Mobile Malware Manifesto

Posted: November 28, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Apple, Hackers, iPhone, Microsoft | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Today’s smart phones are some of the greatest technologies ever made.  You have the ability to do almost everything from your phone that you can do from your laptop, PC or even Mac.  I like to tell people that having a smart phone is as close to having an even more portable laptop in the palm of your hand as you can get.  There is so much you can do from sending emails to watching security cameras at your business to keeping up with your favorite blog, which of course, is Tech Corner.  Then there is the flip side of having a smart phone: Keeping it safe from mobile malware.

Some people are shocked to learn that your phone can become infected, just like your computer.  In much the same way you get the evils of the internet on your home or business machine, your phone can catch the nasties as well.  The first time malware appeared on a phone was in June 2004 and it has been growing ever since.  I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t know if I like this guy, Bo.  He always has something scary to say”.  Don’t worry, though! I have more.  Mobile malware can infect you from emails, websites, downloads, unsecured public WiFi connections, and Bluetooth. You read that correctly.  Most of us have our Bluetooth turned on all the time and if your phone is infected and the infection is programmed to do so, then it can travel across the connection and attach itself to other phones.  Many of us use our phones to check bank accounts, log on to Facebook, Twitter, send and receive email, and do the everyday tasks that require us to sit in front of a computer and this malicious software can log every bit of it and use all of our data.

If you’re asking yourself, “why do people create these stupid things for?!”, then I’ll try to answer that for you.  I have seen infections do harmless acts such as; opening and closing your DVD/CD drive, to just sitting there saying, “boo! I’m a virus”.  Then there are the infections that can be destructive.  One infection I have seen literally burnt the insides of a laptop up. I wouldn’t think that anyone would program something as bad and malicious as that for your phone though.  That would be a waste of time to the professional smart phone malware and virus programmers.  The majority of infections have one purpose and that is to grab your data and send it back to its master, who will then use it for his own purpose: the all mighty dollar.  That’s the point of most infections; to try and make its master money. With the creation of smart phones it may be harder for the John Hackers to program their malicious gophers but our data is quite a bit more accessible to them and with all of us switching to and playing with these devices like Howie Mandel going through Germ-X, there is an over abundance of information for them to grab.

Please try your best to download your apps from the Apple App Store or the Android Market Place. If you download from a third party app location your chances of getting the smart phone equivalent of SARS or the Bird Flu increase. People are starting to discover what is known as key loggers in many alternate keyboard apps you can download. A key logger is an infection that will record every time you touch a key on the keyboard and send it back for its master’s use. Which, many of the newest smart phone infections are coming out China so be on more constant vigil. At the same time we have our own malicious people creating and distributing this junk. And these people are innovative. You may not see many smart phone charging kiosks around but they exist and the John Hackers of the world are utilizing them for their own gain. It’s called Juice Jacking and it involves using these charging kiosks. When you plug up your data could be copied, taken off and stored on a flash drive or hard drive for John Hacker to use. In the same instance your data is being stolen an infection could be loaded up to your phone.

With the coming of all these fantastic technologies and awesome innovations are the people who are going to take advantage of and manipulate them. More so with the Windows 7 phones and the Android based phones. The operating systems on these two phones are easier for John Hacker to take advantage of because the code written to make them work can be seen by anyone who is inclined to. When it comes to Apple it takes an act of God to see how any of their technology works until after it’s released. Then you have to be in the “in crowed” to see any of their code written to make the devices function.  It isn’t impossible to infect your iPhone but much less likely. Never fear though, when it comes to smart phone infections there’s an app for that.  Just go to the location where you download your apps and do a search for an anti virus and/or malware scanner.  Be sure to read the user comments and ratings before you install anything.

50GB of Free Online Storage FOR LIFE!!! Exclusively for iDevice Owners!

Posted: November 12, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Apple, Business, Cloud Storage, Freebies, iOS5, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Productivity, Tech Tips, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Box.Net is offering free lifetime 50GB accounts to anyone who uses an iDevice (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, etc.)

According to a post from the Box.Net Blog, this offer started in October and is good through December 2nd. While Box.Net will install, and share, across all of your systems, it will need to be installed from your iOS device in order to receive the free 50GB storage upgrade – instead of usual 5GB. Additionally, Box.Net is will give you a substantially beefed up increase in the upload file size limits (100MB versus the typical 25MB).

Does it seem too good to be true? I thought it did, so I installed the app on my iPhone, created an account and BAM! 50GB of “lifetime” storage just like that! Some might say that is the best since Wayne Newton’s Phenomenal Hit Bombshell ‘Donke Schoen’!! Which would be totally absurd, everybody knows ain’t anything more awesome than the Midnight Idol!!! I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that and move on…

The following is a snippet from the Box.Net Blog post with the steps to take in order to get this new free mega Cloud account.

This promotion only runs for the next 22 days, so get your free space in the cloud by following these steps:

Visit the app store and download the Box app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

Log in to your account or register for a new one directly from the app

Start sharing and collaborating in the cloud

While I still prefer Dropbox and Sugar Sync (I’ll get to that in a sec); 50GB of lifetime storage and 100MB in file upload size is enough to certainly perk y attention. What’s more, the updated Box.Net version 2.4.3 allows you to wirelessly stream any of your videos, pictures, presentations, music and whatever you may have stored to an Apple TV, via AirPlay.

Wait…What’s that? You want to know why 50GB of free lifetime storage is important to you?! Seriously?!?! …uhhmm…..be…cause….it’s 50GB maybe? Just taking a shot in the dark….I kid…I…kid, of course I will help you out. Have I ever let you down before? Well…maybe you shouldn’t answer that…anyway, let Ray Ray see if he can break this down for you (sorry…no more 3rd person references and no more “Ray Ray”. Promise!)

Most important, in my humble opinion, would be that this offer from Box.Net provides the iDevice user with enough storage space to employ a totally free off-site archiving solution for your most important and/or irreplaceable files for life!

So what can you do with 50 GBs of space?

This will allow you to backup all those precious family photos and other important files to the cloud, thus, giving you a solution with security and redundancy. Basically redundancy ensures your invaluable memories will remain safe and secure; despite a hard drive crash, a critical system failure, or even; Heaven forbid, your home along with all of your possessions catching fire taking away years of collected personal effects in mere minutes. While the latter is an extreme illustration – one I hope never becomes a reality for any of you. Nevertheless, those family photos, and other significant documents would remain unscathed right where you left them. Maybe it’s just me, but I reason that alone is a rather important reason.

Another way to approach what to do with 50GB of free space is from a cost savings perspective.  You can keep your money; thus, giving you online storage for music, movies, system recovery images of your machine, or to simply have more room to store that malware you continue to get for winning your 5th iPad this week; wow you must be the luckiest person alive!!! The point is who cares what you do with it?! It’s a substantial amount of online storage you never have to pay for. Let’s take a peek at what that much storage would set you back:

50 GB of storage with iCloud would run you approximately $100 per year.

Dropbox would hit you for $10 per month (or $120 year)

Sugar Sync has a 60GB option for $100 per year or 30GB @ $50 per year (I don’t know what they have against nice round numbers either…)

There is one company that offers something very different from the others, and that is Carbonite; who offers Unlimited at $60 per year with a continuously running real time backup of your system

Free is nice and all, but to be completely honest with you, the only reason I even gave Box.Net a second glance was solely for this offer. Make no mistake; I’m a Dropbox kind of guy, and after that Sugar Sync. Most assuredly, Box.Net only lives beside these two, because they brought some cool stuff to the party. Let’s take a look at why that is…

Box.Net vs. Dropbox

We must try to avoid looking at Box from this perspective, as it is not even a close. If Box.Net vs. Dropbox was a boxing match in Rocky IV, it would have to be the Drago vs. Apollo Creed beat down. We would see Dropbox as (Dolph “He-Man” Lungren, a.k.a. “Drago”), walk straight to the ring and stand there waiting. Next, we hear the music, and look up to see the fireworks with Box.Net as (Carl “I was Chubs” Weathers a.k.a.: Apollo Creed”) Dancing around like his milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, or something. Box comes prancing up the aisle throwing 50 GB free storage to everyone. You could say that Box.Net can stack it up, flip it and reverse it, when it comes to intros. Alas, we all know what happens after that to poor ole’ Chubs. If you do not know what I’m talking about you might as go eat a bowl of hair and YouTube it.

That’s precisely the point I want to make here; it is very easy to be dazzled by Box.Net during that impressive entrance. Throwing around 50GG of storage around like a true gangsta who can make it rain; which is fine with me go get your storage, I know I did. I just urge you not to go deleting Dropbox (or SugarSync) during the parade. I just ask that you wait and see if Box.Net can get in the ring and fight as good as pop and lock down the aisle on the way to fight. If you’ll wait that long you see that when the bell rings BLLAAMMM…Box.Net gets broke down.

Box.Net AND Dropbox

This is the reason I mentioned earlier that it is a very unfortunate mistake to pit these two against each other. When the bell rings you’ll be disappointed, as you watch Box.Net get broke down and folded by Dropbox. Thus making you miss out on a sweet file management setup. It’s not that Box.Net is an inferior service; it’s just not designed with the same features that are what makes the Dropbox solid. If we instead look at these two as offering us entirely separate uses; well now we’re getting somewhere!

They both have something to offer that the other doesn’t. Box.Net is offering you 50GBs of free storage for life, and I can confidentially assure you that you are not going to get this offer from Dropbox. They will give you 2GB free, and give you an opportunity to earn a little more by viewing the tutorial and sharing with your friends. Conversely, Box.Net does not install a folder on your PC that gives you the ability to drop files into auto sync with all of your devices, the way Dropbox does. Dropbox is also much easier to navigate and MUCH more flexible. This is why Dropbox doesn’t offer the 50GBs of free space; they don’t need to. Finally, while both offer collaboration options, I would give the edge to Box.

Box.Net has certainly not overtaken Dropbox or SugarSync in my opinion; although this offer from Box.Net did get me to use their product. Even though I have passed on them many times in the past, I do see the benefit in this much free storage. How you this extra space is up to you. I plan to continue using Dropbox as my main file manager (work, blogs, etc.), and use Box.Net as an offsite archive to store as many of my pictures, music, and other important files that I can get in there. Do you have an interesting way you intend to use these services? I would love to hear you come up with. Drop us a line in the comments section or hit Tech Corner up of Twitter.

Hidden Features in iOS5 You Didn’t Know You Had

Posted: November 4, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Apple, iOS5, Tech Tips | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

 

Yep, you heard that right; there are some pretty well hidden features in iOS5 that I’ll bet you had no idea was there. What do you mean? Why didn’t you know? I just told you….they’re hidden…I kid…I kid…These “Easter Eggs” were not advertised by Apple for whatever reason. Nor do  I recall ever seeing them listed in Apple’s “What’s new in iOS5?” list. Regardless that’s not important now, because they have been found and I present them to Tech Corner in order to share them with you.

It certainly appears that iOS5 has been full of surprises; however, despite the frustration caused by the upgrade it was received very well. Within iOS5’s 200+ enhancements there were many features we knew about long before the release. We were all aware of iMessage, iCloud, the Native Twitter app – one of my personal favorites, and the loaded Camera enhancements. The new features that came bundled in iOS5 were copious without a doubt; however there were a few that you likely had no idea existed. It looks as if in order to keep the iOS5 party train chugging’ along your iEncounter; Apple stashed a few Easter eggs in our devices and did so in true – and secretive – Apple fashion no less. I want to clarify a point right out of the gate. Before we dig into these hidden features, please, be aware that some of these “Easter Eggs” are incompatible with the older, pre-iPhone 4 devices.

That being said let’s go see what the Apple bunny put in our iBaskets. Last one in is a rotten….oh…umm…nevermind…

EGG #1 ASSISTIVE TOUCH

I actually stumbled across this little jewel last night while stepping my mother-in-law, over the phone, through the settings in her new iPhone. We were getting ready to wrap up the general settings when I discovered the first egg. It was a feature that, up until that point, I had never even heard of before. I wasn’t real surprised considering it was a setting I hadn’t looked into since I first got my iPhone. That is until last night, of course, as I was going through the features with her. Assistive Touch lets you tilt and move your device, or touch for specific commands. This helps to keep your fingers off of your devices’ screen as much as possible. There are several different motions available to you in order to assign to specific functions; for instance, shaking your iPhone to lock it.

Here is how: Go to Settings>General>Accessibility and at the bottom of the screen you should see “Assistive Touch.” Switch the toggle on and an icon will appear in the lower right hand corner of the screen that has options for up to four finger gestures, whose operation is up to you. There is also an option for “device” that will create commands for your phone; however, the coolest feature, by far,  offered here is the ability to “create a gesture”. This is where you can you’re your gesture on the screen, hit stop and save; which will save to your favorites. When selected it will carry out your saved gesture; and while, I’m at not exactly sure of its intended use whatever it is seems pretty cool to mess with.

EGG #2 CREATE CUSTOM LED FLASHES AND VIBRATIONS

What if I were to tell you, that you could create a signaling system that was very discreet? Let’s face it,  buying and making ringtones is just…well…getting old. This feature is pretty sweet, as it allows you to design a noiseless, custom notification for specific contacts. For a personalized vibration….now you stop that….you outta be ashamed of your self…..what’s that?….no I don’t think she would’ve said that at all……we digress….ahem….What I was trying to say is….I’m watching you buddy….that to setup a personal vibration, go to Contacts and choose one of them. Now press edit and you should see vibration. All you have to do now is select “create new vibration” and start tapping to create the rhythm you like. Just be careful…I’ve  heard the rhythm can apparently get you….that was bad…I apologize for that one… Moving on…

If you would rather have flashing LED alerts, then go into your General Settings> Accessibility. This is where you should find “LED Flash for Alerts” flip that on, and the next time your phone is in silent mode, you will get blinking notifications instead.

“EGG #3 USE YOUR EARBUDS TO SNAP PICTURES

The new Camera features are one of the most notable updates rolled into iOS5. While iPhone 4 and 4S users are really going to dig these, unfortunately our 3 series friends will have to ride this one out. The iOS5 update brought us cool camera features such as, having the ability to use the volume up button to take pictures. If that wasn’t enough we also have the ability to access the camera from the lock screen. And, if you still aren’t impressed, how about you just refrain from touching your iPhone all together and  snap your pics using the volume up button on your earbuds. Yeah, I thought you might start to come around.

EGG #4 ALTERNATE ROUTES IN MAPS

I am a little mind boggled about this one; not that its bad, IT’s GREAT! I just can’t rap my head around how or why Apple kept so quiet about such an integral update! I can’t believe they didn’t draw attention to this one. Heck. you don’t even need to toggle anything, it’s just waiting for you. This is a feature users have been wanting for years. This was what made the native maps feature suck so bad to begin with; there were no alternative  route choices.  Now, all you do is load up your map when looking up directions, and notice the options labeled “Route 2” and “Route 3”; assuming there is one, will simply hover right there over the map…And Finally,

 

EGG #5 DIDN’T THEY SAY IOS5 MADE THE NEWSSTAND IMPOSSIBLE TO HIDE? WELL..GUESS THEY WERE MISTAKEN

While It does seem to be the case, there is one trick that will do this. However, it is really buggy and unstable. NOTE: Before you decide on whether or not to do this,  you need to be aware that the Newsstand WILL BE UNUSABLE AND WILL CRASH YOUR DEVICE EVERY TIME YOU TRY GO OPEN IT! As long as you are aware of the consequences. Proceed if you so choose,

All you have to do is pull two apps together and make a folder. While the folder you created is still hanging out there in nothingness grab the Newsstand as fast as you can and drag it over into that folder.

Well there you have it, the 5 features you probably didn’t know existed in iOS5, and if you did know then you should probably start yourself a blog there sugar britches. Were these features ninja’d in on purpose or did we just not pay attention. We don’t know and that’s how the Apple likes it. Well that’s it till next time, keep it saucy…