Just a warning. I’ve had a few people ask me about some random phone calls from a guy in “tech support” telling them that they have a virus, and asking them to let them fix their computer.

HANG UP ON THEM, or string them along for fun (like have them walk you through what they need on your Windows 3.1 computer), but DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT do anything they ask. Just stay away from your computer altogether in case you’re tempted to do anything silly. THIS IS A SCAM. They will take over your computer, and they will steal any and all information you have on it. If you don’t pay for tech support, then you don’t get tech support. Hell, anyone who has tech support knows that even if you do pay, you don’t really get tech support!

Instead, get a good Anti-Virus program. You can buy one like Norton or McAfee. Another great option for Windows is Microsoft Security Essentials. It’s free, and I have found it very good and up to date. Download it here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows/products/security-essentials

Also note, Mac users may be safer, but not completely immune. They can just as easily take over your fancy Apple computer if you let them.

If you know you have a virus, there are other things you can try, like the online scanner at Trend Micro – http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ – You will have to download a small file to run it, but it is good at cleaning. Please note, this is not an anti-virus program, it just tries to clean your computer, so you should always have one of the above programs running too.

Other recommendations:

1. Do not download anything from a source you are unsure of.

2. If you don’t know what you’re doing, stay away from Bittorrents! Yeah, I’m talking to you pirates out there. Whenever a friend asked me to help them with their computer, the first thing I looked for was a program like Limewire, or uTorrent, and once I saw one of those, I knew instantly that I was in trouble. Most of the time I just wiped their computer to teach them a lesson.

3. These hackers and spammers may be bad people, but they are extremely clever. NEVER click on a link in an email that seems suspicious. PayPal will NEVER email you with an e-mail that says “Dear Customer”. If they do email you personally at all, they know your full name. Apple is also not giving away thousands of iPads because Steve Jobs died. A good trick is to hover over any links in an e-mail, you should see the link appear at the bottom of your e-mail program. The link should be some weird name (note, it could have the name of the institution in it, like http://paypal.thisisascam.com, the actual website is the last part, the “paypal” part means nothing). Be smart about things, use common sense, and remember, nothing is free.

4. Spammers and Hackers feed on a variety of things: ignorance, trust, greed, fear, so keep those in mind when you get anything in your e-mail or over the phone.

5. Never give out personal information, and DON’T keep your passwords in a text file on your desktop called “mypasswords.txt”. You can use a password manager program like some of them seen here: http://lifehacker.com/5529133/five-best-password-managers - I use one called Pocket, that syncs with my phone over DropBox, so that I have them anywhere I go.

6. Use common sense.

Has anyone else gotten this phone call yet?

There is no question, Gmail is a great e-mail client, and Labs makes it ever better. Recently they launched a feature that allows you to have a “Preview Pane” when reading e-mail. This keeps a listing of all your e-mails on the left (or top), and the contents come up on the right. It’s more like the Tablet version of Gmail, or like a desktop client.

Here’s how you do it!

Click on the little gear in the top right hand side of your browser, and choose “Labs”

Find the one called “Preview Pane”, and Enable it.

Now, when you get back to your Inbox, on the top right hand side, you should see a drop down near your message count and previous/next buttons.

Click on the down arrow, and you can then choose how you want your preview pane to appear, No Split, Horizontal Split, or Vertical Split. For larger screens, the Vertical Split is very nice!

Enjoy!

I think the most common complaint I hear about a Smart Phone is the horrendous battery life. Here are a few tips to keep you going and maybe even make it through the day:

1. The biggest drain on most phones is the big, bright, beautiful screen. Some phones have an auto-brightness settings that will dim the screen based on the lighting in the room, which somewhat works, but the best solution is to lower the brightness to something that works for you.

2. Turn off vibrate. It takes a lot more to vibrate the phone than to ring. And turning the ringer down a bit may help too.

3. Manage your background apps. If you have three different Twitter applications, all checking in the background every ten minutes, this will drain your battery more than necessary. Shut down or turn off automatic updates on unnecessary applications. Maybe have your Facebook and Twitter apps check for updates every hour instead of every 2 minutes, no matter how popular you are. Also, turning off push notifications for unnecessary applications will make a difference.

4. Lay off on the Wi-Fi. If you don’t really need anything data-intensive, turn off your wi-fi. You most likely have a fairly good data plan that should be find for simple e-mail and other small things. If you are not near your own Wi-Fi hotspot, the phone will constantly try to find and connect to a signal, which is bad for the battery.

5. Turn off the GPS/Location Services. Again, this will try to connect when you don’t need to.

6. Buy a second battery. You can then easily swap it out when your first one dies. But, like propane tanks on a barbecue, chances are you’ll end up with a big steak on, and two empty tanks…so make sure you charge them!

Most Smartphones are going to be somewhat rough on a battery though, as they get more and more powerful, and do more and more. If you’re going to do a lot of talking, play a lot of Angry Birds, and surf the web, expect to have to charge your phone throughout the day, and always carry your charger with you.

These are just a few tips I could think of. Anyone else have any tips they can share?

Available for: iPhone and Android

Facebook seems to finally have done something with the group messaging application it bought called Beluga. Yesterday the social media company launched its Facebook Messenger app.

At first, the application seems like a duplicate of your “Inbox” on your normal Facebook app, however, there are a few slight improvements/differences. For example, it not only allows you to message people on your Facebook list (and who the heck isn’t on Facebook?!?!), but you can also add anyone from your SMS list! The app also allows you to tag your location to each message using your phone’s GPS.

For example, I come from a small town, and I have some friends who refuse to use Facebook, and believe it or not, I also have some that don’t have a cell phone, but do use Facebook. This application is perfect because it enables a group conversation between all my weird friends.

Another thing I like about the application is that sometimes I really don’t care, or have time to go into the full, bloated Facebook application, so this snapshot of my inbox is very handy.

Just search for Facebook Messenger in the App Store or the Android Market to download now. Let me know what you think about it.

Our Groceries, available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry – Free (Ad supported. Paid version removes ads)

With 18 month old twins, and a 4 year old, our trips to the grocery store are filled with laughter, tears, tantrums, and arguments, and that’s just my wife and I.

So, suffice it to say, we need to be organized, and attack that store with a strategic approach.

Luckily, my wife is a bit of a gadget geek too, so we both use the Our Groceries application for our phones. You can set up multiple shopping lists, and even create recipes that will add all the ingredients to your list with one click. You can also categorize each item based on the location/aisle in the grocery store.

The greatest feature however is the ability to synchronize multiple devices. So, as I start at the dairy aisle, and my wife starts at the produce, we can see as the other person checks things off the list in real time!

It’s a very simple application to use, and helps us save time and money at the store, even though we do look a little geeky while we shop.

If you’re heading out, and want to know where to go, or what’s going on around you, Poynt is a great little smartphone application that can help you out.

Easily search for: Movies, Restaurants, Events, Businesses, or People. And each of those categories breaks down into more specific searches. For example, click on Restaurants, then you can either see all restaurants nearby, or search by a specific cuisine if you’re in the mood for something in particular. The best part is that if the restaurant uses “OpenTable”, you can place a reservation directly from the app. Otherwise, you are given a one click option to call the business, view their website, see the location on a map, get directions, and more.

It’s an amazing way to discover new things whether you’re in your own neighbourhood, or visiting a new place. It’s also made in Canada, which is pretty cool.

Poynt is available for: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and WP7. Visit your phone’s application store/market/place to download.

Find out more at www.poynt.com

For those of you who use Gmail, and also Chrome as a browser, there is an amazing Chrome extension that allows you to hit the snooze button on an e-mail. It will set a reminder for that e-mail just like a task or calendar event, and can also mark the e-mail as unread after at the specified time!

It also works with desktop notifications, so you will see the reminder come up on your screen if you have Gmail open.

Install the extension here https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/pbmfoncgccdhoknelpglaacbgkclcape (you must be using the Google Chrome browser for this to work.

This is a follow up on a Tweet I just sent out. It’s about domain names. Everyone can have a domain name, whether it be a business or personal. I own a couple for myself, and one for each of my kids!

As life, and business grow in the digital world, it is more and more important to take care of your “virtual assets”.

Using the same analogy I used before, would you let someone else, like a real-estate agent, put your house in their name? Or the car salesman to put the automobile ownership in his own name? I’m guessing the answer to both of these questions would be a resounding “NO”.

Then why do it with your online real-estate, your online vehicle?

As a rule, kitestring WILL NOT purchase your domain under our own name. It’s a very simple process to register with a domain name registration company (there are many out there), purchase the domain (I’m assuming you have a credit card – or you can steal your parents’), and then Bob’s your uncle, you are the owner of a brand spankin’ new domain name! From there, if you don’t know what to do, you can hopefully work with your friendly neighbourhood web developer to get things started! Easy as pie.

There are a few things wrong with letting someone else register for you:

1. Who says they will be around next year, at the same company, or e-mail address? The registration and reminders will go to a specified e-mail address, and if that address no longer exists, then the renewal reminders will just float around, laughing at you until your domain expires and you frantically scramble to get things back up and running.
2. Who says the company who registered it will be around next year?
3. What if things go sour between you and the person/company who registered the domain name? They not only hold the deed, but the keys to get in and do anything about it.
4. You may not be warned that your domain will expire, so you won’t know to renew, and inevitably, your website will go down. The reminder will go to whoever registered, then it’s up to them to either let you know, renew themselves, or let it expire. Too often, we see them just expire.
5. It’s cheap and easy to register a domain name, and you’re most likely paying twice that to get someone else to do it for you, which may lead to other problems (see points 1 through 4 above).

Do you actually own your domain name? If not, you really should. Send me an e-mail at brandon@kitestring.ca and we can go over how you can transfer your domain into your own name, and avoid any of the pitfalls we encounter every day.

Being the proud father of 9 month old twins, it’s becoming more and more apparent that babies are nothing more than really small zombies.

Let me count the ways:

1. They start out not really moving, or doing much, you think you’re safe, and like zombies, they really stink.

2. Slowly, they start to animate, becoming more and more mobile.

3. They develop a hunger for human flesh (teething process, and beyond).

4. When they chase you, they may not be fast, but they are persistent, and will catch you eventually.

5. They eat your brains. I haven’t been able to think straight for months. My brain is technically gone.

6. They turn you into one of them. I have a glazed over look, shuffle around like a zombie, and haven’t showered in days.

7. Like a typical zombie apocalypse, you are the only one left. All of your friends and family who used to visit seem to have disappeared, never to be seen again.

If anyone can recommend how I would fight the baby zombie apocalypse, I would be very grateful.

I was always a reader. I read everything I could get my hands on, from fiction, to non-fiction, to geek books (big surprise there!). However, in the past couple of years, my reading of conventional books has slowed down to nearly a stand-still. I read blogs, news feeds, Twitter, Facebook, and any other small, bite-size forms of media out there, but I haven’t sat down with a good book in a long time.

I blame technology.

I sit at my computer all day, working, and taking the odd break to take in some information. I have my Android phone in hand reading Engadget, The Onion, Digg, and my Google Reader feed. I have my T.V. which, depending on who has the remote, I’m either watching Dr. Who (me), or one of the sideshow freaks on T.L.C. (my wife).

Now, technology may not be all that bad. I bought my wife a Kobo e-reader for Mother’s day, and have already read most of a book on it, and I have to say, I really like it. It satisfies my need for gadgetry, yet still allows me to get some real reading in.

E-Readers aren’t new to the scene, but they are really starting to gain momentum in the book and publishing industry. Most use a technology called E Ink, which very closely resembles an actual printed page. It’s not back-lit, so for someone like me who spends almost 14 hours a day staring at a lit computer monitor, it comes as a very nice relief.

I have decided to get one of my own, so that started the extensive research. Here are the major contenders for me.

The Kobo - This is a Chapters/Indigo initiative. It comes with a bunch of free books, and is very simple to use. It basically has one button to navigate the pages and books, a few menu buttons, and a power button. It’s a no-frills, clean and simple e-reader. Cost: $149 CAD. You can also use any format you want on this reader. This is a very good choice for someone who wants an inexpensive, easy to use reader without too many distracting settings and features. http://www.koboereader.com/

The Kindle - Amazon has hundreds of thousands of books available for this reader. Another great thing is that you can buy books directly to the device over 3G, from anywhere a cell signal is available! The downside to this reader is that it uses a proprietary, rights-managed format for the e-books. Which means that you are limited to buying books from Amazon, and nowhere else. Cost: $189 USD. I have never used one of these, but I hear pretty good things about it. http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Reading-Display-International-Generation/dp/B0015T963C

Sony – The Sony e-readers have been around for a while, and come in two options, Pocket, and Touch. The touch screen one has a larger screen, and has quite a few more options, but the price tag matches that. The Pocket version costs around $189 CAD, the Touch version I have seen for $279. This reader supports almost any format. http://www.sonystyle.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?categoryId=1000623&storeId=20153&langId=200&catalogId=100803&N=4294959113

Nook – Barnes and Noble – This is my choice, and I’m getting Jenn to get me one in the US this weekend! The benefit of this is that they have two options, WiFi + 3G ($199 USD), or WiFi Only ($149 USD). The Nook also has a colour touch screen below the E Ink screen that can be used for navigation, picking and purchasing a book, typing, and it even comes with Sudoku and Chess games. It’s a bit more of a geek’s e-reader, but is also open to any format of eBook, including PDF, ePub, PDF, Images, and also plays MP3 files. It also has a very basic web browser, so you can check your e-mail, read blogs, and view basic websites. The huge downfall of this e-reader is that you can’t actually buy one in a country other than the US! http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/index.asp

After a few weeks of asking around, Jenn told me she was going to the US, so I’m one step closer to relaxing with a good book and a beer.

Does anyone else find that technology keeps them away from books?