The September 11 ABC 702 Sydney Weekends segment discussed what Steve Jobs’ stepping down as Apple CEO means for Mac users.
Simon Marnie and Paul Wallbank looked at why Steve Jobs was important to Apple, who will be taking over and whether this affects whether you should buy an Mac computer, iPhone or iPad.
Listeners’ Questions
As usual, we had plenty of great questions from listeners and some of them we promised to get back to, these included the following.
Removing Mackeeper
Cheryl called about MacKeeper warnings that keep popping up on her Apple computer.
MacKeeper, and other variants like MacProtector and MacSecurity, are known as malware – software designed for malicious reasons – which has been the bane of Windows computer users for years.
Removing Mackeeper is relatively easy and Apple has released a security patch to fix it. Details and download are available at the Apple Support website.
Wiping an old computer
The most valuable thing on a computer is the data, so it’s important to wipe any system before disposing of it. Deborah asked how to wipe her old Mac system before she left it out for her council’s e-waste collection.
If you have an OS X or OS 9 disk, you can completely wipe and “zero” the disk to make it extremely difficult for someone to recover any data from the old computer. Apple have detailed instructions on this at their How To Zero All Data On A Disk page.
Warning! Before following these instructions, make sure you have backed up all important and valuable data.
How to disable automatic Windows Updates
Updating your computer, whether you have a Windows or Mac computer, is very important as new security bugs are found all the time. Gary though was finding his system automatically installing Windows Updates often disrupts his work.
It isn’t a good idea to totally disable the Windows Update service as those updates and patches are important, but you can change the settings so they are downloaded but not installed until you choose to do so.
Microsoft’s Knowledge Base describes how to change the Windows Update Settings, we recommend the download updates but let me choose when to install them option.
Next 702 Weekends tech spot
Our next Weekends spot is scheduled for 23rd October when we’ll be discussing how to backup your valuable data. Check the Events Page or subscribe to our newsletter for any changes to the 702 Sydney programs and any other upcoming radio shows.