UGN Info Manager
UGN Info Manager
BONO is enlisting companies to donate money to the Global Fund... "Painting the Town RED" Apple among the GAP, Motorola, American Express, Giorgio Armani, Converse and many others! Here are all the links that matter... (Read More)
This week there's bad news for everyone! Phishing is getting worse. News headlines include: EarthLink helps smash phishing ring * FDIC Consumer Alert * ISPs urged to filter spam and phishing attacks * Spamhaus: Yahoo major phishing site host * PhishTank * OpenDNS * Community Anti-Phishing Site * Cybercrooks turn to home PCs... many others (Read More)
Over a week ago there was a rumor, denied by the parties involved that Wal-Mart had threatened to stop selling DVDs of movies if Apple and the movie studios completed their agreements giving Apple movies at lower costs than they got. If though theirs would be on actual media with all the extras. This past week Target made similar comments. It is going to be really interesting to see how these things play out. I personally think the companies should compete, not try to stop progress. See the full story...
I have mentioned this site in the past and just came across it again. It specializes in "abandoned" game software for Mac classic systems. Some examples of these old games are: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sim City 2000, Lemmings/Oh No! More Lemmings, Oregon Trail, Doom 2, The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge, Worms, Leisure Suit Larry 6 and Prince Of Persia See the full story...
Harmonic is a piece of software that searches a database for lyrics to music in iTunes and on the iPod. It runs in Dashboard and each song that plays in iTunes, has lyrics added to it. The lyrics are downloaded to the iPod Nano or the iPod with Video as part of the normal update process. Then to sing along, just tap the center button. Now if I just had one of those iPods to check it out. Requires Tiger and iTunes 7 (Read More)
MySync, from Mark/Space allows the synchronization of contacts, bookmarks, calendars and mail accounts between to or more Macs. This includes such features as auto detection of nodes on a local network, syncs any data type that can be synced via .Mac. Currently MySync is in public beta so use at your own risk. (Read More)
Bob Rankin's publication, Internet Tourbus has been mentioned here many times.
In his newsletter for last week, he talks extensively about MySpace. MySpace currently has only has 12% of its membership as 12 to 17 year olds. The largest increase over the past year was for adults in the 35-54 age bracket. He has several links to stories on his web site including "MySpace: Good or Evil?", "MySpace Safety Tips", "Searching in MySpace", "MySpace Layouts" and "Add Music to your Myspace Profile." Then, to take care of getting away from MySpace or keeping your kids from MySpace, he has an article called: "Cancel A MySpace Account", which includes removing a profile. Then for good measure he adds article on how to block access to MySpace from home and how schools are blocking access as well. Use this as a starting page, the other stories are more interesting and links to them are on this page.
We have mentioned a number of sites with lists of Mac applications. This one is a little different. It is aimed at the Mac "Power Users and Unix Switchers" or as the founder puts it: "This site is aimed at the power user, *nix switcher, and those that want to tweak OSX to work better for them. If you've never had more than 4 applications open at a time, you are most likely not a power user. If you regularly run more than 15 applications at a time, and keep thinking about how just one more gig of ram would make things so much smoother; this site is for you." I would say it is definitely for the geeker ones I our groups. (Read More)
Norton Confidential has been released for Macintosh to protect users from Phishing web sites. The idea is to protect users from fraudulent Web sites that are trying to steal users' identities while making a purchase, registering for a service and otherwise sharing confidential data online. Norton Confidential inspects Web sites before the interaction and looks for known threats and suspicious behavior. Symantec Probe Network reported that in detected 157,477 unique phishing messages in the first six months of 2006.
Of course, the real question after Symantec's record with its Norton Utilities on the Mac, how well does it work. Of course, they are correct in pointing out that the same phishing schemes that effect PC users also work with Mac users. So I suspect that this will be better than not having the protection, so please let me know how well it works. The software will be available this month for $49.99 which includes a year of updates. (Read More)
This seems to be Mac Classic week. Remember when WordPerfect was the office standard for IBM compatibles (both for DOS and early Windows)? Well, WordPerfect released versions for Apple II and Macintosh in those days as well as Linux, AmigaOS, Atari ST and mini computers. When Corel discontinued the Mac product, they made it available free for download. It requires Mac OS 7.5 and a PowerPC with 12 MB of RAM. It is a great alternative for older Macs to Word.
This website gives us a list of possible video conferencing applications as alternatives to iChat. Of course, some of these like Cu-See-Me are pretty old. But some of the other applications are: Collaba 5.1, Elluminate Live! 6.0, iGlasses 1.3.4, iSpQ VideoChat 7.2.1, Marratech 6.0.1, and others. See the full list
Well, now I've seen it all. Maybe not. My brother forwarded this link saying "Oh my" ... So I had to check it out. Put your favorite artists and music into Pandora's box and it builds a radio station just for you -- then begins playing your favorite music. Use Ambrosia's "Wire Tap" to record it all! (See our Wire Tap review) Presto, instant MP3 collection.
What is phishing? Phishing is a fraudulent attempt, usually made through email, to steal your personal information. Who's doing something about it? The PhishTank...
Owners of Apple Computer's new 13-inch MacBook notebooks, whose systems are plagued by a number of problems, are organizing a class action lawsuit. Here are the major headline newsbytes ...
Hackers Stepping Up Pace of Microsoft Exploits -- the Software Maker Responds With an Unusually High Number of Security Fixes
What is the intelligent house like? Conjure some ideas on what the house of the future will be like...
Any PDA With Wi-Fi Can Remotely Control Free Kenbushi v6.2 Media Center Lava Software is now shipping Kenbushi v6.2, a fast and efficient file sharing, data backup and remote media player product. (Read More)
Use the Merlin XU870 ExpressCard modem with a MacBook Pro - First Macintosh support for wireless HSDPA ExpressCard modem available (Read More)
Ergonis Software and Take Control Books today announced a special offer that gives Macintosh users buying a copy of PopChar X 3.0 a 30% discount off Sharon Zardetto Aker's "Take Control of Fonts in Mac OS X" See the full story...
Following up on our October 2 InfoManager, a reader writes:
Just FYI, the Apple Mac energy use calculator does not calculate the savings between shutting down the computer and putting it to sleep, but between leaving it on and putting it to sleep. Here's what the web page on Apple's site says:
Your computer's energy consumption has a noticeable impact on your electricity bill. Our interactive calculator shows how much money you can save each year by using the Energy Saver feature on your Mac. Note that all calculations are approximate and based on computer use during active-on and sleep modes. See the previous article
"One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards."
- Oscar Wilde
"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
"Try and fail, but don't fail to try."
- Stephen Kaggwa
"We're so busy watching out for what's just ahead of us that we don't take time to enjoy where we are."
- Calvin & Hobbes (Wish they were still around.)
Have a great week... (See last week)
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