TechnoBLOG

Malware Found!

2008-01-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

I was working this afternoon, minding my own business when out of the blue, I get a Skype message telling me that my Windows machine was infected with malware. Ouch!! I know that stuff can be nasty, so I was really worried. Part of the text reads "ATTENTION! Security Center has detected malware on your computer!"

Holy cow, I was really, really worried and nervous that I was now part of a larger scheme where ultimately, some crazed maniac in a garage somewhere was going to take over the world, one IP address at a time. That was until I remembered I was on a Mac. Shwew! The world is now safe again.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Steve Jobs' Macworld Keynote Highlights

2008-01-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

As you likely have heard by now, Steve Jobs delivered his annual Macworld keynote speech Tuesday to a packed crowd of Mac enthusiasts, media and VIPs at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco. Among other things, he announced the new MacBook Air, Apple's new ultra-thin portable. It's one of those things you need to see to believe, and it feels very good to the touch.

For those that have 90 minutes to view the entire presentation, I highly recommend doing so. You can view the video directly from Apple's site here.

For those who are pressed for time, and only want to see the highlights, check out the video below. This was cleverly created by Veronica Belmont and company over at Mahalo Daily.

2D TV is so 2007

2008-01-10T09:45:00.001-07:00

Watch how Johnny Lee turns his ordinary 2D TV into a 3D TV using a Wii remote. Very cool!

.Mac Pricing Options

2007-12-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have been using Apple's .Mac service now for quite a while... about 3 years. It started off as a pretty good service, and has gotten better ever since. I would now consider it to be a great value for the price, and new features are being added all the time. I use it heavily for e-mail, web hosting, photo & video sharing, FTP, iSync, and much more. The greatest part about it is that it integrates seamlessly with a lot of my applications (iPhoto, iMovie, Mail, Address Book, etc).

Although some people feel like $99/year is still too much for the service, I thin it's a great bargain. For those that do feel it's too expensive, there are other options besides &99/year. Most people don't know about these other plans. For example, if someone wanted to use it for e-mail only, they may consider the $10/year plan which offers only e-mail services. You can even pay a straight-forward price to upgrade your single .Mac account to a family pack (allowing others in your family to piggy-back on your account).

Below is a list of prices for features:

For more information on pricing and to sign up for a free 60-day trial, go to www.mac.com.

Apple Pro Tips Archive

2007-12-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a one-stop shop for official Apple pro tips, look no further than the Apple Pro Tips website. Here, you will find tips on how to resize photos for efficient e-mailing, learning all about various ColorSync utilities, and even some of the basics like how to add icons to your Dock. The range of tips here is sufficient for anyone, from beginner to advanced.

Check it out today!

71-Year-Old Physics Professor, Star of iTunes U

2007-12-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

iTunes U (the free educational section of iTunes) is jam-packed with thousands of audio and video podcasts aimed at helping all of us know just a little more than we now know. Professor Walter H. G. Lewin, a 71-year-old M.I.T. professor is among the crowd. In fact, Dr. Lewin was for a while the most downloaded iTunes U podcast available.

I walk with a new spring in my step and I look at life through physics-colored eyes.

There's no reason to hesitate... brush up on your Physics now, the fun way. Download Prof. Lewin's classroom sessions here.

iStat Pro Widget

2007-12-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

The good folks over at iSlayer have done it again! The recently revamped iStat Pro Dashboard widget for Mac OS X is better than ever. For those who aren't familiar with it's feature-set, this is a free widget that gathers a myriad of information in a single, easy-to-read window that gives you a rich overview of your systems resources and overall health.

As you can see form the image above, some of the features it offers is drive usage, network information (IP addresses and speeds), fan speeds, various componant temperatures, and much more. To get this same information, you would have to visit 4 or 5 different locations throughout OS X, as well as know various Terminal commands (some of this information is not available through the OS GUI).

Get iStat Pro now!

Video Tips a Go?

2007-12-18T23:04:00.001-07:00

I was thinking the other day that I might start doing some tips (probably weekly). I've done this before on a daily basis, but I found that it took a LOT of my time, and it wasn't as effective as it could have been. Mainly because it was all text-based. I'm thinking of doing video tips. Here's one that I have toyed around with. I know it's blotchy... audio needs work, screen capture utility didn't do too good, etc, but hey... it's a first shot at something. It can only get better, right?

Check it out and let me know if it's something worth exploring.

Nintendo CEO Addresses Wii Shortage

2007-12-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Nintendo Wii launched more than a year ago, and the system is still incredibly hard to find. This long after the system started shipping, people are still camping in front of stores as soon as they hear about new shipments.

Friday morning, Nintendo of America's president and CEO, Reggie Fils-Aime, held a telephone press conference to address the continuing shortage of the Wii.

Fils-Aime said Nintendo hadn't expected as much demand for the Wii as they're getting. Since the launch, he claimed, Nintendo has almost doubled its global production from 1 million to 1.8 million Wiis per month, and tripled its workforce at Nintendo of America's North Bend, Wash., distribution center. The Nintendo president wouldn't say whether Nintendo would further increase its Wii production, but he denied any claims that Nintendo is stockpiling Wiis.

"There was no ability for us to stockpile systems in the summer for the holiday rush," Fils-Aime said. "Enough systems would make everyone, including me, much happier."

According to Fils-Aime, Wiis will be available next week at all major retailers. If past patterns are any indication, however, that "availability" will be limited to shoppers willing to camp out before stores open on Sunday or Monday morning. Since Christmas is just two weeks away, you're probably still going to have some difficulty finding a Wii.

While that seems to be the biggest hope for Christmas Wiis, Reggie also announced a raincheck program in conjunction with GamesStop to get more Wiis out to shoppers in January. Even if Wiis are out of stock, on December 20 and 21, consumers will be able to purchase them for January.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

Custom Ringtones in GarageBand... for FREE!

2007-12-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

The GarageBand 4.1.1 update yesterday introduced an unexpected feature -- the creation of custom (free) Ringtones for the iPhone.

An Apple support document details the procedure:

To create a custom ringtone
1) Set up a cycle region that covers the area you wish to use in the GarageBand song. Note: This area must be 40 seconds or less in length.
2) Once the cycle area has been set, choose Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes.

Apple introduced Ringtone support into iTunes and the iPhone in September of this year. The feature, however, was originally limited to converting iTunes Store songs at the price of $0.99/each. A number of workarounds and 3rd party utilities have since appeared to fill the gap for free custom iTunes ringtones, but each iTunes revision has caused issues with these tools.

Happy Holidays from Apple.com

2007-12-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Click here to play Apple's most recent "Get a Mac" ad... holiday style!

Advanced Searching in Apple's Mail.app

2007-12-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

When you enter the text you want to search for in a Spotlight search field, you can also include criteria to refine the results as Spotlight searches. This also applies to Apple's Mail, since its search engine is built on Spotlight technology. You can search by phrase or by metadata (data that describes other data) attribute, and perform Boolean queries. You can specify absolute dates and a range of values.

Here are ways to specify search criteria:

Phrase
Use quotation marks around text to search for exact phrases — the same way you do with most Internet searches. For example, enter “trip to France” in the search field to find items on your computer that contain that exact phrase. If you didn't use quotes, the search results would include items that contain any of those words.

Attribute
Most items contain metadata that describes the item contents, how it was created, and other attributes. For example, when you take a digital photo, information such as the camera model, the aperture, and the focal length are among the many attributes automatically stored in the file as metadata. Here are examples of what you might type in the search field when you search using metadata attributes:

- trip kind:document searches for the word “trip” in documents only

- author:tom searches for all items written by Tom

- meeting date:tomorrow searches for meetings you have planned for tomorrow

- kind:images created:5/16/07 searches for images created on a specific date

- kind:music by:”glenn miller” searches for music by Glenn Miller

- modified:<=6/29/07 searches for items modified on or before a specific date

Boolean query
A Boolean query is a search that uses AND, OR, and NOT (known as Boolean operators) to narrow results. You can also use a dash (-), meaning AND NOT, to exclude items when you search. Here are examples of what you might type in the search field when you search using Boolean operators:

- author:tom AND author:thom searches for items authored by Tom and Thom, in case you don’t know the exact spelling of his name

- trip -france searches for items that contain the word “trip” but not “france,” so results might include photos from a trip to Spain but not to France

- kind:messages date:6/29/07-7/25/07 NOT date:7/14/07 searches for email messages dated from 6/29/07 through 7/25/07, but excludes those dated 7/14/07

CompUSA Closing Shop

2007-12-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

CompUSA is closing it's doors on all 103 locations just after the 2007 holiday season is over, according to many news sources. The chain had recently been acquired by an investment firm who had planned to close up shop, and sell off its remaining assets. It will attempt to sell off as many retail stores as it can in the process, and those that are left after the attempt will simply be shut down.

"The 103 stores will remain open during the holiday shopping season and provide heavy discounts on products.", says CompUSA. Now is the time to keep your eyes open for heavily discounted items.

This, of course, is always a painful move for any retail chain. Not only for its customers, but for the employees. I personally know many of the hard-working employees at my local CompUSA, and am sad to see that this is happening to them and their families. Best of luck to all of them.

Click here to read the full article as is from PCWorld.com.

Shift Happens

2007-12-08T23:41:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting statistical presentation. It takes about 6 minutes, but it's worth it.

Apple Quick Tips Video Podcast

2007-11-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the state of Apple in the last 6 months or so. Leopard was released (great upgrade to Tiger), new hardware has been released (iMacs, MacBooks, iPods, etc), and there was one more thing... oh yeah, the iPhone! Enough has been said about that in countless other podcasts and blogs, so I won't beat the dead horse. In short, I love mine, and don't go anywhere without it.

With all this new technology that Apple is dishing up, it's easy to understand why so many people are switching over from Windows. One potential problem that you newbies are facing, however, is how to get all the power out of this new hardware and software (specifically from OS X).

I have found that an easy way to learn all the fun, time-saving tips and tricks is by subscribing to Apple's free Quick Tips video podcast. A new Tip is released weekly, and offers insights into advanced copying and pasting, efficient color management in OS X, taking quick and easy snapshots using built-in software, and much more. They usually last about 5 minutes, but could save you many more over the course of the week.

To subscribe to this podcast, simply click here.

I'm Baaaaack!

2007-11-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... it's been WAY too long since I have graced you with my presence. Life has been very busy with moving, family activities, work, etc. But that's still no excuse, I understand. Consider this my renewed commitment to bringing you the most exciting information on all things technology!

As a reminder, this is a time-consuming project for me, and it's virtually impossible for me to distribute to you everything I want to in all categories (gaming, gadgets, multimedia, etc). If you are interested in becoming a contributing blogger to forty4.com, shoot me an e-mail and let's talk.

Impromptu Chat Rooms

2007-07-16T13:06:00.000-06:00

The concept of a "Chat Room" is great. It's a convenient way to digitally get two or more people in a virtual room together at one time to hammer out family travel plans, project deadlines, or anything else that you need to collaborate on (at least when text-chat is good enough). The problem, however, is that there hasn't been a really easy way to use them. Either all parties have to be using the same IM (Instant Messaging) client, or you have to try and hunt down some third-party system and pay a fee to use their services. That was then...

... this is now. Welcome ChatMaker. With a few keystrokes and a single mouse-click, you will be holding your impromptu chat room session within seconds. It's a free service, and offers virtually unlimited visitors to your session at any given time. Here's how to use it:

1) Go to www.chatmaker.net
2) Enter your session name
3) Click "Go"

Just before hitting "Go", you may want to highlight and copy the link that it automatically generates for you. This is useful for inviting others to your chat session. All you have to do is send them the link, they click on it, and they are in your chat session.

A couple things to be aware of:

1) Convenience is this site's #1 priority, which means that security lacks. Basically anyone will be able to join your session by simply guessing at your session ID. For example, if I wanted to see if there was a session going on about cars, I would enter the URL with "cars" as the session ID. If you want the highest level of security for this service (which still isn't that great), choose a session ID that is hard to guess (i.e.: "e&^&ytSTu"). Keep in mind that with the link you send to invite others, the complexity of the session ID shouldn't matter. Make it as long and complex as you want.

2) Because this is such a simple system to use, there is a lack of profiling. So rather than your brother Henry being labeled "Henry" when they joint he session, they will be labeled "Guest7354". This may or may not be a deterrent for you when using the service.

For anyone looking for a great, easy way to open impromptu chat sessions with a group of people over the web, ChatMaker is the perfect tool for you.

WWDC07 Apple Design Award Winners

2007-06-13T14:49:00.000-06:00

This year's WWDC Apple Design Awards were issued last night at the Moscone West conference center in San Francisco. There were 7 categories, which included:

- Leopard Application
- User Experience
- Developer Tool
- Game
- Scientific Computing Solution
- Dashboard Widget
- Student Product

The runners-up walked out with a new 15" MacBook Pro, 30" Cinema Display, a booth at the 2008 MacWorld Expo, paid travel and lodging for this year's WWDC conference and other nice prizes. The winners walked out with the same prizes, along with an additional MacBook Pro and 30" display.

Click here for the awards winners and runners-up.

Congratulations to all! It was a great event, and there are some awesome developers out there that clearly love what they do.

WWDC07 Summary

2007-06-11T19:21:00.000-06:00

Today is the start of WWDC07 (Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference), held at the Moscone Center (West) in beautiful downtown San Francisco, California. Watch the entire 90-minute keynote here, or, if you're short on time, read the summary below:

Keynote begins with a short video featuring the "Mac" and "PC" guys. The "PC" guy purports to be Steve Jobs, and announces he is quitting, and closing Apple's doors... forever. Very funny.

Steve (the real Steve) announces WWDC07 attendance to be over 5,000 (largest ever), and over 950,000 active "Apple Developer Connection" members. Clearly, the development community is very healthy.

Steve briefly mentions transition to Intel, and then gives a very nice polished stainless-steel award to Paul Otellini (CEO of Intel), designed by Apple's very own Jonathan Ive.

Games are now a big focus for Apple. Bing Gordon (founder of Electronic Arts) and John Carmack (founder of id TECH) appear on stage to show off some of their games, ported for the Mac platform. EA games that will be available in July include:
- Command and Conquer III
- Battlefield 2152
- Need for Speed Carbon
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Steve spends a good chunk of the keynote talking about Leopard. 2/3 of all Mac users are using OS X Tiger (the most current version), which is astounding. There are over 300 new features in Leopard. Leopard ships in October (confirmed), and Steve spends time talking about 10 features:

1) New Desktop
- The dock is more 3D, and has a reflective surface
- Introduction of "Stacks", which helps to clean up your desktop
- ALL windows will look uniform throughout the entire OS

2) New Finder
- New sidebar
- Search other Macs AND servers right from Finder
- Much easier to browse other computers on your LAN
- Built-in (pre-canned) Smart Folders on sidebar (Today, Yesterday, etc)
- New "Back to my Mack" feature, which allows you to retrieve files from a remote machine (requires .Mac subscription)
- New finder now has CoverFlow (just like in iTunes)

3) Quick Look
- This is a new technology built in to Leopard which allows you to preview files quickly without having to open them
- It features a plug-in architecture, which will allow developers to write plugins for 3rd-party tie-ins
- Preview in full-screen as well

4) 64-bit
- Leopard is now 64-bit across the board, even through all of Cocoa (dev tool)
- 64-bit means less disk activity (among other things)
- 32-bit and 64-bit versions will ship on the same install disc
- Performed a sample image test: 32-bit took 81 seconds while 64-bit took only 28 seconds
- This is expected to bring 64-bit mainstream for the first time
- Almost all new Macs can run 64-bit

5) Core Animation
- Not really an application you run, but an underlying technology
- Offers automatic animation
- Easy to write apps using this technology
- Compose items as scenes of layers
- Offers greater GPU (Graphical Processor Unit) acceleration

6) Boot Camp
- Will no longer be in Beta
- Will ship with OS X Leopard
- No longer need to burn a CD of drivers for XP or Vista and then install
- Will not offer fast OS switching (as most had hoped)
- Steve spent time endorsing Parallels and VMWare

7) Spaces
- Allows you to have multiple virtual desktops ("as many as you want")
- Can rearrange your spaces into different orders
- Can drag apps from one space to another

8) Dashboard
- Over 3,000 3rd-party widgets available (wow!)
- Apple has a single new widget called "Movies" which allows you to view movie times, previews and even allows you to purchase tickets through Fandango
- WebClip allows you to easily create your own widgets very quickly

9) iChat
- iChat has become a very popular video conferencing tool
- New version will offer PhotoBooth-like effects
- Includes new AAC codec for better audio quality
- iChat theater allows you to display photos, movies and keynote slideshows to another iChat user
- New background feature allows you to remove the scene behind you and replace it with a still image or movie clip (for example, a roller coaster scene)

10) Time Machine
- About 5% of users backup their data on a routine basis (ouch!)
- This allows you to automatically backup your data either to your internal hard drive, an external hard drive over USB or FireWire, or wirelessly using the new Apple Airport Extreme Base Station
- Multiple Macs can share a single shared drive
- Easy-to-use interface to find your missing data

There will be 5 versions of OS X Leopard when available in October. They are:
- Basic: $129
- Premium: $129
- Business: $129
- Enterprise: $129
- Ultimate: $129
(Not-so-subtle jab at Microsoft)

"One More Thing..."
Safari (the Apple-brand web browser) is now available for Windows!!! Apple is making a push to gain more market share not just in the computer sector, but also the browser sector. I believe this will be a huge tool in increasing market share for Macs. Claims are made that it runs Java and opens pages twice a fast as IE7, and 1.6x faster than FireFox. Currently in Beta, and can be downloaded from Apple's Safari website.

"One Last Thing..."
The iPhone will be released on June 29. Apple is encouraging developers to write apps for the device, which will be executed and run via Safari. These apps will also have functionality to make easy phone calls and look up Google maps on the fly.

If that wasn't enough, Apple today posted an update to their web site. Check it out!

iPhone Coming June 29

2007-06-03T18:04:00.000-06:00

CONFIRMED by Apple.... the much anticipated Apple iPhone will be publicly available on June 29 nationwide. Apple also just released 3 new iPhone ads, available here.

"The Crazy Ones..."

2007-06-01T20:02:00.000-06:00

Very thought-provoking ad, narrated by Richard Dreyfuss.

Waves of Innovation

2007-06-01T19:58:00.001-06:00

I had a conference call today with an enterprise-level rep from Microsoft who was explaining why I should spend a LOT of money on Microsoft software, essentially locking myself in to a contract for the long-term. As part of the presentation, he showed the following slide:

I didn't see any statement indicating this is top-secret stuff, so I am assuming I can pass this around (in fact, they may want me to). Any way, I took one look at this slide, and thought to myself, "How can anyone keep all this straight?" It just looks insanely confusing to me.

Am I the only one here?

YouTube, Meet Apple TV

2007-05-30T19:32:00.000-06:00

Enough said.

Microsoft Announces the "Surface"

2007-05-29T23:35:00.000-06:00

It was anticipated that Microsoft would announce "something big", as tomorrow is the day that Bill Gates meets with Steve Jobs (Apple), and will jointly be interviewed at this year's annual "D: All Things Digital" event, hosted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher (a Wall Street Journal event). Historically, the larger vendors use this event to make some sort of new product launch. This year's event is no different.

Microsoft posted new images and video samples of their latest project, the Microsoft Surface. The Surface is based on a 30" LCD display that is built in to a stationary table. The idea is to use the table as a digital surface which can display photos from a camera, contents of a Windows-based PDA, and even map-out road trips. It uses a multi-touch technology, allowing you to simply use multiple fingers at once to enlarge, rotate and even toss objects around the working space.

One very interesting (not to mention appealing) concept about this product is that it can sense when certain objects are in contact with the surface of the table. One example shown on the site is a group of friends at a restaurant. When it's time to pay the bill, they simply place their credit cards on the table, then drag-and-drop the various food items to the card that it belongs to. Presumably, the bill is then also paid electronically, making it very easy to pay and go.

This is a very intriguing new product coming from Microsoft, and can be crucial in reviving the company long-term. The project began the R&D phase back in 2003, so it's been some time in the making.

As for availability, the site officially says that we will begin to see the devices in hotels, restaurants, etc. by year-end. Price is expected to range from $5,000 - $10,000 per unit. There is no word on whether they will be available for consumers (home use), but it's not likely.

Click here to learn more about Microsoft Surface.

Google Maps Unveils "Street View"

2007-05-29T13:07:00.000-06:00

Google just posted it's latest new feature with Google Maps online... "StreetView". This feature is only available in several of the largest US cities right now, but it is sure to expand as time goes on.

With the feature turned on, you place the yellow "person" in any blue-colored street for a view of that street from a ground-level perspective. Once you see the view, you can then "walk" up and down the street, as well as turn in a 260 degree motion.

Way to go, Google! You've done it again!

Click here to try Google Maps online.