Avast anti-virus program gets good bill of health
There are lots of good antivirus programs out there, but if you’re not satisfied with yours, the new Avast 7 Pro just hit the tarmac and looks great. And, it comes in a free version. (NOTE: Do not run more than one anti-virus program at a time; they interfere with each other.)
A “sandbox” feature in Avast 7 Pro makes Web browsing anonymous, and a “Safezone” makes it unlikely that you’ll get hacked while doing financial transactions online. “Sandbox” is a programmer’s term for a special section of code that isolates actions in a box that’s not connected to the rest of the program. When it needs to get connected again, the user gives it permission.
Avast 7 Pro has a “Remote Assistance” feature that allows someone else to take control of your computer from a remote location. You may think that’s not exactly a good thing, but it’s often necessary when you need technical help; house calls are rare among technicians, and expensive. To start “Remote Assistance,” you open Avast and click on the “Allow Remote Control” button. This generates a unique code which allows the other person to have control of your computer. The session can be ended at any time by either person. The only requirement is for both computers to be turned on and have Internet connections.
You can get the free or $40 version of Avast at Avast.com. There’s a comparison chart that shows the differences among three versions of the program. If you already have a good anti-virus program, and are only interested in the remote assistance feature, there are several programs that allow remote control. Our current favorite is the free Teamviewer. com.
ERASE YOUR TRACKS
Take a sexy picture on your camera, then delete it. Think you’re safe? Think again.
Laplink did a study of 160 devices, including cameras and computers, and discovered that 85 percent had deleted data that could easily be recovered. There are many programs out there that will make that data nonrecoverable, including Acronis Drive Erase ($61) and Laplink’s Safeerase ($30). We tried out Safeerase and liked it.
What’s nice is you don’t have to erase the entire drive or partition. You can select certain folders or files, and you also can delete your Internet history, temporary files, etc. There’s a simulation button that lets you run through the routine without actually changing anything. That way, you’ll see how much space you would clear on the drive without actually deleting anything.
APP HAPPY
Coinkeeper is a new personal expenses and budgeting application that’s already in the top five finance apps in the U.S. and is the top finance app in Russia and Singapore. It’s $3 in the itunes app store. We loved it — the best of its type we’ve ever seen. You get a report of spending in each category. Go to Coinkeeper.me for a video on how it works.
Playtales is an interactive children’s bookshelf for the ipad and Android tablets. The app is free, but each book is $3. Some books include mini games. The artwork is charming and over a million people have downloaded it.
Mymagicsongs for iphone, ipad and Android tablets lets you download a song that has your child’s name in it. The app is free, but songs are 99 cents, or $8 for an album.
“The Social Radio for Twitter” lets you listen to Twitter posts from your iphone or Android phone rather than reading them. If people start using it, maybe they can finally look up from their devices while walking or driving.
Reallylatebooking is a free Android and iphone/ipad app for reserving a last-minute hotel reservation in major European cities and lots of cities in Spain.
SMART-PHONE USERS
Smart-phone users now represent a majority of all cell-phone users, according to a survey by Pew Research. Among well-off college graduates under 35, smart-phone usage is more than 60 percent. That’s an increase of 11 percent in the past nine months. In the over-65 group, only 13 percent have smart phones.
BOOKS
We’ve seen loads of books about Twitter, the social-networking site, but a new book called #tweetsmart, by J.S. McDougall, ($20 at oreilly.com), is the first one we couldn’t put down. Lots of useful stuff here.
It starts at ground zero with a charming tale of the author’s grandfather, who held the world’s longest continually-operated ham radio license — for 77 years. It segues gracefully from there to connecting to customers and fans in a way that’s as warm and inviting as grandfather’s connection with his ham radio friend in New Zealand.
The book consists of a series of one- or two-page projects going from easy to advanced. Example: Let’s say you’ve got a burrito restaurant and you want to attract all the burrito lovers in town. Send a broadcast tweet that you’ll give out free burritos to customers who come in with the secret handshake, word, or little dance step. We thought this was a pretty clever business promotion and had a lot of charm.
The book also teaches you the ins and outs of Twitter. For instance, going to the search box on Twitter and typing the pound sign (#) in front of any word will take you to a collection of posts on that topic. It’s something to keep in mind when you post an item. If you write about burritos, say, put “#burritos” in your post to have it added to any other burrito tweets. (Click on “#burritos” in a post to see all the tweets in that category.)