Java

In truth, Java should be on your watch list every week. However, over the weekend Oracle released an emergency patch addressing 50 or so vulnerabilities in Java.

Security vulnerabilities are a long standing problem for Java, but have recently been brought to the forefront with some rather public admonishments from the government as well as being blacklisted by Apple. Apple is again blacklisting Java after this most recent patch, so vulnerabilities are still present.

The important thing for users is to make sure Java is updated on your system. As you start your work week, be sure to pay attention to that little Java update notification or download the most recent release. Users can download the latest update from the Java product page.

Apple

A strange bug has cropped up in OS X. The snippet “File:///” will crash any Mac app instantly. The bug is likely to be addressed by Apple in the next OS X update, but for now avoid that little gem unless you like crashing your system.

Android

Malware writers are, if nothing else, diligent in their cause towards creating havoc for users. A new variant has been discovered which disguises itself as a helpful cleanup type app for your Android phone. Of course the app is useless and instead downloads 3 files to your device which lay in wait until you connect your phone to a PC. The files then infect the PC where it activates the system’s microphone and records audio. The audio is sent back to the malware creators.

During this time, the devious app is collecting data from your phone as well which means it could wind up attacking you from two sides, PC and phone.

As always we recommend caution when downloading apps, but more to the point avoid apps which claim to boost, enhance or clean your Android device. If you need advice on apps, contact us or ask the community on our Facebook page – don’t go it alone.

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The post Security Watchlist [February 4, 2013] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

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Dwolla

One of the more disruptive startups to come along recently is Dwolla. Their mission is to eliminate credit card fees and to a greater extent credit cards from the payment equation. We’ve kicked the tires of Dwolla for a while and can see where the benefit lies. They can clearly provide a simpler payment option for consumers while delivering more profit to merchants. Continue..Read more about Dwolla.

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Picturelife

By now most users are in some way familiar with cloud storage and computing, in fact if you’re one of our regular readers, then very familiar. Something we continue to encourage is data backup. Cloud storage is so convenient and affordable that every user should be utilizing the technology. Today we’re looking at another online storage choice, Picturelife. Continue..Read more about Picturelife.

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Virb

Are you serious about building a website for yourself? Serious enough that you’ve even considered hiring someone? If so, then there may be an alternative for those who want more than a free alternative and are willing to pay for a good look. Virb. Continue..Read more about Virb.

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Jotstack

Do you remember the days of carrying around a small notepad for taking notes? Keeping a small notepad in the car was always a popular solution for those times when something just had to be written down immediately. Now however, we have fancy smartphones and tablets which go everywhere with us. Along with those great gadgets are apps that routinely make things a bit simpler, including note-taking. An extension of those mobile apps are webapps and cloud integration. Jotstack is a webapp designed to deliver your notes to you from the cloud. Continue..Read more about Joystack.

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By now most users are in some way familiar with cloud storage and computing, in fact if you’re one of our regular readers, then very familiar. Something we continue to encourage is data backup. Cloud storage is so convenient and affordable that every user should be utilizing the technology. Today we’re looking at another online storage choice, Picturelife.

Features

Beyond storage, Picturelife acts as a browsing place to view and find pictures in an easy manner. Users can display multiple pictures on screen, view them as a single image and browse through them by album.

Picturelife’s sorting capabilities make for a decent automatic organization feature. Through date and timestamps attached to photos, Picturelife can chronologically organize the images. Along with timestamps, Picturelife makes use of GPS marked photos, if it exists, to help display your pictures across a map.

A demand from cloud storage services is syncing capabilities and Picturelife has them. Through both a computer application and mobile app, Picturelife ensures all pictures are synced across devices to your Picturelife account. Picturelife has sharing options as well which enable users to view and even exchange photos through their accounts.

Extras

Although many users don’t think about security, we do. Picturelife is storing personal, private and precious mementos when users entrust their pictures to them so it’s important to know that they will be safeguarded. Picturelife uses SSL encryption on every plan size to ensure data is kept safe. Additionally, all pictures are set to private by default which is a positive feature that some other companies don’t seem to understand.

Twitter users can benefit from integration with Picturelife and use it as their image service. The idea is again to keep all your images tied to a single unified service. Other third party uses include Foursquare, Instagram, Facebook, Smugmug and Flickr. For those with AWS storage, Picturelife has options for you as well.

Plans

Picturelife offers three plans ranging from 5GB up to 300GB. The 5GB plan is free which makes taking Picturelife for a test drive very attractive. The other plans are $7/month for 100GB or $15/month for 300GB and both have a 2 month discount if purchased as a yearly plan.

Users can also earn an extra 450MB of storage through various tasks. For example, syncing 1,000 photos will earn an account an extra 100MB of space.

Final Thoughts

Picturelife is only slightly different than other cloud storage services, but their focus on pictures gives them a leg up on presentation. The platform is built around images and thus sharing and other features are secondary concerns which is a pleasant surprise in the age of “share everything”.

There are some limitations. For instance, Linux and Windows users are simply out of luck since the Picturelife application requires Mac. That in and of itself isn’t enough to dimiss the service, but the lack of an Android app might be. The mobile offering from Picturelife is iOS only at the time of this article which is a major disappointment.

Nevertheless, Picturelife is still young and has room to grow. We’d definitely like to see an Android app in the very near future, as well as additional ways to earn free space as they become a bigger player in the cloud storage market.

If the price point stays reasonable, Picturelife could be the storage option users choose to pay for in order to keep their most important items (photos) safe while continuing to use other free services for less critical items.

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The post Cloud Storage For Your Photos – Picturelife first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Dreaming of a paperless office where all those loose receipts, bills and documents simply disappear into a digitally organized filing cabinet? Dream no longer, Neat is here to ‘Tame Your Paper Monster‘.

Neat combines software and scanning to transform cluttered paper piles into searchable, manageable digital records. The Neat solutions range from portable scanners to desktop scanners all working in conjunction with Neat software.

Neat deciphers scanned documents and determines which category the document best fits in. Whether it be receipt, business card or something else, Neat identifies the document and sorts them in the document database. Afterwards, users have clean, organized files without the huge paper mess. Neat creates searchable PDFs which makes finding specific information as easy as possible.

Of course all the information is portable, whether it be a download to a local machine or direct import to popular applications. Neat is completely focused on organizing consumer-s paper information and as a wonderful side effect is reducing the need to store paper documents as well as reproduce them. The Neat Company has perhaps one of the best early footholds for completely eliminating paper in a home environment. If you have been wondering how to get out from all that paper clutter, then Neat is worth checking out.

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The post Get Neat And De-clutter first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Fix a Mac Pink Screen

During boot up of the Mac machine, hold the following keys simultaneously until the startup sounds are finished.

Press and hold: OPTION + COMMAND + R + P

That key combination will reset hardware values for several items including the motherboard, NVRAM/PRAM and others as well as features such as Virtual Memory and Mouse Speed. When you perform this reset, make sure you wait and listen for the startup sounds before releasing the keys.

If the reset fails to eliminate the pink screen issue, then the problem is likely a faulty video card and will need to be serviced. Contact an Apple store for a formal diagnosis on the Mac’s video card.

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Firefox 9 Improvements

Javascript

Firefox has new Javascript enhancements which undoubtedly will make web browsing faster and more responsive. If you’ve ever wondered why some websites are slower than others, there’s a good chance that Javascript is the culprit. Mozilla claims the improvements can boost performance by up to 30%. While we won’t bore you with the details of how they achieved this speed increase, the main factor behind the improvements is the use of Type Interface which Mozilla blogged about back in November.

CSS

Firefox now has added support for css property font-stretch. The font-stretch property selects a normal, condensed, or extended face from a font family. The font-stretch property was dropped in CSS 2.1 and is now back in CSS 3. Without going into great detail about what the font-stretch property actually does, the support for it in Firefox basically means web developers have another option at their disposal to make websites appear as they want and have them display properly through the browser.

Firefox also has improved support for the text-overflow CSS property. Mozilla gives a nice illustration of how the text-overflow property works on their developer page. Additional support means web pages will look more appropriate and allow more freedom for developers.

For anyone not familiar with what CSS does or why it’s important, CSS is how web developers make a website look appealing. From things like text size, color and style to the way images change when a mouse hovers over them, CSS beautifies the web.

Mac OS X, Standards & Security

• There is now two finger swipe navigation along with theme integration improvements for Mac OS X Lion users.

• Like any update, Firefox has updated its standards support for previously mentioned CSS, HTML5 and MathML. Improved standards keep Mozilla on the front lines of web interaction and website display.

• As is typical with all browser updates, Mozilla fixed several security issues in this latest Firefox release. While some are listed as critical, the patches address items which aren’t viewed as safety concerns for users. Firefox is still one of, if not the safest browser available.

Final Thoughts

Most of the improvements are ‘under the hood’ type fixes to an already outstanding browser. The speed boost from the Javascript enhancements will go a long way to satisfy existing Firefox users and could lead to bringing some users back. The other improvements are part of an ongoing process to make Firefox as good as it can be and as long as Mozilla continues that pursuit, they should remain successful.

Your Thoughts

What do you make of the new improvements? Is speed a major factor for you when choosing a browser? Let us know your opinions in the comments!

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The post Firefox 9 Released With Speed Improvements first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

RescueTime is a background app that monitors your time spent in a current application, window or tab. RescueTime service helps users manage their time and focus their attention. By using reports and blocking tools, RescueTime can help direct your time more precisely for increased productivity.

Distractions are commonplace when working on the computer. RescueTime’s blocking tools can restrict access to websites for a set duration, enabling users to stay focused and productive even if they’re sent distracting emails, texts or other focus breaking item. The website blockage comes from a managed list of websites which users provide to the RescueTime tool and as such can be edited at any time.

RescueTime also provides reporting data to manage where and how time was spent. Reports can be broken down by date, week, month, year, work week, weekend or even after lunch hours. The reports provide several graphs which document websites, documents, etc. that a user has interacted with over the specified period of time. The time-sheet type view breaks down items into categories and assigns each a productivity level which can be adjusted by the user if the automatically assigned ones are inaccurate. RescueTime productivity reports are based on everything a user does, but are not set in stone. Users can manipulate time spent on items to adjust them for removal or alteration as needed.

RescueTime is a great way to see where time is spent and how much focus is placed on specific tasks.  If you’re looking to improve productivity or just get more done in a day, check out RescueTime.

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UniBar

UniBar lets you search Google direct from the address bar in Safari. The tweak automatically applies itself, so after installation launch Safari and you’ll notice the search and address bar are one item. There isn’t much more to do except try it out.  You can find UniBar through Cydia in the Big Boss repository for free.

One large note about UniBar, in order for this tweak to work you’ll need to use a jailbroken iOS device.

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What You’ll Need

We are basing this article on iTunes 10, so make sure you are running that version or newer before starting.

If you have a huge library then you’ll need an external hard drive to copy your data to. If the iTunes library is a modest one then a flash drive will likely do.

An alternative to purchasing external hardware is to setup a network connection between the two computers. The setup of such a network is beyond the scope of this article, but if you’ve already got one setup then you can move the files easily with a shared folder.

On the PC Side

Connect your external device (hard drive or flash drive) to the PC. A few items need to be checked off to ensure the library is copied in its entirety.

• Click Edit and select ‘Preferences’.
• Click the ‘Advanced’ tab.
• Check ‘Keep iTunes Media folder organized’ and ‘Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library’.
  
• Click ‘OK’.
• Click File and select ‘Library’, then ‘Organize Library’.
• Check ‘Consolidate files’.
  
• Click ‘OK’.

Now copy the iTunes folder to your external hard drive, flash drive or over your network. The iTunes folders will be in slightly different locations depending on your version of Windows.

[list type=bullet]

• 7: <username>\My Music\iTunes
• Vista: <username>\Music\iTunes
• XP: Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes

[notice type=”blue”]Note: <username> indicates your login/username on the Windows PC.[/notice]

On the Mac Side

Now connect the external device (hard drive or flash drive) to your Mac. If you have not yet saved music to your Mac through iTunes, then simply copy the iTunes folder from your external device to your Mac replacing the empty folder at /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes.

If you have already started saving music on your Mac, then you’ll need to move the music out of the /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes folder before copying the PC data over. After the transfer of data from PC to Mac is complete, simply add those files back into the iTunes library.

• Move the ‘Music’ folder which is located in the iTunes folder to another location.
• After transfer, click ‘File’ and select ‘Add File to Library’
• Navigate to where you moved the Music folder and add your Mac songs back in.

After the copy process is complete, launch iTunes. The Mac should read the data and load everything as it was.

Final Thoughts

The process can seem daunting at first, but don’t be discouraged. The process is basically copying from one system to another with a few checks and balances in between. If you store your music in a location other than the default, you’ll need to copy your music/media folder into your iTunes folder on the backup device before transferring it to the Mac.

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Your Thoughts

Did this method of transfer work for you? Is there another way you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!

The post How To Transfer iTunes From PC to Mac first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Sometimes our techs request screenshots from clients in order to better understand the messages or errors on their screen. Those images can be invaluable when diagnosing and repairing a system in a timely fashion. Time is money after all and clients appreciate the quick turnaround time on repair.

Taking a Screenshot: Windows

To capture the entire screen, press the ‘Print Screen’ key.

Note: Sometimes the print screen key is abbreviated and you may notice it combined with ‘Sys Rq’, but if you need a point of reference it is located next to the ‘Scroll Lock’ key on your keyboard.

After you press the print screen key, you’ll need to open an application in which to paste the capture. For purposes of ease, click your ‘Start’ button and open ‘Paint’ which is located under accessories.

Click Edit, then Paste or press ctrl+P.

Tip: If you want to capture only an active window, press alt + Print Screen. If you want to get more specific with the screen capture you can use the snippet tool if you’re running Windows Vista or 7.

Taking a Screenshot: Mac

To capture the entire screen, press Command+Shift+3.

To capture a specific window, press Command+Shift+4, then spacebar, then click a window.

To capture a select area, press Command+Shift+4, then drag your mouse over the area to capture.

Note: All screenshots are, by default, saved to the desktop.

Tip: If you want to save the screenshot to the clipboard, press the control key with the above key combinations.

Taking a Screenshot: Ubuntu Linux

There are a lot of flavors of linux, but for this demonstration we chose one of the most popular distros, Ubuntu.

Look under accessories and click the ‘Take Screenshot’ item. From there you can choose whether to capture the entire desktop, the current window or select area of the screen. There is also a delay timer so you can manipulate the screen just prior to taking the screenshot. Other options include showing the mouse pointer in the screenshot and adding window effects when using the current window option.

Final Thoughts

Taking a screenshot is not all that difficult and can make some tasks a lot easier. Now go take a screenshot, paste it in an email and send it off to someone! Just for practice of course.

The post How To Take A Screenshot first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.