On Computers

Malware lurks behind fake ‘update’ ads online

Our screen kept nagging us with messages that we needed to update Adobe Flash Player, a program necessary for video playback on the Web. But since we knew we already had the latest version, we ignored it.

It was a false message that was aimed at getting people to click on the box it presented, and of course that's the sort of thing that can get you in trouble. Unfortunately, what's new in phony messages is that you don't have to click on anything to get a computer virus. We didn't get one that time, but to be safe, we downloaded the new Anti-Exploit, a free program for preventing these attacks. We got it at Malwarebytes.org, home of another anti-malware product by the same name, also free.

Confused? So were we at first. It turns out there are three things you should have on your machine to keep safe: an anti-virus program (the free version of Avast is good), an anti-spyware program (like the free one at Malwarebytes.org), and an anti-exploit program, like Anti-Exploit. In tests by the software research company Kafeine, Anti-Exploit blocked every attack thrown at it.

It doesn't cost much for a criminal to buy one of these ads. They pay an average of 75 cents for every 1,000 ads during peak traffic on major sites such as The Huffington Post, Answers.com and DailyMotion, or 6 cents per thousand in off-peak hours.

There are premium versions of both Anti-Exploit and Malware, though it's easy to get confused after installation. Anti-Exploit has an "activate" button. If you click on it, they ask you for your license code, so you might be tempted to go back and buy it. But that's not necessary, unless you also want protection for Microsoft Office files and PDFs. This kind of thing has become commonplace on websites, so just pay attention to what you click on.

Are Fitness Bands Reliable?

The information you get from "fitness" bands may be off by as much as 40 percent, says Gregory Welk, an Iowa State University kinesiology professor, who tested seven of them. The top two bands were off by just more than 15 percent and the worst one was off by 40 percent. There were $1.4 billion worth of these fitness trackers sold last year, and the market continues to be hot. Professor Welk admits they're still a valuable tool to achieve fitness.

App Happy

• Zepp Tennis 2 works with any Zepp sensor to show you what your tennis serve looks like in 3-D. It works with iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets. Check out similar apps from Adidas (soccer) and Babolat (tennis).

• Google Goggles is a free app for Android/iPhone/iPad that identifies images for you. The other day, someone at the question and answer site, Quora.com, asked Joy to identify a picture of a fruit. If Bob had been there, he would have told her it was the carambola, or so-called star fruit. Not having Bob there, Joy took a picture of it with her phone camera and the Goggles app showed her similar pictures, with links to identifying text. Ah ha! She even got a YouTube video on how to slice it properly.

• YouCam Makeup, a free app for iPhone/iPad/Android, shows you what you would look like with various kinds of lipstick, eye shadow, eyeliner and so on. It's been downloaded over 10 million times. Bob maintains that Joy and all women look best without makeup.

That's Fast!

Joy's nephew recently graduated from a flip phone to a smartphone. The one thing he misses is the long battery life of the flip phone. What if you could fully charge an iPhone in five minutes? A charger that can do just that is set to come out this month.

This idea so electrified (so to speak) the Kickstarter community that Pronto, the forthcoming fast charger, quickly raised $375,249 in seed money. (That was $325,000 more than they were looking for.) The basic device will cost $89 and hold three charges. The super model will hold nine charges. Either will fully charge an iPhone in five minutes. You can pre-order one for June delivery from pronto-battery.backerkit.com.

Internuts

• PoetryLoversPage.com was created in 1995 with one of the first complete collections of poetry by Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Allen Poe. It also has the best of Robert W. Service, William Shakespeare and many others. Readers may also submit their own poems. The site still has a 1995 (early days for websites) look, but the poems make it worth a visit.

• KhanAcademy.org offers free video tutorials on math, science, history and other topics. Now they've added free SAT test preparation. The test is changing in March 2016 and you can practice it here.

The Trade-in on an Old Phone

If you're like us and have a so-called "unlocked phone," with "prepaid service," you may be curious on what it would cost to upgrade.

First off, the trade-in value: Amazon would only give us $80 for a Samsung Galaxy S3 that cost us over $500 a few years ago. If we wanted to buy that same phone (used, without contract) from them, the price was $95. Not bad. T-Mobile, our service provider, by contrast, offers to buy it for $40, and sells it for $200.

By the way, we pay only $30 per month for unlimited Web and text usage and a paltry 100 minutes of phone calls. (That's OK; we normally only use about 10 minutes. We don't talk much and only ran over the limit once in three years.) You can find similar deals at T-Mobile.com, but if you don't see that one, chat online with one of their support people. They sometimes seem willing to deal.

Bob and Joy Schwabach can be reached by email at bobschwa@gmail.com and joydee@oncomp.com.

SundayMonday Business on 06/15/2015

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