Andrew from Retrevo has some peeves about tech. As always, none of them make sense. Here they all are… totally debunked.

Retrevo editor, Andrew, thinks Ultrabooks are better than a MacBook Air for several reasons that don’t really make much sense. I ask “him” about it in this video.

TechCrunch is reporting that Foxconn has confirmed the iTV (or Apple HDTV) with “facts” that don’t really add up.

With laptops, netbooks, ultrabooks and desktop PCs (plus tablets), knowing what to buy and which platform (Windows vs Mac) can be almost impossible. Here is some help.

Andrew, the editor and blogger, at Retrevo dislikes the Apple TV and gives 5 reasons why. These reasons are not good and don’t make sense with just a little bit of research and thought. Here is my rebuttal.

Apple announced that their yearly Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held June 11-15 this year. The five day event is most well known for the keynote speech held on the opening day each year. Historically, the keynote (done by Steve Jobs every year until now) is where they would announce the newest iPhone model. Last year, it was all about iOS 5 (since the iPhone 4S was delayed until October for a variety of reasons). The keynote lasts about an hour, but the conference goes on for a total of 5 days.

The week long event gives an in-depth look at everything that’s new in iOS and OS X. There are many workshops for developers or aspiring developers. It is an opportunity to work with Apple’s own engineers and get questions answered and learn new techniques. It is also a great place to make new friends, meet other developer’s and build connections within the Apple development ecosystem. Aside from all the sessions and hands-on labs there will be speakers and events, a competition with the Apple experts and the WWDC bash.

There are two problems. The first is that tickets do not come cheap. Getting into the event will cost $1,599, which leads to problem number two - tickets sold out in just two hours this year. With each passing year, the event has been gaining popularity and tickets have been selling out in less itme. Two hours seems to be a record. 

It is interesting this year because there has been no announcement about a new version of iOS. Any speculation is based on prior years. More than likely, workshops will focus on Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. This will also be the first year for Tim Cook to kick off the event with the keynote address. Tim was panned for his announcement of the iPhone 4S only for the world to find out that Steve Jobs lay on his deathbed at the time, causing pundits to withhold judgment. He proved to be an engaging speaker at the announcement of the new iPad.

What will be announced at WWDC is anybody’s guess at the moment. If previous years are any indication, Apple’s slogan “It’s the week we’ve all been waiting for” will certainly hold true.

Last week, the big news in the Mac community was the arrival of the Flashback trojan. For so long, Mac users lived under the pretense that they could not get a virus. The Flashback proved that wrong. For years, it was a numbers game. There is no sense in writing a virus for the Mac when the PC had such a large market share. Virus writers are looking to achieve something on a massive level and the PC was the way to do that. While the Mac doesn’t have nearly the market share of PC still, it has grown and continues to grow at a rapid pace. It has suddenly became apparent to virus writer and users that the Mac represents a significant enough target.

The arrival of the Flashback trojan was the first indication that a virus on the Mac was a credible threat. It used a security vulnerability in Java to infect the machine. There was no apparent danger by getting it and it didn’t seem to actually do anything. If anything, it was a message that the Mac is not as secure as people may think. At its height, Flashback had infected over 650,000 users. Apple quickly released a security patch to remove it, shut down access and prevent future exploitation via Java. Last count showed around 270,000 users still have it. Norton by Symantec has a tool available to download (for free) to check for Flashback and remove if necessary.

Now we have SabPab (sometimes called SabPub, by Kapersky). It is a simple backdoor Trojan that serves no purpose, but to wait further instructions, at which point your computer is under the control of the hacker instructing the virus. It could be used to steal information from your machine. It may also be used as part of a botnet army in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. 

So far, Norton has classified SabPab risk as very low and gives instructions for removal if you own their Anti-Virus software. One step to be taken in the event Norton is not installed on your system is to search for the following files in these locations.

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.PabSabAgent.pfile
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.PabSabAgent.plist

Stay ahead of the virus by updating your software and keeping current with the patches Apple releases. You can do it by looking at Apple’s latest software releases or following the directions to run Software Update.

Retrevo editor, Andrew, thinks you should jailbreak an iPad. I disagree. Here’s why

The growing popularity of the app store has made Apple ID’s a target for scammers, hackers, phishers and every other digital scoundrel. With that ID, they have access to your library of music, movies, books, and apps as well as personally identifiable information and financial information. The stories of people having their Apple ID hacked have not happened frequently, but as with the new Mac virus (flashback trojan), the ever increasing popularity of Apple means an increased vulnerability.

To combat this issue, Apple has added security to your account, effective today. It is a series of three security questions and a rescue email that will help you prove your identity in the event your account is compromised or you forget your password. The integration of the new settings is caused by using the app store on your phone. It is important to note that updating existing apps will not trigger the change. If you don’t have any new apps to download, but want to up the ante on security, just choose the first free app you can find and subsequently delete it.

The attached photo shows the popup notification as well as the screen to choose/answer the questions. After it is complete and recovery email is entered (hidden from view in screen shot), a confirmation email will be sent from Apple, alerting you to click and verify the email address used. Even while updating security, they are sure to avoid scams.

Some skepticism has appeared around the web and the legitimacy has been questions. This is, in fact, from Apple. It is only triggered when an app is downloaded and the email appears to be genuinely from Apple as well. This is being seen by too many people with different apps and varying configurations to be a unified scam anyway.

The received email reads:

Thank you.

You’ve taken the added security step and provided a rescue email address. Now all you need to do is verify that it belongs to you.

The rescue address you have given us is ???@???.com. Just click the link below to verify, sign in using your Apple ID and password, then follow the prompts.

The rescue email address is dedicated your security and allows Apple to get in touch if any account questions come up, such as the need to reset or change your security questions. As promised, Apple will never send you any announcements or marketing messages to this address.

I often get questions about apps that are not working correctly for people and they want to know when it will be updated and what is taking so long. At times, the user has even submitted a negative review or an email directly to the app developer “days ago” and they have not seen an update yet. This seems to happen frequently with big apps like Facebook and is often met with responses from the public that resemble “Facebook can’t do anything right” or “Facebook sucks.” So, here is some insight on why Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t personally fixed your issue in the three hours since you submitted an issue.

At the start of 2009, there were 125 million Facebook users. That number was 375 million at the start of 2010, for a difference of about 200 million. That holds true, mostly, because at the start of 2012, there were 794 million users. Keep in mind that these 800 million users span multiple countries and languages. The technology required to keep them all involved in Facebook is spread across different browsers on different operating systems, mobile pages, apps - each with different access speeds. There are a lot of moving parts.

Updating an app is not as simple as fixing your individual issue. How will it affect users on an older version of iOS or Android users. Changing one piece of the app and how it pulls information affects the servers holding all the information and the connection to them. It is very much a “hip bone is connected to the thigh bone” kind of situation. Once Facebook app developers can fix an issue and ensure they haven’t broken some other connection in the process they can test the app in devices - of all platforms. When that’s done, it’s ready to be released.

But wait… like a bad infomercial at 3am… there’s more. They cannot release their own app. It gets submitted to the app store where Apple has to approve it. I can only speculate that apps like Facebook get a certain priority given their size. Even so, it is not immediate. The files that drive the app are uploaded to the app store for approval. With 794 million users and millions upon millions of those users in the mobile space using the app, the last thing Apple, for example, wants is everyone downloading the update at the exact same moment, along with all of the other apps people are downloading and updating. Carriers don’t want it either. So the relase gets staggered. When an update goes live, it gets put out a little at a time, spreading across the digital landscape until everyone has it.

With a process like that, not every problem will get addressed as they happen. Typically, developers wait for a series of issues and upgrades, unless the problem is so glaringly obviously that it can’t be ignored until the next planned release. There is no money in ignoring you. They don’t suck. It is just too big of a process to release updates for every single complaint within a 794 million user ecosystem.
Maybe that sheds some light on how it happens so you’ll understand in the future.