The “Windows vs. Mac” debate rages on, with folks on both sides taking firm stances based on strong opinions. And now comes one more reason for Windows users to be wary - the ubiquitous PDF file - a document standard used every day by millions of people. According to this report by MacWorld, a White Hat hacker has found an exploit in the Adobe PDF file format that would allow a malicious attacker to take over your Windows computer.

Now before all you Windows users start blasting me, yes, I know that the Mac OS X operating system is not 100% hack-proof. But the argument still stands that with significantly more Windows users out there to exploit, few hackers waste their time trying to write attacks for Mac OS X. Can it happen? Sure it can. But generally speaking malicious coders are interesting in making money, which they can do by creating exploits that turn a computer into a “zombie” to do their bidding, then selling time on the multitude of zombies they’ve created to other malicious users. There aren’t enough exploitable Macs to be profitable for them.

So what should you do if you’re a Windows user? Although it’s always smart to make sure your browsers are up-to-date with patches installed, and be sure your Adobe Reader is up-to-date, this particular exploit effects all versions of Adobe Reader. So until Adobe release a fix (which should be quickly, since this is a very serious issue), don’t open documents from a source that you don’t know and trust. Which is just good common sense anyway.

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Well at least according to the Nerd Tests (ver. 2.0) I am. I kinda like the sound of that - has a nice ring to it. Plus, it’s always a bonus when you get to be a Queen.

Just because right this moment you’re at my site doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a Nerd, you may just be a new Mac user looking for some help or a review. So unless you’re sure you are a Nerd, you may want to start out with the Original Nerd Test to find out. Version 2.0 tells you specifically what kind of Nerd you are.

While you’re there, browse some of their other fun tests, such as the Loser Quiz (check out my graphic at right - yaay! Only 5% of people who take the test are cooler than me! I can live with that!). Try any number of tests by category, or create your own to share with your friends.

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As most Mac users can attest, a great frustration is receiving a winmail.dat attachment, which the Mac cannot open.

First off, know that it is not really the sender’s fault - they more than likely simply attached one (or more) normal files when they sent the email, however, the problem (most of the time) is caused by Microsoft Outlook sending MIME-type attachments, or connecting to a Miscrosoft Exchange Server that is converting their MAPI-type attachments to MIME.

But there is good news! You don’t have to suffer frustration any longer! There is a wonderful application called TNEF’s Enough, which is a free program for opening and extracting the contents of winmail.dat files.

The key is to FIRST save the winmail.dat file to your computer somewhere (outside of your mail program), then use TNEF’s Enough to open the file’s contents. Click on each of the attached files it opens, and then click on the “Save” button to save the extracted file to your computer. At that point you can open the file with whatever application is appropriate for the file type.

Problem solved! If you find this application useful, be sure to send a couple of greenbacks to the developer, Josh Jacob.

Although this is a “how to open a winmail.dat file” post and not really a review, I give TNEF-Enough a 5-paw rating.
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Author’s Edit: The “free” method outlined below DOES still work with iTunes 7.6.1 and iPhone firmware 1.1.4 HOWEVER iTunes went back to using .m4r for the Ringtone extension, and ringtones MUST be under 30 seconds. Also, you no longer need any software to sync the custom ringtones you’ve created - iTunes will do it for you. Just be sure to remove the song snippet (in AAC format) from your Library list without moving it to the trash - find it, rename the extension to .m4r, and RE-open it with iTunes - it will move into your Ringtones folder and sync next time you sync your iPhone.

There’s a lot of buzz going around now about how to put custom ringtones on your Apple iPhone - some are hacks, some are applications, some are just tricks that work with iTunes. Some cost money, and some are free. I thought it might be useful to others to outline several options that I’m aware of - if I’ve missed any please post a comment. I’ll start with the easiest:

iTunes - Version 7.4 brought us the ability to buy (from the Music Store) and sync ringtones - nice, but many (like myself) are less than thrilled with having to pay twice for songs - once for the song and again for the ringtone. Granted, $1.98 is cheaper than some other ringtone sources that charge from $3 to $4 for ringtones, but it’s still annoying to have to pay the extra .99 cents when you’ve already purchased a song.

However, there IS a workaround that lets you put ringtones on using iTunes for FREE - just follow these steps:

1. First, you do have to create a ringtone - you can use iTunes to trim a song down to the 15 to 30 seconds or so that you want to use as a ringtone, by selecting the song in your Library, click on “Get Info”, click on the Options tab, and change the start and stop times to isolate the snippet you want, click Okay, then click on Advanced >Convert to AAC. This will create a second, shorter version of the song in your Library, which you can find using the Finder (should be located in your /User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ folder under the Artist and Album name). NOTE that this only works on unprotected songs - not those that you’ve purchased as iTunes will not convert songs that are in Protected AAC format. However, if you have you’re heart set on a song you’ve purchased, don’t despair, with software such as Ambrosia’s WireTap Pro or Rogue Amoeba’s AudioHijack Pro you’ll be able to get the snippet you want - yes this does mean it’s not exactly “free” since these are not free applications, but if you plan to use them to convert more than 20 or 30 ringtones, they are well worth the price;
2. As mentioned above, save the ringtone in AAC format (which appends the song with .m4a);
3. If you used iTunes to create the snippet, and the song is somewhere in your iTunes Music folder, you can either COPY it to a new place before renaming it, OR delete it from your iTunes Library first WITHOUT moving the file to the Trash. Then find the file and rename the file extension to .m4r instead of m4a;
4. Double-click the new ringtone to open it with iTunes - note that you will NOT see this new ringtone in your Music Library, but it’s there in your iPhone’s Ringtones tab, which you can select and sync to your iPhone.

If you’ve already upgraded to iTunes 7.4.1, the .m4r file extension went back to m4a in the new version, so just leave it at .m4a (or rename it back to .m4a if you did this before upgrading).

iFuntastic - as I’ve previously mentioned, this application “unshackles” the iPhone and allows you to copy a number of things to it, including your own ringtones - this is freeware, but as I always say, throw the developer a donation if you like and use this product.

iToner - another great application from Ambrosia that allow you to put ringtones on the iPhone. This isn’t free, it’s $15, but is a great app and worth the price. It allows you to drag and drop any AAC or MP3 file to your iPhone to use as a ringtone, but be careful about using full length songs - if you like a lot of ringtones to choose from this can eat up a lot of space on your iPhone - trim them down to snippets first if you can.

I’ll post other methods as I become aware of them, but please feel free to comment if you know of others.

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The ‘Net’s abuzz today with the two biggest announcements from Apple this week - namely, the price slash on the Apple iPhone (by $200), and of course the impending ability to add custom ringtones to the iPhone.

I’m happy about the second announcement, and not too terribly upset about their ringtone pricing of 99 cents per ringtone - it’s much cheaper than most ringtones for sale, and if that’s still too much for you, there are several hacks floating about that will enable you to put ringtones on the iPhone for free, the best of which is (IMHO) iFuntastic.

But the first announcement, that Apple has dropped the price on the 8GB iPhone by $200, has me puzzled. Sure, I’m not happy that I wound up paying the “early adopter tax” by being one of those who bought my iPhone as soon as it came out. And Apple’s third (and somewhat quieter) announcement of a $100 in-store credit for us early adopters has only partly assuaged some of my unhappiness (those who purchased an iPhone within the last two weeks can get a full refund of the price difference), although I do appreciate, and will use, the credit.

I’m a business person myself, so to be honest, from a business standpoint I understand why Apple dropped the iPhone price, in fact it makes perfect sense - to make the most of this quarter’s sales/earnings figures, gain a bigger share of the cell phone market, give their new friends at AT&T a nice 3rd Quarter boost as well, and gain a toehold in the highly lucrative younger market, many of who could not afford the previous $599 price. All good reasons and no doubt Apple made a good decision to drop the price.

What has me puzzled is why they did it so soon. It’s very typical for a hot new cell phone to come down in price, even substantially, but it usually doesn’t happen until some time has passed. And “some time” is generally much longer than 10 weeks. Long enough so that the folks who bought it first don’t feel ripped off. Like many other iPhone owners I know, the drastic price drop coming so soon has caused the phone to lose some of it’s cachet, and we’ve lost our ability to gloat over having one.

So I’m afraid that this move may hurt Apple more in the long run than the offsetting benefit of the increased sales they will likely see this quarter, as a good portion of the mac-faithful (myself included) will be much less likely to run right out and buy the next new gadget Apple produces. I’ve spoken to a number of my Mac-buddies, and all have said the same thing. Next time we’ll wait and see if the price drops.

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Many cell phone users already know that they should have an ICE contact in their phone’s address book (for those that aren’t familiar, ICE stands for In Case [of] Emergency). This is frequently recommended by police and emergency rescue workers everywhere, who are now trained to check an accident victim’s cell phone when necessary to find out whom to contact.

The iPhone makes this task easier than most cell phones, since it has ample space for multiple telephone numbers as well as notes.

So for example in my ICE contact, I list several phone numbers - the home and cell numbers for my significant other, as well as the home and cell numbers for my parents, and in the Notes section, I list my Health Insurance carrier, group number, and policy number, as well as their phone number. I also have an instruction in the Notes advising whomever is reading it to try my SO first, then my parents.

I don’t keep my own Contact card from Address Book on my iPhone (I only sync with a Contact Group called iPhone Contacts, which does not contain my own card), so that if I should happen to merely lose my iPhone, or it gets stolen, whomever has it has limited information that could be used by identity thieves, but the ICE contact information at least gives enough assistance that I can receive emergency treatment if needed.

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It looks like the “Peacock Network” is behaving more like the “Dodo Network”. Maybe NBC now stands for Not Being Clever?

The news outlets are abuzz with reports of the rift between NBC and Apple, which boils down to their disagreement over the pricing of NBC’s content on the iTunes Video Store. NBC wants to raise its per-episode pricing by more than double the current price and add variable pricing for its shows, and Apple wants to keep the same flat pricing structure per show across the board.

Now granted, I’m a died-in-the-wool Apple/Mac fan, but even setting aside my bias, this is simply a case of being smart (Apple) versus being stupid (NBC). The best argument made so far is this brilliant post by Jeremy Horowitz at the venerable iLounge titled An Open Letter To NBC: Leaving Apple’s iTunes Store. Jeremy perfectly articulates my own opinion, as well as that of several other iTunes customers I know.

If you don’t want to take the time to read Jeremy’s post (and really you should - it’s quite good), then I’ll summarize: He not-so-gently reminds NBC that without iTunes they will not likely have an outlet for selling episodes of TV shows that the public can watch and [legally] record for free.

According to this post at MacWorld.com, NBC is building a new platform for watching shows on its own Web site for free, with paid advertising.

I’d like to think that Apple’s position is one of benevolence - they are simply looking out for the best interest of their iTunes customers in not letting a media giant run rampant over the reasonable prices we’re used to paying. And actually, I do believe that this may be part of Apple’s stance, albeit a small part. But it’s more likely that it has to do with economics - it you set a price for a product at a reasonable level, many people will buy your product. If you set the price too high, few people, if any, will buy it. Given that the product in question can be obtained for free, $1.99 for an episode that you may have missed, or just want to watch on your laptop, iPod, or iPhone is reasonable. $4.99 is not.

So here’ my message to NBC: The only reason I would pay for your content is so that I can watch something interesting on my laptop and/or iPhone while I’m traveling. Period. I’m a busy person with little time to watch network television as shows are aired, so it’s highly unlikely that I will watch your Network at all. I will NOT go online to watch your content with its “paid advertising”. So if you’re not selling your content through iTunes, I won’t be buying anything from you. There is plenty of other, equally interesting, content already available through iTunes. Other Networks - who are clever enough to remain aligned with Apple and iTunes - will get my hard-earned money instead of you.

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