QR Codes Expanding Into Emergency Services

Another usage of QR Codes emerges with medical information

 
QR Codes have been seeing a growing usage over the past year as they have expanded from some of the beginnings for them. We have seen the expected usage in stores where someone scans a QR Code and they are taken to a mobile web site where they are given some coupon discount or other valuable information. That was seen as having the most promise for QR Codes and their interaction with mobile customers. As we have seen this year, they are expanding to many other options, some rather strange, but none the less expanding. We have seen QR codes used on grave markers so that people could get more information about the person who is buried there. So, what other usages can there be for QR Codes?

With new ideas popping up, a new one involving Emergency Services has shown up recently and is being undertaken in Northern California. Just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, a Pilot Program with a Silicon Valley start called Lifesquare is underway and QR Codes are at the heart of the 1 year program. The goal is to get residents to put their information into a web site which would include personal and medical information. The process starts by picking up Lifesquare stickers at the CVS pharmacy in Marin County which gives them a unique QR Code. They would then enter their information on the web site and when an emergency responder sees the QR Code for Lifesquare, they could scan the code and immediately get all the relevant information about the patient.

Lifesquare is providing 50 iPhones to responders to use for this purpose, which is expected to go live by the end of the year if everything gets set up correctly and tests prove how valuable it will be. Between now and then, they are facing a number of challenges for the pilot program. The biggest hurdle is getting a sufficient number of people signed up through the program and getting them to enter all their medical information. That is going to be a challenge at best because of the primary age group they may be dealing with. Those over 50 are often not as comfortable using technology as those under 50 and thus the challenge. Privacy concerns are another challenge they are going to have to deal with as those over 50 are not as trusting of technology when sharing personal and medical information.

If they are able to overcome those issues, there becomes an even bigger one where keeping the information current and updated will be critical to the emergency responders. Without up to date information, they may take actions which are not the correct ones. The key to this program is going to be doctors and hospitals keeping the information up to date for their patients so first responders know they have all the necessary information. With that in place, this pilot program could lay the ground work for rolling this out on a much broader scale. This kind of a program will provide first responders with information very quickly after scanning a QR Code rather than playing 50 questions with the patient or family members. Time is of the essence in these kinds of situations.

If Lifesquare can get all the avenues of communication working effectively and participation by a large enough group of people, they will have the potential for a very valid study which will have broad implications. Just how willing different age groups are to participate in this kind of a study is the obvious first question to be answered out of it. There are many others which will help gauge the effectiveness of using QR Codes as a method to assist first responders. It will be some time in 2014 before there are any meaningful results from this which can indicate the viability of such a program.

With this pilot project, you start to see that QR Codes can be expanded to far more if you just use your imagination.

Small Business Needs To Look Beyond Print Media

Decline of print advertising requires other options

 
There are changes ahead which small businesses must pay attention to in order to keep up with a changing market. The communication methods of the past are not the ones that a small business owner should be focusing on in the future. While they will be around for a while, they will eventually fade out as newer technologies replace them. That does not necessarily mean that the newer technologies are better, but just changed. There are many signs of the coming changes and these should be obvious to everyone.

We have been observing a shift for years away from print media to electronic. While some seem to transition themselves others do not. Take for example the Yellow Pages which have seen declining revenue for years. Some cities are now requiring them to only be delivered to households which specifically request a printed version. Since there is always going to be an electronic version of the Yellow Pages, it can continue to be considered as a way to communicate your business.

One of the ways to share information about your business was newspapers from 20 years ago. But that is becoming a dying art and is slowly being reduced as a way to get the word out about your business. Small home town newspapers are becoming a thing of the past because of rising costs and dwindling readership. Consolidation of newspapers large and small as been going on for the last 20 years and probably longer. Costs associated with printing and delivery of printed media are forcing a change in the industry to try and stay alive. One of those changes has been the attempt at using paywalls as a way to prop up dying revenue from printed copies. The electronic versions of printed newspapers has not been going as well as expected because there are too many other free sources for news.

Even many of the larger newspapers provide their electronic version for free, so attempting to change to a paywall will drive people away. So, what are you as a small business owner to do when the historical methods you have used in the past no longer are working? Even the US Post Office is looking to down size because of slowing mail delivery revenues. By now, you should have been thinking about other methods to get the word about your business or products. Just reading this articles shows that you are aware of how technology is shaping the future. There are a number of things which you can do and here are a few.

Social Media - With the huge popularity of Facebook, you now have the ability to use Facebook Brand pages to promote your product. The whole idea of Facebook is to create a following of your brand and with that there is a sense of loyalty to those who may be following you. These can be used by both small and large business alike. Even with the recent Facebook Timeline changes, you can leverage them to promote your business. There are many methods and strategies described to leverage Facebook for your small business. And Facebook is not the only Social Media game in town. Google+ is another one of the avenues out there to be explored.

Google Places - Here is another opportunity for you to explore as a way to drive traffic and people to your location. There is even a Google Places for Business which you can take a look at. With this, your business will show up on local searches and puts you in the public's eye. Take a look at the link for a slide show presentation on this topic.

QR Codes - Another option for some small businesses is the idea of utilizing QR Codes in the promotion of your product is a possibility if it fits. Not all businesses can leverage the growing popularity of these little square boxes. If you are not familiar with them, here is a QR Codes for Small Business 101 article to help you. These should be part of your Mobile Marketing Strategy going forward. At the link, there is a white paper which can help you understand the move towards mobile. With the fast growth of smart phones, this is another opportunity you should be considering.

As you can see, there are a number of technology related areas where you can promote your business outside of trying to use AdWords advertising. The future is going to be ever changing and you need to leverage both the past and the future to grow your small business.

Is Your Wordpress Site Prepared For Mobile Users?

Desktop browsers are not the only place to display your site

 
The desktop used to be the only thing that mattered and up until a few says ago, that seemed to still be true. But with the recent proliferation of tablets and smart phones, the whole environment has altered and mobile must be part of your considerations for the future. If you do not look at mobile, you will be missing out on a growing segment of the market. And that segment is growing quickly and will continue to do so, especially with the improving smart phones which we are seeing this year. And they are only going to be getting better. The question is what have you done with your Wordpress site to prepare for the the coming mobile wave?

On some of my sites over the past few years, I have been using Wapple Architect which I have been very happy with under various sites. It has served me well and displays sites very nicely on a smart phone. It is very easy to set up and use, so there was no excuse to not have it on my sites to take advantage of. While I have used this Wordpress plugin, I am always open to considering other options for getting a mobile displayed web site. But, here at TechieDiy, we have found another one we are using for this site and it meets out needs very nicely.

In looking around, we here at TechieDIY have moved to WP Mobile Director as a different option for handling our mobile traffic through the same web site as our normal web site. As with other plugins, it detects the device, whether a computer or a mobile device. If it is a mobile device, it determines whether it is a smart phone or just a normal cell phone and handles it accordingly. There is both a free version and a paid version of the product available with the paid version providing advertising support. You should take a look at WP Mobile Director to see whether it will fit the needs that you have for handle mobile devices on your site.

These two are not the only ones available which can provide you with a mobile display from your Wordpress site. One of the popular ones is Wordpress Mobile Pack which many are using for their sites. This one provides a complete package to help you with your site and the ability to display varying displays and as with all of these, the ability to switch between the mobile or desktop version on a mobile device.

Another Wordpress plugin is MobilePress which has similar features as other leading plugins to render your browser based site on a mobile device. There are the expected capabilities for advertising as well. There are many other Wordpress plugins available for your Wordpress site where you want to display to a standard browser and to a mobile device. If you only want to have a mobile site, there are a number of mobile themes available for your to take advantage of.

For the world of mobile, it is important that you look at this now. With the changes to how mobile devices are working, in particularly the recent and coming smart phones, it is important to realize this shift in technology. With Siri from Apple, it has forever changed search options from purely text based to now voiced based. Now, with S Voice from Samsung and coming on their Galaxy S3, we are seeing an expansion of the methods for searching the web and you must consider the growing traffic. Even Yahoo's Axis, which has just been announced, is changing the mobile platform to use thumbnails as a way to navigate instead of entering text.

With GPS on smart phone, the ability to return search results based on where a smart phone user is located will further alter the mobile search world. There are so many others related to search which will be changing how mobile browsing is going to evolve and it is important that you make sure you are a part of it.

Take the time now to look at your mobile strategy for your Wordpress site. As more people get smart phones, where will your business be?

Are Browser Wars Returning For Mobile?

Yahoo introduces Axis as a new mobile browser

 
We have seen browser wars for a long time ever since Microsoft went after Netscape in the 90's in a fight to see who controlled the desktop browsers. We have continued to see those wars continuing on the desktop through Chrome which has grabbed a large share of the market. They are continuing now with Yahoo adding Axis to the mix. But Axis is really an add on to desktop browser and not a true desktop browser. But, when you move to mobile devices, the browser wars are just now beginning to shape up. There is no big winner on mobile yet and the battle is in early stages right now. If you have a mobile device, you know that it is early on right now.

In the mobile browser world, desktop versions of browsers have been ported to mobile devices and there have been some which are specific to mobile. Now, it looks like things are starting to heat up and we can expect to see browser wars on mobile devices. The most recent entry is for Yahoo's Axis app for mobile devices which offers a unique view of web sites far different than the normal desktop browser interface which many are used to. It is this change which we are going to see far more of in the future.

In Yahoo's Axis app, it provides some other advantages which attempt to make things seamless. You can go from your desktop to your iPhone to your iPad and pick up where you left off on the other device. That is the future that we are headed towards where your activities move from device to device and you continue as though you never left. This will more than likely be available on Android devices in a few months and represents the way of the future for browsing.

Graphical interfaces are the future for mobile and with Yahoo's Axis, they are altering things from the text based displays we are used to on the desktop and changing things up to be a series of thumbnail pictures to help guide you in your browsing journey. That's right, your search results will be pictures instead of text. That will simplify the visual display on mobile devices for your ease of use and that is what it is all about on mobile devices.

Not to be left out, there are rumors of Facebook purchasing Opera in an effort to create their own browser. Opera already has a mobile specific browser which is very popular and performance is quite well on mobile devices. This would give Facebook a huge step up in the mobile browser wars rather than building their own. If that rumor has validity to it, Facebook will jump into the middle of the browser wars. We can expect they will take a large portion of the market share.

The question of what we can expect to see this year is up in the air. Due to so many different devices and options, it is difficult to guess where things might be headed. As an example, the browser which Amazon has created for their own browser for the Kindle Fire is a possible item. Their Silk browser may be expanded to other devices in the future and potentially could cut into the market share of other devices as a result. Whether Amazon makes a decision to expand the usage is an unknown and there is a lot of competition coming.

With mobile device growing this year, especially smart phones, we can expect to see growing competition for mobile devices.

Reddit Problems - Cannot Submit Articles

Advice on how to resolve the submit issue

 
Reddit is an excellent source for driving traffic to your site. It is one which has a large number of users and a wide variety of topics on it. It is because of the active users of Reddit that you can see a bump in traffic when you add a topic to the site. There are the usual items of getting the correct title and subrdedit associated wtih the article you are adding. One of the issues which many are reporting is that after a time, they are blocked from adding new articles to Reddit to their site. This may happen after a few adds or weeks later. When you may actually see the message if they consider you a spammer may vary. But the message you receive once they see you as a spammer is the same.

You've submitted too many links recently. Please try again in an hour.

At that point, you are not able to add a new article. I have tried to add articles at varying times, but it still would not let me add an article. I have spent time participating by adding comments to articles so that they would see me as a valid user and not a spammer. But that did not change the situation. Nothing I tried resolved the problem where I could not add a new article at all.

I have had the same experience which many have been reporting where they essentially are locked out from adding any articles and only able to add comments to existing ones. No matter what you have done, you are not able to get reddit to accept a new submission. Given the value of reddit as one you truly need, then the ability to be able to add items to direct traffic to your site is very important. Without it, you do not get the added traffic.

Since I was encountering the same issue, I have spent quite a bit of time researching the problem and what the solution is to the problem. What I have found is that it is related to how I am adding the entries for title and url. As with anything, you want to do it the easiest way possible. For me, this involved using the copy and paste features which I am familiar with.

And therein lies the problem. After all the research and testing that I did, the problem was the cut and paste that I was doing to get the items in for title and then submitting it. Reddit is trying to make sure and block those automatic submissions that it is recognizing as doing a paste into the title field. It does not know that I am an individual who is adding an article.

What I have found is that if I paste the title, reddit sees me as someone trying to automate the submit process. If I manually type the title, it sees me as a legitimate user adding an article. That is the solution for what many have been reporting. I have been testing this for the past few days and find that for my situation, this is the solution. I have been able to submit 2 articles today for reddit pointing back to my site.

That would tend to resolve the problems which I have been experiencing where I thought that my account had been block because they considered me a spammer. This may not apply to the problems which others are experiencing, but it does appear that it is an answer for many.

One of the things you must do when working with reddit is that you need to participate in the process. You cannot just be adding items no matter how you do it as you will still be considered as a spammer. When you are on reddit, participate by reading the items which others have posted and add comments. That is what the site is designed for.

While there may be other issues with adding things to reddit, this one particular item which stopped me cold in adding things, has now been resolved.

More Captcha Options For Wordpress

Increasing options for using Captcha with comments

 
In the last report, we provided information about how to deal with spam from comments and one of those options was to include Catpcha to eliminate automated comments from flooding your posts. While comments is not the only place where you might see spam being included, it is the one which we are focusing on here to provide some examples of ones you might want to consider. As with any Wordpress plugin, you want to make sure that it is part of the approved list of plugins. That will help to insure that you do not have any issues or problems with the plugin.

A new trend in Captcha is the move away from the letters in words displayed in a graphic. I admit that I have some difficulty at times with what I consider unreadable characters which I am trying to type in. This is because machine readable captcha is catching up with the original intent for it. As an example of the new way of Captcha is the idea of playing a game as part of getting validated that you are in fact a human being and not a machine adding the comment. A good example of this is AreYouHuman.com which displays varying games where you have to drag items which are moving around and place them on something else. The first one I saw was to put items related to pancakes on top of the pancakes. There was a saw included, which obviously would not work on pancakes.

This is a new trend which makes using Captcha more fun rather than straining your eyes to try and read what is there. Another one that relies on pictures is Sweet Captcha which displays 4 pictures on the left and on picture on the right. You are asked to pick one of the left hand pictures that matches what you are being told to do. You are then to drag it onto the right hand picture as part of the validation process. It makes this a much easier method of verifying that you are a human being and not a machine.

Another one that is very simplistic and very popular is simply called Captcha. It does not use pictures or images to get you to validate that you are a human. Instead, it wants to have you answer a mathematical question. You can vary between words and numbers and exactly where you have to fill in a value as shown below. This comes from BestWestSoft. As you can see, things can vary as to how they are displayed and exactly where the values can be entered. This one might be easier to crack by those desiring to add spam in your comments, but it is very simple.



While there are many others out there, I did not include any which are not currently supporting the current Wordpress version of 3.3.2. You can find others which support prior versions, but we do not recommend that you seriously consider them. You want any plugin which you might use to work within the current Wordpress version. If not, you are asking for problems with your Wordpress site.

Are there any Captcha plugins which you have seen which are part of the new easier to use method? Add them here in the comments so everyone can benefit.

Malware Problems Impacting Small Business Owners

Hackers are going after small businesses

 
In this world where small business owners are trying to build up their business, there are growing concerns about the web and how hackers are going after businesses. There are a variety of ways this is happening and it is all related to connectivity to web and all that lurks out there. There is more information about the problems which it presents and just how easy it is to get infected with some malware or trojan which can expose the finances for your business. This is something which you as a small business owner need to be aware of. Being aware is the first step towards taking action to protect yourself.

As a small business owner, connection to the web exposes you to potential harm. If you are not connected to the web, then you are not reading this and therefore have nothing to worry about. But for everyone else, you need to review what you are doing on the web and with web connected devices. Some of the great new technologies for small business are fantastic, such as Square which lets you accept payments on your smart phone. That let's businesses be mobile and not tied to the old technologies. Having to have a land line to dial up and process credit card payments is becoming a thing of the past. But, it is that new technology which has the potential to cause big problems.

For the past few years, the idea of malware on smart phones has been lurking out there as a growing problem. This year, it has moved from lurking on the fringes to roar into visibility as a huge problem for mobile devices. Reports are beginning to emerge showing that this problem has become much worse than anyone has expected. In a report from McAfee, they are showing a 1200% increase in malware in the first quarter this year as compared to the 4th quarter of 2011. This should cause a small business owner to take a much harder look at how to protect yourself against malware.

We know that there is an increase in targeted malware against mobile devices. There is also the Android apps which have been reported which already contain malware before you download them. The move to Google Play is expected to reduce that problem and you should only download apps from trusted sources. It makes it tough to know what to do. If you have employees who click on attachments in any email you receive, you have probably been hit a few times. Keeping AntiVirus software up to date is critical for computers. But mobile devices are something which has not received the desired attention from providers. That is stating to change and you will hear a lot more about AntiVirus software for smart phones. You must take a serious look at this area.

Part of the reason for that is because there are many out there who are now starting to target small business specifically. And this applies even if you are exclusively using Apple products. It seems that there are specific groups targeting Macs, iPads and iPHones. We know that groups are already specifically targeting Android devices, so this should not come as any surprise to anyone. At a speech at the San Francisco Small Business Week, one speaker was warning about attacks on Small Businesses and you need to be very careful with mobile devices.

“Eight out of ten mobile banking apps have security flaws, but Apple and the banks don’t want you to know that. I’ll wait another 20 years to stick my toe in that pond.”

One recommendation is to not use mobile banking apps because that is something hackers are targeting right now. Once they have your bank information, along with the access to your bank, they can begin to pull money out of your accounts. And for a small business, that can create some big problems. It appears that once the crimes are committed against a small business, most law enforcement agencies are unlikely to do a lot of investigation for electronic crimes like this. This can be a real problem when it cross jurisdictions, such as cities, counties or states. An even bigger problem is trying to figure out where the crime actually was committed. Most law enforcement agencies do not have the tools or the manpower to investigate these kinds of crimes.

There are things which you can do, but they require you to alter your current way of doing things. As an example, do your online banking on a different computer than your work computer. Do not do it on your smart phone. Or get some encryption software for your mobile device and computers. All of this should raise your awareness that things are quickly changing in our mobile world and you must adjust to it in order to protect yourself.

Dealing With Wordpress Comment Spam

Comments is a great way to engage your readers

 
Posting articles on your Wordpress site is the first step in drawing attention to the information you wish to communicate. The goal is to then have people read that information and continue to return to your site. One of the ways to do that is an effort to cause people to place comments on articles written. You can do that in a variety of ways such as asking a question at the end of an article. If you spend time trying to engage people in conversations and are successful, you will more than likely end up with comments which one would consider spam. A lot of these kinds of comments are there strictly in an effort to get links back to another site. This usually happens after they are successful in posting some comment about how they stumbled on your site. If that one is successfully showing in the comments, they follow up with comments containing links back to their site and selling products.

You can find a number of sites which will define what spam can be considered as, so the next question becomes how to deal with it. There are a variety of methods and tools which will handle most of the unwanted comments. If you have installed the Akismet plugin on your site, it will automatically catch these kinds of comments and identify them as spam. If you have not installed the plugin, stop reading this right now and get it installed. It is a fantastic tool and one that should be on every Wordpress site you ever work with. If you have installed it previously and seen what it can do for you, you already know the value of Akismet.

Beyond that, there are several other methods you can employ to attempt to cut down on spam. One of the big problems is automated processes which populate comments on sites where the comments are open and available for entry. These automated processes can be foiled by using Captcha as a process against those machine entered comments. There are a variety of different Captcha methods out in the world, but for now, we are talking about those associated with handling comments being entered.

The ones that many are familiar with are ones that display a dynamically generated graphic which has letters and numbers in them. As part of adding a comment, the person (or computer) would have to enter the values which are contained in the graphic. These are supposed to not be machine readable, meaning that the computers trying to automatically add comments are not able to read them. For the most part this is a true statement and should block just about every automated comment. Unfortunately, as computers get more sophisticated in the programs reading the generated graphic, they may be able to figure out what needs to be entered. I believe we are years away from that.

Another method is a form of Captcha where there is a use of pictures instead of characters to stop the machine added comments. In these situations, you have to click on a specific picture before the comment is added. This generally stops the automated comment processes from being able to post comments. There are a variety of different methods associated with this kind of Captcha.

A very low tech method of Captcha is one where you have to answer a question, such as adding 2 numbers together of something like that. The question that is being asked determines what you are supposed to be answering and works quite well. You see this on a lot on forums, especially when doing searches. This type has been around for a very long time and appears to be pretty effective.

Another possibility is to move your comments from Wordpress to Facebook. This is pretty straight forward and instructions to complete this are available. This forces people to have Facebook accounts to add comments to your posts. You would now be getting comments from real people and not from anonymous commentors. There are multiple benefits from this if you have a Facebook page set up for your business.

Of course, you can decide you do not want to allow for any comments on your site and turn them off all together. That removes this whole issue, but it does remove a method of engaging with your readers. There are many plugins to accomplish the task of trying to filter all the comments down to those which are legitimate ones. It does take a little bit of time to get these things set up correctly, but once done, you have quality comments on your posts.

QR Code Usage Seeing Increasing Acceptance

Acceptance of QR Code is growing must faster outside US.

 
QR Codes have not really taken off here in the US as much as they have in other countries. Part of that may be due to misconceptions about how they work. The primary consideration is to develop a web site that is specifically for mobile devices so that when a QR Code is scanned, the mobile device gets directed to a web site designed for mobile devices. Then you have to provide content that is desirable. For QR Codes, we are in the early days of usage and it is going to grow significantly. Given the predictions of mobile phone growth in this country and around the world, you can see the potential which QR Codes hold.

Singapore is one of those countries where QR Code usage has been taking off. As an example, PayPal has launched an effort which targets people in 15 subway stations. Since there is wireless connectivity in all the subway stations, this makes it a great opportunity. For PayPal, they are using the QR Codes for making purchase transactions which shows just how useful QR Codes can actually be.

Linking-Mobile in the UK, has chosen to sell advertising on the CPA model, which means advertisers receiving revenue when people fill out a form. In this case, a mobile device would scan a QR Code and be directed to a mobile web site. Here they would be asked to fill out a form. For companies, this is a way to create contact or mailing lists to then follow up with those who followed through and entered information.

One of the best examples of the potential for QR Codes is from South Korea. For retailer Home Plus, they looked at the problem of people having to do grocery shopping and came up with a QR Code solution in the subway system. With busy lives, going to the grocery store is not something people want to do. So the company brought the store to the subway stations with pictures of the products. Each product had a QR Code on it which would could be scanned to purchase the item. Once you were done with selecting all the items for yourself, you could then pay for them. They would then be delivered to your home some time later. This is a fantastic example of what QR Codes can do for you.

While Asia has embraced QR Codes much faster than the reset of the world, other locations, such as Europe are becoming engaged with using QR Codes. There are examples in Europe where scanning a QR code associated with a product will take you to a mobile web site where you might win a prize or get a future discount for the product. The London underground system has geared up to use QR Codes for getting real time information about the tube and arriving trains. This will be a big help during the Olympics and the huge crowds which will be attending.

There are other examples of successful QR Code campaigns which have been successful. You can probably find some yourself for those around the world and here in the US. But, here in the US, we are trailing much of the rest of the world, similar to the NFC usage where we are trailing as well. There are great opportunities out there for you to take advantage of right now as things are still growing in this area. If you have not considered QR Codes for your business strategy, now be a great time to see if it will work for you. Not every business can take advantage of them.

It could be you could use them to collect information from people as in the CPA model, or you could use it to give away a prize as part of a contest. It could be as part of a display in a store where people want to know more about your product and scan the QR Code. It is beginning to look positive for the use of QR Codes and the success is going to be the placement of the QR Code and the site which people come to after scanning the QR Code.

If you have not taken a look at QR Codes yet, now is a great time to do so. We have a number of articles available on the topic and even a QR Code generator you might want to take a look at. Now is the time to take a serious look at QR Codes.

Think Your Password Is Secure, It's Probably Not

Growing information shows how week passwords are for protecting you.

 
Many believe that creating a good password is all that it takes to protect your various accounts from someone attempting to gain unauthorized access. The problem is knowing what a good password is for today. Good passwords from several years are now considered now longer safe and secure. But many do not know that and have exposed themselves to having someone potentially guess their password to gain access. Hackers have many tools at their disposal and those tools are getting better all the time. In doing some research for this, I came to see that a password with a length of even 8 characters could be cracked in a matter of months or less by those seeking to gain access. The longer a password you create, the better the chances are that it will not be cracked. But length alone is not the complete answer in trying to have a solid password which gives you confidence.

All of this, many choose not to deal with, but the time is here where you had better look at this seriously before you become the next victim. I have previously written about the password length versus password complexity issues and it is not a versus situation but rather a combination of the two. And it gets even worse than that. The usual list of characters of letters (upper and lower), numbers and special characters now becomes critical to your password strategy. In a very revealing article about 10,000 Top Passwords it shows:

* 4.7% of users have the password password;
* 8.5% have the passwords password or 123456;
* 9.8% have the passwords password, 123456 or 12345678;
* 14% have a password from the top 10 passwords
* 40% have a password from the top 100 passwords
* 79% have a password from the top 500 passwords
* 91% have a password from the top 1000 passwords

You should take a look at the article as it is an eye opener. People are not taking password protection seriously and they wonder why they get hacked. Making your password longer containing the above list of characters is no longer enough. If you go out to The Password Meter it will rate your password for being secure. You lose points for things like letters only or numbers only as that makes it much easier to be guessed or hacked via brute force methods. But this site points out some other items that you may not have thought about in determining a password. You should not use consecutive letters or numbers as that is something hackers check for, whether it be letters or numbers. Entering sequencial letters or numbers, such as "abc", is also something you should not do either. Some password generating tools do not check for this, but they have gotten better in recent years.

But recent information we have seen points to even more things to be concerned about. While technology for hackers has improved, the same technology is helping to make better passwords which are generated as part of software. These tools point out just how long it might take to crack a password and point out other items such as repeating characters. While the values they show as to how long it will take a desktop PC to crack your password may be off a little, you get the point of the strength of a password given what we know today.

So, I went over to How Secure Is My Password and ran a series of tests using the password generator in RoboForm, which is my method of keeping track of passwords. I have too many to keep track of and it is critical that you do not duplicate a password on more than one site. So, here is a list of the generated passwords I tested with and the length of each one is 14 characters. Some folks recommend even longer passwords and in a growing number of situations, I am inclined to agree with a password which is greater than 16 characters. Here is the list:

 1) t93&%I7tYq#Yy2
 2) 4f^f9t!pDjGJmI
 3) W5m!E^tTF*W8Wj
 4) Qe&LK5o%qa8Yh0
 5) J&ZR#wOx1rY2m9
 6) BKYmhh3227IKS^

From the 6 listed above, I entered each one in the How Secure site and then started removing digits from the right hand side to see the impact. I have included those results hear for your reference to see how strong longer passwords actually are. I have not included column for 14 characters as it would take 32 billion years on a desktop computer to hack. But below that number things start to move around. I have dropped the 5 character column as all the values were 10 seconds or less, meaning you are screwed.


bil = billion, mil - million, ths = thousand, etc.

This is for passwords created today and the availability of hacker tools to crack a password. Things move quickly and a year from now, that may not be the case. It is important that you look at your password strategy for today and make sure that it is keeping up with the times. In fact, you must be keeping ahead of the times before the hackers catch up.

Incorrect Usage Of QR Codes

QR codes can go very wrong and hurt your business.

 
QR codes are a wonderful thing when used correctly and can generate addition business or sales which you might not otherwise have had. They are something new which only requires a smart phone with a camera and an app installed to interpret the scanned QR code. That is the consumer side of things. On the business side of things, you need to have a web site set up to receive those people who scan your QR code. That is the two sides of the process for using QR codes for your business. You want that web site to be optimized for mobile devices so that they have an excellent experience. But, there are a number of incorrect usages of QR codes which can hurt your business or the customer experience. Here are some of them.

QR Codes on billboards This is a highly visible way to get your message out to customers, but the lack of ability to actually take a usable picture of the QR code makes this form of usage worthless.

QR codes on subways or buses So, you are on the subway and there is a banner ad with a QR code. What are the odds you are going to stand up and take a picture of the QR code and get more details. Not very likely. If the ads are on the outside of a bus, there is no way you are going to be able to snap a picture as it is going by. The same applies to a QR Code on an ad on the outside of a taxis.

QR codes in magazines on airplanes You are on a plane and there is a QR code in a magazine. This is a mistake to put a QR code here. For now, you cannot have your smart phone operating in a wireless mode while the plane is in the air, making the investment a very poor one. People are not going to snap a picture.

QR Codes on headstones This is a great one to get people to pause and think about what is going on here. Where is this one going to take you? Down under? The only valid reason for QR codes on headstones is to give you information about the person who is buried there.

QR Codes sent in email So, you decide to send a QR code in an email to your clients or potential clients. The purpose of a QR code is to be snapped in a picture as part of the scan process. When the person opens the email on their smart phone, it is inside the smart phone and the camera is on the outside. Not a good combination.

QR Code takes you to a web site using flash This is another problem with QR codes when someone scans the QR code which takes them to a site using Adobe Flash. Not all phones are capable of viewing flash and if not, you just lost that person.

QR code takes you to a site not optimized for mobile devices This is the single biggest problem with web sites which are the end point for scanned QR codes. You have gotten the person to start the process and come to your site only to reach a web page which is difficult to view on a smart phone. You need to have your pages viewable on a smart phone and usable.

These are just some of the incorrect usages which can cause your QR campaign to self destruct very quickly. There are others, but you get the idea as to some of the potential problems with using QR Code incorrectly. It is very important to think through your usage of QR codes from the point of being scanned through and including the landing on a mobile enable site. That mobile enabled site must adhere to the same principles as a regular web site. If the person landing there does not see what they are looking for in a few seconds, they will be gone. Getting them to the site is half the battle. Keeping them there and engaged is the other half.

QR codes can be a great part of your business if the idea of using them is thought out and planned correctly. The usage of QR codes continues to grow. Make sure that you do not make the same type of mistakes as listed here.

Is There A Move From Contract To No Contract Phones?

US wireless carriers experience a drop in subscribers.

 
After many years of generally reporting gains for contract cell phone plans in the US, there was a drop in the 1st quarter for contract subscribers for the larger wireless carriers. While some may say that it is too earlier to say this is a trend, it could well show a shift which people are now willing to take given just how fast new phones are being released. It seems that just about everyone has a cell phone and some people have more than one and a tablet on top of that. Given how many there are, are we at a saturation point? In an Associated Press article, they have put together the information regarding the decline. But they have not drawn any conclusions from the information.

All Things D has taken the report and gone a step further by putting together a chart showing how the wireless carriers have done since 2006 and it is an interesting view. While it shows that this is not the first time that wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon have seen a decline, this comes at a time when they should be seeing increases in contract subscribers. This is because there are a number of great phones on the market and more seem to be showing up every other week. So, with all the great smart phones showing up, it makes one wonder why there has been a downturn.

It is a known fact that a percentage of contract cell phone owners use little of the allocated minutes for voice and tiered data plans. It is that group which subsidizes those users who consistently push up to the allocations for their contract plans for voice and data. In recent years, the data portion has been seeing over use as smart phones become faster and contain far more features. Add in 4G LTE, and some of the heavy users are tearing up the airwaves with their streaming video activities.

The idea of a no contract phone has been catching on, even though it has been slowly. Many do not need to have the large number of voice minutes or data plans which are part of the normal contract plans offered by the carriers. While you do get the phone at a reduced price, you are paying for that reduced price a little at a time each month of your contract. Under the no contract model, you pay a much higher price for the phone up front, but then you are not locked into a contract, but rather prepay for minutes for voice and amounts for data usage. This is a much different model than what many are used to.

But with all the changing of wireless plans to the tiered data plans and rumored increases in plan fees, people are going to start looking at some other options for their smart phones. I am on a grandfathered unlimited data plan with Verizon Wireless and today there has been a lot of talk about them working towards eliminating unlimited data and that is a concern. No, not really, as I do not use that much data that it would make a huge difference. But there are many who do and they are going to be concerned.

It is people like me who are not abusing the data plans and am concerned about getting locked into a 2 year contract. I have written about the need to return to 1 year wireless contracts because of how fast new phones are being released. The annual roll out of a new iPhone as an example would make 1 year contracts a great deal. Right now, the early termination fees force many to stay on their current 2 year contract and wait. That is because at the moment, the no contract options have not been showing up with the latest phones.

But the phones have slowly been getting better. If the no contract phones begin to arrive with some of the latest phones, there may well be a shift to the no contract model and away from the 2 year contracts wireless carriers stick people with today. If the wireless industry suffers a 2nd quarter decline as well, then one can assume that the shift has begun. We are half way through the 2nd quarter already and there are continuing reports of declining sales for the iPhone and probably others. It may only be a matter of time.

Do you believe we are going to see a shift to no contract phones?

Is This A Picture Of The Android Fragmentation Effect?

The discussions regarding Android Fragmentation have been moving upward this month, especially because of the most recent numbers coming from Google's own Android Developer site. The numbers for ICS adoption as of the beginning of the month show Android 4.0 with a 4.9% share of Android devices. That is less than 5% and it has been on the market for more than 5 months. That is very telling and we may not see it in double digit territory when they report at the beginning of June. That brings us to the topic about Android Fragmentation and just how bad it actually is. Open Signal Maps has created a chart which we are showing here. This chart represents the 3,997 unique devices they have found which have downloaded their OpenSignalMaps to a device.

If you look at this, it is overwhelming as to what we are seeing. The one green square represents the GT-i1900 which is Samsung's Galaxy S2 device which is very popular. Of the 3,997 devices, they have figured that 1,363 represent those Android devices which have a custom ROM build and installed before the download of their app. Even if you discount those custom ROM's, that still leaves 2,634 unique devices which they have to deal with in the app so that it will operate correctly. That is a staggering number of devices to have to deal with. They have to deal with 599 phone brands being sold with Samsung being the largest brand name with 40% of the market. Everything goes down from there.

So, you might ask what is the point of all of this. While the company could choose not to support some of the smaller brands, it would cause them to miss out on potential sales. Other smaller companies probably do just that which means that if you have a brand name phone which has a very small market share, you may not even have the opportunity to purchase an app from one of the app companies because they do not support your phone. And that is the point. With all these various phone models, it makes it more difficult for developers. You then have to factor in the Android Fragmentation effect with the potential for each phone model to have at least 2 Android OS versions which can operate on the phone which have been officially released by phone manufacturers. That starts multiplying things out and gives you an idea as to just how tough it is for app developers.

You then add to all the various phone brands, various versions of the phones and then all the various versions of the Android OS and it presents challenges to app companies. On top of all that is now the various screen sizes which have to factor into the mix of things which they are trying to resolve. On top of that are the various screen resolutions as well and you start to understand the challenges of developing apps for Android phones.

While the physical devices stay static once a phone is released, the OS is changing which has to be support and more of a problem it becomes for a company developing an app. If they have been in the market for years, their app has already been developed for existing Android versions, so they would only have to address the latest version. But for a new company trying to develop an app for the Android OS family, this is a daunting task.

While all the news for developers is not bad, it is all these challenges which cause some to not develop for Android. We can hope that Google can change some of this and it looks like they may be moving in that direction. Rumors of Google selling Nexus phones with Jelly Bean may force this to change in the future.

The discussion on this will be continued by many.

Are Wireless Carriers Responsible For Fragmentation?

Carriers release few updates for phones as compared to the OS updates created.

 
And it is the lack of updates being released which should be raising some big concerns amongst all the manufacturers of phones. While there is no empirical proof of the number of updates which smart phone owners never seem to get, there are enough examples of this which point out problems. The upgrade process for the OS on a smart phone should be multiple times over the course of a year and yet it seems that there is often only a single update. That is unless you have an Apple iPhone where they force these on wireless carriers and prevent them from adding their items to the puzzle. For Android devices, this is turning into a big problem which is not going to go away until some things change in the process.

It seems that wireless carriers are at odds with the largest OS provider in Google's Android OS. Recently, there has been some finger pointing between AT&T and Google which in this case made AT&T look bad. This is all over the problems with the slow roll out of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). The slow roll out is a big problem for Google right now as they only have 4.9% of Android devices on the latest OS for all active Android phones. Given that Android 4.0 has been out since November on the Galaxy Nexus, it makes one wonder exactly what is going on.

This seems to point squarely at wireless carriers for the delays, though manufacturers of smart phones are to blame as well. They all seem to want to add their pieces to the Android OS and that slows things down. There is the development time and then testing for each step along the way. If a problem is discovered in testing, it goes back to development for a fix and then a repeat of the process. If this process were to be changed so that the stock Android 4.0 was used and no other changes to the OS were done other than to support the individual hardware, that would significantly speed up the process. Or would it.

In a post from Gotta Be Mobile by Adam Mills, he is relating his experiences with his Galaxy Nexus which he purchased from Verizon 5 months ago. Since he purchased the phone, he has not seen an update from Verizon. Not one. He is currently running Android 4.0.2 which came with the phone when he purchased it. Since that time, Android 4.0.3 and Android 4.0.4 has been released. Android 4.0.4 started rolling out to Galaxy Nexus phones, but only for the GSM version. To date, there has been no release of the latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich at Verizon since the Galaxy Nexus was launched. This is a very bad sign.

I owned a Blackberry Storm for a time which I purchased from Verizon back in January of 2009. This was a few months after the 9530 model was released and it had a number of reported bugs associated with the phone which could be easily fixed by a software update. Ever 3 or 4 weeks, there was another updated OS from Blackberry to fix problems, but these were never released by Verizon. This seemed to continue for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, in October 2009 came the official word that Verizon was releasing the 5.0.0.328 OS update for the Blackberry Storm. This was great to download and fix problems, but that was the last update for the phone that I ever saw.

This is not to pick on Verizon as all the other wireless carriers in the US have probably done the same thing at one time or another. And it is probably more widespread than we would all like to believe. The pattern that I am seeing is that you get one significant software update and that is it. You are done until you purchase your next phone. I am sure I am blowing this out of proportion, but then again maybe I am not. In an article about Android Orphans, the number of devices which are one or more versions behind is not how it should be. I am sure that you can find other examples of this by doing some searches on the web.

The idea of only getting a single OS update on a phone is very discouraging and something must change. If not, people are going to start looking elsewhere for a phone where they are able to get multiple updates over the course of the year. And a phone where they get a major update close to an annual basis. At the moment, Apple is the only one that has been able to fulfill that and Google had better take notice. I am not an iPhone supporter and prefer the Android OS, but the idea of only getting a single update from my wireless carrier is discouraging.

Have you had a similar experience of only getting a single OS update to your phone?

1 Year Wireless Contracts Needed With New Phones

As high end phones are released on a recurring basis, it is time for the return of 1 year wireless contracts in the US.

 
We are evolving in the mobile device world and while I am focusing on wireless carriers here in the US, this does apply around the world. With the likes of Apple operating on a annual release cycle for the iPhone, there needs to be a return in the wireless carrier community to 1 year wireless contract. I know that you can probably find them for some carriers, but they are not wide spread and the largest carriers are not selling them. The idea of offering a 1 year wireless contract from the consumer point of view is the direction where things should be headed. But for the wireless carriers, it is not nearly as profitable for them because of the much higher termination fees when you want to purchase a new phone in less than 2 years. They realize just how much money they can make from those individuals who are more than willing to buy a new Apple iPhone whenever a new one comes out. And when they do, the wireless carriers point to the early termination clause and collect a lot of money.

All of this is going to be increasing as a topic of conversation and that is because of all the great new smart phones which are coming out. You only have to look at Apple and the new iPhones that come out close to the annual date of the previous version. Some times it is longer and some times it is shorter, but this is becoming the norm. Take for example the coming Galaxy S3 which is the successor to the Galaxy S2. Or the Apple iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S which came out late, almost 16 months later. There is the various Droid models coming out this year, some of which are earlier than the annual period, such as the Droid 3 and the Droid 4 which came about 7 months later. Technology improvements are starting to happen at a far faster pace than before. Moore's Law is now being applied to mobile devices.

It is not like there has not been 1 year contracts being offered by wireless carriers in the US. Sprint reversed their 1 year wireless contract last fall and with that left another hole in the options for people. This was made effective on October 2nd. This was pretty much only to renew your existing contract for another year, not for signing up for a new service. This was a great deal for Sprint customers, but no more. Verizon Wireless ended their 1 year contract back on April 2nd, 2011 and it too was a great way to purchase a new phone on an annual basis. All of that has fallen away and it is now time for wireless carriers to revisit the idea of 1 year wireless contracts.

In the event that wireless carriers in the US were to bring back 1 year wireless contracts, we know that the subsidized price of the smart phone would be much less than with a 2 year contract than a 1 year contract. This would be the expected result of a change like this. The market wants to see this with the quickly changing technology which is out. When you buy a smart phone today, there is something better coming 6 months later. By the time that you get to 1 year later, there is even more improved technology available and usually from the same manufacturer as the phone you own. But you are locked in a 2 year contract. Those who purchased the latest iPhone will want to purchase the latest iPhone 5 when it comes out, but they have few choices. They can terminate their current contract and pay the early termination fee or wait until their 2 year contract expires. Not much of a choice.

All of this points out the need to return to the option of purchasing a 1 or 2 contract for phone services. It is that option which will give people the option to get a new phone every year if they so choose. Sure, the 1 year contract will cost more. But, technology is changing so fast now it requires a 1 yer contract to take advantage of that changing technology. How we convince wireless carriers to offer that is an unknown and only public pressure may be the only thing which can get them to change.

Do you want to see 1 year phone contracts again?
 

Password Strategies: Increasing Your Password Protection

Hacking tools are getting better which means that you have to improve how you protect yourself.

As technology improves, so does the power of computers and just how fast they can perform calculations. As a result, the tools which hackers use to guess passwords improves. As we have learned, nothing can stop all possible attacks against a computer or network. The only way to stop things from attacking your computer is to disconnect from the Internet or network. If someone can physically access your computer, they can probably gain access if they have the right skills and tools. Being a small business owner, implementing a good password policy or plan is key to protecting your computers. There are many other things which can be done, but passwords are a critical part of the process.
Even a firewall is a great tool, but if you do not change the default logon and password which comes with it, you are opening yourself up to get hacked. While groups like Anonymous have successfully hacked into web sites, it makes it even more important than ever to protect yourself. Passwords is one area where you need to make sure you are setting your passwords with enough complexity to make it much harder for it to be cracked. In order to do that, there are certain basic principles which you need to follow. While not every place you have a password will allow you to implement these kinds of techniques, you need to do everything you can to make it very hard to get your password.

One of the biggest items is to not have words or phases as part of your passwords which are easily guessed or associated with you. The name of your pet is one that people often use. There are dictionary attacks which use a list of common passwords in an automated fashion to guess a password. As a result, you need to use a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and special characters to make up your password. This is the first step in protecting yourself from attackers who are trying to get into your account or computer. If you do anything less than having a password with a mix of these characters, you are making it much easier for those who are out in the wild trying to gain access to someone's password to gain access.

The next thing you need to look at is the length of the password you are using. While some sites limit the length, you need to make sure it is at least 8 characters in length. Anything less makes it easier for someone to guess. That is the old belief as to password length. That has been replaced with the belief it should be 12 characters at minimum. You have to remember the longer a password is in length, the harder it is to crack. There has been the password length versus password complexity debate that has been going on for many years and will continue. I prefer to have both a long and complex password, but that does not mean I will be safe long term. You have to keep re-evaluating your password strategy at least once a year to see if it meets the demands that are being placed on it.

The real issue is how long it will take someone to crack your password. Given improving technology, hackers can use it to their advantage. Brute force attacks will take years as your password length exceeds 12 characters and is not all just letters. The more numbers and special characters that you can include all the better to protect yourself. This is about making sure the door stays locked for what you have control over.

Just looking at the web alone, there are so many different places where we use passwords. You definitely do not want to use the same password more than once. If you do and they guess that password in one location, they can try to access other locations to gain access. We have so many different places where we have passwords, such as email accounts, Social Networking (such as Facebook) and a host of other online sites where we might makes purchases (such as Amazon). It is important for you to understand the risks of not have long and complex passwords to protect yourself.

You do not leave your front door unlocked to you home when you are away. You lock it to make it much harder for someone to break in. The same applies to passwords as you want to make it as difficult as possible for them to gain access.

Dropbox Extends Free 50 GB Storage To Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

With Samsung partnership, another new Galaxy product gets free space.

 
Since Google Drive has come to market, it seems that Dropbox has been working overtime to maintain their market leadership. Their cloud sharing software is run on more platforms than others providers of like products, but the market has been getting crowded of late. As a result, Dropbox is finding it more difficult to maintain their market lead. Now comes word they are offering up to 50 GB of free space when you purchase the new Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet. This comes on the heels of them offering 50 GB of storage for 2 years with the purchase of the Galaxy S3. That news brought a lot of interest as a result.

It would appear that offering free space is how Dropbox is going to maintain their presence in the market. This latest offering for the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet is only for a period of 1 year and not the 2 years offered for the Galaxy S3. It is still a great deal as you are saving the normal charges of $9.99 per month or the annual fee of $99. Either way, you are saving a lot of money and if you look at it as a savings off the price of the coming tablet, it makes it even more of a bargain. This free storage fits in with the needs of moving information around and is becoming very popular.

For Dropbox, this is a great move and where they are expanding, they remain in the news as people report on it. As with any storage, there is a tendency to fill up the space and a majority of people are likely to continue using it after the 1 year period is up and pay for the privilege. That is a great way to grow the business. And by associating the free space with new products, they are getting more free advertising.

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet is going to be out this weekend and along with that comes some great pricing at $399.99. To put that into perspective, the current Apple iPad sells for $499 for a similar WiFi only version with 16 GB. Throwing in the savings for the free cloud storage from Dropbox and it makes this an even better deal. You should see this online this weekend at Best Buy, Walmart, Office Depot and others. Office Depot is showing the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 on pre-order for the $399.99 price with the free 50 GB of Dropbox storage for the first year.

As shown below from the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 features page, the promotion of the free offer is being prominently shown on the site. This recent deal may also be extending to the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 tablet as there are reports of people getting the up to 50 GB of free storage as well. On some forums, it is being reported that when you install the Dropbox app on the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, you then get the expansion of your storage to 50 GB. Not everyone is indicating success in expanding their total storage.

For now, the Samsung and Dropbox relationship looks like it will benefit those purchasing the selected products from Samsung with the free space. So it raises the question of whether the offer for free storage is going to cause people to take more of a look at the associated Samsung products?

Mobile Payments Fragmentation - Growing Number Of Players

Growing field of mobile payments increasing with standards still to be determined.

 
The idea of Mobile Payments is one which is expected to take hold this year around the world. The US appears to be a little slower on the uptake for getting on board, but it is the supporting structures which are necessary to make this happen. From the mobile phone and the Near Field Communication (NFC) chips which are embedded, the necessary flow from that point on needs to be provided and is being worked on. The Point Of Sale (POS) devices are being installed in retail outlets and you probably have seen them already. It is the handling of the transactions which has been the problem because of a lack of standards. The first company to get the biggest share of the market will probably have more leverage in establishing their standards for everyone else. The latest one to join the push is MasterCard and their PayPass Wallet.

This was announced this week and joins a growing field of players which look to fragment the market along with fragmenting the standards. There are at least 4 primary players now including MasterCard PayPass, Google Wallet, Visa PayWave and PayPal Digital Wallet. There is also the Isis group and their mobile wallet of which MasterCard and Visa are members of the group. Exactly how all of these will work together is an unknown right now. It would appear that the Isis group is working to handle the mobile payments from the back end so that they can go through a bank, credit card or wireless carrier's bill.

There are all these competing methods of making payments from the mobile device via NFC and it at times causes problems. I am simplifying the process and only talking about the NFC and in reality, there are other chips and processes involved in making mobile payments. When the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was about to be released by Verizon, problems as to whether they would support Google Wallet became an issue and in the end, Verizon chose to not use Google's payment method. Instead they are going to be supporting the Isis group and the methods that are determined there. Whether they go with the MasterCard or Visa mobile solution has yet to be announced by Verizon, but we can expect to hear that decision this year. Given that Google has worldwide coverage, this will create more fragmentation in the market and standards.

It is the fragmentation which looks to be coming as a potential problem. Each wireless carrier is going to potentially have a say as to which one their wireless network is going to be supporting and that is a problem. When you purchase a smart phone from a carrier, you will more than likely be forced to use their predefined method for NFC payments. If you switch wireless carriers in the future, how you make your payments will more than likely change given the way that things are looking right now.

Given that Google has their Google Wallet, we can expect that Apple has some payment method in the works as well. We have not heard from them, but knowing the past with Apple, they have something which we will hear about when the NFC enabled iPhone 5 is announced.

In Asia, they are already using mobile payments and have been for years with a majority of the population using the payment system. They have one primary method which sets them apart from what we are seeing. And of course the US has to do things differently. One of those differences is to make sure that things will work around the globe. In Asia, many of the systems are local to a country and not much further beyond that.

Where all this is going to end up and which standards are going to be established is up in the air. We do expect to see more competition this year, such as Apple entering with their version. This is leading up to the US utilizing mobile payments in a way we have never done before and may take years to gain the kind of acceptance which is needed. For now, there appears to be growing fragmentation.

Android Fragmentation: Finger Pointing Begins For ICS

AT&T implies Google is to blame for slow roll out of Android 4.0

 
The battle to get Android 4.0 rolled out in order to upgrade existing smart phones has now turned to finger pointing as to exactly who is at fault. This has been building for a time, but has suddenly emerged into the spotlight based on recent comments from AT&T this week. There have been hints of this growing trouble over the past few months as to where the real problem lies in getting the latest version of the Android OS cleanly and quickly rolled out. It is those comments regarding "negotiated agreements" which seemed to have caused some problems.

Stephenson said, in response to a question from the audience. "Google kind of determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. Often times that's a negotiated arrangement, and so that's something we work at hard. We know that it's important to our customers."

A negotiated arrangement has been responded to by Google and a negotiated arrangement does not exist. So, the question comes up as to where the problems really lies with the Android fragmentation. The most recent reports are showing disappointing growth for Android 4.0 and the numbers are showing it is going to take a long time to get upgrades rolled out. Jean-Baptiste Queru is part of the Android Open Source Project (ASOP) and is in the know as to what is going on. From his Google+ page under "15 minutes, and 8 months" he lays out the waiting game to get things rolled out for a new Android OS. This is just the reality in the industry.

Now starts another 8-month waiting game. In over 10 years working on the software side of the cell phone industry, I've learned that it takes about 8 months between getting the software ready and seeing it widely deployed. Edit: Meaning, deployed on new devices.

But does it have to be. Once Google (or Microsoft) rolls out an updated OS, it first goes to the manufacturers so that they can make the necessary changes to the OS to support the chip set on the mobile device. That is to be expected and does take a certain amount of time to make sure it works correctly under testing conditions. It is after this point when things start to break down. Various manufacturers then add their pieces to the OS, such as a customized interface or other software add ons. Once they have finished with that, it is turned over to wireless carriers who then add their pieces to the puzzle as interface changes or added software to the mix. All of this take a lot of time to be done. Especially as the OS gets more complicated beyond the pure Ice Cream Sandwich released by Google.

All of this takes time and apparently is understood by Jean-Baptiste Queru as part of the process. There are some things which could be done in an effort to speed up the process, such as what Microsoft has done to move things forward quicker. But Android is Open Source and there in lies part of the problem. Manufacturers and wireless carriers are free to do pretty much anything they want to OS, all of which take time. So, why is AT&T pointing fingers at Google in the roll out process?

AT&T may be doing this as part of a bigger strategy to deflect blame away from the carrier which in the end is not really going to change public opinion. They have been trying to blame the FCC for their recent price hikes because of the failure of the T-Mobile deal. The reality is they probably would have raised their prices anyway and this is a smoke screen to deflect blame. The same thing applies to the slow Android roll out. The manufacturers are the first barrier to the roll out and then the wireless carriers are the second barrier to the roll out.

What would happen if the manufacturers and wireless carriers did not change or add to Android 4.0? We probably would not have the level of fragmentation we are seeing today.

Rethinking Your Password Strategies

As more sites are hacked and holes emerge in programs, changing how you think of passwords is critical.

 
The use of good passwords is the first line of defense you have to protect your information. It does not matter whether it is your password to log on to your computer, access your email over the web or your password to Social Networking sites. Each and everyone of them is your first line of defense to stop those who are up to no good. We have seen way too many breaches over the past 12 months making the whole idea of secure passwords far more important than they have ever been before.

Some parts of the problem are outside your control. As an example, when hackers gain access to a server which contains passwords of users, there is not much you can do about protecting yourself. The best thing is to change your password as soon as you hear about an event like this happening. Unfortunately, the trend is to not release information until days or weeks later and at that point, the damage has already been done. So, what are you to do to protect yourself. There are several strategies you can employee.

Do not reuse passwords

This is the first strategy you should employee. If you use the same password on your GMail account as you do on your Facebook account, you are asking for trouble. Some people use the same password across everything which requires one. That alone will cause you major problems if someone gets a list of passwords from a server and you are one of them. Hackers know that many people do not create unique passwords, but instead take the easy path. Keeping each password unique is very important.

Use a variety of characters to make a complex password

Some people only use letters to define their password. This makes it very easy for hackers to guess. You should include a variety of characters which includes letters (upper and lower case), numbers and special characters. I realize that some locations limit you on the special characters and some do not allow them at all. In those situations, you need to take other measures. Remember, you are trying to protect your information and that should make it critical to protect. So, do not use something that is easily guessed, like your first and last name put together.

Longer passwords are harder to crack

It used to be a password of 6 characters was consider to be safe. The number of characters necessary to protect your password is continuing to change. It used to be a lower length, but now a length of 12 characters is considered the minimum to be consider secure. That's right a minimum of 12. The majority of the population probably is not using a password that long. It makes it too hard to remember. The reason for the longer passwords is because the hackers tools have become more sophisticated, so you need to try and stay ahead of them. Software to maintain a list of your passwords may be something you should consider.

Password security questions

When you forget your password, there are many locations which give you the option of changing it. In those situations, they ask you questions when you set up your account. The key is to not create and answer questions which are easily guessed. Such as what elementary school did you go to is one that is seen a lot. If you put that information on your Facebook page, you just gave someone part of what they need to reset your password and log on to your account. It is important to create questions or provide answers which are not going to be easily guessed. One that I see a lot is what is your mother's maiden name. With so much information on the web, that one could probably be easily found and used. Do not put in a name that is easily found, but one that cannot be found. Yes, I am saying to not put in your mothers maiden name unless you want to have someone get into your account. Pick another name to put in so as to make it that much harder.

Password management software

There is a trend to use password management tools, such as RoboForm which has features to manage all your passwords and generate unique passwords for you. With something like this, you do not have to remember the logon and password once you set it up. You click on the item in the password management software and it goes to the site and logs you on. This is something which I see growing in need as longer passwords become the norm to protect your accounts. With this type of software, you only have to remember a single password rather than the passwords for each of your logons.

The landscape continues to change when it comes to passwords and you must adapt and adjust to protect yourself.

Patent Infringement Suits Force Lawyers Involvement In Design

Are lawyers becoming part of the design process for smart phones?

 
We have been hearing about the on going war between Samsung and Apple over patent infringements between the two companies. This has been happening all over the world between the 2 companies. And in a strange twist, Samsung still provides Apple with components for their devices. All of this has seen a lot of injunctions being filed between the two companies and most recently a court ordered mediation in California between the companies in an effort to settle the long running dispute. Apple has claimed on multiple occasions that Samsung has literally "copied" their technology and designs to create the Samsung models we are seeing. It is those kinds of claims which cause legal departments to inject themselves into the creative process.

And that may well be the case with the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S3 which was announced this past week. While it appears that Samsung (S Voice) has been adding features which mimic what Apple has provided on the iPhone (Siri), the actual design, or shape, of the phone has changed from what we might have expected. It raises the question of why Samsung would have made a design change and it did not leak out to match the final product. All of this may be explained because the Galaxy S3 was designed by lawyers or so goes a great article at Android Police where they lay out the facts and draw the conclusions. Given the growing spate of lawsuits we are seeing around the world, it does not surprise us that lawyers have been involved in the design of a smart phone.

So Samsung, was it worth it? Your product won't sell as well, but you won't piss off one of your biggest component customers either. I understand the motivation, but I still feel like you've sold your soul.

Back in April of 2011, Apple filed a laundry lists of infringements made by Samsung for their smart phones which were taken from the iPhone. While that is a legal matter, the article takes to task a number of specific items listed in the infringements and lays out how Samsung made sure to not tread on them in the latest Galaxy S3. And for each item, they show just what lengths Samsung supposedly went to so as to avoid the listed items and protect them from further patent infringement claims from Apple. Will this be enough to stop infringement claims against Samsung? Probably not, as companies bring out an army of lawyers for more than patent infringement, but to attempt to hold off the competition.

While you may not believe the claims that lawyers designed the Galaxy S3, there is evidence that they were involved in the process. The rounded corners of the phone are far difference from the Galaxy S II and do not add to the design of the phone. Instead they take away from the smart phone look. When I first saw the phone, I thought something looked strange about it and soon realized they have rounded the corners in a strange way. After reading the story about the lawyers designing the phone to avoid more suits, I realized what was so strange. The rounders corners at the top are different than the rounded corners at the bottom. It is that difference that seems to make the phone look funny. And, it addresses one of the infringement complaints from Apple back in April 2011.

The other item the story revealed was that the space above and below the touch screen was not the same. The vast majority of phones have the top and bottom area of the phone being exactly the same size. The Android Police article is suggesting the difference is to satisfy the lawyers so as to not infringe on Apple's claims from previous smart phones from Samsung. And that may well be the case as it does not add to the phone, but rather takes away from how it looks. The top area is 16% smaller than the bottom area and that is enough to throw the eyes off when looking at the phone. The only plausible explanation for this is because the lawyers wanted to make sure to not repeat the designs which Apple is complaining about.

Given Steve Job's design extremes for perfection, this one would have driven him crazy. Looking at it continues to bother me and that is not a good thing. I was very hopeful that Samsung would deliver a fantastic product and take a larger share of the smart phone market. With this most recent design, it appears they have missed the mark which may cost them some sales in the end. They have opened the door for Apple and the iPhone 5 which is a mistake.

It sure does look like the lawyers had a definite hand in the design process for the Galaxy S3. Do you believe the lawyers influenced the final design of the Galaxy S3?

Dropbox Offering 50 GB Of Free Storage For 2 Years

Dropbox providing space as promotion with Samsung Galaxy S3 phone

 
Dropbox has been seeing competition over the past year and the most recent in that competition is Google and their Google Drive which offers up 5 GB of free space for the free account. Dropbox only offers 2 GB as part of the free space and then you have to do other activities to increase that space. They make you jump through some hoops to grow your space with the most recent efforts involving your pictures. All of this may now have to change with Google entering the game in a David and Goliath story. When Google enters a market, they have an impact to the market and impact smaller sized companies quite often. But that is not always the case with Google taking over and the Dropbox story may be another situation where Google does not grab a large market share.

Dropbox has teamed up with Samsung to provide you with 50 GB of free storage space. That sounds like a fantastic deal as compared to the normal 2 GB which they offer when you sign up. Obviously there are rules and regulations associated with this, but they are worth considering. There is a limited amount of time for the 50 GB of storage and it is 2 years. After that, you would have to pay for the continued usage of that space which is current $99 per year (or $9.99 per month) for the Pro 50 package. This is a great marketing idea from Dropbox as once you have the space used, you are more than likely to continue using it after the 2 year free period. But, there is still one more catch to the rules and regulations.


You have to purchase the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smart phone which was announced this week. The 2 year subscription comes bundled with the purchase of this recently announced smart phone as a way to promote it. The joint offering is an excellent way to promote both product offerings. Samsung sold over 20 million of their Galaxy S II smart phone in February after being launched last April. The expectations for the Galaxy S3 are even higher and with the Dropbox deal, they are adding to the movement for this device. There are many other features which will have higher sales and it is expected to be available this summer.

The idea of cloud storage has been growing for smart phones as you can store things on your local computer and then have them available on other devices including your smart phone. Apple raised the idea up with iCloud last year and the iPhone 4S and it looked to be a big hit. Samsung has followed up on the cloud storage, but rather than create their own service, they took a smarter route and partnered with a well know provider in Dropbox. This is a much better route to take and opens things up for consumers in a way that Apple's iCloud cannot do.

Dropbox has the distinction of providing their Dropbox functionality on far more devices than the competition and sets them ahead of all the others out their providing cloud storage. With the growing importance of pictures for social media and the improving picture taking capabilities of smart phones, adding Dropbox makes sense. You can take pictures with the coming Galaxy S3 and put them in your Dropbox folder on the phone and immediately have them available on your desktop computer in the Dropbox folder. This is a big deal and is only going to grow much larger this year.

While you may not be interested in purchasing the Galaxy S3 and getting the 50 GB of free storage, the idea of higher end smart phones having free cloud storage through providers like Dropbox is hopefully going to become the standard with all new phones this year.

Do you believe all smart phones should come with bundled cloud storage?