I’ve been doing technology support long enough to tell you that many of the problems that people experience with computers are self-inflicted. I even have clients who truly believe they have a little black cloud hanging over them every time they sit down in front of a computer, and having witnessed their track records first-hand, I make sure to keep my tech poncho handy. It’s hard to deny empirical data that clearly indicates some folks might be better keeping their distance from expensive or important technology. Today, however, some of my tech-kryptonite clients can hold their heads high because…guess what?! In the case of a large number of computers built with Intel CPU’s the technology problems plaguing those PCs might have been the hardware and not them!
“I’ll need an old priest and a young priest.“
Unfortunately for Intel, exorcising this particular demon won’t be nearly so simple (or cinematic). The tech manufacturer most widely known for making CPUs used in just about every desktop computer, laptop and server on this planet has recently admitted that they created, manufactured and sold two entire generations of CPUs with a flaw that basically causes them to commit electrical seppuku by requesting more voltage than they can safely handle. Intel’s Raptor Lake 13th and 14th generation CPUs have been installed in PCs since late 2022 all the way through today, and no one’s quite sure how many PC’s might be affected because it’s very difficult to determine if your repeated crashing is from a fried CPU or you are just one of my “stormy” tech friends.
After strongly denying this for several weeks, Intel finally came clean and admitted to the manufacturing defect, and after some prodding from the industry, also committed to extending warranties on retail CPU’s (ie. sold in boxes for installation into computers by system integrators, hobbyists and MSP’s like yours truly) by 2 more years. And after a little more prodding from their biggest customers, extended that same 2-year grace to OEM computers as well – these would be the ones you buy from Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc. Additionally, Intel is prepping a firmware update for mid-August that will supposedly rectify this nasty bug, but sadly, the fix won’t do anything for CPUs that have already lobotomized themselves. For that, you’ll need to seek a warranty replacement. As someone who has gone through that particular process more times than should be allowed by the Geneva Conventions, make sure you get your “waiting boots” on and keep your favorite stress toy handy. The next few months are going to be a hoot. And by “hoot” I mean nothing at all resembling such a thing. Thanks, Intel.
If you’ve taken to heart any of the security advice or practices that I or many other technology professionals have been dispensing for the past few years, you’ve probably developed a healthy skepticism for any emails that land in your box that are unexpected and contain unfamiliar links. Even more so if your email provider marks the email as spam or a possible phishing attempt.
For example, I recently received an email with the subject “iPhone iPod touch Class Action Settlement” that was immediately marked as spam by Gmail. This email purportedly offered me a part of a class action settlement with Apple. Seeing how many people own iPhones and iPods, it seemed like good phishing bait so I assumed this was yet another scam. It had all the trappings of a well-made con:
- broad target demographic
- based on a recent, actual event
- contained lots of official-sounding text that didn’t read like a 4th grader wrote it
- no overt clues that the sender was an obvious bad agent (non-US domains, inappropriate reply-to addresses, spoofed mail headers, etc.)
It would probably lure people into clicking a link that would either load up their machines with malware, or entice them into giving up some personal information that would later be used in an identity theft attempt. I opened it up with the intent of warning my audience and clients about the potentially well-crafted fraud.
As it turns out, this is a legitimate email that Gmail incorrectly identified as spam, probably because the sender was flagged as a spammer by justifiably suspicious readers like you and me. A little research online reveals this is part of the original case that made headlines back in May of this year. Emboldened by this information, I used Chrome (bolstered by a variety of anti-scripting extensions) to visit the included link, and, lo and behold, it’s a legitimate website. Because of the relative newness of this initiative, there isn’t a lot out on the web about this yet, so unless you are an experienced internet researcher, your searches might have come up with little evidence that this was a legitimate email.
What this means for you:
Most cautious internet citizens might have trusted their email provider’s guidance on this and just deleted this email, potentially missing out on as much as $200 as a settlement award. False positives are an unfortunate side-effect of a proper security protocol, and in this case, even Google didn’t provide enough information to immediately assuage my suspicions, and a few search results actually led to conversations where people immediately labeled it as a scam. Sometimes the internet does not provide instantaneous answers, nor is it always right, and as always, you should always take your search results with a grain of salt, especially if there is money at stake. If your search results turns up a dearth of information, your best course of action is to wait a few days for the internet to catch up (it always does!) and research again, or to contact a tech expert like C2 Technology to get a second opinion.
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If Forbes is writing about it, then it must be entering the mainstream, right? According to their calculations, the latest jailbreak for the iPhone’s iOS 6 has been installed over 7 million times since its release last week, which is roughly equivalent to about 2% of the overall iPhone population, and that number is likely to grow over time to 10% according to Jay Freeman, the administrator of the “unofficial” jailbroken iPhone app store, Cydia.
“Jailbreaking” (similar to “rooting” in the Android world) is basically a process that removes the restriction of installing apps from a third-party app store not controlled by Apple. Apps found at Cydia commonly enable iPhones to do things that normally wouldn’t be possible under Apple’s strict programming and content guidelines, such as (before iOS 6) multitasking or something as simple as setting Google’s Map app as the default mapping application when you click on addresses on your iPhone.
What this means for you:
The explosion in popularity of smartphones and tablets has infused cultures everywhere with elements of hacking and tinkering as people become more comfortable with customizing the phone rather than just using “as directed”, right up to the point where they hit the limitations of the device, and in the case of the iPhone, the (sometimes arbitrary) limits set by Apple. Over the years, jailbreaking, once considered arcane and only for the most foolhardy hacker, has now become something simple enough that you could walk your grandmother through the process.
Let’s be real – jailbreaking your grandmother’s iPad is probably not necessary, but if she could do it, then surely you can do it. And if it means being able to finally get rid of Apple’s miserable Maps application and return to trusty Google Maps once and for all, jailbreaking starts to look a lot more inviting. In the end, jailbreaking is about deciding whether Apple’s vision for how you should use your phone or tablet meets your needs (which it does for the majority of Apple customers) or whether you are really ready to “think different.”
Caveat: Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad, while legal in the USA, will void your warranty according to Apple.