iPhone 5S

It’s seeming to become a trend that Apple release a “S” update to their phones before moving up an integer.

Possible features? While not all of the features of this new mobile have been announced. It’s speculated by industry analysts that it should feature a new “super HD camera/screen, a better battery and NFC [near field communication – used in such things as contactless payment systems]”. Additionally it’s likely to be produced in a variety of colours.

When can I buy one? With the ever increasing speed of mobile phone advancement, it’s likely that it will be seen sometime around June.

Apple iTV

There has been speculation for some years that Apple would make a land grab for the TV market. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently remarked that turning on a TV is like going “backwards in time by 20 or 30 years”. That is, like the music and phone industry previously, it’s in need of an Apple update.

Possible features? Cult of Mac reported that the TV would feature both Siri and iSight to enable voice and face recognition – iPhones and iPads could also be used to control it.

When can I buy one? Gene Munster (industry analyst) has predicted that the Apple iTV will be launched in October 2013: “It should cost $1,500-$2,000 and come in sizes from 42 inches to 55 inches.” It is likely a UK version would only be released when licensing deals with British TV channels are finalised.

Xbox 720 / Infinity

Microsoft’s long-awaited follow-up to the Xbox 360, rumoured to be called the Infinity.

Possible features? Like the Kinect, the console will use motion detection technology and T3 recently revealed that Microsoft had filed a patent concerning projecting augmented reality 3D images on walls, which would require you to wear Wi-Fi-enabled 3D glasses. May also include a Blu-ray drive.

When can I buy one? A Microsoft executive did talk about a “new Xbox” but this statement was quickly withdrawn by the company; however, the company has placed job ads which mention the new console. A Bloomberg report says the XBox 720 is likely to be available from autumn 2013.

Amazon phone

The internet giant is said to be adding a phone to its range of Kindle readers.

Possible features? Don’t expect any revolutionary hardware, but the software will allow seamless integration between Amazon’s Appstore, Amazon MP3, Amazon Cloud Player and Kindle books. In short, it will be more of an multipurpose Amazon revenue-generating device than a phone. As PC Magazine has suggested, it’s likely to be cheap. This is because Amazon is expected to subsidise the cost of the handset and the monthly price plan using the revenue from the vast amount of Amazon media, electronics and whatnot you are inevitably going to purchase with it. It is also likely to come pre-loaded with a bar code scanner, which will point out how much cheaper everything is on Amazon. Yes, it does sound pretty Faustian.

When can I buy one? Your pact could start in mid-2013.

Augmented reality glasses

Google and a company called Vuzix are lining up futuristic specs for people who can’t bear not to be connected.

Possible features? More of a headset than a pair of spectacles, the Vuzix projects a small colour image in front of your eye, runs the Android operating system and connects via Bluetooth to your phone. The screen could show you text messages, emails or map directions.

What this device’s killer app will turn out to be is anyone’s guess. It could, for instance, use face recognition to remind you of fellow partygoers’ names, their CVs and their latest Facebook status updates and tweets – never be stuck for small talk again! A scary Charlie Brooker-scripted future is heading our way, basically.

When can I buy one? Summer 2013 for under £500. Google Glass isn’t expected until 2014.

Nest

A “learning thermostat” designed by two former Apple employees, it has already been described as the “iPhone of thermostats” by Wired.

Possible features? Via Wi-Fi, it connects with your smartphone, allowing you to control your heating whether you’re at home or not. Over time it learns your schedule and designs a heating or air-conditioning programme around it. It can detect when you’re not at home. And it looks pretty: it glows orange for heating, blue for cooling.

When can I buy one? They’re already available in the US for £250 – the manufacturer claims you will claw that back in utility bill savings in two years.

Social networking site to make settings easier to manage, giving users the ability to review every publicly available picture

After repeated criticism that Facebook was making it hard to keep information private, they have begun to make a dramatic change to their privacy controls. You can now find and review any publicly available picture of yourself on the site.

The change is the biggest overhaul to its privacy settings in more than a year, and will begin appearing to the site’s 1 billion registered users over the next few weeks. The most visible change will be “privacy shortcuts” which will show up as a tiny lock at the right-hand side of the screen, at the top of the “news feed”, with a menu offering answers to questions such as “Who can see my stuff?” and “Who can contact me?”

Another tool will let people review every publicly available picture on Facebook that includes them, with suggestions on how to ask for them to be removed. “If you spot things you don’t want on Facebook, now it’s even easier to ask the people who posted them to remove them,” the company said in a blogpost.

Users will also get more precise control when they first use most apps (though not games apps) of how much it can do – such as reading their profile and friends list, but stopping it from posting into their public feed.

Facebook has come under repeated fire from privacy advocates because it kept shifting the boundaries of where privacy ended and publicly visible data began, and made it hard to understand how to change those back.

Critics also said that Facebook made the changes intentionally to expose more data about people publicly so that it could benefit from selling adverts to them.

Facebook’s move, which it said is unconnected with a poll that ended at the weekend over users’ right to vote on changes in the service, is in effect an acknowledgement that its privacy settings had been hard to understand and control. This includes “rogue apps” which would post unwanted content into users’ feeds to try to pull in their friends.

Being able to remove embarrassing or unpleasant photos has become increasingly important for users of the nine-year-old service, many of whom first started using it while they were still at university in the US – but who are now discovering that their digital history has followed them around.

For many younger users now, Facebook has become a record of who they are – but also a source of potential disruption in their first work interviews or careers. Getting rid, or hiding, photos that might show them in compromising or unpleasant situations may be a high priority.

The controversial cybercrime law has been suspended by the Philippines’ top court after numerous protests were made because it affects freedom of speech.

Earlier this month as covered by our blog post here, we discussed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 which came into power.

It was made with good intent to help prevent online child pornography, identity theft, and spamming as all these issues raised “legitimate concerns” about criminal and abusive behaviour online. The act is also designed to prevent cybersex, defined as sexually explicit chat over the internet – often involving “cam girls” performing sexual acts in front of webcams for internet clients. But after recent protests a 120-day suspension to revise the law is now in place.

A total of 15 petitions were filed to the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the law. As of now there is a temporary restraining order preventing the act from being enforced. The maximum punishment for breaking the Cybercrime Law was punishable by up to 12 years in jail.

Even though there is a temporary suspension, protests to continue as the legislation could be used to target government critics and crack down on freedom of speech. Under the new act, a person found guilty of libellous comments online, including comments made on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter or blogs, could be fined or jailed. Government officials would also have had new powers to search and seize data from people’s online accounts.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director Brad Adams welcomed the move by the court, but urged it to “now go further by striking down this seriously flawed law”.

After many UK networks gathering for a meeting it has been announced by the mobile firm EE that the 4G network will launch 30 October.

The plans had been laid out for some time, but announcements had been held off about a finalised date while peace talks between rival network operators commenced.

With rival companies were as to be expected, unhappy about other companies gaining an unfair advantage by launching the 4G network before they do.

O2 and Vodafone have now agreed that they would not pursue legal action to block EE’s roll-out.

In return they have been promised that officials will accelerate the process to free airwaves so they can offer their own high-speed data services. Their 4G networks are due to launch in spring 2013.

EE’s network will cover 16 cities this year. The firm’s target is be able to offer the facility to 98% of the UK’s population by 2014.

EE’s chief executive Olaf Swantee said: “This is a significant milestone for the United Kingdom, and for the people and businesses of our country who will now be able to enjoy the huge advantages of super-fast 4G technology for the first time”.

In recent news a new controversial law developed in the hopes of combating against cybercrime in the Philippines has come into effect. With it’s pass it has raised countless protests and concerns from citizens and media alike fearing censorship.

Named as the “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012” it was signed last month on September 12 by the Filipino president. It’s intent is to try and stop cybersex, online child pornography, identity theft and spamming according to governmental officials. But the part which people are protesting against is the 12 year prison sentence which comes along side it.

“Questions have been raised about the constitutionality of certain provisions of the act. We recognise and respect efforts not only to raise these issues in court, but to propose amendments to the law in accordance with constitutional processes”

The act has been reported of have had at least eight large court cases raised already from large groups challenging its constitutionality and have been filed against the Philippines high court. Fears continued to rise about it being used by the government to crack down on critics freedom of speech. Under the new act, a person found guilt of libellous comments online, including comments made on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter or blogs, could be fined or jailed. But despite efforts made by protesters the act took place.

The turmoil that has been created because of this Act have lead activists to hacking into government websites, large social media campaigns being support across the globe with journalists holding rallies and citizens blacking out their social media avatars on Facebook and Twitter.

With the added power from the Government to search and seize any data from people’s online accounts, it has been questioned by numerous groups including a US-based Human Rights watch saying it is a clear violation of free speech.

“The cybercrime law needs to be repealed or replaced,” said the group’s Asia director, Brad Adams.
“It violates Filipinos’ rights to free expression and it is wholly incompatible with the Philippine government’s obligations under international law.”
The full Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 can be found here

Are you having problems with your computer? Is it running slow and not at the peak performance that it once was at? Has your PC had it? Then MAD IT!

Over time PC’s get clogged up with both dust and unwanted software. Both of these cause unnecessary strain on the computer system causing it to slow down and run at poor speeds.

Cleaning out dust may sound as simple as cleaning anything else but there is sensitive components inside a computer which can easily get damaged if not done correctly, why take the risk when you can let a professional take care of the work for you?

As we move further into the digital age more and more documents are being stored on computers as well as the increase in online banking, thus making it vitally important to make sure that the computer is secure from any unwanted information stealing malware.

Computer Repairs Halesowen

Like all machinery, over time things wear, systems get clogged up and things eventually break. Has this happened to your computer, then we can help. With our No fix No Fee solution we can give you peace of mind that your computer is in professional hands. With both onsite and in our local Halesowen workshop we are tailored to suit you.

PC Health Check Halesowen

Here at MAD Computer Solutions we offer a professional PC Heath Check service, which includes but is not limited to:

• Virus, Malware and Adware check & removal to ensure a clean PC.
• Dust removal to make sure your machine isn’t overheating
• Microsoft updates ensuring all your software is up to date
• Hard Drive checks to remove any errors
• Defragmentation to free up wasted space
• System diagnosis
• Uninstall old and unused programs to speed up your PC

Remote Support Halesowen

Sometimes remote support can be quicker, more efficient and cheaper for software based problems. Rather than visiting our workshop in Halesowen or have an engineer come for a site visit, a faster solution can be delivered to you through the use of remote internet support.

Data Recovery Halesowen

Your data is precious to you, from work to home life, from memories to essays we at MAD Computer Solutions understand that when the worst comes to the worst, loosing your data can be saddening. With many nearby schools and colleagues in the Halesowen area it can be sickening to loose work which you’ve spent hours on only for a computer error to loose it for you. With our specialist software we can attempt to get your software back with our No Fix No Fee guarantee.

Did you know that the time of the day can dramatically affect your download and upload speeds for the internet?

Many Internet Services Providers conveniently ignore this factor when advertising their download speeds and also their tests are sometimes from right next to the exchange. This distance will falsify the speeds obtained if you live further away as distance matters.

A graph obtained from the BBC using uSwitch’s information is shown below.

“Not many internet users enjoy the maximum headline broadband speeds offered by providers, and certainly not during the working week,”

The graph quite clearly shows a difference in 35%, The speed has been proven differ from an average of 35% up to 70% when comparing the early hours of the morning to peak time.

Almost half of broadband users are now on packages with advertised speeds above 10Mbps but the average broadband speed is 6.8Mbps according to Ofcom.

So in conclusion, when checking what deals are available for your internet packages, make sure the package you opt for will give you the speeds they advertise during peak time. Otherwise you could be paying for a service you won’t receive.

Telephone scams and fraud are commonplace at the moment with many cake companies pretending to be legitimate official companies such as microsoft or apple in an attempt to get money from you. Recently there has been a wave of scams that have been targeting PC users. They will claim to be from Microsoft and will phone you up telling you that your have errors or a virus on your computer which needs to be checked.

After this they would attempt to convince you to install software to allow them access to your computer, from here they would show you your log files and say that all of the errors are serious. The event viewer which they would use records all the computers logs, it’s natural that it has all the errors recorded, even from web pages not being displayed.

Once they have access to your computer they will then install malicious software onto your computer which can then track your keyboard inputs so that they can easily acquire your bank details or failing this they might invoice you for the fake work that they have done and request your bank details.

We at Mad Computer Solutions highly recommend that your inform those you know about the scams as we are well aware that numerous businesses and individuals have fallen for it already.

If you have let them onto your computer unknowingly it’s also a good idea to keep a track on your bank account finances over the next few months in the event that your bank security is compromised. Additionally we can offer a service to remove any potentially unwanted software which they may have installed onto your computer.

Remember: Microsoft Microsoft will never ask you to provide your user name, password, date of birth, country, credit card number, or any other personal information. Additionally Microsoft do not perform unsolicited phone calls to help fix your computer.

If on the unfortunate chance your or a friend or relative has been caught out by one of these scams and you think your PC may have likely been compromised, then please feel free to contact us using our Contact Form. We will perform a thorough check up on your computer to ensure that there is no residual software on your computer that may harm or steal your data.

Update – These calls do not only impersonate Microsoft, they have also been caught impersonating a company called Alien Touch.

Not quite what you would think, a harmless chunk of code labelled as “big boobs” can cause quite the controversy for one of the worlds leading computing companies, Microsoft.
In recent news a small hexadecimal string “0xB1GBOOB5” was discovered when when developers of the Linux kernel found it in a piece of software which helps a Microsoft program with with Linux open source software.

The piece of code executed every time that Microsoft program ran a virtual version of Linux.
“Somone (sic) was trying to be funny, I guess” as said by Kernel hacker Paolo Bonzini.
Microsoft was deeply embarrised by the mistake and quickly made a statement:
“We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string,”

Also adding that they had prepared a patch that would change the spelling of the string in an update to come. Ironically the first form of the code, as pointed out by developer Dr Matthew Garrett was spelt as “0X0B00B135”, a rough form of letters and numbers which translates to “boobies”.
“Puerile sniggering at breasts contributes to the continuing impression that software development is a boys’ club where girls aren’t welcome,” had left speculation of possible sexism within the world of computing as noted by Dr Garrett.

The discovery of the string and the comments rasied by Dr Garrett have left a large debate on the Linux mailing list about whether use of the string was sexist and how male developers should conduct themselves. On Dr Garrett’s blog he questioned how easy it would to change the string considering that numerous services including Microsoft’s Azure cloud service are believed to make extensive use of it.

In early June, Microsoft suffered another embarrassment over ‘”vulgar” language used during a song and dance routine at a company conference.

It’s always a good idea to keep web browsers up to date as flaws are fixed and new features to improve your web experience are added. Outdated browsers can pose security risks such as the numerous exploits that are out there for Internet Explorer 6.

Internet Explorer:

Help -> About Internet Explorer
The best way to check for Internet Explorer updates is to check via the windows update tool.

Firefox:

Help -> About Mozilla Firefox
A nice feature that’s in Firefox is that when you go to check the version, it will automatically search for an update for you.

Google Chrome:

Click the Spanner in the top right corner -> About Google Chrome.
A nice feature that’s in Chrome is that when you go to check the version, it will automatically search for an update for you.

Opera:

Help -> About Opera
If you want to update Opera the update feature is in Help -> Check for Updates

If you find that you can’t find the help menu, press the alt key while in your browser and it should unveil a toolbar.

List of latest versions as of (July 23, 2012)

Internet Explorer – 9.0.8112.16421
Firefox – 14.0.1
Google Chrome – 20.0.1132.57
Opera – 12.00
Safari – 5.1.7

Want to find out more about how to check versions or update a browser that’s not featured here? Feel free to request it through our Contact Form.