News: Oracle releases Java, Apple's iBook Author, Sophos on the Mac, and more!

Oracle has said that from this point onwards, they will be maintaing a release of Java for OS X. Previously Apple were the ones releasing updates for Java on OS X, but sometimes this resulted in patches for vulnerabilities lagging behind the official releases, such as what happened with the Flashback trojan. Even though Apple patched the vulnerability within days of the Flashback trojan being discovered, by then it was too late for the hundreds of thousands of Macs already infected. With Oracle releasing updates directly for OS X, here's hoping that won't happen again. Apple's iBooks Author is the tool for creating self-published books or textbooks. Dave Girard from Ars Technica from has put iBooks Author through its paces and has a few insights into how it works. As it turns out, there's a surprisingly amount of customisability and complexity for an app all about education.

Sophos released a statement about how one in five Macs carry some kind of malware, knowingly or not. They examined 100,000 Macs and said that one in five contained some kind of malware, but the key message here is that that malware was targeted towards Windows, not the Mac.

Apple are now urging developers to begin signing their apps with their developer ID, in order to become a "trusted developer" under Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper will be released with Mountain Lion in the coming months.