Flash finally comes to the iphone and iPad!

What is the big deal about this?  Well, the only serious complaint that consumers have had about Apple devices has been Apple's refusal to allow flash to run on their devices.  This pretty much locked out most sites that hosted video for you to view.  Adobe and Apple have made peace, sort of, and now we get some form of flash.  It still will not work for flash based games, animations and advertisements.  Check out CNET for more information.

Google Music comes to the iPhone, sort of

We were expecting a nice iphone app, but instead we get a web interface app.  I love Google Music, but hate it on the iphone because you have to access it through safari, which to this point, has been a pain.  An app would have been nice, but we have to settle for a web app.  This web app is essentially the safari web page restructured to look nicer and be more user friendly. 

Send an email that disappears after it is read. Yes you can!

There may be times when you want to send a message that leaves no traces. Since "deleting" an e-mail doesn't really remove it from the sending server--let alone from the recipient's in-box and all the stops in between--you need a messaging system that keeps the message itself outside of either e-mail account. You also need to ensure that the text will disappear once it has been read.

That's the idea behind the free Privnote service. Write your note on the site, check the option to "Notify me when this note gets read" if you wish, and click Create Note to generate a link you can paste into an e-mail to the note's recipient. Compose your note in a text box on the Privnote site and then send a link to the note's recipient; after it has been read, the note is erased.

After the person opens the note and closes the page, the note disappears. The recipient can copy and paste the note's contents, so you can't be sure the message will not reappear elsewhere, but at least you know only the person who receives the link has access to the note. The recipient is given the option to compose another secure note.  (Credit: Screenshot by Dennis O'Reilly)

How much data do you use on your cell phone?

So with the elimination of unlimited data plans on smartphones, how do you know how much data you can download/use before using up your monthly data plan limit?  Well, check out the chart to see what it takes to reach your monthly limit.

 

The free anti-virus programs keep getting better

For the past several years, I recommended AVG, it was free and effective.  My only issue with it was the continual nagging to upgrade to the paid version.  It was not required, just lightly and continually suggested to the point of being irritating.  As such, I moved on and suggested Microsoft Security Essentials.  It had my key features, primarily being free, amongst also being effective.  The biggest feature that it had over AVG was that it did not bother you to upgrade to anything.  It sat quietly in your system tray, so quietly in fact that I often got calls from customers asking if they had an anti-virus program on their system.  Being bored with MSE, I looked for another option.  I had a feeling that there maybe something better out there that was free.  Many tech professionals never get virus infection because we tend to know what to do and not do.  However, in my case I need to use one just to keep up with all the customers I have that DO need an antivirus.  I need to know what is good and does not nag.  I moved on to Ad Aware Antivirus security suite.  I read many outstanding reviews that indicated that it was a great anti-virus program.  I agree, it does occasionally ask about upgrading, but nothing like AVG did.  Well, it seems like I am coming full circle, the new reviews of AVG 2012 Free are outstanding and maybe it may be a time to give it another try.  Whichever you choose, it is nice to know that most of the free options are good options.

Who would have thought IE9 would be the safest browser?

Not me, at least based on the last 10 years of history with using the browser.  According to the security firm, NSS they tested the major browsers on their ability to detect and avoid malware.  NSS Labs identified this type of malware as "a Web page link that directly leads to a download that delivers a malicious payload whose content type would lead to execution, or more generally a website known to host malware links."

NSS Labs also tested how long it took each browser to block malicious URLs after they appeared on the Internet. In this category, IE9 again won, catching 99 percent of new URLs in the first hour they were added to the pile of corrupt websites. Safari fared the worst, catching 6.4 percent of the bad sites within the first hour.  The issue is not just that it caught the malware, but it caught it at a rate substantially higher than any other browser.  Just a few years ago, Internet Explorer was labeled as the worst Internet browser in the world, and now... a 180 degree turn.  Read the article here.