Tech Pulse 20070809: Netflix Hacked, Uninterruptible Power, Sweet Firefox Add-ons, and more!

Josh talks about Apple's new iMac and other product upgrades, Netflix getting hacked, future huge-capacity notebook drives, the safety of using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), Firefox add-ons to block ads and increase Internet safety, and more!

Notes and links related to this episode:

Tech News

• Apple's Tuesday event stuff:
• New iMac, redesigned to look more like the iPhone with a glass screen, and a new, much flatter keyboard
• iLife '08 with new automatic "Events" in iPhoto, redesigned iMovie, and more
• iWork '08, now with Numbers (Apple's answer to Microsoft Excel), simpler word processing with Pages, and more
• .Mac now has 10x the storage and bandwidth (increased to 10 GB storage and 100 GB/month bandwidth)
  
• Netflix's streaming movie service (which relies on Microsoft DRM) has been hacked
• Fujitsu developing 1.2 TB notebook HDs

Tech Tips
Josh's

• Hacking Safari 3.0.3 Beta to work on Mac OS X 10.3.9
• Josh couldn't get it to work. =(
  
• Consider getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for your desktop PC
• What should you plug into the battery backup outlets? (Anything that might cause data loss if power is lost unexpectedly)
  
• Desktop PC
• External hard drives, NAS
  
• Networking equipment (router, modem, and/or switch)
  
• What only needs surge protection?
• Monitor (would suck a lot of power from the UPS, and you can set up your PC to shut down automatically when UPS power is running low)
  
• Printer
• Speakers
  
• Laptop (has its own battery backup!)
  

Software/Hardware/Site etc. Picks
Josh's

• Favorite Firefox Add-ons (aka extensions):
• Make the Web enjoyable
  
• Adblock
• Adblock Filterset.G Updater
• Flashblock
• Manage bookmarks across multiple computers and browsers
  
• del.icio.us buttons
• Add-ons that are useful to install and train people to use after cleaning up spyware infections:
  
• McAfee SiteAdvisor
• *FAR* from foolproof, but can be useful to identify many harmful sites
• Shows its ratings next to sites in search results
  
• Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar
• The same people who get a lot of spyware are often likely to click on phishing links as well. Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 have anti-phishing features built in, but it doesn't hurt to add another layer of protection
  

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