“It is often worth grabbing a few utilities in order to keep your Mac in the best possible shape, whether you’re looking to improve your wireless connection or just to boost performance,” Jony evans writes for Computerworld. “What follows is a selection of utilities which may boost your Mac life.”
Five essential utilities for any Mac user:
• AppCleaner (free)
• LittleSnitch (free)
• Onyx (Free)
• Dropbox (Free basic service)
• iStumbler (Free)
Full article with descriptions of the apps and links here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
An article dealing with Macs? Sorry, I’m on the wrong site. I thought I was on MDN.
An article dealing with Macs? Sorry, I’m on the wrong site. I thought I was on MDN.
Dropbox!?! If you upgrade to iLife 11, you are going to have a problem. Since they don’t do symlinks, it’s going to require double the space to store your photos. Not a good thing.
Dropbox!?! If you upgrade to iLife 11, you are going to have a problem. Since they don’t do symlinks, it’s going to require double the space to store your photos. Not a good thing.
@DogGone
All anti-malware software takes a lot of CPU while doing a scan, especially the whole drive scans.
If you installed the server version it might be running all the time, which is unnecessary for a OS X desktop/laptop.
Un-install that version and install the desktop GUI version from the ClamXAV website, it will give you the choice of running a scan on the folders you choose.
For OS X you really only need to run it on files downloaded or imported from/on a device previously connected to Windows machine as to not make the Mac act like a Typhoid Mary. A full scan on OS X is rather unnecessary as a regular option, you’ll find this out eventually.
ClamTK is available for Ubuntu Linux in the repositories (a Ubuntu “Mac App Store”) and both can be installed on a USB thumb drive which a Windows PC can be booted from and a very thorough scan done, even better than from within Windows. One can even reset the password, copy files, wipe the drive and all other sorts of fun stuff. See PenDriveLinux.
Too bad Apple doesn’t allow OS X to be run on PC’s, there are a lot of infected home users XP boxes out there that we could just install OS X over after doing a ClamXAV scan from a thumb drive.
@DogGone
All anti-malware software takes a lot of CPU while doing a scan, especially the whole drive scans.
If you installed the server version it might be running all the time, which is unnecessary for a OS X desktop/laptop.
Un-install that version and install the desktop GUI version from the ClamXAV website, it will give you the choice of running a scan on the folders you choose.
For OS X you really only need to run it on files downloaded or imported from/on a device previously connected to Windows machine as to not make the Mac act like a Typhoid Mary. A full scan on OS X is rather unnecessary as a regular option, you’ll find this out eventually.
ClamTK is available for Ubuntu Linux in the repositories (a Ubuntu “Mac App Store”) and both can be installed on a USB thumb drive which a Windows PC can be booted from and a very thorough scan done, even better than from within Windows. One can even reset the password, copy files, wipe the drive and all other sorts of fun stuff. See PenDriveLinux.
Too bad Apple doesn’t allow OS X to be run on PC’s, there are a lot of infected home users XP boxes out there that we could just install OS X over after doing a ClamXAV scan from a thumb drive.
@ Mark
Thanks for the tips. I think I used the desktop version. I’ll install it again and check if the scan function is off. It would be good to scan only downloaded files since that’s the only way files get on my Mac these days.
@ Mark
Thanks for the tips. I think I used the desktop version. I’ll install it again and check if the scan function is off. It would be good to scan only downloaded files since that’s the only way files get on my Mac these days.
@DogGone: I’ve been keeping track of Mac OS X security for a few years now over at my Mac-Security Blog.
I know Mark Allan, who writes ClamXav. He and I made an effort to get the ClamAV project team to take the Mac seriously and keep up-to-date with the current Mac Trojan horses. Mark was able to find someone on the team who was civil and there was some success updating their Mac malware definitions, but not all of them. IOW, ClamXav cannot detect all the current Mac malware, but it recognizes most of it.
From the studies I have made of the various Mac anti-malware apps, the only one I actually like and recommend is Intego’s VirusBarrier. The version 10.6 update this year was very impressive as it integrated everything from their now discontinued NetBarrier application. I also have a good rapport with the staff there, apart from Peter, the fellow who writes their often FUD oriented ‘Mac Security Blog.’ VirusBarrier has had a bug that occasionally created a ‘race condition’, as I call it, that hogged the entire CPU. After working with the staff they appear to have isolated the problem in the most recent update.
Apart from that one problem I have no complaints about the software, only compliments. It is the most simple, sane, effective and least intrusive of any anti-malware apps I have used on either Windows or Mac. The only drawback is having to purchase a new malware definition license each year.
Currently there are a total of 26 malware for Mac OS X. 25 of them are Trojan horses requiring user error in order to be installed and take over your Mac. Just this past week the 27th Mac malware was discovered, a rewrite of a Windows worm that at this time is poorly written and of no major consequence. Therefore, it is still possible, with careful user behavior, to ignore anti-malware apps. Being careful means never installing anything on your Mac that you have not verified as legitimate software from a legitimate source, such as MacUpdate.com or VersionTracker.com/Downloads.cnet.com.
There are two reasonable free options. One is ClamXav. The other is the free version of iAntiVirus from PC Tools. iAntiVirus is extremely minimal, but has a complete list of current Mac malware it detects. That does NOT mean it is successful in detecting them however! I’ve found it to be occasionally unreliable. Nonetheless, it is unobtrusive and well written.
Hope that helps!
@DogGone: I’ve been keeping track of Mac OS X security for a few years now over at my Mac-Security Blog.
I know Mark Allan, who writes ClamXav. He and I made an effort to get the ClamAV project team to take the Mac seriously and keep up-to-date with the current Mac Trojan horses. Mark was able to find someone on the team who was civil and there was some success updating their Mac malware definitions, but not all of them. IOW, ClamXav cannot detect all the current Mac malware, but it recognizes most of it.
From the studies I have made of the various Mac anti-malware apps, the only one I actually like and recommend is Intego’s VirusBarrier. The version 10.6 update this year was very impressive as it integrated everything from their now discontinued NetBarrier application. I also have a good rapport with the staff there, apart from Peter, the fellow who writes their often FUD oriented ‘Mac Security Blog.’ VirusBarrier has had a bug that occasionally created a ‘race condition’, as I call it, that hogged the entire CPU. After working with the staff they appear to have isolated the problem in the most recent update.
Apart from that one problem I have no complaints about the software, only compliments. It is the most simple, sane, effective and least intrusive of any anti-malware apps I have used on either Windows or Mac. The only drawback is having to purchase a new malware definition license each year.
Currently there are a total of 26 malware for Mac OS X. 25 of them are Trojan horses requiring user error in order to be installed and take over your Mac. Just this past week the 27th Mac malware was discovered, a rewrite of a Windows worm that at this time is poorly written and of no major consequence. Therefore, it is still possible, with careful user behavior, to ignore anti-malware apps. Being careful means never installing anything on your Mac that you have not verified as legitimate software from a legitimate source, such as MacUpdate.com or VersionTracker.com/Downloads.cnet.com.
There are two reasonable free options. One is ClamXav. The other is the free version of iAntiVirus from PC Tools. iAntiVirus is extremely minimal, but has a complete list of current Mac malware it detects. That does NOT mean it is successful in detecting them however! I’ve found it to be occasionally unreliable. Nonetheless, it is unobtrusive and well written.
Hope that helps!
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