Apple Orders Technicians to Feign Ignorance About Mac Malware

[IPD]

i wouldn't have given 2 shits about using an apple while growing up. some of the best fun of my childhood was on an apple II. (i will pwn you at oregon trail. 8040 is my personal best).

that said, i don't like having to run scripts/emulators to run games. that's why i still own my original NES; and it's also why i wouldn't like having to run bootcamp, wine, or anything else. to me, the "ease of use" for the consumer is CONSIDERABLY higher in the windows realm due to this. i spent a day and a half prepping my laptop for pc gaming before my last deployment--just so they were all installed, ran properly, and didn't have to use the CD's. i probably would have spent a week or more (with the bulk of that doing "why isn't this working" research) if i was using a mac. and even then, macbook GPU's suck. period. mobile gaming is a compromise as it is (especially if you are at 15" or less & have a single card). i'm not about to dillute the experience any further while paying MORE for it--and then have to spend longer getting it to work.

perhaps the best thing to happen for apple fans is the death of apple's indigenously produced CPU's. bootcamp wouldn't work if intel wasn't inside.

p.s.

that's funny, i could swear it's the apple users who have the "holier than thou" attitude. i know very few "casual" apple owners who aren't self-absorbed and proselytizing to everyone they meet.

[stealthify]

i wouldn't have given 2 shits about using an apple while growing up. some of the best fun of my childhood was on an apple II. (i will pwn you at oregon trail. 8040 is my personal best).

Bring it on. I don't recall my personal best, but I'll give you a run for your money.

that said, i don't like having to run scripts/emulators to run games. that's why i still own my original NES; and it's also why i wouldn't like having to run bootcamp, wine, or anything else. to me, the "ease of use" for the consumer is CONSIDERABLY higher in the windows realm due to this.

This might be where we're not on the same page. Bootcamp isn't an emulator, but rather an option you can select from at startup (before Mac OS X even boots up). But you're right, a lot is owed to Intel and to Apple for the decision to switch to Intel in order to make this happen. I know I probably wouldn't be so objective in my criticism of the brand if we didn't have this as a tool in our arsenal.

that's funny, i could swear it's the apple users who have the "holier than thou" attitude. i know very few "casual" apple owners who aren't self-absorbed and proselytizing to everyone they meet.

I know the Apple users you speak of, I try not to be one of them.

[BigTyla]

I'm not the kind of guy that tries to bash Apple at every turn. They make great products. They are a pretty innovative company. I just don't like their company mantra. I think ignoring this kind of problem is being disingenuous to your customer base and you risk losing said customers to other competitors. Then again, their fan base is so comparably small that they probably figure they have nothing to lose. I can't say for sure because I'm not Steve Jobs and I'm pretty sure no one has any clue what's going on in that lunatic's mind.

[stealthify]

I'm not the kind of guy that tries to bash Apple at every turn.

Definitely Tyler, I didn't get that vibe from you.

Not to be a buster, but I hope you guys realize this is more about marketing than anything else. I highly doubt the people grinding away behind the scenes to develop these products consider their work "magic", but really the sad truth is its only us nerds that care about the real technical details. To everyone else, it might as well be magic, because I have a feeling they really don't care either way as long as it works, period.

Example, ever helped your mom with a computer issue? When you try to explain to her "technically" why something is happening, all you get back is a blank stare? Yeah, Apple is trying to avoid that. And I don't blame them. I get a kick out of when my mom's jaw drops to the floor when I show her something cool on her Android phone. She asks how it does these things, and I tell her.... 'magic.' She smiles, I smile. Winnings all around.

I'm sure you guys see this now, but this type of marketing isn't intended for you, and that's probably why its rubbing you the wrong way.


PS - just to reiterate, they're not ignoring the issue, but rather they've been instructed to not confirm or deny something they have no true way of verifying either way.

[stealthify]

Kind of unrelated, but kind of related:

How God is managing the 2011 rapture - The Oatmeal

Hope to talk to you guys later this evening.

[IPD]

DailyTech - Apple Tries to Roll Out Trojan Protection, Only to See New Variety Pop Up
DailyTech - Chinese Boy Sells One of His Kidneys For iPad 2

respective proof that:

1. it's not all wine and roses for "security through obscurity"

and

2. there is no limit to how retarded apple owners can be (not all of them, mind you--just a large portion of them).

[stealthify]

Dead horse is dead.

Apple decided to go proactive (despite what this thread was all about) and issued a simple, yet effective, method of quarantining all known (and few) malware releases for Mac OS X. The update also easily communicates with a live updating list of developing variants of said malware, and removes them without using tons of system resources to do active scans. Just as soon as a new variant was released (today), Apple quickly responded by updating their live updating list as well (today).

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ty_update.html

As far as the kid goes, that's unfortunate and sad.

[IPD]

i'll take anything i read on an apple fansite with several lbs of salt. dailytech > that.

[stealthify]

And maybe that's why you only get half the story.

Take the AI article with a grain of salt, but the facts speak for themselves. Apple was prepared for variants, it would have been stupid not to be.

[IPD]

DailyTech - Apple Accused of Ripping Off Developer's Rejected Wi-Fi Sync App

apple. originality in its most heinous form.

p.s.
http://www.dailytech.com/Mac+Technic...ticle21873.htm

granted, this could be any tech at any store anywhere. still, the way that apple goes about security protection (or lack thereof) only lends itself wholeheartedly to this abuse.