Apple's future without its iconic founder Steve Jobs after Retirement (BLOG, Retirement Letter)

The stock market obviously views Apple as Steve Jobs -- shares are off 5% in the wake of his retirement announcement.

But Apple is a company with more than 45,000 employees, including some of the greatest product designers, engineers, and marketers of any company in the world.

Apple has an incredible product pipeline: the iPad 2 is the only tablet that matters, the iPhone takes the lion's share of profits in the smartphone market, and the Mac is the only personal computer brand that's growing as the rest of the market is shrinking.

All of those products have at least one, maybe two, more updates already in the pipeline.

Strategically, Apple is in the right place: both Google (with the Motorola acquisition) and Microsoft (with itsNokia partnership) have basically acknowledged that they need both hardware and software to compete in smartphones.

Apple is behind those two companies in terms of online services -- the third part of the equation -- but at least it's recognized the problem and will try to address it with iCloud.

But two or three years down the road? If Jobs does not come back, here's what Apple will lose:
The ultimate arbiter. A lot of big companies are bogged down with bureaucratic infighting -- it's endemic at Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard's botched earnings/strategy/acquisition announcement last week point to political problems there as well. That has never been a problem with Steve Jobs in control of Apple. Everybody there respects him, he knows what every part of the company is doing, and he's not afraid to make big changes when something's broken. Other CEOs may be as smart and as strong-willed, but they can't possibly garner the same level of respect as the founder who returned to bring his company back from near death.

The product planner. Jobs is obsessed with simplicity and leaving things out: he culled the Mac product line down to a couple models when he returned, refused to let the Apple mouse have two buttons, and insisted that the iPhone NOT try to do everything at once. Other Apple employees understand that, but it's unknown whether anybody else will be able to execute that art as well as Jobs has. Especially when product groups and individuals see a new and fresh chance to gain status and get their ideas heard (see last point).

The recruiter and magnet. Apple already lost its retail planner Ron Johnson, and product design head Jony Ive was reportedly making noises about leaving as well. More to the point, everybody wants to work at Apple today. That's party because of the company's record of success -- but it's probably also in good part because of the mythos of Jobs.

Pop culture icon. Steve Jobs's keynotes are packed with press -- including popular press. Will the media fawn over Tim Cook or Phil Schiller when they talk? Don't count on it. And that means that you might not see every Apple product announcement featured on the local TV news as it has been.

Case in point: look at Microsoft under Bill Gates, and Microsoft under Steve Ballmer.

Apple will still be a juggernaut for a long time. But the company's competitors have to be viewing today's news with at least a small twinge of ... let's call it anticipation.

Steve Jobs Letter:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve

$103M to expand broadband Internet in rural US (BLOG)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Telecommunications companies in 16 states will share more than $103 million in federal funding to help expand broadband Internet access to those areas of rural America that haven't been reached by the high-speed service or are underserved, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.

Policymakers, public interest groups and telecom companies are seeking to bridge the digital divide by reaching even the most remote pockets of the U.S. with broadband internet, hoping to improve economic and educational opportunities there.

"There's a big gap that remains between rural and urban areas because it's just hard to make a business case in rural areas," said Jonathan Adelstein, the agriculture department's rural utilities service administrator, in a conference call with reporters. "Rural areas' future depends upon access to broadband and we're not where we need to be today."

The states that will benefit from the funding are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

As many as one in 10 Americans can't get Internet connections fast enough to engage in such common online activities as watching video or teleconferencing, and two thirds of schools have broadband connections that are too slow to meet their needs, the Commerce Department reported earlier this year.

Last year, the Federal Communications Commission released a national broadband plan that set a goal of hooking up 100 million U.S. households to broadband connections of 100 megabits per second by 2020. That's at least 20 times faster than many existing home connections.

About 28 percent of rural America, or nearly 19 million people, lack access to Internet with speeds of three megabits per second or faster, compared with only 3 percent, or 7.2 million people, in non-rural areas, according to an FCC report titled "Bringing Broadband to Rural America."

Adelstein said rural areas lag behind the urban areas of the country when it comes to broadband Internet access because the more remote areas don't have enough people, have rugged terrain, or it's too costly for companies to serve them.

One of the grants announced Monday will help provide Internet services to about 570 members of the Karuk Native American Tribe in a mountainous region of Orleans, in northern California.

"It is a remarkably remote place. It's one of the darkest places from space in the lower 48" states, said Craig Tucker, a spokesman for the tribe.

Tucker said lack of reliable Internet services is a "limiting factor for economic development" for the tribe and the non-Native community that lives in the area as well.

"There's not really good cell phone service, or Internet service. Even electricity is a struggle/ A lot of people are off the grid entirely," he said.

Another grant will help rebuild the broadband infrastructure in Tushka, Okla., which was hit by a tornado in April that killed two people and destroyed or damaged numerous buildings in the community.

Adlestein said there's still a "long way to go" in terms of bringing rural America in line with the rest of the country, and he added that one of the challenges is that young people won't stay in communities without broadband Internet access.

"There's not a future there for them," he said. "Not only do they expect it, but they need it ... if young people want to stay rural areas where they grew up."

The majority of the funding comes in the form of infrastructure loans of totaling about $90 million for five broadband projects. These projects join others across the countries that are sharing $192 million in loans announced by the Agriculture Department in late July.

About $13 million of the funding is through the USDA's Community Connect program, which provides grants to rural, economically challenged communities. The funds can be used to build, buy or lease facilities to bring broadband access to community facilities such as schools and government offices, as well as residents and businesses.

The USDA funding is just one of several federal, state and local programs working to expand Internet access to rural parts of the country.

Revive a dying laptop battery (BLOG)

First, the basics

Most laptops use batteries that can last for 3-5 years, or about 1000 charges. (A premium laptop's battery might last longer.) Every time you charge your battery, the total capacity of the battery is diminished. Originally it may have had a run time of 3.5 hours, but after a year it'll run out of juice at 3 hours, even on a full charge.

If your battery capacity has diminished, there are a few things you can do about it. First, you have to correctly gauge how much capacity has been lost. There are free downloads to do this job, likeBattery Bar (for Windows PCs) or Coconut Battery (for Macs). These will compare your battery's current maximum capacity to how long it lasted when it was new.
(UPDATE- we originally recommended Battery Eater and while the program works great, their download site has been compromised and we are recommending an alternate program, Battery Bar downloadable from CNET.)

Calibrating your Battery

You can't miraculously reconstitute your battery's capacity. It loses power over time due to chemical reactions taking place in the battery, as it chugs along powering your laptop. You can't undo those changes, but there is one common battery issue you can fix: In many laptops, the operating system's battery meter gets out of sync with how much juice the battery actually has.

Imagine if the gas gauge on your car dashboard was misreading how much gas you actually had in the tank. You'd either run out of gas when you thought you had a quarter of a tank left, or you'd be filling up too frequently. In your laptop, this can mean your laptop shuts down abruptly when the meter says you have 30 minutes left. Or else the meter might warn that you only have 2 minutes of battery life left and shut your laptop down, when it really has another 20 minutes remaining.

Recalibrating gets the battery meter to correctly read the current state of the battery, so you and the operating system know where you stand with existing battery life.

How to recalibrate

First, charge your laptop's battery to full, and leave it that way for at least two hours. Then unplug your laptop, and set its power management settings to never turn off or lower the monitor brightness. (HP has instructions for how do to this on Windows 7 and Vista, as well as Windows XP, while Apple has instructions for Mac laptops on their site.)

You want to drain the battery completely, then let your laptop sit for at least five hours this way -- like, say, overnight. (Just be careful and mute the volume, since some laptops make a warning sound when they're about to run out.) Afterwards, charge it up again, and you should notice a more accurate portrayal of your battery capacity. In some cases, you may even get more life out of it.

Best practices to maintain battery life

You'd think that the best way to keep your laptop's battery from wearing out is to not use it. Right?

As it turns out, batteries are like muscles; they need to be worked out regularly to stay healthy. Ideally, you'd use your laptop unplugged at least once a day, like on a train or bus commute or on the couch in front of the TV. If you're not going to use it, constantly charging your battery is a bad idea; HP recommends on their website that if you're going to leave your laptop plugged in or put up in storage for more than two weeks, you should take the battery out of your laptop.

Past the expiration date

So when is it time to throw out that old battery? The answer, surprisingly, is "never." Laptop batteries contain lots of toxic chemicals, and should never end up in landfills. Fortunately, e-stewards.org has a list of environmentally responsible recyclers that will take your old battery with no fuss.

When is it time to replace your battery, then? Use the free utility apps Becky mentioned, and when they say that your battery can only hold around 25% of its original capacity it's probably time for a new one. You can buy a replacement battery from the original laptop manufacturer, and there are plenty of places online that sell discounted PC laptop batteries, like Laptops for Less andBatteries.com. Owners of newer Mac laptops can get their laptop's non-removable battery swapped out at any Apple store, with a scheduled appointment.

Keep your PC safe from hackers (BLOG)

Consumers and politicians alike have been appalled by the prospect that Apple has the ability to keep tabs on users' locations via a hidden iPhone file.

The furor may distract from more nefarious threats, though. Industry experts say that last year 286 million types of malware were responsible for more than 3 billion attacks on computer users, while software guarding against those attacks generally catches only 60% of what it comes up against.

Although there may be no 100% guaranteed strategy for beating hackers and stopping snoopers, there are some simple safeguards to put in place:

Focus on security

Every day, millions of people post pictures of their kids, vacations and family events online. Most are unaware of the wealth of data that can easily be extracted.

Digital photos contain an "EXIF" (Exchangeable Image File Format) data file that stores information about the image -- much of it fairly innocuous. A simple browser plug-in (or standard photo viewers) can tell what shutter speed and aperture was used, the date and time a photo was created and even if a flash was used.

The danger comes from higher-end cameras and photos taken with cellphones and smartphones. These can add GPS information and geo-tagging that provides an exact longitude and latitude of where the picture was taken. A quick trip to Google Maps can zero in on the exact address. In some cases -- although usually if it's done intentionally by professional photographers -- a full name and phone number can be embedded.All that information is a boon to potential stalkers and a quick way to ruin the anonymity of a blogger. Combined with personal information offered on such sites asTwitter, FourSquare and Gowalla, the use of EXIF data can be an invitation to burglars and other evildoers. National security can even be compromised, as is detailed in a report issued by the Pentagon that warned personnel against inadvertently revealing troop positions.

There are two basic ways to protect yourself. One is to disable the geo-tagging feature in your smartphone, a task that can be as easy or complicated as your particular manufacturer makes it. (The website I Can Stalk U.com offers guides for many popular brands.)

You can also strip EXIF data from photos using Microsoft's Picture Viewer in Windows (right-click to "properties," and click on "remove properties and personal information"). Apple's OS similarly enables the removal of data, as does the popular editing software Adobe Photoshop.
Dupe of URL

In its April Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec pointed out that "social network platforms continue to grow in popularity, and this popularity has not surprisingly attracted a large volume of malware."

"One of the primary attack techniques used on social-networking sites involved the use of shortened URLs," it says. These shortened website addresses serve as an alternative to long, unwieldy links, but can hide a website's real location and be used to trick victims into phishing and malware attacks.

"In a typical scenario, the attacker logs into a compromised social-networking account and posts a shortened link to a malicious website in the victim's status area," the report says. "The social-networking site then automatically distributes the link to news feeds of the victim's friends, spreading the link to potentially hundreds or thousands of victims in minutes."

According to Symantec, last year 65% of malicious links in news feeds used shortened URLs. Of these, 73% were clicked 11 times or more.

What to do? Most browsers have third-party extensions or plug-ins (such as Interclue on Firefox) that allow you to hover over a shortened link to see its longer form before clicking.

The site LongURL.org allows you to paste in a copied short URL to see where a link would really take you.
Logging in

You log on to websites a dozen times a day for email, bank accounts, shopping, bill payments, Facebook, your company intranet and any number of other things.

Each time, you're at risk. The easiest way for an identity thief to set up shop is to use logins as a gateway to personal data. The pickings are even easier when you use the same password, or slight variations, for multiple sites and services. One approach for the malevolent is a "brute force attack," using a software program to spew a barrage of number and letter combinations until one picks the lock.

Another approach is using a "key logger," a program that records every character you type and transmits information back to whoever managed to sneak the installer onto your computer via a virus or Trojan horse. With minimal guesswork they can figure out passwords, credit card numbers and anything else you transmitted.

Making your password more complex may stall a brute force attempt, but a key logger won't be challenged much.

Numerous programs are dedicated to the task of protecting your password. One simple way to start protecting yourself is to type a series of random letters and characters into a text file, with your passwords among them. Instead of typing in your password, copy and paste it from the text file into the login field. All the key logger will see is a click of your mouse or a simple control-V.
Yard sale danger

Going to sell off an old computer on eBay or at a flea market? You may think you wiped your hard drive clean, but the recycle bin is hardly the final word in taking out the trash.

Data you drop in the bin aren't really erased, just stashed away and hidden elsewhere on the drive until other bits and bytes write over it.

Don't just rely on clicking "delete." Windows, Apple's OS and most flavors of Linux (as well as software you can buy retail) can be used to overwrite your disk multiple times, completely erasing your data so well it would meet military standards.

It may seem generous to leave the operating system and programs intact for a buyer, but don't. Only a complete erasure will make sure stray files or bits of personal information, including stored passwords, are not still hiding in the corners of your C drive.
A familiar threat

Email is great, isn't it? You can conduct business by day and catch up with family and friends at night.

Unfortunately, we all have that aunt or grandparent who perpetually sends flash-based greeting cards, cute animations and sparkly affirmations. The emails, often forwarded among hundreds or thousands of people, can have hazardous files embedded in them. At the very least, your email address is being passed along again and again, an invitation to spammers and schemers.

It would be heartless to suggest that you never again open anything sent from those repeat offenders. But turning off the "preview pane" in your email program can help keep some malicious code from launching.

Going to "tools," "options" and "read" in Outlook or similar email programs lets you set a preference so all messages appear in plain text. This not only eliminates the epilepsy-inducing unicorns and teddy bears; it stops an embedded virus dead in its tracks. Just be sure to never download anything from a suspect message.
Clicks for kicks

If a pop-up ad flashes onscreen, your first instinct is to click it away. But some pop-ups are built so what appears to be a "no" button or "X" might as well read "click here to download malware."

If an ad seems suspicious, won't minimize or demands your permission "to navigate away" or some such lie, don't take chances. In Windows, hit control-alt-delete and shut down your browser manually or end the "process" it is running. Don't take the chance of clicking around on it.
Wi-Fi high-risk

Through a combination of either laziness, generosity or lack of know-how, many people fail to password-protect home Wi-Fi connections. When they're left open, hackers can gain access to your computer through the connection, using it to steal data or make your computer a "zombie" infecting other machines, or even downloading illegal materials that will track back to your IP address.

In addition to setting up a password, you may want to take the extra step of scanning your modem's manual and adjusting settings so your connection is no longer "discoverable" -- meaning it is invisible to others, and devices sniffing around for a network will have a much harder time finding it.

Apple Announces New, Cheaper iMac (VIDEO,BLOG)

(Huffington)Hot on the heels of its back-to-school-friendly MacBook Air, Apple has released a new iMac desktop computer intended specifically for purchase by schools, educational institutions and high-volume customers.

The education-only iMac is $999 (the regular consumer version starts at $1199). This new, cheaper iMac features a 21.5-inch screen, 3.1GHz Intel Core i3 dual-core processor, a 250GB hard drive, and, interestingly, no Thunderbolt drive.

MacRumors pointed out that institutions that purchase this iMac will get 4 USB ports, but none of the new, faster periphery connections that Apple has been touting recently. Odd. MacRumors also noted that this iMac also features but 2GB of RAM, down from the 4GB that comes standard on regular iMac. 9to5Mac notes that the $999 iMac has "much less horsepower" and is, overall, a "less-powerful machine." (Presumably these are the sacrifices a school would have to make in order to get the $200 discount.)

Full tech specs can be found on the Apple website here.

Apple's newest iMacs were released in May 2011, and the full price, full-feature computers include the Thunderbolt drive and Intel quad-core processors. Apple also recently pushed out two new MacBook Airs (which compare favorably with the MacBook Pro laptop) in late July 2011.

Tips for Longer-Lasting Laptop Batteries(BLOG)

Hardware budgets are feeling the pinch of our tepid economy, and many companies are making employees use their laptops longer. If you are starting to tell your folks to keep plugging along with their laptops for four or five years instead of just three, you might be running into an unexpected expense: dead laptop batteries.

Well, to be fair, your laptop's batteries probably aren't completely dead. But since Lithium Ion batteries tend to lose about 20% of their capacity each year, a typical three-year-old laptop might only get about an hour or so on a charge, which might not even get your folks through an entire meeting. Here are four simple tips to forestall the day that you need to replace those batteries:

Keep it cool. Heat is the primary killer of batteries. Tell your employees to be careful not to let their laptops overheat. One common way that happens is packing a running laptop into a backpack or briefcase. If the laptop fails to go to sleep (and let's face it — sleep glitches are common), then the laptop can get crazy hot in an enclosed space. You can almost smell the loss of battery longevity.

Recondition your battery regularly. Most laptop manufacturers (except Apple) don't generally tell you about this, but a simple process known as reconditioning (or occasionally, recalibrating) can breathe new life into your laptop battery and add capacity back. To do that, turn off your screen saver and any other power management tools which put your PC to sleep. Fully charge the laptop, and then let it run all the way down — right until it powers down due to lack of juice. Then charge it back up again and restore your power management stuff. Do this every few months (such as three times a year).

Remove it when you're not using it. When you leave your laptop plugged in at your desk all day every day, the battery never gets a chance to discharge and recharge — which is critical to its long-term health. Thankfully, there's a simple solution: Remove the battery. As long as your laptop is connected to AC power, the battery isn't necessary; it'll run without it. Just remember to pop it back in before you take your laptop on the go.

Start with a super-sized battery. When you purchase your next round of laptops, upgrade to the extended-life battery. Not only will it give you significantly longer runtime to start with — great for road warriors and anyone else who works away from the office a lot — but the inevitable loss of battery life will have a less pronounced effect. The added cost of the larger batteries is worth the investment, because they end up lasting

Is Your Laptop Worth a Million? Ryan Leslies is (VIDEO)

Missing Laptop:




2 Weeks ago Ryan Leslie was just gonna give you ...$20,000 Dollars for information on his missing laptop..... Now Its 1 Million Dollars.





He so serious he made a song about it!... I Would be to considering how much exclusive music he has on it. I feel for him.