Apple has been teasing us for a long time with IOS5 and they’re just about to release it, but if you’re like me, you want to get your hands on it early. Everyone wants to try the latest and greatest first, but there’s another advantage to diving in early. If you’ve ever tried to update your IOS on the release day, you’ve surely realized the painful wait for the software to download as millions of other people try at the same time. Grabbing this early release should eliminate that problem as well. Warning: Back up before you begin! This kind of update can be riddled with unexpected problems, so be prepared for anything.
Here’s all you have to do to update early:
(edit 1: I added a new first step, to first install iTunes 10.5 Beta 7 or higher) (edit 2: Plug directly into the computer – don’t use a USB extension cable as this can slow the backup/restore down a LOT) (edit 3: Want the official release now? Download the latest iPhone ISPW and repeat steps 2 and then 5-7 below – 8 id needed)
4. Extract the file you downloaded. I suggest using 7Zip if you’re on a PC. Find it at Download.com
5. Hold down SHIFT (or “Option” on a MAC) and click “Restore” in iTunes
6. A file selection box should open up. Choose the ISPW file that you extracted from the DMG file you downloaded.
7. iTunes will wipe your device and install IOS5. That’s OK.
8. After the install, it should ask if you want to restore from a backup. Say YES and choose your backup from Step 1.
Most people have heard of Napster and perhaps you’ve even heard of Limewire and other peer-to-peer file sharing networks. What doesn’t get as much press is the fact that peer-to-peer networks were and are used for perfectly legal file sharing as well. And file transfers can be pretty fast. The problem with sharing files on these networks is that someone on the other end has to be online and sharing that file, and if they decide to shut down for the night, you’re just out of luck. The alternative is Usenet and software like Binverse.com.
With software from Binverse, anyone can connect easily to newsgroups on Usenet and download files from servers. You know, the computers that stay on all night, even if John in Massachusetts has a big test tomorrow and needs to go to bed. Perhaps, I should take a step back, though, and introduce Usenet to the uninitiated.
What Is Usenet?
Because it hasn’t had the same media attention as some of the peer-to-peer networks, you may be wondering, “What is Usenet?” Usenet doesn’t have a hip name like Limewire or Napster because it’s been around far longer, like 15+ years longer. Binverse has a pretty decent explanation of Usenet.
Usenet is a global network of servers hosting discussion groups called “newsgroups”. Each discussion group is dedicated to a specific topic. Members post and download messages to newsgroups just like many other forms of Internet discussion groups.
Unlike traditional Internet discussion groups, newsgroups allow members to post and download messages containing discussions or messages with attached files such as pictures, videos, or any other type of file.
About Binverse
If you’re not exploring Usenet newsgroups already, you’ll want to get up and running quickly. Sadly, that’s easier said than done with newsgroups. There’s way too many to sift through and once you’ve found a file you’d like to download, it’s split across sometimes hundreds of messages. If you wanted to download a 3GB file, for example, you would need to download each part from all of the 200 or more messages, put them all back together, unzip the files, etc. This is where Binverse comes in. The software dumbs down the process while offering some pretty handy tools. In the previous example, Binverse would download, rebuild, unzip, and organize everything for me. I’ve spent about a week downloading files with Binverse and I’ve come up with a some of my favorite features.
Power Search
Earlier, I mentioned that there are far too many news groups to be able to sift through them all. With Binverse, you can search through all of their news groups for what you seek. Better still, if you have found better results in certain news groups, you can limit to just those. In the screen shot I used for this post, you can see some adult files that were a result of my search. With the search customization, I can filter those out to more quickly get to the content I’m looking for. To make it even faster, you can sort the search results, too.
File Genius
File Genius is pretty awesome. There are newsreaders that are designed to help you read newsgroups and do a fair job of putting attachments back together for you and downloading. When I downloaded the first few files, without File Genius, it felt familiar. Then I tried with File Genius and I found that it did a much better job. On top of showing me all the included files, it gave me a single download button and when it was done, it extracted my files neatly into a folder named after the archive. I never sat around wishing for File Genius, but now that I’ve used it, I wouldn’t want to download from Usenet without it. It’s just plain convenient. On the other side of the coin, I had a hard time dealing with how Binverse stored files that I downloaded without File Genius. They were sorted based on the news group name. For some people, that might be convenient, but for my downloads, it just made things hard to find.
Previews
With Binverse, you can preview photo, audio, or video files directly in the newsreader. Photos don’t take all that long to download, but videos can be another story. With the preview feature, you can get a sneak peek at part of the video long before downloading the whole thing. Anything that saves me time is a blessing.
Speed
It can be pretty frustrating to recognize the need for a file, find it online, and then spend three days downloading it. I’ve used BitComet pretty regularly in the past to download torrents and would often find that I had to wait days for the last 5% of a file or it would just download slow through the whole file. With Usenet, download speeds are only limited by the server and your own connection speed. Unlike other newsgroup services, Binverse doesn’t seem to throttle the speed at all.
Privacy
You don’t always want people to know your business and what you’re downloading. Binverse protects your privacy by offering free SSL encryption with every account. It’s more secure from prying eyes, and even though ISPs say they don’t throttle your account for heavy downloading, a lot of them do. Let them guess if you’re downloading files or just watching Hulu.
For all that’s offered, the pricing is pretty decent and the service and software are bundled, making this the easiest Usenet solution I’ve found.
Win A Binverse Account
I mentioned pricing, but you have a pretty good chance of winning a Premium Binverse account right here in a couple easy steps. To try the service, Binverse gave me an account with unlimited features and a 50 GB cap. I can take as long as I want to eat up that 50GB and the three additional accounts they’re letting me give away are the same as mine. I’ve downloaded a lot in the last week and I still have 37 GB left for high speed downloads.
All you have to do to enter is share this post on Facebook. To let me know about your entry, you can add me on Facebook and tag me in your post or you can just send me a link to your post. As long as I can see it, it’ll count. I’ll pick three winners via a random draw on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 8:00 AM MST.
Here’s the fine print we all know and love: I must be aware of your entry for it to count. Only one entry per person for this contest. Nobody in my immediate family can enter (sorry Dad). Winners will be contacted via Facebook and will have to provide an email address to get an account set up. I reserve the right to disqualify any entries from Facebook accounts I deem to be fake.
Enter now and with any luck, you’ll be oohing and aahing at File Genius next weekend.
4th of July is still a week away, but everyone’s already making plans. A few minutes ago, I heard fireworks going off outside. It’s definitely that time of year. On July 4th, America’s Independence Day, families and friends will get together in back yards, parks, and roof tops to BBQ, party, and watch the dazzling fireworks displays. This year, take your celebration to a whole new level with some geeky tech additions.
Swashbuckling BBQ Sword
Sure, you could just be normal and manage your meat on the BBQ with tongs or a skewer, but who wants to be normal? Handle those dogs like a pro with the BBQ sword from Think Geek. You can wear an eye patch if you want, but remember to take it off before the fireworks show. $24.99
Patriotic Headphones
Show up with these US flag headphones on and nobody will ever doubt your patriotism. Go the extra mile and have some patriotic music read to go for anyone who asks what you’re listening to. $39.90
Build A Fireworks Launch Center
Adam at Addictornics wanted to safely launch fireworks from a distance, but he didn’t just phone this one in. With some time and patience, you can create an awesome fireworks launch pad like his. Just don’t forget the launch codes.
If someone in your family is sick, you don’t like crowds, it’s raining, or you simply want to stay in on the 4th, you can still enjoy a fireworks show in your own living room. This fireworks projector from Sega Toys creates a simulated fireworks show without all the smoke. It’s not the same as the real thing, but you’ll have the best seat. $173
July 4th iPhone Apps
There are tons of iPhone and Android apps to help you get into the patriotic spirit, keep mosquitoes away, and find awesome yet simple BBQ recipes. A fun little app that can help keep the kids from asking “when are the fireworks?” for two hours before the show is the I Love Fireworks app. You just tap the screen to make fireworks appear. $0.99
Yesterday, my wife called to tell me something was wrong with her computer. I told her to shut it off and I’d look when I got home. What I found when I got home was software called Antimalware Doctor reporting fake trojans and slowing down her whole computer. My wife had called because she was immediately suspicious, but so many are easily tricked by software like this that looks credible.
What Is Antimalware Doctor?
Over the years, the threat of getting a virus or trojan on your computer went from rare to pretty damn scary. The fear of a virus is how software like this works. It disguises itself as legitimate ant-virus software, pretending to help. It will pop up and appear to scan for and then find various threats on your computer. The goal is to make you believe that there is a threat so imminent that you should act right away. I’ve written about scare tactics like this before because they seem to work. You think you have a virus and need to take care of it right away, so you take the suggested action, which leads you to spending money on this horrible software. It’s like finding a burglar in you home, dressed like a cop, and taking him out to dinner to thank him because he says he scared away some burglars.
Not only does the software pretend to scan and find things, but it is horribly annoying, popping up fake warnings every time you do anything that it thinks might be steps to remove it. Every time I opened the Control Panel, for example, somethingsimilar to the image above would appear. Each time, I just used the ALT + F4 key combination to make it go away.
Antimalware Doctor Removal
Programs like this rely on you being stuck with them, so they often do whatever it takes to get installed on your computer and stay there. Usually, you’re enticed into downloading some seemingly harmless software and Antimalware Doctor is bundled with it and installs secretly. Because of this, just uninstalling from your Control Panel will not do the trick. You have to be just as diligent in the removal of this rogue software as the jerks who set it loose on your computer were.
To start, you’ll need to find out where the program is running from. I found its location with the following steps:
1. Press the CTRL, ALT, and DELETE keys at the same time. Then View the Task Manager.
2. In the Task Manager, click the Applications tab and find the Antimalware Doctor application.
3. Right-click on the Antimalware Doctor application in the list and click “Go to Porcess”
4. In the process list, right-click on the process (it should be highlighted) and click “Open File Location”
In the folder with it were two additional files, enemies-names.txt and local.ini. enemies-names.txt contained a list of “offending” software and cookie threats and local.ini contained a bunch of program settings.
Most malware will have another background process that watches for anything trying to remove it. Usually, if you remove the malware executable, it will revive the file from another location immediately. To fool this logic, I opened it in Notepad++ and simply changed the binary contents so that the executable name and location would remain in tact while breaking the program. To do this, I simply added a bunch of random characters a couple lines into the file. In our case, the file was db70virstup.exe. I was not able to save the file until I closed the running process, so I closed it and then saved the file quickly.
The program also sets up some registry keys. You can really mess up your computer if you change the wrong stuff in your registry, but if you’re careful and know what you’re editing, you should be OK. To view and edit registry keys, go to the Start menu and type “regedit” in the search field and hit ENTER. Once in the registry editor, head to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Antimalware Doctor Inc -> Antimalware Doctor. There, you can see all the registry keys it added, but you really want to just delete the whole HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Antimalware Doctor Inc tree.
After removing the registry keys, just delete the folder that the files were found in and you should be all set.
Additional Information
The steps taken above worked for me, but they may not completely remove the software from your computer. Other guides like the one from wiki-security.com have different methods of detection and removal and sometimes even list additional files and/or registry keys to remove.
I don’t remove software threats for a living, nor do I edit my registry often. Any steps listed above are taken at you own risk.
If I missed something or you have questions, just use the comment form below and I’ll be sure to respond.
There are tons of iPhone and Android apps to help you get into the patriotic spirit, keep mosquitoes away, and find awesome yet simple BBQ recipes. A fun little app that can help keep the kids from asking “when are the fireworks?” for two hours before the show is the 
