The recent wave of bad Apples

Recently, we placed a call in to Apple Support and requested to speak to a senior-level support executive to discuss some issues, for which we've been noticing more and more incoming calls from Apple owners.

Below is a summary of the three most-prevalent Mac-related problems and when appropriate, the response from the very professional and knowledgeable Jonathan at Apple. It is worth mentioning that Jonathan confirmed that these issues are some of the most common calls he currently receives at Apple Support.

iPhone and data security

Recently, a client wrote asking the following:

Can someone access my iPhone's address book data through Bluetooth?  For example, if I have a sensitive ID number listed in a contact, can someone steal it off the phone?

Our reply:

You'd have to jailbreak and hack your own iPhone first to allow it to use BlueTooth technology for data transferring. It's defaulted by Apple to explicitly use BT for devices only (headsets, printers, keyboards). 

However, your data is susceptible to relatively easy theft when using public WiFi (cafes, libraries, etc). The big online banking apps, websites, Gmail and the like use secure protocols (you can tell by the https:// as opposed to http://) to prevent this.

If you keep sensitive information in your iPhone's Address Book, you should at least passcode lock your iPhone and enable Mobile Me's (free) Find My iPhone service, so you can remotely send messages, GPS locate, or brick (lock and/or erase it) in the event of loss/theft.

Extend

Xmarks is a free utility that keeps your bookmarks, passwords, and even open tabs synced across multiple computers/mobile devices. They also have a great, easy-to-use extension for all your favorite browsers.


...and while we're on the topic of browser extensions: the goo.gl URL shortener, Email this Page, and Google Voice add-ons for Chrome are all quite convenient. Find extensions for your browser here:Chrome (our recommended browser), Firefox, and Safari.

If you're wondering what an extension is, it's an easy-to-use add-on that makes your web-browsing experience more useful and functional; watch a tutorial here.

Googley-eyed back ups

There was a Gmail crash back in February, with 40,000 of their users affected (0.02%), which got us thinking: not enough people are backing up their web-based email. Google publishes a tutorial for backing up Gmail; please don't hesitate to call if you need help with this or any other web-based email providers (don’t forget to export/backup those Contacts too!). For backing up Google Docs, there are a few 3rd party applications out there, but the best all-around goes to Syncplicity, which was simple to setup, inexpensive, fast and easy to use. Finally, if you make changes to your contacts that you want to undo, you can restore your full Google contacts list to an earlier saved version.

cell phone + speaker buzz = twitchbrain

Choke Cores, available for about $3 at Radio Shack, can help cut back on that annoying buzz (EMI, or electromagnetic interference) caused by some cell phones when they are close to speakers.They are easily attached to your speaker cables (slide them right up to the back of each speaker). Some GSM-type cell phones have extremely strong signals– try two on each speaker if necessary, or move them around to different places on the wire (CDMA phones generally do not cause this buzz).

National holidays for iCal

Do you use iCal and miss national holidays? Here's an easy way to quickly import them all.

Pandora streaming?

Have an Airport Express and want to stream your Pandora music wirelessly? Check out AirFoil & PandoraJam.

A few good apps

We've been accepting all major credit cards with Square - the innovative free app/card reader from the folks behind Twitter, and it's been working great. Also addicted to classic gaming with Frogger and Atari's Greatest Hits; and (finally) the updated Google Voice app interface.

Chubby to Chiseled

I'd like to introduce to a friend of mine, Bernard Katz, who's recently received his certification as a personal trainer, and offers sessions at the Hollywood YMCA or will meet at your gym. He is an amazing, inspiring person, and an incredible trainer.  Call Bernie at Chubby to Chiseled: 323.719.2273 or email him here.

new iMac line - perfect timing

A few weeks ago the good folks at the elliptical swItchthInk blog told us about the new line of iMacs coming soon, and an Apple press release this morning confirmed that they're now shipping.


We are due for a desktop upgrade. The 4+ year-old white iMac on which this post is being composed has a GPU that's often overheating (and that's after cranking the fans with smcFanControl). The display gets all stretched out with wonky 8-bit geometrical shapes and weird gooey bends and reminds this viewer of the freakout boat scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Fun, but annoying when you're trying to work. And its audio input and output jacks are very touchy.

Ah Geek Squad... how I love you.

An undercover/hidden camera story produced by KPTV in Oregon about different computer repair shops and the honesty/integrity levels of each. Take a guess how Best Buy did. What's really surprising is what they did after this story ran.

I guess just like a Moody's or S&P rating, grades from the BBB can be bought as well.

A great guide to privacy on Facebook

Update: May 2010: Wired has a great and incredibly thorough article on Facebook privacy here.

Stop hiding everyone and use FB's privacy settings to their fullest potential. Personally, I just made a custom news-feed list and I pick and choose who's updates get displayed. But, like everything, there are a bunch of different paths to the same solution. Ars Technica did a great piece on the in's and out's of Facebook's privacy features. What's your favorite?

iPhone battery life

I wanted to know if leaving the Bluetooth setting On all the time was an extra drain on battery life, even if the BT earpiece was turned off. According to Apple, it's a small tax on the battery, but many user comments on the forums I read (and my own personal experience) was to the contrary. Regardless, this is a useful article-

"Paying attention to just a few commonsense pointers will pay off with a longer battery lifespan and battery life for your iPhone. The most important thing is to keep your iPhone out of the sun or a hot car (including the glove box). Heat will degrade your battery’s performance the most."

-From Apple's iPhone battery info page.

Turn your favorite songs into iPhone ringtones

Very easy and useful tutorial if you imported a song into iTunes from a CD and you want to use it as a ringtone for your iPhone.

iPhone tips, tricks, apps, and rants

I know this info is already out there. And I can already hear my tech-savvy friends with iPhones complaining about how this info is so 2009. But whatever, this is a blog for my not-as-savvy friends, clients, and family too...

My favorite iPhone app right now, aside from Bebot, is Dragon Dictation. It's a (free) speech-to-text app that does what it advertises- simply. Initially I had some privacy concerns, as it scans your Address Book contacts so that it can better recognize names when you speak them; it also sends information back to its HQ upon doing so. In a rare move for this blog, I'm going to link to another blog because they have great comments, and an in-depth article on this already. After a little digging (and consideration of my long history with Dragon's desktop dictation/speech-to-text software, Naturally Speaking), I feel great about using this app. It allows me to compose longer sentiments quickly without having to type on that annoying iPhone screen-keyboard.

[APPLE: GIVE ME BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD COMPATIBILITY ALREADY!
Supposedly this feature is coming in iPhone's OS 4.0 this summer, but no mention of it on Apple's page.]

I'm also a big fan of the Tie-A-Tie, Sleep Cycle, White Noise, and pUniverse apps.

Most of you probably know about shake to undo (and shake again to redo), but did you know you can double-click in the top-most menu bar (by the clock) while you're say, in Safari or scrolling through photos and iPhone will fast scroll to the top of whatever you're looking at? OK so you probably knew that too, but here's a nice MakeUseOf article that covers some iPhone tips you might not know about.

Apple grounded me for swearing too much. I just want to be able to edit my iPhone's auto-correct database... guess it's another thing to add to the list of stuff I can't wait to do with a jailbroken iPhone.

Mac laptop batteries

A nice how-to on calibrating the battery on your Mac laptop.
(iBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook, MacBook Air)

And for those more technically inclined, check out this great widget that gives you a profile of your battery life, among many other things.

[Special thanks to Chris R for the tip!]

TS2377: an Apple recall involving MacBook Pro

You should be aware of this recall if you have a MacBook Pro and are experiencing any of the following:

• Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
• Kernel panics/inability to boot
• No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on

If your MBP fits the mold, you can bring it in to any Apple store for a quick test of the graphics adapter (the part that's under recall, made by NVIDIA). If it fails the test, they will replace your logicboard free of charge, essentially providing you with a new computer CPU. This applies even if your Mac is outside of the service warranty/contract. See this document for more information.

[Sorry, non-Apple Store repair businesses are not allowed to do the test, even if they are an Authorized Apple Service Center. Of course, ComputersWTF will be glad to handle all this for you if you aren't able.]

GMail Hacking

I just learned about hacked and hijacked GMail accounts, thanks to a friendly lady named Jill who was unlucky enough to have her email account hacked on her birthday. I'm going to wonder aloud now whether purchasing a premium service for email from Google ("WTF?" I can hear you saying, "Pay for GMail???") would present one with more secure email options. As it is now, if your GMail account has been hacked and someone's sent spam from it, all you can do is change your password, then wait 24 hours (as Google limits each account to a sent-message maximum of 500 per day) to send your hack notices/apologies. Or you can use Facebook or Twitter, like this blogger did.

If your account has been hijacked, and you are locked out of it completely, you should read this and this.