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JailbreakMe hacker Comex let go by Apple after failing to respond to offer letter
After developing JailBreakMe, cracking such devices as the iPad 2 or iPhone 4 and finally scoring a paying intern gig with his nemesis, hacker Comex tweeted that he's no longer working at Apple. Also known as Nicholas Allegra, the talented coder's Cupertino situation apparently came asunder when he failed to respond to an email offer to re-up with the company, though he also told Forbes that the situation was more complicated than that. He added that "it wasn't a bad ending," and that he has fond memories of his Apple experience, but if you're hoping the Brown University student will have an iOS 6 jailbreak soon, don't hold your breath -- he's concentrating strictly on his studies, for now.
Getting to know you: Comex, the boy behind iOS' JailbreakMe
See that kid above? That's Nicholas Allegra. He's the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple's Ye-Who-Shall-Not-Jailbreak-Our-Wares, and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced exposé. The 19-year old hero of the iOS community, better known as Comex, got his self-taught start with Visual Basic when he was still in single digits. After graduating through a venerable online forum education, the precocious coding lad set his smarts to homebrew Wii development, and the rest is JailbreakMe history. The self-described Apple fanboy admits his background is atyipcal of the cybersecurity industry, but with a former National Security Agency analyst praising his work as years ahead of his time, we don't think he should worry. For all the trouble his code has caused Cupertino, Allegra's not trying to be the embedded thorn in Jobs' side. Rather, the iPhone hacker claims "it's just about the challenge" and plans to keep on keeping ol' Steve on his billion dollar toes.
Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 now on sale, downloadable for upgraders
It's been percolating for ages, maturing like a fine wine and fermenting like a premium cheese: the latest edition of Microsoft Office for the Mac, Office 2011 (or Office 14, if you're counting version numbers) has finally made it to market. Enterprise and education customers have had access to the new version for a few weeks now, but as of late last night those users who had registered for free upgrades from Office 2008 (for purchases after August 1) were able to start downloading the software. Note that this version of Office is for Intel Macs only and does require Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later. The various editions are on sale & downloadable from Microsoft (US$150 for Home & Student, $280 for Home & Business which includes Outlook), or you can get the DVD versions. The boxed app suite is also for sale in both Apple and Microsoft retail stores. Education versions with lower pricing are also available. Home & Student allows you to install Office 2011 on up to three personal machines. The big-ticket new features in this edition are many and varied; we'll be digging deeper into them over the next few days. Click "Read More" for a quick rundown.
Office 2004 mainstream support extended to January '12
As you probably recall, Microsoft dropped Visual Basic from Office for the Mac with Office 2008. At the time, I was working for a company that had a huge investment in systems that relied on Visual Basic, and that change was a real blow. In fact, we didn't upgrade past Office 2004 just to avoid trouble and plan our next step.If anyone else is using Office 2004 for that reason, here's a thin shard of hope for you. This week, Microsoft's Office for Mac Team announced that mainstream support or Office '04, scheduled to end on October 13, 2009, will be extended through January 10, 2012. Why extend support? As the blog post notes, Visual Basic support will return in the next major release of Office for the Mac, scheduled to hit the stands in 2010. This way, folks reliant on VB will be able to hold on until that new release is available. This is good news for anyone who was wondering how to migrate from a slew of mission-critical scripts.
MacTech re-releases VBA to AppleScript Transition Guide
As someone who spent months hand-crafting Visual Basic scripts in Microsoft Office, only to have Microsoft pull the rug out from under me with the release of Office 2008 (they abandoned VB support for the Mac. Grrr.), I'm very grateful to MacTech magazine and longtime AppleScript guru Paul Berkowitz.MacTech has re-released Paul's 150-page guide for making the transition from VBA to AppleScript (originally printed in the April 2007 issue of the magazine, and also available in modified form on the Microsoft Mac BU site). It's highly detailed, with step-by-step instructions. It looks like I know what I'll be reading next week (and if I run into trouble I can always bug Cory for help).You can download the guide as a PDF for $9.95US, or get the PDF plus a hardcover version for $19.95US. Both options include a free subscription to MacTech magazine, which is a great bonus for anyone who likes to dig into the underside of Mac OS X. If your wallet is a bit light, you can read the entire thing online for free.
AddOn Studio for WoW
For a big chunk of the gaming population, addons are mysterious things you download and hope will run. But for many talented people, they're an opportunity to help the community and make things easier for the rest of us. Well, some of the tedium has been taken out of addon writing with the help of Microsoft. What?? Yep, you read that right. Microsoft loves WoW, too. Using CodePlex, their open-source project site, they have helped create an Addon Studio for WoW based on the Visual Studio package. The download contains everything you need to create addons, so don't worry if you aren't the owner of Visual Studio already. So what does this mean exactly? The project team has converted the addon writing process from text and code to drag and drop. You get the look and feel of common programs like Visual Basic but with the command structure of WoW. By having the process be graphic, you just pick and choose what you want from the list. Specifically, Addon Studio will provide an interface that allows addon creators to build in familiar surroundings. You'll also have the ability to auto-generate items like the table of contents or lua events. Error checking for FrameXML and Lua parsing also helps to speed the addon process up. Likewise, they have included Ace2 templates so you can still tap into one of the most commonly used addon libraries and updater systems. Long-term, this should open up addon creation to those that enjoy dablling with programing, but don't have the time or skill to build them without a bit more structure. And that can only be a good thing. [Thanks, Jason!]
No Visual Basic in Office 2008? No thanks.
MacWindows.com recently polled readers on their willingness to upgrade to Office 2008 for Mac, which will not include Visual Basic for macros and automation (as noted on this MacBU developer blog). Several readers said they won't upgrade to 2008 because they depend on VB cross-platform support.Where I work, we have an intricate system in place that manages and analyzes loads of data on a daily basis-a system that is dependent on homemade VB scripts. So, there's no way we're upgrading. Good job, Microsoft. By the way, if you're left in a jam by this, check out MacTech Magazine's guide for moving from VB to Applescript, which will be available soon.
Mono Allows .NET and VB Apps on the Mac
Mono is an interesting Open Source Project, sponsored by Novell, that "provides the necessary software to develop and run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix." The most recent version, 1.2.3, adds support for a Visual Basic 8.0 compiler meaning that Visual Basic applications can now be run on the Mac. The Mono project has an active Mac community already, and if you're looking to investigate you might start with this Xcode tutorial. Now, of course, the question of whether it's a good thing that it is easy to compile a VB application for the Mac is something else entirely. Nonetheless, Mono now seems to represent an inexpensive alternative to REALbasic for writing cross-platform applications.[Via MacNN]
