Meet macOS: your Mac will completely change this FALL

OS X is dead. Long live macOS. 

At its annual Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, Apple announced macOS Sierra, the next version of its computer operating system for Macs shipping this fall as a free update. It'll be available as a developer preview in July.

With macOS, Apple now has all of its operating systems for its various devices all tidied up. iPhone, iPad and iPod touch have iOS, Apple Watch has watchOS, Apple TV has tvOS and now Macs have macOS.

It's not just new branding. macOS will come with some useful new features.

Auto-unlock is one new feature that lets you automatically unlock your Mac when it detects you're wearing your Apple Watch right near it.

Apple Pay is also coming to the Mac via the web. "So now when you're shopping online, you'll have a pay with Apple Pay button," Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said. Authentication is made with your iPhone's Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

IMAGE: SAMANTHA MURPHY KELLY/MASHABLE

Siri, Apple's personal voice assistant, finally makes its debut on the Mac. Siri is able to perform sophisticated queries according to Federighi. "Show the files I worked on last week about the offsite." Siri on the Mac works in conjunction with the Mac's Finder and works similarly to Windows 10's Cortana.

IMAGE: SCREENSHOT: APPLE

Picture-in-picture lets you shrink your video down into a smaller window so you can do something else while the video is running in a corner. The video window is resizable and you can move it anywhere on the screen.

iCloud Drive does more, too: You can sync multiple Mac desktops as well as view files stored on your Mac from your iPhone. 

Optimized Storage will also smartly manage your files for you so your Mac always has enough storage; it does so by uploading files into the cloud and deleting them off your hard drive so you'll always have space, but never lose the files.

Universal clipboard, a feature that uses Continuity, will let users copy and paste between Macs and iOS devices.

While the new name and features are a big deal, macOS isn't a fundamental leap from the previous OS. Under the hood, macOS is still based on Unix. It's just a new name is all — and a whole bunch of new features

RED STAR OS - NORTH KOREA's First Operating System - looks like MAC OSX - Spies on his own people

North Korea has its own homegrown computer operating system that looks remarkably just like Apple’s OS X, which not only prevents potential foreign hacking attempts but also provides extensive surveillance capabilities.

Two German researchers have just conducted an in-depth analysis of the secretive state's operating system and found that the OS does more than what is known about it.

Dubbed Red Star OS, the operating system based on a Linux 2009 version called Fedora 11 limits its users to a government-approved view of the world and has the tendency to 'watermark' files on USB sticks to track user’s shuttling contraband material.

Red Star OS Tracks User's Every Move

In short, whenever a user inserts a USB storage device containing photos, videos or other documents, into a computer running Red Star, the OS takes the current hard disk's serial number, encrypts that number, and writes that encrypted serial into the file, marking it.

The purpose of watermarking files is to track who actually has the particular file, who created that file, and who opened it.

Researchers previously reported this watermarking feature after analysing Red Star OS, but Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess of German IT company ERNW GmbH currently presented dive into Red Star OS goes further.

Makers have Full Control Over Red Star OS

Most of the Red Star's unique features, including its own version of encrypting files, were designed to grant its makers complete control over the operating system, making it independent from any code that could be compromised and exploited by foreign intelligence services, the duo said as they presented their findings at the Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg on Sunday.

The researchers analysed the latest – third – version of Red Star OS coming out around 2013 and it is clear that software is as authoritarian as the country that developed it.

"This is a full-blown operating system where they control most of the code," Grunow said as quoted by Reuters. Moreover, the OS rigorously resists any changes made by its user and closely monitors every move of a user.

The Red Star OS provides its own firewall, antivirus system and web browser point to internal North Korean servers, and even the encryption is custom-developed.

No Tampering

However, the small program included in the OS constantly monitors the computer for any changes made to the system files.

As a result, any attempt by a user to tamper with the operating system's core functions, like disabling antivirus or firewall, would lead to the computer displaying an error message or rebooting itself.

Since, there is no sign in the OS of the kinds of cyber attack capability North Korea has been accused of, Red Star OS is also designed to crack down on the growing illegal exchange of foreign media content, including films, music or document files.

At the current, the duo has no information on how many computers in North Korea are using this operating system, as they found the OS from a website located outside the country, while visitors to North Korea say most computers there still use Windows XP.

Bluestack 2: For Android Apps on Windows & Mac OS X

Bluestacks, the first app player for running Android apps on Windows, has launched the latest version of its Android emulator platform with one major upgrade:

• The Ability to Run Multiple Android apps Simultaneously.

BlueStacks 2 Released

Bluestacks previously only run a single app at a time. However, with the launch of BlueStacks 2, the app adds a tabbed interface that allows you to jump between multiple Android apps in the same window.

This is great for you to run gaming and messaging apps, or news and messaging apps at the same time.

The update also adds a toolbar that allows you to quickly tell the Android emulator to simulate rotating the device screen or to perform other functions, such as copying and pasting.

In BlueStacks 2, players now have options to marry game play and app discovery, meaning when they click an advertisement, a new tab will appear so that the players can continue playing their games without being interrupted.

How to Run Multiple Android apps Using BlueStacks 2

BlueStacks 2 is currently available only on Windows, but will soon debut on Macs in July.

Follow these simple steps to go:

Step 1: To use and run multiple Android apps simultaneously, you need to first Download BlueStacks 2, which is free.

Step 2: Install BlueStacks 2 software on your Windows computer.

Step 3: Once installed, you will land on the Welcome Tab. Just Move to 'Android' tab.

Step 4: Software will ask you for One-time Google Account Setup, just like an Android device ask for.

Step 5: Login with your Google account to complete the Setup and you are ready!

Step 6: From 'Android' tab select multiple apps you want to run in parallel. BlueStacks 2 will open each app in a new Tab within the software interface.

With the seventh-largest Android user base in the world, Bluestacks has crossed more than 109 Million app downloads, engaging more than 1.1 Billion Android apps every month.

"When we started, mobile apps, with their crisp resolution looked and sounded gorgeous on PC and TV," said Shashi Kant Sharma, Product Manager at BlueStacks.

"What we’ve learned is that the wider visual space lends itself more naturally to app discovery. Once someone discovers apps on PC or TV, they tend to use them across all of their devices, giving the BlueStacks platform powerful reach for developers."