that can cause a crash for users of its software. Proxy settings are rarely needed for home users, and are instead used by corporations to provide network access to various online services.
If you are experiencing this problem, then there are two routes available that you can take. The first is to disable the automatic proxy discovery option in your network configuration. To do this, go to the Network system preferences and select your active network connection (it should have a green dot next to it). Then click the Advanced button and go to the Proxies tab. In this section, locate the "Auto Proxy Discovery" option and uncheck it. You might also need to uncheck the option for "Automatic Proxy Configuration."
If you do need your proxy settings, then the alternative option is to remove the 1Password extension from Safari until Apple fixes the proxy settings bug, which can be done in the Extensions section of the Safari preferences.

The Mac's mobile-only future

Let's look at what's happened to the Mac platform over the last several years.

• A modern file system - ZFS - promised and then killed.
• A doubling-down on 1980's HFS+ that locks it in.
• A storage black box - Core Storage - that outside developers can access only through limited APIs, unlike earlier options.
• 2 OS versions - Lion and Mountain Lion - with NO kernel investment. The aging Mach kernel was never designed for multi-processor systems and doesn't scale well beyond 4 cores.
• Focus on Macbook hardware, not desktops.
• Cancelling almost every "enterprise" product, including servers and storage arrays.

The Mac is now Apple's poor relation: a few billion in revenue and margin; but not strategic in an Apple world dominated by iPhones and iPads. That's why Mac investment has gone to mobile devices that don't scale. They don't need to: the money is in mobile, not desktops. Which is fine if Macbooks do everything you need.
Implications

• Forget about a new Mac Pro. Grand Central Dispatch - which was supposed to make the Mac's Mach kernel work with manycore systems - hasn't seen wide enough adoption to warrant more work.
• Forget about significant enhancements to the OS X kernel. What you see is what you'll be getting for years to come.
• Apple's Mac application ambitions will scale down too. You can always get more jelly beans in a big box than a little one, so the days of using Final Cut Pro to produce Hollywood movies are coming to a close. If you can't do it on a top of the line MacBook Pro, you can't do it on a Mac.

The Storage Bits take
All this is bad news for people, like FCP editors, who've invested years in learning the Mac and their key apps. But you aren't the future of the Mac, so get over it.
From a financial perspective this all makes perfect sense. Which is why finance people seem to be such jerks: they don't count the human cost of their "rational" decisions.
People who supported the Mac platform over the last decade will feel burned by the Mac's shrinking role. Apple could afford to invest in the Mac, and they do, but in shiny hardware rather than state-of-the-art software that consumers don't understand.
I've worked in corporate engineering groups for a couple of decades, through many product and budget cycles. And following the money tells you what's really going on.
Apple has given up competing with Windows. Will that damage their mobile aspirations? Probably not, but the Mac is becoming an appliance, not a general purpose personal computer.

Apple reports three million Mountain Lion downloads in four days, 'most successful OS X release'

Apple's latest operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, has set a new sales record.
The company announced today that Mountain Lion was downloaded over 3 million times in its first four days of availability, "making it the most successful OS X release in Apple's history."
Apple launched Mountain Lion last Wednesday for $19.99. The operating system, which is available in the company's Mac App Store, comes with over 200 enhancements, including wide-ranging integration of iOS features, like Notification Center, Apple's Game Center, and iMessage. Facebook integration is making its way to the operating system in the fall.
AirPlay Mirroring, notes, and reminder apps have also made their way to the platform. A Power Nap feature will ensure Macs stay up-to-date even while asleep, and a new security tool called Gatekeeper will help fend off malware by controlling application installation.

Mountain Lion Vs. Windows 8: Which One Is Better?

Apple released the latest major upgrade to its desktop operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, earlier this week. Also this week Microsoft announced the release date of Windows 8, the massive overhaul to Microsoft’s platform that finally makes Windows friendly to tablets, coming October 26.
After a period where both OSes were remarkably similar, they’re now more different than they’ve been in a long time. Of course, Windows 8 won’t be final for a few months, but the Release Preview has been available since the end of May, and the feature set is very close to finished.
With Mountain Lion serving as the anchor on the Mac side, it bears a new look at how the two OSes hold up against each other.

Similar Goal, Different Approach

Broadly, both systems are trying to achieve a similar goal — making the desktop experience more seamless with mobile devices — but they do so with somewhat different philosophies. Apple is borrowing many of the more popular features of its wildly popular iOS platform (iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches), building desktop versions of some iOS apps (like Messages) and integrating other useful features that first appeared on mobile (like AirPlay Mirroring).
Microsoft, on the other hand, adopts a more holistic approach, revamping Windows in its entirety to make it friendly to both desktops and mobile devices like tablets and laptop hybrids (which “transform” into tablets). It’s the same OS in both places.
That leads to some big gaps in what each OS does, though the goal is the same: Give consumers a comprehensive ecosystem that fulfills as many of their needs as possible without going outside of it. In this comparison, I looked specifically at four factors:

• Sharing
• Personal Apps
• Photos
• Cloud Services

Let’s get started, and remember: While Mountain Lion is for sale now, Windows 8 isn’t final yet, and some aspects may change before its release this fall.

1. Sharing

Mountain Lion builds sharing right into the OS, letting you share things (like websites, videos, etc.) from individual apps. Apple’s Safari browser is the app that best showcases this ability, where users can call up a drop-down menu of sharing methods (such as Twitter or email and, soon, Facebook).
Even better is how Apple’s Mail app works with Safari to improve sharing… if you’re sharing a URL, the app will ask if you want to share just the link, the entire web page, the Reader version of the page (which strips out photos, ads, and the like), or a PDF of the page. Nice.
Windows 8 sharing is arguably superior, with Share being one of the five “charms” on the system’s main menu, which users can call up at any time, in any app. Just click or touch Share and Windows will immediately call up a list of apps that will let you share.
For now, that list is pretty limited (typically just Outlook), but when Windows 8 launches, you can expect heavyweights like Facebook and Twitter to be involved. Bonus: The apps you use most often to share will be at the top of your list.
Both Mountain Lion and Windows 8 put the power to share in the hands of app developers. If you’re developing an app for either OS, you can designate content that’s shareable. On OS X, however, it’s up to the developer to create the button or drop-down menu for sharing, while on Windows 8, it’s hard-wired into the interface.
That gives Windows 8 and edge, though it’s up to developers to take advantage of it.

2. Personal Apps

Both platforms have a suite of personal apps for connecting with people and staying organized. Apple Messages replaces iChat and integrates your messages from iPhone and iPad into one place. The new Reminders app similarly works with its mobile versions, and the Calendar of course syncs with your mobile devices via iCloud (not a new feature), as does Contacts (the new Address Book).
Windows 8 has similar apps that they work similarly, but with important differences. Microsoft’s version of Contacts (called People) can tie into Facebook, and shows you “What’s New” with the people you interact with.
Also, Windows 8′s Messaging app connects only with Windows Live Messenger and Facebook. While other services may join that list in the general release, it’s worth pointing out Facebook isn’t an option with Mountain Lion’s Messages (for now).
The full capabilities of both OSes won’t be realized until the fall. Obviously, Windows 8 won’t be officially out until then, and that’s the same time iOS 6 should launch, which will make Messages work better with iPhones and iPads (there are still some issues with text messages that Apple is ironing out).
Still, the edge goes to Apple here for its well thought-out integration of the mobile side of things.

3. Photos

Microsoft puts photos front and center in Windows 8 with an app called simply Photos. It doesn’t just show photos stored locally on your drive — it can also tie into Facebook, Flickr and photos you store in the cloud via SkyDrive.
Apple, of course, packages iPhoto with every Mac. iPhoto is a basic image organizer and editor, and it can also import all the images you take on your iOS devices, thanks to iCloud. Facebook and Flickr integration is limited to exporting.
Still, Apple’s app is more powerful than Microsoft’s (those basic editing abilities make a big difference), although Windows still comes with the Paint app if you need to edit. It comes down to differing goals here — Photos aims to be a simple hub for accessing and sharing all your photos, whereas iPhoto is more of a centralized command center for your photo collection.
Until Microsoft expands the number of services it can tie into, Apple wins again.

4. Cloud Services

Looking at the cloud services between Windows 8 and Mountain Lion is really an apples-to-oranges comparison. Whereas SkyDrive has a visible file structure, and users can upload whatever they want, iCloud is more of a syncing service, ensuring certain types of content in one place show up in another.
SkyDrive provides an extremely capable service for saving documents to the cloud (similar to Google Drive), and it’s built into many key apps. Office 2013 will use SkyDrive as the default place to save documents, letting you access them from anywhere, on any machine. It also allows for Microsoft to update things like document templates at anytime.
With Mountain Lion, iCloud now syncs documents in the cloud as well, and of course it still syncs photos, contacts, calendars and the like across all your devices. However, iCloud has some serious limits. It doesn’t yet sync videos, and its calendars aren’t shared in the same way as other services (like Google Calendar), so they’re not as easy to integrate. Also, there’s no file structure that users can access.
As for which is better, it depends on which philosophy best matches your life and workflow. Would you rather have your own “locker” where you can put anything you want? Or would you rather not worry about where anything is, and just let your system handle it — with the tradeoff being a more limited set of apps being able to sync through the cloud? Both approaches have merit.

A Fork in the Road

For a long time the computer was more of a standalone device, the primary gateway to a person’s digital life. What such a system needed to do was pretty clear, and as a result, Macs and PCs became different flavors of the same computing recipe. Sure they tasted different, but it was still soup.

Although it’s often said to be the one thinking different, Apple actually has the more conservative take on computing.

It’s a different world now, though, with mobile devices playing a greater and greater role in our lives. Consequently, the two heavyweights in personal computing are diverging once again — Mountain Lion and Windows 8 are really quite different in their approaches to address the needs of today’s digital consumers.
Although it’s often said to be the one thinking different, Apple actually has the more conservative take on computing, with Mountain Lion integrating the best aspects of iOS devices. The change with Windows 8 is much more radical, adopting touch, the cloud and an entirely new desktop design (Metro) in an effort to create an OS that works just as well on traditional PCs as tablets.
One big caveat there: The familiar desktop is still around in Windows 8, just a click away. Microsoft is in a sense trying to have its cake and eat it too with Windows 8 — changing everything, but keeping the old environment if users get skittish.
Is either approach superior to the other? In some ways, yes. Since Apple is changing less with Mountain Lion than Microsoft is with Windows 8, the new OS X feels much more seamless than Windows 8, even when taking into account the bugginess of pre-release software. On the other side, some aspects of Windows 8, like Sharing, feel very powerful, but it’s an open question whether their full potential will be unleashed.

Get a free upgrade to Mountain Lion

Apple will offer recent Mac buyers an upgrade, at no cost, to the new flavor of OS X when it debuts this month.

 

Those of you who picked up a Mac on or after June 11 can soon pounce on a free upgrade to Mountain Lion.
Courtesy of Apple's OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program, consumers who bought a Mac from Apple or from an Apple authorized reseller between June 11 and the date when Mountain Lion debuts will have 30 days to request their free upgrade. The program allows qualifying buyers to download Mountain Lion for free directly from the Mac App Store.
As detailed by MacRumors, customers have to launch the Up-to-Date Program page, where an online form asks them to enter their contact information, date and location of purchase, and the serial number of the Mac. In return, they receive a redemption code via e-mail, which they can then submit at the Mac App Store to download the update.
The request form was initially live, allowing MacRumors to record the process, but has since been taken down in anticipation of the actual release of Mountain Lion. The new version of OS X is expected to launch this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow.
Apple owners running OS X Lion or Snow Leopard who don't qualify for the Up-to-Date Program can pick up Mountain Lion for $19.99.