Take the Plunge, the waters fine!

Hope every one had an enjoyable Christmas and is having a chance to relax a bit. May be playing with your new tech toys!.


I have had two victories this Christmas, I converted my wife to a smart phone and also now have her reading books on her new kindle (electronic book reader).


This brings up an issue that I continuously struggle with, Peoples stubbornness to embrace "new" things, they automatically put it in the too hard basket and dismiss the idea.These same people, once pushed to try the device are so happy and excited at how easy things have become, its like they just invented the idea.


A good idea when learning, is to find someone other than a partner or family member to show you and teach you, these people are far to familiar with you and most likely have the least amount of patience with you. Find a good friend or friends partner to show you, they won't be comfortable enough with you to lose their temper at you.


How many of you use the calender in your phones to store your appointments and notify you when they are coming up, or the notes or list functions to store things to remember. I asked a friend the other day why she had writing on the back of her hand, she told me,"these are the things I have to remember to do today". This same girl has her phone glued to hand to check texts and Facebook all day, I showed her the note keeping application on her phone and she was amazed. I even had someone, while at their computer, ask me to bring them a calculator, not realising of course that all computers have a calculator app on them.


The best way is to sit down with a coffee, your device and.... read the users guide (the first thing we rip out of the box and throw to the side). If you don't quite understand something, You Tube is your best friend. Just type into the You Tube search bar the exact question you want to know and there will be a clip on there to show you. 


If you have a spare moment, take out your phone and play with it, probably the exact thing you knock the young ones for doing, but! you will discover all the little hidden treasures that your device is hiding behind that screen.


Most importantly don't expect too much too soon, it takes time and a bit of playing and regular use to get comfortable and familiar with a device. Once you get the hang of one, you will be amazed how many of the same ideas and actions carry over to other ones that you will learn.


So I want you all to make your new year resolution to "Embrace Technology" or to introduce someone new to it. The world is moving on faster and faster with new technology, so sooner or later you will be forced to take the plunge, best do it on your own terms now.

Stay Safe over Christmas

Hey everyone, well I hope your final Christmas week is not causing you to much stress, pretty soon you will be able to stop,breathe and relax. 


Something bad guys count on this time of the year, is that you're in a hurry and impatient, you can be just waiting for something to totally set you off. Be very careful of emails, with titles that are meant to "bait" you, or emails that are made to look like they are from friends or relatives. If your not sure, just pop your friend a text or email and check if they sent you something before you open any links. If it doesn't make sense that they would send you a message like that, then they probably didn't!.


If you are purchasing online, your probably too late, but remember always check the address bar and make sure it is https not just http, stick to reputable companies and sites, and always use pay pal to purchase if it is available. Keep a close eye on your bank statements.


If you are giving computers or phones to family for presents, take the time to show the recipient how to use them safely, educate them on the dangers you have learnt about. Take the extra few minutes to make sure the antivirus and security measures are set up and in place before jumping online.


A behaviour issue during the festive season is "drinking and Social media updating" . Remember once it is online, it is out there forever! always read back what you have written a few times, and think about how it might be taken in the wrong way. Text comes across as black and white and doesn't have emotions. If you don't think you can trust yourself, leave your phone at home or give it to a (trusted) friend to mind.


Next year is looking to be a dangerous year online, as we become more educated and alert, the bad guys are upping the anti and making it a lot harder to see them. You can even hire a service now to tie up someone's phone lines so that they can't be contacted about large purchases on their credit cards or large withdrawals.


I hope that you all have a happy, safe and restful Christmas and New Year, and I look forward to helping you in 2012

iPhone ,see where your friends and family are

This week I am going to talk iPhones, I have some tips, and a great app.


For those of you reading that have iPhones, whether it be a 3gs, 4 or 4s (sorry 3 owners) an iPad or iPod touch, there is a great free application called "Find my Friends", this app allows you to see the exact location of a friend with the same app installed. I'm talking right down to an address!, I don't know how many times I have sat at the bus stop waiting for my daughter wondering where her bus is, well now I can find out in an instant.


You and your friends need to have your phone on operating system ios 5 or later, with location services turned on, and an iCloud ID. You then select a contact who you want to find, and send them an invite to be seen by you, once they accept, they will show up on your phone!. For them to then see you, they must send you an invite. You can set it to be only temporary, or turn it off or on as you please, you can even have it set so that you are able to see other people, but your phone shows up as not available.


I have heard it has already broken up 1 marriage, but think of the benefits, when you are meeting friends, shopping, kids are out at night!. It is a really great app.


A quick lesson on the batteries that are in the latest phones, laptops, cameras etc, "Lithium-ion batteries". These batteries do not have a memory like the old style used to, they work much better if they are kept topped up, ideally between 50-75%. Only once in a while it is good to drain them right down so that the device they are in can reset its markers of the battery levels.


Another good practice is to turn your iPhone off from time to time, I do mine once a week or so. Your phone is a computer, and things get moved around, extra bits get loaded, over time this can cause the phone to become sluggish or it may cause the screen to freeze. If you turn your phone off and back on, it resets itself, dumps some of the rubbish and is good to go again!.


Thanks to Sonia from CTAspley, here is a link to iPhone tips and tricks, check it out there are some handy time saving ones amongst them. 30-super-secret-iphone-features-and-shortcuts

Every body loves free WiFi

Every body loves Free WiFi right? cause its free!, you can kill time at the airport, you can chill while your having a coffee, or you can hang out at Macca's and save your download limit. How ever there are dangers with using free WiFi, its usually public, which means it is open, or unsecured. With out going all techy on you, unsecured means you don't have to access it with a password, usually you just pick the name of the network that you wish to join and hit "connect".


Long story short, there are different levels of encryption for WiFi networks, but even the most basic level  requires you to supply a password or pass-phrase to access the network. This means that any data you send over the network will be sent in an encrypted state and not in plain English. This is where the problem lays, undesirables, who most refer to as "hackers" ( hackers are far more intelligent and sophisticated) are able to sit there with a program open on their laptop and capture every bit of data you send. A program came out recently called "firesheep" which did exactly this, it had over 129 000 downloads in one day!. This program is readily available and easy to use, it can turn anybody into a WiFi snoop. The silly part is, who ever is hosting the network is able to use encryption, and just make the password the name of their business, it doesn't have to be a secret password, there just has to be a password. 


Another problem that can be encountered is that a person can set up there own WiFi network or "hotspot" which you unsuspectingly join thinking it is the network provided by the venue you are at. Once you join this fake network, they may perform a man in the middle attack where they catch your data read it, then send it on, sometimes to a fraudulent site!.


How do you get around this? Luckily a lot of websites are helping by making there site https instead of http, the s meaning secure for all intense and purpose. Google has recently changed to https which is good for us all. Another way is by downloading an add-on application to force your web browser (firefox, Chrome) to use https if it is available and warn you if it is not.


Most of the time your device is configured by default to automatically join any available network, this is dangerous because your device can be infected just by "walking past" a dangerous network. So make sure this is turned off, it will also save your battery life!. You will then be asked before you join a network, always look around and see it there is a sign that displays the WiFi networks name before you join one.


One last tip, make sure any shared folders or drives on your device are turned off before you join any public networks.