Saturday, July 17, 2010

Steve Jobs Offers Free Case and/or Bumper AND new IOS 4.0.1 OR full refund

Steve Jobs avows to take care of everone...... Video. Also - new IOS 4.0.1 to fix bug in signal strength algorithm.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Time to Trash That Old Pentium 4

I'll admit to still having Pentium 4 machines around the house. One is my original Windows Home Server. Others still run at charities I support.

Tom's Hardware did a head to head between Pentium 4 and the new Intel dual-core Atom 510. The short answer to the question "How's my P4 doing?" is to seriously look at putting that old silicon out of its misery for anything but light computing duties.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Consumer Reports: Bumpers fix iPhone 4 reception issue

The Bumper solves the signal-strength problem. So does a piece of duct tape, as we reported earlier, or just being careful how you hold the phone. But these options all put the onus on consumers to solve or pay for a fix

Mozilla yanks password-stealing Firefox add-on

"It was discovered that this add-on contains code that intercepts login data submitted to any website, and sends this data to a remote location," Mozilla confirmed. "Anybody who has installed this add-on should change their passwords as soon as possible

Class-action Suit Against Apple and AT&T gets Green Light

The lawsuit reportedly merges several suits filed by iPhone buyers starting in late 2007 and seeks an injunction to keep Apple from selling "locked" iPhones, which can be used on the AT&T mobile network only, in the United States. It also seeks to prevent Apple from maintaining its authority to dictate what iPhone programs users can and can't install on their devices.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Apple faces backlash over latest iPhone

Consumer Reports, the non-profit magazine, on Monday published a review online that stated it had tested three iPhone 4s in controlled settings and found that touching the lower left corner “can significantly degrade” the signal, causing dropped calls.

Windows XP gets yet another reprieve from Microsoft

Originally, downgrade rights — the sanctioned ability of Windows volume buyers to apply their new Windows licenses to older versions of the product — were due to expire around 2011 for Windows XP. But on July 12, the Softies gave XP yet another reprieve.
Users who purchase new PCs installed with Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate will now be able to downgrade to XP up until January 15, 2015 (for Windows 7 Professional) or January of 2020 (for Windows 7 Ultimate>

Sunday, July 11, 2010

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 07-11-10

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 07-11-10. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific that's 1PM to 4PM Eastern. Join us for the live show and chat. If you prefer, you can download the same MP3 file here via ftp.

Remember this coming Tuesday is Windows update day, do your updates!
AlaskaJoe

Earl's Cyber Steals and Deals

33% OFF Borders coupon: 33% off one item for members, online or in-store
For Borders Rewards members only, Borders cuts 33% off the regular price of one item via coupon code "BAB7973E". Shipping starts at $2.98 or get free shipping on orders of $25 or more. ends July 12.

Borders has launched their eBook store, and with it they are offering over 1 million free ebooks!

Zonet ZEW1605 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter WIRELESS G 54MBPS PCI CARD PCI - 54Mbps
$0 w. Rebate and $2 shipping Free after Rebate and $2 to ship

Save 30% on High Definition Dell Monitors. Get the 24-inch Dell ST2410 Full HD Widescreen Monitor for $260 - 30% coupon = $182. The ST2410 features 1920 x 1080 resolution, 50,000:1 contrast ratio, 5ms response time, and 0.277mm Pixel Pitch. Inputs include HDMI, DVI-D, HDCP and VGA. The smaller but otherwise similar 23-inch Dell ST2310 Monitor is $230 - 30% coupon = $161. The DVI and HDMI inputs support HDCP allowing these monitors to display signals from high resolution video sources like digital set top boxes and Blu-ray players. Use Coupon Code: BWMHLGDHF9CP3R at checkout. Offer expires July 28 at 7 am

Dell Inspiron 570 Desktop with 18.5" Dell HD Monitor is $614 - $24 discount - 20% coupon = $472. Processor: AMD Athlon™ II X4 Processor 630 (2.8GHz, 2M, 4C) Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English Memory: 3GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM2 at 1066MHz Hard Drive: 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache


15.6" Toshiba Satellite L500D-ST2543 base laptop $399.00
from Toshiba Direct
Get the 15.6" Toshiba Satellite L500D-ST2543 base laptop $499 - $100.00 = $399.00 from Toshiba Direct. It includes: AMD Athlon™ II Dual-Core Processor M320, Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 3GB memory, 250GB hard drive, ATI® Integrated Graphics, DVD SuperMulti drive, 15.6" 1366x768 native screen resolution.

GoHardDrive.com has the Avolusion SATA to IDE Hard Drive Adapter for $4 with free shipping. Compliant with serial ATA specification, supports up to 2TB 3.5" SATA hard drives, and features JMicro JM20330 chipset

Newegg has the EVGA 512-P3-1213-LR GeForce 210 512MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card and OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply $70 - $25 rebate [Exp 7/31] - $20 rebate [Exp 7/15] + $6 shipping = $31 shipped

Apple Store has the refurbished Mac Mini 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 160GB Desktop (MC238LL/A - fall 2009 version) for $499 with free shipping. 2GB RAM (up to 4GB), 160GB SATA, SuperDrive, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi 802.11n, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Lenovo has the Lenovo G555 - 087326U 15.6" Notebook for $599 - 15% off with coupon code USPLENOVO708 [Exp 7/14] = $509 with free shipping.AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core M320 2.10GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD ATI Mobile Radeon HD4200 512MB, DVD-R/RW DL, 802.11b/g/n, Win 7 HP x64

Dell has the Mitsubishi 73" WD-73C9 DLP 1080p HDTV for $1699 - $500 off with coupon code STCLMMJ3Q$BXVM [Exp 7/11] = $1199 with free shipping. Features ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuners, 120Hz, and three HDMI inputs. Use this to block that pesky living room window, and never see daylight again

Newegg has the Samsung EcoGreen F2 HD103SI 1TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive for $70 - $15 off with coupon code HD7915 [Exp 7/11] = $55 with free shipping.

MWave has the Hitachi HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive (Bare Drive) for $40 + $0 shipping = $40 shipped with free "M" Club membership

Links from the Gregg Zone

1) With the obvious direction we need to move in concerning getting off of oil there are so many interesting articles out there it is a little overwhelming at times. This one grabbed me; imagine 1,500 miles on a single gallon of gas. That is what a team in Ottawa achieved in a contest for most miles per gallon. The catch they came in second because as they put it they had an enormous gas leak. What gives me hope with this kind of research is we will need to use gas for at best another ten years; it is encouraging to think we may get the mileage high enough to make the transition easier. http://www.ottawacitizen.com

2) I rarely use links involving doomsday projections, but this one just seemed to be needed. It is a very current article talking about just how bad the gulf oil situation may turn out. I have heard and read several stories on the net speculating along these lines. But, this one just sort of put into perspective how bad it could be. I guess I will just have to hope it is not going to turn out that way, but the idea that there is a precedent for this type of event I have been hearing about is scary enough. http://www.americanpendulum.com

3) Hope I am not stealing a little thunder from our newest show segment here, heck they may have beat me to the punch already. Anyway this is an article about a phone app the people at MIT have come up with that may bring a major medical boost to third world countries. They have come up with a simple device that clips onto the screen of a cell phone to analyze the vision of a person in the field. We seem to be getting a little closer to Star Trek technology every day. http://web.mit.edu/

4) If you think it is just cars that are moving into greener technology pastures this might make you think a little different. A electric bicycle company has new product prototype they are in process of trying out, a hydrogen powered bicycle. Looks to be a while before they can get it into production, but nice to know it may be in our future. Maybe next a Mr. Fusion bicycle running on banana peels, and old sandwiches like in Back to the Future. http://asia.cnet.com

5) I think this is a first a crossover geek link and a medical link. Just thought it was interesting that a computer game could save a child’s eyesight. Although it sort of makes sense, I have a feeling this will not be the last story we see about this treatment. Kind of makes me wonder if there are not more of these simple fixes out there. http://kotaku.com