Update the OS before adding new hardware

This is the time of year when we often treat ourselves to new hardware for our computers or pockets. A new phone, a new music player, a new printer, a new tablet and so on. There are lots of sales on and this is the peak selling period for many stores.

If you have just bought or are about to buy a new gadget, accessory or peripheral for your computer there are some simple maintenance steps to take that will ensure that everything works well together. There is nothing more irritating than buying something new and then finding that it isn't compatible with your computer or that it doesn't work as expected.

The first thing you should do is to use the operating system's update facility and this means Windows Update on PCs or Software Update on Apple Macs. (Linux users should use their distro's update facility too.) Make sure that you select optional updates and not just the compulsory ones.

What this does is to ensure that all the drivers and patches are installed and that the operating system's database of supported hardware is up to date. Operating systems maintain a compatibility list of supported hardware and if you have an outdated list then a brand new gadget might be flagged as incompatible when in fact the OS has recently been updated to support it.

After updating and rebooting you should then plug in the new hardware. Should you install the software that came with the device? Modern operating systems contain basic support for a wide range of devices and frequently simply plugging in the hardware is enough to get it working. The OS has drivers for webcams, scanners, printers and other devices, so if you want to keep the system light and fast then don't install the supplied software.

The only snag is that operating systems usually only provide basic support for devices, so it will work, but special functions may not. What's more, sometimes the software supplied with devices is pretty good and has useful functions and features. It is often a good idea to ignore the software supplied with a device because it is on CD and was probably written moths ago. Instead, go to the manufacturer's website and download the latest version of the software. I recommend installing that instead of the CD.

After installing the software and the hardware, restart the computer and then use the operating system update facility again. This will ensure that if there are newer drivers for the device then they will be downloaded and installed.

To summarise then,

1. Use the operating system's update facility
2. Download the latest software from the manufacturer's website
3. Install the software and the device
4. Use the operating system's update facility

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Want a loan? Pick your Facebook friends carefully

There is an interesting story I came across recently on BetaBeat that reveals how banks and other financial institutions are considering using social media to assess your credit rating. The next time you apply for a credit card or a loan they may turn you down on the grounds that they don't like your Facebook friends. It's a scary thought don't you think?

It's all because of a company called Lenddo that uses social networking to analyse your credit worthiness. It is an online loan service and when you sign up you must provide details of all the social networks that you belong to. In the FAQ is this description:

"Lenddo is a scoring engine that analyzes your online social footprint (sometimes called a social graph) and provides a score that can be used to access financial services such as personal loans."

So it looks at your friends, relatives and work colleagues that you are connected to in your social networks and...

"Friends that don't pay their debts will negatively impact your Lenddo score, and your ability to access credit."

This means that you can't be friends with anyone who struggles to pay their bills because they will negatively affect your own credit rating. Just think, if you have a problem and miss a loan or credit card payment your friends won't help you, they'll all abandon you because you're affecting their credit rating. Got a problem? You're on your own!

It gets worse and just take a look at this from Lenddo's FAQ:

"Failure to repay will negatively impact your Lenddo score, as well as the score of your Lenddo friends. Lenddo MAINTAINS THE RIGHT TO NOTIFY YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY."

Yes, they'll tell all your friends, family and contacts that you've slipped up and missed a bill payment or two. Do they post messages on your Facebook wall? That's a scary thought!

Now Lenddo is based in the Phillippines, so it won't effect most people, but you can bet that western banks and other financial institutions are looking at this and considering it themselves. It makes you wonder whether social networking is a good idea if it can be used against you in this way.

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App updates from iTunes

If you have an Apple iOS device like the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch then it is also likely that you have a large collection of great apps downloaded from the App Store. Keeping them up to date sometimes seems like a full time job if you have a lot of apps. The badge on the App Store on the home screen tells you how many updates are available for your apps and I don't know about you, but it is rarely zero on my iPhone or iPad.

How do you update the apps on your iOS device? The obvious way is to tap the App Store icon on the home screen and then go to Updates. You can then update them all in one go or individually.

However, this is not always convenient. Some of the apps are large and they can be 200Mb or more. If there are several then the downloads can amount to a gigabyte or more.

This is only possible over Wi-Fi and only small apps of around 10Mb or less can be downloaded on 3G (to avoid running up huge data bills.)

A better option is to download the updates on your computer and then to plug in the iOS device and sync it. You can download large files much more quickly and easily with a desktop computer than with an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

If you have a fast broadband internet connection you should start iTunes and then select Apps in the left panel. Down in the bottom right corner is a link showing the number of app updates that are available. Click it.

A grid showing all the app updates is displayed and you can click the Get Update button next to the ones you want or click Download All Free Updates to get them all.

You can plug your iOS device into the computer afterwards (or the next time that is convenient), and sync it.

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SkyDrive improved file handling

Microsoft's free cloud storage service, SkyDrive was recently updated and there are a few welcome changes that people have been asking for for quite some time. One is the way that PDF files are handled online. If you have uploaded a PDF document to your SkyDrive online drive, what should happen when you click it? Should it be displayed in the web browser or downloaded to the local disk drive?

Up until recently there wasn't a choice and a PDF file was treated simply as a file and you could only download it. This was irritating if you wanted to read it because you would need to download it first, then run a PDF reader like Foxit or Adobe, then delete the PDF afterwards or leave it cluttering up the disk drive.

A recent update now enables you to read PDFs in SkyDrive in the web browser. If you click a PDF file the browser uses whatever plug-in, add-on or extension is available to display the document. This is useful. (If you do actually want to download a PDF you just tick the box next to it and click the download link on the right.)

The new feature appears to be experiencing some teething troubles though. I prefer Foxit Reader to Adobe Acrobat because it is a small, lightweight and fast application. Foxit is a 14Mb download (36Mb installed) and Adobe is 65Mb (108Mb installed), which gives an indication of the size difference. I've always found Foxit Reader to have fewer problems than Adobe Reader too. However, SkyDrive doesn't recognise Foxit. Click PDFs on other websites and you can view them in the browser using Foxit, but not on SkyDrive. It just says go and get Adobe Reader. Chrome works fine though and this is because it has a built in PDF viewer.

If you want to view PDF documents on SkyDrive without downloading them the only option is to install Adobe Reader at the moment. This works as advertised and it's a shame I can't use my preferred reader, Foxit.

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Apple Macs will dominate in 2050

Apple Macs will dominate the computer market in 2050. How do I know? Take a look at the data at Netmarketshare.

I am joking of course. It's not that it couldn't happen, but it's simply too hard to predict what will happen next year never mind in 40 years time. It is interesting to look at data like this though and to see the trends over the past year.

Usage of Microsoft Windows is down by just over 1%, but Apple Macs is up by 1%. If the trend was to continue this way then Macs would be the dominent computer platform by around 2050 (hence the headline). However, we are going to see a lot of changes to Windows and Macs over that time so there is no reason to assume that this year's trend will continue for another 40 years though. Apple and Apple fans frequently boast about the fantastic growth in sales and usage and how poorly Windows and PC companies are doing in comparison, yet the figures from Netmarketshare don't really reflect this. Yes, the Apple Mac market share is growing and Windows PC is declining, but the change is tiny. It's a lot less than Apple fans would have you believe.

It is also interesting the see how slowly Linux usage is growing and a mere 0.3% in a year is odd. Linux enthusiasts will tell you how great the operating system is and how people are switching to it in droves. That's not borne out by the figures. Linux is free, so if it really is that good, why don't more people use it? The answer must surely be that Linux does not satisfy people's needs. It just doesn't do what people want, otherwise why would they reject something that is free?

There are also some fascinating web browser usage statistics at the Netmarketshare website. Internet Explorer is clearly the most used web browser and this is hardly surprising because it's part of Windows and Windows accounts for 92% of all desktops. It's use has fallen over the year though and it is down from 58% to 52%. The question is, what are people switching too?

For several years Firefox grew its market share and it has been steadily catching up with Internet Explorer, but the browser stagnated and new versions were slow in coming. This could be why Firefox market share has fallen over the year from 23% to 22%. However, there have been several significant updates this year - Firefox 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 - so it might start growing again soon. I used to use Firefox, stopped, and then started again as it picked up development speed again this year.

Opera's market share is down and this must be so disappointing for the developers. It has been banging away at this for 10 years or more and it's never had more than a couple of percent market share. It is hard to see why because the browser has some unique features. Perhaps people want simplicity and speed though. This could be why so many people are switching to Google Chrome. This browser's market share is up and it has grown from 11 to 18%. This time next year it could be well ahead of Firefox and be the second most used web browser.

Is all this data accurate and where does it come from? There can be few people these days that don't use the internet on their computer and never visit any websites, so if you collect browser and OS statistics from enough websites covering a sufficiently wide range of subjects and interests then it should be good. Netmarketshare gets its information comes from around 40,000 websites and such a large number means that it should be quite accurate.

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iPhone 5 to have 4in screen?

MacRumours has posted an article on its website that suggests that the next generation of the iPhone will have a 4in screen instead of the 3.5in unit it currently has. The source is an Asian blogger who quotes an unnamed source. There are so many Apple product rumours and so many turn out to be wrong it is hard not to be sceptical about this one. In fact, there are so many rumours it wouldn't surprise me if Apple was the source of some of them. It loves secrecy and putting out a few false rumours would put investigators off the trail of the real product.

I have to say though, that the iPhone does look small next to many of the other top of the range smartphones these days. Many popular models have 4in screens and some are even bigger. There is an optimum size for phones and anything much over 4in is awkward to carry. After all, trouser pockets are only so big. For me, a 4in screen would be the ideal size - not too big and not too small. The fact that the iPhone has remained at 3.5in when larger screens are available suggests that Apple believes that the optimum size is 3.5in, so whether we will actually see a bigger iPhone is anyone's guess.

Of course, changing the screen size would be awkward for apps because they wouldn't be designed to work in the new resolution. Unless, that is, the screen resolution was kept the same. That would suit me because one thing that frequently irritates me about the iPhone is the small size of the text in some apps (forgive me if I've mentioned it before). I've even deleted some apps because the text was too small to comfortably read. The perfect iPhone 5 for me would have a 4in screen with the current resolution, or rather pixels count, so that everything is that little bit bigger.

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Social networking madness

Facebook has been incredibly successful and it has rocketed from obscurity to become the most visited website on the world in no time at all. Twitter has also grown rapidly to become hugely successful over just a few short years. It seems that everyone wants to share everything and interact with their friends, relatives and work colleagues, or do they?

I think it is wrong to assume that everyone wants to share everything and the amount of social networking facilities built into modern computer software and mobile phone and tablet apps is actually becoming irritating. It seems that every program and every app assumes you want to share every detail of your life online and to connect with all your friends, relatives and work colleagues. Programs and apps have buttons, links and menus to access sharing features and everything you do they say, "Do you want to share that on Facebook and Twitter?"

The latest madness is the app I have from my gas and electric company. At one time they used to send someone round to my house to read the gas and electricity meters to see how much I had used before sending a bill. Now there is an app for that. I can read the gas and electricity meters myself, tap the numbers into the app on my mobile phone and it sends it to the company. It's more convenient for both of us.

I got an email recently asking me for the latest meter readings and I dutifully went and read the meters and entered the values into the app. That's fine, but then it asked if I would like to share this on Facebook. Yes, there was a Facebook button in the gas and electric app so I can share my gas and electric bills with all my friends, relatives and work colleagues. I just know they are tingling with anticipation of news of the latest figures.

This is ridiculous. Who on earth wants to share their gas and electric meter readings on Facebook? I declined the offer. Perhaps I should have tried it just to see what is posted, but enough rubbish gets posted and I didn't want to bore everyone with trivia. Just think, in the future I would have been able to look back using Facebook's timeline feature to see the fun I had reading the gas and electric meters back in 2011.

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Beware of Trojans posing as legitimate Mac apps

The Apple Mac is is a fairly secure operating system and it is hard to create malware like a virus that automatically installs without your knowledge. Malware authors are fully aware of this and they use a different tactic to get their malicious software onto your computer. They trick you into installing it or they disguise it as legitimate software. You may think that you are installing a well known application and because of this you might even enter your administrator password when prompted during the setup, but you end up with an infected Mac. The app you wanted installs, but it has an unwanted payload.

DevilRobber, or Backdoor:OSX/DevilRobber.A to give it its full name, installs applications related to Bitcoin mining. (Bitcoin is an online digital currency used to buy goods or services in some parts of the world). The malware opens various ports to allow communications over the internet and someone or some app could remotely execute commands on your Mac. DevilRobber can access your keychain stored on the Mac where all your passwords are held, your Safari web browsing history, your IP address, it takes screenshots, it accesses 1Password (a password manager) if you have it, and more.

So how do you get infected? From legitimate applications like PixelMator, Graphic Converter and others. It was discovered that the original applications had been modified and the malware hidden inside them. When you install these apps they install the malware too.

Before you start panicing, I must point out that these apps came from The Pirate Bay, a website notorious for pirated illegal software. The malware author must have got the original software, which is clean, added his own code, and uploaded it to The Pirate Bay. It is a tempting download. Even if you don't use The Pirate Bay or other dodgy websites yourself, your mates might if if they then pass on the app to you, you can become infected.

This emphasises the importance of getting your software only from trusted sources and this means the Mac App Store, direct from the software developer's website, a download site like Download.com, Softpedia, and similar places. These sources are clean.

How do you know if you have it and more importantly, how do you remove it? If you have DevilRobber go to your Library folder (in OS X Lion click the Go menu, hold down the Option key and click Library), and delete the Library/mdsa1331 folder. Go into the Library/LaunchAgents folder and delete com.apple.legion.plist. If you have the latest version of DevilRobber installed from PixelMator from The Pirate Bay website then delete the Library/Pixel_Mator folder and Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.pixel.plist. Don't run the app dodgy app again or it will reinstall the malware.

F-Secure has more information about DevilRobber here, here and here.

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Kindle Fire - everything you need to know

The Kindle Fire is Amazon's answer to Apple's iPad - a brand new tablet with some interesting features and a killer price. Will you be buying one this Christmas, either for yourself or your family? Here is a roundup of Kindle Fire information that will help you to decide:

• iFixit Amazon Kindle Fire Teardown
• Kindle Fire at the Amazon Store
• Fire aside, other Kindles also shine, David Pogue
• Wired: Is this really the tablet everyone's talking about?
• ZDNet: Amazon's Kindle Fire: Snappy consumption, impulse purchase device
• Reuters: Amazon Kindle Fire unboxing video
• PC Mag: Amazon Kindle Fire review
• Techradar - Amazon Kindle Fire: What you need to know
• CNN Money - Amazon's Kindle Fire: Hope or hype?
• The Telegraph: Amazon's three new Kindles in pictures
• Engadget Amazon Kindle Fire review
• Kindle Fire TV commercial
• Kindle Fire (enthusiast) website

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Mobile Flash is dead

Last week Adobe announced that it would end development of Flash on mobile platforms like smartphones and tablets. It said, "We are no longer going to be actively developing the Flash Player for Mobile Browsers." This is disappointing, but at the same time it is also not surprising.

The reason is that Flash works fine on Windows computers, but the company has always had difficulties getting it to run satisfactorily on other platforms. For example, it has been on the Apple Mac for years, but Flash has had problems with performance and using too much resources. In fact, at times in the past Flash has been so bad on OS X that some MacBook laptop users disabled Flash and prevented it from running using utilities like Click to Flash (go to the Safari menu and click Extensions to install it). Open a couple of web browser tabs with Flash on, even simple adverts, and the CPU usage would be up to 50 or 60%!

Adobe converted Flash to the Android platform and it appeared on some smartphones and tablets, but it didn't take long for YouTube videos to appear that showed the battery charge running down at an alarming speed. Flash on mobile devices was not good and it still isn't. It sort of works, but it doesn't work well.

So Steve Jobs was right, Flash has no place on mobile devices. However, it is hard to see why Flash couldn't have been made to work on mobiles and tablets. Some have fast dual core processors and lots of memory and future models will surely be even more powerful. Adobe just seems to have given up. Perhaps HTML5 and other technologies are simply better in the long run. That may be true, but there are a lot of websites right now using Flash that can't be accessed on mobile devices and it's irritating.

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Is Siri a threat to Google?

Siri is the voice controlled personal assistant on the new Apple iPhone 4S and there has been a lot of talk recently about the threat that it poses to Google. For example, there is Yes, Google, Siri is a serious threat, Siri, are you stealing searchers from Google?, How Siri will eat Google's lunch, and even Google's Eric Schmidt: Apple's Siri could pose a threat.

Does Siri really spell the end of everything for Google? Of course not. Siri is one app on one mobile phone and it is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to search. The mount of publicity the iPhone gets you would think that 90% of the world was using it and that anything it does will completely revolutionise the way the world works. The reality is that iPhone users are a very small minority of global mobile phone users and an even smaller percentage of the total searches occurring on a daily basis, most of which come from desktop and laptop computers and not iPhones.

This does not mean that Siri is insignificant and can be ignored and it could have quite a big effect on search, at least for Apple iPhone users. If you want to search for something, such as local businesses, pizza, cinemas and so on, an iPhone 4S user with Siri will simply speak into the phone. Siri will then go and look up the information you need and display or speak the results. The problem for Google is that Apple controls the whole process and decides which service to use to perform the search. Apple may not use Google search and it may use someone else's or even create its own. Google searches return a long list of results and these included sponsored links and adverts from which it earns money. Siri's results do not, so Google loses out.

However, Google is already losing out on searches on the iPhone anyway and if you want to locate local businesses, services, entertainment and other things, there are lots of apps that do that. Apps like Yelp, Qype, AroundMe, Thompsonlocal, Acrossair, Layer, Flixter, Booking.com, Voucher Cloud and many more are all available. When you want to find something you use these rather than using Google search anyway. Siri may pose a bigger threat to these apps and whether you want a pizza or a plumber you may simply ask Siri where the nearest one is. Who needs Yelp, Qype or AroundMe?

Don't forget that Google search is the default on Android phones and the Android market is growing at a phenomenal rate. Siri on just on the iPhone 4S and therefore isn't much of a threat. There just aren't enough users for it to make a difference. Even a few years down the line when all iPhones have Siri, it will still be just one one among a sea of Android devices all with Google search. Is Siri really that much of a threat?

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Where is Apple going with OS X?

First Apple introduced the Mac App Store as a one-stop shop where Mac users could purchase and download software, now there is sandboxing. What does this mean and where is Apple going with OS X?

Sandboxing is a programming term and it means that an application is limited in what it can access on the computer (or device). It can't delete files, it can't install and run other apps, it can't control other apps, it can't mess up your system. An app can only access its own files and private workspace. Sandboxing was created as a security feature that prevents malware and malicious apps from doing things they shouldn't. If an app can't access the rest of the system then it can't do any damage.

In some situations sandboxing is useful and if a web browser is run in a sandbox then any malware you come across on the web cannot damage or infect the computer because it can't access it.

Sandboxing is not useful in all cases though because it limits what an application can do. For example, suppose you want a utility that scans the disk searching for files. I recently looked at several of these and they are very useful. If these were limited to running in a sandbox then they would not have access to the system and they would not work. You want to find files fast on your Mac? Tough. (Spotlight does not find all files everywhere - it is a limited search facility.)

Another example is an FTP program. I use one to upload pages from my Mac to my websites. It would not work in a sandbox because it could not access any files apart from its own. iOS on the iPad and iPhone uses sandboxing and apps cannot access anything outside of their own workspace, except where iOS lets it - usually just the photos and videos. Install an FTP app on the iPad or iPhone and it is practically useless. If you have a note-taking app or an accounts program or some other app that saves files, just try loading those files into another app. You can't.

It is acceptable to have sandboxing on an iPhone because the apps you use are simple anyway, but a desktop computer is a completely different thing. Sandboxing may be secure, but the lack of freedom is very limiting and we might end up with only dumbed down apps that have limited functionality in the Mac App Store. Apps that do clever things by accessing the system, or adding extensions, plug-ins and add-ons, won't be possible.

Apple is forcing all apps in the Mac App Store to run in a sandbox. The deadline to implement this was originally November, but it has been extended to next March.

What is worrying is that this is yet another step towards the iOS way of thinking. The Mac/OS X has an app store like iOS. There are iOS-like features in OS X Lion. There is sandboxing of apps just like iOS. What is next?

I suspect that in the not too distant future Apple will decree that all apps for the Mac must be purchased and installed from the Mac App Store, just as with iOS. No apps will be installable from elsewhere. There are two reasons for doing this is and one is that Apple likes to keep control of everything, just as with iOS apps. Apple believes that if it controls what apps are available and what they can do, it will reduce user problems and user support because only approved apps will work.

another reason is the money and Apple takes a cut of every app sold in the Mac App Store. At the moment developers only put their software in it out of choice, but if every app for the Mac had to be purchased from there, just think of the revenue Apple would generate. It would get loads of money for doing very little, just as with iOS apps. I think this would be very tempting for Apple.

This scenario may work on the iPad and iPhone, but it is not one I would like on the Mac. I don't want to be limited to running only apps that Apple lets me run, I don't want apps to be limited to only functions that Apple says I can use, and I don't want Apple block useful apps I use just because it doesn't approve.

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Get Magican for Apple Mac OS X

It is useful to be able to monitor various aspects of the Mac, such as whether downloads or uploads are taking place and how fast, the amount of memory being used and the amount free, the disk space used and how much is left, how much CPU time an app is using, and so on. One day we may have hardware that is so powerful we don't need to worry about these things, but CPU power, memory, disk space and internet bandwidth are limited right now and this doesn't look set to change any time soon. The problem is even greater if you have an older Mac with lower specifications.

It is surprising that facilities aren't built into the operating system to do this. Of course, there is Activity Monitor in OS X, but when it is maximised the window is too big and when it is minimised there is too little information available. If only there was something in between, a small app that provides updates on the essential resources.

There are several utilities available and one that is worth a look is Magican. It is currently free, although I suspect that at some point in the future you'll have to pay for it. It's only version 0.9.53 at the moment, so maybe that's why it is free. Grab it while you can!

Once it is installed you will notice two things and the first is a menu bar icon. It only provides access to uninstall, preferences and quit though. The main feature is the mini toolbar in the bottom right corner of the screen.

In the screen shot it is showing the up and download speeds (nothing is using the internet at the moment), but clicking the icon at the right hand side shows CPU, GPU and disk temperatures. It can automatically alert you if they rise too much.

Mouse-over this mini toolbar and a small window pops up that displays either the top apps using the most memory or the most CPU. Move the mouse away and it disappears.

The icon at the left-hand side opens the full application window and this has six tabs that display a variety of information and provide access to various tools. Here is a snapshot of the Stat tab (click to zoom in):

This is great information and it is attractively presented too. You can see the disk space, temperatures, battery health, memory usage, CPU and network activity. There are subtabs too, showing processes, network and file activity.

The other tab icons in the toolbar access cleaning functions so you can erase caches and logs, unused languages and duplicate files. You can view installed applications, widgets, plug-ins and other items, and remove unwanted ones. You can view documents, movies and music, send items to the Trash or permanently delete them, and get information about your Mac.

This is a really nice app and it is well worth installing if you want to monitor your Mac and access cleanup functions.  The only downside is that it uses more memory than I'd like for a system monitor - around 120Mb.

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Is your webcam spying on you?

There have been reports recently that it is possible for a web page to activate the webcam in a Mac computer in order to spy on you. Websites can certainly activate a webcam if you have one, such as the iSight camera that is built into iMacs and MacBooks and you may have used these facilities to take a photo or a video clip and post it on the web. You can do it at Facebook for example. However, they should not be able to do it without your knowledge or permission.

Do websites secretly activate the webcam and spy on you though? Is it possible to activate it without your knowledge?

Here is a link to the blog that highlighted the problem and another blog, and here are two demos of the security flaw: demo 1 and  demo 2. I have to say that I can't get either of the demos to work, so maybe this security flaw has been fixed.

However, when one security hole is plugged, often another one opens up. We will just have to wait and see. It's not the first time I've heard of webcams being activated and it has been going on for years.

My advice: Never sit naked at your computer! You never know who might be watching!

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What is the point of transparency?

I wish programmers would stop using transparency. It is commonly used these days and Windows default desktop theme has transparent window borders, Lion on the Apple Mac has user interface elements that are semi transparent, and even Facebook uses transparency effects when you view a photo.

Semi transparent objects do not improve a user interface or make things easier to use. They make it harder. To see the effect of transparency, get a marker pen and write something on the window, then write something on a white piece of paper and compare the two. Which is easier to read? It's really hard to read what's on the window because you see right through it to the background. We don't use complete transparency in programs and user interfaces on computers and devices, and usually semi-transparent items are used. This isn't quite as bad, but it still makes things awkward to see.

It's a no-brainer, but programmers don't seem to understand this. It is a clever graphical effect that looks impressive when you first see it, but it just makes things harder to use. Graphical effects should only be used where they make things simpler and easier, and they are not to simply show off a programmer's skills.

Whenever possible I turn off transparency effects, but there often isn't the option to do this and we have to suffer the problem of trying to read text or view something when the background is showing through and confusing us.

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Speed up Safari by 13% on the Mac

Operating system updates tend to add more code and bloat to the system and they don't often result in increased speed. There are frequently bug fixes, security patches and the occasional new feature, but speed isn't usually a benefit. However, if you download and install the latest update to OS X Lion on the Mac you'll find that 10.7.2 includes an update to Safari that makes it 13% faster. Now that is a useful speed boost to the web browser.

Speed has become the focal point for all web browsers and all like to claim that theirs is faster than everyone else's. It often depends on which speed tests you run though. Safari's speed boost comes from an improved JavaScript engine that is 13% faster in Safari 5.1.1 than the previous 5.1. JavaScript is used a lot in web pages, especially for the more complex types of pages that include online applications, so it's a useful update.

In addition to the increased performance there have been many bug fixes and some improvements, such as better handling of video sharing websites like Vimeo. A much needed security update is the removal of .dmg and .pkg from the safe file types list. Safari used to download and automatically open these types of files and virus writers have taken advantage of this to install malware on the Mac. However, it is still better to disable auto-opening of all file types, not just these. Go to Safari, Preferences, General and clear the tick against Open safe files after downloading.

OS X 10.7.2 includes better support for iCloud, which is the replacement for MobileMe and you really need it to complete the transition from the old service. After updating the system you will be prompted to log in to iCloud by the new iCloud pane in System Preferences.

To get OS X 10.7.2 click Software Update on the Apple menu. Warning: It's huge, so you need a fast internet connection.

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iTunes sync is too dumb

I've just spent a frustrating hour or so with an iPhone, Mac and iTunes, although it could just as easily been an iPod Touch or iPad, Windows PC and iTunes. The common factor being iTunes. It lacks an intelligent sync facility and it's just too dumb.

Here is what often happens with my computer and iOS devices - an iPhone and iPad. I delete an app I no longer need on the iPhone, such as a game I either don't like or that I'm bored with after playing it to death. Some time later I plug it into my computer and sync. Some people never sync, but it's useful because it backs up the device among other things. However, iTunes keeps a copy of all the apps on the device on the computer and when you sync it sees a missing app on the device, the one that was deleted, and copies it across. So apps you have deleted reappear on the device and you have to delete them all over again!

That's irritating and especially so when they are big apps that use up a lot of space. The reverse can happen too and if you delete an app off the computer in the Apps section of iTunes, it is copied back from the device. To guarantee that an app really is deleted you need to delete it both on the device and in iTunes and then sync them.

It seems that the way iTunes sync works is to simply make both the computer and the device the same. If a file is missing on one, it is copied from the other, ignoring the fact that you deliberately deleted it. Sync could be more intelligent and file and folder sync utilities like Dropbox handle it properly. Delete a file on one computer and when you next use another computer with Dropbox it is deleted on there too, it doesn't get synced back to the original computer. That would be just dumb. iTunes does it though.

Another irritation is that some apps work on both the iPad and the iPhone. If I download an iPad app from the iTunes store, then sync the iPad it is copied across to the computer so both locations are the same. Now when I plug in my iPhone and sync it it sees an iPhone app that's on the computer, but not on the device, so it copies it across. I now have an iPad app on my iPhone.

Both devices are different and they are used in different ways. I have different apps on each device and I don't want iPad apps on my iPhone and vice versa. For example, I have a sat-nav app on my iPhone, but because it also runs on the iPad it was copied to it when I synced. I don't use sat-nav on my iPad though and so I had to delete the app.

It would be useful if each iOS device could be treated separately so that each has its own apps. They shouldn't be copied from one to another unless specifically requested. iTunes isn't completely dumb though and after copying an app from one device to the other, if it is then deleted it stays deleted. It's just that initial sync and iTunes syncs it because it is a new purchase. There are settings to turn off automatic syncing of new apps, but that's not what is needed, it's auto syncing of apps purchased on one device with another device. Is there a setting for that? I've not seen it.

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What's the big deal with iMessage on the iPhone?

I've just been reading an article on Apple Insider about iMessage, a new messaging service that is built into iOS 5. It's called "Apple's free iMessage expected to undermine carriers' high-profit SMS business." It's like Apple just invented instant messaging. Can this really be true? Are there no instant messaging apps for the iPhone?

A quick search at Google turned up plenty of references to instant messaging apps and How to instant message on an iPhone was written in 2007. That's how long instant messaging has been around! A more recent article is Top 5 instant messenger apps for iPhone which was written earlier this year. So what's the big deal with iMessage?

Well, iMessage should be superior to other instant messenger apps because Apple makes the OS and iMessage is integrated more closely with it. It will have access to features and functions that are off limits to other third party apps. So expect a really cool app with some great features when iOS 5 finally becomes available for download.

No matter how good it is though, it is limited to iOS devices and when you have lots of friends with other types of phones you still need a mobile phone contract with a good text message allowance. Perhaps mobile phone contracts are different here in the UK than the US, but for most people here texting isn't really an issue. Contracts typically bundle hundreds or even thousands of texts a month, so it costs nothing extra to send or receive them. It's quick, easy, cheap, and every phone has it. (Even if you're on a pre-pay pay-as-you-go tariff, it's free to receive texts, which I think is different in some other parts of the world.)

iMessage will be useful only if all or most of your friends, relatives and business contacts have iPhones, but this is rarely the case. It's about as much use as FaceTime, which is another Apple app that's limited to iOS devices (and the Mac in this case though). I use Skype because it runs on anything. It does instant messaging too, so I can call iPhones, Android phones, desktop computers, tablets - anyone, anywhere, on any device.

I'll be upgrading to iOS 5 when it becomes available (not long to wait now), but iMessage won't get a lot of use on my iPhone and I don't think my mobile phone service provider will be worried. If I do use it, it just means less bandwidth used on their system and this will benefit them if anything.

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Should you upgrade to the iPhone 4S?

After an extraordinarily long wait, much longer than the usual 12 month-ish refresh cycles we have been used to previously, the next generation of Apple's iPhone is at last here with us. It has been launched and in a few days it will be on sale. The big question is whether you should upgrade your current iPhone to the latest model.

Some people have already made that decision and they pre-ordered the new model as soon as  it became possible. They now sit eagerly waiting for the delivery service to knock at their door and hand over the new device.

Whether to upgrade or not is always a tricky decision to make and it is doubly so when there is a large cost involved. The iPhone 4S is one of the most expensive mobile phones available and so you must think twice before committing yourself and your credit card to such a large purchase. Here in the UK it costs a pound under £500 ($780 including tax) just for the cheapest, most basic model and nearly £800 ($1,093) for the 64Gb model. That's a lot of money in any currency and you've got your contract on top of that.

However, you have to factor in the trade-in or sale of your existing phone and at Mazuma Mobile, a UK phone recycling website they will give me £245 ($383) for my current 16Gb iPhone 4. That means that the cost to upgrade to a 4S is a more reasonable £256 ($400). That's a more tempting proposition.

So what is the difference between the iPhone 4 and the 4S, and is it worth it?

The iPhone 4S comes with iOS 5, the next generation of Apple's mobile phone and tablet operating system and it includes the new iCloud service that stores files and music online. However, iOS 5 will work on all mobile phones as far back as the iPhone 3GS, so I can upgrade my iPhone 4 for free and get all the iOS functions and features of the 4S. Clearly iOS 5 is not a reason to buy an iPhone 4S.

It does lack Siri though and this is a voice-controlled personal assistant. You can speak into your iPhone and tell it to make appointments and perform other tasks. I'm not too fussed about this and I've never got on with voice recognition software on my desktop computer. I had voice dialling on my mobile five years ago and could say "phone home" to call home or "John" to call John, but never used it. I don't know why. I'm not convinced Siri is a killer feature that makes it worth the cost of upgrading.

I ditched my digital camera ages ago and now take most of my photos on a mobile phone. The cameras in phones aren't quite as good as proper digital cameras, but they are good enough and they are getting better. The main reason is convenience and you are more likely to have a phone in your pocket when a photo opportunity arises than a digital camera.

The new iPhone 4S has an upgraded camera built in and it is now 8 megapixels. Many people equate megapixels to image quality, but it just isn't a reliable indicator of image quality. Lens quality, sensitivity to low light, colour saturation and other factors are all important factors that affect the image quality. Imagine taking a photo when the light is poor, indoors, possibly in the evening. Is an 8mp image any better than a 5mp image if it is dark and fuzzy?

The good news is that the camera in the 4S should have better image quality and not just more pixels. It has a better lens and a better sensor and this should produce better photos. This is a plus point for the iPhone 4S, but is it enough to tempt you to upgrade?

Another advantage of the 4S is the more powerful dual-core processor. However, have you ever been using your iPhone 4 and cursed it for being too slow? I can't say that I have. For what I use it for, which is mostly non-gaming apps, it is adequate and I've not experienced any speed problems. However, I have yet to upgrade to iOS 5 and perhaps that demands more processing power. Operating systems always make increasing demands of the hardware, but since iOS 5 works on the 3GS, which is even less powerful than the 4, it can't be that processor-intensive.

Whether you decide to upgrade or not is a personal decision. I'm not convinced that there is enough in the 4S to tempt me to upgrade from a 4. I think I'll wait for the iPhone 5. If you are still using a 3GS though, then it is well worth the upgrade cost.

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More Mac malware spotted

Malware like viruses, Trojans and spyware are so rare on the Apple Mac that it's a big deal when one is spotted. Every so often one pops up, but to have two in one week is like being struck by lightning - twice!

It is becoming increasingly common to hear of malware on the Mac although there is still has a long, long way to go before it ever gets anywhere near the situation we have on Windows computers. Malware for the Mac is definitely a reality though and you do need to be aware of it. Don't assume that you are safe just because you run OS X. An operating system is only as effective as the weakest link, and that's you, the user. Malware is socially engineered to trick people into installing it, running it and entering their administrator passwords when needed.

Security company F-Secure recently discovered a new malware attack on the Mac which they have called Trojan-Dropper:OSX/Revir.A. This malware is disguised as a PDF file and it opens on the screen to distract you while it downloads a backdoor (a method used to gain access to your computer), Backdoor:OSX/Imuler.A and installs it on the system in the background. The PDF is actually some Chinese document and is unimportant because by the time you see it, you're already infected. Fortunately, the malware doesn't actually do anything harmful yet, but the capability is there and you need to watch out for it.

Security company Intego has discovered a new malware program that masquerades as a Flash installer. The Mac Flashback Trojan tries to trick people into thinking they don't have Flash installed or have an outdated version of Flash and they need to install a new version.

It appears as a link on a website and visitors may think that they need to click it to download and install Flash. By default, Safari automatically runs files that are downloaded and so the malware installation automatically starts. The malware injects code into apps when they are run and this connects to a remote server to send details about the Mac.

If you think you may have been tricked into installing this malware, open a Finder window and see if you have this file: ~/Library/Preferences/Preferences.dylib (~ means your home folder). If you don't, you're OK. If you ever see a message stating that you need Flash or need to update it to the latest version, always go to www.adobe.com and get the real version, not by clicking a link on some other website. You may want to consider getting an anti virus program for your Mac, such as Intego's VirusBarrier X6.

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Keep the tablet OS off the desktop

Ten years ago Windows was so popular that Microsoft believed that if it could be ported to other devices then they would be equally successful too. They made a version for tablet computers and for mobile phones. Yes, tablets aren't a new phenomenon and ten years ago there were tablet PCs. Mind you, they weren't the thin and light devices we enjoy today and they were more like laptop computers with the screen folded flat on top. Their weight wasn't measured in grams, but in kilograms!

There was a version of Windows on hand-held organisers like the iPAQ and mobile phones too.

Windows is a great operating system on desktop computers when used with a mouse, but it doesn't work very on small screens with relatively large stubby fingers. Even if you use a stylus or pen as a pointing device, it is still unsuitable. The whole interface is simply wrong for a small screen.

It isn't surprising that tablets and hand-held devices failed to catch on all those years ago. Tablets sold particularly poorly and hardly anyone bought them. It wasn't until smartphones came along that operating systems were written specifically for small screens, hand-held devices and fat fingers. iOS, Android and other mobile operating systems work great on tablets and hand held devices. They are hugely popular these days with many millions being sold each year.

We previously had a problem of a popular desktop OS being put on a hand-held tablet and it didn't work. Now we have the reverse situation and because tablets are so successful it is assumed that we want tablet and smartphone operating systems everywhere, even on desktop computers.

Apple has incorporated iOS features into OS X Lion running on its Macs. Microsoft has put the Metro interface from its mobile phones in Windows 8, its next desktop operating system. Ubuntu has the Unity interface which is optimised for small screen devices and has tablet-like features too.

Desktop computers are not the same as tablets! Stop putting tablet features into the desktop! I rarely want to run full screen apps on a desktop computer with a large monitor where 22in screens and bigger are common. The iMac has a 27in screen, so why would you want to run a calendar, web browser or word processor full screen? The tablet way of displaying grids of icons for apps works well on small devices, but it's not half as useful desktop computer with  a big screen and a mouse. What's wrong with a menu?

Lion, Unity and Metro could irritate desktop computer users with their tablet-like features. Some people will simply turn them off. I ignore iOS-like features in OS X Lion on my Mac as much as I can and have disabled Unity in favour of the Gnome desktop in Ubuntu 11.04. It remains to be seen how easy it will be to switch to a standard desktop in Windows 8. At the moment you have to click through menus to get it, but it's still only a beta so it may change. Let's hope so.

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Malware mail attachments

Malware comes in many forms and you always need to be on your guard against it. One of the most common ways that it will get on your computer is as an email attachment. It always pays to be highly suspicious of messages with any form of attachment.

Usually the email has some sort of message that either tells you right out to open the attachment or it is worded to make you curious about it and want to open it. Here is an example of the former:

DEAR CUSTOMER , Recipient's address is wrong Print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our department.

The message claims to come from a postal service, but it is a fake and the attachment will infect your computer with some sort of malware if you open it.

Here is another type:

Service: xxxxxxxx. com 9232 Girls Currently Online

Fotos: 6 fotos in attached file.

You might be tempted to open the attachments and see what the girls are like just out of curiosity, but if you do this you are likely to be infected by malware.

Apparently in one single day in mid August 25 billion emails with malicious attachments were sent. Is this really true? I don't know, but even if it is an order of magnitude out, it's still an incredible number of malicious mails. I think a large number of them ended up in my email inbox. They just got deleted though.

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Why Amazon's tablet will succeed

Tablet makers are having a rough time competing with Apple's hugely successful iPad and some are suffering from poor sales, some are suffering from legal action from Apple, and others have abandoned the market altogether. On the face of it, it doesn't seem like a good time to launch a new tablet. Will Amazon succeed where everyone else has failed?

The thing about an iPad is that it isn't just  hardware. Apple could sell the ipad at cost price and still make a healthy profit from the tablet market. Most other tablet manufacturers simply build and sell the hardware and they must generate a profit from the sales.

Apple has an app store and takes a large cut of every sale that is made. The only place you can get apps for the iPad is at Apple's app store. Most other manufacturers don't have this, but Amazon does. It launched its own app store. Although it is based on Google's Android and has the same sort of apps that are in the Android market, Amazon could tie its tablet to its own store and generate income from every sale.

Apple sells music for the iPad and takes a cut of every sale of every music track. Other tablet manufacturers don't make any money at all from the music downloaded to their tablets. Amazon sells music, has online storage for music and can stream music. It also makes money from every sale of every music track. It's another source of income for Amazon.

Apple sells movies for the iPad through the app store and as with all the other media, it makes money from it. Other manufacturers do not have this source of income, they only sell the hardware. Amazon, however, does sell movies and it generates income from the sales. Movies could be accessed and played by the Amazon tablet.

Apple sells books for the iPad too and this also generates income for the company. It's another thing that other tablet manufacturers do not have, but Amazon does. It has an excellent range of ebooks.

Amazon is basically emulating Apple and its tablet will no doubt be closely tied to Amazon's music, movie, ebook, and app stores. The company does not need to make a huge profit from sales of the hardware because of the income each one will generate from media consumption. Amazon is also well known for cutting costs to the minimum, so it is likely that the tablet will be cheap too and rumours of $250 are floating around.

So Amazon has multiple sources of income all generated by the tablet and users get all the media they need from Amazon. It's very similar to Apple's setup and it is hard to imagine how it could fail if Amazon's tablet is anywhere half way decent.

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HP TouchPad sales take off

The announcement that HP has abandoned tablets and that it is to stop making the TouchPad is sad news for everyone that likes these devices, and a lot of people do. One of the reasons, perhaps the main one, is that sales were poor and few people bought them.

Is it a bad product? No, it is actually quite good and both the hardware and operating system are quite attractive. So why didn't it sell?

The main reason is that it was against the iPad and Apple's tablet is very good indeed. In fact, all Apple's products - desktop computers, laptops, phones and iPods are very good. It is very difficult to compete head to head with an Apple product. If you're going to make a £400 tablet and grab a slice of the iPad's market you are going to have to make it better than the iPad and that is difficult.

The same is true of iMacs and MacBooks. If you want to sell laptop computers in the £1,000 to £1,500 price range then it's up against the MacBook Pro which is a great computer. The iMac is in the same price range and if you're looking for a desktop computer with this much cash to spend then it is a good buy. In the price ranges Apple sells in it does very well and it has a good market share.

The huge market share that Windows PCs and laptops have is mainly because they are cheap. Many people either can't afford £1,000+ computers or don't want to spend that much. They buy millions of cheap Windows PCs and are happy with their bargain.

The same is true of mobile phones and although the iPhone sells really well, it actually only has a small part of the overall market. That's because it has one expensive smartphone. It is outsold by millions of cheap alternatives and Android phones are set to dominate the market.

The tablet market doesn't have any cheap alternatives to the iPad. Tablet makers saw the great sales of iPads and though that there was a huge market for a premium priced products. There is, but Apple was in there first and continues to dominate it. To grab market share from Apple you'd have to create a better iPad.

This doesn't mean that there isn't a market for other tablets and since HPs announcement to stop the TouchPad the price has been dropped to a fraction of its original selling price. What happened is that sales shot through the roof and the last remaining stocks are selling out so fast it's hard to find one. The demand is huge.

This means that there was nothing wrong with the HP TouchPad and it was simply sold at the wrong price point. It shows that there is a big demand for cheap tablets and it just takes someone brave enough to create one.

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Chrome Web Store problems

One of the great features of Google's Chrome web browser is the way that it can be enhanced by adding extensions. One of the reasons why Firefox has grabbed such a large market share from Internet Explorer is because if the huge range of add-ons and extensions. Chrome is catching up fast, both in terms of extensions available and market share. Perhaps the two are related in some way, who knows?

Finding and installing extensions for Chrome is very easy and Google has built an online store. Just click the spanner icon in the top right corner and select Tools, Extensions. Then there's a link to go to the store. Well, store isn't quite the right word because most extensions are free. You just browse the categories, find one you like and click the button to install it. It's a piece of cake, or is it?

It is not hard to find people having problems accessing the Chrome Web Store though and some people have the curious problem of the images not displaying. The text is fine, but most or even all the images just appear as broken link icons. If you manage to browse the store and find something you want (even though you can't see it), clicking the install link fails to install it. You just get a message stating that the app is currently unreachable.

If you search the web for this error message you will find other people with the same problem. Many people offer solutions in forums and help pages, but they rarely work or they worked for one author and not
for anyone else.

I had this Chrome Web Store problem for weeks and tried some of the suggested fixes, but none of them helped. One thing that did work though, was to clear Chrome's cache, Click the spanner, Tools, Clear browsing data. Restarting Chrome and going straight to the store afterwards then enabled it to work, but only briefly. Just enough time to grab an extension. I installed Chrome in a virtual machine running Vista and the Chrome web store worked straight off. However, it soon stopped working. Perhaps it briefly worked because the cache was empty and when it was full it stopped. It's weird.

There are reports of people having this problem and they find it suddenly fixes itself. I had this. It wasn't working for weeks, then one day I tried it and it worked perfectly. It is still working. I didn't change any settings, install any software or do anything special. One day it just started working. I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it and no-one else seems to either. Just keep clearing the cache and trying it each day. One day it will work.

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Should I upgrade to OS X Lion?

Apple recently launched OS X Lion and it is very cheap and very easy to download from the Mac App Store, providing you have a fast internet connection that is. Does this mean that upgrading the the latest version of the OS is a no brainer? Should you upgrade? If not, why not?

Instead of asking yourself whether you should upgrade you should ask what you want to achieve. What do you want to do with your Mac? Can you do it with the current version of OS X? If you can't and whatever it is that you want to do can only be done with Lion then definitely upgrade. For example, if you are still running Tiger or Leopard and you want to be able to purchase software in the Mac App Store then you need to upgrade, at least to the latest version of Snow Leopard with all the patches and updates and preferably to Lion.

Each new version of the OS enables you to take advantage of new technologies and software. So if you're still running Tiger you won't have the Mac App Store, Time Machine and so on. Lion brings some new technologies and one of these is Auto Save, which automatically saves files without you having to click File, Save. It automatically stores previous versions in Time Machine fashion, but without needing Time Machine or an extra hard disk drive. It will sync with iCloud, an online storage service that will work across all Apple devices too. Is this a technology you need or can you live without it?

There are many more new features, such as extra support for trackpads on MacBooks and the Magic Trackpad, LaunchPad, Mission Control and so on. Do you need them or can you live without them? There is no doubt that they are nice to have, but are they really essential? Will the iOS-like full screen apps and menu system really increase your productivity?

If you can do everything you want with the current OS X then there is no advantage in upgrading and there are several disadvantages. As the operating system becomes more complex it grows in size and becomes more demanding of the hardware. It takes more disk space and it uses more memory. These are important factors if you have a Mac that is a few years old and you may find that it is struggling to run the latest OS.

Compatibility is an issue too and there is always a small risk that some hardware you have won't work after the upgrade. A scanner, printer or NAS (network attached storage) device may not be compatible. It's software may even conflict with Lion when you install it. Some people have found that NAS devices used for Time Machine no longer work after upgrading to Lion for example.

There is software compatibility to consider too and Rosetta, a technology that enabled modern Macs to run old software written for the PowerPC, is not supported. Do you have any old software that you rely on? It may not work if you upgrade. It's a risk you need to consider.

I have always found OS upgrades to be a case of two steps forward and one step back. Overall they are worth it and the all the advantages outweigh the few disadvantages.

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First thoughts on OS X Lion

Last week Apple released OS X Lion through the Mac App Store and apparently a million people downloaded it. It wouldn't be surprising actually because the price is so low it's a no brainer. An OS upgrade for just £20? That's cheap and it's probably to get as many people to upgrade as possible. Apple needs people to be running the latest version of OS X because it has key technologies like the Mac App Store, which doesn't work on Leopard or earlier versions of OS X. Will iCloud coming this autumn, only work on Lion or will it support Snow Leopard? Even if it does support Snow Leopard, it will work better with Lion.

Like many other people, I downloaded and installed Lion. My ageing MacBook isn't the ideal hardware and a newer model with a better trackpad is required for some features like the swipes, pinches and other gestures borrowed from iOS devices. However, I could always add a Magic Trackpad. At £59 it seems a bit overpriced for something that just enables me to swipe and pinch. Apart from this, Lion works fine on my 2007 MacBook with 2Gb RAM and 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo processor. Ideally though, 4Gb of RAM is best and you'll be struggling to do some tasks with 2Gb RAM. Just running Chrome and iTunes uses up over 1Gb of memory.

There are some big changes in Lion, but also lots of little ones too. One change that MacBook owners will notice is that it automatically logs on to Wi-Fi hotspots. This is an idea borrowed from iOS devices and when you switch on the Wi-Fi on your iPhone and select a hotspot, it will connect and display the login page automatically. Now the MacBook does this and as soon as the desktop appears a window opens prompting me to login to the Starbucks Wi-Fi.

This would be useful if it remembered my username and password, but it appears not to. Previously I started Safari and by pressing one key it automatically entered my username and password - stored in my keychain. The auto-login feature does not, so I have to manually enter them. This makes the new feature less useful than it could be. What's worse is that the login window disappears and there's no way to log out either. Starbucks is free, but if you were using a Wi-Fi hotspot that charged by the hour then you would need to be able to log out to avoid usage charges when you're not actually using it. It's a bit like taking two steps forward, but slipping one step back.

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Anti virus for your iPhone and iPad

Intego, the security company specialising in Apple Mac security, has launched what must be the first anti virus app for iOS devices - the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. VirusBarrier iOS is available right now on the iTunes store (type VirusBarrier into the search box or try this link). Is it necessary? Is your iOS device in danger of being infected by a virus?

iOS devices are not in any danger right now because there aren't any iOS viruses and malware authors are not targeting it, although this may possibly change in the future. There simply aren't any viruses for the iPhone or iPad. So why would you want an anti virus app?

The reason is that you may receive emails and documents that contain malware like viruses, Trojans and spyware, and then unknowingly pass them on to someone else.

You can be a carrier who is not infected themselves, but passes on the malware and infects others.

If you receive email with attachments and access documents over the web, via Dropbox and other cloud storage services, you can scan them with VirusBassic iOS and make sure that they are safe before forwarding them to someone else, or even your own desktop or laptop computer.

It is a great idea and the app is cheap at £1.79, so there's no reason not to buy it. The price includes one year's subscription to virus definition updates.

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Prepare your Google profile

If you have a Google account, such as Mail, Blogger, Reader and so on, you can create a profile. This is basically an About Me page that contains information about you such as where you live, gender, job title, education and so on. In the past has been possible to create a profile, but to keep it private so that no-one could see it, but now apparently this will soon change. Any profile set to private will automatically be deleted and all profiles will be made public. There won't be a private option at all.

You don't have to have a profile and if you have one it can be deleted, but it can have its uses and you might want to reveal some information about you. For example, bloggers often have a profile because it's useful to know a bit about the person writing the blog. It's not the only reason for having a profile and it makes it easier for people to find you on the internet. Long lost friends, potential employers and so on.

If you choose to have a profile, and you can create one by logging into your Google account and selecting Edit Profile - try this link - then you need to remember that it is public. The profile editor prompts you to enter all sorts of information and it could potentially be used by someone gathering details about you for identity theft or other purposes. For example, it is possible to put your work and home telephone numbers in it, but do you really want the whole world to know them? It's probably a bad idea to do this.

Similarly, adding your email address might lead to increased junk messages in your inbox. Surely the last thing you want to do is to make your email address public? Unless, of course, you have a public email address. It's useful to have two email accounts, one you give to anyone that asks for it, and another that only your best friends, employer, bank and a few others know about.

Remember that your profile is public and only give out as much or as little information as you want. Go and check it now. See what will be made public. The minimum information is your name and gender, so it's possible to have a profile yet give little away. You can, of course, delete your profile too and then no-one will be able to see anything.

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iPhone 5 and iPad 3 for October launch?

Recently there have been reports that the iPhone 5 and the iPad 3 are to be launched in October. Apparently Apple's suppliers are gearing up for the new gadgets and you can read the details at Cnet, Digitimes and Apple Insider. Are they likely? Yes and no.

The speed of development of mobile phones is just as fast as it ever was and new models are being released all the time. They are getting better and better too. It has been over a year since the iPhone 4 was launched and while it still compares well against the competition it is unlikely to look so good as we progress into 2012. A new iPhone, even if it has only a few minor updates, is required before the end of this year. A lot of iPhone 4 owners are now ready for a new model and would willingly upgrade if they had the chance. A faster processor and higher resolution cameras are possible upgrades and there's the well-known aerial problem that plagues the iPhone 4. It hasn't damaged sales much, but a redesign to avoid the death grip issue would help.

So what about the iPad 3? I can't see that there would be any benefit in launching this for Apple. Sales of the iPad 2 are excellent and there is no need for a new version to boost flagging sales. They just aren't flagging. iPad 1 owners have an upgrade path and they can buy the iPad 2, which is significantly better. They don't need an iPad 3 to tempt them to upgrade. iPad 2 owners haven't had their device very long and may not have even paid off their credit card bill yet, so they would not want to upgrade to an iPad 3 so soon. An October launch of an iPad 3 would not do much for Apple's sales.

What might be good idea though is an iPad Mini - a 7in screen version. Steve Jobs once rubbished the idea and said it was too small, but I think a smaller and more portable iPad would be very popular. The iPad is great, but it isn't really that much more portable than a light laptop and I bet a lot of iPads have rarely left the home. Will we see an October launch of a 7in iPad Mini? Who knows, but it is certainly unlikely to be an iPad 3. I predict that we'll see an update to the iPad in spring 2012, a year after the current model was launched.

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A wish list for the Apple Mac App Store

Apple has just released a new version of OS X - version 10.6.8 and it should be the last Snow Leopard update before Lion is released. So what is in this latest update and is it worth downloading?

One of the things that is does is to enhance the Mac App Store to get ready for upgrading to OS X Lion. Apple has said that Lion will be available from the Mac App Store (and not on DVD) in July, so we are literally weeks away from its launch. It is not clear how the Mac App Store has been modified, but it is not hard to guess what might have changed.

OS X will be a download from the store like any other application and it will be huge. OS X normally comes on a DVD and it could be a 2 or 3Gb download. That is a lot and if you are on a slow internet connection it will take many hours. What we need is a suspend and resume feature, partly because you might start a download and then not have time to finish it and partly to overcome connection problems. Part way through there might be a glitch that causes your internet connection to be lost and you don't want to have to start again at the beginning.

I don't know whether the Mac App Store supports this because I've never downloaded anything that couldn't be grabbed in one go, but a 3Gb OS X download is different and the chance of a download problem is greater. I sure hope Apple has thought this through and can I resume after an error or power off. If you go to the Store menu there is an option to check for unfinished downloads, so maybe it does actually resume.

Another thing that would be really useful and I hope has been put in the Mac App Store is bandwidth management. Normally you want to download an app from the store as fast as possible. This is fine with 20 or even 50Mb downloads, but when its 2 or 3Gb it would be useful to have bandwidth management. It would be really useful to have the download trickle down over a day or two in the background rather and than use all the bandwidth and render my Mac unusable for any other internet access for the duration.

Another essential feature that I hope is in this update is the ability to burn downloads to a CD/DVD. Now this normally doesn't matter because most downloads are small, but suppose you have several Macs and want to upgrade them all to Lion? You don't want to have to download 3Gb on every single machine! Surely you will be able to download it once and burn it to a DVD, which can then be used to install Lion on other Macs.

Not only would it be useful to create a DVD for upgrading several Macs, you also need a boot disc just in case there's ever a problem with your Mac. It is essential that you be able to boot from a disc and reinstall the OS, run Disk Utility, repair errors and so on.

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Flaw in iOS reinstall from the cloud feature

A new feature was enabled in the app store recently and at first sight it seemed quite useful, but it has an irritating flaw. Here’s how it should work: If you have multiple iOS devices, such as an iPhone and an iPad, you might purchase an app, download it and install it from the App Store on one device and wish it was also on the other device. Now you can easily do this without having to go through the App Store and purchase it all over again. All the apps you have purchased are listed in App Store Updates and you can re-download and re-install any of them with a few taps of the screen.

On the iPhone for example, you go to the App Store, tap Updates at the bottom of the screen, and tap Purchased. On the iPhone you can then select either All or Not on this iPhone. All the apps you have purchased are listed and there’s a little cloud icon next to each one. Tap it and you can download and install the app.

This sounds fine in theory, but the snag is that free apps are technically purchases and they are recorded as purchases against your iTunes user account, even though you never paid anything for them. So here’s the flaw: Every app you ever downloaded gets listed! There are thousands of free apps in the App Store and if you like trying them you will have clocked up a large number of (free) purchases.

Some apps are brilliant of course, but some are not and you might quickly delete them after trying them. They sound interesting in the App Store blurb, but when you try them they turn out to be boring, not what you thought it was, or isn’t appealing for some other reason. All the apps you ever download and rejected are listed on your device for re-installation. They get in the way of the apps you are interested in. You might have tried hundreds of apps if you have had your phone for some time and all the apps you rejected for whatever reason are listed.

This feature hasn’t been thought through properly. It can be fixed though and one thing that could be done is to filter out free apps. There is no need for them to be listed and if I have a free app on my iPad and I want it on the iPhone then I can just find it in the App Store and download it. The second thing to do is to filter out apps that have been deleted. If I download an app and delete it, it means I don’t want it! It shouldn’t come back and pester me to be downloaded again.

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OS X 10.6.8 to remove malware

You can't have failed to notice that the Mac has been hit by a malware attack recently and MacDefender has been infecting many peoples' computers. There are several variations of the name, so you may see it called something different elsewhere, and there at least two variations of the program. The first version required the user to enter their administrator password in order to install it. The second did not and just downloaded and installed.

Because the first version required the user to physically enter the admin password, many people said that anyone that did this was stupid and deserved everything they got. This is plain wrong. It is true of any computer expert or even a reasonably knowledgeable person, but there are large numbers of Mac users that have a limited knowledge of how computers work and how internet scams operate. If they visit a website and a pop-up window in the browser says there is a security problem with their computer then they will believe it. If a program downloads and prompts for the user to enter their admin password then they will enter it.

People trust their Macs. They know they must follow instructions displayed on the screen exactly or stuff won't work. They are used to downloading apps and installing them and entering their admin password when prompted to. They know the Mac doesn't get malware - Apple says so.

The second version of the MacDefender malware didn't even prompt for a password. It just downloaded and installed automatically. How is this possible? The reason is that Safari, which is bundled with all Macs and is the default web browser, is set to automatically run downloaded programs without any user intervention. The firewall is also disabled by default. It's a malware author's dream scenario - every Mac is set to auto-download and install apps. I went to a local Apple store and all the Macs were set to do this. I was half tempted to visit one of the poisoned websites carrying the malware to see what would happen.

It's a really bad idea to have a setting like this in a web browser and operating system. Apple should change the defaults immediately. In fact, the auto-run setting shouldn't even exist.

First Apple denied the existence of the MacDefender malware, but after some time it eventually provided instructions on how remove it. The company has promised an update to OS X that will automatically remove MacDefender and its variants and at the time of writing OS X 10.6.8 is in beta and should be released in the not too distant future.

Although Apple could easily produce an OS X update that removes MacDefender, what about the next malware program? The MacDefender author could tweak the program to get around Apple's detection or removal procedure, a new variant could be written, other malware authors could write different malware programs that OS X doesn't recognise. Surely some new malware will pop up as soon as OS X 10.6.8 is released?

It is hard to see how OS X updates can combat malware. You can't update OS X hourly, daily, or even weekly. All you can do is plug the security holes and tell users to install security software. The situation is so bad on Windows that anti virus programs update hourly. We are nowhere near that scenario yet on the Mac and malware is still rare in comparison to Windows, but it will be interesting to see if or how the author of MacDefender responds to the OS X update. We may see a new variation within days or even hours of the OS X update. I think that would be a strong indicator that the Mac is going down the same path as Windows and is becoming a serious target for malware authors.

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Apple and Microsoft move to ARM chips

It seems that both Apple and Microsoft think that the future of microprocessors may lie with ARM rather than Intel products. Both companies are working on getting future versions of their operating systems running on ARM chips.

With Apple, of course, there are only rumours and speculation, but there have been plenty of them in the last week or two. Here is a Cnet report: Apple to ditch Intel for ARM in MacBooks in which is is said that Apple is to drop Intel in favour  of ARM and that it is a done deal. Here is another, Analysts' take: Apple going to ARM on MacBooks. One more example, Rumour: Apple plans to move laptops from Intel to ARM processors.


Only Apple knows what its plans are and it isn't telling anyone else. Microsoft though, is very open about its future development plans and it has publicly announced that the next version of Windows will run on ARM processors.You can read the press release at the Microsoft website.

Given Microsoft's announcement it is quite likely that there is some truth in the Apple rumour. It is interesting that these two companies are investing a lot of money and resources in getting their OS running on ARM. They obviously see a future in which ARM devices are running Windows and OS X instead of, or perhaps as well as, traditional Intel ones.

If you look at the hardware development of mobile phones and tablets, they are becoming increasingly powerful and now we have 1GHz dual core ARM chips powering them with up to 64Gb of RAM, fast graphics chips and so on. Just think what we'll have in a couple of years - 2GHz quad core ARM CPUs? maybe, and with this amount of processing power you could run a full operating system and not just a cut down mobile version.

Microsoft has tried putting Windows on tablet PCs and it didn't work, but perhaps it was just an idea that was ahead of its time. Next year or the year after we may have hardware that is powerful enough to run a full OS and still give 10 hours battery life in a device that is light enough to hold in your hand.

It will soon be possible to create a tablet or smartphone that has the full Windows or OS X operating system on it. All it needs is two user interfaces. When you are carrying it around in your hand it would have a mobile touch-screen interface like today's tablets and smartphones. When you get home or to the office you plug the device into a cradle or docking station and it becomes a desktop computer running the full OS. You seamlessly carry on working on your documents whether in mobile or desktop mode and only the interface changes. That's an interesting prospect.

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1 in 3 choose iPad over TV

1 in 3 choose iPad over TV, said the headline at the CNN website recently. I know headlines have to be short and grab people's attention, but should this be at the expense of being misleading? It implies that 1 in 3 of the general population chooses the iPad over TV, but it was actually a survey of tablet users and not the general public. What's more, it wasn't even a survey of iPad owners and it was a survey of tablet users. Given the huge market share of Apple's iPad compared to Android devices, the vast majority of tablet owners in the survey probably were iPad owners, but not all of them.

So the headline isn't quite right and something like "1 in 3 tablet owners prefer it to TV" would be more accurate.

It's interesting to look at tablet usage though and the original source is a Google Mobile Ads blog. There is a PDF containing lots of slides that is worth viewing. When looking at the tablet usage chart it says that 52% of people spend more time on their tablet each day than listening to the radio. Well I spend more time sitting on the toilet than listening to radio. I just don't listen to it, so what does that prove?

I wonder what the results would be if you surveyed console owners - Xbox and Playstation. I don't know, but I suspect that the results might be similar. Do gamers spend more time on their console than reading a paper book or listening to the radio? It wouldn't be surprising. What if the survey was of Amazon Kindle owners? Would it still say 59% prefer it to reading a paper book or that 52% prefer it to the radio, and so on?

Whenever something new comes along no matter how much time we spend using it, there is less time for something else. As tablet ownership grows we'll spend less time doing other things and that's because there are only 24 hours in the day. We have to cut down on something else to focus our attention on the tablet.

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