Apple announced recently that all of its data centers will be powered by 100% renewable energy.This statement has been made in response to heavy complaints from Greenpeace.Apple has also received approval to build its 20-megawatt solar farm right next to its other data center in Maiden,North Carolina.According to the company’s representative,about 60% of the energy powering Apple’s data centers will be created onsite and the remaining 40% will be generated via negotiations with local energy providers,like Duke Energy.

“Apple’s announcement today is a great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal,” Greenpeace International Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook said in a statement.

“Apple’s doubling of its solar capacity and investment in local renewable energy are key steps to creating a cleaner iCloud. Greenpeace and Apple’s customers look forward to hearing more detail about how Apple plans to fulfill its commitment to renewable energy for its North Carolina and Oregon data centers. Apple is still one of Duke Energy’s largest customers, and will have to demand Duke provide the clean energy it needs to legitimately claim the iCloud is 100% powered by renewable energy.”

According to Gary Cook, “Greenpeace will continue its campaign to push Apple – and other IT giants like Microsoft and Amazon – to clean the cloud until Apple has policies to ensure that as Apple’s North Carolina data center and others continue to grow, they will grow using exclusively clean energy. To guarantee that, Apple must adopt a firm siting policy to prioritize renewable energy when it chooses locations for new data centers. Only then will customers have confidence that the iCloud will continue to get cleaner as it grows. “

The new Apple data center in Prineville,Oregon,will be powered by 100% reneable energy,and Apple’s first data center in Newark,California is also going to be powered by renewable energy after renovations begin in early 2013.

Kaspersky security company made a statement on Monday claiming that comments about Apple asking the firm for security help were taken out of context and completely misunderstood.It has been also sai that Kaspersky overstated the whole situation and that Nikolay Grebennikov – the company’s Chief Technology Officer,misspoke,and that clarification is actually a correction.
The one line that became a catalyst to a wave of mass confusion was: “Mac OS is really vulnurable, and Apple recently invited us to improve its security,” as reported by Computing news.
As mentioned, it was a quite big of a deal – Apple has always been as secretive about their security as it is about everything else.You can imagine,what the idea that Apple is turning to a third party security firm to improve security in its operating systems would do to Apple’s reputation.
However,it turned out that this wasn’t what really happened there.In a long statement,given to Engadget,Kaspersky Labs  said that Apple “did not invite or solicit Kaspersky Lab’s assistance in analyzing the Mac OS X platform”.

The company stated though,that “Apple is open to collaborating with us regarding new Mac OS X vulnerabilities and malware that we identify during our analysis”.
In response to that,Computer News updated its report with this comment:

“Grebennikov originally stated that Apple had invited Kaspersky Lab to work with the company on improving its security, but has since issued a clarification. The company has now said that its analysis of OS X was “conducted independently” but that “Apple is open to collaborating with [Kaspersky] regarding new OS X vulnerabilities.”

To make it clear,Kaspersky’s analysis of OS X is independent,however,the company believes that Apple could cooperate with it,depending on what it faces.
Here is the full statement from Kaspersky:

“On Monday, April 14, computing.co.uk published an article titled “Apple OS ‘really vulnerable’ claims Kaspersky Lab CTO” that includes an inaccurate quote regarding Apple and Kaspersky Lab. The article reports that Kaspersky Lab had “begun the process of analyzing the Mac OS platform at Apple’s request” to identify vulnerabilities. This statement was taken out of context by the magazine – Apple did not invite or solicit Kaspersky Lab’s assistance in analyzing the Mac OS X platform. Kaspersky Lab has contacted computing.co.uk to correct its article.
Please refer to the statement below from Nikolay Grebennikov, Chief Technology Officer, Kaspersky Lab, which clarifies this misrepresentation:
“As Mac OS X market share continues to increase, we expect cyber-criminals to continue to develop new types of malware and attack methods. In order to meet these new threats, Kaspersky Lab has been conducting an in-depth analysis of Mac OS X vulnerabilities and new forms of malware.
This security analysis of Mac OS X was conducted independently of Apple; however, Apple is open to collaborating with us regarding new Mac OS X vulnerabilities and malware that we identify during our analysis. Kaspersky Lab is committed to providing the highest level of security for all of our customers, including Mac OS X, and we will continue to enhance our technologies in order to meet the ever-changing threat landscape.”

Senior director of security of Adobe praised Apple for releasing a Safari update on Wednesday that disabled old Flash Player versions that may be vulnerable to malicious code.

Brad Arkin – Adobe Senior of Security,Products and Services complimented Apple’s decision to automatically disable obsolete versions of his company’s Flash Player in a Wednesday blog post:
“We welcome today’s initiative by Apple to encourage Mac users to stay up-to-date,” Arkin wrote yesterday in a post on the Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET) blog. “Remember: The single most important thing we can do to protect ourselves from the bad guys is to stay up-to-date. A thank you to the security team at Apple for working with us to help protect our mutual customers!”

This post was addressed to Apple’s Safari 5.1.7 update that runs in OS X Lion,Snow Leopard and Windows 7,XP and Vista. Flash software older than version 10.1.102.64,which dates back to November 2010,are automatically disabled in the update.That means that users have to manually reinstated the software if they want to use it.

Arkin also mentioned the steps Adobe is taking with its various product lines,background updating for example,to ensure the security of its customers.Not all of Adobe’s automated updating tools are available for Mac users yet.Nevertheless,the chief of security stated that the company is continuing to develop products for Apple’s OS:
“A Mac version of the Flash Player background updater is currently in beta and will be available very soon—stay tuned,” Arkin said.

An emergency update to fix a cross-platform Flash exploit was released by Adobe less than a week ago. A lot of Windows OCs were automatically fixed,unlike Macs,where users had to install the software manually.

The relationship between Apple and Adobe has been a little bit tensed since Steve Jobs wrote an open letter in 2010 that described Flash as a PC-bound format that “falls short” in the current low-power mobile computing environment.

In 2011 Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen commented the Flash on iOS failure,saying that the dispute was over.He also stated,that Flash-packing Android tablets would one day dominate Apple’s iPad and that HP and RIM would make headway in the enterprise tablet market.
Later in 2011 Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen downplayed the Flash on iOS debacle, saying that the dispute was over. He went on to predict that Flash-packing Android tablets would one day dominate Apple’s iPad and that HP and RIM would make headway in the enterprise tablet market.

Learn how to quickly access all files you were working on yesterday without caring about where they were stored or what folders they are located in.There are two ways to set this up with the help of Mac OS X Smart Folders. The first way is to utilize a quick modification to “All My Files” and the second is going to require creating a custom Smart Folder.

Method 1.
Access Yesterday’s Files and Work with All My Files:
This is the easiest way,all you need to do is modify how an existing folder arranges files:
1) Open “All My Files” from the OS X Finder, unless set otherwise,this is the default new finder window now.
2) Click on the “Arrange” button and choose ‘Date Modified”.
3) Scroll down to find “Yesterday” in the list, these are all your files from yesterday.
You can choose between options like “Date Last Opened” and others from the Arrange menu.Remember though,the moment you open a file it will move from Yesterday to Today in All My Files.

Method 2.
Find Yesterdays Files and Work With a Smart Folder
The second method uses a new Smart Folder to find all files that were modified within the past day.If you change a file from yesterday sometime today,it will remain accessible in the same smart folder.This is a bit more tricky and smart than the method above.It will include user preference and library files,modified plists,downloads,iTunes playlists and any other file that has been changed by the user within a day.

1) From the OS X Finder, hit Command+Option+N to create a new Smart Folder.
2) Click on “All My Files” at the top to limit the search to files owned by the active user.
3) Click the (+) button to add a new search parameter and choose “Last modified date” and set is to “within last” and enter “1 days”.

4) Finally, click the “Save” button and name the search “Recent Work” or something similar, and select “Add To Sidebar” for easy future access from Finder windows.

The new smart folder you just created is now accessible from any Finder window,search for the gear icon next to “Recent Work” in the sidebar and click on it to open a constantly updated folder of all files modified within the past day.

After years of watching Apple up close,dealing with all of their CEOs and following what they’ve been doing in general,there are six key principles that made this company so hard to compete with.

1. For any product that Apple creates,the people who create it have to want it themselves.

A lot of tech companies are really focused on technology and don’t really care about whether people like it or not.Apple’s approach is quite different.Apple’s engineers actually create products for themselves.They created this concept where they build a product they can’t personally live without.

2. The products have to be easy to use
Design is an important aspect of every Apple product.But let’s be realistic – if the product is hard or awkward to use – it’s worthless to the consumer.All of the products they create must be very easy to figure out,understand and use.Bajarin says: “Apple is the only company I deal with where ease of use is more important than the product itself. Apple makes this a critical goal of its approach to creating anything for the market.”

3. Keep things simple
Bajarin: “I was in Paris in the past two weeks and had talks with various French telecommunications officials about many mobile-computing issues. But one conversation I had in particular emphasizes this keep-it-simple point. We were discussing how to compete with Apple — a major pastime for all Apple competitors and carriers these days — when the question of why Apple is really successful came up. And one exec nailed it when he said he felt that the real reason Apple is successful is because it has one product; in this case the iPhone. It minimizes the decision making process for the consumer by making things simple.”

4. Offer great customer service and in-store experiences
They don’t just ask you “How can i help you?” at an Apple store,do they?Instead,they ask you “What would you like to do today?”They go to the very core of any technology user’s being.They are interested in helping you achieve your goal with the help of their technologies.

5. Apple only makes a product if Apple can do it better
It’s interesting – Apple doesn’t usually invent a new product or category. Apple didn’t event the MP3 player,smartphone,or tablet,instead,they just made them better.Jonathan Ive said recently “Our goals are very simple — to design and make better products. If we can’t make something that is better, we won’t do it.”

6. Apple stays at least two years ahead of its competitors
While other companies are just creating products that are competetive,Apple is creating products for two years from now. For instance,the iPhone that will likely be on the market this fall was signed off on at least two years ago. The one that company is working on now will be available in the fall of 2014.Same with the iPad.Apple is giving a really hard time its competetors.
Bajarin closes by saying, “These six principles may seem a bit simplistic given the fact that Apple also has great software, industrial design and a powerful ecosystem of content, apps and services as part of the company’s success equation. However, I can tell you that from my three decades of following Apple, it’s these six key principles that are what really makes it successful. And as long as it adheres to them, it’s pretty likely that Apple will continue to grow and command a relatively large share of the market in the company’s product categories where it competes.”

Eugene Kaspersky’s last week’s statement about how “OS X was at least 10 years behind Microsoft in terms of security” has set off big waves in the Apple world.
Since Kaspersky’s bold statement was made there’s been a lot of arguments about whether what he said was true,or whether he was just trying to exalt the name of his company.What if Kaspersky was right though?Maybe,Apple should really learn from Microsoft and involve the third-party antivirus company in order to provide for the proper OS X security measures?

Paul Wagenseil made an interesting point that it is absolutely possible that Apple may be ten years behind Microsoft when it comes to security.And that might be true,not because OS X system has more holes in it than Windows,but simply because Apple insists on fixing all OS X’s vulnerabilities itself.Instead of trying to be the Jack of All trades,Apple should follow in Microsoft’s footsteps and give the most of their security into the hands of the third-party antivirus industry,according to Wagenseil.

“Microsoft has improved their security massively since 2002,” Hypponen said. “Today, they are a good model for efficient security process in many ways.”
Microsoft got to that point by essentially outsourcing Windows security. The entire anti-virus industry, with sales of several billion dollars per year, is built on defeating malware that targets Windows.
The existence of that industry frees up Microsoft to work on patching its Windows, which it does extensively every month. Microsoft’s open model lets major Windows software makers such as Adobe or Oracle do the same without Microsoft’s approval.
Apple, on the other hand, disdains third-party anti-virus software for Macs — though it does exist — and insists on patching certain pieces of third-party software itself.”

Concerning the latter point,Apple has shown some signs of rethinking their antivirus strategy.For instance,Oracle will now manage updates to Java for Mac.

Despite that,Apple is still fairly slow when it comes to patching vulnerabilities in its operating system.It took them quite some time to deal with Flashback – the most recent OS X malware that infected over 600,000 Macs.In the past,Apple has taken months to fix different OS X security issues.

Apple officially announced that WWDC 2012 will be held in June 11th.The company is going to present the new OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.Worldwide Developers Conference is one of the most crucial events for Apple.Up until last year it was mostly focused on the launch of new iOS versions and new iPhone models.But,starting from 2011,Apple made WWDC the official Mac OS X event.

We are going to be able to see the iOS 6 in flash and also get a sneak peek at what OS X Mountain Lion will look like.Although,if you are expecting to see the iPhone 5 there – you might get disappointed,because this is not going to happen just yet.

The even will be held between June 11 – 15 at Moscone West Center in San Francisco.The starting price for the tickets is $1,600.The developers will have chance to attend all the press conferences and to talk with Apple engineers about iOS.Another innovation – starting 2012 Apple will only sell tickets to registered developers,therefore,if you are one and you’re interested in getting one,you might want to do it ASAP.

So,let’s talk about the products Apple will present at this year’s event.We will be presented a complex presentation of OS X Mountain Lion for sure,this operating system is going to be launched this summer.The company’s representative will,most likely,present the most inportant feature of the new OS X.There is a big chance that we will also be able to take a peek at the new iOS 6 – Apple’s new mobile platform,which is going to be released officially in the fall,along with the new iPhone.Besides the software goods,WWDC 2012 might also surprise us with new MacBook models,although,for now,nobody knows what Apple’s plans are all about.According to numerous rumors,Apple might present a new MacBook Pro model with a new design.

Apple is going to present their latest products at WWDC 2012 – OS X Mountain Lion,some features of iOS 6,maybe a redesigned Mac.We won’t see the new iPhone though, as the Cupertino-based company haven’t tested iOS 6 yet.

Apple has officially announced its Q2 2012 financial results.The information in the report fully describes what a giant the tiny company from Cupertino has become.

Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, 11.8 million iPads, 7.7 million iPods and 4 million Macs.The numbers are just insane.Summing all these numbers up leads us to an incredible 58.6 million devices,sold over just three months of the financial quarter – which makes it nearly 645,000 devices a day,out of which 385,000 are iPhones,and almost 130,000 of them are iPads.

Digging deeper into the numbers ,some interesting facts appear:

1) Over a period spanning only 20 quarters (Q3 2007 – Q2 2012) the company has sold 218.1 million iPhones,which makes it incredible in comparison to a period spanning 42 quarters (Q1 2002 – Q2 2012), where apple has sold 344.3 million iPods.

2) So far, Apple has sold 67 million iPads. Now,think about this – it took company 24 years to sell that many Macs, 5 years to sell that many iPhones and 3 years to sell that many iPods.

3) Apple has switched to selling higher value devices,selling as many iPads – which range in price from $399 for the iPad 2 to $829 for the 64 GB Wi-Fi + 4G iPad 3 – as it does iPods – which range in price from $49 for the 2GB iPod shuffle to $399 for the brand-new 64 GB iPod touch.

According to ZDNet, Apple has nothing to worry about,even though iPod sales are dropping,and Mac sales are not really going up either.Strong iPad and iPhone sales are showing that Apple is going to stay strong for a long time.

There’s been a a lot of rumors over the past few month about the future of Apple’s 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pros,which are soon expected to get a new form and Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors.Although,according to analyst,there may no longer be a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air.
Apple is planning on releasing an all-new MacBook that combines the qualities of both,while the 17-inch MacBook Pro will extinct completely.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo – a research analyst with KGI Securities,Apple’s largest laptop will soon meet its death.Its been said that Cupertino company will introduce a “fully new” MacBook this year.The new machine will combine “the advantages of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro”.
The 17-inch model might be discontinued due to its low popularity,compared to its smaller siblings.

Ming-Chi Kuo, a research analyst with KGI Securities, has published a new report in which he predicts Apple’s largest notebook will soon meet its death. Kuo feels the Cupertino company will introduce a “fully new” MacBook this year that will combine “the advantages of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro.”
The 17-inch model, which isn’t as popular as its smaller siblings, could be discontinued:
“Apple’s Mac business in 2Q12 will be boosted by several factors.

Three of which are:
1) Mountain Lion, which integrates iOS features with Mac OS, Apple TV’s interaction function, will be launched in June.

2) Upgrading to Ivy Bridge.

3) Back-to-school demand. We forecast Apple will sell 5.32mn units of the Mac series (up 28.5% QoQ and 35.2% YoY) in 2Q12, making it the main growth driver.We also predict Apple will roll out a fully new MacBook model in early 3Q12, boasting strong performance and easy carryability by combining the advantages of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.While adding new products, Apple is likely to stop making the 17” MacBook Pro this year due to falling shipments, in order to maintain a lean product line strategy.

Kuo is positive that there may no longer be a MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro,but rather one laptop that comebines qualities of both.Recent rumors said that the new MacBook would be ultra thin – a lot like MacBook Air.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is by far Apple’s best-selling Mac,according to 2011-2012 statistics.The 15 -inch is second-best,while the 17-inch is not as popular as its siblings.

Congratulations!You’ve bought your first Mac!Quite a moment,huh?It took you a while to build up to this moment – you got yourself an iPod or an iPhone,learned to manage your music using iTunes,maybe,you even got a MobileMe membership.Well,now you probably want to learn how to transfer your iTunes data from the PC to the Mac.

First of all,you need to consolidate your iTunes library.By default,OS X based iTunes copies every single song or video you add to iTunes into a central iTunes folder.iTunes on Windows is different.
Luckily,we can easily tell iTunes to consolidate its library manually.
Open up iTunes on Windows and go to File>Library>Organize Library.In the window that pops up,select the checkbox next to “Consolidate Files” and then click “OK”.

iTunes will now copy all your media inro a cenral iTunes folder,this process might take a while,depending on the speed of your hard drive and amount of media you have.
When the process is done,you’ll have to choose how to actually move your content.There are two options:First is to use an external hard drive;second is to create a network connection between the Mac and the PC.We’ll cover both of these below.
Transfer Content with an External Hard Drive
Get an external hard drive with enough capacity to store your iTunes content.If you don’t know what size you’ll need,check the size of your iTunes media folder which,if you followed the consolidation steps above should be located inside the following folders:
Windows 7:C:/Users/username/My Music/iTunes
Windows Vista:C:/Users/username/Music/iTunes
Windows XP:C:/Documents and Settings/username/My Documents/My Music/iTunes
Find the proper folder and right-click on it.Select “Properties” and let the system to measure the size of the folder.The total size represents all the content you have (iTunes database,support files as well).
Once you have an external drive,plug it in to your PC and open it with Windows Explorer.In a separate Windows Explorer window,navigate to the appropriate iTunes folder and copy the entire iTunes folder to your external hard drive.It might take a while depending on the speed of your hard drive and the size of your library.
Once the copying process is done,safely eject the drive from the PC and plug it in to your Mac.Open it in Finder.In a separate Finder window open your Music folder.Make sure the iTunes app is closed and then delete the iTunes folder in your Music folder on the Mac’s hard drive.Keep in mind,that this action will erase all music you already have on your Mac(this tutorial assumes that you’re moving your music from the PC for the first time).Also remember that the iTunes folder will only be in the Music folder if you’ve opened it at least once.In case you haven’t opened iTunes,you won’t see anything here and you can move on to the next step.
After you delete the Mac’s iTunes folder – drag and drop the iTunes folder from the external drive into your Music folder.That’s it – all your iTunes data is now on your Mac just the way it was on the PC.

Transfer Content with a Network Connection
To use this option you need to make sure that both the PC and Mac have an ethernet port.It is possible to perform the content transfer via a wireless connection,though there is a big chance you’ll end with an unexpected error,therefore,it is better to use the hardwired connection.
Connect Mac and the PC together.Open System Preferences on the Mac and then choose the Network preference pane.On the menu to the left,choose the Ethernet interface and make note of the IP address,a series of numbers and periods,listed to the right.Save that address for later.

Next thing you want to do is go to System Preferences and click on the Sharing preference pane.Select the checkbox next to “File Sharing” in the list to the left and click “Options” on the right.In the pop-up-window check the box next to “Share files and folders using SMB”.Do the same to the checkbox next to your user account name in the menu below.

Now,return to the PC.Open the “Start” menu and search for “Run..”,then type the following into the “Open” box:\\[IP Address]\[Home Folder Name] and click return.
If your Mac is protected by a password – punch it in when requested.If all goes well,a new Windows Explorer window will appear – that is the home folder of your Mac’s user account.To find the Music folder execute the same proceedure as you did for external hard drives.Erase the iTunes folder,if it exists.Next – open a separate Windows Explorer window and find your PC’s iTunes library.Drag and drop the iTunes folder from your PC into the Music folder on your Mac.That’s it!Launch iTunes on your Mac and you’ll see all the content you’ve had on your PC.