Most of us has probably had to deal with a computer virus at some point in time. They are very annoying when they appear and they could prohibit you from performing the most basic functions on you PC. I recently ran across an infection called Trojan-BNK.Win32.Keylogger.gen on a relative’s computer. It was preventing them from using any web browser in addition to creating numerous alerts. If your computer has been infected with this Trojan, we’re going to help you get rid of this infection for good.

This Trojan is designed to trick computer owners into thinking their machine is infected with viruses. It pretends to be an official warning from Microsoft in order to win the confidence of those who come across it. The warnings it presents are fake and is a ruse to get you to purchase anti-virus software called XP InternetSecurity 2010 or Win 7 Security 2011 that doesn’t do anything. Any PC can acquire this Trojan even if they are using Windows 7. Whatever you do, do not purchase or download anything it suggests.

I performed the following steps to remove the Trojan. Keep in mind that this may not be a one-size-fits-all solution. Still, it won’t hurt giving this method a try. It’s safer than trying to manually remove the Trojan.

I only used two programs to eliminate the Trojan. Those programs are called RKill and Malwarebytes (Free). You may not be able to use a web browser if your computer is infected with the Trojan. If this happens, you’ll have to download these programs on a flash drive or another form of portable storage on a clean computer and transport it to the infected computer.

Trojan-BNK.Win32.Keylogger.gen can protect itself by shutting down anti-malware programs that can detect and remove it. Malwarebytes would not open while the Trojan was active. That’s where RKill comes in. RKill temporarily stops malware from running long enough for you to properly remove it. RKill does not remove malware itself, nor does it protect against it. Think of it as laying down suppressing fire while you infiltrate the Trojan’s defenses. RKill is a free program and can be found here.

Once RKill is started, you shouldn’t restart your computer because the Trojan will just boot up once again. You need to keep RKill active until the Trojan is removed.

While RKill is running, you should be able to install and open Malwarebytes. It can be found here. From there, it’s a matter of running a quick scan to detect the Trojan. Malwarebytes will remove the Trojan, ask you to restart the computer and everything will be back to normal.

Much like identity theft, anyone can fall victim to viruses and malware. The only thing you can do rather than have up to date anti-virus and malware programs running is to be wary of websites you visit. Don’t click on links from people you don’t know, don’t install programs from unfamiliar sources and try to get a good idea of what a real virus alert looks like. It’s also a good idea to keep a few offensive programs on a flash drive just in case you become infected and don’t have access to a second computer.

The iPhone has a couple of very popular photo editing and sharing applications that you can’t find anywhere else. Take, Instagram and 100 Cameras in 1 for example. If you don’t have an iPhone or 4th generation iPod Touch, these apps can become restrictive. You can still utilize these apps with an older iPod model, but you have to find a way to import photos onto your older iPod Touch to get the most out of them. It’s a shame there aren’t Android versions for either of these apps yet, but you can make the importing process faster by using the cloud.

My dilemma was simple. I wanted to find a way to use Instagram as one of my primary ways of sharing edited photos. The effects Instagram offers are very cool to look at, but I only had a third-generation iPod Touch. I couldn’t take photos with my iPod, and the fastest way for me to put recently taken photos on the iPod was to email the photos to myself from my Android phone. That whole ordeal was starting to get tedious, so I turned to the cloud for assistance.

I currently have an account with SugarSync, a cloud storage service. SugarSync also has an Android application. In its latest Android update, SugarSync allowed photos to be automatically uploaded to the cloud right after they’re taken. Sugarsync also has an iOS application. Whenever my photos are beamed to the cloud, I open up the SugarSync application on my iPod Touch, find the photos, and download them to the camera roll. From there, I’m free to use photo editing iOS applications with ease.

SugarSync is probably not the only cloud storage application for Android and iOS, but it’s the only one I know of with an automatic photo uploading option.

This method works perfectly for me, but you may have your own methods as well. This is just another way on how the cloud can make content sharing easier, while solving minor problems at the same time.

Download Link [SugarSync for Android] Download Link [SugarSync for iOS]

It has been a little over a month since the iPad came out, and already we have seen the first wave of jailbreak software pop up over the web. If you are not familiar with the term, jailbreaking refers to hacking your iPad to gain root access to its file system. That way, you can add third-party apps that were not submitted through the App Store. It comes in handy when Apple rejects some of the nicer apps.

But jailbreaking is a serious task that maybe you just aren’t comfortable with performing. And if you aren’t comfortable with it, I strongly suggest you get so before doing it because if done incorrectly, it can possibly render your pad useless. Luckily, Gadgetell is here to get you comfortable and to show you some neat things along the way.

Personally, I jailbroke my iPad after my third day with it so it isn’t like I’m just rewriting someone else’s guide; this is the real deal with my real experiences. I’ll go through the ups and downs I had. Overall, it is a much simpler process than it used to be with the iTouch and iPhone. The “Spirit” jailbreaking software, which is a very recent release, simplifies the process immensely. In fact, the actual jailbreaking process takes maybe 5 seconds. It’s all the prep that we’ll need to go through.

Before we get started though, we will have to go through some disclaimer items. Having a jailbroken iPad will void its warranty. If you need to get it repaired or replaced, you best back it up and perform a factory restore on the device. We will not tell you, nor do we encourage the stealing of apps, games, software, etc… It is encouraged that you purchase these apps through the App Store as we know developers worked hard to make them for you.

Ok, now that that is done. First things first, you need to back up your iPad’s SHSH blobs. Don’t be afraid, it isn’t anything complicated or scary. Backing this up just insures that you will be able to go back to the state your iPad was in before it was jailbroken. That way, in case you accidentally upgrade and things start getting all screwy, you can revert to this old stage and re-jailbreak. But your SHSH blob is your iPad’s unique signature that Apple checks against its servers to make sure you are being given the latest firmware. If you didn’t do this, you would have to wait until a new hack is found before you can re-jailbreak your device.

Here is the process I went through:

1. Download the latest version of AutoSHSH here.
2. Put your iPad into recovery mode by turning off your device, and holding down the home button while you plug your iPad into your computer until you see the “Connect to iTunes” symbol on your pad.
3. Run AutoSHSH, and click the big “Grab my SHSH Blobs Automatically” button. Once done, AutoSHSH will prompt you to save the blob. Be sure to put it somewhere where you will remember it.

And that’s it, at least, for that portion. Now, your device will stay in recovery mode for a while. Mine stayed in it for about 15-20 minutes so you’ll have to be patient. If you aren’t, there are a few ways of getting out of it quickly but we won’t go through them here.

While you are waiting, you can perform the final remaining steps. First thing you must do is acquire the jailbreaking software, Spirit, here. Be sure to pick the download appropriate to your operating system. Once you have the software successfully on your computer, Windows users should right-click on the .exe file and click the properties tab. Go over to “Compatibility” and then change the “Run-as” parameter to Windows 98/ Windows Me. Otherwise, if you are running Vista or 7, you will get an error during the jailbreak process.

Once you have gotten that far, assuming your iPad is out of recovery mode, launch Spirit.exe. Plug your iPad in and the software should confirm that your iPad is connected. Simply hit the jailbreak button and within a few seconds it should say jailbreak complete. If an error pops up, chances are you didn’t change the compatibility. If you did and you still get errors, your best bet will to be to Google the error.

Now, when you turn on your iPad, everything should be exactly as you left it except for one small app. You should see the brown Cydia app on one of your screens. Cydia is like the jailbreaker’s App Store. Don’t worry though; you can still use the regular App Store just as before.

My experience with Cydia is as follows. One, don’t hit the “Changes” tab just yet, it crashes Cydia. That problem will hopefully be fixed in the future. The next big thing is that Cydia doesn’t really do anything at all to differentiate iPhone and iPad apps. In fact, most of them will be iPhone apps but most will still run on the iPad. Be careful traversing through Cydia because a lot of these apps will do very powerful and/or dangerous things to your pad that if used incorrectly, could cause serious damage.

But don’t be fooled by the dangers. Jailbreaking your iPad has many benefits which Gadgetell will cover in later articles. But just as a good rule of thumb, read the description of every app you feel like downloading. If the app is in another language, just stay away from it. Some apps are not free; those tend to be the better ones. But I feel I’m getting my moneys worth out of the paid Cydia apps more so than the paid Apple-Approved apps.

If you have any questions or problems, please leave a comment. We here at Gadgetell are not looking to have you break your iPad. If you come across any problem whatsoever along the way, leave us a comment and we will do our best to help you through it.

Tires

For the past few months, state and town works have been dumping sand, salt and God knows what else on the streets to keep the slipper conditions at bay. All that stuff coagulates at the roads side, right where you have to ride through. This can lead to difficult, if not unsafe bicycle handling conditions. The solution? New tires.

Tires, like these beauties from Fyxation, are just the thing. Looking sharp in their dual compound, the new Fyxation tires have wall to wall knobs for added traction, just like the old 20″ BMX tires I used to ride. Big groves in the tire provide good grip while the dual compound puts a durable section of rubber where you need it most, while still looking sharp. At 120 TPI, the tire has the stuff to keep flats at bay.

Designed as tires for hip fixies (fixed gear bicycles), these tires were intended for urban assault riding. Perfect for the urban landscape, these tires were made to handle skidding (to an extent), track stands and all the rough love of the urban world. That also makes them great for dealing with the springtime slosh of deep sand, road junk and even slush coagulating on the roads shoulder.

I’ve been riding these for a few weeks and have been duly impressed. They hold tight while moving through big piles of sand and even pointed off road, they did pretty well. Their wider 700×28 size will fit many frames and their color options just look fantastic. New tires, like these Fyxations, are the #1 was to improve performance on your bike. $49.95, Fyxation

Chain

Chances are good your chain needs love. I cringe when I hear a dry chain just squeeking for some live pedal by. But lubing the chain is only half of it; the other half of the story is chain stretch and it can eat your chain rings and rear cogs (the gears).

As a former shop owner, I’ve seen (and profited from) neglected chains eat away at chain rings and rear cogs, a costly replacement. The solution for most of us is simply replace the chain each year. As the chain stretches, it begins to reshape the teeth it engages. Once this sets in, a new chain will no longer solve it, in fact, a new chain will skip around for no apparent reason. To avoid this, change your chain a regular intervals. Bike shops have a chain gauge that can measure the stretch so you can avert trouble.

Chains are an easy replacement. Simply use a chain tool to drive a pin out (or find the quick link and remove it) and use the old chain to size the new one.

Cables

Water, salt from the road and even sweat can corrode cables that control your brake and shifting cables. Corroded cables can cause shifting problems as well as delayed braking action. Keeping these lubed can go a long way to keeping things sliding freely. Simply create some slack in the cable and pull and push it through the housing (the plastic bits that cover the cables at bends). If it moves freely, drop in some lube and you are good to go; if not, time to replace cable and housing.

Cable sizing requires a good pair of cable cutters and more housing then you need or take the old housing to a bike shop to be matched with new. If you don’t have a set of cutters, or just want to leave the rest of the tuning to a pro, visit your local bike shop.

Find a bicycle shop near you: [NBDA bike shop finder]

Case in point: check out this iPod controlling ski jacket. Spyder is a brand of expensive ski clothing and eBay is chock full of “Spyder gear”. Take http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260547949386&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_1182. it appears to the be the $3000+ jacket Engadget wrote about a while back. So the $3k jacket plus pants sold for $160. Obviously a fake, right?

Your Asian connection

Check here: www.dhgate.com. In fact, look here. This eBay-like service puts users in touch with factories in Asia for all kinds of products. From sporting goods, to gadgetry to software to building supplies, you can find it here and all the sellers look to have decent ratings and fast shipping. Sounds like a deal?

Well, not so fast. Even though most users have ratings, it appears that these ratings are manipulated by the site – at least according to users I spoke with. That’s right, fake ratings. It seems the site will go and change your negative review/rating to a positive as it sees fit, according to my sources.

I found a seller who bought from the site intending to resell the goods. They agreed to answer some of my questions.

Here is my Q&A:

Gadgetell: It looks like you’ve had some issues with getting your order/getting your money back. What can you share? Do you resell the products?

Seller: I did buy to re-sell on eBay (suspended for one month) and also on Amazon UK sites but I have since been reinstated

Gadgetell: Have you left any negative feedback and if so, was it altered?

Like so many other people I have left negative feedback only to find that it has been changed at a later time to positive.

Gadgetell: Can you recommend buying from DHGate?

I would advise against making any purchases whatsoever from DH Gate, almost everything sold on their site is counterfeit – and not even of good quality. They act as an Escrow agent in transactions between the seller/buyer but always come down firmly on the side of the seller whenever there is a dispute of any kind. I have provided written and photographic evidence at their request but it is still not enough to get a full refund. They are in business to line their own pockets and those of their sellers.

They are thieves, no doubt but what I find incredibly galling is that their site is incredibly similar to that of eBay – is there some connection..? In addition, PayPal allows a buyer to make purchases from the DH Gate site and in doing so, in my opinion, are assisting with the importation of counterfeit goods. They are complicit in illegal activity.

How to tell them apart

Another source gave me some good tips on how to avoid ending up with a knock off. Search on the item description, often descriptions are lifted right off a site like dhgate (you bet there are more than one site like them). Look at the images, if something looks “off”, something probably is. Check the manufacturers site, do they offer anything like that? Inspect logos. Is it close?

Remember, it’s buyer beware for a reason.

That said, being a Google fanboy user, the first thing that I did upon receiving the phones were to install gDial Pro (a Google Voice app), and login to my Gmail account. With that Google login I should have had access to my email, calendar entries and contacts. Well, the first two items worked like a charm, but the contacts were an issue.

After a little use, I noticed ‘some’ of my contacts were missing, so I went into the Contacts app on the Pre Plus and hit up the Preferences section. From there you can click on your Google account and it will tell you the number of contacts you have synced with your phone. Mine said 47 — wrong, incorrect, not even close.

I should have had 155 total. So I tried a few things — mostly the obvious. I deleted the contacts from my phone and tried to resync. Still 47 and nothing more.

I did a few Google searches and found that I am not the only person having this issue. And most searches said the same thing, either delete and resync or fix your contacts to not include certain characters. Not willing to go through 155 contacts and “fix” them, I continued to look thinking there had to be a better (simpler) answer.

It turns out there was a simple fix, which I found on the Palm Support Community website. Here are the details;

• Go to Google Contacts (on the web) and go to your “My Contacts” group.
• Once there, do a Select: all, and then a Remove from…My Contacts
• Then grab your Pre and resync that account. This should bring the contacts on your Pre down to 0.
• Then go back to Google Contacts (on the web) and add the contacts that you want to sync back into your My Contacts section.
• Then grab your Pre and resync those contacts again. This should bring the contacts on your Pre to match the amount in the My Contacts section on the web.

After that, I had, and still have my 155 contacts on the Palm Pre Plus. Big issue, simple fix. Of course, I would highly suggest that you make sure your data is backed up before making any big changes, just in case.

Step 1: Assess your bills

First, you should make an assessment of the bills you currently receive and pay. Once you have a picture of who your service providers and companies are, you should check out their websites to see if any of them offer a recurring or autopayment option. In the alternative, you can go to your bank’s website and see if they have a bill pay feature. Nowadays, most banks have such a service, though some do charge a fee for it. Some banks make use of an eBill (electronic bill) system, which sends an electronic version of your full bill to your bank, thereby eliminating your paper bills.

Step 2: Set reminders

After setting up your recurring payments and/or bank bill pay, go ahead and set reminders in your calendar to check that your payments are going through and to look over your statements for any unusual fees or charges.

Step 3: Belt and suspenders

If you like having records of your bills offline, you can usually download your eBill or your statements from your service provider or company or to your computer. Simply set up a folder for each provider and company, just like you would in a paper-based file cabinet. This step is not for everyone, but it’s good for those who like the belt and suspenders approach.

Bonus tip: Pay for necessities and get rewards

When looking at your options for online payments via a specific provider or company’s website, you should assess the rewards program for each of your credit cards – you may be able to rack up those points, miles, or cash back just by paying your monthly bills. As an example, my heating oil company has a credit card payment option at its website, so, I used my Discover Card each time I had to pay for an oil delivery. By doing so, I kept the funds in my interest-bearing checking account an extra month, while also quickly increasing my Discover cashback bonus.

The bottom line

If you are still unsure whether you want to make the switch, whether your bank offers bill pay, or just how much time you’ll save – check out eBillPlace.com, which has savings calculators, bill pay demos, and a bank bill pay service search. Remember, if you’re just starting to switch to online bill payments, your initial setup time may be at least an hour or more, but once you’ve got the system going, the time you spend each month paying bills will be dramatically reduced – in other words, you’ll have more time to enjoy life.

See: [eBill Place]

Switching carriers

The easy answer to the issue would be to rely on the new carrier to port your number over, but that can only work when transferring from one cell carrier to another one. Perhaps you want to transfer a phone number you have on a landline to your new smartphone, or even from a cell phone to a landline.

Park your number

Here’s where the service NumberGarage can come in handy. With NumberGarage, and other services like it, you can transfer, or port, your number to their service to hold for you until you want to use it again. The number can then be ported to any service you would want to port it to. Or, perhaps you don’t want to put it onto your new phone, you can always pay NumberGarage to forward your calls to your new phone. The only downfall being that it has a monthly fee behind it.

One number to rule them all

Maybe you don’t mind having a new number, but would prefer a number you can use for the foreseeable future. For that, you can always choose to sign-up for and then wait for an invitation to Google Voice. With Google Voice you can sign up for a phone number in nearly any area code you would want to, and have the calls to that number forwarded to any phone you want.

The service does require a new number, but you can choose that number yourself, with Google allowing you to try and find a vanity number when you sign up. If you don’t like that number later on, you can always change it for $10. So while there is a new number that you will have to tell all of your contacts, you can stick with one number for just about any phone you want to use for the foreseeable future.

Your home: standard broadband connection

The most obvious way of being connected to the Internet is through a modem, whether it be dial-up or a broadband connection. Commonly featured in the household as well as the workplace, a broadband connection allows you to reach fast download speeds on any computer or laptop in order to surf the Internet. For this to work, you have to have your ethernet cable plugged in (at least at the router); therefore you can’t access this Internet from anywhere in your house or office unless you have Wi-Fi.

Lose the cords: Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is another way to access the Internet from your laptop, cell phone, gaming console, or personal media player. Technically, you don’t have to be plugged in, provided the modem is on and running Wi-Fi. All you have to do is choose your, hopefully stable and secure network, from a list of available Wi-Fi networks and connect to it. This will also provide broadband speeds and you can be connected anywhere in your house.

Stores such as Starbucks offer Wi-Fi. If you travel abroad, chances are Wi-Fi will also be available but it could cost money just to use it. Areas in which Wi-Fi connections can be found are called hotspots.

Now, in case you want to find out where hotspots are located in any area, check out Open WiFi Spots. All you have to do is enter in a city or zip code and it will find all available hotspots. It is a pretty neat service that should save you some time and frustration if you use it before traveling to that destination.

3G Data Cards

Another option when Wi-Fi isn’t available is 3G data cards, which use cell phone networks in order to provide fast Internet access to your laptop. Most cell phone carriers offer monthly rates for such cards and they plug in directly to your laptop.

Depending on where you are located, network speeds will vary. If you plan on using the laptop card in a city, chances are speeds will be a lot faster than dial-up, however, in a rural area, speeds will probably hover near dial-up speeds, which isn’t terrible. In short, anywhere there is a cell phone signal you will be able to surf the web using your 3G data card.

Tethering

Another option for accessing the Internet anywhere is similar to 3G data cards. Essentially, tethering is gathering an Internet connection from a cell phone and using it with a device that doesn’t have an Internet connection. This can be done via Bluetooth or USB. Of course, such a process isn’t always the best unless you have a strong data plan. Also, carriers don’t approve of such use unless they offer actual tethering plans, which would probably cost additional money for the bandwidth usage.

The bottom line

All in all, staying connected is very important this day in age. As long as your budget allows, you can be pretty much be connected nearly at any time any where. For those who are on a strict budget, using a Wi-Fi finder can help find hotspots which can still allow you to stay connected often.

Google Voice is beginning to open up a little more each day. Of course, at this time, you still need an invitation. But that aside, for this purpose of this post we are going to assume that you are lucky enough to have been invited. Given that, aside from people still wanting an invitation, the biggest complaint I am seeing is that Google Voice is limited to those in the US.

When attempting to set up Google Voice from a location outside the US, users are greeted with a message that (in part) reads;

“Google Voice is not available in your country.”

Which does not help those that are outside the US, because while many prefer to have a local number, there are some benefits to having a US based number — even when you are outside the US. Well, let me tell you a little secret. Despite the service not officially being available, it is possible to set up your Google Voice account outside the US, that is as long as you do not mind a little trickery.

In pretty much one simple step, here is what you need to do;

• Find a Proxy site that is located on US servers, and while we cannot give you an exact Proxy to use, you may want to click this link, or this link and begin a quick search.
• After you have found your US-based Proxy site, all you need to do is then begin the regular Google Voice setup process.

Of course, if you have a trusted friend in the US, you could also ask nicely and have them do the setup for you.

Now for the fine print, if you choose to go this route only to have Google shut your Voice account down, I, along with Gadgetell, take no responsibility. Additionally, I, along with Gadgetell take no responsibility for any calls that may not be properly routed should you try and forward your Google Voice number to a non-US number. That said, if you do go this route, make sure you enjoy your Google Voice setup.