WIRE LA - Daily Los Angeles News & Events Magazine

New iPad 3 Now in Pre-Order For March 16 Delivery; iPad 2 Drops to $399 and Up

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The “new iPad” - feel free to call it iPad 3, even if Apple doesn’t officially do so - was announced on March 7, but won’t be delivered til St. Patty’s Day Eve.

Apple is taking pre-orders now, however. You can get it in white or black;

new features include super-hi-res Retina Display, much better (5MP iSight) camera that can record 1080p HD video, and faster speeds (up to 4G LTE). And you may be asking: does iPad 3 have Siri (the much hyped intelligent voice-based assistant on the iPhone 4S)? Kinda. To quote Engadget, “Siri sort-of comes to the new iPad, does voice dictation only”.

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Back to the iPad 2: while they may say supplies are limited, my guess is that there are plenty of iPad 2s left, since the iPad 1s were still being sold long after iPad 2 debuted. In fact, the iPad 1s are still being sold, although it may be harder to find than the iPad 2.

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Note: For even cheaper prices, try a Refurbished unit from Apple.

Today I saw these two cool deals listed on Apple’s web store:

Refurbished iPad with Wi-Fi 16GB - Black (first generation): $299

Refurbished iPad 2 with Wi-Fi 16GB - White (second generation): $349.

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PC Mall is one place showing the new lower prices on (new) iPad 2s; see below. You can also try the Apple store - in person, or at http://www.apple.com/ipad.

So, to recap the iPad prices (all of these are for the lowest end WiFi-only model):

New iPad 3: $499

New iPad 2: $399

Refurbished iPad 2: $349

Refurbished iPad 1: $299.

—-D.R.

Top Ten Tricks to Spot Spam

by Don Rose

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Face it, we all hate spam email. To help everyone spot spam faster, here are some tips I have gathered over the years that may help you. Here goes:

(1) Did you expect to get this email from the person sending it to you?

If the sender did not tell you he/she was sending this message, read it carefully. Does it sound like something he/she would send? Is it in their “voice”? If not, ask them if they sent it. If not, delete. (Or, delete, then ask; they can always send it again if it was actually legit.)

(2) Has the person sending the email had NO contact with you in a long time?

If not, and there is no explanation or preamble setting things up (like, “Hey, I know it has been a while, but here is something you will like” etc), then this is probably spam. Always best to just ASK the sender if they actually sent it or not. Remember the golden anti-spam rule: when in doubt, ask first, open later.

(3) Is the email just a link and nothing else in it? Or just an attachment with no text in the body of the email?

In general, links and attachments should always be suspect. Be very careful before clicking a link or opening an attachment. Unless you are expecting the person to send you the link or attached file, you can always ASK the sender before clicking or opening.

If it is a link, see number 4 below. If it is an attachment, does it end in .exe? If so, the odds are high it is dangerous spam - since exe means executable file, or program! Most likely a program to infect or otherwise harm your computer.

(4) Look closely at the link URL address - is the root “(domain).com”, or something else?

If it is NOT a .com address, that link may be dangerous. For example, .ru means it is a Russian URL address, .cn is China, .it is Italy, etc. Beware foreign TLDs (top level domains).

Even if it IS a .com, is it a legit site like yahoo.com or cnn.com, or something with an odd or unheard of name (like thiswillkillyourpc.com)? Use your common sense.

(5) Is the email riddled with grammar and spelling errors, and weird formatting?

If so, probably spam.

(6) Is the email overly friendly, or otherwise in a tone you don’t normally hear from your friends?

If so, probably spam.

(7) Is the “story” of the email contact totally implausible or unlikely or too good to be true?

If so, probably spam. (Don’t be suckered in by your inner greedy bastard.)

(8) Does the subject title of the email have mispellings or a character embedded in one or more words?

If so, probably spam. (Spammers often put characters like asterisks inside words to hide them from spam spotting programs, since such programs may be looking for viagra but not v&iagr*a.)

(9) Does the sender name look to be from another language, or planet?

If so, probably spam.

(10) Is money involved - how to get it yourself or for someone else?

I find that over 50 percent of all spam I get involves money somehow, so if you want to weed out spam fast, a good rule is to delete when dollars are involved.

“Steve Jobs” Bio Book Out Today; Watch Author Walter Isaacson Discuss Jobs (and Hear the Tech Titan Speak About His Life) on “60 Minutes” (VIDEO)

The official Steve Jobs biography is released today, October 24, 2011 - and last night its author, Walter Isaacson, appeared on the CBS program “60 Minutes” to discuss the book and its subject. Watch the complete interview with Isaacson below, with several audio clips from Jobs himself. Also on the program: a featurette about “how tablet computers and special applications are helping autistic people to communicate, some for the first time”. (Source: CBS 60 Minutes website). --Don Rose

STEVE JOBS TRIBUTE (Continued): Computer Is Like Bicycle for the Mind (VIDEO)