Hello TSP Hosting Customers,

This morning, our spam filter was not functioning between the hours of 3AM and 5AM ET (8AM and 10AM GMT) due to a failed update on the spam filter plugins. During this time, all spam may have been delivered to your users without being filtered. Currently, the filters are operating but at a lower level of effectiveness and you may see a short period of spam coming through again as we address this issue this morning.

We expect to address this issue shortly and get the spam filters back up to the full level of effectiveness.

No emails should be missing - all emails should have been sent and received per usual. If you're having any issues, you can always check our hosting status line for latest updates: 617-778-1225 or contact our Hosting support at 617-267-9716 or hosting@techsuperpowers.com.

A few weeks ago, we were faced with a tough decision: We had found a great, new spot for our Boston HQ at 29 Stanhope Street, but moving immediately meant paying for our old space at 252 Newbury Street at the same time as our new office.

However, not moving meant putting our new business strategy of solely focusing on Apple business and VIP customers on hold for a couple months. We determined that a pivot of our business now was best - there's no point in putting the future on hold.

So that left the question: What should we do with our old space? In the "normal" business world, our choice was one of two things: (a) find someone to sublet the space for a couple months at full rate or (b) pay a real estate agent to get someone into the space (which would cost us at least a month of rent). In true Tech Superpowers fashion, we chose to do neither.

Flashback targets a Java vulnerability on Mac OS X. The first variant of Flashback was discovered by antivirus company Intego in September 2011.

According to the Russian antivirus company Dr. Web, a modified version of the "BackDoor.Flashback.39" variant of the Flashback trojan had gone on to infect over 600,000 Mac computers. These findings were quickly confirmed by another security firm.

Over the past couple of months, we received a number of inquiries from clients about MacKeeper 2012, so we did some digging.

When it first launched, ZeoBIT's MacKeeper gained some very positive reviews of its all-in-one suite of file maintenance tools. It seemed like incredible value for money ($40) when you considered its anti-theft and space-reduction features and the service-based Geek On Demand which claimed to offer comprehensive technical support for their software and any Mac-related questions you may have.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well that may be the case.

M. Steinert & Sons is New England’s preeminent piano dealer, serving the region’s music community with a blend of high quality instruments and exceptional personal service since 1860. They are the region’s exclusive representative for Steinway & Sons, universally acknowledged as the world’s finest pianos.

Recently we got an email from Jerome Murphy, Treasurer at M. Steinert & Sons, who had hit a wall whilst working with a prominent Boston hospital to install a baby grand piano, along with a unique automated player system called PianoDisc iQ.

It promised to be a high-profile installation in the lobby of the hospital which utilizes iTunes and the PianoDisc iQ system to play live music on a real Boston piano (designed by Steinway) - without a player - instead of piping in canned pre-recorded music.

Sami Kafal is the son of Abdul Kafal, winner of the Our Grand Opening 1st prize of a free trip to MacWorld 2012, courtesy of MacWorld organizers IDGWorldExpo and Tech Superpowers. Sami, Abdul, and the entire Kafal family made the trek this January to San Francisco and got to experience the excitement of MacWorld/iWorld for the first time. In Sami's own words, here's what his journey to MacWorld - and San Francisco - meant to him:

At TSP we understand that you probably won’t have time to read all of the various Lion ‘tips and tricks’ on the internet when you first get set up. It takes time to familiarize yourself with a new operating system, so we’ve compiled the very essence of what you need to get going. Call it a ‘cheat sheet’ to get you through the basics.

An Introduction to Lion

OS X is built on a rock-solid UNIX foundation and is specifically engineered to take full advantage of the technologies in every new Mac with a seamless and integrated experience for the user.

But why is Lion better than previous incarnations? Using advanced technologies, incredible performance is delivered to you in a way that is simple and intuitive. Lion introduces a whole new way of interacting with your computer with Multi-Touch gestures, just like your iOS device.

It's hard for me to remember what year it was, but I must have been around 10 years old, when my dad brought home our first Macintosh - the Mac 512K or "Fat Mac" as it was called. We were already an Apple household, having an Apple IIe which my brother and I used from the very beginning of memory. But the Mac was different and incredible – and in my case, life changing.

Intel's new Thunderbolt I/O technology has been crashing through Apple's product line like a… well, you know. The promise of 10-gigabit/second data transfer speeds has creative pros shakin' in their sleek, well-aligned boots. However, at this writing, only one Thunderbolt storage product has shipped: Promise's Pegasus RAID, a 4-drive array that starts at a cool $999. It's wicked fast, but at 15 pounds it's not exactly portable...

This is the new ToughTech Duo QR from CRU-DataPort.

But the good news is that for now, you can avoid it.

The current Mac malware you may have heard about is called MacDefender (alternative names include MacProtector and MacSecurity). They pose themselves as anti-virus software, but are really rooting for credit card and personal information.