OS X

Mac OS X Default Wallpaper Collection – 10.1 to 10.4 (Puma, Jaguar, Panther and Tiger)

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Hell man, I hope I don’t get a cease and desist for this.

Got really sick of the default “universe/galaxy”-style wallpapers introduced since Leopard, and extracted some old wallpapers from pre-Leopard Mac OS Xes.

Am currently rocking this setup.

Here are all the default Aqua Blue and Aqua Graphite Mac OS X wallpapers from the past. Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah has the same default wallpapers as Mac OS X 10.1 Puma so it’s meaningless to include those.

Do note, due to the maximum supported screen resolution being quite limited in the earlier Mac OS X releases, the resolution of the earlier wallpapers will be much smaller, and might not look great on current-day screens.

Here goes.

Mac OS X 10.1 Puma

Classic Aqua Blue Classic Aqua Graphite

Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar

Jaguar Aqua Blue Jaguar Aqua Graphite

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther

Aqua Blue Aqua Graphite

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Aqua Blue Aqua Graphite

You can follow MacRyu at @ryuworks on Twitter and @ryu on App.net.

WWDC 2013 predictions?

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Sometimes I wonder why people even crave for such posts when everything is out there in the open, but I guess there are some who would not bother with the research.

I am just going to rehash everything that is already all over the web, adding some of my opinions if necessary.

1. Completely new UI (User Interface) for iOS 7

Honestly, I do not know what to expect. Jony Ive has designed the majority of the Apple hardware we know and love today, but his take on UI is still uncharted territory. As far as we know, he was, to quite an extent, involved in the original iPhone’s UI design back in 2006/2007 but everything after that was under Forstall. The whole “flat look” rumour thing that has been reported widely sends chills down my spine – I absolutely will hate iOS losing most of the fun elements it is known for.

However, if looking the gradients and gloss means a much slicker and professional looking UI (think Tweetbot, think Reeder), I am all for it. It is highly unlikely the hordes of software engineers will let Jony Ive change iOS into something as tasteless as Windows Phone 8, after all. Besides, the Brit has impeccable taste. A clean look, less gloss, less gradient, but with lots of colours and fun elements will be the hallmark of a modern iOS. Besides, change just for change’s sake, for once, is something that iOS needs to keep a majority of their bored customer base from “looking for a change”.

2. Mac OS X 10.9

As with iOS 7, OS X 10.9 must be the most well kept secrets in Cupertino right now. Rarely in the past two years has information about the two new operating systems been so tight-lipped that even now, less than a week from WWDC 2013, there has been no leaks, no screenshots of new features or the new UI (in the case of iOS 7). Rumour-mill has it that engineers have been taken from 10.9 development to help speed up iOS 7’s development pace, and that has resulted lesser changes to 10.9.

Like many of the traditionalists I am more interested in OS X than iOS, and a much improved OS X will perk me up way more than a completely revamped iOS. That said, though, OS X is extremely mature and with much of the underlying changes needed for a modern desktop OS already done in Snow Leopard and Lion, all that is left to do for the next few years is tweaking OS X to perform better, and address the outstanding issues still present today.

An improved Finder (as rumoured) will be welcomed, and hopefully the UI for Calendar and Contacts will be changed to something slicker. Mail.app is in crazy need of a refresh after many years of bloat, though most peeps these days run Sparrow, or more recently, Airmail, as a replacement for Mail.app. I really doubt a new file system will debut anytime soon to replace HFS+, definitely not in 10.9. There is also some speculation that widgets and Dashboard might be discontinued, but I hope that they do keep Dashboard as I still use it everyday for currency conversion.

What other changes do OS X need? You tell me. I am really happy with how everything works so far.

3. New iPhones and iPads?

NO. NO NEW IPHONES AND IPADS. PLEASE. THESE ARE COMING IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER.

I am going to slap anyone who tells me that he or she is disappointed because there is no new iPhone/iPad at WWDC.

4. New Macs?

Haswell is just released. So new Retina MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs are definitely coming. There are rumours that the 13″ Retina MacBook Pro will go on a diet and get slimmer (thanks to crazy power efficiency in the new Haswell platform), and that will be definitely welcomed. The current rMBP 13″ is not that much lighter from the old 13″ MBP (non-retina) right now, and is not tempting enough for anyone to switch.

Oh ah, and a price drop across the whole line of Retina MacBook Pros is much needed (will and probably come).

You can follow MacRyu at @ryuworks on Twitter and @ryu on App.net.

Thoughts about Lion – OS X’s evolution

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It’s been a while since I wrote something of (questionable) substance on MacRyu.com, and since Lion is just days away from us, I figured I should put something up.

No, I’m not going to detail the changes in Lion and give you some kind of a technical walkthrough. That job should be left to the pros, namely, John Siracusa.

What I want to write about is what I think Lion represents, in the grander scheme of things I call “The Evolution of OS X”. I personally believe that there are two very specific generations of OS X releases that ended and began at 10.5. I will be using the cat names and the version numbers interchangeably throughout the writeup, so if you are confused just google the cat names from 10.0 till 10.7. LOL.

Here goes.

If there’s one specific theme that Lion represents it will be “the next generation”.

Yes, I know Lion is the next OS X, I know Lion is new, but those are not why I think Lion represents “the next generation” of OS X.

One thing casual users and recent switchers do not understand about the last 2 OSes, Leopard and Snow Leopard, is how they represent a major shift in OS X’s development.

Read more

Top 4 Malware for Mac OS X

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Yes, malware does exist for OS X, and these are the top 4 malware on the radar today.

1. Norton Antivirus for Mac
2. Symantec Endpoint Protection
3. Sophos Antivirus Protection for Mac
4. McAfee VirusScan for Mac

In case anyone thinks I’m joking or that there are malware pretending to be these legitimate software, I’m not, and there isn’t (or at least from what I know so far).

Take for example, Norton Antivirus(NAV) and Symantec Endpoint Protection, both of which are probably the same thing, except that you get the former if you enter a certain polytechnic and the latter if you enter another one. Both products, upon installation, installs a kernel extension. This modifies the system, and from experiences of students who were forced to run them in school, makes the system extremely unstable, especially after system updates. In the case of Norton Antivirus, very often installing the package (note that I didn’t use the word App here, for Norton Antivirus is anything but a useful mac application)itself may cause the boot sequence to fail in the future (read: spinning indicator with Apple logo on grey background forever).

Installing NAV or any other Symantec products on your Mac will also almost definitely cause your system to have poor performance, although it might not seem apparent immediately after install, for a clean and new system can look and feel fast enough even after the performance cut. Six months down the road however, NP students and SDN/SDMC students from NYP will think they need a new Mac already.

Many users with the above malware do not have a choice in the installation. Often times when they purchase their brand new Mac from their schools, it is already preloaded with malware. And in the case of NAV and Symantec products, it is almost impossible to remove. Contrast that with the recent MacDefender non-issue, when you actually have to install it yourself, give it the correct permissions, before it will actually run. And removal is a simple process. Activate Activity Monitor, kill the process, and trash the app.

No matter how you look at it, malware like Norton Antivirus and the Symantec products are definitely some of the deadliest you will ever find on the Mac platform.

Thankfully the majority of Mac users are well-educated enough that they do not need to install the above products, and will probably never do so.

The only people who gets hit with MacDefender are the idiots who thought they needed an anti-malware/antivirus program on the Mac in the first place, and chose to install MacDefender onto their systems happily. These are also the same idiots who will install Norton Antivirus on their systems from day 1. And obviously Norton Antivirus isn’t going to protect them, since it can’t even identify MacDefender as malware.

If you are one of those unfortunate enough to have NAV installed on your systems unwillingly, GET HELP NOW.