Facebook makes your private messages public?

Oh thanks, guys!

I posted this on Facebook, it deserves a mention here, too!

Your private inbox messages are now visible for all to see, from 2010 and earlier! This is a new change from Facebook as of yesterday. Don't believe me? Read your timeline from those years...yikes! They look like wall posts.....they are not!

There's an easy fix--when you're in your own timeline, just click on the year on the right (2007, 2008, 2009) and you'll see a box with a bunch of friends' messages and a header that says 89 or some number of people have written on so and so's timeline--hover over the right until you see the pencil, click and select hide from timeline. Do that for each year. BOTH parties have to delete or it will show so post and tell your friends!

iOS 6 likes

I installed the iOS 6 update on my iPhone 4s. It downloaded wirelessly and installed in less than 20 minutes. There are some new features that I've dabbled with so far - here are my early frontrunner favs...

1. Do Not Disturb - In Settings >> Notifications >> Do Not Disturb you can set your iPhone to be silent while you're in an important meeting or let's say, sleeping for the night? This suppresses the buzz or ringtone notifications you'll receive, unless you specify certain people you will "Allow Calls From." Also available, an option to allow repeat callers to come through the Do Not Disturb setting... like perhaps an emergency or persistent caller? Good feature!
2. Panoramic photos - You have to have an iPhone 5 or 4s because of the processor required, if you do, take a large sweeping periphery photo by panning the camera across your viewing area. Go to Camera >> Options to turn on and use this neat scenery capturing feature! I like pictures, so it's a winner.
3. Reply with Message - When a call comes in and you're busy or unable to take the call, you can send a text message to the caller as you direct them to your voicemail - all with one press of a button! When an incoming call arrives, your screen now has a small telephone icon in the lower right corner. Sweep it in the upward direction and the option to Reply to eh Call with a message apears. In the Settings >> Phone >> Reply with Message area you can type in up to 3 messages to choose from when you just can't take the call. I get plenty of this, my 3 messages are all setup!
4. Media in Mail - You can put photos or video clips in the body of your outgoing emails! Hold the blank space in the body of an email and a right-facing arrow will appear next to SELECT, SELECT ALL and PASTE Options. This allows you to Insert photos or Video directly into your email messages. Oh yes!
5. Facebook tie-ins - This new iOS has Facebook welded to the support beams! You can elect to include your Facebook friends in your Contacts, this gives you the Profile Picture of each friend from their Facebook page, plus pertinent contact info that they have entered into Facebook. Oh, and if you've noted your friend's birthdays or events on Facebook, their all now in your Calendar, too. 
6. Tap to Post - The new quickest way to drop info on your Facebook wall or to your Twitter account is now by swiping downward from most screen views to get a Tap to Tweet and Tap to Post option. Also the current weather and recent Calendar items of importance are shown. Can't be much faster than that!
7. Photo share options - Now when you're in Photos, you can elect to share your pictures very rapidly through the following methods - Mail, Text Message, Twitter, Facebook, To Contacts, Print, COPY or Use As Wallpaper. A very complete list of options that shoudl satisfy much of what you'd want to do with pics you've snapped! 

I've only hadd iOS 6 for a few days, but that's what I've enjoyed so far - give them a try!

-dm

Google Chrome

Tada! Google Chrome is now the world's most used browser as announced last month - it's good to be on the winning team. At World Expo I asked the audience if they'd like to know what kind of vitamins a doctor takes, which pet food a vet feeds to their dog, and which apps and programs an IT guy or gal uses on their devices. Google Chrome is my browser of choice for a few reasons. Each year, Google hosts a summit whereby they invite and encourage IT professionals (Hacker types) to beat up on the most popular  web browsers. I mean really try to choke them off, disturb their normal operation, violate their security features, you name it! The past three years, Google Chrome has come out on top. This year, three significant flaws were found in Google Chrome and their hackers were paid prize money to exploit them! An update repairing the security holes was available for download within 24 hours. Despite this recent stumble - it remains the best browser you can use. It is fast, secure and boasts a great feature that really appeals to me. That feature is syncing bookmarks through Gmail accounts.

If you have a Gmail account, you can allow the bookmarks (Favorite websites you visit) to synchronize among all of your machines. It works on PC or Mac, but you need Google Chrome loaded on all machines to allow for this, obviously. You alos have to sign on to your Gmail account once for the setup of this feature on each machine you'd like Bookmark Syncing to operate on.  What a blast, being able to have one great list of frequently visited sites that follow you at home, work, laptop etc.  The only question I have is... when do I get a Google Chrome browser for iPad?

Here's a link to download Google Chrome FREE for your PC or Mac  Google Chrome Download

Here's a link to the hacking browser contest thing mentioned above...  Google Chrome 

1Password

If you're one of our franchisees, you have heard me recommend 1Password. In light of the LinkedIn password hacking this week and now another similar incident on last.fm, it's interesting to see how people manage their passwords.

1Password by AgileBit Technologies is a program that save your passwords for any and all websites, online memberships, etc. This application runs on all popular platforms and devices. 1Password stores your username and password information securely for easy retrieval… if you know the one, single, “master password” you gave yourself when you start the service. Each time you visit a website that needs a password, you invoke 1Passord to recall your username and password for that site. In order to allow this to occur, 1Password asks you for your master password, then brings forward the correct stored username and password to work for you! It’s a very intuitive system, if you visit a website for the first time - 1Password knows when you’re filling out the profile info and it will offer to save newly entered usernames and passwords. It is rated as very secure, providing you don’t choose a woefully easy master password. It costs $49.99 - with discounts for multiple purchases if you plan on using it on more than one device. 1Password allows for a 30 day trial. My best tip for using this program or app is that I have several 1Passwords working for me on many different devices. All of my 1Password programs on PC, Mac, Macbook Air Laptop and iPhone report to a central repository of encrypted passwords that I keep on Dropbox. So if I change or add passwords on any device, the 1Password on all my devices knows this and adjusts accordingly! This sounds very techie and involved, but users of multiple 1Passwords and devices can easily use Dropbox to allow for the sharing of your precious password data securely among all your devices. 1Password also can develop very secure generated passwords that consist of many characters, numbers and special characters so as not to be easily guessed. You'll use this more and more once you realize that because you have 1Password, you don't have to remember the cryptic string yourself, you're well taken care of by 1Password. You will not regret this purchase, it may quickly grow to be your favorite application too! You have no idea how many passwords you have until this starts cataloging them for you. Relax and practice safe computing with AgileBit Technology’s 1Password. And use it with Dropbox if you have more than one device and want all of your usernames and passwords the same on each of them.

7-Zip

This handy unzip tool gives more options than what Microsoft has included with Windows 7. I have Windows 7 Ultimate, but was looking for a method to unzip multiple ZIP files in one swipe using File Explorer and the SHIFT key.  That won't fly with Windows zippy version or the demo WINZip software so many have.  7-Zip is a free download from sourceforge.net.  It downloads and installs easily, creating an entry on your Windows Programs List as well as adding right-click functionality to your mouse.

The executable program looks like a file manager of sorts. You can surf between the folders in typical Windows fashion, you have COPY, MOVE and DELETE file functions. Like most zip software, you can ADD or DELETE files from a zipped packaged group.  For me as stated, the desire was to do a batch unzip on many files and have the unzipped contents all reside in the same directory or folder. (Unzip Here)  That worked fine.  The 7-Zip website says it's an open source free download that compresses better than PKUzip or WinZip.  It's also available in 79 languages... I just know English so my choice was easy.  Good to have for an option over and above what comes with Windows 7.  www.7-zip.org