Ricky Says

The recent iPhone launch is being exploited by cyber-crooks for financial gain. Panda Labs (makers of Panda Internet Security 2007) has uncovered a tool that controls a botnet made up of over 7,500 zombie computers infected by the Aifone.A bot Trojan. If the user of an infected PC tries to buy an iPhone online, their confidential data might end up in the hands of cyber-criminals.

Here's how it works: When a PC is infected by the Aifone.A bot Trojan, it automatically turns into a bot of the server in question (ie. it controls your computer over the Internet). The first time you connect to the Internet, the Trojan will send several requests to the server, in order to receive some instructions that will be carried out by the Trojan in your computer.

Question: "It seems like the only way I can get pictures from my phone to my computer is to email them, which costs about 75 cents a picture depending on the picture size (at least with my Cingular wireless service plan). Is there another way to transfer them?"

Answer: Yes, there are two other ways to transfer photos from your Razr phone to your PC (or vice versa) without paying any wireless provider fees:

1. USB Data Cable
2. Bluetooth

I'll discuss each of these approaches in this article.

Transfer Pictures To Your PC with a USB Data Cable

Cell phone manufacturers want you to transfer photos from your cell phone using email, because that way they can charge your for the data transfer. However, if you have a USB data cable or a bluetooth connector (discussed below), then you can transfer pictures, video, and ringtones directly without recurring carrier service fees.

You'll need software to recognize your cell phone and handle the transfer with a USB data cable. There are several affordable programs that will let you transfer photos, videos, and ring tones from your cell phone to your PC. They also let you copy them from your PC to your cell phone.

Motorola PhoneTools

Motorola's PhoneTools software is built specifically for Motorola phones like the RAZR or the new KRAZR.

PhoneTools allows you to transfer photos and videos directly from your Razr phone to your PC (or from a PC to your Razr phone). The PhoneTools' Multimedia Studio and File Transfer Studio let you see all your photos, audio and video clips in the same window. You'll see your computer on the left and your phone on the right.

Winzip has become the defacto standard compression software that's found on workstations and laptops around the world. However, in an obvious move for greater profitability, Corel Corporation has recently decide to change their shareware licensing model for Winzip from "Try Forever, Buy Whenever" to "Buy in 45 Days or Stop Using It".

Standard shareware practice is to let you try a software program for 30 days or 30 times, whichever comes first. This lets you kick the tires before forking over your hard-earned money for a registered version, which usually is the same product without the nagging registration reminders.

With Corel's recent change in licensing terms and the 45-day trial period limitation, your choices range from purchasing the newer version, living with your current/older version, or finding another program altogether.

Here are 5 alternatives to Winzip. They're all compatible with Winzip's compression technology, and most of them are even free.

1. PowerArchiver

A completely revamped user interface in PowerArchiver 2007 makes it easier to access the wealth of features that PowerArchiver has. Its task-based interface utilizes the same "Ribbon" design found in Microsoft Office 2007, and provides quick access to the most used features while not hiding others under layers of menus. PC World selected PowerArchiver as its "Best Buy" for compression applications.

PowerArchiver 2007 includes full support for Windows Vista, and at only $19.95 for the most recent version, it's cheaper than Winzip yet with very similar functionality, look, and feel. You can find an older version for free at OldVersion.com.



2. 7-Zip

7-Zip is free open source software. Most of the source code is under the GNU LGPL license. You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip. But you can make a donation to support further development of 7-Zip.



3. ZipCentral

ZipCentral is a free and easy to use zip file manager with all the utilities you need to manage your zip files. The goal of ZipCentral is to be the most robust freeware zip-package you can find today. It is a great tool for the beginner as well as the expert.



4. ZipGenius

ZipGenius is free software for Windows that lets you compress files to almost any kind of archive. ZipGenius supports more than 20 compressed archive formats, including CD/DVD-ROM image files in ISO9660 standard, RAR, ARJ, ACE, CAB, SQX, OpenOffice.org documents and the excellent 7-zip.



5. WinRAR

WinRAR is a powerful archive manager that can backup your data and reduce size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. It's shareware with a 40-day trial period that is not enforced (let's you use it beyond the trial period).

Despite the new change in licensing, I think Winzip will continue to be the most widely used zip compression utility on the market for quite some time. Many organizations would rather pay an affordable $29.95 than pay for costly training time to move users to other zip utility program. But it's comforting to know that there are several free and robust alternatives available for budget-conscious companies and individuals.

Did you recently download a new ring tone for your cell phone, and your friends are begging you for a copy? Or maybe you took the perfect shot of your kids using your camera phone, and your wife wants a copy on her phone.

Most newer cell phones come equipped with Bluetooth technology that lets them connect to any other Bluetooth device, including another cell phone.

That means you'll be able to easily transfer media between cell phones, including photos, videos, phone book entries or internet bookmarks. There are also no charges for transferring ring tones or photos between phones using Bluetooth.

These steps will help you enable Bluetooth on your phone and walk you through transferring media between phones.

Enable Bluetooth

Most phones ship with Bluetooth disabled to save on battery life, so you'll first need to enable Bluetooth on both phones. The steps below are for tranferring photos between two Motorola Razr phones, so you may need to refer to your user's manual if you have a different phone (the steps should be very similar though).

Open both phones and select the following menu options:

Menu --> Settings --> Connection --> Bluetooth Link --> Setup --> Power

Change the Power setting to "On". This will enable Bluetooth on your phone. (The center button on the top of the button pad is the Menu button ).

Select the Photo, Video, or Ring Tone

I'll refer to the phone containing the photo as the main phone, and I'll refer to the other phone as the target phone. In order to transfer media from the main phone to the target phone, select the media from the main phone using the following menu options:

For transferring photos:
Menu --> Multimedia --> Pictures

For transferring videos:

Have you ever seen a picture that you really liked while browsing the web, and wanted to set it as your Windows wallpaper? This article will explain exactly how to do this and where the file is saved. Then when your friends at the office see your cool wallpaper photo and ask if you can send it to them, you'll know exactly where to find it on your system.

Windows stores its default wallpaper image files in C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper on Windows XP. There you'll find the default wallpaper images that came loaded with Windows.

You can also set your own custom wallpaper images in a few different ways:

1. From Internet Explorer: