Avoiding The April 1st Bug *Security Warning*

MSNBC NEWS STORIE ON THE CONFICKER WORM

Click the above link for more information on protecting your computers from the virus!

This virus is spread with no human involvement. The bug was fixed by Microsoft in October, but if you did not have Windows Live Updates installed your computer is still at risk. Go to the link to find more information.

The Tech Review

More Posts To Come Soon

More posts will come very soon, check back for the latest!

The Tech Review

Pink Friday

TigerDirect.com and CompUSA, two of the nation’s leading retailers of consumer electronics and technology products, are changing Black Friday to “Pink Friday” in an effort to make the busiest shopping day of the holiday season their most charitable day as well. The Pink Friday drive starts on the day traditionally known as Black Friday, November 28th, and runs through December 31, 2008. TigerDirect and CompUSA expect to donate more than a quarter million dollars from total sales and donations in a cooperative effort for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure fight against breast cancer.

This text was taken from the Pink Friday site and was not written by the Tech Review

Black Friday Deals

Many stores have now started there Pre Black Friday Sales. This is one of the best times of the year to purchase electronics and computers. Go to http://blackfriday.info for a listing of stores and products. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye:

WalMart Pre Black Friday*:

Nintendo Wii Value Bundle-$358.00

1G Ipod Shuffle with Docking Station-$69.00

Phillips DVD Player with Progressive Scan-$34.00

Dell Inspiron 8.9"Netbook Mini Laptop with 1G Flash Drive and Mouse-$418.00

Nikon CoolPix Digital Camera with Bonus 2G SD Card-$94.00

*While Supplies Last

WalMart Black Friday:

Dell Desktop with 250GB HD, DVD Burner And  a 19 Inch Monitor-$598.00

HP Pavilion 15.6" Laptop with 160GB HD with DVD Burner-$448.00

HP Pavilion Desktop with 2G RAM,160GB HD,19 Inch Monitor-$398.00 DOOR BUSTER 

Toshiba Satellite Laptop 15.4",4GB RAM,250GB Ram,Webcam- $548.00

Apple Ipod Touch 8GB Multimedia Player-$227.88

JVC 30GB Hard Drive Camcorder-$249.00 DOOR BUSTER

Magnavox Blu-Ray Player-$128.00 Doorbuster

Garmin Nuvi 200 Nav System-$97.00 Doorbuster

Seagate 500 GB External Hard Drive-$69.00

DOOR BUSTER- Limited Quantity Available At Early Hours 

Picking The Right Web Browser

Picking the right web browser is very important to maintain the highest level of security for your machine. Just because your computer came with a particular browser doesn't mean that it is necessarily the best one for you. If you are using Windows (XP or Vista)or Mac I would pick Firefox. Firefox is the most secure and well designed web browser that I have had the chance to use. My second pick is Safari, Safari comes preloaded on all Mac machines and is a really good web browser. The only browser that I would avoid is Internet Explorer. I have fixed many computers where the only problem was that they were using Internet Explorer and they were experiencing slower internet speeds. 

Great MacBook Pro Deals! At MacMall.com

If you are looking for a good place to buy your new MacBook Pro, but you don't want to go through the Apple store. Head on over to MacMall.com. They have these wonderful notebooks any where from $1,149.99 to $3,144.00. They offer mail in rebates that add up to as much as $200.00. Follow the link below to find a great deal on Macs and Mac products.

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/families/macbookpro/

IPhone 3G Will You Buy It?

Steve Jobs announced last Monday that they are going to release a new version of the IPhone. The new phone will still be on the AT&T network and will be able to access the 3G network. This means faster emailing and web browsing. The 3G service is only available in lager metropolitan areas, but they are working to expand the coverage area. I would suggest checking the coverage map on their website before purchasing. The phone will also include a built in GPS receiver which will make navigation in your car more reliable. Some wonder if upgrading from the first generation IPhone will be necessary. If you ask me it all depends on how much money you have too spend on it. Be aware that the software updates that Steve Jobs made at WWDC 2008 will work on the older phone's and will be free of charge but if you want the new update for your IPod Touch it will cost you just over $9.00. Some of the changes he made will make the already business friendly phone even more compatible with a business network infrastructure such as Microsoft Exchange. I have also heard that if you upgrade your older phone you can still use it as an IPod Touch like device. The new App. Store is a new feature to both the Touch and the phone. This means that you will be able to access a wide array of applications from your device such as games and other programs that will make your phone even more interactive and usable. My advice, think before you buy. If you have some money laying around too take care of the new lowered price and you live in the 3G network area I would buy, but if you don't live in in the network area and you already have the first IPhone I say just keep one you have. Because the new IPhone is basically just a hardware upgrade not as much a software upgrade.  

Become Part Of A World Record

Have you ever wanted to be a part of a world record, well here's your chance! Head on over to SpreadFireFox.com and pledge that you will download the new Firefox 3. Firefox Foundation is trying to set the world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. So go on over and give your pledge so that you too can be a part of download day 08.

Click on the download day link to the right and get pledging!

More Tips For Online Safety

When our country and world is in the state that it is now you need to protect yourself. Not just in your everyday life but also online. I am here to tell you ways that you can protect you and your family online!

1. When you sign up for any account like You-tube, MySpace, Facebook or any other site, check around and take your time looking at the security and privacy features that each individual site offers. Most sites will have a designated area for these options.

2. Check around for any software that will make your computer more secure. If you would like me to find some that will work for your system just email me. When setting up your wireless router always enable MAC address filtering so that you can tell the router what computers are allowed on your network. I would recommend using Lavasoft Ad-Watch 2007. There is a free version on their site. You can pay to get full access of the program, but the free one does a good job. 

3. Do not ever put information on a site that you are having second thoughts about. If you think that the site looks a little odd just don't use it. 

4. When you are using internet in a public place where you are using a network that multiple people are on, use extra caution too make sure that no one can access files on your computer.

5. When using a laptop in a public setting pay extra attention to people that might be trying to look at your screen too see what you are working on or what sites that you are visiting. 3M offers screen privacy filters for notebooks. They just slide right over the screen and you can only see the screen clearly if you are looking at it directly.

6. When on MySpace set your profile to where you don't have your top friends listed,here's why. Lets say that one of your friends revealed more about themselves on their profile then you care to, such as location etc. If someone went on there profile and saw that you had been let's say "hanging out" with that person, then they would know the location of you and possibly other information. For some this might be a little extreme, but it is just one more step that you can take to become more private and safe online. 

7. When sending an email to multiple people, always put everyones address in the BCC: field. BCC stands for "Blind Carbon Copy", this means that when everyone receives the email they can not see the email addresses of the other people that received that same email. This is just a little courtesy that you could show to the people that you are sending an email to. This is a step that is rarely taken when sending a chain email, but it is very important for the people who would like to keep their email address private. 

Thank You For Visiting  The Tech Review

New Tech Review Merchandise

We are now offering Official Tech Review Merchandise. Products that are available include shirts,hats,bumper stickers,magnets. More products will come. Scroll to the bottom of the page to view the products. Or visit the store at http://zazzle.com/gtecht