Microsoft unveiled a new logo for the upcoming Windows 8, featuring a clean one-color design that leans heavily on its new Metro user interface.

Microsoft hired high-powered design consultancy Pentagram to come up with the new look. According to Moreau, the firm wanted to move away from the previous Windows logo that looked more like a flag than a window.

“‘Windows’ really is a beautiful metaphor for computing, and with the new logo we wanted to celebrate the idea of a window, in perspective,” Moreau wrote.

Microsoft hasn’t said when the new operating system will debut, though most analysts expect it to arrive before the end of the year, and perhaps in time for back-to-school shopping. Last this month, Microsoft will take the wraps off the beta version of the operating system, a key milestone on the way toward releasing it.

But BitWise Computer Repair is here ready to service all their old customers. We offer all the same great services at great prices. We are located on Folsom Auburn Rd right next to the Folsom Dam. Give us a call if you have any questions, 916-987-5474.

Apple as announced the latest version of OS X named “Mountain Lion.” It is projected to be available by the end of the summer. Here are some of the new features:

Messages

Messages does everything iChat does, and so much more. For starters, it comes with iMessage. And just like iMessage in iOS, it lets you send unlimited messages to anyone on a Mac or an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5. Send photos, videos, documents, and contacts — even send messages to a group.

Notification Center

Something new is always popping up somewhere on your Mac — an email, an instant message, a friend request, a calendar alert, and more. Notification Center makes it easy to stay up to speed, because there’s one place to see everything.

AirPlay Mirroring

This new feature in Mountain Lion is made for an audience. With AirPlay Mirroring, you can stream what’s on your Mac to your HDTV via Apple TV.

GateKeeper

Gatekeeper in OS X Mountain Lion makes the Mac safer than ever. It helps prevent you from unknowingly downloading and installing malicious software. And it gives you control over which applications to download and run on your Mac.

Game Center

The Mac is about to go up against iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch — in a friendly Game Center way.² Now it’s a bigger playing field with even more competition. Just create a Game Center account with your Apple ID.

iCloud

In OS X Mountain Lion, sign in once with your Apple ID and iCloud is automatically set up across your Mac.

Share Sheets

You’ll find the Share button in many OS X Mountain Lion apps. It’s the new, easy way to spread the word — links, photos, and videos, too.

Notes

Notes in OS X Mountain Lion is designed for whatever’s on your mind. Think it up. Jot it down. Make it even more noteworthy with photos, images, and attachments. You can add, delete, and flip through your notes or do a quick search.

Reminders

When you have so much to do, Reminders helps you get it done. It’s all in a list. More than one, in fact. Make as many lists as you need and easily add to them. Set due dates and you’ll get alerts as deadlines approach.

If your computer is infected with a virus, you’ll want to remove it as quickly as possible. A fast way to check for viruses is to use an online scanner, such as the Microsoft Safety Scanner. The scanner is a free online service that helps you identify and remove viruses, clean up your hard disk, and generally improve your computer’s performance.

If you’re not sure whether your computer has a virus, see How can I tell if my computer has a virus? to check for some telltale signs. To try a different online scanner, follow the links to other companies that provide them on the Windows Security software providers webpage.

If you can’t connect to the Internet

If you can’t get to the Microsoft Safety Scanner online, try restarting your computer in safe mode with networking enabled.

Apple’s refurbs come with a new outer shell and new battery, meaning you get same-as-new appearance and performance. Better still, you get the same one-year warranty Apple extends to new hardware. There is literally no downside.

But there is one small cosmetic difference: refurbs come in nondescript cardboard boxes, not the fancy white ones afforded to new gear. Big whoop, if you ask me.

Apple’s refurb offerings and inventory change over time, so you can’t always get what you want. But I think it’s the only logical place to start your shopping. I’ve purchased refurbished iPhones, iPods, and iPads, and every one of them arrived in perfect, like-new condition. Consequently, when it comes to Apple gear, I can’t see any reason to pay extra for the new stuff.

If you are like me—and of course you are, right? we are all gingers inside—you probably have password security that ranges from awful-like-Batman-Foreverto thoroughly mediocre.

Also if you are like me, you might’ve bought shoes from Zappos once—Keen Coronados in India In/Black Olive, to be precise—and been informed that some jerk might’ve stolen your password. Which, in my case, means they’ve got one of a series of root passwords that could potentially access one of my other accounts. And, boy, I’ve got a lot of accounts, I realized as I was counting up all the password changes I needed to make. And then, a nanosecond later came the realization that this is going to keep happening, every year, every month, maybe every week. It’s already happened a bunch—a hearty wave to you PSN players and Senatorial Twitter users—so it’s time to get a password manager and give every account a unique, hard-to-crack password.

Anyways, I thought it would be a good idea if we all changed our passwords together. Like positive peer pressure, ’cause it’s pretty goddamn annoying. Sooner is better than later, so I was thinking maybe we should all change our passwords on February 1. I’m not very creative, so I’ve decided to just call it “Change Your Password Day.” Look for some password-y pieces over the next few days leading up to it.

Source: Gizmodo

Overview
There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality.

SyncToySetupPackage_v21_x64.exe                                          SyncToySetupPackage_v21_x86.exe

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

SyncToy2.1 is powered by the latest synchronization engine from Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 and provides better performance and robustness. The new features and improvements included in SyncToy 2.1 release are:

• Better Performance: The speed of file copy operations is significantly increased across the board.

• Improved Robustness: Much more resilient to transient network and file system errors and better error reporting which pin-points which file the sync failed on in case there’s a fatal error that stops the sync.

• Folder pair configuration backup: Folder pair configuration is automatically backed up under %localappdata%\microsoft\synctoy\2.0. User can replace SyncToyDirPairs.bin with the backup copy to resolve last saved configuration.

• Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the data corruption issue when using SyncToy with NAS drives.

• Fixed the issue that prevented uploading files to SharePoint when using SyncToy 2.0.

• Fixed the issue that prevented delete changes from being synchronized when the sync option is set to “Echo”.

• Fixed the UI issue where reported file time were off by the difference between local time and UTC when destination is a FAT volume.

The major new features and improvements included in previous SyncToy 2.0 release are:

• Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.

• True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.

• Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.

• Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).

• Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.

• Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.

• Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.

• Re-Architect Sync Engine: The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.

• Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.

• Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.

• 64-Bit Support: SyncToy now has a native 64-bit build (x64 only) for 64-bit versions of Windows.

• Folder pair rename

• Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents created under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded. Usability improvements for the sub-folder exclusion dialog.

• Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.

• Setup Improvements: Integrated setup with single self-extracting archive file and no extra downloads if you already have .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Enabled silent install for the SyncToy Installer file (see readme.txt file for more information).

Please continue to send us feedback about our tool, using the SyncToy – File Synchronization forum (listed below).

Note: We’ve taken great care to ensure that this tool operates as it should, but it is not part of Windows and is not supported by Microsoft Technical Support. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about SyncToy. To speak to other users and contribute feedback about your experiences with SyncToy, please use the SyncToy forum at http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/synctoy/threads.

System requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0
1GHz Intel P3 processor or equivalent
256MB RAM, 512MB RAM recommended
20MB free disk space

Instructions

Download SyncToy by clicking on the Download button below.

SyncToy Installation Notes:

Upgrade:
- If upgrading from an earlier version of SyncToy (e.g. SyncToy 1.4 or SyncToy 2.0), it is **CRITICAL** to ensure that all folder pairs are fully synchronized using the previous version before running SyncToy 2.1 setup. Not following this guideline can lead to unintended behavior and partial data loss when running SyncToy 2.1 for the first time after upgrade. All folder pairs must also be fully synchronized at least once right after the upgrade is done.

Installation & Uninstallation:
- Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SyncToy2.1 are available as a single self-extracting archive executable which runs all of the required setup components when launched. The 64-bit version is targeted to 64-bit versions of Windows, e.g. Windows XP x64 Edition, Windows Vista 64-bit editions and Windows 7 x64 Edition.
- The 32-bit version may be installed and run on a 64-bit version of Windows as well.
- Simultaneous side-by-side installation of the 32-bit and 64-bit versions on the same machine is not recommended or supported.
- SyncToy 2.1 supports quiet installation by an Administrator user on the target machine. The steps for this are as follows. Please download the self-extracting archive executable and save locally. Extract files from the archive to a target directory. You’ll notice 3 MSI files in the set of extracted files. Each of the 3 MSIs can be run in quiet mode using the MSI command line utility (msiexec.exe). The order in which the MSIs need to be installed is: Synchronization.msi, ProviderServices.msi, SyncToysetup.msi.
- SyncToy 2.1 depends on components of the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 which are included in SyncToy setup. Installing SyncToy along with these dependent components requires the use of an account with Administrator privileges on the target machine. If the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0 components are already installed on the target machine, SyncToy can be installed from a non-administrator user account.
- The SyncToy application will stop working if any of the dependent components are uninstalled, which can be fixed by re-running the full install package on the target machine.
- If SyncToy 2.1 is installed using an account which is different than the one that was used to install previous versions of SyncToy, then the previous version will not be uninstalled. In this case, it is recommended that users uninstall the previous version using the previously used user account before installing SyncToy 2.1.
- If uninstalling SyncToy 2.1, the same user account must be used which was used for installation.

Source: Microsoft

• Limit your exposure:  The best way to avoid having your information compromised is to limit where you have it stored.  The less places you save your information, the less databases you’ll be in and the less risk you’ll be exposed to.
• If the site looks fishy, stay away:  If you’ve gone to a site and it looks a little risky to be shopping there, trust your instincts.
• Make sure you’re checking out on a secure page:   When you’re checking out on an e-commerce site, make sure to look for the https:// in the url bar, instead of just http:// on the checkout pages.  If the page isn’t secure, avoid entering any personal or financial information.
• Avoid public Wi-Fi or hotspots when shopping or accessing financial data:  When shopping online, try to avoid entering passwords, credit card numbers or other personal information when on a public Wi-Fi access point or hotspot.  Yes, it’s convenient, but it can also leave your data accessible to hackers in some cases.  Also avoid financial sites like bank accounts, mint.com, adaptu.com or other aggregators. If someone gets your password for those accounts you could lose a lot of money, and you may have no recourse.
• Never give your Social Security number online:  If you’re shopping on a site and they ask for your social security number, it’s probably a scam. They shouldn’t have a need to use your social. The exception may be sites like TurboTax and other tax preparation software where you need to enter your number to file taxes.
• Check your credit reports and scores:  Most people these days will do some shopping online.  To make sure your data isn’t being used in a negative way, make sure to check your credit reports regularly.  You can get one free credit report from each of the credit agencies once a year through http://www.annualcreditreport.com.   You can also check your free credit scores from free websites like Credit Karma  or Credit Sesame on a regular basis.   A drop in score could mean something is up.
• Use anti-virus and anti-malware software: Make sure to have a regularly updated anti-virus software installed on your computer, and make sure it is set to update on a regular basis.  Also make sure that it’s actually set to scan at regular intervals.  My in-laws had the anti-virus software, but never updated it or scanned – leaving them vulnerable.   When I did update their system we found they had a newer virus that it took me several hours to remove.
• Use a credit or debit card with protection:  When shopping online make sure to use a credit or debit card with identity theft protection of some kind – just in case. Some credit cards also offer one time use credit card numbers. Use them!
• Be careful what you click on:  When you’re online use some common sense and don’t click on links when you don’t know the source of the email, social media message or e-card.  All are ways that viruses are spread, so only open links from known sources.
• Use a third party payment system:  Consider using a third party payment system like Paypal when buying things online to add an extra layer of protection – where your credit card information isn’t stored with the retailer.
• Use strong passwords:  Make sure to use strong passwords that include random numbers, capitalized letters and symbols.  Avoid using family member names, pet names or the word “password”.

Source: biblemoneymatters

Hackers are increasingly targeting child-focused gaming websites, according to a leading anti-virus firm.

Avast says it detected malware threats at more than 60 sites that contained “game” or “arcade” in their title, in the 30 days running up to 12 January.

It says the pages tried to download Javascript infections, redirectors and potentially unwanted software.

The Czech company says that young children are often less careful than adults about what they click on.

“These are sites with mini-games, including flash applications and simple online apps – one example is software that allows girls to dress and change the clothes of characters,” Ondrej Vlcek, the firm’s chief technical officer, told the BBC.

Avast says the most visited site affected – cutearcade.com – had generated more than 12,600 infection reports from its protection software as of last week.

The company says a Trojan on the site had redirected users to linuxstabs.com, a known distribution point for malware.

On Wednesday Avast said its software still detected threats on the site.

Cutearcade.com’s owner Two Point Oh, registered to the British Virgin Island of Tortola, did not respond to requests for comment.

The webmaster of one of the other sites flagged up by the study said he believed that third-party adverts might have been to blame.

“I have checked my site in and out for malware and have none,” said Eric Smith, webmaster of hiddenninjagames.com.

“I have also checked Google Webmaster tools and it shows no malware. I’m not sure why my website has been targeted for this, I am assuming there may have been malware in the Google Adsense advertisement on my site when Avast checked it. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

Exploit packs

Avast says it believes most of the sites affected are legitimate businesses that have fallen victim to hackers, and had not been deliberately created to spread malware.

It bases this judgement on the fact that affected pages had been online for months or years before its anti-virus software began detecting threats.

The company believes that hackers have taken advantage of “active components” used to run the sites’ forums or chat facilities to spread their malware.

It notes that “exploit packs” are sold online, meaning the hackers responsible might not have needed advanced coding skills.

“I believe that children’s computers are more vulnerable to attacks because they are usually in worse shape – in other words the owners are less likely to have the latest security updates installed,” said Mr Vlcek.

“The child may also be less suspicious that something wrong is happening than an adult would be. For example if a spam-bot infects the computer and keeps sending out spam emails for a long time a young child might not notice it going on.”

Parental supervision

In October last year Security News Daily reported a similar problem affecting children’s games on more than half a dozen Chinese websites.

Avast’s research suggests the problem has become more prevalent since then.

“This report highlights the need for children and young people to be made aware of the potential security risks associated with free online gaming sites,” said Dr Joanne Bryce from the cyberspace research unit at the University of Central Lancashire.

“Whilst it is unclear whether these sites for young people are being deliberately targeted, the possibility of computers being infected with viruses or malware may not be something of which young people are fully aware.

“This is an issue that parents should discuss with their children, and also highlights the need for them to ensure that they regularly update the anti-virus and other security software on their children’s computers.”

BBC Tech

There is a lot of confusion surrounding this issue, mostly because lithium-ion batteries are different from older, nickel-based batteries (which suffered from a nasty memory effect not present in lithium-ion batteries). You’re right, though—charging them incorrectly can decrease their lifespan. Most lithium batteries should last you a few years, but improper care can decrease that lifespan, meaning that your battery will be unable to hold a charge—or unable to hold as big a charge as it used to—quicker. So, to clear things up, here’s how to actually extend your battery’s health as much as possible.

• Perform shallow discharges. Instead of discharging to 0% all the time, lithium-ion batteries do best when you discharge them for a little bit, then charge them for a little bit. The table at the right, from Battery University, shows that discharges to 50% are better for your battery’s long-term life than, say, small discharges to 90% or large discharges to 0% (since the 50% discharges provide the best number of cycles-to-usage ratio).
• Don’t leave it fully charged. Similarly, lithium-ion batteries don’t need to be charged all the way to 100%. In fact, they’d prefer not to be—so the 40%-80% rule you heard is a good guideline. When possible, keep it in that range to prolong its life as long as you can. And, if you do charge it to 100%, don’t leave it plugged in. This is something most of us do, but it’s another thing that will degrade your battery’s health. If you need to charge it overnight, use something like the Belkin Conserve Socket to stop it from charging after it’s full.
• Fully discharge it once a month. This may seem contradictory, but hear us out. While lithium-ion batteries shouldn’t be discharged regularly, most modern batteries are what’s known as “smart batteries”, which means that they can tell you how long you have until your battery dies (e.g. “2 hours, 15 minutes remaining”). This feature can get miscalibrated after a lot of shallow discharges. So, manufacturers recommend fully discharging your battery once a month to make sure this stays accurate.
• Full size

  Keep it cool. Most people overlook this one. Excess heat is not only bad for your processor (and your lap), but your battery as well. Once again, see the table from Battery University at the right—which you can click on for a closer view—a hot battery will degrade in health much quicker than a cool one. As such, we highly recommend using a laptop stand, like one of the many DIY options we’ve featured here at Lifehacker. When it comes to your phone, check out our previous Ask Lifehacker on keeping your phone temperature down.

Source: Lifehacker