People who have iPhones may not be aware of some handy shortcuts on the devices which can speed-up common tasks and make using the devices much easier. Here I am going to share my top three shortcuts. First, if you are reading something which requires vertical scrolling (such as a webpage or email message) you can easily scroll back to the top of the content by double-tapping the status bar at the top of the screen (i.e. the bar containing the clock and battery indicator). Second, in some situations when typing on the iPhone keyboard you may need a special letter, such as an accented letter. By tapping and holding a particular letter on the iPhone keyboard, a small menu will appear with variants of that letter. Likewise, if you are typing a web address and the “.com” button is present on the keyboard, you can tap and hold to reveal other variants (such as .net, .edu, and .org). Finally, if you are listening to music on the iPhones iPod function, you can tap the album artwork on the iPod screen to open the advanced options, allowing you to fast forward, rewind, see the remaining time on the song and also setup repeat or shuffle modes.

Upon attaching devices to the USB ports on my computer a message appears saying “This device could perform faster…” which relates to connecting the devices to a USB 2.0 port. My motherboard manufacturers documentation claims that the motherboard supports USB 2.0 and upon visiting the manufacturers website it seems that a BIOS flash update is required to enable this support. However, I am reluctant to proceed as I have heard that flashing the BIOS can render the computer unusable if something goes wrong during the process. Can you provide advice or reassurance on this matter? (more…)

My computer is running Windows XP Home Edition with CA Antivirus and SpyHunter Antispyware installed to provide protection. Both security products are regularly updated. After I recently updated the antivirus definitions a message appeared from CA Antivirus informing that “Windows\system32\verclsid.exe” had been infected with “Win32/AMalumZZOCA” and the file had been quarantined. I completed a System Restore to roll-back the computer to a previous point when it was not infected, but shortly after the messages proliferated and I had 25 instances of the infection warning affecting files ranging from system32 and service pack files to a range of randomly named files such as ZZNPB, ZZOKH, ZZOAZ, and ZZNRA. Finally, a message appeared from Windows File Protection saying “Files that are required for Windows to run properly have been replaced by unrecognised versions. To maintain system stability Windows must restore the original versions of these files. Insert your Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 CD now”. Since I do not have the required CD this advice could not be followed, and attempts to use system restore produce a message that the system cannot be returned to any of the available restore points. Is there anything I can do to make the system functional once again? The messages have not been reappearing but I am wary of using the computer for banking until I am sure that the problem has been resolved and the computer is virus-free. (more…)

Users of Mac OS X Snow Leopard are likely to be aware that the computer can be set to prompt for your password upon waking from the screen saver or sleep mode, as a security measure. However, this can be inconvenient in some situations. For example, if your screen saver starts and you bump the mouse, to close the screen saver, you need to enter your password. Fortunately there is a very neat option to avoid this issue. Go into the System Preferences > Security. On the “General” page there is an option which is likely ticked saying “Require password …after sleep or screen saver begins”. Here you can select the drop-down box and change the setting so that the password is only required to be entered a certain time after sleep or the screen saver begins.

A message appears on the computer that “Gtbf.tmp.exe is attempting to connect to a DNS server. The remote address is 203.12.160.35:53”. What does this message mean? The computer is running Windows XP. (more…)