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I frequently receive emails asking what type of computer and software I use to search through the hours of audio/video footage following a paranormal investigation. So, I decided to write an article and let you know the answer is simple; I use a Mac. I don’t claim to be a Mac expert, but I’ll share several reasons I’ve completely severed my ties with the Windows world and become a loyal customer of Apple, Inc. First, I need a computer that works. I once read on Apple’s website that “you expect your toaster to work, so why not your computer?” I’ve...

SanDisk's Ravi Naik says business-ready iPhones are the future. BURLINGAME, Calif. -- Nearly every consumer relies on SanDisk, the leader in flash memory cards that go into smart phones, computers and cameras. Forbes caught of up recently with Ravi Naik, SanDisk's vice president of IT, to discuss the iPhone's potential as a business tool. Forbes: What kind of technology or gadget are you most in love with in your personal life today? What is making your life easier, not just in terms of your job in IT? Ravi Naik: This won't surprise you. I use an iPhone extensively. I am...

I've been shocked that no one is strongly challenging the idea that the new iPad is going to kill the Amazon Kindle. Reading books on a back lit LCD screen doesn't work. Try it on your laptop. I guarantee you will want to scratch your eyes out of your head in about 20 minutes. The beauty of the Kindle and other e-readers is the e-ink technology that really feels like reading a printed page.

I received the kb971033 update last Month. I made sure it was unchecked, and did not allow it to install. Yesterday I received more updates, so this AM I looked at them. They were OK, but, I noticed that kb971033 had disappeared from the list of updates waiting to be installed. I did not "hide" kb971033, but, just to be sure, I "unhid" updates, and it was not there either. Then, paranoid that it self installed (as MS has been known to do), I checked Programs in the Control Panel, and it wasn't there either. I did a search...

A top Microsoft executive on Tuesday suggested a broad Internet tax to help defray the costs associated with computer security breaches and vast Internet attacks, according to reports. Speaking at a security conference in San Francisco, Microsoft Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney pitched the Web usage fee as one way to subsidize efforts to combat emerging cyber threats -- a costly venture, he said, but one that had vast community benefits. "You could say it's a public safety issue and do it with general taxation," Charney noted. Ultimately, Charney was only offering one suggestion during the RSA security...

CUPERTINO, Calif.--The presence of one of the world's pre-eminent environmentalists at Apple's shareholder meeting Thursday was the subject of much of the morning's pointed discussion. Gore was seated in the first row, along with his six fellow board members, in Apple's Town Hall auditorium as several stockholders took turns either bashing or praising his high-profile views on climate change. A longtime Apple shareholder stood at the microphone and urged against Gore's re-election to the board. Gore "has become a laughingstock. The glaciers have not melted," Sheldon said, referring to Gore's views on global warming. "If his advice he gives to...

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- A new round of pad computers with various features all missing from Apple Inc.'s iPad is coming. Curiously, the most interesting one appears to be coming out of India using the hottest new Nvidia Corp. chip to power it.Already previewed at various international trade shows, a look at the specifications tells me that unless the thing simply does not work as advertised this could be the hottest and most usable pad computer on the market.From a company called Notion Ink, it's called the Adam. Compared to an iPad it has a bigger screen, twice the battery...

Microsoft (MSFT) showed off its upcoming Windows Phone OS at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain today, and showed the video teaser above onstage. Without ever mentioning the iPhone, it completely trashes it and all the other copycat touch phones that are following in its wake. The narrator laments the “Sea of Sameness” that smartphones have fallen into, with each new phone “‘just a slightly better version than the one before it.” Then it tries to undermine the iPhone’s greatest strength: the 150,000 apps on its platform. The video positions the problem as a “focus on apps over the...

There are some stories that make you cover your eyes with your hand and groan. And this column by Susan Estrich about what she thinks is the poorly named Apple iPad is definitely one of those. Here is Estrich putting on her feminist cap and making a very long stretch on blaming the name "iPad" on a "lack of diversity" at Apple: Is there a woman in America who did not laugh, or at least roll her eyes, the minute she heard that the newest, hottest tablet computer from one of America's most ingenuous companies was going to sound like...

CUPERTINO, CALIF. (TheStreet) -- AppleNASDAQ" PRIMARY="NO"/> makes changing the batteries of new iPod models increasingly difficult by soldering them to the device's casing. Consumers would know this if they repaired such items instead of replacing them. Apple's obstacles to repair and ToyotaNYSE" PRIMARY="NO"/> and Ford'sNYSE" PRIMARY="NO"/> recent spate of recalls highlight the deteriorating relationship between the buying public and the products it owns. Though Kelley Blue Book and Edmund's say the value of troubled Toyotas dropped more than 4% since recalls were announced, some consumers see replacement as a more viable option than addressing complex electrical and mechanical problems they...

When I am asked the question "Which is more secure, Mac or PC?" I find myself stumbling around for a response because I don't have a clear-cut answer. I use both. And I use antivirus software with both. So I decided to conduct an informal survey of a bunch of security experts and see what they had to say in the hopes that people can use the information to help them come to their own conclusions. Before I provide quotes from the 32 experts who participated in the survey, along with edited comments from an interview with a Microsoft representative...

The more, the better. That’s the fashionable recipe for nurturing new ideas these days. It emphasizes a kind of Internet-era egalitarianism that celebrates the “wisdom of the crowd” and “open innovation.” Assemble all the contributions in the digital suggestion box, we’re told in books and academic research, and the result will be collective intelligence. Yet Apple, a creativity factory meticulously built by Steven P. Jobs since he returned to the company in 1997, suggests another innovation formula — one more elitist and individual. This approach is reflected in the company’s latest potentially game-changing gadget, the iPad tablet, unveiled last week....

Apple made it official. It's the iPad.

Apple on Monday fuelled anticipation about its expected launch of a tablet computer with a 50 per cent leap in quarterly profit and fresh evidence that the consumer technology juggernaut behind the iPhone is riding the popularity of that device into the corporate market. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, in his strongest hint about the tablet-sized device he is expected to reveal on Wednesday. The company reported another blowout quarter, as net...

One of the more interesting things that we know for sure about Apple's big event this week is the venue. Apple has booked the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, rather than hosting it at its Cupertino headquarters. To me, what this signals is that Apple isn't quite sure of this product and wants to distance itself, in a way. I'm not sure either, but I'm rooting for Steve Jobs this round.This is an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) launch week, which means we'll be on pins and needles until we actually know what Steve Jobs is going to have on stage...

The tech giant hasn't announced that it will offer such a device, but the anticipation that it will do so this week has already caused a stir in the newspaper, book and magazine world.Not since biblical times has the arrival of a tablet been greeted with such anticipation. Apple Inc. won't reveal the details of what is widely expected to be a new tablet computer until Wednesday but it has already shaken up the publishing world, whose executives wonder whether the device will revolutionize the distribution of newspapers, magazines and books in the same way that the iPod transformed the...

Apple today released Security Update 2010-001 is recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. Security Update 2010-001 is available for various versions of Mac OS X via Software Update and also via standalone installers. More info and download links: • Security Update 2010-001 (Snow Leopard) - 21.90 MB • Security Update 2010-001 Client (Leopard) - 159.58 MB • Security Update 2010-001 Server (Leopard) - 248.11 MB

Another prediction that Apple's acquisition of streaming music service Lala will result in a cloud-based iTunes service was offered Tuesday, with a digital music executive suggesting purchased content will be available from any browser or Internet-connected device. In a guest column on TechCrunch, Michael Robertson, a 12-year veteran of the digital music business, former CEO of MP3. com and current CEO of MP3tunes, said he believes Apple will not offer a subscription music service in the future. Instead, he said, the purchase of Lala will allow Apple to create an iTunes service that will make content accessible from anywhere.

Legends die hard. In the pre-Web days, they got printed and reprinted, told and retold and so became official, like spinach being good for you because it held the iron your red cells needed. After decades of the disgusting veggie inflicted upon young kids - I remember, a scientist went back to the bench and found out there was no digestible iron whatsoever in spinach. You don’t get calcium by ingesting chalk, you need a calcium compound that’ll get through the sophisticated filters in the digestive system. Eating spinach gives you as much digestible iron as sucking nails. The spread...

As you've no doubt heard by now, Apple launched a new mobile computing device and it's within a product category that is all-new territory for the traditionally tight-lipped company. It's a bit of an odd choice for a company that revels in innovation, and after today's announcement, we're left with more questions than answers on whether or not it can truly deliver in the way that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs thinks it can. The iPad simply isn't as revolutionary as the iPhone and iPod, and that alone is at least initially limiting the general perception of the product. For better...