A new strain of ransomware, a Petya-esque variant being called Petya/NotPetya, is swiftly spreading across the globe, impacting tens of thousands of computers as of press time last week.

More powerful, professional and dangerous than last month’s WanaCrypt0r attack, the Petya-esque ransomware uses the same EternalBlue exploit to target vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s operating system. However, unlike WanaCrypt0r, this ransomware instructs you to reboot your computer and then locks up your entire system. Long story short: if you get this infection, you’re hosed. It’s important for Windows 10 users to update your software NOW and to purchase Malwarebytes Professional. The free Malwarebytes won’t protect you.

Every once in awhile, I take a trip to the App Store to see what’s new, and I found a really cool app called HOLO that places a dog or anything else in your video clip. I tried it out and was blown away with the effects. I placed a big white furry dog on the edge of my swimming pool that started dancing. I sent it to my daughter; she thought, “Oh no – we now have 11 dogs?” Try it out and have some fun with it.

I hate putting a new phone number in my Contact App because it just gets loaded up, and when I wanna search for a number, I have to scroll up or down and it takes all day long. So I use the Calendar App to store people’s business numbers, and I can even add comments and insert a photo of them.

The Calendar App has a search box that’s invaluable. Here’s how it works. After a phone call ends, reopen up your Phone App, go to RECENTS, and next to your last phone call, click on the blue circle with the “I” in it. When the number shows up in black letters, just hold down your finger on it until the word COPY shows up, then click on COPY. Now open up your Calendar App and tap on the red + sign at the top right. In the TITLE box, you can put in the person’s name and hit return. Then press down on the location box, click on PASTE and that phone number is now pasted on that line. Click on DONE. You can scroll down to Notes, add more information, then click on ADD again. If you need to call that person, just open up the Calendar App – you’ll see the phone number in red, and by pressing on it, your phone will call that person.

News today said that Apple will eventually replace the iPhone with Apple Glasses, which we might see in the spring of 2020 selling at $1,300.

Get this… Amazon’s Prime Video is coming to Apple TV soon. This move would allow Prime subscribers to access the thousands of movies and shows. It’s now a fight between Netflix and Amazon, which has over 100 million viewers. I just subscribed to Prime, so I’m excited about it.

Here is a cool thing that you can do with the Photo App: open it up, click on Memories, then click on BEST OF LAST 4 WEEKS. Get ready for a surprise!

If you haven’t set up Apple Pay, you’re missing out on fast checkouts. I set it up and went into Walgreens to buy some Right Guard spray after someone told me I needed it. I took out my iPhone, placed it above the credit card machine and it instantly showed an Apple Pay screen – that was it. Then I went over to Starbucks to celebrate and paid for my hot nonfat low-calorie sugarless coconut-flavored almond milk latt with my iPhone.

Send your computer-related questions to mauimist8669@yahoo.com.