Geeks to Go! - Tech experts answer your questions » Apple

iPhone or Droid – What is Your Phone of Choice?

Kat — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:17:05 +0000

Up until now, the iPhone has undeniably been the most sought-after phone on the market. It seems like nearly everyone has one these days. I get teased quite often by my boss and friends because I neither have – nor want – an iPhone. What the heck do I “need” one for? I’m happy with my normal run-of-the-mill cell phone. It calls people. It texts people. It even takes pictures and plays music! I work from home, and I don’t travel often. I don’t need a phone that does a million things other than what I already have… or do I?

Enter the Droid. I have to admit it… I want one. I’ve talked to several people who already have this device in their hands, and they’re more than happy with it. Several of them are even saying that they like it far better than they did their iPhones!! There’s buzz all over Twitter and the Blogosphere from people who are extolling the many virtues (and few pitfalls) of the new Droid.

I’m not even sure why it is I want one so much. I still don’t “need” a device that can do this much. But man oh man do I hope Santa puts one of these babies in my stocking! I would even happily post an extensive review here!

As I advance even more in my career, I know I will be traveling more and more often. I’ll get to attend conferences. I’ll be hanging out in Seattle with my boss. During times like this, the Droid would definitely come in handy. Also… well… geesh. Must I admit it? The Droid is just a sexy-looking device. I’m a Geek. And, I’m a girl. Can I help it if I’m attracted to gadgets and gizmos that are awesome to look at?

What phone are you currently using? Are you an iPhone fanatic, or are you grabbing a Droid as soon as you possibly can? What are your thoughts on either of these devices… or any other phones on the market? Our readers want to be well-informed as to which phones they should buy.

After 15 years with Windows, 30 days with Snow Leopard

Blair — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:47:44 +0000

After 15 years as a Windows power user, and current Windows 7 user, a colleague at What the Tech has accepted the challenge of his roomate to give up his Windows notebook cold turkey, and use a similarly equipped Macbook for 30 days. He’ll be blogging about his experience daily. It should be an interesting read, and of special interest to anyone who’s ever considered switching from Windows to OSX.

Link: The Macbook Experience at WhatTheTech.com

Contest: 10 Seagate FreeAgent Backup Hard Drive Bundles!

Blair — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 06:28:28 +0000

‘Tis the season for giving! In addition to the HP Magic Giveaway, we present 10 chances for you to win a Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive bundle. Winners will get their choice of either a FreeAgent Desk 1TB or FreeAgent Desk for Mac 1TB. AND your choice of a 500GB FreeAgent Go or 500GB FreeAgent Go for Mac portable drive.

The FreeAgent Desk, as its name implies, is intended for desktop use. Its 1TB (~1,000GB) capacity comes in a rainbow of colors, or a silver and white design to match the look and feel of a MacBook. The FreeAgent Go portable is much slimmer, and its 500 GB capacity is also available in your choice of 10 colors, or silver and white in the Mac version.

In addition to Geeks to Go, there are 9 other tech sites giving away bundles. Be sure to enter their contests for more chances to win! (Thanks to Xavier at Notebooks.com!)

Other Seagate FreeAgent Giveaway Sites (live contests are linked):

How do you enter our contest?

Simply answer this question with a comment below:

How do you backup your important data?

If you don’t have a backup method, it’s okay to say, “I don’t have a backup plan”.

The winner will be chosen from the random pool of qualified comment from all entries received by 11:59PM CST on Friday Saturday, December 6th, 2008. ONE entry per person. Please use a valid email address when posting your comment, as that’s how the winner will be contacted. A reminder to enter your email address in the comment form, but not in the body of the comment (hide it from email harvesting spam bots). If no response to the notification email is received within 24 hours, a new winner will be chosen

Backups are one of the most important, and often neglected task of home users. We recently ran a 5 part series, Options for Home Computer Backup. My current backup plan involves a Windows Home Server, online backup of photos (SmugMug), and a portable USB hard drive for notebook backup while traveling.

Our free computer help forums often have posts from people desperate to save their digital memories, because they lack adequate backups. Whether it’s a hardware failure, malware infection, or human error, protect your digital treasures with adequate backups. Seagate presents attractive options, and their 5-year warranty ensures peace of mind.

Update: We have a winner!

OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Info and Removal

Blair — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:41:41 +0000

To many Windows users, it sounds all too familiar. Attempting to watch a video online, a prompt directs them to download a codec to enable viewing. However, the download is malware, and it infects their computer.

Now this popular, and successful social engineering technique is being used to spread a Mac OSX trojan, OSX.RSPlug.A. At this time spam is being flooded onto Mac forums trying to lure users to the sites where this is employed. The pornography sites present a still image of a video. Clicking on the image to play the video returns the following message:

Quicktime Player is unable to play movie file.
Please click here to download new version of codec.

After that page loads the malware is download as a disk image (.dmg), and launches an installer. The installer requires the user to enter the admin password. If the password entered then the malware infection is complete. This infection alters DNS setting to redirect web pages, and advertisments for porn sites. However, it could just as easily be used for phishing attacks, or search redirects.

The easiest way to tell if you’ve been infected is to go to the top-level /Library -> Internet Plug-Ins folder, and look for a file named plugins.settings. If you find one there, chances are, you’re infected.

If you’re infected, here are removal instructions from MacWorld:

In the Finder, navigate to /Library -> Internet Plug-Ins, and delete the file named plugins.settings. Empty the trash. This deletes the tool that sets the rogue DNS Server information.
In Terminal, type sudo crontab -r and provide your admin password when asked. This deletes the root cron job that checks the DNS Server settings. You can prove it worked by typing sudo crontab -l; you should see the message crontab: no crontab for root.
Open your Network System Preferences panel, go to the DNS Server box, and copy the entries you can see to a Stickies note, TextEdit document, or memorize them. Now retype those same values in the box, then click Apply.
Reboot your Mac.

While this is newsworthy because there are rarely OSX trojans, there is no ground-breaking code, or new social engineering techniques employed. The goal of this trojan is to generate revenue. This could easily be replicated by any site displaying popular videos, and quickly become widespread among Apple users. While Apple market share has been on the rise, at about 8% it’s still a low-priority target for money-seeking malware authors. However, this could change as Apple continues to gain market share. Is this the start of a new wave of malware aimed at Apple users?

Vista more secure than OSX?

Blair — Wed, 02 May 2007 06:28:32 +0000

Dino Dai Zovi, the New York-based security researcher who took home $10,000 in a highly-publicized MacBook Pro hijack on April 20, has stated in an interview that he thinks Vista is more secure than OSX.

From your research on both platforms, is there a winner between Mac OS X 10.4 and Vista on security?

I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies.

Contest winner: Vista more secure than Mac OS [MacWorld]

Apple’s Windows applications aren’t ready for Vista

Blair — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:27:13 +0000

News that iTunes for Windows isn’t yet ready for Microsoft’s new operating system emerged earlier this week, with Apple warning PC folk to hold off on a Vista upgrade pending the release of updates.

Today’s tech support document names a range of additional Windows applications from Apple that don’t support that new operating system.

These include: QuickTime, the iPod shuffle reset utility, Bonjour for Windows, AirPort for Windows, the iDisk utility, AppleWorks for Windows, and Apple Software Update for Windows. The stand-alone iPod updater for iTunes 6 for Windows also isn’t ready for Vista.

View: Full Story @ ITWorld.com

Apple to charge Mac OS X Tiger users for final Boot Camp release?

Blair — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:11:28 +0000

According to a report MacScoop has obtained, Apple will charge current users of Mac OS X Tiger for the final version of Boot Camp that will be released at the same time as Mac OS X Leopard, this Spring.

Though the source wasn’t sure about the final pricing, the report said there is strong possibility that Apple’s boot manager software, allowing to use Windows and Mac OS X in dual boot mode will be sold for $29 to Tiger users.

View: Full Story @ MacScoop

Online Shoppers Overwhelm iTunes Store

Blair — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:51:42 +0000

Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple’s iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song.

Frazzled users began posting urgent help messages Monday and Tuesday on Apple’s technical forum for iTunes, complaining they were either not allowed into the store or were told the system couldn’t process their request to download songs and videos.

It was not immediately clear how many people were affected by the slowdowns, and Apple Computer Inc. would not immediately comment Wednesday on what caused the slowdown and whether it had been fixed.

View: Full Story Via: Newsvine.com