Fake DHL/UPS Delivery Notice

I thought I'd already abandon this blog. However, I noticed that a lot of people have still been drawn to this blog particularly because of their searches on fake e-mails, phishing scams, and all. It seems that these kinds of emails are everywhere and people, including myself, keep on receiving them.

Two days ago, I received this email purporting to be from DHL. (click on the image)

There were tell-tale signs aside from the fact that it did not contain an accurate logo of DHL (but even if it did, it wouldn't necessarily mean it is authentic as it can easily be done in photoshop). There were several addressees - that is, it was sent to several people and not only to me. I do not know who owns the other email addresses. If it were real, it would have been sent to me alone. Then, the notice does not contain my complete name. It would have indicated my name in the notice if it was indeed for me.

There was also an attached file. Beware of the attached file though. It could contain trojan viruses or any other unwanted programs that can mess up your computer, at least, or give some people access to your files. Just delete the e-mail and ignore it altogether.

Other variations:

Some emails might say that there was failure to deliver the item to your address and you are asked to follow their instructions (may or may not include downloading of attached files or visiting a site).

Then, some emails use UPS or DHL as supposed courier.

Please do not be fooled. There are other ways of verifying if there was indeed a parcel for you. Just contact the courier. (But most likely, if you were not expecting anything and you received email similar to this, it's probably fake.)

Since the launch of iPad earlier this year, all other tech companies started unveiling their own tablets, sporting several features - and admittedly, some of them not found on iPad. As a result, tablets are now proliferating the tech industry. There are now several tablets to choose from and you are not anymore limited to the Apple iPad, although it remains to be the most stylish among all other tablets, in my honest opinion; however, it is also the most pricey, which is a downside, considering that there are other tablets you can choose from at this point.

Anyway, if you are scouting for a new tablet to give as your gift to someone or to yourself, especially that the holiday season is just around the corner, here are other tablets in the market that you may want to consider looking at, aside from Apple iPad:

1. Archos 5 Internet Tablet

2. Creative Zii0

3. Deal Streak

4. Disgo Tablet

5. Elonex eTouch Tablet

6. Samsung Galaxy Tab

7. Rockchip Tablet

8. Toshiba Folio 100

9. Blackberry Playbook

This list was taken from an article written by Rob Clymo featured in MSN. Click this link to see the article and for a brief info on each of the tablet: Top Tablets Available Now

Have to Replace Phone?

Okay. I was trying to connect my phone via USB cable because I wanted to synch my phone with my computer and also to take the photos I took with its camera so I could upload them to Facebook. But to my surprise, this notice popped up at the bottom right corner of the desktop:

It says "USB Device Not Recognized." This is not the first time I encountered this problem, but with this phone, it is the first time this happened. So, as the balloon suggested, I clicked it, and this appeared:

As recommended, I unplugged my phone from my computer, then reconnected it. But the same thing happened. Well, according to this dialog box, "If Windows still does not recognize it, replace the device." Does that mean I have to replace my phone? :) How I wish it's that simple! Haha!

Advertiser? Blogger? Try SocialSpark

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

A person who has passion and flair for writing will always have somewhere to go. This is what I heard from a teacher in high school.

Apparently, he was right.

At present, there are so many opportunities for writers to make good use of their talent and earn at the same time. The internet is a good place to start. So many sites are popping like mushrooms offering their services to both advertisers and bloggers so that the former could find bloggers who would write for them. But the question is how many of these sites actually work?

With SocialSpark, you can never go wrong. SocialSpark is a great place for advertisers to find bloggers whom they could tap, and it is a great place, too, for bloggers who wish to make money by doing what they love the most – writing. But SocialSpark offers a lot more for bloggers. Making money is not limited to writing sponsored contents. One can also earn money by simply publishing advertisements, through Cost per Click programs, and other modes. The same thing goes for advertisers. They may opt to request for a sponsored content or for a published advertisement.

Signing up for an account is a breeze. Just visit their site at SocialSpark and register either as an advertiser or a blogger. Then, just provide basic information about yourself. Everything is so simple. It took me less than five (5) minutes to sign up for an account as a blogger because all the steps seem to be laid out for the person signing up.

Once you have signed up, you will be led to your page. Navigating the page is elementary. All the links are located in places where you would usually expect them to be. It never gets this easy!

One more thing, the site doubles as a social networking site. It allows you to meet other bloggers or advertisers. In fact, I just got one friend request and I am going to accept it now.

So, if you are an advertiser or a blogger, give SocialSpark a go.

Check out the Code of Ethics before anything else.

Sign up for SocialSpark  now!

DECT Phones

Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) phones are great inside homes. Aside from their being stylish, they are, more importantly, pretty useful.

Gone are the days when you get stuck in one corner of your house while making phone calls. In this age, communication technology has made a big leap forward. A DECT phone is a proof of this.

With a DECT phone, you can make and answer calls from virtually anywhere inside your house. Not only that. As a matter of fact, you can add more handsets to serve as extensions of your line... of course without the physical cables. You can have one inside your room, the living room, hallway, in each level of your house, etc. Another great thing about a DECT phone is that it can be used as intercom along with other handsets, minus the wire. People inside the house can communicate with each other using the handsets in much the same way as intercoms work, but in a more efficient and, not to say, stylish way.

Well, enough has been said about how useful a DECT phone is inside a home. It is needless to say how even more useful it would be inside offices!

Phishing Scam: Congested Hotmail Account

If you have also received the same e-mail below, delete it or report it as a phishing scam because it is. Don't reply with your personal information.

Account Alert

Dear Valued Member,

Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused and unconfirmed Hotmail Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Info below after clicking the reply botton, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

 

User Name: .................

Password: ......................

Date of Birth: ......................

Country Or Territory: ...................

 

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Warning!!!  Account owner that refuses to update his or her account before two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

New YouTube Layout

I love watching YouTube videos every time I am passing my time away or whenever I am feeling lazy.

Last April 1, I had the chance to check out some videos. But, one thing I noticed was that the layout of YouTube has changed. It was a little inconvenient trying to figure out how things worked.

Personally, I believe that the previous layout was better and easier to use. But that could just be because it was the layout that I was used to. It takes a while getting used to a new layout when you have been so comfortable with an old one. I remember when Facebook changed its layout few months ago. My friends were so pissed off because they did not know where things were. However, now, they have gotten used to it and they are already fine with it.

Anyway, back to YouTube.

If you are still finding it hard to do things on YouTube because of the new layout, watch this video uploaded by Philip DeFranco, a [famous] YouTuber, showing the changes on YouTube's layout and how to go about doing your stuff on the site. This is very informative:

Why a Netbook's Battery Capacity Matters

When I see or hear about a new netbook in the market, the very first question that pops into my head is "How's the battery?". This is then followed by "What is its processor?" and other questions about the netbook.

The reason why I ask first about the battery is that most netbooks today bear the same specifications - same operating system, same processor (Intel Atom N450 is the latest processor commonly found in netbooks), same hard drive capacity, same RAM (upgradable up to 2 GB usually), etc. 

It is with respect to batteries that they oftentimes differ. Batteries may either be 3-cell or 6-cell. Currently, most netbooks have 6-cell batteries. Most probably, you would not want to get a netbook with 3-cell battery only although they may be a bit cheaper. A 6-cell battery is more advisable to have in a netbook. But take note of this: even among 6-cell batteries, there may be differences in capacities. Some netbooks have 6-cell batteries with 48wh capacity while some netbooks have 6-cell batteries with 63wh capacity. Of course, the latter can run your netbook longer than the former on a single charge. 

Worthy of mentioning here also is the fact that some netbooks offer 9-cell batteries. Ordinarily, this means longer runtime on battery for your netbook. However, this also means an undesirable bulge on your netbook in order to accommodate the 9-cell battery. Some people do not mind this anyway.

For netbooks, the ability to run on a battery for a longer period of time is very essential. Netbooks are meant to be carried around and used anywhere. They are not intended to be desktop replacements and to sit in one corner of your room the whole day.

If you are eyeing a particular netbook, you may want to inquire into how long the netbook can run on a single charge. Some manufacturers claim that their netbook can run for 10, 12, or 14 hours even though their batteries may be of the same capacity. This is due to the fact that netbooks today have built-in programs that allow the users to adjust the way the computer consumes power depending on how the computer is being used on a given occasion.

Once you are already satisfied with the battery, you may then proceed with your other questions about the netbook, especially about those that makes it different from the rest of the species.

Windows 7 on Mac

Let us say that you, a Mac user, for some reason wanted to get a taste of Windows 7. (I do not know for what reason but for "some reason" - curiosity, perhaps?) Well, you can use Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on your Mac and boot Windows 7 instead of your Mac OS. This does not mean that you cannot anymore use your Mac OS. It simply allows you to use another OS when you feel like it.

What you need aside from your Mac is, of course, an installer of Windows 7.

Here is an instructional video on how to do just that. Just follow the simple steps. Good luck.

Download Advanced SystemCare for Free

Last week, I downloaded Advanced SystemCare just to try it. I was not so eager to download it because I have my own registry cleaners anyway. But after a week of using it, I found that it is a must-have on a computer. It does so much more than being a mere registry cleaner.

Advanced SystemCare is too easy to use. All you have to do is click the "Care!" button and it will do the rest. You only need to wait.

Here are the Key Benefits from the software (taken from the site)

• Ultimate Speeding Up with New Added Turbo Boost

  Advanced SystemCare is built with Turbo Boost to speed up PC by shutting down unnecessary background processes, cleaning RAM, and intensifying processor performance.

• View What Has Been Optimized

  New version can let you view log files of what have been optimized in your system.

• Uninstall Unnecessary Application and Remove Leftover Files

  Speed up PC by removing installed files and entries that were left on the system with built-in tool Advanced Uninstaller.

• Enjoy That New PC Feeling Again

  Whatever version of Windows you’re running, enjoy that “good as new” speed usually only experienced on a brand new PC.

• Powerful Hard Drive Defragmentation

  Fast, powerfully and incredibly effective Disk Defrag function to defragment hard drives - up to 10 times faster than other defragmentation tools.

• Next-generation Free Windows XP/Vista/7 Registry Cleaner and System Optimization

  Safely cleans registry junks, compacts registry bloat and defragments the registry for blistering-fast performance.

• Defends PC Security with Extra Protection

  Secure your PC – quickly and easily. Scans and removes spyware and adware using up-to-date definition files. Prevents spyware, hackers and hijackers from installing malicious items on your computer. Erases and updates your PC’s activity history with this powerful free XP registry cleaner. Security and Privacy assured!

• Quick and Extensive Clean-up for Hard Drives

  Boosts your system’s performance with Advanced SystemCare Free, the powerful free XP registry cleaner by cleaning missing files, destroying unwanted files, deleting obsolete files, and removing junk files. Supports deep-cleansing of more than 50 types of junk files.

• Speeds Up PC Performance and Internet Access

  Tunes up Windows by releasing the built-in power of your system. Dramatically improves both system and Internet performance by up to 400%.

• Fixes Multiple System Errors

  More than a mere free XP registry cleaner – keeps your PC stably and running at peak efficiency.

• Extremely Easy to Use

  Completes its work with just one click! Scans, repairs and secures your PC in one minute.

• Safe and Free

  100% free with no spyware or adware! Advanced SystemCare Free is a safe and trusted PC protection and maintenance solution from a leading software vendor.
  
  
  I highly recommend it. Download it from here.

Get Rid of Phishing Scams

Almost everyday, I receive e-mails such as this:

Good day my dear friend,

I assumed you are in good health with your family.

 I am Mr.Ele Ibrahim the Director in charge of Auditing section  Group Bank Of Africa (BOA) Burkina Faso I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($13.2 million immediately to your account.

 I will send to you the full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will receive 40% of the above mentioned amount if you agree to help me execute this business.

Thanks

Mr.Ele Ibrahim

This is clearly just another phishing scam.  Receiving them does not anymore annoy me. I just mark these e-mails as Phishing Scams. But out of the millions of people who receive e-mails like this, there might be one or two who fall into these scams.

If you are receiving phishing scams on your Hotmail account, just choose the messages by ticking the box beside them and click "Mark As" then "Phishing Scam". This will delete the messages automatically and, at the same time, report these messages to MSN.

For your Yahoo! accounts, just choose the messages and click "SPAM".

Always beware of these e-mails. Never reply to them.

ICANN Postpones Decision on .xxx Domains

by LARRY MAGID (taken from CNET News)

Just before wrapping up its meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board voted to postpone any decision about aproposal to create a ".xxx" top level domain for adult Web sites.

The matter is scheduled to be taken up again at its June meeting in Brussels.

The board voted unanimously to direct the organization's CEO and general counsel to write a "report of possible process options" within the next two weeks that will be posted online for a 45-day public comment period.

In 2005, the ICANN board voted to negotiate a contract with ICM Registry for the .xxx domain, finding that ICM's proposal met required criteria. But in 2007, the board rejected the proposal. ICM appealed that decision to the organization's Independent Review Panel which, last month, ruled that ICM had been treated unfairly.

The review panel's ruling (PDF) noted a 2005 letter to ICANN from an official with the Bush administration Commerce Department saying that the department had received "nearly 6,000 letters and e-mail from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children and opposing the creation of a new top level domain devoted to adult content." The panel found that, in 2007, the board was pressured to reject the proposal "by the government of the United States and by quite a number of other influential governments."

By e-mail from Nairobi, ICM Registry CEO Stuart Lawley said: "We note the ICANN board's resolutions and are looking forward to seeing the proposals in the next 14 days for the process to implement the Independent Review Panels decision."

Photoscape 3.4: Free Download

A lot of people I know like to do fancy things with the photos they place on their scrapbooks. They add text bubbles, abstract designs, etc. just to make the photos catchy an fun to look at.

If you are that type of person, you might find Photoscape 3.4 enjoyable.

It is a free image-editing software that is so simple and easy to use. It allows the users to add nice-looking frames to their photos, resize and crop pictures, adjust the contrast and brightness, add effects like turning the photo to Black and White, add text bubbles and overlay images on existing photos, and create a single picture out of several pictures, among other things.

Wait, here's another amazing thing you can do with the program. You can choose a face photo and find similar faces on the Internet! This is just another fancy feature of the program.

Well, even if you are not into editing your photos in that way, you can still try this program because it basically offers the following features:

• Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
• Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
• Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
• Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
• Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
• Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
• Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
• Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
• Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
• Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
• Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
• Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
• Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
• Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

DOWNLOAD PHOTOSCAPE 3.4 FOR FREE

Aerofoil: Free Download

This entry is not about the an aeroplane wing or any turbine. I am talking here about a great utility program that allows you to consume less power when running your notebook computer on its battery.

When I upgraded my OS to Windows 7, I took a particular liking about the Aero Glass and Aero Peek features. These are wonderful additions to the interface. Although they do not exactly significantly add anything to the computer's functionality, they are actually good to look at. Having said that, I must admit that I enabled them as soon as I got my Windows 7 upgrade.

However, having those features turned on can consume more power especially if you are running your computer only on its battery. You may need to disable all the "Aero" features in order to conserve power.

But you do not have to do that manually. Just download the latest version of Aerofoil.

Aerofoil is a program that does exactly that. It disables the Aero features of Windows 7 (and even Vista) and reverts it to its Windows 7 Classic theme. This, as a result, improves the battery level of your notebook computer.

Upon installation, you can also configure the program to suit your own liking. Well, in my case, I stuck with the default configurations. I might tinker with them a little bit one day, but as of now, I am happy with it.

Oh, before I forget... you can download it for free.

DOWNLOAD AEROFOIL FROM HERE 

Yahoo! Widget Engine 4.5.2

Do you want to be always updated on things important to you on the Internet like the current weather condition, latest scores in a basketball game, etc.? This is made easier by Yahoo! Widget Engine. With this, you need not anymore visit sites one by one just to get the updates. This will bring the updates right on your desktop.

Software Description:

Yahoo! Widgets help you save time and stay current by bringing an always-updated, at-a-glance view of your favorite Internet services right to your desktop. The Yahoo! Widget Gallery offers over 4,000 desktop Widgets - the most available anywhere online. Yahoo! Widgets is the only major desktop Widgets platform that works on both Windows and Mac OS.

Save time with live updates right on your desktop

* Your favorite info comes to you

* No need to surf around for what you use most

Convenient at-a-glance view keeps your Widgets in line

* Get all of your personalized updates in one place

* Neatly organize your Widgets along any edge of your desktop

Choose from more than 4,000 Widgets. Make it all yours

* The most Widgets available anywhere online… more than 4,000 and growing fast!

* Weather, games, web cams, radio, scoreboards, calendars, mood rings… if you can imagine it, there's a Widget for it!

DOWNLOAD IT FROM HERE

MSI CR400 Classic Notebook

MSI CR400 Classic Notebook

MSI release a new classic notebook CR400 with 14-inch LCD display and it has unibody design with 45-degree angles after release MSI CX Series.

MSI CR400 has a large 14-inch high resolution display with 16:9 aspect ratio and 1366 x 768 LED backlighting. It has a 6-cell high capacity battery and the latest GeForce 8200M graphics processor unit. In addition to providing the performance of high-quality display, LED backlighting saves power and increases battery life.

The CR400 notebook from MSI supports 802.11 b/g/n high-speed wireless LAN, and has a Bluetooth V2.0 + EDR, which offers a triple progress in the flow of data. It comes with an integrated 1.3M webcam and microphone to provide a well-organized, real-time communication.

The MSI CR400 is compatible with Windows Vista Home Premium operating system supports Intel Core 2 Duo with Nvidia chipset MCP79MVL. The notebook has a storage capacity up to 4GB and a 2.5″ SATA HDD 250/320/500GB. It also includes a DVD super-multi optical drive with a 4-in-1 card reader that supports SD, MMC, XD and MS.

This post MSI CR400 Classic Notebook brough to by Laptop Review. Visit Gadgets Review for information about gadget and technology

Microsoft Offers Web Browser Choice to IE Users

Source: BBC Technology News

Millions of European Internet Explorer (IE) users will have the option to choose an alternative browser from 1 March, Microsoft has announced.

It follows a legal agreement between Microsoft and Europe's Competition Commission in December 2009.

Microsoft committed to letting Windows PC users across Europe install the web browser of their choice, rather than having Microsoft IE as a default.

Figures suggest that over half the world's internet users have IE.

Testing for the update is already underway in the UK, Belgium and France.

The software update choice will arrive automatically for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 customers, according to a blog post by Dave Heiner, Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel.

The blog also contains screen grabs of the message as it will appear.

"Users who get the choice screen will be free to choose any browser or stick with the browser they have, as they prefer," wrote Mr Heiner.

Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera are the alternative browsers that people will be offered.

"Millions of people who have never really thought about which browser to use will now be forced to make a choice," said BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones on his blog.

"That presents Microsoft's rivals with a unique marketing opportunity."

Mozilla Foundation chair Mitchell Baker described the news as "an important milestone towards helping people take control of their online lives."

VLC Media Player - Free Download

If you are looking for a computer program that can play every audio and video file format, do try VLC Media Player. You can download it for free from here.

Description (from FileHippo.com):

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols without external codec or program.

It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
VLC can play:

• MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, and so on
• DVDs, VCDs, and Audio CDs
• From satellite cards (DVB-S)
• Several types of network streams: UDP/RTP Unicast, UDP/RTP Multicast, HTTP, RTSP, MMS, etc.
• From acquisition or encoding cards (on GNU/Linux and Windows only)

Acer Aspire One 532h

Because I still cannot find an Asus Eee PC 1005PE available in stores until now in this part of the world, I am contemplating on buying an Acer Aspire One 532h instead.

The specs are very much similar to that found in Asus Eee PC 1005PE and other new netbooks. It has a Pinetrail processor (Intel Atom N450), 250 GB HDD, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Connectivity, 3 USB's, Windows 7 Starter OS, and others.

Acer Aspire One 532h also offers a 63Wh battery which allows it to run for several hours longer than other netbooks. However, when it comes to battery, I prefer Asus Eee PC 1005PE's.

However, with respect to "looks", Acer Aspire One 532h is miles ahead of its rivals. 

Anyway, since I have not found any video review yet of this netbook, I am posting this YouTube video I found of the unboxing of Acer Aspire One 532h.

I Can't Find any ASUS EEE PC 1005PE

Late last December, Asus came up with its new netbook, the Eee PC 1005PE.

This netbook looks very similar to 1005HA. However, 1005PE has a new processor - Intel Atom N450, otherwise known as the Pinetrail, which boasts of its power efficiency, giving batteries longer life on a single charge. The Asus Eee PC 1005PE can run for a maximum of 14 hours on its battery on a single charge, according to ASUS. In real-world situations, this translates to about 10 hours of use, which is still excellent.

Aside from the processor, what sets the 1005PE from its predecessor, the 1005HA, is the keyboard style. While the earlier 1005HA has flat, tiled keys, the 1005PE has chiclet-style keyboard.

Moreover, the physical storage capacity was also increased from 160GB (in 1005HA) to 250GB (in 1005PE). The pre-installed OS in Asus Eee PC 1005PE is Windows 7 Starter Edition; in 1005HA, it was Windows XP.

These past weeks, I have been looking around stores for an Asus Eee PC 1005PE but I was not able to find any stock on sale. However, I have seen Acer Aspire One 532h and Toshiba Mini NB305 - also using Pinetrail processor - already available. What keeps me wondering is why these two netbooks are already in stores here but not the 1005PE when, in fact, those two netbooks were released later than the Asus netbook.

I have still seen stocks of 1005HA in the stores I visited. I have a theory that they are first selling out the 1005HA before stocking their shelves with 1005PE. It's just a theory.