Symantec’s Intelligence report for June shows a marked drop in spam received by business email users worldwide. Their metrics show businesses received a little less than half the spam they usually receive over a month. Perhaps the spammers are taking vacation days as well?

With all the hurly-burly in today’s world, it is amazing that anyone has time for love any more. It seems like our work days have progressively gotten longer, business trips more frequent and our commitments more time-consuming. It can be very hard for two busy people with full schedules to stay connected. Sometimes just scheduling dinner together can seem like a lot of work.

A banana-powered piano? A video game controlled by a couple of watermelons? No, this is not the aftermath of a collision between a fruit cart and a Geekmobile. They are tools our Agents use to get young people excited about technology at our Geek Squad Academy camps.

You’re online, watching a compilation video of cute kittens, and your home phone rings. A person claiming to be a representative from Microsoft tells you they detectsed a threat to your computer. The caller tries to frighten you into allowing a remote connection to your computer, showing you a bunch of warnings, maybe even some red error messages on your computer. The caller pressures you to take immediate action and buy their service because you are in imminent danger!

With the holidays nearly upon us, many of our Agents and clients will be travelling sometime during the next ten days. And it’s a good bet that at least some of those travelers will be going through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, the third busiest airport in the US in terms of total passengers.

As anyone who has worked at a Geek Squad Academy Camp will tell you, it is sometime pretty hard to get the campers to take a break from their projects and focus on something besides Lego robots or game programming for a few minutes.

My, how time flies when you’re having fun.

One of the personality traits we look for in Agents is a certain amount humility. Oh, we can overlook a bit of trash-talking when it comes to video game battles, but we have always felt it important that Agents don’t get too full of themselves. Which isn’t easy, considering all the technological disasters we help client address. But trying to stay out on the bleeding edge of this ever-changing field is enough to keep any technologist humble.

I know we’ve said this before, but it’s kind of a big deal if you are still using Windows XP – Microsoft will stop supporting the XP operating system next Tuesday (4/8/14).

It’s official — beginning April 8, 2014, Microsoft will no longer provide updates for that old, faithful workhorse of the masses – the Windows XP operating system.

We are taking over!

Google – owners of the the most popular website in the world (according to Alexa) – has never been satisfied being just the primary search engine to the Web. Between mapping the Earth through Google Maps and attempting to make everyone a data input via Google Glass, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have converted Google into one of the main forces driving innovation in the world.

The computing world changed 30 years ago. It was on January 24, 1984 that Steve Jobs stood before workers and the press at the Apple Cupertino, CA headquaters and unveiled their newest product – the Macintosh personal computer.

If experience has taught us anything, it’s that computer-related scammers are persistent. By the time law enforcement catches on and alerts the public, the con-artists are already on to their latest scheme to separate you from your hard-earned cash.

If you own an Apple MacBook Air laptop sold between June 2012 and June 2013, you should know that flash storage drives in those particular models occasionally fail – and that Apple has issued a press release saying they will replace all affected drives free of charge.

In September 2011, five Agents from Geek Squad City were selected to lead a cooperative effort with Yahoo! to answer computer-related questions from people on the Answers.Yahoo.com website.

Imagine this – you are sitting at home minding your own business when you receive a phone call from an official sounding person telling you that your computer is seriously infected with viruses. They say they will help you out and eliminate the viruses if you will provide a credit card number.

The news media is currently abuzz over an announcement by Karsten Nohl of Security Research Labs, indicating that there’s a new phone hack affecting some SIM cards. What does this mean to you, and what do we know about this latest threat? 

You’re never too old, and if you want to,
as my mother said, you can do anything you want to,
but you have to work at it.

-Annie J Easley

Update: Since publishing this article last week, Java 7u13 has been released, with important fixes included. We’ll post a follow-up article once the blacklisting has been removed.

In 1926, Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid propellant rocket. In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite in space. In 1969, the Americans put a man on the moon. And on December 1, 2012, Geek Squad sent an Agent’s badge into low orbit.

It’s hard to believe that the light that we see twinkling down to us from our night sky is actually light that is thousands, millions, and billions of years old. When we look at the stars, we are looking at the past.

Have your Facebook friends started posting “privacy disclaimers” in their posts? If you’re seeing these in your Facebook timeline, it’s likely a reaction to recent news items about Facebook and supposed privacy changes. The question is: do these disclaimers actually mean anything?

Breaking news, readers: Disney just announced that they are acquiring Lucasfilm from George Lucas today, to the tune of $4.0.... While George Lucas will be staying on as a consultant to the Star Wars series, he announced “It’s now time for me to pass ‘Star Wars’ on to a new generation of filmmakers.”

If you get excited at the thought of new technology releases, you are probably keyed up for the release of the new Windows operating system on October 26. Windows 8 is the first major overhaul of Windows since the launch of Windows 95. I was lucky enough to go get a pre-release copy of the system and take it from me, it’s a big change. And change isn’t always a bad thing.

NASCAR – the roar of the cars, the cheering of fans, the rumbling of the seats as cars race by. NASCAR races are, by their very nature, exciting events.  And they’re about to get even more exciting.

At forty community-based camps this summer, Geek Squad Agents volunteer to teach youth tech basics in a fun and inspirational way; five camps tailored for military bases as part of national Joining Forces initiative 

TRENDNet, maker of several IP Cameras, recently discovered a vulnerability in several of their SecurView cameras that allowed for online access in real-time by hackers. Fortunately the company released a quick firmware update to resolve the issue.

It’s the time of year when football fanatics and non-sports fans alike come together for some highly anticipated entertainment, which provides the perfect opportunity to party. Whether your guests will be there to watch the intensity of the sport or to rate the never-before-seen commercials, Geek Squad makes it easy for you to tackle your party with these tech tips.

CES is traditionally the home of the latest and greatest in cellular, home theater, gaming, and computing technologies. 

Over the last few months, we have renewed and reinvigorated the mission of the Geek Squad Intelligence Blog.  I am excited to be bringing additional Agents from around the United States to create articles to keep you informed, but that is only part of our new mission.  We are also creating the first international news wire for Geek Squad, bringing Agents together from countries around the world to battle unruly technology, keeping our public informed.

Many people hear the word “refurbished” and cringe. They see refurbished items as someone else’s castoffs and want nothing to do with them.  Here at Geek Squad, we want to show you that refurbished does not have to mean unreliable.  When we certify something, we mean it.

Since the program’s inception in 2007, the tech boot camp has grown from a one-day summer camp in Chicago to a nationwide program spanning nearly 20 states. This year, Geek Squad Summer Academy adds five camps for military communities through its participation in the “Joining Forces” initiative, a national initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to support those who serve in the military and their families.

Details are still coming out about the entire rescue operation, but myself and other Agents are happy to hear the good news. Welcome home Ivan!!

Earlier this week, I found out that a fellow fighter in the battle against malware and cyber-criminals became a victim of an unfortunate tragedy. Eugene Kaspersky’s son, Ivan Kaspersky, was kidnapped on his way to work in Russia and is reportedly being held for ransom. I was saddened by this unfortunate news and my heart goes out to the Kaspersky family. I sincerely hope Ivan is safely returned home to his loving family as soon as possible. I can’t imagine what this is like to go through.

These exceptional services demonstrate Geek Squad’s unerring commitment to empowering people to make the most of their gear. Geek Squad Agents are here to help day and night, present and future.

Catching every moment of the college basketball tournament can be difficult. Technology, especially wireless applications, can help you stay connected to game scores, bracket standings and player stats whether you’re at work, at home or on the road.

Honeycomb is Google’s proverbial throwing down of the gauntlet in what should prove to be the next big technology battle. What would you like to see out of Honeycomb?

There are few things more exciting for a Geek Squad Agent that being in a huge convention center filled with all the new and upcoming technology that we’ll be seeing in stores and setting up in homes over the next twelve to twenty-four months.

It has come to our attention that the CEO of a well-known automaker recently called the Prius a “Geekmobile.”

Blogs like Consumerist and Crunchgear continue to question services they don’t think our clients need.

The World Cup has officially begun, and civilians around the world have caught the fever. If you’re among them, you’re probably disappointed that you aren’t able to watch all the matches because of work. Geek Squad is here to help.

Firmware, if you have not encountered the term before, generally refers to the programs and files used internally in many devices to control that device’s functions. Think of firmware as something similar to the operating system (such as Microsoft Windows) that a PC uses.

One thing that struck me as I walked through the displays of gadgets and gizmos at the International Consumer Electronics Show was how CES 2010 had made good on a word that was often used in the last decade, but hadn’t seen much mention recently: “convergence”.

It’s always interesting to see how a product category handles the progression from being the hot new technology at previous Consumer Electronic Shows, to being a more accepted, if not mature, member of computer society.

Looking for a laptop, but confused by the herculean task of balancing all the latest features you want in a laptop that won’t break the bank? Fear not, Citizen, because Best Buy joined with Toshiba, Sony and Dell at this week’s CES 2010 to announce their Best Buy Blue Label 2.0 family of laptops.

How to Upgrade your Operating System: A Geek Squad 2 Minute Miracle

If you’ve been shopping in Best Buy lately, you may have come across laptops with a big orange and white sticker declaring “THIS COMPUTER HAS BEEN TESTED AND SET UP BY THE GEEK SQUAD” along with the specific services performed, such as an “Optimization & Restore CD Creation.” So what does this mean for you as the new owner of that PC?

It has come to Geek Squad’s attention that a Microsoft Windows Update released on August 25, 2009 is inadvertently causing x64 processor based computers with Windows Vista x64 SP1 to crash with a blue screen (BSOD) and the error message “STOP: 0x0000007E”.

Xbox Live Update Now Available

If you have an iPhone, we suggest that you install patch as soon as possible.

You can’t talk Star Trek without mentioning the wonderful future technologies that enable the Enterprise crew to survive their strange adventures every week. It’s even harder not to bring up the number of “future” 24th century tech predicted by the show that have actually become part of our daily lives. Cell phones for example.

I’d like to start this post by making the record clear: We are proud to have reached out to Ivy Bean and get her set up on Twitter. With her permission, we also publicized her accomplishment to encourage other older people to get online.

There’s a new Star Trek movie coming out today and it got me thinking – what has Star Trek contributed to the modern-day universe? Could it be possible we owe some modern day conveniences to this long-running series of fictional TV shows and movies?

Star Trek is set to release today and I couldn’t be more excited! Sure, I’m thrilled that the new movie is coming out soon, but what’s even more exciting is all the fancy merchandise that gets released to help promote the movie itself. You’ll see tons of blogs about the movie itself, but I think I’ll change things up a bit by focusing on all the nifty gizmos that would make any Trekkie jump for joy.

It’s Earth Day. In observance, here are a couple quick tips on being more environmentally friendly.

As we mentioned previously, the Conficker worm made news headlines upon the discovery that the C variant of the worm would start seeking updates to its malicious instructions on April 1st. While the world feared the worst, the day came and went with little visible activity.

Steve, we’re going to miss you.

This Saturday at 8:30 pm (your local time) marks Earth Hour. For those not in the know, Earth Hour is a World Wildlife Foundation event that originated in Sydney in 2007, promoting energy conservation. People, cities and organizations come together to power off as many electronics as possible for one whole hour. If you want to learn more about Earth Hour, you can visit their official Web site here.

If you’ve been following Dancing with the Stars, you already know that our geek hero, Steve Wozniak, survived another week of eliminations. The real news is that Woz did so with the lowest judge’s score (10) on the show since season 2.

At our top secret Geek Squad research labs, located deep inside the cone of a dormant volcano in Minneapolis (whoops, I just let the secret out), we’ve been working on new ways to better serve our clients. One ongoing project involves the combination of teleportation devices and time machines, so our on-site Agents can not only be anywhere there’s a computer emergency, they can be there BEFORE you need them.

Geeks and sports don’t normally mix together. However, according to a recent USA Today’s Technology Live blog, sports fans and geeks alike are being targeted in a new SEO/malware scheme. Sports fans searching Google for “March Madness” related sites could have troubles ahead.

Tonight’s the night. The first Dancing with the Stars results show of the season. Geeks everywhere are holding their breath to see if Steve Wozniak and dance partner Karina Smirnoff will be the first couple sent home.

For the past few weeks, there has been a marked increase of scareware-malware (virus and spyware) infections. After speaking with multiple clients recently infected, it seems the latest infection is quite easy to fall for.

My mom absolutely loves the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars. So I had to call her up as soon as I heard that Steve Wozniak would be competing alongside Karina Smirnoff in the next series of competition, which starts today. Of course, her first reaction to this was, “Who?”

It’s not really a surprise to me that Steve Wozniak isn’t a household name like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Yet “The Woz” (as he’s known in the geek community) is every bit as important to the early history of personal computers as those two.

Woz’s story is every bit as colorful as his personality. It starts with a young engineer who worked for Hewlett-Packard in the early 70s, who involved himself with side projects like running a successful dial-a-joke service. His real claim to fame: when he joined with his friend Steve Jobs to create the original Apple I computer.

The early success of the Apple I allowed Wozniak to leave HP and co-found Apple Computer with Jobs in 1976. The release of the Apple II in 1976 helped to cement both Apple’s success, as well as that of the personal computer revolution that’s changed so much of our world since then.

The Apple II also marked the end of an era, as it was one of the last personal computers to be designed solely by one individual, without the aid of an entire team of engineers required by the complex designs of today’s technology.

Wozniak’s story doesn’t just begin and end with computer engineering. He’s also known for being a member of a Segway Polo team called the Silicon Valley Aftershocks, as well as having dated comedian Kathy Griffin for a time. However, it’s really Woz’s giving nature that has endeared him to his geek fans.

Here at Geek Squad, our mission is to provide hero support, and really, in every sense of the word, Steve Wozniak is a geek hero. That’s why I plan on rooting for Woz every step, shuffle and slide of the way during his time on Dancing with the Stars. If you plan on rooting too, check out our Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/GeeksforWoz. And definitely put #votewoz in your Tweets if you plan on Tweeting live to the show tonight.

And if you don’t know what Twitter is, and want to get started, check out our Two Minute Miracle video below:

The weather is getting warmer and the days longer as Spring approaches, which also means that Daylight Saving Time is nearly upon us. In fact, the DST changeover is coming this Sunday, March 8th at 2:00 am. For most people, this means a trip throughout the house, hunting down every piece of electronics with a clock.

Facebook, the popular online social networking Web site, recently announced plans to allow users to help guide the company’s future policy changes. This move no doubt stemmed from the backlash of recent terms of service changes that implied Facebook could claim ownership of all member-generated content—even if members deleted their accounts.

April 15th is rapidly coming! No, I’m not talking about the anniversary of the Titanic sinking—I’m talking about the yearly deadline to hand over our tax documents to Uncle Sam. So, without further ado, here are a few online filing tools.

Have you ever had the sudden urge to do something you were specifically told not to do? Well, this exact scenario played out thru the web via Twitter’s weblog service last week. Here’s what Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, said about it on the official Twitter blog.

It can be a frustrating work day in this fast-paced, always-on, Internet-ready world when a key piece of technology fails. Especially when that technology is your email server. But imagine how much more stressful it is when your email address ends in “whitehouse.gov”

I experienced one of the worst feelings a computer owner can have last week. I sat down in front of my main computer and powered the system on. Like most people, I never really pay attention to the boot up process and involve myself with other things until I hear those familiar Microsoft Windows startup chimes. Except this time, there were no chimes. And no familiar Windows desktop waiting for me. Instead, I had a screen with white text informing me that my system could not find a startup disk. “Uh-oh,” I thought, “that’s not good.” I discovered that my Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1 terabyte hard drive was no longer being detected by the system.

If you are one of the many who suddenly found their PS2 keyboard and mouse stopped working after downloading from Optional Updates an IdeaCom HID PS/2 Touchscreen driver for Windows XP or Vista, you may think different.

A Microsoft operating system vulnerability has led to the worm infection of 1.1 million computers in a 24 hour period. This figure, which is a remarkable rise in infection rates given the time frame, brings the total estimate of world-wide infections up to the 3.5 million mark.

Wednesday night I attended a fancy soiree at Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), celebrating the launch of Make Television.