Thinking about a new computer for Christmas? Like those new 'tablet' like laptops? Make sure you know what version of Windows it runs! The cheaper ones run Windows RT which will NOT run standard windows programs. Only Windows 8 can do that. Windows RT is meant to be for portable tablets and limits you to the colorful tile/full screen interface and whatever apps are in the Microsoft App Store. Share with your friends so they know the difference!

The Differences Between Windows 8 and Windows RT Explained | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
www.wired.com
As Windows 8 and its accompanying devices launch on October 26, you'll want to make sure you know the differences between the various flavors of the OS before purchasing a device or upgrade pack. Here's our breakdown.

If you've ever wanted to have that 'one place' to store notes, articles, web pages, emails, journals, etc., definitely give Evernote a look. I use it a lot when I'm on site with clients (using my Android tablet), but also for storing things like instructions for obscure PC fixes, lots of soccer reference stuff, practice plans that I can pull back up easily, and so on. Plus it's free – you only pay when you use it so much you bump into their upload limit. Like if you could use something like this and share with your friends!

What's All the Fuss About Evernote? Should I Be Using It?
lifehacker.com
Dear Lifehacker, It seems like everyone is always raving about Evernote, but I don't really understand its appeal. Isn't it just a notes app that other apps do better or simpler?

Had a great morning working with the folks at Paws4Ever as they upgrade their Internet and Phone service along with a number of network changes. What a beautiful facility located south of Mebane. They specialize in pet training and adoptions.

Facebook is trying to compete with Instagram, Sugarsync, Google+, and other services that automatically sync your pictures to a cloud account. Overall Facebook is handling things like the others – all go into a private album only you can see, which is good. But still something to be careful about as you're snapping pictures with your smartphone. If you use Android, you may want to choose between Facebook or Google+ to avoid uploading pictures to both places and eating into your data plan.

Facebook Photo Sync: Nine things you should know
nakedsecurity.sophos.com
Facebook has introduced a new feature for iPhone, iPad and Android users which means you can automatically sync any photos you take on your mobile device with your Facebook account. Here's what …

I discovered this by accident one day. Fantastic feature… Like if you use GMail or may give it a try!

The Best Secret Gmail Feature Is Hiding In Plain Sight
gizmo.do
There's a Google Mail feature you have to use. Seriously. You must. Because copying an entire chain of messages after your reply doesn't make any sense when people can scroll down to see all the messages, chained one after the other.

This give you an idea of how crafty today's Trojan's and Worms are getting. Sure if you saw 'Sexy.exe' on a flash drive, you aren't going to click it. But opening a folder you recognize is fine right? In this case they manipulate things so the folder are hidden and infected files look like folders. Treat USB sticks with caution if you don't know where they came from or when using them on computers you or your corporate IT don't control. This particular worm is looking for banking credentials…

W32/VBNA-X spreads quickly through networks and removable media
nakedsecurity.sophos.com
A new particularly virulent version of the malware family known as W32/VBNA (also SillyFDC/Autorun) is spreading very quickly. It takes advantage of Windows Autorun and some very clever social engi…

Had fun checking out the big Coke exhibit at the Mebane Historical Museum while we did some IT work for them. Also picked up a copy of 'Images of America: Mebane' by J. Ronald Oakley. Can't wait to check that out. And you can also get 'Change for a Dollar' by Rick Smith (already have it) – an excellent history of Mebane and Mebane 1st Savings and Loan (IT Xpress helped with scanning some very old photos of Mebane)

Mike Baptiste's Photos
Doing some IT work @ Mebane Museum

Happy Thanksgiving to all our our customers, their friends, and family! It's fun to spruce up our PCs for the holidays, just be careful what you download!!!

Beware Thanksgiving screensavers designed to infect your PC with malware
nakedsecurity.sophos.com
Malware has been spread posing as Thanksgiving screensavers. Learn what to look out for, and think before you install that program!

Don't usually post links to retail stuff here, but if you are looking for an inexpensive computer, here are a number of good deals on refurbished machines from Buy.com… http://view.ed4.net/v/EY2K7H1/QFUSC/FE5M843/Y8WQZC/

Thinking about buying a new laptop? I get asked all the time what to look for, so finally wrote it down for a friend and figured I'd share it with you all. Like if it helped you and share with your friends who may be shopping!

Buying a new laptop is not as complicated as it sounds. First figure out the size. Go to Best Buy and get a feel for 13", 15", 17". Most people choose 15". Then realize that most laptops, especially at the consumer price level, are all the same except for a couple of things. The #1 consideration is the CPU/Processor. You should only consider the following: Intel: i3, i5, or i7 and AMD: A4, A6, A8, A10. Celeron, Pentium, Sempron, and others are cheap for a reason. They're SLOW (and cheap). Don't listen to anyone saying 'Intel is faster than AMD'. At the most expensive highest end CPUs? Yes. But at the consumer level, they're equivalent (i3/A4 are dual core, the rest are quad core) CPU speed is also misleading. Intel's list 2.5ish GHz while AMDs list 1.5ish. The reason is AMD runs one core at 'turbo' the same speed as the equivalent Intels for applications you're actively using. The rest run at a slower speed to handle things in the background that don't NEED speed – this saves battery life. So you'll never notice. But they have to list the speed of all the cores. Next on the list is memory. *Minimum* 4GB. 6GB is nice. 8GB is GREAT. Biggest thing slowing down computers in the Vista era was not enough memory – operating systems and applications never get 'smaller' so you can never have too much memory. The last thing to consider, and it's a distant 3rd, is the graphics chip (GPU). Only 3D gamers would notice, but the GPU is playing a bigger role in video processing. AMD processors have full blown graphics chips embedded in them. Big plus. Intel chips use either the 'Intel HD' chip which is average (the 4000 is supposed to be decent) or they'll throw in a dedicated nVidia graphics chip. Unless you play 3D games, I wouldn't worry about it – but if you find two fairly equivalent laptops for the same price and one has a dedicated graphics chip – go with that. Hard drive size is *meaningless*. 99% of users will never fill the smallest hard drive available. HOWEVER, Solid State Drives or 'SSDs' are *lightning* fast. Rarely found in entry level laptops, you're starting to see them in mid level laptops. Absolutely worth getting if you can afford it. Applications start MUCH faster and SSDs have no moving parts so jarring a SSD laptop won't cause a hard drive crash. Everything else tends to be the same. As for brands? Quality wise – laptops are portable and thus are more likely to break. The *best* company will repair 28% of their laptops in 3 years. The next 5 or so are in the low 30's. So I tend to choose a brand based on how much junkware they install, which never gets used but use up system resources anyway. Acer and HP are making nice laptops (Gateway is owned by Acer – they're the same machines). Dell is always a good choice, though they're pretty plain. Samsung is making a move into laptops that aren't bad. Everyone loves Toshibas because they're 'shiny' but they have WAY too much 'junk' installed. That said – if you like listening to music? Toshibas have always had the best speakers (REAL speakers vs the piezo things most laptops us). The HP 'Beats Audio' laptops can put out decent sound, but still are not at the level most Toshibas are. Lenovo laptops have way too much junk on them. A decent entry level laptop worth having should cost you $400-$500. A really good laptop will run you $650-$750, but rebates can help there (HP was running some rebate specials before Windows 8 came out). If you can afford it, getting a laptop with an i5 or A6/A8 CPU and 6GB of memory is a good target. With Windows 8 coming out, you're seeing new laptop/tablet hybrids with touchscreens. Definitely play with one before considering buying one. Lot of additional complexity that is useless if you won't use it. I find lifting my hand up from the touchpad/keyboard to be VERY inefficient. Others don't. Don't let Windows 8 scare you. The crazy 'Metro' interface with the tiles is an add on. Just click the 'Desktop' tile and you'll be in a normal Windows Desktop – albeit without a Start Menu. Install an 'add-on' Start Menu like ViStart or Pokki and you'll feel right at home. And Windows 8 has anti-virus built in now. No need for paying Norton or McAfee $70/year.

If you decide to get a new laptop or computer this holiday season, let IT Xpress set it up properly for you. We'll install some of the most commonly used software, the latest updates (updates for Windows 8 will be coming out like crazy this month) and ensure it's setup securely. Like if this article helped you and please share with your friends!

Thinking about buying a new laptop? I get asked all the time what to look for, so finally wrote it down for a friend and figured I'd share it with you all. Like if it helped you and share with your friends who may be shopping!

Buying a new laptop is not as complicated as it sounds. First figure out the size. Go to Best Buy and get a feel for 13", 15", 17". Most people choose 15". Then realize that most laptops, especially at the consumer price level, are all the same except for a couple of things. The #1 consideration is the CPU/Processor. You should only consider the following: Intel: i3, i5, or i7 and AMD: A4, A6, A8, A10. Celeron, Pentium, Sempron, and others are cheap for a reason. They're SLOW (and cheap). Don't listen to anyone saying 'Intel is faster than AMD'. At the most expensive highest end CPUs? Yes. But at the consumer level, they're equivalent (i3/A4 are dual core, the rest are quad core) CPU speed is also misleading. Intel's list 2.5ish GHz while AMDs list 1.5ish. The reason is AMD runs one core at 'turbo' the same speed as the equivalent Intels for applications you're actively using. The rest run at a slower speed to handle things in the background that don't NEED speed – this saves battery life. So you'll never notice. But they have to list the speed of all the cores. Next on the list is memory. *Minimum* 4GB. 6GB is nice. 8GB is GREAT. Biggest thing slowing down computers in the Vista era was not enough memory – operating systems and applications never get 'smaller' so you can never have too much memory. The last thing to consider, and it's a distant 3rd, is the graphics chip (GPU). Only 3D gamers would notice, but the GPU is playing a bigger role in video processing. AMD processors have full blown graphics chips embedded in them. Big plus. Intel chips use either the 'Intel HD' chip which is average (the 4000 is supposed to be decent) or they'll throw in a dedicated nVidia graphics chip. Unless you play 3D games, I wouldn't worry about it – but if you find two fairly equivalent laptops for the same price and one has a dedicated graphics chip – go with that. Hard drive size is *meaningless*. 99% of users will never fill the smallest hard drive available. HOWEVER, Solid State Drives or 'SSDs' are *lightning* fast. Rarely found in entry level laptops, you're starting to see them in mid level laptops. Absolutely worth getting if you can afford it. Applications start MUCH faster and SSDs have no moving parts so jarring a SSD laptop won't cause a hard drive crash. Everything else tends to be the same. As for brands? Quality wise – laptops are portable and thus are more likely to break. The *best* company will repair 28% of their laptops in 3 years. The next 5 or so are in the low 30's. So I tend to choose a brand based on how much junkware they install, which never gets used but use up system resources anyway. Acer and HP are making nice laptops (Gateway is owned by Acer – they're the same machines). Dell is always a good choice, though they're pretty plain. Samsung is making a move into laptops that aren't bad. Everyone loves Toshibas because they're 'shiny' but they have WAY too much 'junk' installed. That said – if you like listening to music? Toshibas have always had the best speakers (REAL speakers vs the piezo things most laptops us). The HP 'Beats Audio' laptops can put out decent sound, but still are not at the level most Toshibas are. Lenovo laptops have way too much junk on them. A decent entry level laptop worth having should cost you $400-$500. A really good laptop will run you $650-$750, but rebates can help there (HP was running some rebate specials before Windows 8 came out). If you can afford it, getting a laptop with an i5 or A6/A8 CPU and 6GB of memory is a good target. With Windows 8 coming out, you're seeing new laptop/tablet hybrids with touchscreens. Definitely play with one before considering buying one. Lot of additional complexity that is useless if you won't use it. I find lifting my hand up from the touchpad/keyboard to be VERY inefficient. Others don't. Don't let Windows 8 scare you. The crazy 'Metro' interface with the tiles is an add on. Just click the 'Desktop' tile and you'll be in a normal Windows Desktop – albeit without a Start Menu. Install an 'add-on' Start Menu like ViStart or Pokki and you'll feel right at home. And Windows 8 has anti-virus built in now. No need for paying Norton or McAfee $70/year.

If you decide to get a new laptop or computer this holiday season, let IT Xpress set it up properly for you. We'll install some of the most commonly used software, the latest updates (updates for Windows 8 will be coming out like crazy this month) and ensure it's setup securely. Like if this article helped you and please share with your friends!

Is your computer (or a family member's) used mainly for checking email, Facebook, and other online sites, with an occasional letter or spreadsheet thrown in? If so, you should consider a Chromebook or Chromebox. They run Google Chrome as their web browser, give you 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage (instant backup!), and best of all? No viruses since they run Linux (viruses are 'possible' but unheard of). We are considering offering a class on using ChromeOS devices for everyday computing. And the price points for these devices are impressive (no Windows license fees!) Even for power users, these are great auxiliary computing devices.

Introducing the new Chromebook
www.google.com
The Chromebook is a new, faster computer. It starts in seconds, and offers thousands of apps. It has built-in virus protection, and backs up your stuff in the cloud. With automatic updates, it keeps getting better.

Some great ideas for locking down Facebook to protect your privacy and secure your FB account. Like if you've done any of these steps!

How to Lockdown Your Facebook Account For Maximum Privacy and Security
facecrooks.com
Recent studies show that privacy concerns are very much on the minds of Facebook users. Part of being a responsible member of any online community is educating yourself and your loved ones on how to properly configure the privacy and security settings offered by the platform. The fact that Facebook…

Whatever you do – DON'T do this. WEP is completely broken and anyone can access you network in a matter of minutes. Any WiFi router should be set to use WPA2 encryption to ensure the security of the network and the devices connected to it. Sad to see advice like this published. Like if you use WPA2 on your router! And if you aren't sure, bring your router by IT Xpress and for $45 we can ensure it's running the latest software and is configured for maximum security.

How to Fix Your iPhone 5's Crappy Wi-Fi
gizmo.do
The iPhone 5 is pretty good, and for most folks, its Wi-Fi is actually very good. It was in our tests. But a lot of people have been reporting in that the Wi-Fi is actually awful, and can't hold a signal at all.

Once a virus has total control of your computer, it can do *anything*. Lately we've seen viruses causing MUCH more damage to computers than in the past. Now hackers are locking up all of a user's data and ransoming it. What would you pay to get your life's photos back? How sure are you your computer is secure? Do you backup? Use a cloud account? Stop by IT Xpress with your computer and we can ensure it's as secure as possible and give you ideas on how to better protect your data. Like if you are worried about your system's security and share with your friends!

Anonymous ransomware – but who is hiding behind this malware's mask?
nakedsecurity.sophos.com
£100 is demanded as payment in order to gain access back to your files. You only have 24 hours to pay up. And the people who are holding your data hostage claim to be part of Anonymous..