Category Archives: Gadget reviews

Have you ever had a desire to check up on your house while you’re not there?We have some good news!It is possible now!Following a few simple steps we will turn a Ma into a home security camera that will open a live video stream on demand.You’ll be able to watch it remotely from anywhere via your iPhone,iPad,iPod touch or another Mac.It might sound a bit too complicated,but it’s not that hard at all,and everything is done through a little FaceTime hackery.Follow these instructions.

Requirements for the Mac Security Cam
This is what you are going to need before getting started:
1) FaceTime app installed on the home Mac (comes with Lion or later,earlier Macs can get it from Mac App Store.)
2) A valid Apple ID to use as a FaceTime Login – you may want to create an additional unique Apple ID for this purpose.
3) An iPhone,iPad, or iPod touch, or another Mac with FaceTime.

Setting up the camera and accepting remote video connections

This might sound difficult,but it’s a no-brainer,really.So,once you have FaceTime installed on your Mac (if you haven’t installed it yet – do it now),you need to position the Mac so that the front-facing iSight (FaceTime) camera is pointing in the direction you want to watch. Once it is done,here is the most technical move in this set up:

1) Launch Terminal found in “/Applications/Utilities/ and enter the following command to automatically accept incoming FaceTime calls:
defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvites -bool YES
2) Still in Terminal, enter the next command,changing the email address on the end from the Apple ID you wish to automatically accept a video connection from:
defaults write com.apple.FaceTime AutoAcceptInvitesFrom -array-add change@me.com

In case you need to add other Apple ID’s or even a phone number to automatically accept FaceTime video calls from,feel free to do so by running the command above again with additional email addresses.Phone numbers must be prefixed with a + like so: +14084441211

Opening the Live Video Feed
Here is how the fun starts.Grab your iPhone,iPad,iPod touch or Mac that is set up to use FaceTime with the Apple ID you chose to autoaccept invites from,and initiate FaceTime call with the home Mac’s Apple ID. Your Mac will automatically accept the call,giving you a live video feed of what’s going on at the location of the recipient Mac.If you want to close the video – just hang up the FaceTime call.
Enjoy.

The inventor of Liquidmetal is convinced that it would take at least three years and hundreds of dollars for Apple to properly prepare the technology necessary to mass-produce large products made of the alloy.
Dr. Atakan Peker – the discoverer and developer of the formulation that later become known as Liquidmetal,made a statement in his interview with Business Insider that Apple is years away from using the material in large-scale projects,pointing out the fact that there is “no suitable manufacturing infrastructure yet to take full advantage of this alloy technology”.

The former Vice President of Technology at Liquidmetal estimates that an investment of $300 million to $500 million and about five years would be needed before the alloy actually ends up in the hands of consumers.

“This is a technology that has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development,” Peker said. “I should note that this is a completely new and different metal technology.”

Liquidmetal inventor

The possibility of MacBook casings being made of the Liquidmetal in the near future is really small,though,there is a tiny chance that small parts – like hinges and brackets,can be produced.

Apple now has exclusive rights to use the technology in electronics.Due to that there’s been a rumor that the upcoming next-generation iPhone is going to be made of the alloy.However,the company has so far only used the metal once to make a SIM-card ejection tool for the iPhone and iPad.
The structure of Liquidmetal makes it a perfect material to design device components like casings and frames of as it is both,strong and eye-pleasing.

“Liquidmetal is super strong, scratch and corrosion resistant, resilient and can be precision cast into complex shapes,” Peker said.”Plastics are low cost to manufacture into complex shapes but not strong enough. Metals are strong but difficult to produce into complex shapes. And glass feels and looks beautiful but is highly fragile. Liquidmetal can combine these advantages and remedy some of these shortcomings.”

Peker thinks that the metal is going to be used to replace existing components,followed by a “breakthrough product” and that can only be made by studying the alloy’s special qualities.

“Such product will likely bring an innovative user interface and industrial design together, and will also be very difficult to copy or duplicate with other material technologies,” Peker said.

A lot of people think that productivity of their work depends on the size of their screen.They assume it’s difficult to get much work done on a small screen.Now,that is one big misconception.You may use a MacBook Air with 11” display and follow these simple tips to maximize productivity with the small screen:

1) Hide Inactive Apps

Use “Command+Option+H” to hide all applications and windows except for the active app, you can also “Option+Click” out of a specific app to hide it as you begin working elsewhere.Hidden apps are really easy to find once you enable transculent icons in the Dock.

2) Auto-Hide the Dock

Press “Command+Option+D” to enable auto-hiding of the Dock,summon it when needed by swiping  to the bottom of the screen with the cursor.Dock is an awesome app launcher,though,it is better to keep it hidden when not in use.

3) Use Full Screen Apps

Full screen apps help you to keep your focus and make the most out of small screens.This feature was designed for Mac laptops,so don’t refuse to use it.Click on Arrows icon in the upper right corner of an app to enter into full-screen.

4) Use Virtual Desktops

Create new desktops via Mission Control by hovering over the right corner and clicking the “+” button. Use this with full screen apps to create a great desktop workflow that can quickly be swiped between

5) Assign Window positions and split screen

Another tip.Utility apps that assign window positions and split the screen between active apps are very useful if you use a laptop.There are a lot of free options available.You may use them anytime you need to see two apps at once.

6) Use an External display ot AirDisplay

If possible,it might be a good idea to connect a portable Mac to an external display.It might be an iPad or AirDisplay – it might sound like cheating,but,this will definitely improve your productivity!

Now that the whole Flashback event is almost over you might think your Mac is completely safe again,huh?Well,think again.There’s been a new research made by security specialists Sophos that revealed a “disturbingly high level” of Macs that are currently carrying malware.Though,main part of those are designed to attack Windows machines.

According to the research,of 100,000 Macs that Sophos analyzed,one in five Macs was found to be carrying Windows malware.The situation with Macs is not as bad as the Windows one – only one in 36 Macs is carrying malware potentially dangerous to Mac OS X.Technically,the Windows-directed malware cannot harm Mac OS X,but it can be spread,and it can affect your system in case you decide to run Windows on your Mac.

It appears that 2.7% of those machines are carrying Mac OS X malware.You might think that 2.7% is not that big of a problem,until you actually realize that it is one in 36 machines – now,that is alarming.Senior technology consultant at Sophos – Graham Cluley – is urging Mac users to open their eyes and realise that malware is a growing problem for the Mac:

“Some Mac users may be relieved that they are seven times more likely to have Windows viruses, spyware and Trojans on their Macs than Mac OS X-specific malware, but Mac malware is surprisingly commonly encountered. Mac users need a wake-up call about the growing malware problem.”
The Flashback infection is at the top of the charts when it comes to Mac malware threats.Over the past few weeks it had infected more than 600,000 Macs.This is what the statistic looks like:
1. OSX/Flshplyr – 75.1%
2. OSX/Fake AV – 17.8%
3. OSX/RSPlug – 5.5%
4. OSX/Jahlav – 1.2%
5. Other – 0.4%

There are quite a few ways to pick up these infections.You can get them from the infected USB jump-drives,e-mail attachements,files you download from the web,or from “drive-by installation” files,whereby the malware doesn’t require user interraction in order to be installed onto a Mac.
Cluley explains that Mac users are an “easy target” because they underestimate the size and volume of malware threats and sincerely believe that Macs are invincible.Therefore,they believe that Macs don’t need an antivirus software:
“Cybercriminals view Macs as a soft target, because their owners don’t typically run anti-virus software and are thought to have a higher level of disposable income than the typical Windows user. Mac users must protect their computers now or risk making the malware problem on Macs as big as the problem on PCs.”

Here’s a list of top malware for Windows,discovered on Macs:
1. Mal/Bredo – 12.2%
2. Mal/Phish – 7.4%
3. Mal/FakeAV – 3.8%
4. Troj/ObfJS – 3.6%
5. Mal/ASFDldr – 3.3%
6. Troj/Invo – 3.0%
7. Troj/Wimad – 2.6%
8. Mal/Iframe – 1.5%
9. Mal/JavaGen – 1.4%
10. Other – 61.2%
A small part of this malware dates all the way back to 2007,and Sophos claims that much of it wouldn’t even be around if users had installed an antivirus software sooner.

Some of this malware dates back to 2007, and Sophos insists that much of it wouldn’t be around if users had installed an antivirus product sooner.”The simple fact is that you can scan your Mac for infection from your armchair,” Cluley said. “The test is painless and free; you just download an anti-virus product and allow it to check your computer and protect it against infections in the future.”
Sounds like a good thing to do ASAP,huh?

According to last week’s rumor,Apple is going to adopt a thinner in-cell touch technology for the display on the next-generation iPhone,the new analyst with KGI Securities – Ming-Chi Kuo,released a report looking at how that might change could help to reduce the thickness of the iPhone from current 9.3 mm of the iPhone 4S to under 8 mm. This move could help Apple to compete against its Android-based challengers,which have been reducing their product thickness over time.

“Since Apple’s smartphone competitors have generally slimmed down their high-end offerings to 7-8mm, Apple needs to make a leap forward from 4S’ 9.3mm thickness. We believe Apple will aim at 8mm or below (at least 1.4mm slimmer) for iPhone 5, in a bid to ensure brisk sales through 2014, while peers will also continue to introduce increasingly slim models next year.
As such, all iPhone 4S components that account for thickness must be slimmer, specifically, touch panel, battery and casing. Moreover, a marginal amount of space is required between the three parts for the sakes of assembly tolerance and thermal expansion of components.”

Ming-Chi Kuo claims that switching to in-cell touch technology in the next iPhone will make the new iPhone just 0.5 mm thinner.Kuo also expects similar reduction coming from the battery,which he predicts Apple will be able to broaden somewhat inside the casing,allowing for a roughly 10% reduction in battery thickness.

And finally,the last 0.5 mm reduction in thickness could come from a metal back case concept,which could come in at half the thickness of the glass back that the current iPhone has.So,altogether,Apple could now slice 1.4 mm off from the iPhone’s thickness in order to bring the next-generation model in at just 7.9 mm thick.

Another positive aspect about the adoption of an in-cell touch technology for the display in the next-generation iPhone is the fact that display production would be greatly simplified,with fewer steps in manufacturing process and fewer vendors involved,the reduction in production time is also highly likely – from 12-16 days to just 3-5 days.