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GM will help Chevy EV owners find certified home charger installers
General Motors wants to make it easier for Chevy EV-owners to charge their vehicles at home. Customers can now visit the Chevrolet.com Charging Page and search for certified charger installers. They'll be able to fill in details about their home, compare quotes and contact an installer from the page. Chevy hopes the new feature (the result of a partnership with Qmerit) will convince more people to buy EVs.
Initial 'Fortnite' Android installer let hackers install malware
When Epic said it would skip the Google Play Store with Fortnite's Android release, it raised eyebrows among security experts. Wasn't it creating risks by encouraging gamers (some of whom didn't understand the potential dangers) to install non-Store apps? Well, it did... although not quite in the way you might have expected. Epic Games has patched a Google-discovered vulnerability in Fortnite's original Android installer that would have let intruders download and install malware. The exploit used a man-in-the-disk attack that took advantage of Epic's initially flawed storage handling to intercept download requests and load nefarious content.
EVE Online speeds up game installation and access
To "get people into the game quicker," CCP is smoothing out the download and installation process for EVE Online. This new method of deployment is scheduled to go into service at the start of 2015. This means that the installation package will go from a 7GB download to a zippy 200MB one instead. Once that game client is up and running, it will then download the rest of the game's resources as needed. "On a fast connection you probably won't notice much of a difference -– load times may be slightly longer at times. As you play more, more resources will be cached and fewer and fewer need to be downloaded. The client will be smart about pre-fetching resources it expects will be needed soon," the team said.
CyanogenMod Installer pulled from Google Play, lives on via sideloading
The CyanogenMod team made switching from your phone's original Android setup to its own flavor of the OS much easier with paired mobile and desktop installer apps, but now there's one extra step. In a blog post, CyanogenMod states the Google Play Support team contacted it and claims the installer app is in violation of their TOS. This, despite CyanogenMod's insistence that the app's only purpose is to enable ADB on the device, then guide users through connecting it to the desktop app. Despite "hundreds of thousands" of installs for its alternative Android experience, the mobile app is still usable via sideloading, and its installation guide walks users through the necessary steps. Going forward, the CyanogenMod team is submitting its app to Samsung and Amazon's alternative app stores, but interested Android users can download it right now.
Ubuntu lands on Nexus 7 slates with Canonical's one-click installer
If you'd rather not let your Nexus 7 live out its life as a Jelly Bean-toting device, Canonical's freshly minted Ubuntu Nexus 7 Desktop Installer can help. Instead of allowing Ubuntu to ride shotgun with Android, the installer requires unlocking the device's bootloader, which wipes the slate clean. Once the Nexus 7 is unlocked, started in fastboot mode and connected to an Ubuntu machine, the one-click installation software takes care of the rest. Roughly 10 to 15 minutes later, your tablet will be running full-blown Ubuntu. Since development is currently focused on getting the core of the desktop OS up and running, there's no tablet-specific Unity UI to see here. However, Raring Ringtail is set to flesh out the mobile experience with an emphasis on sensors, memory footprint and battery life, among other features. Those who regret ousting Google's confection-themed operating system can simply reload their device with stock Android. For the entire walk through, hit the first source link below. [Thanks, Keith]
Building an OS X Mountain Lion installer thumb drive
Last year, I posted about creating a standalone Lion USB installer thumb drive. This year, I update those instructions for Mountain Lion. You'll need a copy of the OS X Mountain Lion installer. If you saved a copy when you first installed Mountain Lion, great. If not, you'll need to re-download it from the Mac App Store. Launch the App Store and option-click the Purchases tab. An "Install" button should appear next to Mountain Lion. Click it to re-download the installer. You can use this option-click-Purchases trick to re-download any purchase, not just Mountain Lion. Once the large multi-GB installer finishes downloading, go to your Applications folder to find the installer itself. It is called Install Mac OS X Mountain Lion. 1. Right-click (or Control-click) the installer and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual pop-up. A new Finder browser window opens, showing the normally hidden material inside the installer bundle. 2. Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport. There you'll find a disk image called InstallESD.dmg. 3. Open a new Finder window with Command-N (File > New Finder Window). Navigate to /Applications/Utilities and launch DiskUtility. 4. Attach a thumb drive to your Mac that is at least 8GB in size. Prepare it for use by creating a single HFS+ partition. Select the drive (e.g. SanDisk Ultra) in the left hand column. Drives are listed first with their partitions listed after them, each partition indented slightly. 5. With this drive selected, click the Partition tab and choose Partition Layout > 1 Partition. Choose Format > Mac OS Extended (Journaled). 6. Click the Options button at the bottom-right of the partition layout. Select GUID Partition Table. 7. Click Apply. Disk Utility asks you to confirm. Click Partition. Wait as it unmounts, partitions, and remounts your disk. 8. Next, select the new partition (Untitled 1 by default). Click the Restore tab. 9. Click Install next to the source field. Drag InstallESD.dmg into the file-open window and click Open. Mount InstallESD.dmg (by double-clicking) and drag the mounted image from your desktop into the source location (Thanks, shamguy4) Drag Untitled 1 from the left column to the destination field. Click Restore and agree to Erase the drive and replace it with the contents of InstallESD.dmg. You may have to authenticate as an administrator. 10. Wait. It will take some time for the drive to be written. Once it's done, eject it, label it clearly, and either use it to install Mountain Lion on a newly formatted hard drive or if you've already upgraded through the normal installer, put it away for a rainy day. Those of you who want a more turn-key solution should consider Lion DiskMaker, a donationware AppleScript app that will let you make a bootable DVD or thumb drive from a Lion or Mountain Lion installation program. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; } #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
The Daily Grind: Do you loathe third-party downloaders?
Every time I boot up Lord of the Rings Online or Dungeons and Dragons Online, I'm reminded that somewhere on my computer lurks Pando Media Booster. Ostensibly, Pando and software like Pando helps MMO players to download game clients, but they also spread out the load and track other information presumably of use to the game companies themselves. I've deleted Pando and similar software from my PC multiple times, but some games just don't function well without them. Players have been known to suggest the whole system of third-party installers and downloaders and launchers is nothing more than bloatware, or worse, malware and spyware. Am I alone in loathing MMO patchers that are really torrents I can't disable, launchers that lump the entirety of a company's games together, and third-party download whatever-ware that won't go away? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Apple updates malware definitions to address fake Flash player trojan
Apple's updated an entry in the anti-malware files of OS X to lock down a trojan that pretends to be a Flash player installer, but actually hijacks users' search results. The trojan is known as "OSX.QHost.WB.A," and claims to install Flash, but instead redirects Google results to an IP in the Netherlands, which then loads unwanted ads and offsite content along with the fake search results. When the malware was officially discovered, none of the ad servers actually worked, so the malware threat at this time is more of an inconvenience than anything. Still, Apple apparently doesn't want to take chances -- it's updated the "XProtect.plist" file in OS X with the definition of the trojan. Since an update earlier this year, you don't even need to run Software Update to get this upgrade, as you likely get File Quarantine definitions upgraded daily already. But it's good to know that steps have been taken already to protect your Mac from this malware.
Build your own Lion install USB thumb drive for cheap
Why pay Apple $69.99 when you can build your own Lion install drive for the App Store purchase price of $29.99 -- plus the cost of an inexpensive thumb drive. Here's how to create a full install on a drive, not just the recovery disk that we recently posted about. You'll need a copy of the OS X Lion installer. If you saved a copy when you first installed Lion, great. If not, you'll need to re-download it from the Mac App Store. To do so, launch the App Store and option-click the Purchases tab. An "Install" button should appear next to Lion. Click it to re-download the installer. You can use this option-click-Purchases trick to re-download any purchase, not just Lion. Once the 3.74-GB installer finishes downloading, go to your Applications folder to find the installer itself. It is called Install Mac OS X Lion. Right-click (or Control-click) the installer and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual pop-up. A new Finder browser window opens, showing the normally hidden material inside the installer bundle. Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport. There you'll find a disk image called InstallESD.dmg. Open a new Finder window with Command-N (File > New Finder Window). Navigate to /Applications/Utilities and launch DiskUtility. Attach a thumb drive to your Mac that is at least 4GB 8GB in size. (Update: some readers say 4GB isn't enough. As you can see, I used a 16GB drive) Prepare it for use by creating a single HFS+ partition. Select the drive (e.g. SanDisk Ultra) in the left hand column. Drives are listed first with their partitions listed after them, each partition indented slightly. With this drive selected, click the Partition tab and choose Partition Layout > 1 Partition. Choose Format > Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Click the Options button at the bottom-right of the partition layout. Select GUID Partition Table. Click Apply. Disk Utility asks you to confirm. Click Partition. Wait as it unmounts, partitions, and remounts your disk. Next, select the new partition (Untitled 1 by default). Click the Restore tab. Click Install next to the source field. Drag InstallESD.dmg into the file-open window and click Open. Drag Untitled 1 from the left column to the destination field. Click Restore and agree to Erase the drive and replace it with the contents of InstallESD.dmg. You may have to authenticate as an administrator. Wait. It will take some time for the drive to be written. Once it's done, eject it, label it clearly, and put it away for a rainy day. Meanwhile, go out and spend the $40 you just saved wisely.
How to install Lion from an SD card
After we linked to instructions for how to burn a Lion boot disc earlier this week, Nature's Eye Studios contacted MacStories to let them know they figured out how to get the new OS to boot off a SD card. After downloading Lion from the developer site, the video maker proceeds to wipe a SD card and use the repair option with the Lion disk image as the source to create the boot. Once you've created the backup, you can use the SD card as a Lion installer if needed, then pull a backup from Time Capsule. Keep in mind that the final release of Lion will include a restore partition and Recovery Mode, meaning that you'll be able to boot your machine from a clean Lion installer at any point without the use of external media (assuming your hard drive's not wonky). While this means you're a lot less likely to need install media down the road, it's nice to know the option is there. Check out the video below to see this process in action.
Mac App Store generating error messages instead of app purchases? Here's the fix
Oh, this ain't cool. According to the roughly gazillion complaints we received this morning upon the launch of Apple's Mac App Store, users are seeing the ol' "unknown error occurred (100)" message when first launching the store after the upgrade. According to TUAW, it's a problem with the iTunes Terms and Conditions -- which some users aren't getting prompted to accept, hence the error message. What should you do if you get the error? Quit the store and reload it. If that doesn't work, folks are finding that rebooting and then launching the store again does the trick.
Apple's Mac App Store goes live
Well it's official boys and girls -- Apple's Mac App Store is live as of this morning, and available to use and abuse via a Snow Leopard update (version 10.6.6 to be exact). The OS X application market takes the company's wildly successful iOS App Store to its logical conclusion, bringing an orderly, structured app buying experience to desktops and laptops across the globe. The Store will launch with over 1,000 titles, including Apple standards like the iLife suite broken out into separate parts (iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) selling for $14.99 each, Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for $19.99 apiece, and the bank-breaking Aperture for $79.99. Of course there'll also be third-party apps present at launch, including Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Pixelmator, Cheetah 3D, and Flight Control HD (yes, a port of the iPad version). The software itself will be a separate application that functions much like the App Store, providing update notifications and a universal installation process. That process, mind you, will be part of the requirements for getting your application into the store, along with Apple's famous content policies -- so we're sure we'll see some irate devs with painful rejection stories. Or maybe not. We know that the company is planning on getting lots of familiar developers into the Store, but we also know that some of what Apple is looking for may not gel with, say... Adobe's installation procedures (or worse). Regardless, right now the number of apps available is small, but you can expect it to grow fast now that every Mac user will get a crack at this software. We're going to be doing a much deeper dive on the experience and report back -- until then, if you're using it, let us know what you think in comments.
Windows 7 student upgrade installer not working for many
The Windows 7 launch seems to have gone off mostly roses and sunbeams, but we're hearing today that quite a few people have had issues installing the downloadable $29 student upgrade edition on 32-bit Vista -- apparently the file doesn't unpack to an ISO, but instead to an executable and two bundles that don't function properly, and eventually the process errors out with a 64-bit app trying to launch on 32-bit systems. It's possible to create an ISO using some hackery, but the install process seems to be 50/50 after that -- we've heard of both success and further crashes. For it's part, Microsoft says it's looking into things, so hopefully a newly repackaged download will be forthcoming -- every party has its ups and downs, right? Update: Our friends at DownloadSquad have a handy guide to making the ISO, in case you're interested -- and they say the installer does work in the end. Update 2: We just got a tip that Microsoft is offering refunds to users who are having issues. [Thanks, Christopher] [Thanks, Tom] Read - Original thread Read - Microsoft response
The confusing art of installing apps
John Gruber of Daring Fireball recently wrote an essay about quirks and user confusion around the application install process on Mac OS X. He had read a post from Alexander Limi's blog about the Firefox install experience, and decided to address it as a system-wide discussion. After this, Andy Kim posted the methods The Hit List follows for installation -- when it's run from a non-standard location, the app asks if it should move itself to the Applications folder. Andy has placed his code for moving the app into the public domain so that other developers can take advantage of it. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/apple/The_confusing_art_of_installing_apps'; With so many ideas around application install strategies, we wanted to take the time to examine the current app installation structure and propose an idea for how it could be better. You could ask, "Why does it matter where my app is installed?" OR "What if I don't want my applications in Applications?" If you're asking the first question, we suggest that you read on. If you're asking the second question, you're probably pretty obsessive about app organization and this post will be covering old ground for you. What installation methods exist at the moment? The majority of Mac app installations would fall into these categories: Disk image installers Disk image drag-and-drop Archive drag-and-drop Read on for an in-depth look into the current installation methods, and why they need to change.
Pre apps successfully installed on non-rooted phone, world waits for details
There have been no shortage of custom apps hitting the Pre already, including a number of old favorites, but all have required a little bit of roto-rooting ahead of time to lay the groundwork for such non-authorized code. That might change in the very near future thanks to the work of a trio of dedicated deviant coders going by the handles xorg, simplyflipflops, and Shaya Potter. Over the span of just a few days they managed to figure out how to package and sign custom apps in such a way that anything can be installed on a completely stock phone -- the only catch is they're waiting to see what Palm has to say about it before they release a full how-to. Since the company has its own plans of making most developers wait at least a few months before setting them free we can't imagine the response is going to be: "This is totally awesome, please tell the world our secrets." But, we'd be happy to be wrong.[Thanks, Bo]
Debunk: Jailbroken apps on a non-jailbroken iPhone? Not quite.
You may have seen some reports today about a new app from Ripdev called InstallerApp, which some people have mistakenly been covering as a desktop client that lets you install Cydia and Installer apps without having to jailbreak your iPhone using something like PwnageTool. Just to set the record straight, here's the deal: InstallerApp is a kind of jailbreaking tool (let's call it "jailbreaking lite") coupled with a separate application management client for your computer. From what we can tell, the first thing it does is jailbreak your device (or, if you're already jailbroken, installs some additional software so it can talk to your phone). In no way is it allowing you to install non-Apple-approved apps onto a non-jailbroken phone: it's tweaking your underlying system to allow for those apps to run, and giving you an iTunes replacement to add and delete programs on your device. Keep in mind, RipDev is charging $7 for this, which isn't a bundle, but not free either... unlike PwnageTool and QuickPwn, which essentially do the same thing (minus the desktop client). We're not saying it's not a useful app -- it might be to some -- it just isn't the "get into jail free" solution that you may have heard it is. And now you know... which is half the battle.
DirecTV purchases installer & service provider 180 Connect
In exchange for purchasing 100 percent of 180 Connect's stock at $1.80 per share, DirecTV will take control over one of its largest installers, while in a separate deal, UniTek USA is taking over all of 180 Connects old cable TV servicing units and certain DirecTV installation markets in exchange for Unitek's installation business in several areas. All this swapping and dealing should be complete in the third quarter, when a large number of customers in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Arkansas, Virginia, Hawaii and western Pennsylvania can expect their first DirecTV visit, to come from an actual employee of the company. Check out the PR for all the business details and locations involved and let us know if you think a shakeup from your cable or satellite provider's customer service would be welcomed.
LANrev releases free version of InstallEase
Who can take some software, bundle it for you? Make a free installer and then seal it up with glue? InstallEase can (with apologies to Sammy Davis, Jr.). The packaging utility, long part of the LANrev crossplatform management & audit tool, is now available free of charge -- making it very complementary to other no-cost packaging tools such as Apple's PackageMaker and the freeware Iceberg, and it compares in functionality to the $99 Casper Composer tool (also available as part of the comprehensive Casper Suite).The idea behind both InstallEase and Composer is simple: suppose you want to install a new application on 20 computers, complete with plugins and pref files. Rather than walking around to each one, you snapshot your pre-install state on a prototype machine using InstallEase, then install the software; finally, take an 'after' picture. Just like that, you've created a package installer that can be run by the individual users, pushed out with ARD, LANrev, Casper etc., or triggered to run from a remote server. It's a great timesaver, especially for programs that don't leverage Apple's .pkg installer format for standardized deployment -- Office 2004, for example.If you've got a passel of Macs to manage and you haven't tried InstallEase yet, give it a download and check it out.
Microsoft kicks off 2008 Ultimate Install contest
In a move just short of sending Xzibit over with a copy of Windows Media Center, Microsoft is encouraging customer installers to show just how much they can do and how well they can integrate media center into a home theater setup. Sure, anyone can run a few wires here and there, or bring a boxed solution to the table, but we get the feeling they're looking for some extra flash. In return, the winning company gets a trip for one to CEDIA 2008, trip for two to Microsoft HQ in Redmond, a photo shoot of the winning install and a "technology pack" including an Xbox 360 Elite, games, Zune and AV cables. Head over to the site to check out the rules before the deadline hits August 1, and don't be too shy to slide us pics of your potentially Xbox-winning setup, we'd like to see what you play CoD4 on.
Installing the iPhone Developer Toolchain: A simple How-To
Yesterday, stepping into iPhone development got a lot easier. "Kroo", an iPhone developer, put together this Binary Toolchain Installer for Intel Macs. Instead of taking two days to download, debug and compile, installation takes a few minutes. Download a copy and install and you're set to start programming. You'll need to copy your iPhone files to your Macintosh for the toolchain (and the toolchain installation) to work. You can either use a tool like scp -r and connect to your hacked iPhone or you can copy the file system from one of the iTunes restore software dmgs--google for details. Rename the root of the iPhone file system "heavenly" and place it into /usr/local/arm-apple-darwin. Then run the installer. One more thing: All the makefiles I have posted here at TUAW use the old toolchain. To use my makefiles with this new toolchain, you'll need to update the Makefile header as such. Looking for a little hand-holding? Head over to irc.osx86.hu and connect to #iphone-uikit.
