Court Filings Reveal Early iPhone, iPod Prototypes

Documents submitted to a California court as part of the patent battle between Apple and Samsung Electronics provide a fascinating look at the iPhone and iPad designs considered by Apple before the devices went on sale. Among the revelations: a prototype of the iPhone developed in 2006 bears a strong resemblance to the iPhone 4 that went on sale in 2010, and some early designs for the iPad included a pull-out arm that acted as a stand. One of the iPad prototypes, which carries the label "X9 #4," is shown in images with a kickstand attached to the back of the unit. Another picture appears to show it sitting at an angle on a desk, presumably held up with the stand. A second prototype is shown without the stand attached but has a hole and recessed channel carved in the back that would presumably store the stand when it folds away. While Apple decided against the stand on the finished product, it's notable that some third-party case makers have built the feature into some of their models. Palo Alto-based Speck has an iPad case with a fold-out stand that also doubles as a grip to hold the tablet. Other iPad prototypes include a model with a two stage thickness, thinner around the edge than in the center. Among the iPhone prototypes is an octagonal model, labeled "boeing v6," with angled corners and a two-tone design that has a black front and white, curved back. There's also a prototype that's longer and thinner than the eventual iPhone that would go on sale in 2007. Most of the prototypes appear to come from 2006. Last week, similar filings with the court revealed Apple had tasked one of its designers with dreaming up "Sony-like" phone designs. The resulting designs, just like some of those that appeared over the weekend, have sides that are more defined. Some are black with a silver band running around the edge, making them look much more like the iPhone 4 than the first iPhone that went on sale. The court submissions also show some early designs for the iPhone's home screen. In one photo, an early set of icons are arranged on screen with no text underneath -- something that was present in later prototypes. While some icons, such as those for weather, stocks, calculator, and Safari, appear to have gone almost unchanged, others have been through redesigns. An early version of the iPod button was an orange box with a music note, something Apple later changed to an iPod icon, and the gallery icon was a young boy on a beach, not the sunflower familiar to millions of iPhone users. The case is 11-01846, Apple v. Samsung Electronics, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/260018/court_filings_reveal_early_iphone_ipod_prototypes.html#tk.hp_new

5 Things Windows 8 Can Learn from OS X Mountain Lion

Apple's OS X Mountain Lion will launch Wednesday, so it's a good time for Windows users to peer across the border at what features in Mountain Lion might prove useful. Note that Windows 8 is a complete overhaul, while Mountain Lion is more of a refinement. Yet the Apple update adds lots of new features that would fit in nicely on Microsoft's OS. In hopes of keeping alive the tradition of stolen OS features, here are five aspects of OS X Mountain Lion that we'd like to see in future versions of Windows. Notification Center Notification Center in OS X Moutain LionNotification Center in OS X Moutain LionWindows 8 will have pop-up notifications that slide onto the top-right corner of the screen, which are useful for noticing new messages, calendar appointments, or other important updates. But Windows 8's notification system is still missing a list view for all the updates you might have missed, similar to Notification Center in Mountain Lion. This would be especially helpful if you didn't want pop-ups to interrupt your work, but still want to glance at a list view of notifications periodically. AirPlay Mirroring Microsoft knows that PC-to-TV connectivity is going to be huge, which is why the company will release a SmartGlass app that lets tablets send content to Microsoft's Xbox 360. Still, we know very little about how this app will work. Meanwhile, OS X Mountain Lion will allow full AirPlay mirroring to Apple TV boxes. It'd be nice to have similar mirroring capabilities between Windows 8 PCs and the Xbox. Text Messaging Although Mountain Lion users won't be able to send and receive all their text messages on the Mac, they will have access to all iMessages, which come from other iOS and Mac users. Microsoft could offer even deeper message syncing between Windows Phones and PCs, so users wouldn't have to answer messages on a tiny screen when they're at a full-sized computer. Synced Notes and Reminders The Windows Store will likely offer several third-party notes and reminders apps that can sync data across devices. With Mountain Lion, these features are built in, so your notes and reminders are automatically available on any Apple device. Sure, Microsoft has a more advanced note-taking product in OneNote, but a more simple--and free--solution as part of Windows 8 would be helpful. Easier Voice Dictation In Windows 8, voice dictation is available as an accessibility feature, and as such, it's buried behind several menus and not intended for general use. voice dictationMountain Lion makes voice dictation easy to use from any application--you just press the Function key twice, and start talking.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/259774/5_things_windows_8_can_learn_from_os_x_mountain_lion.html#tk.hp_fv

Comcast Rolls Out 305 Mbps Internet Service, Fueled by Verizon FiOS

Next month I'm moving out of New England. While moving is always a hassle, I was pretty casual about the whole plan. I can do both my jobs from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection and a laptop, so while I was worried about things like how well the dog would adjust, I wasn't thinking much about my working life. Then yesterday came the news that Comcast is launching a 305 Mbps internet service. That's 305 Mbps down, 65 Mbps up. Now granted it costs $300/month, but Comcast is also doubling speeds for its 25 Mbps customers and more than doubling speeds for its 50 Mbps customers (to 105 Mbps) at no additional charge. Why is Comcast doing this? To compete with Verizon FiOS, of course. The new speeds are available in 'certain markets' and they're all in the Northeast where FiOS service is available. Richmond, Va., is the southernmost city to get the new Comcast speeds and not coincidentally Virginia is as far south as FiOS services. (You can read more about Comcast's new terms over at GigaOm.) The apartment complex I'm moving into is served by Time Warner Cable. Time Warner isn't competing with anyone with the clout of Verizon FiOS; honestly I'm not sure that they have any competition in the area. Their Internet service tops out at "up to" 50 Mbps and that costs $80/month during the promotional period. That's not all that bad of a price but if you want to go faster you're out of luck. Also the upload speed is a paltry 5 Mbps. Comcast Rolls Out 305 Mbps Internet Service, Fueled by Verizon FiOSFor comparison's sake, Verizon offers 50/25 service for $80 for the first two years. Why hasn't Time Warner rolled out faster speeds? It has no need to. Its customers are stuck with what it has to offer. I've asked around and most (but not all) people I talk to seem unhappy with Time Warner Cable. Now admittedly it's pretty hard to find people who'll say good things about any cable company but I will. Aside from cost I was pretty happy when I was a Comcast customer. And I've been a happy FiOS customer. Am I just lucky? I don't think so. I think both companies offer better service in my current area because they're in competition. When your customers have somewhere else to go, you're going to treat them better. So what's my point? Just that Comcast's new speed offerings really underscore the need for there to be more competition in the cable TV and Internet service space. As a Massachusetts resident who has had a choice in who to give my TV/Internet business to, I've been spoiled for the past few years. I'd like to see the rest of the country have the same opportunities that those of us in "FiOS Country" have had.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

Spam Halved With Grum Takedown

An international effort by spam fighters has taken down the infamous Grum botnet, slashing in half the worldwide amount of spam e-mail. Grum's last servers were taken offline in Russia last week, effectively killing the botnet that has no fallback mechanism, said Atif Mushtaq, a researcher at FireEye's security lab, which collaborated with the Russian Computer Security Incident Response Team and the Spamhouse Project in battling Grum. At its height, Grum was the world's largest spam botnet, since January. Before the takedown, the botnet's120,000 malware-infected, active computers were spewing 18 billion spam e-mail a day, or roughly a third of the world's spam, said Trustwave. The impact of Grum's collapse went beyond the spambot. Stopping Grum caused a slowdown in the world's largest spam botnet, Lethic, Mushtaq said Thursday. "Due to this [international] community reaction, Lethic has gone underground for awhile." With Grum down and Lethic quiet, the total amount of the world's spam has been cut in half, at least temporarily, said Mushtaq. Aside from the numbers, the spam-fighters' success is expected to have a chilling effect on Russian and Ukrainian spam operations, which can no longer assume the countries offer a safe haven, due to weak laws. Security Teams Unite to Fight The Grum operation was done without any involvement by law enforcement, showing that security researchers working together can also be effective in fighting botnets, which besides spam are used in denial of service attacks against websites. With security researchers globally watching them, cybercriminals now have to deal with far more adversaries than in the past. "That will have a huge impact on the mindset of bot herders, and that may be the reason Lethic is going underground," Mushtaq said. Bot herder is the name given to people who control hijacked computers, or bots, in an illicit network. Grum's death leaves tens of thousands of inactive, malware-infected computers. But without the original master computer and the IP addresses of the infected systems, the botnet is unlikely to be resurrected. "There's no way to hijack this botnet," Mushtaq said. "[the computers] are lost to us and to bot herders." The Grum-killing operation started about two weeks ago when authorities in the Netherlands pulled the plug on two servers. This led to other servers in Panama being taken offline early this week. In a cat-and-mouse game with spam fighters, the Grum operators launched more servers in Russia and the Ukraine. A service provider in Russia took the last of those computers off the Internet on Wednesday. How long spam numbers will remain down is unclear. Spammers are sure to start filling the gap at some point. "Major takedowns can have a perceptible impact for weeks, even months, but that doesn't mean it will be the case here," David Harley, senior research fellow at ESET, said in an e-mail.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/259573/spam_halved_with_grum_takedown.html#tk.hp_pop

Watch out for this virus!!!

FBI Moneypak Redirect Virus: FBI Moneypak ransomware is a malicious software that get's inside the system undetected. FBI Moneypak ransomware full name is "The FBI Federal Bureau Investigation", and it tries to frighten people into thinking that they did something illegal, like downloaded copyrighted material on Internet and now FBI caught them. However, you should not believe the bogus alert, even if you have broken the Copyright laws, by using illegal download, P2P file sharing sites, and so on, you should still ignore the fictitious FBI Moneypak messages, FBI never blocks computers remotely and it never sends alerts directly to your PC. What is FBI moneypak virus? Learn about FBI Virus FBI Moneypak Virus is a Windows infection, which cyber criminals will use to gather profits. The malicious application can slither in through various security backdoors, like spam email attachments, bundled downloads, encrypted software, etc., PC Locked by FBI Moneypak Virus? FBI Moneypak Virus is a big issue to computer users, because it completely blocks internet connection , Task Manager, Registry Editor and other executable files. User is left under a locked screen where he can only see the fake FBI virus alert. This alert says, that if you will pay $100 , your computer will get unlocked in 24-72 hours. However, it is a virus, and probably your computer won't be unlocked even if you pay the fine.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment.

How to Get Started With Music on Google Play

When Google launched Google Play (originally called Google Music) last year, a lot of hype surrounded the service, since it represented the search giant's entry into the world of music streaming. But now the hype has largely died down, and many Google users remain confused about what the service allows them to do, and how Google’s music locker works. We have the info you need to start uploading and streaming your music with Google Play as efficiently as possible. Installing Google Play Google Play’s primary purpose is to let you upload your existing music (up to 20,000 songs as of this writing; sorry, music aficionados) to Google’s servers so that you can store them, stream them, and redownload them to any computer connected to the Web. You need to install Google’s Music Manager software, which helps you find and upload your music. The application is available from the Google Play store; if you haven’t signed up for the Google Play store yet, the Google Play home page will default to a download page for the program. After you download the Music Manager app, install it and configure it for your PC. The setup process is straightforward; after you sign in with your Google email address and password, it will ask you to indicate the main music library on your computer. [Click to enlarge] How to Get Started With Music on Google Play By default the application will zero in on your iTunes music library; if the bulk of your music is located elsewhere, you can point Google in the right direction by selecting that folder manually. The Music Manager will scan the selected folder and begin preparing all compatible tracks for upload. The application will also add iTunes playlists, music ratings, and play counts to the Google Play library, further easing the transition from iTunes. Hurry Up, Upload, and Wait The main drawback to Google Play is that the uploading is slow. In my tests, uploading my library of 7000 or so songs took the better part of two days. Luckily, Google Play makes the process mostly painless by keeping the upload client running in the background and turning it off automatically when you shut down or restart your computer. [Click to enlarge] How to Get Started With Music on Google Play This kind of background uploading can hamper your PC's online performance, but in my tests it didn’t consume too much bandwidth; while uploading music, I was still able to watch streaming video or perform other bandwidth-heavy tasks with relative ease. If you do need to throttle the Music Manager's upload speed, use the 'Bandwidth available for uploading' option under the Advanced section of the application's preferences menu. [Click to enlarge] How to Get Started With Music on Google Play Google Play can be finicky about file formats, too. Unlike the situation with Spotify, which tries to match unsupported tracks with songs from its library, any DRM-protected tracks you might have bought from the iTunes Music Store or other similar services likely won’t make the jump to Google’s servers. Google Play Web Player The music that you do upload to Google Play is available pretty much anywhere, as long as you use Google Play's (admittedly simple and well-designed) music player. The Music Manager tries to assess your favorite tracks intelligently by analyzing their rating and play-count information if those details are available (it counts iTunes ratings, for instance, but it doesn't yet support some less-popular music players), and it uploads those tracks first. The result is that your favorite 10 to 15 albums should be available in the first hour or so after you start uploading, assuming a stable broadband connection. [Click to enlarge] How to Get Started With Music on Google Play Log in to your Google account, and point your browser to the Google Play Web Player. Users of Windows Media Player, iTunes, or similar music players should be familiar with the Web Player layout: You can access playlists, albums, or artists using the navigation bar on the left, and you can choose a specific track to play from your music library on the right. Of course, this is a Google product, so the player also has a search bar near the top of the page for finding a particular uploaded album or track. A few convenient keyboard shortcuts in the Web Player can make your life a little easier. The usual keyboard shortcuts are here--pressing the spacebar pauses or plays the current track, for example, and tapping the arrow keys lets you advance and rewind through tracks. In addition, you'll find some Google-specific keyboard shortcuts: For instance, press the I key for an algorithmically generated playlist based on the current track, or press the / (slash) key to jump to the search box and find your favorite tracks. Google Music Store Of course, Google would prefer that you buy tunes from the Google Play music store, so Google Play is designed to work best with those purchased tracks. That said, songs bought from the Google store come as high-quality DRM-free MP3 files, and they cost about as much as songs from the iTunes store. [Click to enlarge] How to Get Started With Music on Google Play In fact, the two content stores are similar enough that you have no truly compelling reason to choose one over the other. Google lacks some songs that iTunes has (Google has yet to sign a deal with Warner Music, for example). However, when you purchase music from Google, the tracks appear in your Google Play library automatically, an intriguing feature if you want to make Google your primary music player. Mobile Player [Click to enlarge] How to Get Started With Music on Google PlayAndroid phone and tablet users can get the most out of Google’s music service, thanks to the Google Play Android app. In addition to letting you stream music from your mobile device, the app allows you to store any playlist for playing offline, a handy feature to have when a Wi-Fi or cellular connection isn’t available. iOS users desperate for a Google Play fix can still access the Web Player through any browser (including Safari); of course, Apple users have no way to use offline mode without a dedicated Google Play app. Now that I've shown you what Google Play is and how it works, I have to note a few things. If you are a hard-core music fan, Google Play is not an ideal fit for you unless you are deeply tied to the Android ecosystem. In contrast, if you are a casual user of Google’s Web services, you'll find Play useful as a way to back up your favorite tracks so that you can enjoy them from any Internet-connected computer in case you lose access to your home library or suffer a catastrophic data loss that wipes out your music collection.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 http://www.pcworld.com/article/259221/how_to_get_started_with_music_on_google_play.html#tk.hp_fv

The IBM PS/2: 25 Years of PC History

Twenty-five years ago, IBM announced the Personal System/2 (PS/2), a new line of IBM PC-compatible machines that capped an era of profound influence on the personal computer market. By the time of the PS/2's launch in 1987, IBM PC clones--unauthorized work-alike machines that could utilize IBM PC hardware and software--had eaten away a sizable portion of IBM's own PC platform. Compare the numbers: In 1983, IBM controlled roughly 76 percent of the PC-compatible market, but in 1986 its share slipped to 26 percent. IBM devised a plan to regain control of the PC-compatible market by introducing a new series of machines--the PS/2 line--with a proprietary expansion bus, operating system, and BIOS that would require clone makers to pay a hefty license if they wanted to play IBM's game. Unfortunately for IBM, PC clone manufacturers had already been playing their own game. In the end, IBM failed to reclaim a market that was quickly slipping out of its grasp. But the PS/2 series left a lasting impression of technical influence on the PC industry that continues to this day. Attack of the Clones When IBM created the PC in 1981, it used a large number of easily obtainable, off-the-shelf components to construct the machine. Just about any company could have put them together into a computer system, but IBM added a couple of features that would give the machine a flavor unique to IBM. The first was its BIOS, the basic underlying code that governed use of the machine. The second was its disk operating system, which had been supplied by Microsoft. When Microsoft signed the deal to supply PC-DOS to IBM, it included a clause that allowed Microsoft to sell that same OS to other computer vendors--which Microsoft did (labeling it "MS-DOS") almost as soon as the PC launched. [Click to enlarge] Ad from the April 1987 launch, featuring the former cast of the 'MASH' TV show.Ad from the April 1987 launch, featuring the former cast of the 'MASH' TV show.That wasn't a serious problem at first, because those non-IBM machines, although they ran MS-DOS, could not legally utilize the full suite of available IBM PC software and hardware add-ons. As the IBM PC grew in sales and influence, other computer manufacturers started to look into making PC-compatible machines. Before doing so, they had to reverse-engineer IBM's proprietary BIOS code using a clean-room technique to spare themselves from infringing upon IBM's copyright and trademarks. First PC Clone: MPC 1600 In June 1982, Columbia Data Products did just that, and it introduced the first PC clone, the MPC 1600. Dynalogic and Compaq followed with PC work-alikes of their own in 1983, and soon, companies such as Phoenix Technologies developed IBM PC-compatible BIOS products that they freely licensed to any company that came calling. The floodgates had opened, and the PC-compatible market was no longer IBM's to own. At least in the early years, that market did not exist without IBM's influence. IBM's PC XT (1983) and PC AT (1984) both brought with them considerable innovations in PC design that cloners quickly copied. [Click to enlarge] Compaq DeskPro 386 adCompaq DeskPro 386 ad. Image: Courtesy of ToplessRobot.comBut that lead would not last forever. A profound shift in market leadership occurred when Compaq released its DeskPro 386, a powerful 1986 PC compatible that beat IBM to market in using Intel's 80386 CPU. It was an embarrassing blow to IBM, and Big Blue knew that it had to do something drastic to solidify its power. [Related: The Computer Hardware Hall of Fame] That something was the PS/2. The line launched in April 1987 with a high-powered ad campaign featuring the former cast of the hit MASH TV show, and a new slogan: "PS/2 It!" Critics, who had seen more-powerful computers at lower prices, weren't particularly impressed, and everyone immediately knew that IBM planned to use the PS/2 to pull the rug out from beneath the PC-compatible industry. But the new PS/2 did have some tricks up its sleeve that would keep cloners busy for another couple of years in an attempt to catch up. Four Initial Models IBM announced four PS/2 models during its April 1987 launch: the Model 30, 50, 60, and 80. They ranged dramatically in power and price; on the low end, the Model 30 (roughly equivalent to a PC XT) contained an 8MHz 8086 CPU, 640KB of RAM, and a 20MB hard drive, and retailed for $2295 (about $4642 in 2012 dollars when adjusted for inflation). The most powerful configuration of the Model 80 came equipped with a 20MHz 386 CPU, 2MB of RAM, and a 115MB hard drive for a total cost of $10,995 (about $22,243 today). Neither configuration included an OS--you had to buy PC-DOS 3.3 for an extra $120 ($242 today). The following chart from IBM offers a more detailed view of the systems available during the 1987 launch, and illustrates just how complex the variety could be. IBM chart explaining the four PS/2 models announced in April 1987.IBM chart explaining the four PS/2 models announced in April 1987. Every unit in the line included at least one feature new to IBM's PC offerings--and the market in general. In the following sections, I'll discuss those new features and how they affected the PC industry. Integrated I/O Functionality, New Memory Standard From the IBM PC in 1981 through the PC AT in 1984, IBM preferred to keep a minimum of features in the base unit. Instead, it allowed users to extend their systems with expansion cards that plugged into the internal slots. This meant that a 1981 PC, which shipped with five slots, left little room for expansion when it already contained a graphics card, a disk controller, a serial card, and a printer card--a common configuration at the time. With the PS/2, IBM chose to integrate many of those commonly used I/O boards into the motherboard itself. Each model in the PS/2 line included a built-in serial port, parallel port, mouse port, video adapter, and floppy controller, which freed up internal slots for other uses. Computers in the PS/2 series also had a few other built-in advancements, such as the 16550 UART, a chip that allowed faster serial communications (useful when using a modem), as well as 72-pin RAM SIMM (single in-line memory module) sockets. Both items became standard across the industry over time. PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse Ports [Click to enlarge] An ad describing the IBM Personal System/2.An ad describing the IBM Personal System/2.The built-in mouse port I mentioned earlier is worth noting in more detail. Each machine in the PS/2 line included a redesigned keyboard port and a new mouse port, both of which used 6-pin mini-DIN connectors. IBM intended the mouse, as a peripheral, to play a major part in the PS/2 system. The company promised a new graphical OS (which I'll talk about later) that would compete with the Macintosh in windowing functionality. Even today, many new PCs ship with "PS/2 connectors" for mice and keyboards, although they have been steadily falling out of fashion in favor of USB ports. New Floppy Drives Every model in the PS/2 line contained a 3.5-inch microfloppy drive, a Sony-developed technology that, until then, had been featured most prominently in Apple Macintosh computers. The low-end PS/2 Model 30 shipped with a drive that could read and write 720KB double-density disks. Other models introduced something completely new: a 1440KB high-density floppy drive that would become the PC floppy drive standard for the next 20 years. IBM's use of the 3.5-inch floppy drive was new in the PC-compatible world. Up to that point, IBM itself had favored traditional 5.25-inch disk drives. This drastic format shift initially came as a great annoyance to PC users with large libraries of software on 5.25-inch disks. Although IBM did offer an external 5.25-inch drive option for the PS/2 line, cloners quickly followed suit with their own 3.5-inch drives, and many commercial software applications began shipping with both 5.25-inch and 3.5-inch floppies in the box.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 Give us a call today: 281-554-5500 or visit Friendly Computers to schedule an appointment. http://www.pcworld.com/article/258989/the_ibm_ps2_25_years_of_pc_history.html#tk.hp_fv

Protect Yourself From DNSChanger

In July the Internet Systems Consortium will permanently shut down DNS servers deployed to serve as temporary surrogates for rogue DNS servers shut down as part of Operation Ghost Click, an FBI operation that brought down an Estonian hacker ring last year. If your PC is one of the more than 1 million computers infected that carry DNSChanger you might unknowingly be relying on one of the FBI's temporary servers to access the Internet, and if you don't eliminate DNSChanger from your PC before the FBI pulls the plug on its servers, you'll be left without Internet access. Read on to learn how to discover whether you're infected with DNSChanger, and what you can do to eliminate it from your system. How to Tell Whether DNSChanger Has Infected Your PC [Click to enlarge] DNSChanger Check-Up screen; click for full-size image.The DNSChanger Check-Up websites will automatically check which DNS servers you're using; it will let you know that your PC is clean by flashing a green background.To figure out whether you've been infected with DNSChanger, just point your Web browser to one of the (admittedly amateur-looking) DNSChanger Check-Up websites that Internet security organizations maintain across the globe. The link above will take you to a DNS Changer Check-Up page in the United States that the DNS Changer Working Group maintains; if you live outside the United States, you can consult the FBI's list of DNSChanger Check-Up websites to find an appropriate service for your region. Unfortunately, if your router is infected, those websites will think that your PC is infected, even though it may be clean; worse, if your ISP redirects DNS traffic, your PC may appear to be clean even though your DNS settings may have been maliciously altered. If you want to be certain that your PC is free of DNSChanger malware, you need to manually look up the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC contacts to resolve domain names when browsing the Web. To look up which DNS servers your Windows 7 PC is using, open your Start menu and either run the Command Prompt application or type cmd in the Search field. Once you have a command prompt open, type ipconfig /allcompartments /all at the command line and press Enter. A big block of text should appear; scroll through it until you see a line that says 'DNS Servers', and copy down the string(s) of numbers that follow (there may be more than one string here, meaning that your PC accesses more than one DNS server). [Click to enlarge] Use the /ipconfig command; click for full-size image.Use the /ipconfig command to look up the IP addresses of the DNS server(s) that your PC is using. It's even easier for Mac OS X users to determine the IP addresses of the DNS servers that their PC uses. Open the Apple menu (usually located in the upper-left corner of the screen) and select System Preferences. Next, click the Network icon to open your Network Settings menu; navigate to Advanced Settings, and copy down the string(s) of numbers listed in the DNS Server box. [Click to enlarge] The Advanced Network Settings menu's DNS tab; clcik for full-size image.Mac users can find their DNS server IP address(es) under the DNS tab of the Advanced Network Settings menu. Once you know the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC is using, head over to the FBI DNSChanger website and enter those addresses into the search box. Press the big blue Check Your DNS button, and the FBI's software will tell you whether your PC is using rogue DNS servers to access the Internet. What to Do If Your PC Is Infected by DNSChanger If your PC is infected with DNSChanger, you'll have to do some intensive work to get rid of it. DNSChanger is a powerful rootkit that does more than just alter DNS settings; if you've been infected with DNSChanger, the safest course is to back up your important data, reformat your hard drive(s), and reinstall your operating system. For more information, consult our guide to reinstalling Windows. If you're leery of reformatting your entire PC, you can try rooting out the DNSChanger rootkit with a free malware removal utility such as Kaspersky Labs' TDSSKiller. As the name implies, Kaspersky released the program to help PC owners seek and destroy the TDSS rootkit malware, but it also detects and attempts to eliminate DNSChanger and many other forms of rootkits. The DNSChanger Working Group website maintains a large list of links to malware clean-up guides and utility software you can use to try and eradicate DNSChanger from your PC. If the infected PC is on a network, you'll have to check every other PC on the network for signs of infection, and then check your router's settings to ensure that it isn't affected (DNSChanger is programmed to change router DNS settings automatically, using the default usernames and passwords of most modern routers). To do this, copy down your router's DNS server IP addresses (located in your router's settings menu; read "How to Set Up a Wireless Router" for more information) and check them against the FBI's IP address database mentioned above. If your router is infected, reset the router and confirm that all network settings are restored to the manufacturer's defaults. When you're done, repeat the steps outlined above to verify that your PC is no longer infected with DNSChanger. With all traces of this vicious malware eliminated, you should have nothing to fear when the FBI shuts down the ISC's temporary DNS servers in July. http://www.pcworld.com/article/255137/protect_yourself_from_dnschanger.html#tk.hp_fv

Apple Siri Versus Google Jelly Bean: Voice Search Showdown

One of the big enhancements in the Android 4.0 (Jelly Bean) operating system update that Google announced on June 27 is improved voice recognition in search. You can now ask your Android phone questions in a natural way--meaning you no longer have to sound like a robot to get answers. We wondered which service is better at answering questions: Android's Voice Search or Apple's much-touted Siri. To test the services, we assembled a list of 17 questions or commands, and asked them of a Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean and an iPhone 4S running iOS 5. A quick disclaimer: Apple has greatly improved Siri in iOS 6, but we weren't able to get our hands on the beta to test it. And the version of Jelly Bean we received from the Google I/O developer conference was not the final version, which will come to phones in mid-July. Our results? Siri and the new voice recognition software in Jelly Bean each have their fair share of pros and cons. In the end, Android came out ahead on 8 of the 17 questions and commands we posed. Here's a breakdown of how well each phone handled each question or task. Question 1: "Where Is the Empire State Building?" Siri seemed to have trouble understanding this question, while Jelly Bean produced a map that gave us the address of the Empire State Building in New York. For now, Android has the upper hand when it comes to locating famous buildings. Winner: Android Jelly Bean Question 2: "Will I Need an Umbrella on Sunday?" The first few times we asked this question, Siri gave us directions to the nearest department stores. We believe that it may have been trying to point us to places that sold umbrellas, rather than answering our weather question. When Siri finally realized that we were asking about the weather, it informed us that it could not predict what the weather would be on Sunday, and showed us a graphic displaying the local weather forecast for the next five days. Android told us that we wouldn't need an umbrella on Sunday, and also produced a five-day forecast. Winner: Android Jelly Bean Question 3: "Show Me Pictures of Mount Rushmore" Android automatically brought up a small grid of images, while Siri asked if we wanted to perform a Web search. Siri finally showed us what we had asked for, but it required an extra step. Winner: Android Jelly Bean Question 4: "Where Can I Get a Taco Around Here?" Siri, which pulls its results from Yelp, brought up 20 restaurants in the area that had tacos on the menu. Android presented a map of places that served tacos, but only one establishment was nearby; the rest were spread throughout the city. We have to hand it to Siri on this one, due to the number of results and owing to how close they were to our approximate location. Winner: Apple Siri Question 5: "What's the Capital of Canada?" Both phones came up with an answer, but Android was faster at fetching a result. Winner: Android Jelly Bean Question 6: "Get Me Directions to the California Academy of Sciences" As with the Empire State Building question, Android immediately brought up a map with the location of the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and started opening Google Maps to give us directions. Siri found two entries for the California Academy of Sciences, and required us to select the correct entry before proceeding to give us directions. Winner: Android Jelly Bean Question 7: "How Old Is Stan Lee?" Both Siri and Android gave us an answer, but Google showed us a picture of Marvel's Stan Lee and read the answer to us. Winner: Android Jelly Bean Question 8: "Who Was the Number One Pick in the NBA Draft Last Year?" Neither Siri nor Android had an answer to this question, and both defaulted to performing a Google search instead
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28

Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News Feed

Are you tired of seeing your Facebook news feed filled with inane app and game updates, personal posts from people you haven't spoken to since high school, and generally bland content? If so, it's time to spice up your news feed to make sure that you get regular updates from people you care about, as well as news and information on topics you're interested in. You actually have a surprising number of options to improve your news feed--such as editing your friends list, adding interests, using the Like button, and hiding the stuff you hate. Priming your news feed will take a little work on your part, but if you're a Facebook fan and you want to improve your feed, here's what you need to do to take Facebook to the next level. Friend or Acquaintance? Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News Feed Facebook lets you classify your friends as close friends or acquaintances. Classifying people as acquaintances can improve your news feed, since you'll lose the annoying daily updates from people you haven't spoken to in ten years. You'll still receive updates from acquaintances, but only the important ones. Facebook has an automated tool that helps you organize your friends list into close friends and acquaintances, so you don't have to go through your pals one by one. The tool automatically generates a list of friends that it thinks are your acquaintances, and asks whether you'd like to see less of them in your news feed. Although Facebook does a pretty good job of weeding out acquaintances based on the people you do and do not interact with, you should check the selections to make sure that a close friend doesn't slip through the cracks. You can run the tool as many times as you wish to keep tweaking your news feed until you run out of friends to add to your acquaintance list. Still Too Noisy Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News Feed If you're still getting unwanted updates from people after running the friend organizer tool, you can quickly get rid of them. Let's say you want to silence Frank because he posts too many game updates. Hover your mouse over Frank's offending post, and click the downward-facing arrow in the upper-right corner of the update. From the drop-down menu, select Only Important, and Frank's FarmVille updates will instantly disappear. Get Interested [Click to enlarge] Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News FeedYour Facebook profile has a feature called Interests that lets you subscribe to general categories such as photography, technology, or design. Each category contains people, fan pages, and brands on Facebook that relate to that particular interest. If you subscribe to the interest "Chefs," for example, you'll see public updates in your news feed from 25 famous chefs, such as Anthony Bourdain, Cat Cora, Jamie Oliver, and Wolfgang Puck. To spice up your news feed with Interests, go to your Interests page and click +Add Interests in the top-right corner of the center column. On the next page you can browse through popular lists created by other Facebook users. If you don't find something you like, you can make your own list by clicking +Create List in the top-right corner. Interest-list updates usually clump together as two or three updates from different people on the list at once. Blogger Robert Scoble, who has been advocating some of the methods in this article for several months, points out that Facebook Interests are a great way to get news and information from people you don't care enough about to subscribe to, but from whom you would still like a few updates every week or so. Like Stuff Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News FeedAnother way to add interesting items to your Facebook news feed is to "Like" stuff. The items you Like can include brand pages, such as that of PCWorld. If going through Facebook to find things to Like is too much work, just keep an eye out for Like buttons as you travel around the Web. The key here is to Like entire brands or websites, not just articles; doing so will add more updates you're interested in directly from a personality or brand. Start Blocking Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News Feed Not only can you add stuff to your news feed to make it better, but you can also subtract items from your news feed. The best thing to do is to eliminate specific types of updates that annoy you--for me, it's the never-ending stream of gaming updates. The easiest way to zap posts like this is to strike them down where they stand. Let's say that updates from friends playing CityVille are driving you bananas. Hover over a CityVille gaming update, and click the down-facing arrow in the top right of the status area. At the bottom of the drop-down menu that appears, select the option that says Hide all by CityVille. Top Stories or Most Recent Seven Tips for Spicing Up Your Facebook News Feed By default, Facebook shows you only what it believes are the most relevant items from friends, Interest lists, and Likes. This is Facebook's curated news feed, which is based on various factors such as your relationship to the poster and the popularity of the post. If you'd rather see the latest updates--regardless of popularity--click Sort at the top of your news feed and select Most Recent from the drop-down menu. Facebook will remember your choice the next time you return. Ticked at the Ticker? Facebook's Ticker on the far right of the screen shows you the latest updates, comments, and activity from your friends in real time. It's a perpetual stream of information that can cause social networking overload. Give yourself a break and banish the ticker in one of two ways. The first way is to go to the bottom-right corner of your news feed and click the right-facing arrow and square bracket symbol to hide the sidebar. The downside of this method is that it hides your Facebook chat window as well. Alternatively, you can adjust your chat window to cover up the annoying ticker. To do this, hover over the divider between your chat contacts and the ticker. When you see the double-edged arrow, just click and keep scrolling up until the ticker disappears.
By Friendly Computers Copyright: 2010-01-28 http://www.pcworld.com/article/258608/seven_tips_for_spicing_up_your_facebook_news_feed.html#tk.hp_fv