Mac Trojan Horse Boonana/Koobface - Reviewed

A trojan horse has been discovered that affects Mac OS X users, dubbed “trojan.osx.boonana.a” or ‘Koobface.’ An infected machine will hijack users social network accounts and attempt to spread the trojan further by sending out spam messages from your username.

Thus far the trojan has been spread through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and eMail. Here is the method of operation:

The trojan behaves like a worm, by trying to bait users on various social networks to click a link. The link asks “Is this you in this video?” and, if clicked, will send a user to another website which attempts to load a Java applet, giving the user a standard Mac OS X Java Security Alert and certificate request.

If the Java applet is allowed to load, it will download files to your local machine and then start a background process which attempts to propagate the trojan. You can simply click on “Deny” to prevent any further trouble, which prevents the malicious code from loading.

Intego explains the trojan as follows:

This threat is a Mac OS X version of the Koobface worm, which is served as part of a multi-platform attack via a malicious Java applet. The malware itself is made up of a number of elements, though in order to simplify, we will use the term “Trojan horse” to describe it. (Technically, it propagates as a worm, is installed via a Trojan Horse, and installs a rootkit, backdoor, command and control, and other elements.)

The trojan also effects Windows users. The easiest way for Mac and Windows users to protect themselves from the trojan is to avoid clicking dubious links from untrusted sources and to deny sketchy Java applets. Another option is to disable Java in your web browser.

If you are concerned that you have been affected by the Koobface trojan, you can get a free removal tool through SecureMac, who rates the risk as “Critical.” Currently the download link sends you to MacScan, but this is expected to change when the removal tool is released.

Mac Trojan Horse Boonana/Koobface - Reviewed

A trojan horse has been discovered that affects Mac OS X users, dubbed “trojan.osx.boonana.a” or ‘Koobface.’ An infected machine will hijack users social network accounts and attempt to spread the trojan further by sending out spam messages from your username.

Thus far the trojan has been spread through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and eMail. Here is the method of operation:

The trojan behaves like a worm, by trying to bait users on various social networks to click a link. The link asks “Is this you in this video?” and, if clicked, will send a user to another website which attempts to load a Java applet, giving the user a standard Mac OS X Java Security Alert and certificate request.

If the Java applet is allowed to load, it will download files to your local machine and then start a background process which attempts to propagate the trojan. You can simply click on “Deny” to prevent any further trouble, which prevents the malicious code from loading.

Intego explains the trojan as follows:

This threat is a Mac OS X version of the Koobface worm, which is served as part of a multi-platform attack via a malicious Java applet. The malware itself is made up of a number of elements, though in order to simplify, we will use the term “Trojan horse” to describe it. (Technically, it propagates as a worm, is installed via a Trojan Horse, and installs a rootkit, backdoor, command and control, and other elements.)

The trojan also effects Windows users. The easiest way for Mac and Windows users to protect themselves from the trojan is to avoid clicking dubious links from untrusted sources and to deny sketchy Java applets. Another option is to disable Java in your web browser.

If you are concerned that you have been affected by the Koobface trojan, you can get a free removal tool through SecureMac, who rates the risk as “Critical.” Currently the download link sends you to MacScan, but this is expected to change when the removal tool is released.

Mac Trojan Horse Boonana/Koobface - Reviewed

A trojan horse has been discovered that affects Mac OS X users, dubbed “trojan.osx.boonana.a” or ‘Koobface.’ An infected machine will hijack users social network accounts and attempt to spread the trojan further by sending out spam messages from your username.

Thus far the trojan has been spread through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and eMail. Here is the method of operation:

The trojan behaves like a worm, by trying to bait users on various social networks to click a link. The link asks “Is this you in this video?” and, if clicked, will send a user to another website which attempts to load a Java applet, giving the user a standard Mac OS X Java Security Alert and certificate request.

If the Java applet is allowed to load, it will download files to your local machine and then start a background process which attempts to propagate the trojan. You can simply click on “Deny” to prevent any further trouble, which prevents the malicious code from loading.

Intego explains the trojan as follows:

This threat is a Mac OS X version of the Koobface worm, which is served as part of a multi-platform attack via a malicious Java applet. The malware itself is made up of a number of elements, though in order to simplify, we will use the term “Trojan horse” to describe it. (Technically, it propagates as a worm, is installed via a Trojan Horse, and installs a rootkit, backdoor, command and control, and other elements.)

The trojan also effects Windows users. The easiest way for Mac and Windows users to protect themselves from the trojan is to avoid clicking dubious links from untrusted sources and to deny sketchy Java applets. Another option is to disable Java in your web browser.

If you are concerned that you have been affected by the Koobface trojan, you can get a free removal tool through SecureMac, who rates the risk as “Critical.” Currently the download link sends you to MacScan, but this is expected to change when the removal tool is released.

Quick review of Samsung SP-H03 LED Pico Projector

For mobile warriors, this pocket projector should warrant a serious look.

BOXY: The Samsung SP-H03 LED Pico Projector looks just like a luxury watch case.

PICO projectors are getting better all the time and they have come to a point where it's really feasible to carry one around for small presentations.

Case in point is the Samsung SP-H03 LED pico projector - this diminutive little number turned in a surprisingly good performance for such a small device.

Specs

With a native resolution of 854 x 480-pixels, the SP-H03 is not the highest resolution pico projector out there but it's certainly more than adequate for PowerPoint slides, viewing documents and, of course, watching the odd movie or two.

In terms of size, it's pretty small - I'd say that it looks like a small music box or a luxury watch case.

The whole device is finished in black, with the removable battery unit taking up the whole of the bottom of the device.

BIG: The LED Pico Projector's battery is a clip-on unit that takes up the entire bottom part of the unit.

On the back you get the usual connections - a special mini VGA input, mini USB port, audio output and a mini 3.5mm connector port that accepts a special RCA cable for video and stereo audio input.

One nifty little touch is that the control system is driven by touch sensitive controls on the top of the projector, with the soft touch buttons having their own LED backlighting.

In use

Turn it on and it's immediately clear that the SP-H03 is actually more powerful than its size would suggest. The display is very bright for a pico projector - at 30 lumens, it's actually about twice as bright as the 3M MPro 150 pico projector we tested. While this doesn't mean that it's comfortable to use with the lights on, you can actually still clearly see the display in a brightly-lit room.

BRIGHT: With its 30lumens brightness, the Samsung LED Pico Projector projects a very bright image.

The focus slider is on the side of the device, and although it works, I would have preferred the slider to have less "give" when adjusting focus - as it is, it took a bit of fiddling before I got the focus just right.

Also, there is no keystone correction so you'll have to keep it as level as possible when in use.

Since the buttons are touch-sensitive, it's actually quite easy to accidentally activate a button when you're trying to adjust the focus slider on the side as your palm or other finger is very likely to accidentally touch the top of the projector when you're doing this.

At about 5ft away the device projects an image size between 32in and 35in in 16:9 aspect ratio which is not too bad.

If you step back further the image gets larger but at the expense of brightness. Nevertheless we found that with the lights dimmed, you really can comfortably project pretty large images of 50in or more.

One thing we were really surprised with was the speaker. While lacking in bass, the 1-watt (again, about twice more powerful than the last pico projector we tested) speaker on the SP-H03 produced audio loud enough for an audience in a small room to hear clearly.

This really means that this tiny projector is often all you have to carry if you want to give a presentation to a small group of people.

The one downside is that battery life is obviously not going to be really great because it lasts about two hours on a single charge.

However, the charger for the pico projector is pretty small, so it's not a big deal to carry it around as well and keep the projector plugged in while you're using it.

The SP-H03 supports a number of formats, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, JPG images, MP3 songs and various video formats.

SOFT-TOUCH: The buttons on the Samsung LED Pico Projector are backlit and touch-sensitive.

The machine itself has 1GB of internal memory but you also get a microSD slot and the option to add more storage if you want to.

However, we did find the SP-H03 to be rather fussy when it comes to file formats. The projector just won't display some JPEG images and the only reason we can think of was that the photos may have been too large for the SP-H03 to handle.

There are quite a number of video formats out there so playback on the SP-H03 is even more spotty.

We generally had no problems playing DivX files in standard resolution though HD files are of course beyond the capability of this tiny projector.

Of course, native playback on the device itself is merely a bonus. The most common usage model is to connect it to a notebook via the VGA port and use the SP-H03 as a pure projector.

In this respect I really have no complaints at all because the SP-H03 can handle whatever your notebook can play or display.

I even connected it to my Nintendo Wii via the RCA adaptor, and I had a real blast playing with a screen as large as an expensive 50in HDTV. The only drawback is that you really do have to turn off all the lights in the room if your game has a lot of dark levels.

Conclusion

If you thought that all pico projectors were made the same, think again - Samsung proves that it can make it brighter and louder than most of the competition.

MINI-PORTS: (clockwise from top left) the Samsung LED Pico Projector has all the usual inputs -- a VGA input, audio/video input, headphone output, USB port and power adapter socket.

There's not much to say except that if you are looking for a pico projector, the Samsung SP-H03 should be near the top of your list.

Pros: Bright for a pico projector; speaker loud enough for a small room.

Cons: Limited native photo and video format support; touch sensitive buttons easily activated by accident.

SP-H03 LED Pico Projector
(Samsung)
Pocket projector
MEMORY: 1GB internal, microSD card slot
BRIGHTNESS: 30 lumens
PC COMPATIBILITY: 1080i, 720p
FILE FORMAT SUPPORT: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, BMP, JPEG, MP4, MP3
SPEAKERS: 1 built-in (1-watt)
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 7.11 x 7.11x 3.81cm
WEIGHT: 182g
PRICE: RM1,399
RATING: 4

Quick review of Samsung SP-H03 LED Pico Projector

For mobile warriors, this pocket projector should warrant a serious look.

BOXY: The Samsung SP-H03 LED Pico Projector looks just like a luxury watch case.

PICO projectors are getting better all the time and they have come to a point where it's really feasible to carry one around for small presentations.

Case in point is the Samsung SP-H03 LED pico projector - this diminutive little number turned in a surprisingly good performance for such a small device.

Specs

With a native resolution of 854 x 480-pixels, the SP-H03 is not the highest resolution pico projector out there but it's certainly more than adequate for PowerPoint slides, viewing documents and, of course, watching the odd movie or two.

In terms of size, it's pretty small - I'd say that it looks like a small music box or a luxury watch case.

The whole device is finished in black, with the removable battery unit taking up the whole of the bottom of the device.

BIG: The LED Pico Projector's battery is a clip-on unit that takes up the entire bottom part of the unit.

On the back you get the usual connections - a special mini VGA input, mini USB port, audio output and a mini 3.5mm connector port that accepts a special RCA cable for video and stereo audio input.

One nifty little touch is that the control system is driven by touch sensitive controls on the top of the projector, with the soft touch buttons having their own LED backlighting.

In use

Turn it on and it's immediately clear that the SP-H03 is actually more powerful than its size would suggest. The display is very bright for a pico projector - at 30 lumens, it's actually about twice as bright as the 3M MPro 150 pico projector we tested. While this doesn't mean that it's comfortable to use with the lights on, you can actually still clearly see the display in a brightly-lit room.

BRIGHT: With its 30lumens brightness, the Samsung LED Pico Projector projects a very bright image.

The focus slider is on the side of the device, and although it works, I would have preferred the slider to have less "give" when adjusting focus - as it is, it took a bit of fiddling before I got the focus just right.

Also, there is no keystone correction so you'll have to keep it as level as possible when in use.

Since the buttons are touch-sensitive, it's actually quite easy to accidentally activate a button when you're trying to adjust the focus slider on the side as your palm or other finger is very likely to accidentally touch the top of the projector when you're doing this.

At about 5ft away the device projects an image size between 32in and 35in in 16:9 aspect ratio which is not too bad.

If you step back further the image gets larger but at the expense of brightness. Nevertheless we found that with the lights dimmed, you really can comfortably project pretty large images of 50in or more.

One thing we were really surprised with was the speaker. While lacking in bass, the 1-watt (again, about twice more powerful than the last pico projector we tested) speaker on the SP-H03 produced audio loud enough for an audience in a small room to hear clearly.

This really means that this tiny projector is often all you have to carry if you want to give a presentation to a small group of people.

The one downside is that battery life is obviously not going to be really great because it lasts about two hours on a single charge.

However, the charger for the pico projector is pretty small, so it's not a big deal to carry it around as well and keep the projector plugged in while you're using it.

The SP-H03 supports a number of formats, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, JPG images, MP3 songs and various video formats.

SOFT-TOUCH: The buttons on the Samsung LED Pico Projector are backlit and touch-sensitive.

The machine itself has 1GB of internal memory but you also get a microSD slot and the option to add more storage if you want to.

However, we did find the SP-H03 to be rather fussy when it comes to file formats. The projector just won't display some JPEG images and the only reason we can think of was that the photos may have been too large for the SP-H03 to handle.

There are quite a number of video formats out there so playback on the SP-H03 is even more spotty.

We generally had no problems playing DivX files in standard resolution though HD files are of course beyond the capability of this tiny projector.

Of course, native playback on the device itself is merely a bonus. The most common usage model is to connect it to a notebook via the VGA port and use the SP-H03 as a pure projector.

In this respect I really have no complaints at all because the SP-H03 can handle whatever your notebook can play or display.

I even connected it to my Nintendo Wii via the RCA adaptor, and I had a real blast playing with a screen as large as an expensive 50in HDTV. The only drawback is that you really do have to turn off all the lights in the room if your game has a lot of dark levels.

Conclusion

If you thought that all pico projectors were made the same, think again - Samsung proves that it can make it brighter and louder than most of the competition.

MINI-PORTS: (clockwise from top left) the Samsung LED Pico Projector has all the usual inputs -- a VGA input, audio/video input, headphone output, USB port and power adapter socket.

There's not much to say except that if you are looking for a pico projector, the Samsung SP-H03 should be near the top of your list.

Pros: Bright for a pico projector; speaker loud enough for a small room.

Cons: Limited native photo and video format support; touch sensitive buttons easily activated by accident.

SP-H03 LED Pico Projector
(Samsung)
Pocket projector
MEMORY: 1GB internal, microSD card slot
BRIGHTNESS: 30 lumens
PC COMPATIBILITY: 1080i, 720p
FILE FORMAT SUPPORT: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, BMP, JPEG, MP4, MP3
SPEAKERS: 1 built-in (1-watt)
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 7.11 x 7.11x 3.81cm
WEIGHT: 182g
PRICE: RM1,399
RATING: 4

Quick review of Samsung SP-H03 LED Pico Projector

For mobile warriors, this pocket projector should warrant a serious look.

BOXY: The Samsung SP-H03 LED Pico Projector looks just like a luxury watch case.

PICO projectors are getting better all the time and they have come to a point where it's really feasible to carry one around for small presentations.

Case in point is the Samsung SP-H03 LED pico projector - this diminutive little number turned in a surprisingly good performance for such a small device.

Specs

With a native resolution of 854 x 480-pixels, the SP-H03 is not the highest resolution pico projector out there but it's certainly more than adequate for PowerPoint slides, viewing documents and, of course, watching the odd movie or two.

In terms of size, it's pretty small - I'd say that it looks like a small music box or a luxury watch case.

The whole device is finished in black, with the removable battery unit taking up the whole of the bottom of the device.

BIG: The LED Pico Projector's battery is a clip-on unit that takes up the entire bottom part of the unit.

On the back you get the usual connections - a special mini VGA input, mini USB port, audio output and a mini 3.5mm connector port that accepts a special RCA cable for video and stereo audio input.

One nifty little touch is that the control system is driven by touch sensitive controls on the top of the projector, with the soft touch buttons having their own LED backlighting.

In use

Turn it on and it's immediately clear that the SP-H03 is actually more powerful than its size would suggest. The display is very bright for a pico projector - at 30 lumens, it's actually about twice as bright as the 3M MPro 150 pico projector we tested. While this doesn't mean that it's comfortable to use with the lights on, you can actually still clearly see the display in a brightly-lit room.

BRIGHT: With its 30lumens brightness, the Samsung LED Pico Projector projects a very bright image.

The focus slider is on the side of the device, and although it works, I would have preferred the slider to have less "give" when adjusting focus - as it is, it took a bit of fiddling before I got the focus just right.

Also, there is no keystone correction so you'll have to keep it as level as possible when in use.

Since the buttons are touch-sensitive, it's actually quite easy to accidentally activate a button when you're trying to adjust the focus slider on the side as your palm or other finger is very likely to accidentally touch the top of the projector when you're doing this.

At about 5ft away the device projects an image size between 32in and 35in in 16:9 aspect ratio which is not too bad.

If you step back further the image gets larger but at the expense of brightness. Nevertheless we found that with the lights dimmed, you really can comfortably project pretty large images of 50in or more.

One thing we were really surprised with was the speaker. While lacking in bass, the 1-watt (again, about twice more powerful than the last pico projector we tested) speaker on the SP-H03 produced audio loud enough for an audience in a small room to hear clearly.

This really means that this tiny projector is often all you have to carry if you want to give a presentation to a small group of people.

The one downside is that battery life is obviously not going to be really great because it lasts about two hours on a single charge.

However, the charger for the pico projector is pretty small, so it's not a big deal to carry it around as well and keep the projector plugged in while you're using it.

The SP-H03 supports a number of formats, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, JPG images, MP3 songs and various video formats.

SOFT-TOUCH: The buttons on the Samsung LED Pico Projector are backlit and touch-sensitive.

The machine itself has 1GB of internal memory but you also get a microSD slot and the option to add more storage if you want to.

However, we did find the SP-H03 to be rather fussy when it comes to file formats. The projector just won't display some JPEG images and the only reason we can think of was that the photos may have been too large for the SP-H03 to handle.

There are quite a number of video formats out there so playback on the SP-H03 is even more spotty.

We generally had no problems playing DivX files in standard resolution though HD files are of course beyond the capability of this tiny projector.

Of course, native playback on the device itself is merely a bonus. The most common usage model is to connect it to a notebook via the VGA port and use the SP-H03 as a pure projector.

In this respect I really have no complaints at all because the SP-H03 can handle whatever your notebook can play or display.

I even connected it to my Nintendo Wii via the RCA adaptor, and I had a real blast playing with a screen as large as an expensive 50in HDTV. The only drawback is that you really do have to turn off all the lights in the room if your game has a lot of dark levels.

Conclusion

If you thought that all pico projectors were made the same, think again - Samsung proves that it can make it brighter and louder than most of the competition.

MINI-PORTS: (clockwise from top left) the Samsung LED Pico Projector has all the usual inputs -- a VGA input, audio/video input, headphone output, USB port and power adapter socket.

There's not much to say except that if you are looking for a pico projector, the Samsung SP-H03 should be near the top of your list.

Pros: Bright for a pico projector; speaker loud enough for a small room.

Cons: Limited native photo and video format support; touch sensitive buttons easily activated by accident.

SP-H03 LED Pico Projector
(Samsung)
Pocket projector
MEMORY: 1GB internal, microSD card slot
BRIGHTNESS: 30 lumens
PC COMPATIBILITY: 1080i, 720p
FILE FORMAT SUPPORT: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, BMP, JPEG, MP4, MP3
SPEAKERS: 1 built-in (1-watt)
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 7.11 x 7.11x 3.81cm
WEIGHT: 182g
PRICE: RM1,399
RATING: 4

Quick Review of MS Office 2011 for Mac

Microsoft has announced the local availability of Office 2011 for Mac, which the company said comes with some important additions.

One of the additions to the new productivity suite is Outlook, which replaces the ill-received Entourage e-mail client in the previous version.

Outlook for Office 2011 features a combination of e-mail, calendar and contact management and is designed to be an all-in-one application for checking your e-mail and planning your schedule.

The other components of Office 2011 for Mac are Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of which come with new features.

Word 2011, for example, has a new full screen view mode, which is billed as a tool for taking away distractions when you need to get some serious work done.

It also supports Visual Basic scripting for accessing complex documents like macros.

Users will also be able to choose from a variety of different templates to add some visual flare to their documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

For number crunchers, Excel 2011 benefits from new features like Sparklines, which are thumbnail-sized charts that represent large volumes of data at a glance.

Adding media to PowerPoint 2011 has also been made easier with new tools like the photo-editing and document layout tools. Microsoft said the tools allow you to make simple changes to documents such as remove the background from a picture and manage stacked images by layers.

In addition Office 2011 for Mac will support online collaboration tools such as Windows Live SkyDrive and Microsoft Office Web Apps, which will allow Mac and Windows users to simultaneously edit documents over the Web.

Office 2011 for Mac will be available in two editions: Home & Student (RM468 for single install; RM599 for three installs) and Home & Business (RM768 for single install; RM1,099 for two installs).

Both editions will come with Word 2011, Excel 2011 and PowerPoint 2011. However, only customers with the Home & Business edition will get Outlook 2011.