Tech Pulse 20071018: Amazon.com DRM-free MP3s, eBay Hacked, Zune Adds Podcast Support, and more!

Lots of news including the Amazon.com DRM-free MP3 store, eBay was recently hacked leading to stolen credit card information, iPhones were unlocked then bricked then unlocked again, Zune adds podcast support, Bungie might split from Microsoft, Mac OS X Leopard is coming, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• iUnlock released: the first free, open source iPhone SIM unlock software
• But then Apple announced that iPhone hacks (including SIM unlocking) void your warranty (further reading)
• Firmware 1.1.1 turned a lot of hacked iPhones into shiny, expensive bricks
• New hacks have resurfaced for 1.1.1 - see iphoneSimFree.com (and thus the cat-and-mouse game continues...)
• In related news, Steve Jobs announced via Apple's Hot News page that native third-party applications (i.e. not merely Web-based apps) will be coming to the iPhone (and iPod touch) in due time, and a software development kit (SDK) is planned for a February 2008 release
  
• Google Docs added support for slideshow presentation documents (including the ability to import PowerPoint files)
• Zune adds podcast support
• Bungie might split from Microsoft... which could potentially mean the return of a strong Bungie presence on the Mac
  
• eBay Hacked, personal credit card and contact information of at least 1,200 users stolen
  
• Amazon.com releases its own DRM-free, multi-OS compatible MP3 music download service
• Individual track purchasing is platform-independent (i.e. Linux compatible), but so far album purchasing is only available on Windows XP, Vista, and Mac OS X
• 
  

• Apple seems to have responded to market pressure by dropping the price of iTunes Plus tracks (which are also DRM-free but come in the less ubiquitous AAC format) to 99 cents, the same price as DRM-encumbered iTunes tracks, and down from $1.29
  
• Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" is nearing release: Friday, October 26th (get $20 off for a limited time through this link!)
  

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Task Manager tricks for Windows
• What happened to my Task Manager?? If your task manager's tabs and buttons seem to have mysteriously vanished, don't worry—you probably just accidentally double-clicked somewhere in the window. This is a feature, not a bug. Double-click in a blank area of the window to restore the default view.
  
• Can I go straight to the Task Manager in Vista? Yep; the keystroke Ctrl+Shift+Esc instantly brings up the Task Manager in Windows Vista, without going to a list of options first. The same command also works for Windows XP/2000 PCs, which bypasses the option list screen if the PC is on a domain (of course, if your Windows XP or 2000 PC is not on a domain, then the command does the same thing as Ctrl+Alt+Del).

Anthony's

• On newer Macs, if you have the volume muted and then plug in headphones, the Mac will automatically unmute so you can hear through the headphones. Then if you unplug your headphones, the Mac will mute again instantly!
  

Big-O's

• On Macs with volume keys on the keyboard: Hold Shift while pressing a volume key to temporarily disable the volume-change sound effect)

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Tech Pulse 20070906: Drobo Review, iPhone Price Cuts, iPod Touch, HandBrake, and more!

A guest review of Drobo, plus tons of iPhone- and iPod-related news, details about recent Monster.com and Mobipocket server hacks, Josh offers security tips, Josh picks the multi-OS free DVD ripper HandBrake, Kyle discusses iWork and iLife 08, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• New Apple stuff:
• iPod Touch, 160 GB iPod Classic, new iPod nano with video, new colors (no more white iPods of any kind, which along with the no-longer-white iMac makes Kyle wonder if Apple will drop the white MacBook design soon)
  
• $200 iPhone price cut, which led to Steve Jobs' open letter to all iPhone customers and a $100 store credit for early purchasers
• You can now purchase iPhone ringtones via the iTunes Music Store for 99 cents—but only after you purchase the full-length song for another 99 cents first
• While it's annoying to have to pay for it twice, it's still cheaper than most ringtones for other phones, plus iTMS allows you to select the specific part of the song that you want to use as your ringtone
• iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for iPod Touch and iPhone
• Apple and Starbucks are beginning to roll out a system to allow consumers to purchase the currently-playing song in Starbucks from their iPod Touch or iPhone
• Anthony suggests that the new Starbucks system might be similar or related to the Apple-Polk iTunes Tagging system
• Follow-up on last episode's "Monster.com Hacked" story
  • From an e-mail sent to Monster users: "As you may be aware, the Monster resume database was recently the target of malicious activity that involved the illegal downloading of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for some of our job seekers with resumes posted on Monster sites. Monster responded to this specific incident by conducting a comprehensive review of internal processes and procedures, notified those job seekers that their contact records had been downloaded illegally, and shut down a rogue server that was hosting these records. The Company has determined that this incident is not the first time Monster's database has been the target of criminal activity. Due to the significant amount of uncertainty in determining which individual job seekers may have been impacted, Monster felt that it was in your best interest to take the precautionary steps of reaching out to you and all Monster job seekers regarding this issue. Monster believes illegally downloaded contact information may be used to lure job seekers into opening a "phishing" email that attempts to acquire financial information or lure job seekers into fraudulent financial transactions. This has been the case in similar attacks on other websites"
  • Apparently, no passwords were stolen in this heist, although this is not specifically stated one way or another
    
  • More related problems have cropped up since, including Monster.com servers hosting malware
• Mobipocket Account Passwords Possibly Stolen
• Mobipocket is a very popular document reader application for Palm and Windows Mobile PDAs
• From an e-mail send to Mobipocket.com customers: "We reset your password because we recently learned of an attempt to gain access to a Mobipocket server. Files containing name, account name, password, address and e-mail address for some Mobipocket customers were kept on this server. Although we have no evidence that these files were accessed, we changed your password and are notifying you out of abundance of caution."
• This is a very good reason to use unique passwords for each of your Web site accounts! Ideally, use an encrypted password database unless you're skilled enough to memorize all your passwords
• Palm OS: Strip (freeware, open-source) is an excellent encrypted password vault
• Mac OS X: you can create an encrypted disk image using Disk Utility and store passwords in a file on that disk image, or use 1Passwd (shareware, U.S. $29.95)
  
• Windows XP Professional: if you're using a secure password for your Windows account and you don't share the account with others, and if your file system is NTFS, you can encrypt a file containing passwords from the file's Properties screen (Windows Vista users must have the Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition to encrypt files)
  
• Impressive new technology: content-aware image resizing using "seam carving" technology
• stretch out or compact an image on-the-fly while preserving important parts of the photograph
• it can be used to edit people out of photographs!
  
• watch a video demonstration on YouTube
  

Special Segment

• Review of Drobo by Ken Leslie
• Drobo is a "data storage robot," basically a very intelligent, incredibly easy alternative to RAID
• Overall Ken had very positive experience; Data Robotics provided great tech support, and the Drobo product works great as long as long as you make sure to test your hard drives before initially setting it up
• (Listen to the podcast for the full review, including an explanation of what Drobo is, what it does, why it's useful, and more)
  

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Show all file extensions, even for known file types
  • Glaring security hole in Mac OS and Windows: you can give anything a custom icon, and by default "known" file types do not show their filename extensions. Example of why this is a problem: a file that appears to be an innocuous plain-text file may actually be a Trojan horse application with a custom icon
  • You can know what type of file it really is by manually enabling a feature in Mac OS X or Windows
    • Mac OS X: Click on the desktop, click on the Finder menu, click on Preferences..., click on Advanced, put a check next to "Show all file extensions"
    • Windows: Click on Start, Control Panel (or in some cases Start, Settings, Control Panel), then open the Folder Options panel, remove the check next to "Hide file extensions for known file types" (or "Hide MS-DOS file extensions for file types that are registered"), then click OK
  • Mac OS 9.2.2 and earlier doesn't necessarily use filename extensions, and instead uses four-character "type" and "creator" codes to determine what kind of file it is and how to open it. Thus, leaving a file without a filename extension (or by adding a false extension), it's even easier for malicious users to spoof file types. I'm unaware of any workaround that prevents file type spoofing in Mac OS 9.2.2 or earlier
    

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• HandBrake - Simple yet powerful DVD ripping software for Mac, Windows, and Linux, with presets for iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, etc.
• Oh, and did I mention it's free (as in both money and source code)?
• It does NOT convert files from one video format to another. iTunes can do this for some file types, but not all. If you, dear reader, know of any good video converter apps for Mac or Windows, please e-mail us at josh at techpulsepodcast dot com, or bookmark the application's homepage on del.icio.us with the tag "techpulseideas"

Kyle's

• iWork '08
• Keynote is pretty much the same
• Numbers rocks by being an attractive alternative to Excel
• Pages got some much-needed upgrades
• iLife '08
• GarageBand - seems like the wave of coolness is over for it; the new features didn't impress me
  
• iDVD - is it really needed anymore?
• iMovie - bleh... I wasn't impressed by the overhauled design and loss of certain functionality, but certain new things like the cursor-rollover previews are cool
  
• iPhoto - finally decent Web albums (requires .Mac, though - thumbs down)
• iWeb - Google AdSense and maps, Web snippet widget thingys, usable with my own domain name! (FINALLY!)
• Josh discusses the possibility of unethical people creating illegitimate Apple Web Widgets for use in phishing scams
  
• New Apple keyboard
  
• Zune!!! (just kidding)

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Tech Pulse 20070823: Monster.com Hacked, 700 MHz and Google, Open Letter to Palm, and more!

Josh talks about Monster.com user data being stolen, Google preparing to bid on the 700 MHz spectrum, Engadget's open letter to Palm: get with the times, full screen mode in QuickTime Player without 7.2 or Pro, and the Mac browser Camino!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• Monster.com Hacked through Spear Phishing, User Data Stolen
• Google May Bid on 700 MHz Spectrum
• Minimum Bid: U.S. $4.6 Billion
• "In the United States, TV stations are changing to digital broadcasting and giving up 700 MHz airwave spectrum by 2009." (source: Wikipedia)
• the frequency can travel long distances and penetrate through walls (source: Engadget)
• some speculate that it could be used for a unique version of WiMAX—basically a very long-distance alternative to Wi-Fi
  
• Wal-Mart now offers 94¢ DRM-free tracks, with many advantages over iTunes Music Store:
• 256 kbps MP3 format, which is compatible with lots more devices than iTMS's 256 kbps AAC
• 94¢ instead of $1.29
• Tracks from both EMI and Universal (so far only EMI sells DRM-free tracks on iTMS)
  
• Wal-Mart's downloads are "clean" versions of tracks (e.g. "radio edited" versions)
  
• Engadget's open letter to Palm: Get with the times already!
  

Tech Tips
Josh's

• How to get QuickTime to display movies in full-screen without QuickTime 7.2 (or buying the Pro version)
• tell application "QuickTime Player"
  present front movie scale screen
  end tell
  
  Save the above script as an application (you can do this with either Script Editor or Automator). The next time you open a video file in QuickTime Player, just run the AppleScript, and violà! Full-screen mode.

• useful for systems that can't upgrade to 7.2, or when using restricted accounts without installation privileges
  

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• Camino browser for Mac OS X
  
• uses the same engine as Firefox (Gecko)
  
• built-in ad blocking and Flash blocking options (which are two of my favorite Add-ons for Firefox anyway)
  
• built using Apple's Cocoa API rather than Carbon (i.e. it's a more modern-style Mac app under the hood)
  
• seems to be more stable than Firefox in my very limited testing (more stable, at least, than Firefox with a few third-party Add-ons installed such as Adblock and Flashblock)
  
• cons: not as extensible as Firefox, and fewer choices in Preferences
  

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Tech Pulse 20070809: Netflix Hacked, Uninterruptible Power, Sweet Firefox Add-ons, and more!

Josh talks about Apple's new iMac and other product upgrades, Netflix getting hacked, future huge-capacity notebook drives, the safety of using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), Firefox add-ons to block ads and increase Internet safety, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• Apple's Tuesday event stuff:
• New iMac, redesigned to look more like the iPhone with a glass screen, and a new, much flatter keyboard
• iLife '08 with new automatic "Events" in iPhoto, redesigned iMovie, and more
• iWork '08, now with Numbers (Apple's answer to Microsoft Excel), simpler word processing with Pages, and more
• .Mac now has 10x the storage and bandwidth (increased to 10 GB storage and 100 GB/month bandwidth)
  
• Netflix's streaming movie service (which relies on Microsoft DRM) has been hacked
• Fujitsu developing 1.2 TB notebook HDs

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Hacking Safari 3.0.3 Beta to work on Mac OS X 10.3.9
• Josh couldn't get it to work. =(
  
• Consider getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your desktop PC
• What should you plug into the battery backup outlets? (Anything that might cause data loss if power is lost unexpectedly)
  
• Desktop PC
• External hard drives, NAS
  
• Networking equipment (router, modem, and/or switch)
  
• What only needs surge protection?
• Monitor (would suck a lot of power from the UPS, and you can set up your PC to shut down automatically when UPS power is running low)
  
• Printer
• Speakers
  
• Laptop (has its own battery backup!)
  

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• Favorite Firefox Add-ons (aka extensions):
• Make the Web enjoyable
  
• Adblock
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater
• Flashblock
• Manage bookmarks across multiple computers and browsers
  
• del.icio.us buttons
• Add-ons that are useful to install and train people to use after cleaning up spyware infections:
  
• McAfee SiteAdvisor
• *FAR* from foolproof, but can be useful to identify many harmful sites
• Shows its ratings next to sites in search results
  
• Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar
• The same people who get a lot of spyware are often likely to click on phishing links as well. Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 have anti-phishing features built in, but it doesn't hurt to add another layer of protection
  

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Tech Pulse 20070802: Google Galore, Apple Profits and Patches, USB vs. FireWire, IPv6, and more!

Josh, Anthony, and Kyle chat about Apple news, Google Phone rumors, Google apps, securing VNC, multi-service IM clients, USB vs. FireWire, Intel Core 2 Quad price drops, IPv6, the annoyance of required reboots, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• Apple's earnings conference call
• $818 million net profit in Q3 2007, highest revenue in June quarter in Apple's history
• Record-breaking Mac sales; 33% year-over-year growth overall (1.76 million Macs sold in the quarter), with Mac notebook sales increasing by 42% year-over-year
• Mac business represents about 60% of quarterly revenue
• iPod sales grew 21% year-over-year, with 9.8 million iPods sold in the quarter
• 270,000 (over 1/4 million!) iPhones sold in first 30 hours
• iTunes Music Store has sold over 3 billion songs
  
• Security patches for Mac OS X, Safari, and iPhone security patches
• The great Mac Mod Challenge 2007 (4th annual!)
• Google Phone rumors via the Wall Street Journal
  

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Follow-up on the previous VNC tip: How to do it securely via SSL
• VNC is not secure by default; entering passwords and transmitting data insecurely over an open wireless network, or any untrusted network for that matter, is unsafe and can potentially leave your passwords and data exposed to hackers, identity thieves, etc.
  
• How-to for Mac OS X
  
• easy instructions can be found here
• no third-party software required; Mac OS X has SSH server and client functionality built in
  
• How-to for Windows
• SSH server software: OpenSSH via Cygwin (instructions can be found here)
  
• SSH client software: PuTTY, or PuTTYPortable (usable from a USB flash drive)
• Again, I recommend configuring your router to accept SSH connections through an IANA Unassigned port, since hackers may potentially look for open SSH ports (TCP port 22) to try to break into systems
  

Kyle's

• (Waiting for iWork '08 before doing his tip.)

Anthony's

• Things you didn't know Google could offer you
  
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets
• 1-800-GOOG-411
• Josh mentioned another phone-based service (not from Google): TellMe (1-800-555-TELL) which has news (including tech news), sports, driving directions, movie descriptions and tickets, blackjack, and more—all for free
  
• Google Notebook - make notes and Web clippings while browsing in Firefox
  
• Google SketchUp - 3D modeling/CAD-type software
• Kyle recommends avoiding Google Web Accelerator because it can cause problems with some sites (not to mention the privacy issues)

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• Adium - multi-service IM client for Mac
• There is some disagreement even within the Adium development team on how Adium should be pronounced, although it's pronounced like the word "stadium" in the videos on the official site
• Adium supports numerous services (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN/Live Chat, Google Talk, Jabber, ICQ, Gadu Gadu, and many more), is highly customizable and very Mac-like, with an intelligent Dock icon, Growl integration, and much more
  
• Trillian - multi-service IM client for Windows
• doesn't support as many IM services as Adium and Pidgin, but has a nice interface and has video support
  
• also: Pidgin (formerly known as Gaim) - for Windows and Linux, uses the same engine that powers Adium

Anthony's

• USB 2.0 vs Firewire 400 hard drives enclosures: Which one should I get? Which is faster?
• FireWire 400, according to tests—in spite of the fact that the USB 2.0 specification of 480 Mbps indicates that USB should be faster
  

• Firewire
• Faster with both read and write especially when transferring fewer, but larger files.
• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145138
• USB 2.0 and Firewire
• Best option for best of both worlds.
• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145128
• eSATA and USB 2.0
• Best option for performance
  
• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145167
• USB 2.0 and RJ-45 (Ethernet)
• Best option for multiple user access at a time
  
• http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392008
• Models listed are a wide variety of styles offered by Vantec. Each style may offer additional models to encompass each of the above connection options. For example, the Mac mini-like enclosure may also come in a model that offers FireWire, but Kyle likes the Nexstar2 enclosures, best for quality and durability as well as aesthetics
  

Kyle's

• Best deal for speedsters: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4 GHz, 2x 4 MB cache, LGA775 socket, recently priced at $289 on zipzoomfly
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 2.4 GHz, 4 MB shared cache, LGA775, recently $223 on zipzoomfly
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor, 3.0 GHz, 2x 1 MB cache, AM2 socket, recently $169 on mwave
• Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160, 1.8 GHz, 1 MB cache, LGA775, recently $96 on newegg
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor, 2.0 GHz, 2x 512 KB, AM2, recently $68 on zipzoomfly

Listener Questions
What is IPv6, and how does it differ from IPv4?

• IPv6 is the next version of the Internet Protocol, and is already supported by major operating systems
• One of the main advantages over IPv4 is the huge number of addresses IPv6 supports: an estimated 5,000 IP addresses per square micrometer of Earth's surface (far more than necessary for the foreseeable future, thus providing a lot of room for growth)
• IPv4 addresses are much shorter and much easier to memorize, so it's much more practical to use it for LANs
  
• See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6 for more information
  

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Is there any way to disable the annoying nag message in Windows XP that incessantly prompts the user to restart after installing critical updates?

• Yes, although of course it's recommended to restart since the security provided by the updates may not take full effect until after rebooting
• If you want to disable it anyway, you can try Auto Reboot Remover from IntelliAdmin or these manual instructions

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Tech Pulse 20070718: New "Mac Worm," Connect to Your PC or Mac for Free, Batch Image Resizers, TextWrangler, and more!

Josh and Big-O discuss the alleged new "Mac worm" and Mac security in general, how to remotely connect to your PC or Mac for free using VNC, batch photo resizing freeware apps for Windows and Mac, TextWrangler, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Opening Thoughts
We have a regular recording schedule for the time being! You can listen LIVE on Wednesdays* at 8 PM Pacific / 11 PM Eastern (except July 25th). Just look for us on talkshoe.com during the hours when we're recording. *UPDATE, 1 August 2007: We've decided to change our regular podcast schedule to Thursday nights instead.

Tech News

• Alleged Mac worm by Information Security Sell Out
  
• allegedly there's an unreleased exploit that has been tested in private—this is the so-called worm
  
• so far, this is no more a real threat than "Inqtana," another proof-of-concept "worm" for Mac OS X that was never in the wild
• there's no real evidence that it even exists; the original source is just a Blogger page that claims there's a new Mac worm
• even if it exists, it's allegedly based on a previous hole in Bonjour that Apple already patched, so Apple would simply have to release another security patch to fix it
  
• even though this thing isn't even in the wild, people are already suggesting ways in which you could prevent this from spreading to your computer
• If you're really paranoid, turn off AirPort when in public
• If you're really paranoid but you need to use a shared or public network, go to Apple menu, System Preferences, Sharing (then if desired, take note of your settings under the Services and Firewall tabs so you can restore them later). Uncheck everything under the Services and Firewall tabs, and under the Firewall tab make sure it says "Firewall On"
  
• See the comments on Slashdot and Ars Technica for more technical ideas (but try them at your own risk—especially if they involve changing system file ownership or permissions)
• Sony releases YouTube wannabe called Crackle
  

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Connect to your home computer from anywhere in the world for free using VNC
  
• Why pay for commercial software when you can do it for free?
  
• Software:
• UltraVNC (server and client apps for Windows)
• Vine Server (server app for Mac OS X, and a minimal version for Mac OS 9)
• Chicken of the VNC (client app for Mac OS X)
• PalmVNC (client app for Palm OS/Garnet), or .NET VNC Viewer (client app for Windows Mobile)
• Choose a custom port (for security through obscurity)
• Prevents casual would-be hackers from identifying that you have VNC running on your computer
  
• Any port listed as "Unassigned" by IANA should be okay; refer to http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers
• Choose a strong password
• Configure your software, set up port forwarding in your router, open the port in your software firewall
• Test and troubleshoot while you're at home to make sure it's working properly
  

Big-O's

• Getting magnets out of hard drives

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• Freeware batch image resizer apps - handy if you e-mail a lot of photos
  
• Resize! for Mac OS X and Mac OS Classic, by K Studio - very simple interface, works great for basic batch resizing needs
  
• works on Windows, too, but...
  
• BIMP Lite for Windows, by Cerebral Synergy - totally awesome, TONS of features
• batch convert between image formats (BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, etc.)
  
• batch resize, rotate, rename, output to FTP, and lots more
• Big-O's related pick: Paint .NET for Windows
• great replacement for Microsoft's Paint app
• free as in money and source code

Big-O's

• TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software
• freeware text editor for Mac OS X with lots of nice features
• advanced search and replace features
  
• great for HTML, XML, Perl, etc. coders because it automatically color-codes for many programming languages
  

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Tech Pulse 20070711: iPhone Nano Rumors, E3, OpenOffice.org, Quicksilver and Launchy, GeekHosting.com, and more!

Josh, Anthony, and Big-O discuss rumors about an iPhone Nano and share some E3 highlights, tech tips, and picks including OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice, Growl, Quicksilver and Launchy, and GeekHosting.com.

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News
Discuss some interesting recent news in the tech industry

• iPhone Nano rumors are discussed - when might one be released? Around the end of the year, perhaps around the holiday season?
• Highlights from the E3 electronic entertainment expo
  
• Halo 3 looks cool, but of course it's only for Xbox 360
• Nintendo is bringing back the light gun: the Wii Zapper
  

Tech Tips
Anthony's

• In Mac OS X, you can Force Quit an application from the Dock using the contextual menu
• Right-click (or Control-click) on the application in the Dock and hold the Option key, and Quit will change into Force Quit
• Josh and Big-O discuss ways to force an application to quit via the Terminal
• Use the command top to find out the process ID number of the crashing application, then use kill -9 processid
• Alternatively, killall applicationname (case sensitive, e.g. "Finder", not "finder")
  

Orien's

• iPod setup and maintenance
• Enabling disk mode for PC and Mac
• Format it on a Windows PC, then you can use it on both
  
• Improving performance
• You can defrag the iPod hard drive (not recommended by Apple)
• Alternatively, you can reformat and reload all songs
  

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• OpenOffice.org (Windows/Linux) / NeoOffice (Mac)
• free and open source Microsoft Office replacements/supplements
• support opening Microsoft Office, Microsoft Works, WordPerfect, and several other document formats
• NeoOffice can open and save documents in the new Microsoft Office 2007 file formats (e.g. ".docx")
• The OpenOffice.org team is working on their own official port for Mac OS X
  
• Big-O warns that NeoOffice is slow on all but the newest hardware
  

Anthony's

• Growl system alerts utility for Mac OS X
  
• adds visual effects to system alerts, application notifications, etc. on your Mac
  
  
• Quicksilver application launcher for Mac OS X
• quick application launcher - faster than Spotlight on Tiger
• Launchy for Windows mentioned by Josh
  
• alt+spacebar brings it up, very much like Command+spacebar to bring up Spotlight on the Mac

Orien's

• GeekHosting.com
• Host your own Web site through this service, which has lots of great features at a reasonable price

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Tech Pulse 20070703: iPhone Hands-on Review!

Anthony King (MacMod.com) and special guests Quinn McHenry (Tech-Recipes.com) and Jeff Phillips (MacTechEdu.com) share their personal experiences with the iPhone, tips about instant messaging and secret button combos, and more! Also discussed are the iPhone's unique headphone jack, the final word on Opera Mini 4 Beta vs. Safari on the iPhone... and why Josh is ticked at MySpace.

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• iPhone Supported Instant Messaging Services - courtesy of Tech-Recipes.com
• Meebo now works! AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo!, and MSN
  

Tech Pulse 20070627: Opera Mini 4 Beta vs. iPhone, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Tips

[Listen to this episode!] [Subscribe to the MP3 feed via iTunes]

Opera Mini 4 Beta launches a preemptive strike against the iPhone, but can it possibly hold a candle to the iPhone's Safari browser? Josh and Kyle also discuss anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions for Windows.

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• Opera Mini 4 beta tries to take on the iPhone—and fails, based on Josh's testing compared with the iPhone demo videos
  
• features | demo video | anti-iPhone ad (warning: really lame!)
• image quality is really low, but the browser is mostly pretty fast
  
• it's fairly glitchy on Josh's Treo 680, but it is still a beta

Tech Tips
Kyle's

• Scan with Trend Micro HouseCall before installing anything
  • You can also scan with Panda ActiveScan (removes viruses, but only tells you where spyware is so you can manually remove it) and/or X-Cleaner Micro Edition (the latter is very fast and only removes spyware)
    
• Kyle suggests that NOD32 is the best anti-virus available ($30, but he feels like he's donating rather than buying)
• NOD32 is the best at detecting unknown threats with the least false positives, according to http://www.av-comparatives.org/ (as an aside, the worst overall according to the site is Microsoft OneCare)
• AVG Free (free for personal home use) is Josh's recommendation
  
• ClamWin (free and open-source)
  
• Lacks on-access scanning
  
• Low footprint, good for people who only need an occasional scan
• ClamXav is for Mac OS X, and is based on the same ClamAV engine
  
• Products to Avoid
• McAfee products
• except VirusScan Enterprise, which is actually pretty decent in Josh's experience, but definitely stay away from the consumer/home version as it's notorious for slowing down PCs
  
• Norton anti-virus products
• same thing for Norton as McAfee: enterprise version may be good, but avoid the home edition
• Kyle mentioned that he reformats and reinstalls Windows ever couple months, and that slipstreaming comes in handy. You can learn more about slipstreaming at these sites:
  
• Wikipedia article on slipstreaming
  
• How to slipstream SP2 into a Windows XP CD
• Kyle also mentioned the Apple commercial "Security," in which the PC is bothered incessantly by Vista's built-in security notifications. You can watch it online here.
  

Josh's

• How to avoid spyware infections on your Windows PC
• Immunize your PC with SpywareBlaster and Spybot-Search & Destroy (both are freeware)
  
• Josh explains how to set up Spybot to automatically download updates and re-immunize whenever you manually open Spybot
• Josh recommends using a browser other than Internet Explorer (e.g. Firefox) and setting it as the default
• Kyle suggests that on-demand scanners may not be enough for everyone, and he recommends using real-time scanners such as AVG Anti-Spyware Pro or Microsoft's free Windows Defender
• Kyle also suggests trying Arovax AntiSpyware
• Josh also mentions that new releases of Safari 3 Beta apparently need to be downloaded manually—don't expect the beta version to auto-update!
  

Tech Pulse 20070619: OpenDNS, Booqbags, DST Patches, Levelator, and more!

[Listen to this episode!] [Subscribe to the MP3 feed via iTunes]

Tech Pulse podcaster Big-O introduces himself and talks about organizing the Mac OS X Applications folder and The Levelator, Josh talks about DST patches and AppleJack, Kyle gushes over OpenDNS and compares hard drives, and Anthony recommends Booqbags and ergonomic keyboards.

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Unofficial DST patches for Win9x/NT/2K and Mac OS 8.5-10.2.8
• Microsoft and Apple do not release patches for these older versions of their operating systems, but third party developers have come to the rescue with unofficial Daylight Saving Time patches
  

Kyle's

• OpenDNS
• Free DNS service
• alternative to your ISP's DNS
• Compatibile with Windows, Mac, Linux/UNIX, routers, mobile devices, and even gaming systems
  
• DNS forwarding for networks
  
• Faster: very large cache, servers located in many major cities (but of course the service is available worldwide, regardless)
  
• Safer: blocks phishing scams, can block adult websites, can block custom websites
  
• Smarter: shortcuts e.g. "mail" instead of mail.google.com, correcting e.g. google.cmo = google.com
• Domain/Network features: custom branding and shortcuts, stats
• Check out OpenDNS.com/start
  

Big-O's

• Organizing your Applications folder in OS X
• Apple apps and files need to stay in their default locations or Software Update may not be able to locate or update them
• You can create custom folders inside the Applications folder categories of apps (e.g. Podcasting, Chat, Browsers, etc.) and put aliases (shortcuts) of applications into those folders
• If you name the custom folders with a space at the beginning, they will show up at the top when sorted alphabetically
• You can then drag the Applications folder into the right side of the Dock, and right-click (or Control-click) on it to bring up a hierarchical menu, and quickly access your apps through your custom folders
  

Picks
Josh's

• Mac software: AppleJack
• freeware repair utility, runs from Single User Mode (hold Command-S after the boot chime)
  
• repair boot disk directory structure, disk permissions, clear OS caches and virtual memory files, etc.
  
• Windows software: Dimension 4
• freeware time sync software; great for Win2K and older, which don't have automatic time synchronization built in
• this is also handy if, like me, you have issues with Boot Camp on an Intel Mac where the time is off when switching between operating systems
  

Kyle's

• Hard drive comparison - does Western Digital's Raptor series still take the cake?

Anthony's

• Booqbags.com's newest briefcase bag, the Vyper exo
• very rugged and durable design
  
• stylish and cool look, but passable as a "professional" bag as well
• custom-designed for MacBook and MacBook Pro, but suitable for other notebooks
• laptop can be used while sitting inside an open case
  
• Ergonomic Keyboards: Key Ovation Goldtouch (recommended) and Microsoft
  

Big-O's

• The Levelator by GigaVox Media
• cross-platform, freeware
  
• automatically adjusts volume levels in WAV/AIFF files and outputs to a new file
  
• voice podcasters should definitely try this app and consider using it