The abstract of the patent itself says:

“A method for quickly booting a personal computer system using boot configuration information on memory and the attached devices that was created and saved in a hard disk at the preceding boot process. The method for a quick boot process includes the steps of performing a power-on self test POST) operation when a personal computer system is powered on or a reset button is pressed; performing a normal boot process after the POST operation; saving the contents of memory and the status of the attached devices to a hard disk; checking if a reboot is requested; restoring the saved boot configuration information from the hard disk, after POST is completed during the reboot process; checking whether or not an initial device configuration file and/or an automatic batch file were changed; and executing commands in the two files and saving a newly created boot configuration information to the hard disk for future boot. The personal computer system, may reboot quickly because of omission of execution of the initial device configuration filed and the automatic batch file.”

Interestingly enough, the patent was originally owned by LG. Hat tip to PatentlyApple, which says it can’t determine if LG has any stake in the case against Apple, noting that a new LG tablet uses Google’s Android.

Google of course has been very vocal about patent issues of late. Last week, the company posted to its official blog, calling out Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, which turned into a very public war of words, mainly between Google and Microsoft.

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban has since put out a post calling for the end of software patents.

In other Apple news, the company has reportedly launched a $999 iMac for educational institutions, while the rumored Netflix competitor from the company appears to be further away than originally speculated.

The OS was demoed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in early June, when the company said that Mac has outgrown the industry every quarter for the last five years with sales at 3/4 those of notebooks. Yesterday in the new earnings report, Apple said it sold 3.95 million Macs last quarter – up 14% from the same quarter a year ago. Mac sales, the company said were driven largely by Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

Mac OS X Lion is the 8th major release of the OS, and has over 250 new features, as well as 3,000 new developer APIs.

It features multi-touch gestures and fluid animations that let you interact directly with content on the scree. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps.

All new Mac notebooks will now ship with multi-touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

The Mission Control feature combines Exposé, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces.You can swipe to get your desktop to zoom out to display open windows grouped by app thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard.

The Launchpad feature makes it easier to find and launch apps, and with a multi-touch gesture, all of your apps are displayed in a full screen layout. You can organize apps into any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps.

There is a also a redesigned Mail app with widescreen layout. It has a new conversations feature that groups related messages into a scrollable timeline. It also has a new search reassure that lets you refine searches and suggests matches by person, subject, and label as you type. The app inludes support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Mac OS X Lion also includes Resume, which lets you bring apps back to how you left them when you restart or relaunch the app. In addition to that, apps will automatically save as you work. A feature called Versions records the history of your documents as you create them, and gives you a way to browse, revert, and copy/paste from previous versions.

An AirDrop feature lets you find nearby Macs and set up P2P wireless connections.

Snow Leopard users can upgrade fro $29.99. The upgrade is about 4GB (the size of an HD movie from the iTunes store). It’s available by download through the Mac App Store.

MacRumors reports that Apple has also updated its MacBook Air line with Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt and Backlit keyboards.

Apple announced the release of Mac OS X v10.6.8, which affects Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). “The Mac OS X v10.6.8 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac,” the company says.

Here’s what’s included, via Apple’s update page:

• Enhancements to the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion.
• Resolves an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit.
• Improves support for IPv6.
• Improves VPN reliability.
• Identifes and removes known variants of MacDefender malware.
• Corrects timezone data in iCal for Lisbon-Portugal.
• Adds the ability to use Kerberos authentication to a web proxy server.
• Fixes an issue when saving documents from Xcode or TextEdit when using an NFS home directory.
• Fixes an issue when importing certain media files into Final Cut Pro.
• Includes RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.

Mac OS X v10.6.8 also includes fixes provided in the Mac OS X v10.6.7 Snow Leopard Font Update:

You may notice on that list, a fix for Final Cut Pro. Apple just released Final Cut Pro X earlier this week, claiming it “revolutionizes” video editing, though it’s gotten a lot of not-so-glowing reviews.

Also notice that first one. This update gets your Mac ready for the Lion update. Lion will provide users with over 250 new features and developers with 3,000 new APIs. It features multi-touch gestures and fluid animations that let you interact directly with the content on the screen.

For more on this (and other recent Apple announcements, read 114 Things You Should Know About Apple’s New Offerings.

To update your system, Apple says to back up your system before installation using Time Machine, and not to interrupt the installation process once you’ve started it. “You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you’ve modified the operating system through other means,” Apple says.

Just go to Software Update from the Apple menu to check for the latest update.

Mac OS X Lion will be available for $29.99 via the Mac App Store.

Secondly, the company announced the topics of keynote, which include its upcoming cloud services, named iCloud. The iCloud name had been expected based on recent findings that Apple had purchased the iCloud.com domain name, but the company has now made it official.

Specifically, Apple says, “At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.”

Apple made no secret that it would be unveiling the next versions of Mac OS and iOS, but much of the interest will be around Apple’s cloud offerings.

Apple obviously has a tremendous advantage on the music front with its hugely successful iTunes. Adding a cloud service should only serve to cement this advantage (along with the increasing success of iOS-based devices). Competition is ramping up in this space with players like Google and Amazon recently both launching new products. With Google’s inability to launch with record label deals, Apple might be able to get a leg up there, based on its iTunes experience.

Last week, it was reported that Apple was close to deals with all four major labels.

Since the announcement came out, Apple shares have been on the rise.

Apple will be putting out a Mac OS X update that will automatically find and remove the malware and its known variants in the coming days. This will include a warning that appears when it is downloaded.

The company also put out some step-by-step instructions for the prevention of installing the malware and for its removal. To avoid installing it, the company says:

If any notifications about viruses or security software appear, quit Safari or any other browser that you are using. If a normal attempt at quitting the browser doesn’t work, then Force Quit the browser.

1. Go into the Downloads folder or your preferred download location.
2. Drag the installer to the Trash. 
3. Empty the Trash.

To actually remove it once it’s been installed:

▪ Move or close the Scan Window
▪ Go to the Utilities folder in the Applications folder and launch Activity Monitor  
▪ Choose All Processes from the pop up menu in the upper right corner of the window
▪ Under the Process Name column, look for the name of the app and click to select it; common app names include: MacDefender, MacSecurity or MacProtector
▪ Click the Quit Process button in the upper left corner of the window and select Quit
▪ Quit Activity Monitor application
▪ Open the Applications folder
▪ Locate the app ex. MacDefender, MacSecurity, MacProtector or other name
▪ Drag to Trash, and empty Trash

Apple says the malware also installs a login item in your account in System Preferences, which you can remove by opening System Preferences, going to Accounts, and Login items, selecting the name of the app you removed, and clicking the minus button. Removal of this isn’t necessary, the company says.

The OS update aspect of this is a pretty helpful move on Apple’s part. It will be interesting to see if the company addresses similar issues this way more often going forward.

We also have to wonder if the Mac OS, which has presented far fewer security issues than Windows over the years, will begin seeing a greater amount of threats.

Apple says Lion takes some of the best ideas from the iPad and brings them to the Mac – the tabletization of the desktop computer begins. Ok, maybe it began with the Apple Mac App Store, but either way, it’s happening. 

"The iPad has inspired a new generation of innovative features in Lion,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Developers are going to love Mission Control and Launchpad, and can now start adding great new Lion features like full screen, gestures, Versions and Auto Save to their own apps."

Mission Control is described as "new view of everything running on your Mac," and Launchpad is described as " a new home for all your Mac apps". 

"Mission Control is a powerful, entirely new feature that unifies Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces, and full screen apps to give you a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac," the company says in the Lion announcement. "With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps as well as your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a click."

"Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app," Apple adds. "With a single click, Launchpad displays all your Mac apps in a stunning full screen layout where you can launch, re-order or organize apps into folders. You can also arrange apps into multiple pages and swipe between them."

Apple listed the following additional features of Lion:

- a new version of Mail, with an elegant, widescreen layout inspired by the iPad; Conversations, which automatically groups related messages into one easy to read timeline; more powerful search; and support for Microsoft Exchange 2010;

- Auto Save, which automatically saves your documents as you work;

After seeing this story on a couple of sites, I thought this had to be a joke. Professor Gurdy Leete, with a domain called PeaceLoveAndHappiness.org? Maharishi University of Management? Trancedental consciousness as part of the curriculum?

Even more unbelievable, wiping OS X off Mac hardware in favor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution? That’s no criticism of Ubuntu, by the way, it’s the delete-OS-X-thing that’s most surprising.

Maybe the use of Linux involves a higher level of consciousness. It’s been a while since I’ve read “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” anyway. So I treated the report like the sunrise of a new day.

Leete took that beautiful Mac OS X off the machines in the school’s digital media lab, replacing it with Ubuntu. Photoshop, Freehand, QuarkXpress, and Dreamweaver also met a horrific reformatting fate.

The horror. The horror.

In their place, Leete installed the Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus, and Quanta Plus. Oh, and Leete added FontForge for typespace design.

Leete touched on concerns from his students over using these alternatives instead of the industry standards in the article:

Leete observed how programs like Photoshop “generally had more polished interfaces and more advanced features than the free software we chose.” But the replacements more than than fulfilled the core capabilities his classes required.

The professor also noticed a significant financial impact from the decision:

The experiment had some bumps, many of which Ubuntu’s support forums handled adeptly. Leete noted how their scanner was not supported in Ubuntu, so he left Mac OS X on one machine and the scanner connected to it.

Overall the changes satisfied Leete, and his students. He may not have needed to send Mac OS X to the Trash, though, as one commenter on the NewsForge thread complained:

It’s still an interesting account of a switch to Linux, especially since Microsoft’s name wasn’t invoked with assorted profanities for a change. Higher consciousness indeed.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

You’ll download some gzipped file, unpack it, cd into the directory, and a README will tell you to do “./configure;make && make install”

But it didn’t work, did it? That’s because Mac OS X doesn’t install make or cc or indeed any development tools at all by default.

Fortunately, this is easy to fix. Pop in your install DVD and you’ll see a folder called “Xcode Tools”. Click on that, install it, and you will now have make, cc and everything else you need to compile that little C code you downloaded.

However, Xcode gives you much more than that. The few little things you needed aren’t even the half of it. Xcode is actually a complete IDE (Integrated Develpment Environment) for Mac OS X. It’s really great stuff, and right after you get that compile done, I’me sure you will want to take a look at this. So you open up Applications and..

Huh? Nothing new here. What gives?

No, really, you did install all this stuff. It’s just not in Applications. You’ll find it under /Developer at the root of your hard drive. There’s a gig and a half of stuff there. You can find example projects and prebuilt utilities – it’s really a treasure trove of code. There’s a simple example of using some of this at Xcode for the Rest of Us. You’ll find a good overview at http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/10/24/panther.html and a Google search for “Xcode Tutorials” will turn up much more.

*Originally published at APLawrence.com

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A.P. Lawrence provides SCO Unix and Linux consulting services http://www.pcunix.com