MISCELLANEOUS THINGS THAT SHOULD BE MENTIONED

[ALTHOUGH NOT NECESSARILY NEWSWORTHY]

If you haven't been taking note of the increase in Android OS viruses - you should be. Sure, you may not have SIRI, but dang it, your phone has that robotic "D-R-O-I-D" announcement that lets folks know who you are (ed. - too bad it didn't roboticly say "V-I-R-U-S" when you got some infected APPS, but, there's still hope....)

Yes, Apple's IOS is a target as well, but for now, it doesn't have such a large bulls eye on its back like the Android or Microsoft OS does. IMHO, I think things might have been fairly even between Apple and Android phones - "If", Droid Apps had been screened a bit better. You can't blame them (well yes, I suppose you could) as they needed as many apps ASAP to compete with the Apples I-phone.

Of related note, not all scams come via email, or nefarious websites. I was visiting a client recently when they told me about receiving phone calls from someone who didn't quite have 100% grasp of the English language, yet insisted that their computers were infected and required a remote connection from this person to clean their PC. Fortunately, they were well prepared in blocking this attack ("click"), but I wonder how many of our senior citizens fall for this sort of thing every day? If you have a parent or other elderly family member or friend, you might give them a phone call to be alert of this recent scam.

Windows 8, which is supposed to be released this fall, is for me, somewhat easy to predict a failure in capturing end users anticipation and $$$. I've had it on a laptop, and I've used an interface to use my touch screen iPad to control the PC, like it will be intended for and I'm not really excited about it. The coin is still tossing in the air on whether-or-not it will be this decades "ME" or "VISTA". Touchscreen tablets, even with disposable screen savers still look kinda grubby after a day or so of use, so I can only imagine what a Windows 8 PC with touchscreen capabilities will look like. Remember when Windows 7 came out? It's taken quite a few years to knock down the percentage of XP users (which are still in the high 30% range), so place your bets in Vegas on Windows 8, and it's ability to conquer the masses.

WiFi with the speed of a Formula One race car! It looks like Buffalo Technology has beat its competitors to the finish line by being the first to have a wireless router touting the new wireless "11ac" standard which really (yes - REALLY) makes wireless fast (up to 1300Mbps) which compared to the fastest "N" routers (450Mbps) and is a sure fire winner for streaming video content within your home network!  Yep, Netgear, Cisco/Linksys, et. all will have their products out soon, but you can buy the Buffalo Technology router on Newegg.com today (unless it's sold out). Of course, in order to enjoy the speed, on the receiving end you will need an adapter which compliments it, and eventually, new Blu-ray players (wireless) should have this built-in to their motheboards as well. If you've ever struggled with stop-go-stop video streaming, or continuous buffering, I'm here to tell you that hope is on the horizon.

'Nuff Said

The "IT MONKEY"