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Yesterday in the MacNN forums, "cgc" was trying to figure out why they were having problems with certain websites after updating Safari and Java. Also yesterday, Professional Poster "badidea" was having a problem with the cursor remaining on screen while the iTunes visualizer is playing.
Apple on Tuesday updated both Java and its web browser Safari for users of OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and higher. The updates now allow users to enable the Java web plug-in on a site-by-site basis, as opposed to the "active" or "inactive" options it had previously. Following a spate of serious issues, Apple forcibly disabled the Java plug-in because of malicious, in-use threats -- though users could reactivate Java once they updated.
Google has introduced its own browser rendering engine, Blink, that will serve as Chrome's alternative to the WebKit2 engine used by competing browsers such as Safari. The search giant suggests its WebKit-based engine will enable developers to streamline innovation, eliminating approximately 4.5 million lines of code and thousands of files that only serve to support WebKit2's features, according to an Ars Technica report.
A new Mac trojan is inserting ads into Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, says a Russian security firm, Doctor Web. Nicknamed "Trojan.Yontoo.1," the malware is so far being distributed through movie trailer pages, which prompt people to download a browser plugin, a media player, a video enhancer, or a download accelerator. When launched, the malware asks to be installed under a name such as "Free Twit Tube."
Following an unusually long development cycle, Apple has finally released the completed version of OS X 10.8.3. The software is mostly a maintenance update -- for instance fixing problems with stuttering sound on 2011 iMacs, Logic Pro freezing when using some plugins, and apps crashing when opening file URLs. It makes several enhancements as well however, such as adding Safari 6.0.3 and upgraded Boot Camp features. The latter now supports Windows 8, and can run on Macs with 3TB hard drives.
Google's Chrome OS managed to evade all intrusion attempts during the most recent Pwnium hacking competition. While Chrome OS survived intact, Chrome the web browser joined Firefox and Internet Explorer in being shown vulnerable to attack from hackers, during the Pwn2Own contest held at the CanSecWest security conference at the same time.
Apple has updated the plugin-blocking component in Safari to prevent earlier versions of Flash from being used, a new support document states. Lion, Mountain Lion, and Snow Leopard users are affected. The update comes in response to recently-discovered vulnerabilities in Flash that have already been patched by Adobe, but which could impact people who don't update on a regular basis.
A group of 12 people in the UK are suing Google for tracking their browsing habits via Apple's Safari browser, says The Telegraph. The case is being handled by a lawfirm called Olswang, which says that between the summer of 2011 and the spring of 2012, cookies in Safari were generating profiles of users without their knowledge, despite promises by Google and default settings in the browser. "Google has a responsibility to consumers and should be accountable for the trust placed in them. We hope that they will take this opportunity to give Safari users a proper explanation about what happened, to apologize and, where appropriate, compensate the victims of their intrusion," says Olswang partner Dan Tench.
In the midst of a CES that is more about Apple than ever before -- despite the obstinate refusal of the company to have any presence at it -- two of Apple's reinventions that formed a core part of the OS X experience have had birthdays this week. Ten years ago on Monday, in January 2003, Apple created its own Internet browser: Safari. Twelve years ago Wednesday, iTunes was born from the purchase of SoundJam MP and debuted at the 2001 San Francisco MacWorld.
The Safari browser in iOS 6 has a flaw in its handling of JavaScript that, while not presenting any serious problems thus far, could evolve into a potentially security and privacy issue if not corrected soon, reports AppleInsider. Users who have turned JavaScript off for security or other reasons on their iOS device will see it turned back on -- without notification -- if the user visits any site that uses Smart App Banners, a feature of iOS 6 that requires JavaScript to work. The flaw has so far been found in all builds and versions of iOS 6, including the in-testing v6.1 beta, though Apple has now been informed of the issue.
At least one of Google's conflicts with the Federal Trade Commission may be close to a finish, as a San Francisco judge has signaled that she may approve a $22.5 million settlement over Google's placement of cookies on Apple's Safari browser. Google agreed to pay the fine in August of this year, and now U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has given a preliminary view that the $22.5 million fine will be adequate. A final ruling is expected soon.
Long a default choice in Safari, the Apple "start page" was a one-page summary of much of the new activity on Apple.com and was often left by most consumers as their home page until they desired to find out how to change it. Beginning early last summer, Apple dropped the start page and redirected the requests to the main page of its online presence. Earlier this week, the company reversed course and reactivated the start page, keeping the same design as it had when it was shut down. The page currently features links to Apple's Holiday Gift Guide, recent commercials, news stories involving Apple and more.
[Update: details on Safari update added] Late on Thursday, Apple updated its two photo-oriented programs iPhoto and Aperture, to versions 9.4.2 and 3.4.2 respectively. Both share some commonalities in the updates, but Aperture in particular has addressed a number of issues and enhancements with the new version. In addition, the company issued a small, security-oriented update of Safari 6, which now at v6.0.2 (and currently only available from the Mac App Store) exclusively -- thus far -- for users of Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and higher.
A non-profit activist group, Consumer Watchdog, says it is planning to block Google's $22.5 million settlement with the FTC for violating the privacy of Safari users, according to a press release. The organization notes that the settlement must still be approved by a federal judge, and says it's upset that the ruling may not require Google to admit wrongdoing. The FTC has accused Google of knowingly circumventing Safari safeguards to generate advertising cookies, despite promises to the contrary.
Google has agreed to a pay a $22.5 million penalty to settle its tracking dispute with the US Federal Trade Commission, according to a press release from the agency. The payout was previously rumored but has only now been confirmed. The penalty is said to be the largest ever for violation of an FTC order; as a condition of the settlement, Google must disable any tracking cookies it said it wouldn't install on customers' devices.
Officials within the US Federal Trade Commission have reportedly agreed to allow Google to pay a settlement for circumventing privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser. Corroborating earlier reports, unnamed sources have told Reuters the company will have to pay $22.5 million to avoid further proceedings, however it will not be forced to admit liability.
Many annoyed MacNN forum goers have come together in this thread to complain about Apple's decision to disable the backspace key for navigation in Safari. Senior User RobOnTheCape points out that "activity monitor is missing from Safari", read more here.
(Updated with Safari security notes) Accompanying today's launch of OS X Mountain Lion are a number of parallel software updates. Amount these is OS X Server for Mountain Lion, a $20 add-on. The release marks another price drop for Server, which in its Lion form cost $49; before that it cost several times more still.
Some of the changes in iOS 6 beta 3 have been discovered by developers. MacRumors notes that users can now have icloud.com email addresses, instead of just ones from me.com. The latter are a holdover from iCloud's failed predecessor, MobileMe.
The FTC is set to hand Google a record $22.5 million fine for bypassing the privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser, reports the Wall Street Journal. The search and mobile giant is said to be close to settling the matter, although the deal still needs to be ratified by the full panel of FTC commissioners. If indeed Google agrees to settle the breach for the $22.5 million figure, it will represent the largest fine the FTC has handed to a single entity.
Apple is already reportedly supplying developers with a second preview version of Safari 6. The new code fixes a series of crashes caused by the old preview, which were related to entering two periods at the end of a string in the address bar, whether manually or through auto-completion. The second preview is following relatively quickly after the first, which debuted shortly after the WWDC 2012 keynote on Monday last week.
Yesterday in the MacNN forums, Forum Regular Nassifer was looking for a way to make Safari bookmark in alphabetical order, read more here. Also yesterday one Fresh-Faced Recruit was looking for a way to use the processing power of two Macs joined together for use with FCP X.
Following several weeks of developer testing, Apple has released the completed version of OS X 10.7.4. Now available though Lion's Software Update mechanism, the upgrade deals with several security, reliability and compatibility problems. Most notably it fixes a security issue in FileVault which could potentially expose a person's passwords in plain text.
Google may be facing a fine potentially greater than $10 million for bypassing Safari privacy controls, according to an insider. The unnamed source, speaking to Bloomberg, alleged that Google is negotiating with the Federal Trade Commission over the actual value of the fine, which would be levied due to Google's violation of a consent degree signed last year.
Apple is working on more comprehensive password technology for Safari in OS X Mountain Lion, code in the Safari 5.2 beta is said to show. The beta already contains a visible "Passwords" pane under app preferences, but this simply displays passwords which are saved to Keychain Access. Buried in the beta's code is a reference to password generation: "Safari can automatically suggest and remember unique, secure passwords for websites you choose," one string reads.
Hot on the heels of the day's earlier release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (Developer Preview 3), Apple has released a new beta of the forthcoming Safari 5.2 as well as a preview of programming tool Xcode 4.4, reports AppleInsider. Both updates bring noticeable new features to the programs, but both are only for developers and require an Apple Developer account to access. Safari gains SVG filters and other improvements, while Xcode now supports 3D documents.
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly considering a fine in its purported investigation over Google's alleged circumvention of Safari privacy controls. Although the Commission has yet to formally disclose an investigation, unnamed sources have told MercuryNews the agency may demand a fine much higher than the $25,000 FCC penalty the search giant faces over the Street View Wi-Fi debacle.
Mozilla is gearing up to allow a plugin-free approach to video chat in upcoming versions of Firefox. A demo at the IETF 83 conference caught by TechCrunch showed off the implementation of WebRTC, an HTML5 component that will allow two-way voice, video, and file swaps. As shown, it would sign in with Mozilla's Social API.
New NetApplications data has shown that Internet Explorer might be on a sustained, if slight, recovery in web share. Microsoft's browser gained almost exactly one point to hit 53.83 percent of browser use online. The gain roughly mirrored one from January and saw IE at its highest position since October.
Apple has posted a new version of Safari, v5.1.5. The update is a minor one, simply resolving a glitch that "could affect website usability" when running in 32-bit mode. Separate Windows, Lion, and Snow Leopard downloads are available.
Apple is planning to integrate Baidu web search into iOS, according to sources for Sina Technology. Baidu is an extremely popular search engine in China, but iOS currently defaults to Google, with Bing and Yahoo as secondary options. Sina suggests that Baidu support will begin in April, at least in the Chinese market. If true, the change should require an iOS firmware update.
A researcher with MajorSecurity, David Vieira-Kurz, has discovered a serious security vulnerability in the iOS 5.1 version of Safari. The problem lies with the way iOS handles the JavaScript window.open() method, used to open a new browser window. A malicious coder could use this to spoof URLs, tricking people into visiting copycat websites that might contain other threats or ask for credit card information.
A brief if historic milestone in web browsers occurred this weekend as Google Chrome temporarily overtook Microsoft's Internet Explorer in usage, StatCounter found Wednesday. For one day, March 18, Chrome had 32.71 percent of traffic to IE's 32.5 percent. A rise in share from Brazil, India, and Russia was credited for the sudden position swap.
Apple has posted Safari 5.1.4, an update to the company's web browser. The software is available for Lion, Snow Leopard, and Windows users. The Lion release may be the most significant, since it improves JavaScript performance 11 percent over Safari 5.1.3.
Google sent word that it had already patched the Chrome exploit demonstrated in CanSecWest's Pwn2Own side contest, Pwnium. Linux, Mac, and Windows versions, along with the Chrome Frame plugin for Internet Explorer, should all be secure today. It's now known to have involved universal cross-site scripting and "bad history navigation," although wider details wouldn't be published until most users of Chrome and other WebKit-using browsers like Safari were using secure versions.
Google saw an end to a brief streak on Wednesday after CanSecWest's organizers confirmed that Chrome had been hacked during the Pwn2Own contest. Team Vupen exploited a security hole in the browser within five minutes of the contest's start. The group will be getting at least a $60,000 prize, funded partly by Google itself, as well as 32 points in the still-ongoing contest; it had already found two more vulnerabilities in software at the conference in intervening hours.
Apple saw an unusually widescale, comprehensive growth in its share of the web in February, NetApplications showed on Thursday. On the desktop, it bounced back to near an all-time high at 6.9 percent, a level seen in October. Its mobile share followed suit, going up almost exactly seven points to 60.6 percent.
Google is facing a new lawsuit for violating privacy rights on Apple's Safari web browser, Bloomberg reported. An Illinois man, Matthew Soble, claimed in the suit that Google sidesteps the computer settings that are designed to block monitoring of a user's whereabouts on the web. The lawyers representing Soble alleged that Google did so willfully and knowingly.
Google's Senior Communications VP Rachel Whetstone claimed Microsoft was being dishonest in making claims of suspicious browser cookie circumventions in Internet Explorer 9 and elsewhere. The executive argued that Microsoft had effectively ignored the issue since 2002, when it had implemented the P3P approach of requiring a cookie state its intent. Microsoft not only knew about the "loophole" of using an undefined intent for years, letting Amazon and its recent investment target Facebook use the trick, but knew that P3P would break the modern Internet regardless
Microsoft's Corporate VP for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, made allegations Monday that Google was bypassing Internet Explorer's privacy settings, not just Safari's measures. After checks, he claimed that Google's cookie text files, meant to allow +1 actions for those who were signed into Google, were skirting the P3P Privacy Protection standard as it was implemented in Internet Explorer 9. The technique supposedly made IE9 take third-party cookies that it would block by default while keeping the action a secret.
(Update: Google's full response) Google in a report Thursday night was accused of circumventing the cookie privacy settings in Apple's desktop and mobile versions of Safari. Web ad code seen by Wall Street Journal advisor Ashkan Soltani allegedly bypassed blocks in Safari's settings on about a fifth of the top 100 websites. Google wasn't alone as Media Innovation Group, PointRoll, and Vibrant Media were also using the strategy, but Google through its size and status was the most significant.
Apple is seeding betas of Safari 5.2 and Xcode 4.4 to developers, reports say. The new version of Safari notably merges the search and address bars, imitating Google's Chrome browser. It also highlights the domain portion of a URL in the address bar, and uses a new Reader icon.
Today in the MacNN forums Professional Poster Waragainstsleep is looking for some assistance with WebDAV and Lion Server. Yesterday Junior Member PhilCat started a thread looking for help with privacy settings that went missing in Safari, click here for more.
Mozilla and several other browser developers have voiced concern over the dominance of WebKit-based browsers, notably Safari and Chrome. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) co-chairman Daniel Glazman suggests programmers have begun to disregard alternative browsers, such as Firefox and Internet Explorer, when optimizing website compatibility.
Apple has begun seeding a beta Safari 5.1.4 release to developers. Mac and Windows distributions are available, although if not on Snow Leopard the Mac version requires OS X 10.7.3. The Lion and Snow Leopard disk images measure about 44MB and 47MB, respectively, while the Windows ZIP file is 109MB.
Apple on Wednesday afternoon posted Mac OS X 10.7.3 (release notes). The Lion upgrade adds several languages, including Catalan for Spaniards as well as Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian. RAW photo compatibility has expanded to several new cameras, including the Nikon J1 and V1, Olympus' current PEN cameras, and current Sony Alpha and NEX cameras, such as the NEX-5N.
Versions of the upcoming Firefox 12 in the nightly build phase have shown major changes coming to its interface. New tabs can now open to a hybrid portal page that mixes in features seen in Chrome and Safari. Along with seeing the most frequently visited sites and a search bar, it now has top web apps, the most recently shared apps, and a Google Talk status section to launch directly into chat.
The team at Tom’s Hardware have run their latest head-to-head test of web browsers. All the leading browsers for the Mac and PC platforms were tested and included Opera, Firefox, Safari, IE 9 and Chrome. Coming out on top for the Mac platform was Apple’s own Safari browser, while Mozilla’s Firefox is currently the fastest browser available on the Windows platform.
Microsoft's claims that Windows Phone 7.5 would beat iOS in web browsing speed have already been rendered obsolete after a follow-up test run. A comparison from YouTube user 359gsm posted at My Nokia Blog of a Nokia Lumia 800 pitted against both an iPhone 4 using iOS 4.3 and an iPhone 4S on iOS 5. While Microsoft's showcase HTML5 Speed Reading test sees the Lumia beat the iPhone 4, even the older, 1GHz Apple phone and OS beat the 1.4GHz Windows Phone soundly in every other test, including Browsermark, the JavaScript-focused Sunspider test, and the generic HTML5 Test.
New scoops both public and private have suggested that Palm, and later HP, may have ultimately had hurdles at the corporate level, not just technical, to ever challenging Apple or Google. WebOS didn't have either the needed management or engineers to bring it to completion, a New York Times source said, and there were few WebKit-savvy developers weren't already working on iOS or Android. This was compounded by a rush to finish the OS in nine months, which required taking shortcuts such as skipping proper APIs (app programming interfaces) until later, hurting the ability for third-party developers to sign on.
