New 2011 iMacs Restrict Upgrade Options

The new 2011 iMacs look amazing but recent observations from some fellow geeks over at Other World Computing have revealed that Apple are now restricting users from upgradig or replacing their Hard Disk Drives on their new 2011 iMac. This is unless ofcourse you book your mac in at an authorised Apple service center and have it replaced with another magical HDD using a non standard 7pin connector and special Apple proprietary firmware on the hard drive itself.

This poses a few problem for the DIY or time/cost concious Mac user:

1. Apple will likely charge higher prices for their special drives.

2. When your drive fails (and it will), you have no option but to take it to an apple service center which can sometimes take days to turnaround a simple repair or replacemnt.

3. People unaware of this new restriction before the purchase of their shiny new iMac will suddenly find themselves with limited options.

This is a very interesting development indeed. I think i'll be passing on any mac forcing these restrictions - and I was really looking forward to making use of those new thunderbolt ports!

Live PC Solutions Cold Call Scam

Quite a few of my clients on the Northern Beaches have been reporting getting cold calls from people with Indian accents telling them that "their PC has errors". They go on to say that in order to fix these errors they need to walk them through some steps which eventuates to downloading some software.

This is a scam for sure, any cold caller asking for access to your PC is not legit. The results of installing the software include the following:

- Annoying popup messages telling you your computer is infected
- Your computer becomes slow or unstable
- Your Internet browser home page may be different
- Your computer is probed for private information e.g. credit card numbers and passwords etc.

If you have experienced any of these it is likey you have a this or a similar threat on your computer.