No means NO! Apple

It is one of those days when you boot up your PC and pop comes a nice dialog from Apple…

No. I don’t have an iPhone (which is not value for money, under-featured, lousy battery life and “commodity’ among fashionistas).

No. I don’t want iTunes as I don’t even use an iPod (which is not value for money, under-featured, lousy battery life and “commodity’ among fashionistas).

No. I don’t need Safari (YAWB – Yet Another Wannabe Browser). MSIE and FireFox more than covers all that I need. MSIE and Opera covers my mobile nicely… thanks !

“Incredible, amazing, awesome” yah right…

Details

iPhone Configuration Utility lets you easily create, maintain, encrypt, and install configuration profiles, track and install provisioning profiles and authorized applications, and capture device information including console logs.

Configuration profiles are XML files that contain device security policies, VPN configuration information, Wi-Fi settings, APN settings, Exchange account settings, mail settings, and certificates that permit iPhone and iPod touch to work with your enterprise systems. For instructions on how to use iPhone Configuration Utility, see the iPhone and iPod touch Enterprise Deployment Guide, available for downloading at http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/

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Safari is the fastest and most innovative web browser for Mac and PC.

Now, with Safari 4, you can choose your favorite sites from a stunning wall of graphical previews with Top Sites. Flip through websites as easily as you flip through albums in iTunes with Cover Flow. Easily retrieve sites you’ve seen before with Full History Search.

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QuickTime 7.6.4 includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security. This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3661.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

Important Notice to QuickTime 6 Pro Users
Installing QuickTime 7 or later will disable the QuickTime Pro functionality in prior versions of QuickTime, such as QuickTime 6. If you are a QuickTime 6 Pro user and you proceed with this installation, you will need to purchase a QuickTime 7 Pro registration code in order to regain QuickTime Pro functionality. After installation, visit the Apple Online Store to purchase a QuickTime 7 Pro registration code.

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iTunes 9.0.1 provides a number of important bug fixes, including:
• Resolves issues browsing the iTunes Store.
• Addresses a performance issue where iTunes may become unresponsive.
• Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit.
• Fixes a problem syncing Podcasts in playlists to iPod or iPhone.
• Fixes a problem sorting albums with multiple discs.
• Improves application syncing for iPod touch and iPhone.
• Genius is now automatically updated to show Genius Mixes.

iTunes 9 comes with many new features and improvements, including:
• An improved look and feel, including a new Column Browser for easily browsing your artists or albums, movies, TV shows, and more.
• iTunes Store has a brand new look, with improved navigation for quick and easy exploration.
• iTunes LP and iTunes Extras create unique experiences that feature exclusive interviews, videos, photos, and more — available with select album and movie purchases on the iTunes Store.
• Home Sharing helps you manage your family’s iTunes collection between computers in your home. iTunes can automatically transfer new purchases, or you can choose just the items you want.
• Genius Mixes are created for you by iTunes and play songs from your library that go great together.
• iPod and iPhone syncing now allows you to organize your iPhone and iPod touch home screens directly in iTunes. Syncing is now also more flexible, allowing you to sync individual artists, genres, or TV show and Podcast episodes.
• iTunes U items are now organized into their own section in your iTunes library.
• Sync with iPod nano (5th generation), iPod classic (Fall 2009), and iPod touch (Fall 2009).
• iTunes 9 also includes many other improvements, such as HE-AAC encoding and playback, more flexibility with Smart Playlists rules, simpler organization of your media files inside an iTunes Media folder, and more.

Bye Bye Adobe Acrobat… Welcome Foxit Reader !!!

For the longest time I watch Adobe Acrobat bloat like…… The Blob !

I cannot imagine that it has bloated to 221.0 MB worth of crap just reading PDF files.

Even with Adobe Acrobat SpeedLauncher (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\reader_sl.exe) which is secretly loaded on windows startup, it still sucks.

Opening a PDF files becomes a royal pain.

Worst still there are these constant security patches (which happens more than product updates) making Acrobat a prime target for malware and hijacks.

See Research: 80% of Web users running unpatched versions of Flash/Acrobat [August 25th, 2009]

with 83.5% also running a vulnerable version of Acrobat.

The company has also criticized Adobe by insisting that their update mechanism “does not meet the requirements of a system that is used by 99% of users on the Internet and is highly targeted by criminals“

Zoomed-in view

Adobe Acrobat has 55 reported vulnerabilities.

Foxit Reader has 5 reported vulnerabilities.

according to http://www.securityfocus.com/bid

Foxit wins my security concerns hands down by a factor of 11 !!!

Compared to Acrobat’s 221MB bloat, Foxit Reader weighs in at only 9.67MB.

Foxit wins in software size hands down by a factor of 22.8 !!!

So head over to Foxit and grab Foxit Reader and say bye bye to Adobe Acrobat.

Psst… Foxit also has Tab Viewing feature ! Cool !

Stardock Fences Time Bomb Duh !

Today the Stardock Fences popped up a dialog on my PCs… (I am a PC ! Not a laptop/notebook/desktop)

Windows 7

Windows XP

I thought… no big deal… Beta Preview anyway…

But when I tried to check for updates.

And it said…

Hmm… So what’s up ? Is there any updated version after v0.98.1970 BETA or not ?

Even the download site says…

[Fences v0.98 Community-Preview Beta - FREE
Use the download button to get your copy of Fences.
(Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 is a pre-requisite for installation.)
This release is a beta / community preview, and will expire on November 1, 2009.
Fences is free and will remain free ; we hope to have a Pro version with even more features available later this year.]

My beef is that now is 1st Sep 2009 and NOT even near 1st November 2009, so why the reduced functionality mode ?

Is there anyone with such problems ?