Posted by Eric Torres on Tue, Sep 07, 2010 @ 03:01 PM
Part of Apple’s new software announcement last week was the integration of Apple’s iTunes Ping into the newest version of iTunes. iTunes Ping, commonly referred to as simply “Ping” is a 
social network that has been integrated into the largely popular music software. Described by Steve Jobs as "Twitter and Facebook meet iTunes," Ping aims to let the already-existing and rather massive audience of iTunes users “friend” each other, stay up-to-date on their friends' musical tastes, and like/comment on things found around iTunes. Another Ping feature allows users to rate bands and songs.
The main purpose of the social networking aspect of iTunes is to allow users to discover new music, follow artists, as well as see up to date comments posted by their friends. This aspect of it, is fairly similar to a Facebook or a Twitter account, but keeps all of your music information within a software program that most people already use fairly often, and some people even use daily. What is also great about Ping, is that similar to Facebook and Twitter, Ping is accessible on the go, with Ping being available in iTunes for both iPod Touches, and iPhones.
Ping will also create a custom chart showing music selections based on those followed. Basically, you can follow your friends or favorite artists and see what kind of music they are listening to. The actual activity stream consists of your friend connections, purchases, comments, and concert plans. Every time a song or album is mentioned, a Buy button is displayed, and this offers additional drop-down choices for Like, Post, Gift This Album, Add to Wish List, Tell a Friend, Copy Link, and Share on Facebook or Twitter. In a demonstration during the official release announcement, Jobs showed how users can also post videos and photos to the service, as well as search concert information and tag concerts attended.
Getting started with Ping is easy. Ping requires iTunes 10 and by default Ping is not activated. Apple must have learned from all the complaints about Facebook's privacy, by making users turn this feature on themselves. Once you install the latest version of iTunes, you can find Ping in the iTunes Store menu bar and click on Ping to set up your account. Once your Ping account is created you can then find Ping in the navigation bar to the left. For a step by step tutorial on how to activate your Ping account click here.
There are over 160 million iTunes users, all of whom are able to sign up for the new Ping service. Given the shear numbers, I can only assume Ping will be a hit, but only time will tell.
Posted by Eric Torres on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 @ 01:20 PM
Facebook's newest feature allows you to share your location with your friends.
Facebook has launched its new Places feature allowing you to share your current location by "checking in" from your smartphone. It’s basically Facebook’s version of Foursquare, a company that Facebook considered buying earlier in the year. If you never really got into earlier location-based social networking services or just want to know what it is or how to turn it off, read on for everything you need to know about Facebook Places.
Checking In Via Smartphone
Before you can share your location with your Facebook friends, Facebook needs to know where you are. Just open touch.facebook.com in your web browser (or use the Facebook for iPhone app on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad), and you'll see a tab under "Inbox" called "Places." For the iOS app, it'll show a new icon in the middle of the home screen.
Tap Places, and you'll see your recent check-ins as well as where your friends and checked-in from. From here, you can find more 
detailed information about the places your friends are checking into (map location, description, directions, comments, and other check-ins), or you can check yourself into a nearby location by pressing the Check In button at the top-right corner of the page.
The list of available locations comes from other people's check-ins and listings from Bing's mapping engine, so you might have to add your location manually by pressing “Add”, and it will take you to a page where you can fill out a name and description.
Once you tap Check In, you'll be presented with a list of nearby locations where other people have checked in. Tap the one you want to check into, and you can choose to comment on what you are doing there or add your Facebook friends to your check-in (Press the What are you doing? and Tag Friends With You buttons, respectively). Next, press the big Check In button, and it will show up on your News Feed.
Businesses Owning Their Facebook Place
While anyone can add a Facebook Place, business owners can turn the listing in Places into a proper Facebook Page, with Likes and a Wall. Start by checking in from your Place (or adding it, if it doesn't show up in the list of nearby Places), and click the link on the bottom of the page that says Is this your business?
Facebook doesn't want people cybersquatting on someone else's business listing, so you'll have to check a box certifying you're an official representative of the business and click Proceed with Verification to continue. Next, you'll have to provide your business's contact information, including your Federal Employee ID number (if applicable) and some kind of official documentation (Certificate of Formation, Articles of Certificate of Incorporation, a local business license, or a BBB accreditation).
Once you've submitted that information and received the okay from Facebook's User Operations team, you'll be in full control of your new Place.
Turning Off Facebook Places
If you decided Facebook Places isn't for you, there are a handful of settings you will have to change to fully deactivate it. Start by going to Account > Privacy Settings > Customize Settings under Sharing on Facebook. From here, you'll need to change the settings for Places I Check In, People Here Now, and Friends Can Check Me into Places (under the Things Others Share heading).
You'll need to change one more setting: Go back to Privacy Settings, choose the Edit Your Settings option under the Applications and Websites heading (lower-left), and click Edit Settings for Info accessible to your friends. Uncheck the Places I've Visited box, and you are good to go.
For a more detailed explanation the options available for Facebook Places check out the Facebook Blog, "Facebook Blog: Who, What, When, and now…Where”
Posted by Eric Torres on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 @ 09:48 AM
Apple has sent out invitations to the press for a 'special event' scheduled on September 1st at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts Theater in San Francisco. The text in the invite offered no hint of what might be in store, but there has been plenty of speculation leading up to it. Many rumor mongers bet that Apple will introduce the new iPod Touch with camera and/or a cheaper Apple TV box unit. From the buzz over the web and in the technology world, it looks like it might be more of an iPod related event.
The invites sent out contain image of an acoustic guitar with the Apple logo cut out on it. It is fairly clear that Apple would be 
releasing something related to music. Among the new products and services rumored to be on tap:
- A new iPod touch, possible with a higher-res screen and one or two cameras
- A new Apple TV, priced at $99 and built around iOS and the iTunes store
- A 99-cent TV rental service, subject to the agreement of the TV studios
- A cloud-based iTunes service that makes use of the new data center Apple has been building in North Carolina.
Earlier this year, two iPod touch prototypes with camera were spotted on eBay.
Heavy buzz is being created about the new Apple TV box that would be lighter, cheaper and won't have any hard drive. This complements rumors about the new cloud-based iTunes service. Any or all of this could be wrong, of course. I guess we’ll all have to wait for the announcements from this special event scheduled 12pm Central on September 1.
Posted by Eric Torres on Wed, Aug 25, 2010 @ 03:15 PM
At River Run we have had quite a few curious minds ask us about their latest smartphones, and whether or not it is a good idea to “jailbreak” or “root” their phone. There are plenty of reasons why or why not to jailbreak your phone, but more importantly everybody should first understand what it means exactly to jailbreak a phone.
Essentially, the primary purpose of jailbreaking or rooting a smartphone is to allow the phone to install and run third-party 
applications, freeing it from the limitations imposed on it by the device manufacturer and the carrier. For example, iPhone’s that are not jailbroken can only run applications obtained through Apple’s App Store.
Primarily speaking, the term jailbreaking is used in reference to Apple’s iPhone, shortly after its release in 2007. In fact, the first iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007, and the first jailbreak was publicized on July 10, 2007. Soon groups dedicated to hacking the iPhone released jailbreaking applications so people without hacking skills could release their phones from AT&T and Apple’s lockdown.
Rooting is a term used in reference to the Android operating system, describing a similar process. In both jailbreaking and 
rooting, you take administrative control over the operating system. However, the purpose of rooting is a little different than jailbreaking. Android phones are not locked into running only apps that come from the Android Marketplace, but some apps require rooting. Rooting also enables you to install a custom ROM to run versions of Android that the handset maker doesn’t supply or support. Mobile phone carriers often place limitations on the phones they provide, and rooting lets you circumvent those limitations.
Is Jailbreaking or Rooting a Phone Legal?
Previously, jailbreaking or rooting your phone was considered illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) enacted in 1998. However, last month on July 26th, Federal regulators lifted a cloud of uncertainty when they announced it was lawful to hack or "jailbreak" a phone.
Why Would I Want to Jailbreak or Root My Phone?
Jailbreaking or rooting allows the owner to do everything from customizing the look of your phone to installing third-party applications and customizations. Depending on how far you are willing to go, you can do even more than that: Jailbreaking even allows you to unlock your phone so you can use it with a carrier other than the one it was intended for. The customization options are endless for jailbroken or rooted phones.
Why Wouldn't I Want to Jailbreak or Root My Phone?
Once you jailbreak or root your phone, essentially, you are on your own. You may have voided your warranty, so you can't rely on your carrier or the manufacturer to fix any problems you encounter. All of the applications that jailbreak your phone are unauthorized and could damage or completely disable your phone. Your useful smartphone could end up as nothing more than a very expensive paperweight. It is true that if you do it incorrectly, you could end up with a useless device, especially when installing a custom ROM. However, in most cases, you can restore the phone to the factory settings if a mistake is made.
Perhaps a more important concern is that jailbreaking or rooting can compromise the security and or reliability of your smartphone. Remember, these phones are actually full-fledged computers, albeit small ones. The devices are vulnerable to malware and attacks just like laptop and desktop systems. An advantage of getting apps from Apple’s App Store is that the apps have been tested thoroughly. This applies, to a lesser extent, to the Android Marketplace. Unofficial apps can contain malicious code, or they may just be poorly written and cause your phone’s OS to crash. When applications have root access, they can do a great deal of harm to your phone’s software.
If you do decide the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, there are a number of tools available to help you with either jailbreaking or rooting your phone. A simple Google search will result in numerous websites, step by step videos and applications to assist you. River Run strongly recommends you weigh out all the pros and cons before attempting to alter your phone in any way.
Posted by Eric Torres on Thu, Aug 19, 2010 @ 07:56 PM
Mozilla has launched an early beta version of the next Firefox browser (Firefox 4) and plans to release further beta's for testing every two to three weeks. The goal, Mozilla said, is to improve 
the development process by receiving feedback from developers quickly and getting fixes and changes tested earlier than in previous Firefox development cycles.
The most noticeable improvement to Firefox 4 has to do with the look of the browser. The tabs have been moved to the top to make it easier to control the tools in the web browser itself. Also, if you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista, the menu bar was replaced with a single Firefox button so you can get to the most-used options with just one click.
Under the hood, Firefox 4 integrates a new add-on manager that provides users with more space to handle add-ons, themes and plug-ins. Developers will also be able to build Firefox add-ons more quickly using the new Jetpack SDK to safely connect to existing libraries.
With Firefox 4, users will no longer have to restart the browser in order to install a new add-on or recover from a crash. When a plug-in crashes or freezes, you will be able to resume browsing by simply refreshing the page.
Firefox is known for its add-ons, where it has established one of the richest environments for new capabilities, positioning it as a platform unto itself. Add-ons, extensions and apps are becoming important for browser vendors because it creates additional options for its users.
Future beta releases of Firefox 4 will enable users to synchronize settings, passwords, bookmarks, history, open tabs and other customizations across multiple devices.
If you are interested in helping Mozilla test the future Firefox, download the beta version of Firefox 4 by clicking on the link below. If you are interested in downloading the latest official Firefox release (version 3.6.8) click on the link below.
Firefox 4 Beta
Firefox 3.6.8
Posted by Eric Torres on Thu, Aug 19, 2010 @ 09:52 AM
How many times have you been in a hurry and wished you could exit out of all your applications at once? Well now you can with Close All Windows, a small tool that runs as an .exe file so you don't have to install it. Here's how:
- Download the zip file from this site Close All Windows (scroll to the bottom for the download).
- Extract the files to a folder on your computer.
- Open the extracted folder, right click CloseAll.exe and select Send To, then Desktop (create shortcut).
- On the desktop, right click the new shortcut and rename it "Close All" or whatever name you choose.
- Drag the shortcut to your Quick Launch bar if you prefer.
- To close all open programs, click the shortcut.
The site referenced above shows screenshots of these steps and also includes instructions for excluding specific programs so they won't be closed by Close All.
Posted by Eric Torres on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 @ 10:11 AM
Netbooks started out as inexpensive consumer devices but they have since invaded the business world as well. There are some 
important differences between business-focused netbooks and those targeted at consumers, and those differences generally make the business netbooks cost more. Is the higher price worth it? Click below for 10 comparisons between the two and you can decide for yourself.
Business vs. Consumer Netbooks
Posted by Eric Torres on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 @ 08:10 AM
UPDATE: Photocopier Risk - The Latest in Personal Information Theft
In the June edition of the River Run Tech Flash we featured an important article about photocopier risk. To recap, the hard drive embedded in most copiers and intelligent printers manufactured in the past five years, stores data on the drive before a document is copied or printed. On some models, unless there are security provisions in place, the data is stored unencrypted and remains there until the drive is full and new data overwrites the old.
River Run has received a few phone calls from concerned clients and friends asking what they can do to protect themselves. Here are a couple of things you should do to protect yourself if you are replacing a photocopier embedded with a hard drive:
- Remove the hard drive and have it wiped clean. Keep in mind, the drive has to be formatted properly in order for the photocopier to remain usable. Contact River Run Computers and we will be more than happy to direct you on how to properly have your drive wiped.
- Get it in writing from the company servicing your photocopier that the drive has indeed been wiped clean.
- There are hard drive security kits available for purchase from most photocopier suppliers. The kit includes password protection and encryption of your data as well as allowing easy wiping of the drive itself.
To help our clients combat any issues that may arise from the embedded hard drives, River Run Computers has teamed up with Central Office Systems for assistance with this latest security risk. If you would like more information on the risks or have any additional questions, please contact Eric Torres at River Run Computers (414-228-7474) or feel free to contact Arthur Flater at Central Office Systems (262-784-9698).
Posted by Eric Torres on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 @ 07:15 AM
Who says that Blackberrys should dominate the business market? Aside from being pretty cool and fun to use, iPhones can also lend themselves to the business world. In fact, the App Store is bursting at the seams with useful apps for the suit-wearing, executive iPhone user. But which ones should you go for? Which are a waste of time? Click the link below to discover five of the App Store's most useful iPhone apps for business networking.
iPhone Business Apps
Posted by Eric Torres on Tue, Jul 06, 2010 @ 07:17 AM
Although laptops are certainly convenient, if you need to be online all the time, it can be difficult to locate and use public Wi-Fi if you are always on the go. However, if you have a BlackBerry smartphone, you can use it with your laptop to connect to the Internet. Although you have to be conscious of any provider fees associated with using your BlackBerry to connect to the Internet, it is a nice way to keep yourself constantly connected on the go.
This article will show you how to use your BlackBerry device to connect a Windows notebook or desktop computer to the Web.
BlackBerry as a Modem