Spoke briefly about Fraud Week and how Aussies were scammed out of the best part of $70 million last year – let's try and make it a lot less this year by being more aware and using common sense. If somebody is offering you a deal that is too good to be true, there is a high probability that it is.

Had a few calls this morning on varied subjects. George was looking at buying an iPhone or a Nokia, but had heard that there could be reception problems with the iPhone. I use an iPhone and have never had an issues in that regard, but I suggest you get your current phone and put it next to an iPhone and check out how many reception bars each has as a gauge.

Max asked if there was a way to clean your DVD player similar to a VHS recorder. I think the best way would be to go into your local DVD reseller to do it for you. You can also buy off-the-shelf cleaners, but the laser in the DVD player can be more sensitive than the rollers of a VHS player. The down side is, if you use the store's service, it could be pricey.

Brendan is thinking of buying a new laptop. He currently has the best of both worlds with a PC and iMac at home. He brought up an interesting point in that he has no security software on his Mac because he's never been targetted. First, I would suggest he get some sort of security software, but there is a reason why he hasn't been on the virus hit list – so far. When these selfish, lazy spammers develop netbots, malware, etc, they make them for the platform that gives them the most chances of getting hits – and as we know, the biggest selling computers are PCs. However, recently, this has begun to change, and we are seeing more scams aimed at Apple products, so Mac-lovers beware!

Finally, Caesar questioned me about the iPad, and what it's true functionality would be. It will be capable of printing, but it really it's a multimedia device as opposed to a PC. You will be able to do interactive things with it, but is missing a DVD drive and it is not seen by Apple as a replacement for your desktop or laptop. It will be coming out in about April, but be aware that some of the big players – HP, Toshiba and Lenovo – will be bringing out similar devices in the near future because they don't want Apple to get the advantage it had when the iPhone came out. Watch this space!