Friday, September 30, 2011

Your Privacy and Security is at the Risk


Do you think that you are protected? No one can steal your stuff because you got security guy at your gate! Well, think again. Do you know that you are being tracked every second and leaving your digital footprint behind? 


For example, you just signed up for a new smartphone and there you go. Here when you start leaving your trace. Most smartphone has GPS location which will indicate where you exactly are to keep record of what you did all day. Using 3G or Wi-Fi it will send this information on Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and other websites. Without even knowing it you are leaving a huge trail of information of yourself. It is small spy that you take with you every day. Most people have smartphone, iPad, and all other gadgets without even knowing that it's tracing functionality.

Recently regarding to CNET News Facebook said that they are even tracking offline users. Trillions of people are on Facebook. They go there post everything they do. Their daily activities, pictures, photos, etc. It has also been on news that people get robbed because they just posted on Facebook that they are leaving town tonight for a vacation. This will make an easy life for hackers. Even the blog I am writing that has location settings which will let all readers see that where I wrote this blog from.

I recently saw that Apple is tracking iPhone GPS location on a database server. What if this server gets hacked by a hacker? Every day I read this kind of news and it puts me in a great worry. I would say that people should sue these companies who are tracking your physical location without notifying you. They have no right to keep all this information. There will be new and new technology coming out in near future. It doesn't mean that they have right to play with user's personal data.

Here are few steps to get protected:

- Do not to share everything on your social network especially your private photos.
- Make sure that website you visit is encrypted (https). Use secure browsing. 
- Get a good Anti-Virus protection which monitor real time internet traffic.
- Never click on any pop ups.
- Install pop up blocker add-on in your browser.
- Keep your computer's hard drive and its data encrypted.
- Have your passwords changed every 2-3 months of all your accounts.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Tablets vs Ultra Notebooks


Today tablets are one of the most fast growing technologies in the market for every IT company. As you all are familiar with the iPad's the most popular tablet out in the market which runs on a iOS. The demand of iPad is growing way faster than one can imagine. Furthermore, there is a recent report on Apple iPad which states that company is about to ship 20 million iPad 2 in Q3 this year. This fast growing technology has been adopted in the board room of some companies today. Whereas on the other hand some say that iPad is not just enough for their companies employees. It does not consolidate all the capabilities that a normal employee would need from such device. However, due to its growing demand in the market many companies have started mimicking this apple product which runs on the Android as their main OS for the device. Since Android is open source OS it is much more convenient for companies to install this OS in their mimicked tablets. Adding to that Android is also a popular OS in the cell phone market. Users who are familiar with Android and think that Android can do better for their work environment will definitely invest into one of these tablets which are not made by Apple. Not only that people will also be able to see the cost difference between two and get them at a low cost with same features as apple.

Now on the other hand Intel is investing 300 billion dollars into the companies who are inventing new technologies. Recently, Asus UX2100 announced which is a 2.4 pounds Ultra Notebook with an 11.4 inch display and could run up to a Core i7 processor in an Ultra thin design. The first set of Ultra Notebook is expected to go on sale during end of this year. Isn't that Amazing!

I have recently seen a video showing these types of Ultra Notebooks based on Intel chips. I believe that these will be a huge blast which could blow away this tablet market. This prediction is based on whole outlook. Things you can do with a tablet and an Ultra Notebook. I think that Ultra Notebook will have more processing power, longer battery life, very light in weight, and will be able handle most business applications such as MSOffice 2010, Quick Books, etc. As far as I know these tablets can't run these applications in real time. Yes, you can run it using virtual environment but then you would have to rely on an internet connection.