Date: March 24th 2010

PC-ASSIST/MAC-ASSIST | Updates: iPhone Stuff, Latest Virus Information

iPhone Stuff | iPad | Malware | Free AV Scanners |

iPhone - Still running - longer than any previous phone!

Most of my customers, if not all, know that I have been through phone hell since May 2007. It started with a Sprint Treo and ended on Verizon with a Blackberry Storm that woke up on a Wednesday and started deleting emails, contacts and text messages. I could not make calls out as it was totally posessed. I gave up, took out the battery and realized that I had been through four phones on Verizon and 17 phones on Sprint.

That night I bought an iPhone. Well, a good number of my customers have also taken the iPhone path - so did my parents!

Accessories for the iPhone are many and vary in quality, durability and cost. I have spent $25.00 for some cases!

I got frustrated with the cost and the lack of quality and decided that I can get better quality items wholesale (I have a resale number!) and have now got in stock screen protectors, and about 45 different cases in about 15 different styles and colors. There are the rubberized types of cases, "jelly" cases and a bunch of other choices. All are for the 3G or 3Gs. For the folks who might remember the sixties, I even have tie-dyed cases! Well, they are made out of silicon rubber and look tie-dyed...there are many different colors, and some are clear and some have nice laser-etched designs.

Stay tuned for the opening of my web store with all of the accessories. If you need a case or accessory prior to the opening of the web store, please call me before you spend a ton of bucks.

Now for some other iPhone stuff....

Welcome to Appaholics Anonymous!

"My name is Scott, and I am an Appaholic."

"Hi, Scott!"

My customers and a great number of freinds and acquaintances regularly stop me to show me new apps and to see what apps I have on my phone. Some apps for the iPhone are truly great while others....

Last weekend I took a trip to LA for a birthday party. Did "someone" forget to find out that it was also the LA Marathon...and that it ended EXACTLY where I had to turn to get to the Pacific Coast Highway? Traffic.com has an app for that. Needed an exit with a gas station nearby from overconsuming coffee? iExit handles that.

If you have entered addresses into your contacts, all you have to do is touch the address and it will bring up a map that with a couple of touches on screen, allows me to get some basic directions and check traffic where I am going if there is information available for that area. Bad traffic appears as red, moderate is yellow and green is....guess...clear!

I think that I have 110 apps on my phone now. There are at least 16 apps for games - my favorite currently is Scrabble.

Chase and most major banks now offer iPhone apps to quickly access account information and pay bills, GEICO & AT&T let me pay bills right from my phone. Geocaching is fun when we are out and about and want to do some quick treaure hunting. It does not work where there is no service, so I still download lists for my off-road trips and put that into my GPS before I leave.

Some of the other apps I use nearly every day: The Weather Channel, Fandango, USA Today, AP Mobile, MyMeditation, Naturespace, and I even got an app for iBart when I was in San Francisco and needed to commute downtown via subway!

All of these are available through the iTunes store on your computer...some are too large to load over the cell's data network and require wifi or the computer for download.

If you have come across a super duper app, please let me know!

iPad?

Right now Apple is taking orders for the upcoming iPad. I am eagerly awaiting mine...after the bugs are fixed!

I see this as one of the greatest potentials for mobile/portable computing - touch screen technology, add-ons that provide a full keyboard, and the ability to update information rapidly on the top level models through Cellular 3G and WiFi.

If the bugs are few, I am probably gonna get one before the end of the year. If there are many, I can wait till next year!

Beware of the innocent looking applications advertised on Facebook, MySpace and other sites...and "Frostware"

A large number of computers have come in that belong to my client's kids.

The majority of viruses found on these computers have been added in through innocent looking ads on FaceBook and MySpace that catch the eye with things like "Cartoon Yourself", and "Tattoo Your Web" and "Tattodle".

The above named ads request that you OK the installaiton of some programs including FunWebSpace & MyWebSearch, which then introduce a number of trojans, rootkits, downloaders and some other infectious programs into the computer.

"How did it get past my security?"

At some point during the installation process a pop-up appeared asking if it was okay to install and the user clicked "yes".

Now the computer is slower than molasses uphill in the Siberian winter. And gets slower as more and more viruses get loaded in and more processing goes to the battle between the antivirus program and the infections.

At this point, adding another antivirus program will not help. It requires some serious cleaning, even after "removing" the programs through the control panel. The background workings of these viruses are still present.

DO NOT ALLOW THESE PROGRAMS TO BE INSTALLED.

Frostware and some of the other music sharing programs sound good - free music. Here's the downside: a great number of the files downloaded including music, movies and pictures can and do carry backdoor trojans that I have seen take over the computer completely. These are called "rootkits." They take over all processing of the computer and dedicate the computer to being a part of a robotic network. (You may want to look that up as a botnet.)

So for a few songs for free, the costs to repair the damage from the viruses might be ten to twenty times the cost of buying the music through a legitimate source such as the iTunes store.

Free Antivirus Scanners....JUST SAY NO!

After I have cleaned out a ton of computers, there are times when I have made second visits to the same client or the computer was brought back in.

It had stopped working well and the client had been concerned.

After analyzing many of these I have realized what has been happening: During downloads of LEGITIMATE software such as Adobe Reader, Flash, or Shockwave, there is a box that is pre-checked for a FREE Norton Secuity Scan or Mcaffee Security Scan.

Once these programs are downloaded, they WILL interfere with the standard operation of a currently installed Security package such as Kasperksy. Hackers know which programs have holes in them and which ones create holes in security software by having so many installed. Hackers regularly write routines on common web pages to see if those security flaws are present.

Reinfections of many different types of viruses have gotten in through the holes created by these "free" scans.

Remember, if you are downloading software froma site, pay CAREFUL attention to what else they might want to send to your computer. I strongly reccomend clearing the pre-checked boxes for any additional security software. And worse, these are only scanners and will not be able to clean out the infections if there are any ...

Once again, Thanks for letting me of service to everyone!

Scott

PS: So far this year, Kaspersky seems to be the hands-down winner for protecting my clients. If you are coming due on another product, give me a call so we can see if this might work better.