The Anatomy of Being Hacked:

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.

– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.

Editor's comments are delimited by < >

<Remember there's another show this month: on the 31st>

During thunderstorms it's a good idea to unplug electrical equipment to prevent lightning damage.
– Surge protectors can protect sensitive equipment but not always. Sometimes the surge is so fast (short duration) that it can get past the surge protector.
– Something like a tree downing a power line can cause a surge, too.
– When power goes off, it's possible for a surge to be created. <If I recall correctly, this is more likely to happen when inductive equipment is involved, like electric motors losing power>.
– It's a good idea to unplug a landline phone, too.
– Led flashlights are handy during power outages — their batteries last quite a long time.

Windows 8 is cheaper than Windows 7 — a bit over $100, and that's for the full not the upgrade version. Paul had a chance to see a pre-release version of Win8. He said he didn't see a significant difference between it and Win7. <From what I've read, it's very different. A couple of articles here and here>

If you have Windows Vista on your machine, now may be a good time to upgrade.
– Paul said doing a direct upgrade might not be successful. Backup your data (and be sure it can be restored), then install the new Windows as if on a 'blank' drive.
– Consider buying a new computer with the latest Windows.

"You can actually do a backup even when the operating system has failed by using a Linux Ubuntu disk. You can boot Linux from a CD and then access/backup the data on the hard drive that failed to boot.

You can do your backups to a flash drive. They are becoming inexpensive. Glenn found a 32gig flash drive for $11 after rebate & tax. Be sure you can restore what you've backed up, on a different computer if possible.

Glenn looked at Fry's website and found 32bit and 64bit Windows 8 for $85. That's for the full version, not the upgrade.

Paul mentioned that the iPad Mini just came out ($329 for the 16gig model). He also saw a video promoting Microsoft's Surface tablet. He said the video was poorly made and he wasn't impressed with the Surface, from what he saw of the presentation. But it does have some revolutionary features.

Paul ordered an Android tablet. Some of the things he looked for and features worth considering in any tablet…
– Multi-touch — can sense multiple fingers on the screen.
– Adequate size. You have to decide what's good for you. 7.5" or 8" is typical now.
– Wi-fi (3G not especially desirable)
– GPS chip, The one he bought doesn't have one but there is some kind of an adapter available, so he can add that later.
– An accelerometer. You can then control things in the apps by moving the tablet around.
– Blue Tooth is not vital to him.
– An SD slot is desirable. The iPad & iPad Mini don't have an external slot for memory.

Glenn almost bought a Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2 10.1" for $550. It included 16gig memory with an additional 16gig SD card. He had hoped it would come with a HDMI port (though he's never needed one) and a USB slot, but it didn't have either.

Overall, Glenn was not impressed with the Galaxy Tablet. The user interface seemed foreign and counter-intuitive. He couldn't find any built-in GPS software so he had to get an app, but it wasn't adequate. It would show his location but wouldn't give directions on how to get from point A to point B. He didn't try the Google Maps service. He decided to go for an iPad. An Apple-refurbished generation 3 iPad goes for $479.

Paul mentioned the Tom Tom GPS software he got for $39. All of the map data resides on the phone so he doesn't have to be online to use it. <More about Tom Tom in the notes for the 5-9-12 & 12-28-11 shows>. You can get Tom Tom Navigator for some Android devices, and they don't have to necessarily have GPS.

Your experience with Android can vary from one brand to another. Each manufacturer customizes it — called skinning. Android "appears in different ways on different platforms and it's not capable of all things everywhere". The Apple experience has always been more unified, for better or worse.

Paul talked about the 2 screen technologies for sensing touch — resistive vs. capacitive. Paul likes the capacitive touch better because he doesn't have to push as hard on the screen to get a response — especially important when typing in text. <More about touch screens here>

Comparing the Galaxy 2 with the iPad 3, Glenn liked the touch on the Galaxy better, it was more responsive. The iPad had a slight advantage when using a capacitive stylus. Glenn bought the stylus at $5 for a 2-pack.

Apple has a new dock called the Lightning connector. It's smaller & has fewer pins. But Apple put a proprietary chip in the cable for the connector, and sells the cable for $49. It wasn't long before the Chinese cloned the chip. How well the clone works, Paul doesn't know. Apple tends to issue software updates that defeat 3rd party addons <so you're taking a chance with clone cables>.

James called about a problem with a Belkin router. His iPhone 3 doesn't connect to it and his laptop often gets a notification that he has lost his internet connection. If he uses a cable connection, it's fine.
– "Make sure that nobody else is transmitting." James lives on 160 acres so there's no one else around.
– Check the router settings so as not to use WEP encryption. Use WPA instead and change your password, too. Also, Some Apple products don't like WEP.
– On the iPhone, tell it to forget the Belkin network and have it make a fresh connection. Go into settings and there is a right-pointing arrow beside the name of your network, one of the choices is 'forget this network'. Forgetting a network is a good general remedy for wireless problems because wrong information sometimes gets stored and it's best to start fresh to reestablish a connection.
– Forgetting a connection is a different process on his HP laptop. When you see 'view wireless connections', there is usually a dialog box on the left. Pick 'configure my wireless settings', go to the name of the Belkin router and say 'remove', then say 'apply' or 'ok'.
– In XP it's possible to have 20 or 30 networks listed and it may take a while for Windows to go thru the list to find the appropriate one, when you're within range of a wireless signal. In this case, you may want to remove them all, reboot and start over reestablishing network connections. <That should get rid of the ones you don't use anymore>

James also asked about backing up his iPhone to his laptop. He was told to get the iTunes software and then connect the iPhone into the computer.
– That's correct. The iPhone will then be able to synch with iCloud. "To insure you have a backup, on the left you'll see the name of your iPhone"…"When you bring up iTunes, on the left side will be a list of your music and library and playlists. When you plug the phone in and it's properly synching, the name of your iPhone will appear and you right click on it and go 'backup now'". Note, text messages will not be backed up.

Glenn thanked people who've become KVMR members. Apparently the goal was not quite met so please consider becoming a member.

The Nevada City hackathon is to take place on Sat December 1 from 8am till 'late' and also on Sun Dec 2 at 107 Sacramento Street (which is the Sierra Commons). There is also a meetup.com group; look for 'nevada city hackers'. Also check sierracommons.org.

Ellen called. She asked Glenn if he had a chance to try out the "continuous ink supply system" in a printer.
– This system replaces the relatively small ink cartridges with large reserve tanks. It's used by those who have a lot to print.
– He got it to work with the black ink but picture quality is way off with the colored ink.
– Paul uses online printing services for photo printing — Flickr, CSV or Picasa.

Kelly called. He's a realtor has trouble reading MLS data on his smartphone. He doesn't want to spend $500 for an iPad and wanted a cheaper alternative. MLS data is something you normally view in a web browser.
– Paul wondered if the MLS service has an app for his phone. Apps tend to present the information in a way more suitable for a small screen.
– Glenn thought there might be an alternative MLS web address that's dedicated for mobile devices (small screens).
– Zillow is an application that handles real estate listings from across the country. It's "based on realtor.com".
– Samsung will be making a ChromeBook — a 12" device like a laptop for $250.
<An article about ChromeBooks here>

Fritz called. He just got a new computer running XP and is using a dialup connection. He now gets error 691 saying his username/password doesn't match or the protocol for the server doesn't match. Also, he's not getting replies from the internet provider to the emails he's sent them.
– Call the provider — Cwnet in his case.
– That error message jogged Paul's memory and he recalls having to turn off "windows domain".
– You may have to turn off all methods of authentication except PPP. Your username/password may be correct but the authentication method being used may be wrong.
– Do a google search with the words: dialup error 691.
– Glenn suggested a google search with the words: error 691 xp.
– If you're not getting a response from Cwnet, consider getting a different provider.

Paul reminded listeners that the new Macs no longer come with a modem nor do they support dialup, even with an external modem.

Rocky called. He asked if there are any apps for smartphones to assist dyslexic people.
– Dragon Dictate will convert text to speech. It's free for the iPhone and possibly for the Android. <Talked about in the 8-9-2010 show>
– Some Google apps allow you to speak your search rather than typing. Glenn often uses an app like that.
– iPhone 4S or later has Siri — a virtual assistant that acts on voice commands.

Rocky said he didn't want to buy from a company that employs "slave labor".
– Foxconn, maker of Apple products, also makes products for other companies so it's hard to avoid buying anything not made, in part, by them or other manufactures with questionable labor practices.

Last updated 9:22 PM 10/25/2012
Changes:
added link – article about iPad Mini
added link – article about Microsoft's Surface tablet
added link – CNET review of the Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2 10.1"
added links – Flickr, CSV & Picasa photo printing services
added link – article about ChromeBooks
added link – previous show notes about Dragon Dictate
added link – Siri Wikipedia article
corrected – minor typos

Scamming banner ads and bogus PC tools and antivirus: BUSTED

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.

Editor's comments are delimited by < >

<Remember there are 2 more shows this month : on the 24th & 31st>

Paul spent some time covering topics he didn't get to on the previous show.

He reminded listeners of the program to test flash drives called H2testw.

He noted flash drives keep getting cheaper — 32gigs for under $12 — making them a good option for backing up most of the stuff you have on your hard drive.

With Vista or Windows 7, if you want to know what it would take to replicate your machine such that it could be restored elsewhere, go to the C: drive and find the folder called 'Users'. Right-click on it and left-click on Properties. "If your data under the folder Users on Windows 7 or Windows Vista says it's less than about 30gig, one of these $10 or $12 flash drives will, essentially, back that up". Backing up the Users folder "will allow you to recreate, on a different machine, everything that makes your machine what it is".

If you use XP, the folder you want to look at is "Documents and Settings". If you back that up, you'll back up more than you need. On his XP computer, Paul uses the software Cobian Backup. It will back up that folder for you, and it can be set to skip some of the unnecessary stuff.

These tips don't apply to the application programs, only the data. The programs themselves will have to be installed from scratch, on the new machine. If you have a program with a license for use on only one machine, you may have to check with the vendor — it may have to be decommissioned on one machine and recommissioned on the new one.

Paul said you can get a "hard drive equivalent flash drive", like a SATA drive. They allow for faster booting but are less reliable than the traditional hard drive (with the spinning platters). They have a limit on the number of times you can write to them, and when they fail, they fail catastrophically — making data recovery impossible.

He said Windows 7 requires only about 15gig, so you can use a 32gig flash drive to install Win7. However, the "flash drive it has to be arranged mechanically in such a way that it looks like a hard drive". "If you try booting from a flash drive in a USB socket, strange things happen". <He gave no further details>

Glenn went on the net and found an OCZ Agility 4 512gig SATA flash drive for $280 at buy.com.

Another topic left out of the last show was a long range, inexpensive wireless link. You need 2 at about $90 each. The one Mikail found is the Pico Station 2 by Streakwave. It transmits at 1 watt of power — a normal in-home wireless transmits at about 20 miliwatts, which is good for about 100 feet. The 1 watt of power is good for about 1000 feet, and that's without a directional antenna.

The last item in the previous show is Whats App for Android, iPhone & Blackberry. It's like an instant messenger that lets you send audio files, pictures, text and your location. It also has guarantied delivery — it lets you know when the item you're sending has reached the recipient. It requires a wi-fi connection, but then of course, you won't be charged on your data plan.

Marsdon <maybe Marston> called. He has an Apple computer and wanted to know how to find and delete the cookies on his machine. He use both the Safari & Firefox browsers.
– In Safari go to preferences -> privacy -> details. There you can remove cookies, cache and other things. Paul didn't think you can select the individual sites whose cookies to delete, which Marsdon seemed to want to do. Glenn said you can do that with Firefox. And, in Firefox, you can select the sites from which to accept cookies — turn on the "ask me about cookies" option.
– Cookies facilitate a website in remembering some of your preferences so when you revisit it, you don't have to reselect various options. When you delete cookies, a website will send you new ones the next time you go there.

Marsdon was concerned about Google knowing what he's searched for and feeding him related ads. Paul thought there's more involved than just cookies. If a site uses Google Adsense, Google can tell you've been there, even if you don't have a Google account.
<An article about Google's tracking is here.>

Marsdon said he's been using DuckDuckGo to do his searching, in order to avoid Google's tracking. <It was mentioned on the last show>

Some of the current browsers have a 'do not track' option, but it's a voluntary protocol. You can request that websites don't track you but they aren't required to comply. Paul said he's tried it and it didn't seem to make any difference. To enable it in Firefox go to tools -> options -> privacy.

Anonymizing services do provide a degree of anonymity but your provider (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) still knows who you are, because your connection is routed through their servers. And, because the traffic is encrypted, you draw some attention to yourself. There's something to be said for behaving like everyone else on the net, you blend into the background when you're not doing anything unusual.
<Examples of anonymizers are Anonymizer.com and GhostSurf (google GhostSurf for even more links). Disclaimer: I'm not recommending either of these.>
<Tips on becoming anonymous here.>

Paul mentioned there about 5 popular browsers:
– Internet Explorer, which he's not fond of.
– Firefox, which he likes because it's familiar to him.
– Safari, which is included in the iTunes download.
– Opera, which Glenn uses along with Chrome & Firefox.
<I think he was going to include Chrome in the list, too>

Paul said each browser keeps it's own set of cookies. If, for instance, you have 2 Gmail accounts, you can have both opened in separate browsers — something difficult to do using only one browser.

Paul went on to say that Yahoo (followed by Hotmail) email accounts have been broken into at an alarming rate. He suspects the service itself has been compromised rather than each account being cracked. He knows people with very strong passwords, and their accounts have been hijacked. He suspects it's an 'inside' job, i.e. disgruntled employees.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions that are expressed here on this show, and others probably, are those of these speakers only and don't necessarily represent those of the station itself, its board, management, staff or people who contribute.

Ellen called. She's a member of Catalog Choice, which lets you automatically opt out of receiving printed catalogs after you buy something online. She uses the Firefox browser and Catalog Choice installed a button, which only works when she goes to her brokerage site <apparently not when it's actually supposed to>.
– In Firefox, go to tools -> addons -> extensions & uninstall it from there.
– Glenn suggested going to the government website that lets you opt out of mail advertising, He couldn't remember the web address.
– There is also a government site to opt out of telemarketing calls. If you opt out and the calls keep coming, you can sue for a monetary penalty.
– There is a scam-baiting site called 419eater.com.
<The government Do Not Call Registry is here.>
<A do-not-mail registry here And its FAQ is here.>

Ralph called. He recently installed a plugin in Firefox that gives him a 'do not track' option and he likes it. It tells him who's tracking him at each website.
– Paul said Firefox also has a private browsing option. It lets you use a private browsing session where no cookies are accepted or sent back. It leaves no history, puts nothing in the cache and doesn't administer cookies. To initiate it, go to tools -> start private browsing.

Ralph also asked about getting Youtube videos to preload before being viewed, because his internet connection is a bit too slow to view them in real-time. The tool he was using before no longer works.
– Youtube videos are supposed to preload anyway. If you start the video and hit pause it should continue loading in the background.
– You can use Download Helper, an addon for Firefox. It will allow you to download the video. Then use Videolan (vlc) to play the .flv flash video file you just downloaded. Videolan plays many other video and audio formats.
– Download Helper and Videolan are available for the Mac, too.
<DownloadHelper is mentioned and a link provided in the 7/25/12 shownotes.>

Scott called. He wondered if the guys prefer Firefox over Safari.
– Yes, but not because there's anything wrong with Safari, they're just more familiar with Firefox and it's ubiquitous.
– If you're familiar with Safari continue using it.

Max called. He too recommends Firefox because it customizable.

<At this point the KVMR audio stream stopped and I missed the rest of the show. There were only a couple of minutes left>

Last updated 9:42 PM 10/15/2012
Changes:
added link – article about Google's tracking
added link – Examples of anonymizers
added link – Tips on becoming anonymous
added reference to – DownloadHelper
added link – Do Not Call Registry
added link – do-not-mail registry

Test FLASH memory under PC

Long-range inexpensive Wireless Link under $90 each end! Thanks, Mikail!
http://www.streakwave.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=Pico2HP

Multi Platform Communiction Utility Whats App (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, etc…)

IOS 6 for iPhones. Got Older iPhone like 2G? Hope Not lost! Use WHITEDOOR
pre built unlocked firware with modificaions to provide iCloud, Etc.

Additional notes

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.

Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Both of the guys have now upgraded their iPhones to IOS6 and Glenn noticed he had trouble searching the email on his iPhone. Apparently it doesn't search in the body of the emails but only in the from:, to: and subject: fields. However, when he used his computer to go to his Google email, he was able to find the email he was looking for. Paul thought that was because Glenn is using the IMAP protocol on his iPhone, the body of the email is not on the phone itself. Glenn said he searched using the email app itself and chose the search 'All' option. Though there is an option to search 'All', Paul thought it meant 'ALL of the above fields' — from: to: subject: — rather than everything in email.

Glenn also had a problem with the Passbook feature on his iPhone. This is where you can keep your boarding pass, tickets, store cards, coupons, etc. Paul said there is a bug with it. The person who wrote the app thought the data should be "configured for next year. You had to muck around with the calendar to make it work".

Jim called. He has an iPhone 4 and he loves DuckDuckGo as a search engine. And they don't track you or sell information about you. It's a free cell phone app. <Looks like it works from a browser, too>

Paul talked about the first version of the iPhone — the 2G. It can't run an operating system later than version 3.13. Now you can jailbreak and unlock the phone. If you download free firmware called Whited00r you can get a new lease on life. It allows you to use iCloud and it has other features found on newer operating systems.

Brian called. He has a Nexus 7 <I think that's what he said> and he uses the voice recognition to talk to "Google", but he has trouble being understood because of his English accent.
– There have also been similar complaints about Siri on the iPhone.
– You can try the voice recognition software Dragon Naturally Speaking 11.5 — for the computer, not a cell phone. It learns and adapts to the way you speak.
– There is also a Dragon Naturally Speaking app, at least for the iPhone, and it's free. It doesn't use the phone to do the processing but sends your voice to servers on the net, which then return the text to the phone.

Rick called. His Dell laptop finally died and he can no longer run Outlook. He bought a used laptop with Windows 7 but the Microsoft package on it didn't include Outlook and he was quoted $200 for Outlook.
– Microsoft Office as old as 2003 can be installed in Win7. Various versions of Office show up on Ebay and you can transfer the ownership of the license.
– Get the education version <student version> at Staples for maybe $100. Make sure it has Outlook — some don't.
– Glenn asked if Open Office has something similar to Outlook but Paul said no. It has something similar but can't use Outlook's data file.
– Look for Microsoft Office on Ebay.
– In the past, Outlook was sold on a separate disk.

Rick asked if he can export the emails from his old Outlook.
– It depends on whether the data can be retrieved from the hard drive.
– Rick said he has the data backed up, so Paul said look for the file outlook.pst. You can then use Thunderbird to extract the emails. It can also extract some parts of the contacts list, but not schedules & appointments. However, Thunderbird expects to find the .pst file where Outlook normally keeps it, so it's a good idea to get Outlook running on the new machine first.

Rick wondered about Microsoft Live Mail but Glenn said don't bother, it only gives you an email address at Outlook.com <formerly Hotmail>. Paul added, the latest version of Microsoft Office lets you subscribe, on a monthly basis, to some of its features for online use. Glenn thinks that's going to be costly for the average home user.

Paul said there's an open-source program called Evolution that's supposed to extract data from an Outlook file. Google with the words: evolution outlook import

Paul never liked Outlook because it's buggy & clumsy. Cosmetically, it looked good at first. Nevertheless, there are reasons to use it.
– It's used in the corporate environment.
– It allows PC users with an iPhone or an iPad to synchronize their data. But these devices now synch over the net. And now, there's no reason for PC users to use Outlook because "you can get to it online" if you use an iCloud account you can get, essentially, the same features.

Paul said flash drives have become inexpensive. He's found a 16gig flash drive for $10 after rebate. But when they go bad it's catastrophic and unpredictable.

He's found a free utility that runs under Windows called H2testw and tests flash drives. In addition to testing it also checks the speed of data transfer, which is important if you play movies from a flash drive — smoothness of playback depends on transfer speed. See the above link.

He also said that he's seen some flash drives advertised as having 8gigs when they only had 2gigs and they lost all of their data if you tried to store more than the 2gigs.

A short Youtube excerpt from a South Korean music star was played. The name of the group is Psy. The video has had 285 million viewers.

Richard called. He's considering the new iPhone and is concerned the map application that comes with the new IOS6 operating system is inadequate.
– Google maps is no longer supported on the new iPhone, and Apple is trying to hire the map specialists from Google to develop its own product.
– Use the Safari browser and go to maps.google.com. Though not exactly the same experience, it's somewhat similar.
– Glenn doesn't think that the poor Apple maps is a good reason not to get the iPhone 5 because Apple will eventually develop a satisfactory substitute.
– Paul's heard rumors that a Google app will be avail in the applications store <iTunes, I guess>.

Richard asked if a traffic feature will come with the new <Apple> maps.
– Paul has Tom Tom USA for $39 + subscription. <mentioned on a previous show> He speculated that if traffic will be available from Apple, it will be a subscription service, too.
– Paul then tried to bring up Apple maps to see if traffic is included and found it is.
<Here are a couple of related articles…
Google Working on Maps for iPhone, iPad
iOS 6's Apple Maps: Yes, it's that bad>

Jordon called. He has a desktop PC that's about 3 years old and its hard drive went out. He asked for a recommendation to a service that will retrieve his data.
– The guys said they can give a suggestion but only off air.
– It's usually expensive to have data recovered — multiple thousands of dollars.
– You can try putting the drive into an external enclosure that can then be connected via a USB port to see if anything can be retrieved. If you just can't boot from the drive, the data may still be retrieved, provided the drive is not otherwise damaged.
– If the drive is damaged, avoid the temptation of repeatedly accessing the drive, because the heads may continue doing more damage to the platters and thus destroying more the data.
– Put the drive up to your ear and listen for whizzing or clicking sounds indicating a physical malfunction.
– Advanced Data Recovery in Folsom provides a data recovery service.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers only and don't represent those of KVMR, its board, management, staff or even contributors.

Barry called. He has a Mac Powerbook G417 and asked if he can upgrade the operating system to something newer than version 10.5.8
– No. That's the end of the line. It doesn't have a processor compatible with version 10.6 and beyond.
– You can at least get a more modern web broswer called tenfourfox. <mentioned on a previous show>. It can work with processors as old as the G3.

Barry had trouble getting the latest version of Flash.
– He may have to settle for the last one that will work.

John called. He has an HP laptop from circa 2006 and his USB ports died.
– What typically fails are the white plastic tabs in the socket may break or the gold contacts may get bent.
– Your laptop may have PCMCIA slot (PC card slot) and you can use a PC card to USB adapter, to give you USB ports. Check Ebay for an adapter — Paul found some in the $5 to $10 range. Google using the words: pcmcia usb
– Be gentle when inserting into USB sockets, they're fragile.

John also asked about upgrading to Windows 7.
– Paul didn't recommend that. The guys prefer XP.
– HP computers have the facility to reload XP from backup disks or you may still be able to buy an HP OEM XP disk from HP. But HP is under no obligation to sell it to you.
– If you backup your data and then reinstall XP, you may see a speed improvement.

Glenn encouraged listeners to become KVMR members.

Last updated 8:57 PM 9/26/2012

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.

Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Glenn, Paul and Mikail Graham were in the studio talking about today's product announcements by Apple

Mikail said the new iPhone 5 is thinner, lighter and faster with longer battery life — 8 hours while using high speed LTE for web browsing. He speculated you might get about 10 hours when not using LTE.

There were new iPod units too. The Nano is thinner & "more beautiful and actually very close to an iPod Touch".

The new iPod Touch is "more like an iPhone 5 than an iPhone 4" — like a cross between them. It has Siri <the voice-activated assistant> and a 720p Facetime camera. "It's got a 5 mega pixel camera equal to the old iPhone 4 and it does HD — high definition". If you don't want to pay for a contract, you can use the Touch to communicate using VOIP — using Skype. Also it has new speakers & microphone.

"These aren't available until the end of the month". The Touch & Nano will come in October. They'll start taking orders for the iPhone 5 on Friday the 14th. IOS 6 will come a week later, about Sep 26. By the time iPhone 5 starts shipping, it will have IOS 6.

Paul noted that if you get a contract with AT&T right now, you'll pay $99 for the iPhone 4S and $199 for a 16gig iPhone 5.

For those looking to upgrade from an earlier iPhone, you can get AT&T to unlock the old phone before you sell it. This will improve its resale value. It's important that the original contract owner requests the unlocking — it's much easier to accomplish than if the buyer tries to do it. An unlocked phone will no longer be tied to AT&T and can then be used with other carriers by a simple change of the SIM card. T-Mobile is making a effort to signup users with unlocked phones <I think T-Mobile may still have an unlimited data plan, as mentioned in previous shows>

Mikail said you can get $350 to $380 for an iPhone 4S in good condition, using Amazon, if it's legitimately unlocked. Normally, you'd have to wait until the contract has expired, but Mikail said he's heard of some phones being unlocked before the end of the contract.

The iPod Touch comes in 5 colors now. And, Mikail said, you can get any of these devices in red "which benefits the African AIDS program" — a portion of the profits are donated.

The dimensions of these devices are different from the previous models and require different cases. E.g. the screen is 4" screen where it used to be 3.5" — you'll get a 16:9 proportion and a 1360 X 640 image.

They have a new dock connector called "Lightning". It's an 8-pin connector that's faster and it can be inserted in either orientation. There's a $10 adapter to accommodate the users of the older connector. <Here is an NPR news story about it.>

Glenn noted that the Apple connectors have had a good history and that his cords tend to break before the connector.

Mikail said that much synching is now done using the cloud or wirelessly so the cord is used less. He said both the iPhone & iPod have the 802.11n wi-fi capability for increased speed.

Mikail said Sprint still has an uncapped data plan. AT&T & Verizon have family plans, but he's read reviews showing people end up spending more <more than the individual plan, I guess>. If you've been using an old unlimited data plan, you may want to think twice before switching to these family plans.

Mikail said he'd been using wi-fi to get his data on his jailbroken phone, so he didn't need a substantial data plan from the phone company. Paul concurred and said that wi-fi is the way to go. LTE is nice & fast but businesses, especially, will be concerned about the cost, Mikail said.

Glenn said the family plans from Verizon & AT&T have unlimited voice minutes but they get you for the data. He said there might be an advantage to these plans if you have a several devices on the contract at once. <Do your homework>

Paul said LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and was originally called 3GPP and was intended to provide a way for increased data transmission without too much change in infrastructure.

A caller with an iPhone 4 asked it he needed to call AT&T to have it jailbroken.
– No, the word is 'unlock' — AT&T doesn't like to hear about jailbreaking.

He also said he just got back from a foreign country where he used the phone to get just a little bit of data. When he got back there was a message from AT&T saying "call us immediately to avoid substantial charges". He had incurred a bill of almost $600. Mikail said there are 2 things to avoid high charges abroad.
– Turn off the cellular data under settings -> general.
– <he didn't get to the second thing>

The caller said AT&T offered him a $30 data plan and to backdate it to include the data for which he was being charged $600.

He went on to say he put up a Yagi antenna pointed to Banner Mountain and added a Wilson cell phone amp to improve his cellular reception. He's now getting 3G & 4G speeds. He also noticed that his iPad 3 will not do 3G, it's 4G only. Mikail said that's changed with the iPhone 5 <meaning that it can do 3G, I guess> but there's no hope for the caller's iPad 3 — there's no software update, its hardware is built only for 4G.

He then asked about changing cell phone carriers when abroad.
– When you get to the foreign country, shop around. There are cellular companies as well as independents that can sell you a plan.
– Then, just take the current SIM card out of the phone and put in the one you just bought.
– Pick a reputable brand name.

The caller said he got the Wilson cell phone amp from Banner Communications for $600. It's the model 65.

Glenn asked the caller what text (txt) options he has and was told there is no option — he pays 25 cents for each text message. Mikail revealed his strategy to avoid texting charges — he gives people his Google Voice number, if they want to send him a text message "because if you have an Apple device, any Apple device, on IOS 5 or later all your text messaging including pictures and files is all free, it cost you nothing…" "…so anybody else with an iPhone, iPad or a Mac address that you send to, it cost you nothing to send to them. It only costs the people, like say, on a Samsung or an HTC or an LG phone or Nokia or whatever. So what I do is I give them my Google Voice number for those folks and I keep my Apple number for the other folks. So that way I still don't pay anything for my texting at all and I can send text with emoticons or pictures or files or whatever and you get around this whole nonsense of them charging you for it." <I hope that made sense>

Glenn encouraged listeners to become KVMR members.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers only and not necessarily those of KVMR, its board, management, staff or contributors. If things go wrong it's your fault.

Ron called. He has iMac running Snow Leopard. He wants to access its hard drive from an iPad.
– There's software for the iPad for about $20 to create a VPN.
– You can't just do conventional sharing, as far as Mikail knows.|
– Glenn said Teamviewer can do it too. It not only can transfer files but use the programs on the remote machine.
– With the new operating system called Mountain Lion you can just drag files from one desktop to another. <I think this is for the sharing facility and doesn't apply to the caller's question>

Paul asked about updating to Mountain Lion (version 10.8). Can you update to it from version 10.5?
– No, you have to have Snow Leopard version 10.68 but no earlier version.
– Mountain Lion cost $19.95.
– Most compatibility problem with Mountain Lion are due to the older Power PC processors, according to Mikail.
– The only problem Mikail has with Mountain Lion is due to the MacBook Air he's using. It sometimes doesn't wake up correctly — the screen comes up but he can't do anything with it. It's a problem with MacBook Air, he said.
– When you upgrade, any incompatible applications you have are quarantined to a special folder.
– Glenn asked about processor compatibility and Mikail said just search with the words compatibility core 2 duo for instance. Machines made in late 2007 or later should be compatible with Mountain Lion.

Ron has a Mac with OS version 10.5 and wanted to know if he can go directly to Mountain Lion.
– You have to go to 10.68, as mentioned above. Then upgrade to Mountain Lion.
– Or you can wipe the drive and start fresh.
– Apple recently ran a promotion where you could get Snow Leopard for next to nothing so you can then upgrade to Mountain Lion. They want customers to get the latest OS. Do a Google search to find Snow Leopard for cheap/free.

Paul noted that Mountain Lion does not support telephone modems. Mikail said there is a USB device that can work if you mess with it a bit.

Robert called. He bought a Windows XP machine a couple of years ago. When he inquired at a store about upgrading to Windows 7, he was told to hold off until October when Windows 8 will be released.
– Just stick with XP if everything is working ok.
– If you plan to go to Windows 8, wait a year or so for any problems to be worked out.

Scott called to say he bought Snow Leopard for $30 and then got a copy for free. So, he's willing to sell a copy to Ron (above) for $15.
– Glenn suggested Scott call in to the Flea Market tomorrow or call the office now & leave a phone number or even email zen at kvmr dot org with the number so he can be connected to Ron.

If you're stuck with Mac OS 10.4 because your processor speed is 800 megahertz or less, or you have a G4, you'll find the Firefox browser, greater than version 3.6 will not install. There's a project called Tenfourfox you can use.

Mark called to say Sprint supports iPhone and is an alternative to the pricey Verizon & AT&T plans and has an unlimited voice, data and text plan. However, Sprint tends not to work well in Nevada County and Mark said Sprint gave him an 'air cell' to plug into his router. His calls now go over his broadband connection. Of course, you may still have problems when you leave the house.

Barry called. He bought an older Mac G417 a few years ago and he's not receiving software updates as he expects.
– Mikail said he's lucky to get any updates. It's the end of the road for that machine — though you can continue using it as you have in the past, for word processing etc.
– Paul suggested converting to the Linux operating system. Of course, it's not going to be a Mac any more.

Barry felt he was being forced to buy a newer machine.
– It's not that the companies are forcing you to get a new machine, they just can't afford to support old equipment.

Paul said there are user communities for various old computers and operating systems like CP/M, which he and Mikail started on. He suggested Barry look try oldmac.com.

Betsie called. She uses an iMac and was recently copying a CD that was chipped and now the drive stopped working.
– Never put a physically defective CD into a player or computer. You may have damaged the drive mechanism or the laser.
– It can be costly to replace an internal CD drive.
– For about $40 you can get an external drive that works thru the USB port.

The podcast of this show MIGHT possibly become available here.

Last updated 12:06 AM 9/27/2012 (changed Berry to Barry)

Notifications of new show notes and edits are tweeted at: twitter.com/ddhart.
– They're tagged with #Zentech.
– When what's said is unclear to me (or I'm unfamiliar with a topic) I tend to quote (" ") verbatim.

Editor's comments are delimited by < >

Glenn, Mikail Graham & Craig Burgess of Telestream were in the studio. Paul is hiking on some glacier in Alaska.

The guys rambled a lot on this show so the notes may be more fragmented than usual.

Adrianna from the KVMR membership department asked listeners for a donation of a Mac with a fast enough processor to run all of the new Adobe software. This is for an intern who will come in, starting Jan 2013, to do some design work. Mikail said it should be capable of running at least the Snow Leopard operating system and Abobe CS6 or later <I think that's the Creative Suit>, have 4 gig of RAM (1 gig would be appreciated) and have at minimum a Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
<Adrianna was on the 7-25-12 show, too. See those notes for other details>
Contact Adrianna here: membership at kvmr dot org or call (530) 265-9073 ext. 203

The folks at Telestream are big Adobe fans. They just upgraded to Adobe's creative cloud at $30 per month for the 1st year, $50 per month afterwards. In house, Telestream uses both PC & Mac machines.

Glenn encouraged listeners to become KVMR members.

Glenn thanked Craig for a donation of Telestream's software called Screen-Flow to KVMR.
– With Screen-Flow "You can record your screen, record comments and record your own video simultaneously" and then do post-editing
– Currently, it's for the Mac only. They're thinking of porting it to the PC.
– There's a demo you can download here. http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/
– Mikail has tried it and likes it.

One of the first thing Mikail installs on his client's Macs (even old Macs) is Flip For Mac. It's another Telestream product, it's is free but with an upgrade you get more features. It facilitates the viewing of videos from the PC world, which a Mac would ordinarily have trouble with. It's available "all over the web" and at the Telestream site.

Telestream has just come out with a new product called Flip Player which is similar to VLC <Videolan>. <Craig gave no further details>Glenn asked if it's for the iPad or iPhone. Craig said it's only for the desktop Mac. Mikail noted that playing Flash video on these devices is problematic. To get around the problem, he's used a browser that supports that Flash: Skyfire or Skyfox "or whatever it called". He also said Flash for mobile devices is falling out of favor and HTML5 will take its place.

Glenn said he got a text <txt> message from Paul this morning from his remote location. Mikail marveled at the advances in communications, noting he once participated in a Zentech show using Skype while he was in Crete and had no problems with the connection

Mikail said that in a few weeks there'll be a Zentech show about new Apple products. Rumors have the iPhone 5 coming out on Sep 12, the 7" iPad Mini in Oct. for $299, the iPod Touch and Nano are being updated and the 30-pin dock connector is going to become an 8 or 9-pin connector.

Craig brought 2 Android devices with him: a Motorola Droid Bionic phone and a Motorola Xoom tablet. He said the Xoom is fairly heavy and is hard to hold with one hand.

Mikail mentioned the recent Apple v. Samsung trial regarding patent claims. He said the products may look similar but they are quite different internally and their use. He also noted that Sumsung makes a lot of components for Apple hardware.
<Here are a couple of articles of interest…
A jury has awarded Apple over $1 billion after finding that Samsung infringed upon its patents for mobile devices
A Verdict That Alters an Industry>

Glenn suggested a future show with Craig talking about some Android products, as a counterbalance to talk about Apple products that often occurs on this show.

Glenn read the disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers only and not necessarily those of KVMR, its board, management, staff or contributors.

Bernda Horton of Hware called in to say she has been using Screen-Flow as an editor for a series of interviews. "It is phenomenal". She records Skype interviews and uses Screen-Flow to capture and edit the sessions, eventually uploading the results to Youtube.

Nikail said he MIGHT put the podcast of this show on the KVMR site.
<Check for it here. You can find some previous shows there as well.>

Craig said WireCast, another product of Telestream, does live streaming similar to what you see at twit.tv.
– It's for both the PC & Mac.
– Using it, you can take a MacBook Air and hook a HD camera to it stream out live video. It's basically like a "live switcher"
– You can WireCast to Ustream & JustinTV, for instance. There's a list of others that Telestream partners with.

Mikail railed against HP computers saying they are made to last only 2 years. He said the Apple computers are a better quality and you can get extended warranty with AppleCare. <See the disclaimer above>

Craig was disappointed with Steve Jobs <Apple> in the 1990's because it was hard to find the software he wanted to use on the Mac. He lamented that the Mac was so tightly controlled by Apple that it discouraged software development. Mikail added, "Apple, now more than ever, is a closed ecosystem".

Mikail said Window 7 is great compared to Vista. But having tried Windows 8, he doesn't understand it. The same goes for Chrome OS.

Last November Glenn bought a Magic Jack <as a home phone service> and was happy with it until a few weeks ago when it stopped working. He found out you can't talk with the company by phone, but only use online chat with customer service. He was passed from one service rep to another and, in the end, decided to go to another service: NetTalk, which Paul uses. He got the duo wi-fi model for $65 including shipping and there was no charge for porting his phone number. Craig uses Ooma for his VOIP service. US & Canada calls are free and you get 1000 minutes per month for international calls.

Earlier, Katie sent in an email question about connecting her XP computer to a router. And, without explaining the question, Glenn said she should continue using a wired <Ethernet> connection even though the router is capable of doing wireless. He said, disable the wireless connection <to prevent conflict> by going Start -> Control Panel -> Network connections <I think it's Network and Internet Connections>. There you'll see the options to change both types of connections. He noted that most desktop machines don't come with built-in wireless though Dell did sell some wireless units for a while. You can get a USB device to bring wireless capability to the desktop.

Mikail said he picked up a case for $2.99 <for his iPhone> that can act as a stand to keep the iPhone upright.

Craig mentioned a solution for tangled earbud cords called Zipper Buds, or something like that. They have a zipper that's integrated into the wires. You only unzip as much cord as you need.

Paul sent a text <txt> message from the glacier saying "hi" and that the cell phone service there is erratic.

Craig gave a bit of history about Telestream. Dan Castle, president of the Grass Valley Group, and some others broke away in 1998 to start Telestream. Their 1st product is ClipMail, which is still being used today. ClipMail lets you to take a video file and FTP it to another ClipMail account.

Melody called to compliment the guys on their voices. This was in response to Glenn having said Paul has an interesting British accent. She said she likes to listen to the voices even if she doesn't understand what's being said. Glenn said people sometimes tell him they enjoy the show without understanding the content.

Glenn expects Paul to be back on the show Sep 12 and most likely Mikail will join them to talk about the rumored Apple products which may debut on that date.

Craig mentioned the EU Cookie Directive, which became effective in June. It has to do with web privacy and tracking. All of the major browsers now have a do-not-track feature.

Ross call to ask the guys what sites they use to keep up on tech news. He currently uses Mac Nexus. Craig said he uses the news aggregators Flipboard & Pulse. Mikail uses Pulse,
<Here's an article to get you started…
Pulse vs. Flipboard: Which will win, subscriptions or ads? >

Last updated: 9:17 PM 8/29/2012