According to Russian antivirus company Dr. Web, there are about 600,000 Macs around the world that are infected by different variations of the Flashback trojan and are now part of a fast-growing Mac botnet. Of the 600,000 infected Macs the majority are located in North America – 57% from the US and 20% in Canada.

If you own a Mac and would like to check whether its infected or not, you can follow these step-by-step instruction provided by the folks from F-Secure.

NOTE: This procedure is risky and could be a bit tricky so it is recommended only for advanced users. If you think you’re not capable of doing it yourself, you can request a friend or a professional technician to assist you.

1. Open up Terminal (Finder > Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
2. Key in and run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

3. Take note of the value, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
4. Proceed to step 8 if you got the following error message:

"The domain/default pair of (/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info, LSEnvironment) does not exist"

5. Otherwise, run the following command in Terminal:

grep -a -o '__ldpath__[ -~]*' %path_obta</blockquote>ined_in_step2%

6. Take note of the value after “__ldpath__”
7. Run the following commands in Terminal (first make sure there is only one entry, from step 2):

sudo defaults delete /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment 

sudo chmod 644 /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info.plist

8. Delete the files obtained in steps 2 and 5
9. Run the following command in Terminal:

defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

10. Take note of the result. Your system is already clean of this variant if you got an error message similar to the following:

"The domain/default pair of (/Users/joe/.MacOSX/environment, DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES) does not exist"

11. Otherwise, run the following command in Terminal:

grep -a -o '__ldpath__[ -~]*' %path_obtained_in_step9%

12. Take note of the value after “__ldpath__”
13. Run the following commands in Terminal:

defaults delete ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES 

launchctl unsetenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

14. Finally, delete the files obtained in steps 9 and 11.

If you get both “does not exist” errors on Step 4 and 10, it basically means that your Mac is not infected by the latest Flashback trojan variation. However, other Flashback trojan variations include additional components which require additional removal steps. Please refer to this link for further information and removal instructions.

I performed the procedure on my Mac and fortunately for me, it isn’t one of the 600,000 infected machines. I strongly recommend that you do the same thing and check to make sure whether your Mac is infected or not. It won’t hurt if you do and its always better to be safe than sorry.

Anyone here who got infected by the latest Flashback trojan or a different variant? What did you do to fix/disinfect your machine?

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Wondershare Software is running a special promo offering up to 60% discount on their bestselling Windows and Mac software. Programs like Vivideo Video Editor for Windows ($39.99), DVD Creator for Windows ($39.95), DVD Creator for Mac ($49), Photo Recovery for Mac ($49.95) are all available for only $19.99 for a limited time.

During this promo, users can also avail of a 30% discount off the top-rated Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate, a program recommended by PCWorld and rated 4.5 stars by CNET. Below is a complete list of available software products with their discounted prices:

Windows

• DVD Slideshow Builder Deluxe ($59.95) – $41.95
• AllmyTube ($29.00) – $19.95
• Video Converter Ultimate ($69.95) – $48.95
• Video Converter Pro ($45.95) – $39.95
• Video Converter Platinum ($35.95) – $31.95
• Vivideo ($39.99) – $19.99
• DVD Creator ($39.95) – $19.99
• Photo Recovery ($29.95) – $19.99

Mac

• Fantashow for Mac ($49.95) – $29.95
• AllMyTube for Mac ($29.00) $19.95
• Video Converter Ultimate for Mac ($69.95) – $48.95
• Video Converter Pro for Mac ($49.00) – $43.95
• Video Converter for Mac ($39.00) – $34.95
• Vivideo ($39.99) – $19.99
• DVD Creator ($49.00) – $19.99
• Photo Recovery ($49.95) – $19.99

If you’d like to avail of this special promo to purchase one or several of these products, head on over to the Wondershare Valentine’s Day Promo page. This Valentine’s Day Promo ends on February 23,2012 or until supplies last.

Yesterday, Apple released the public beta version of Safari 4 for both Mac OS X and Windows platforms. According to Apple, Safari 4 is faster and “more innovative” than Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and other competing browsers.

Safari 4 runs on a new Javascript engine called Nitro which Apple claims to be 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3. Apple also claims that Safari 4 has a page load time 3 times faster than IE7 and Firefox 3 although performance may vary according to the system configuration and other factors.

I don’t really use Safari that much, only for testing purposes but I went and downloaded/installed Safari 4 just to check it out and see the new features.

Top Sites

The first thing you’ll notice is Top Sites, which is a visual menu that displays graphic previews of frequently visited web sites. For first time users, Top Sites will be made up of preselected popular web sites like Yahoo!, CNN. YouTube, New York Times, etc. and as you go and use it, these slots will be replaced with the web sites that you frequently visit.

Top Sites Edit Mode

Top Sites is customizable. Clicking on the EDIT button (found at the lower left corner) lets the user remove or rearrange the sites (drag-and-drop style) according to their preference. By default, Top Sites is displayed on medium sized thumbnails and in EDIT mode, you can change the size to small, medium or large.

Top Sites Small Thumbnails

Top Sites Large Thumbnails

Cover Flow

Cover Flow is one of the new features in Safari 4. I’m sure most of you are familiar with it and have seen it in other Apple Products like the iPod, iPhone and iTunes. In Safari, this feature lets you browse through the different web sites listed in the Bookmarks or History of web sites you’ve visited. I noticed that the thumbnail generation in Cover Flow was a bit slow and lagged once in a while.

Acid Test

Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid 3 test scoring 100/100, meaning it fully complies with CSS, Javascript, XML and SVG web standards.

My Take:
So how does Safari 4 compare to other browsers? Prettier? Yes. Faster? Yes. Better? I don’t think so. Safari 4 is definitely better than its predecessor, the Safari 3 and it lives up to its “Browsing made beautiful. And Smart” tag line but IMO is not better than other competing browsers especially Firefox. But again, this is only a public beta version of Safari 4 so we could still some changes and improvement in the final version.

After trying and testing Safari 4 public beta, I’m still sticking to Firefox as my default web browser for 2 reasons. First, Safari 4 doesn’t have official plugin support (I can’t live without my plugins) and second, Safari 4 is a resource hog. With only 1 tab open, Safari 4 was using up almost double the amount of resources Firefox was using with 10 tabs open.

For those who don’t use plugins and only need a simple and fast browser that has some cool features, you should try Safari 4.

So what do you think of Safari 4? Anyone else installed and tried it on their computer? What’s your experience using Safari 4? What do you like/dislike about it? What features would you like to see added to Safari 4? Please share your thoughts and thanks for your time!

Previously, if you wanted to try or install/dual boot Ubuntu you’d have to use the live CD or create a partition on your computer with the latter being a daunting task for most users, especially those who don’t have much technical knowledge.

Now, with the help of the Wubi installer, you can try or install Ubuntu quickly and conveniently with your existing Windows-powered computer just like any other Windows program.

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way. Are you curious about Linux and Ubuntu? Trying them out has never been easier!

I’ve used the Wubi installer to install Ubuntu on my old laptop the Compaq Presario C714NR and if you’ve noticed from my comments on this blog, I’ve been using Ubuntu a lot the past few months because I also installed Ubuntu on my Toshiba Satellite A305-S6872.

System Requirements:

• Processor: 1 GHz or faster Intel/AMD processor
• Memory: 256 MB RAM
• Disk space: 5GB

If your computer meets the minimum system requirements then the next thing you need to do is download Wubi. Note that even though Wubi automatically downloads the Ubuntu installation file for you, you can also use an existing Ubuntu ISO/CD for installation. You can download the latest version of Ubuntu here. If you have a pre-downloaded ISO, it should be placed in the same folder as the wubi.exe.

In my experience, having/using a pre-downloaded ISO made the installation faster. Downloading it via Wubi took longer (this also depends on your Internet connection). When downloading your Ubuntu ISO, make sure you choose the right version for your computer 32-bit or 64-bit. To check what version your computer is running on, click on Start/Windows logo, right click on Computer, select Properties and look for System Type (either 32-bit or 64-bit Operating System).

Once you have the wubi installer and/or the ISO/CD, run the wubi.exe file and it will open this window:

1. Choose installation size (default is 15 GB).
2. Create a username.
3. Create and confirm a password.

You can also choose what Desktop Environment to install: Ubuntu/default (GNOME), Kubuntu (KDE) or Xubuntu (XFCE).

When you’re done, click Install and wait until installation process is finished then it will ask you to reboot your computer to complete the installation.

When the computer boots up again, the Windows Boot Manager will ask you which operating system to use. Select Ubuntu.

Ubuntu will be loaded and will continue/complete the installation process. Once the installation process is complete, it will reboot again. To start using Ubuntu, wait for the Windows Boot Manager screen and select Ubuntu then login using the username/password that you created earlier. To switch between Windows and Ubuntu, simply restart your computer and select with Operating System to run.

Uninstalling it is as easy as the installation. Just open Window’s Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, select Wubi/Ubuntu and uninstall it. Btw, Wubi works on all versions of Windows from Windows 98 to Windows Vista with the exception of Windows ME. If you have Linux/*nix/*BSD, you can use Lubi. Future plans include Mubi, a version for Mac OSX.

Here’s a screenshot of a regular Ubuntu desktop:

Here’s how my Ubuntu desktop looks like:

As you can see, I’ve customized it to imitate a Mac OSX Leopard desktop. If you want to know how to do this, I’ll be publishing a tutorial on how I did this in the coming weeks, so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed so you won’t miss it.

Hope this simple tutorial helps you and give you the motivation to try Ubuntu. If you decide to try it out and install Ubuntu using Wubi and experience any problems, let me know by leaving a comment below or sending me a message via the Contact form and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Rumors of a next-generation iPhone have been all over the web the past few weeks and started when someone spotted an iPhone firmware referencing a certain “iPhone 2,1″. The original iPhone was referenced as 1,1, the iPhone 3G as 1,2 and if Apple stuck to their naming conventions, this would have to be the next version of the iPhone.

This image of the iPhone 4G concept came out a couple days ago and spread like wild fire. As you can see, this “upcoming” iPhone is sporting a titanium body and Apple’s new unibody Macbook design.

Specs:

• Titanium and Glass.
• OLED screen
• 3G
• GPS
• Front camera for iChat
• Removable battery
• 3.2 Megapixel camera
• Video
• 32 GB

If you ask me, the design looks okay but specifications-wise, I’m not impressed. I know these are only “fantasy” specs because this is just a concept phone, but if Apple wants to come up with a more competent device, they’ll have to provide better specs. A 3.2 megapixel camera? Common! It should be 5 megapixels at least. The only thing I like about it is the OLED screen/display which is better than a LCD display because it doesn’t require a backlight and uses less power. Apple should really come up with something more impressive as the competition is getting tougher.

Are you impressed with the iPhone 4G Concept? Do you like the unibody design or would you prefer a more “rounded” look? What specifications would you want or expect in the next iPhone model?

[via Gizmodo]