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Saturday 1 August 2009

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Tech News

Update your iPhone NOW

Leo recommends connecting your iPhone to iTunes and then checking for the new iPhone update. There is an exploit in iPhone which enabled bad guys to take control of it and make calls without your knowledge. Charlie Miller (Safari Charlie), security expert who is well known for finding holes in Mac software has hacked the Mac twice. And Thursday, he found a hole in the SMS Text messaging utility. He can send a text message to the iPhone and take control of it. Miller says he told Apple about it months ago and they didn’t do anything about it until Miller announced the hole at the Black Hat hackers conference. Now there’s an update - 3.01 which repairs the hole.

Leo also says this is the beginning of an era. He predicts many more smart phone hacks/exploits. And SMS is a giant vulnerability for hacking smart phones.

FCC to investigate Apple/AT&T over Google Voice flap

The FCC has announced they are investigating Apple and AT&T for turning down the Google Voice application which Apple has turned down for the iPhone App store. The FCC wants to know if AT&T is engaging in anticompetitive behavior on this issue and so they’re asking questions. Leo both likes this and hates this. He likes the idea of the FCC watching out for consumers, but isn’t too keen on government telling a private company what it can and cannot offer.

If interested in Google Voice, go to Voice.Google.com and request an invitation.

Skype under threat

Due to a legal wrangle between eBay and Skype’s founder, eBay may have to close Skype. They spent over $3 billion, but didn’t buy the patent for the technology that Skype uses. eBay went on to fire the founder, Niklas Zennström, and now Zennström is considering pulling the license and forcing eBay to close Skype. What an EPIC FAIL on the part of eBay!

Oovoo. Gizmo. Yahoo Chat. Are all alternatives should the worst case scenario happen.

David Pogue’s Campaign against Cellphones

David Pogue claims that cellphone companies add at least 15 seconds to each voicemail in order to add more time to a user’s phone time in order to pad their coffers and drain minutes. David’s creating a “Take Back the Beep” campaign and he’ll join Leo tomorrow to talk about it.

Leo’s goin to CES

Leo’s going to the Consumer Electronics Show in January and will be doing the show from the floor (he hopes). Stay tuned for more details as they happen.

Guests

Scott Wilkinson, Ultimate AV Magazine

Scott has discovered the “most expensive speakers in the world.” They’re made by Transmission Audio in Sweden. Cost for a two channel system is a whopping TWO MILLION DOLLARS! Made from 12 7′ tall 3′ wide flat panels. High frequencies handled by ribbon transducers, which are ultra thin strips of metal suspended in a magnetic field. The current causes the ribbons to vibrate. But the low frequencies are still handled by cone drivers for woofers and subwoofers. 500 watts per channel. It comes with it’s own receiver and shipping and installation is free. And it weighs FOUR TONS! Wow.

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Hour 1

Q Gary, Santa Monica, CA - Time Warner shutting them down

Gary’s friend got a message from Time Warner Cable that a Trojan is being sent from his computer and his access will be shut off until he re-formats his computer and re-installs everything. Leo says that this is not only a good idea, but it means that TWC is taking computer security quite seriously. And it’s probably in the Terms of Service requiring him to do it should it occur. Best thing to do is follow the directive, backup your data and reformat and install.

Gary also is considering getting the Blackberry Tour. Is the visual voicemail feature a good idea? Leo says if it’s like the iPhone it’s a great idea. It downloads the voicemail directly to your handset so you can listen to them immediately. Leo loves that. Can Gary also use his GPS in his phone for logging his travels? Leo recommends BuddyWay.com. Ties into Google Maps and logs things like location, speed, and it’s free! Also, BriteKite is another great option - you can log in and tell everyone where you are. Latitude from Google tracks your every move.

Q Justin (Acoustic Doom), Hemmit, CA - Great music social networking site

Justin says that http://www.stereofame.com/ is a cool website for musicians. It’s like MySpace for musicians. You post your own music, fans listen and vote. And you get points you can use them to bid on great prizes.

Justin also wants to know if the Canon Rebel T1i is a good intro camera for shooting weddings. Leo says it’s a great camera. Eventually, you want to get a better body, but it’s great for breaking in and spending your money on what you really need to … on lenses.

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Hour 2

Q Lauria, Edmonton, Alberta CAN - Streaming media on iPhone

Lauria wants to stream Windows Media on his iPhone. Leo says you can’t that he knows of. One real gap of the iPhone is that Apple doesn’t want to support flash. It kills battery power and Apple doesn’t want to give Adobe that much power on their platform. And Windows Media Player isn’t supported either. Leo doesn’t it’s likely to happen any time soon.

Q Dave, Studio City, CA - Pop-up messages

Dave is getting a pop-up message saying that he needs a driver update and offers a service to update Windows drivers for him. Leo says this is a HUGE red flag that something unseemly is being attempted. DO NOT EVER respond to third party messages like this. They will give you malware. Updates coming from Microsoft is one thing. You need those. But updating your drivers should be done through the hardware manufacturer directly.

Q Kevin, Ashville, NC - Ubuntu

Kevin and his wife use a free open source OS called Ubuntu Linux. Leo really likes Ubuntu as it’s more reliable and robust. Nor is it proprietary. Mint is like Ubuntu, but it includes a bunch of media related applications. But what Utilities can he use for writing to his Creative Zen mp3 player? Gnomad is a good one. What’s the most Linux friendly MP3 player out there? Leo recommends using an mp3 player which shows up as a hard drive on Linux. Archos is built on Linux, so it’s good. Like the iRiver. The Sansa works as well. The chatroom says that Cowon MP3 players work as well.

Q Julie, Downey, CA - Cellphone recommendation

Julie’s contract is up and so she’s ready to move on. She has a Blackberry Pearl, which is okay. Leo likes the Blackberry Bold, but doesn’t like the Storm. It’s sluggish. Get one with a full keyboard - like the Bold.

Verizon is the best combination of coverage and customer service. Can she sync wirelessly on the iPhone? Leo says you can with iSync or iTunes and Google Calendar. Works great.

Q Eric, Pittsfield, NH - Lost all his photos

Eric’s Mac Mini crashed and he lost all his photos. Can he place a 1TB drive and connect it to a router and use it as backup? Leo says yes. That is a network attached storage (NAS) option and is a very good idea. What does Leo recommend? Leo says that getting an actual NAS is a good idea, but is pricey. It has the advantage that it’ll automatically back up your network. HP MediaSmart Home Server is a good option as well and has the addition of having media applications. But simply getting a good DLink router with USB will work just fine for a small home network. There are others. Belkin, Netgear, Linksys.

But don’t over-rely on a single network attached hard drive for backup. You should also get an off site option like Carbonite as well.

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Hour 3

Q Dale, Palmdale, CA - Automatically turning down commercials

Dale wants to know if there’s a way to automatically turn down the TV during commercials. It seems that commercials get louder during breaks. The Chat Room says it’s called Dolby Leveling Technology (aka Dolby Volume). Check out Dolby.com/Volume. The Toshiba Regza ZV650 uses it.

Dale also wants to know if he can take his old DVR and playback to get his old shows off. Leo says if it has an analog plugs, you can use the analog hole. And if it’s a Series 1 TIVO, you may be able to crack it and get the programs off the hard drive directly. Check out the DealDatabase.com for more information on what’s called Digital Extraction.

Leo wrote a book called LEO LAPORTE’S GUIDE TO TIVO which can help you through it as well.

Q Jonathan, Clearport, FL - Copying iPhoto files to hard drive

Jonathan wants to copy individual photos from iPhoto to an external hard drive. Leo says the current version stores it’s data in the photo folder in a file. But in OSX, there’s files and packages. A package folder looks like a file. R/C on the iPhoto Library and select “show package contents.” And there you go. You’ll see two folders - modified, and originals. Broken down by year and date, even event name.

Q Paul, Beach, ND - Slingbox issues

Paul can’t get his Slingbox working on his linux laptop. Leo says that Sling pretty much works with just Windows and only recently Apple. But there are Slingbox/Linux communities out there. Most recommend using WINE which will run the Windows version of Slingbox.

Paul also uses the Cradlepoint 350 EVDO router. Another option is Novaltel miFi. Which Verizon uses to perform the same thing. A pocket wireless access point using your cellphone’s 3G Data network.

QJoan, Hollywood Hills, CA - Can’t access her data

A technician “worked” on her computer. But when it was returned ot her, she realized that her computer stolen and replaced with a bad computer and can’t access her data. Her old computer ran “VDE” a DOS application run by Windows 98. Leo says that XP can run DOS from the run command. Then you can use them. Leo says you need a “full screen editor,” which will take over the computer screen and omit everything else. On the Mac, there’s WriteRoom. Wonderful distraction free writer. And if Joan is getting a new computer, GET A MAC!

Thanks to the Chatroom - there’s one called DARKROOM.

Q Chris, Seal Beach, CA - Home Theater Question

Chris was running this home theater through his computer using an ATI All in Wonder Card. But will he have to change the setup with his new HDTV? Leo says just get an HDMI Switcher and switch back and forth. But with Audio, you’ll need an AV Receiver. Onkyo makes a great one.

Q Tim, LaVerne, CA - Lost his router password

Tim lost his password to his network router. You can reset the router and it will default back to the default password and you can reset it in a few minutes.

See you tomorrow and don’t forget to backup!

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