Personal PC Pro Blog

Never Lose Your Cellphone Phonebook

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:52:00 +0000

A new product by Spark Technology, called Cellstick, plugs in to your cellphone and backs up your phonebook contacts. According to the product description, Cellstick "works with virtually any cell phone. It'll let you backup, enter, edit and transfer your cell phone contacts. So no matter what happens to your cell phone, your phone book survives. "

The product received a positive review from Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal. According to Mossberg, Cellstick is "A smart solution that really works, and it's about as easy to use as possible... CellStik is a fast and simple solution that could save users from the frustrating ordeal of losing a cellphone and every name and number on it."

For more information and to see if it supports your model of cell phone, visit the website at: http://www.sparktech.com/

Fake News Bulletin Email Spreads Malware

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Spammers and hackers have been sending out e-mail messages that look like they are coming from CNN or MSNBC as news alerts. It's easy to fall for this trick, especially if you actually have subscribed to receive news alerts via e-mail. The e-mails have included subject lines such as "CNN Alerts", "CNN.com Daily Top 10", and "Breaking News" with phony or legitimate news headlines.

According to PC World, one example includes a link that brings users to a fake CNN site, "where they are told they need to download an update to Flash Player, Adobe System Inc. 's popular Internet media player, to view a video clip from CNN."

"If users agreed to download the bogus Flash update, they were trapped in an endless loop, where clicking "Cancel" in the initial dialog produced a second pop-up. Clicking "Cancel" there returned the user to the first pop-up. The only options at that point were for users to shut down the browser or give in and install the malware."

"The bogus update -- named "adobe_flash.exe," ...is actually a Trojan horse identified by security vendors as "EncPk-DA" and "Exchanger.mn" among other names. The Trojan, in turn, "phones home" to a malicious server to grab and install more malware."

As a result of the rash of these fake e-mails, Adobe has issued the following warning: "Do not download Flash Player from a site other than Adobe.com," said David Lenoe, the company's product security program manager, in an entry on a company blog. "If you get a notice to update, it's not a bad idea to go directly to the site of the software vendor and download the update directly from the source. If the download is from an unfamiliar URL or an IP address, you should be suspicious."

Source: PC World: Fake CNN Alert Still Spreading Malware , and Fake News Bulletin Spreads Malware

Easily Add Speech Bubbles to Your Photos

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:14:00 +0000

Adding "speech bubbles" to digital photos used to involve learning how to use a sophisticated graphics program. But now there is a free service called Kyolo that makes it easy.

With Kyolo, all you do is upload the photo, add your choice of speech bubble shapes, enter the text you want for each bubble... and that's it. Once you are finished you can save or e-mail the updated photo.

click here to go the the site

Source: Download Squad

How to Block Cellphone Spam

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:20:00 +0000

Are you receiving unsolicited text messages on your cellphone?

According to Wikipedia, this practice is described as ‘mobile spamming, SMS spam or SpaSMS, but is most frequently referred to as m-spam.’

Unlike regular e-mail spam, you have to pay for it - At least if you don't have an unlimited texting plan. Meanwhile, the spammers can send text messages from a computer’s e-mail program for free. Moreover, there are no anti-SMS spam programs you can install on your cellphone.

But according to AT&T, with a little-known cellular feature you can block cellular spam.

“Our customers can get onto our Web site,” he wrote, “and set their handset so that it receives no messages from the Internet, the origin of the vast majority of wireless spam.”

“Text messages sent from the Internet are addressed as follows: [Your 10-digit wireless number]@txt.att.net.

“What spammers try to do, of course, is attempt to guess your number, largely by trial and error. This brings me to the second capability we offer our customers. Let’s say you want to block spam, but still want to receive messages originating from the Net that you would actually find useful (airline schedules, hotel reservations, etc.). For this purpose, we let you replace your wireless number with an alias. It could be some quirky name, or whatever you like. [You share this address only with people you know.] This could disrupt the guessing game spammers play to try to discern your number and sent you their junk.

“Though not perfect, our efforts have helped keep spam in the category of minor, though annoying, phenomenon. Thanks for listening.”
The beauty of this feature, of course, is that it blocks ONLY text messages from the Internet. Your friends, using cellphones, can still text you.
As it turns out, Verizon Wireless offers these features, too. Sprint and T-Mobile don’t go quite as far, but they do offer some text-spam filtering options. Here’s how you find the controls for each company:

* AT&T: Log in at mymessages.wireless.att.com. Under Preferences, you’ll see the text-blocking and alias options. Here’s also where you can block messages from specific e-mail addresses or Web sites.

* Verizon Wireless: Log in at vtext.com. Under Text Messaging, click Preferences. Click Text Blocking. You’re offered choices to block text messages from e-mail or from the Web. Here again, you can block specific addresses or Web sites. (Here’s where you set up your aliases, too.)

* Sprint: No auto-blocking is available at all, but you can block specific phone numbers and addresses. To get started, log in at www.sprint.com. On the top navigation bar, click My Online Tools. Under Communication Tools, click Text Messaging. On the Compose a Text Message page, under Text Messaging Options, click Settings & Preferences. In the text box, you can enter a phone number, email address or domain (such as Comcast.net) that you want to block.

* T-Mobile: T-Mobile doesn’t yet offer a “block text messages from the Internet” option. You can block all messages sent by e-mail, though, or permit only messages sent to your phone’s e-mail address or alias, or create filters that block text messages containing certain phrases. It’s all waiting when you log into www.t-mobile.com and click Communication Tools.

Source: NY Times, David Pogue

Some Handy Tools & Tips for Microsoft Word

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Microsoft Word is full of tools that can help you work faster and smarter—but only if you know about them. Here's some that you might not be familiar with:

Shrink document by one page. A document whose last page is mostly blank is a waste of printer paper, especially if you have to make a lot of copies. Your letters and mailings will also look more professional if they fill the pages nicely. If Print Preview reveals a skimpy last page, click the Shrink to Fit (Word 2003) or Shrink One Page button (Word 2007). Word will tweak the fonts in the document to make it a page smaller. Don't like the results? Just press Ctrl-Z to Undo.

Calculate in tables. Sure, you can embed an Excel worksheet in a Word document, but if you just need a few simple calculations, you can use Word's own math skills. Select a cell at the bottom of a column and click Formula on the Table Tools Layout ribbon (Word 2007), or select Formula from the Table menu (Word 2003). Word will suggest =SUM(ABOVE), but you can select among over a dozen functions. Besides choosing ABOVE, BELOW, LEFT, or RIGHT to work with all cells in the specified direction, you can reference individual cells and ranges as you do in Excel—for example, =AVERAGE(A1:C3).

Merge to e-mail. Mail-merging to letters and envelopes is too-too 1990s, but you may still need to send a common message to a group of correspondents. That's no problem, since the familiar mail-merge feature in Word can also send e-mail messages. In Word 2007, complete your letter, click Finish & Merge in the ribbon and choose Send E-mail Messages from the menu. In Word 2003 select "E-mail messages" at the very first step of the Mail Merge wizard. Either way you'll be prompted for a subject (the same for every message) and for a data field that holds e-mail addresses of the recipients.

Compare two documents. Your newest client just returned a revised version of a contract document file but didn't mark his revisions. Is he trying to hoodwink you with sneaky changes? Rather than ruin your eyes poring over the old and new documents, have Word find the differences. In Word 2003 open the old document, choose Compare and Merge Documents from the Tools menu, and select the new document. In Word 2007 choose Compare Compare from the Review ribbon and select both the old and the new document.

Document inspector. Your Word 2007 documents may contain a lot more information than you realize--tracked changes, comments, hidden text, private properties, and more. Distributing a document with this kind of data present can be embarrassing. To make sure you're not revealing too much in a Word 2007 document, click the Office button at the top left, point to Prepare, and click Inspect Document in the resulting menu. Word 2003 has no precise equivalent, but you can get some benefit using the Security tab of the Options dialog. Check the boxes "Remove personal information from file properties on save" and "Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments."

Built-in translator. The Research panel in both Word 2007 and Word 2003 includes an option to translate the selected text or the entire document between various languages. It's more useful when you're trying to puzzle out what a foreign-language document means than when you want to communicate your own thoughts with those who don't speak English. To see why, translate a few sentences from English to another language and then back to English.

Create fancy equations. Sure, you can write "the electric field equals one over the electrical conductivity times the electric current density," but is a lot more compact. To insert an equation into Word 2007 choose Equation Insert New Equation from the Insert ribbon and use the tools on the Equation Design toolbar that appears. In Word 2003, it's a bit more awkward. Select Insert Object from the menu, choose Microsoft Equation 3.0, and click OK, then use the Equation toolbar that appears.

Use math autocorrect. (Word 2007 only) All of those fancy math symbols can be available even outside the Equation Design toolbar. Click the Office button at the top left, click the Word Options button, select Proofing, click AutoCorrect Options, and check the box "Use Math AutoCorrect rules outside of math regions." Now you can type \aleph to insert an aleph (ℵ), \int for an integral sign (∫) or even type \quadratic to insert the entire quadratic equation (x=(-b±√(b^2-4ac))/2a).

Source: PC Magazine, Neil J. Rubenking

Problem with 2008 Holidays in Outlook 2003

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:50:00 +0000

If you're using Microsoft Outlook 2003 you might have noticed that you can only add holidays through 2007. Here is a solution from the New York Times Personal Tech Column:

The ability to mark holidays for your particular country or region on your personal calendar is a handy feature of Microsoft’s Outlook program. But you don’t have to be stuck in time if you’re sticking with Outlook 2003. Microsoft has issued a software patch for Outlook 2003 that lets you add holidays through 2012. You can download and install the update at snipurl.com/22r1s.
If you encounter problems installing the update, Microsoft has a technical support document at support.microsoft.com/kb/924423. Outlook’s official blog explains how to add your own custom holidays to your calendar at snipurl.com/22r2n.

On the Mac side, Entourage users can add holidays to their calendars by going to the File menu to Import and choosing the “Import Holidays” option in the box. Mac users looking to add holiday calendars for Apple’s iCal program can download and subscribe to a variety of different dates at apple.com/downloads/macosx/calendars.

Covering sporting events, SAT testing dates, Blu-ray disc releases and even Belgian school holidays, the iCalShare site also offers 2,500 calendars for download at icalshare.com. The files are compatible with Microsoft Works and other programs using the iCalendar standard.

The online calendars offered by Yahoo and Google also let you add holidays to your digital datebook. For Yahoo, click on “Calendar Options” on the right side of the screen, and then on “Time Guides” to get to the “Add/Edit Holidays” link. For Google, click on the tiny “Manage Calendars” link on the bottom left side of the screen. Click the Calendars tab and then on the “Add Calendar” button to get to the link for “Holiday Calendars.”

Source: NYT (By J.D. BIERSDORFER)

Wireless Headset for Internet Phone Calls

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:16:00 +0000

Wireless Headset for Internet Phone Calls
By ROY FURCHGOTT
Published: March 27, 2008
The Logitech ClearChat wireless headset, which the company says is the first of its kind with Internet calling in mind, is also meant to be faux-pas-proof.

The addition of an unusual feature can keep you from speaking out of turn. When the headset is muted, the microphone glows red. This confirms that the microphone is off, so you won’t have to ask, “Can you hear me now?” They can’t.
This stereo headset, with a retail price of $100, has over-the-ear padded phones and a boom microphone. Compatible with Macs and PCs, it requires no setup, although a small receiver will occupy one of your computer’s U.S.B. ports.

The headset broadcasts over the 2.4-gigahertz band, just like many portable phones, and Logitech estimates that the signal will carry more than 30 feet. The microphone has noise canceling to diminish background sound, so people can hear you clearly when they are supposed to.

Source: NY Times

Cell Phone Headsets for only $4

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:38:00 +0000

Studies show that the use of hands-free devices greatly improves a driver’s concentration, subsequently decreasing the risk of injuries and deaths.

FreeHeadset.org is an organization dedicated to promoting cell phone safety by distributing high quality cell phone headsets for only $3.94 (includes shipping and handling).

source = "beststuff.com"

Different greetings for different callers

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:36:00 +0000

YouMail is a free service that lets you customize your cell phone voicemail messages. You can have one standard greeting and also a different greeting depending on who is calling you.

YouMail, Inc. (www.youmail.com), the mobile industry's premiere consumer voicemail service, announced in September the addition of two new voicemail features to greatly expand users' control over their cellular worlds. The features -- "smart caller ID" and "personalized away messages" -- allow voicemail to be a much more effective method for personal communication.

SMART CALLER ID
YouMail provides enhanced notification of incoming voicemail through text messages and/or e-mails. Now when voicemails are left, YouMail's "smart caller ID" automatically tells its users not only the number of who called, but also the caller's name, and the length of the voicemail message -- all without the need for any set-up on the user's part.
"Caller ID information has generally been very limited on cell phones, with mobile users knowing only the phone number that left a voicemail," said Ken Brickley, VP of Marketing for YouMail. "With YouMail, users know exactly who left them voicemail, allowing them to save time by retrieving only the voicemails that matter and help verify that callers are who they say they are."

PERSONALIZED AWAY MESSAGES
YouMail allows users to set up personalized greetings for their callers, whether for a single caller or a group of callers like family or friends, and they can record their own outgoing messages or choose from a growing library of thousands of pre-recorded greetings. Now users who will be unavailable can quickly and easily arrange away messages for their cell phone -- akin to the similar ability in instant messaging, but tailored to different groups of people in their lives.
"Cell phone users often find themselves knowing they'll be unavailable or out of coverage for a period of time," said Brickley. "Now a user can simply choose an appropriate message and with a couple of clicks let their friends know they're away on vacation or out surfing, and co-workers or clients know they're in a meeting or on a plane."

USER FEEDBACK
Both innovations were inspired by recommendations from YouMail user feedback.
"YouMail is about cell phone voicemail that truly satisfies its users," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. "Whether it's knowing everything about who's leaving you messages or easily letting incoming callers know when and where you'll be out of reach, with the touch of a button you're in complete control of how you connect with everyone in your life."

About YouMail
YouMail replaces your cellular voicemail with a free and dramatically better voicemail system that helps you save time, simplify their life, and have fun. YouMail is transforming voicemail into something that's amazingly useful and incredibly fun, providing personalized greetings and away messages for individuals or groups of callers, a library of greetings uploaded by its users, and online voicemail access with the ability to share and save special voicemails easily. To learn more and sign up for the free YouMail service, go to www.youmail.com.

MagicJack - A Jack That Lets Regular Phones Take Advantage of Those Cheap Internet Long-Distance Rates

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:26:00 +0000

Computer-based phone services like Skype allow you to call friends and family free — as long as they have a PC with a sound card and a microphone. A little device called MagicJack will let you make calls from your phone to other phones in the United States for fractions of a penny a minute.

The device costs $39.95, a price that includes a year of unlimited domestic calls; additional years cost $20. MagicJack, which looks like a U.S.B. memory stick, plugs right into your Windows PC, which immediately displays a telephone keypad. (A Mac version is planned.) Each MagicJack is assigned its own phone number, and the price includes voice mail and call waiting. You can also use the MagicJack overseas to reach numbers in the United States and receive calls from there.

These sorts of Internet calling devices aren’t new. The MagicJack, however, has a real telephone jack on the side, letting you quickly bring almost any corded or cordless phone into the 21st century

Source: New York Times (By JOHN BIGGS)

New Word Document Format

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:37:00 +0000

Microsoft changed the document format used by the Word program in its Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac software suites. The old .doc file extension used by previous versions of the program has been replaced with .docx, which refers to the Office Open XML format. (This file format was developed by Microsoft and is not to be confused with the OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite, a set of open-source programs with their own formats.)
While people using the newer versions of Word can save their documents to a format that is compatible with older editions of the program, not everyone remembers to do so. You are not forced to upgrade to Word 2007 just to read these files, though, and there are a few ways to crack open a .docx file.
Microsoft offers its own compatibility pack that lets older versions of the Word program open and save files in Office Open XML format. An article in the company’s online knowledge base explains the process and provides a link to the compatibility pack for Word 2003, Word 2002 and Word 2000 at support.microsoft.com/kb/924074. (Some elements in a Word 2007 document may not convert properly, and an article at snipurl.com/1yos2 describes many of the things to look out for.)
For those using Word 2004 or Office v.X for Macintosh, Microsoft offers a free Open XML File Format Converter program that can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx.
If you don’t want to use Microsoft’s solutions, the Web site at http://www.docx2doc.com/ offers both inexpensive Web-based file conversions and a standalone converter program. The Docx2Rtf program for Windows can also convert .docx files into rich text format (.rtf); the software is free and available to download at www.nativewinds.montana.com/software/docx2rtf.html.

Source: New York Times

Convert To Digital

noreply@blogger.com (personalpcpro) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:22:00 +0000

HOME MOVIES
The simplest way to digitize those shoeboxes full of Super 8 movies is to use the technique perfected by movie pirates: project the image on a white wall, set up a digital camcorder on a tripod, and then shoot the film.
This is one case where you won’t get the best results if you make it a do-it-yourself project. The different frame rates of movie film and a camcorder could cause annoying flickering of the final image. Send your movies to a commercial transfer service like Audio Video Memories (audiovideomemories.com), Digital Transfer Systems (digitaltransfersystems.net), and Just8mm.com that uses a telecine machine, a much more sophisticated version of the same home technique.
Movies arrive back on DVDs, ready to be imported into the PC for editing with a program like Apple’s iMovie ($79, part of iLife ’08) for Macs, or for PCs, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 ($100).

VHS TAPES
To transfer VHS footage, which is analog, into a computer, the PC needs to receive the data digitally. One way to check if your PC is so equipped to do that is to look at the computer’s ports. If it has the familiar RCA inputs — the yellow, white, and red connectors — then it most likely is analog ready.
If not, analog images must first be converted to the digital format. To do so, combination VHS/DVD player/recorders are one of the simplest ways to get your home movies off your aging video tapes and onto more permanent DVDs. Available from Panasonic, Sony and others, prices start at under $200.
Alternatively, connect a stand-alone VHS player to a DVD recorder to make a digital copy.
VHS tapes can also be recorded onto a computer’s hard drive by plugging the VCR’s output cable into a digital camcorder that offers a “pass through” mode (most do). The signal is digitized within the camcorder, and then passed on to the PC’s hard drive.
Sony’s $229 VRD-MC5 is specifically made to record DVD copies of VHS tapes, or recordings from any camcorder or digital video recorder, without using a PC. VCRs and camcorders are plugged into the device, which resembles a portable DVD deck.
If you do not own a camcorder or DVD recorder, but you have loads of valuable tapes, consider an intermediary conversion product, such as the DAC-200 ($184; synchrotech.com); Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge ($300; omegamultimedia.com), and VHS to DVD 3.0 ($80; honestech.com). Each product includes hardware and software that converts analog signals to digital,.

LPS, EIGHT-TRACKS, AND CASSETTES
Getting your old Country Joe and the Fish albums into your PC is one of the easiest conversions to do, according to Tom Merritt, executive editor of CNetTV.com.
Assuming you still have a phonograph turntable (or eight-track or cassette deck) and it is not the console type from the 1950s or earlier, plug the audio output from the turntable’s amplifier/receiver into the minimike port found on virtually all home computers.
While commercial audio editing software is available, Mr. Merritt recommends installing Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net), a free program available for Macs, PCs and Linux/Unix machines that will manage the files, convert them into a specific format (for example, WAV or MP3), and remove clicks and crackles.
For those who value their time more than the fun of connecting cables and reading manuals, there are plenty of commercial companies happy to do the converting for you. Cassettes2CDs.com will convert audio and video tapes, LPs and 45s to digital format, storing the data on a CD, DVD or MP3 format for iPod use. The company does not handle 78 r.p.m. records, reel-to-reel or eight-track tapes.