May 1, 2013 | News, Wireless
I thought they were already there. But one of the biggest phone and wireless?companies of today, T-Mobile, is joining the U.S.?stock market.
As of 10:30 today, T-Mobile’s stocks are at?$16.54 a share. This comes in the wake of buying out their formal rival, Metro PCS Communication. Forgive me: the?newly integrated company is called T-Mobile USA.?The shares started at $16 a pop at 9:30 this morning, so within an hour, the increase is starting. T-Mobile is the 4th biggest US wireless company, serving around 40 million customers. I used to be one of them (long story, don’t ask). This recent restructure has given T-Mobile USA more airwave power. This and their stock debut will likely make it an ever increasing force against the top three competitors: Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.
So what’s to make of this new venture? First off, it’s about time! Had they gone on the market years earlier, maybe they would be in the top 3. Hopefully, they can knock off Sprint (whoops! Did I say that?)! You can thank their parent company, Deutsche Telekom?for that one. I just hope T-Moblie USA doesn’t have a stock slide. Remember how excited Facebook was about going on the stock? Look at how fast those stocks fell. Apple stocks fell 40% since September 2012. On paper, I think it’s wise T-Mobile take this gamble. But is it? Does T-Mobile has what it takes to survive big bad Wall St.?
Apr 30, 2013 | News, Security
Yesterday, I reported about social media hacking and hoax dangers. This came to light last week when a false tweet caused stocks to drop in a matter of seconds. Now, Twitter says there’s little end in sight to this danger.
Twitter warns journalist these hacks are likely to continue. But they also have a memo giving news people tips to avoid getting hit. Don’t give out your passwords liberally, and not at all over the Internet. Change your passwords often. But the social media site is going a step further: They’re telling journalist and offices to designate one computer for stories and another computer specifically for tweets. They’re also encouraging people to use long and hard passwords, at least 20 characters long and mix up letters and numbers. I find it funny Twitter is coming up with it’s system to protect it’s users, but yet it’s not ready to be released to the public.
So until then, I guess we’re on our own. But these tips aren’t just good for Twitter and for journalists, they’re good for anybody who uses a computer for any reason. So in other words, these tips are good for about all of us. Even big banks and major corporations are getting hacked! So it won’t be anything for them to attack your system. The sad thing is that Twitter doesn’t have this two-step security yet, despite this heinous attack. Is it going to take an even bigger attack for this system to come for Twitter to step up to the plate?
Apr 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
Below is an interview conducting with Gregg Housh.? One of the more influential internet activists of our time.
Joe: ?How long have you been in the IT field?
Gregg: ?I have been tinkering with technology for around 24 years and professionally for around 19.
Joe: ?What do you feel is your biggest achievement?
Gregg: ?About 5 years ago I was in a chat room and we were discussing the issues with Scientology and a video we had made. ?We felt at the time it would be a good idea to try and set up a worldwide protest at every Scientology building we could. ?Now this protest would be unprecedented because frankly no one had done an anonymous protest across the world before. On February 10th, 2008 thousands of people gathered at over 140 buildings in 42 countries to protest against Scientology.
Joe: A pretty big deal so much so that it caused you(Gregg) to become a person of interest.
Gregg: ?Yes well the big thing about doing a protest is that in most cities you have to actually file permits to be where you want to be as a legal protest. Someone had to put their name to it and I was more than willing to do so. What followed I couldn’t have imagined. I spent 7 months in court due to these protests. Costing me valuable time and of course money. Luckily in the 7th month the judge decided to offer a CWOF (Continuance without finding). Both parties basically got a restraining order placed on them, I could not be 1000 feet from the two Scientology buildings in the Boston area and the people of Scientology were also told not to come 1000 feet to me for 1 year.
Joe: ?Pretty crazy stuff, so what are you currently doing now?
Gregg: ?I am the owner and operator of Local SEO Company (http://www.localseocompany.net/ .) I spend a lot of my time on work, but just as much time on activism. I am currently helping to build a site called Upriser at upriser.com.
Joe: ?upriser.com , could you elaborate on what that site will be?
Gregg: ?The intention of upriser.com is to get your voice heard. The various people who have been involved with activism, specifically organized online, for the last few years have learned a lot. The tools that we use, the sites that we visit, its all great. The problem is that new people need to learn how to use multiple sites and tools to get the job done right. Instead of having someone visit 20 sites to get an action organized or the word out about something, we felt it would be a good idea to create a site that had most of that functionality in one place. So anyone could go to the site and with the click of a button have access to the tools needed to start their discussion or action.
Joe: ?Is this site live now?
Gregg: ?It is currently in Alpha stage but people can go to it and try it out. Currently we are looking for a full launch somewhere in early May.
Joe: ?So how much will this cost people? I mean it must cost something to get your voice heard?
Gregg: ?The site is completely free to post too and will have all the tools needed to start a protest or to highlight an issue that maybe happening and hopefully by doing that you will get your voice heard by the right people.
Joe: ?Well that would be the big draw. It is one thing to post something and hope people see it, it is another to post something and know that a big community of like minded people are their to see it and help.
Gregg: ?We hope so, the tools this site will have gives people many ways to get the word out.
Joe: ?Well Gregg I do appreciate your time with us today about.
Gregg: You are very welcome Joe, anytime.
Apr 29, 2013 | internet, News, scam, Security
Remember last week, when one tweet caused the stock market to lose 150 points and over $136 billion dollars in an instant? It did recover, but it’s a sign of powerful social media is, and how easily it can be abused.
You can’t blame this all on the hoaxer. It was the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal agency watchdog for business and stock exchange, who allowed Twitter and Facebook to be broadcasting sites. This hoax went out to financial data terminals, which sent that data to financial institutions, and on and on. I wonder what would have happened if the hoax was never found out. Let’s not forget: this hoax broke out around the same time?when Syrian hackers attacked the Associated Press.
These Syrian hackers are the main suspects of this hoax. Keep in mind Syria is in the midst of a civil war and in the middle of an unstable region. Fortunately, enough traders were close enough to?a media outlet?to know there were no injuries or explosions at the White House. Then things went back to normal, sort of.
The SEC and other agencies are working hard to prevent a repeat of this. Of course, Twitter and Associated Press are keeping quiet. But lets’ get closer to home. How many tweets or Facebook posts or You Tube videos do you know have put out false doctrine? Remember the social media hoax that said Eddie Murphy was dead? Or the one where Bill Cosby made this ‘I’m 83 and Tired’?post and it wasn’t really him? They didn’t even get Dr. Cosby’s age right.?I have a solution: Don’t believe everything you read! When you hear something this fantastic, check and double check these sources. One thing about social media, it’s easier to catch on to these lies.?What other lies will be fed to us next?
Apr 28, 2013 | internet, networking, News
By now, many people have discovered they can boost their social life and express themselves by using social media site Twitter. Some have discovered they can speed up the process by creating phony Twitter followers.
According to two Italian researchers, fake?Twitter following?has become a multi-million dollar business. One can get 1,000 phony followers for under $20. And this research says this market is by no means limited to the underworld.?Major corporations from Pepsi to Mercedes-Benz?have been called?out for suspicious?number of Twitter gains and losses in one day, so have some U.S. politicians, even celebrities. There are over 20 million fake Twitter followers out today. And last year, as a conservative estimate, $40 million dollars were made from fake Twitter followers.
The difference between Twitter and Facebook is that Facebook requires emails for sign-up. Twitter, it’s a lot easier to pull off phony followers. Do I have a problem with this? Yes and no. From a business standpoint, I understand why people and corporations would use this boost. You may not get that many likes on Facebook, but if you got a bunch of Twitter followers, real or not, you suddenly look really good! On the other hand, it’s not really the same as getting real life people as followers. In some ways, it almost feels like cheating. Plus, Twitter is working to get rid of fake followers, so they’re not going to last long anyway. So what do you think of fake Twitter followers: a good thing or a fraud?
Apr 27, 2013 | News, Security
Living social, a website that gives local deals on everything from food to travel to recreation and everything in between, was hacked. It’s estimated 50 million people around the world were affected. There is good news: No credit card or any other financial data was compromised, that is, as of this writing.
To avoid that from happening, Living Social customers will be asked to changed their passwords. The only countries not hit were?a handful in?east Asia, like Thailand, because they use a different system. Living Social’s top execs aren’t saying much about this cyber attack. All they’re basically saying is the investigation is still pending.
This comes in the wake of several cyber attacks recently. The Associated Press’s Twitter page was hacked earlier this week. Someone nearly brought stocks down with a Twitter hoax. Evernote, a software note taking and designing service,?was forced to change it’s passwords due to hacking. I find it interesting the Living Social?attack comes?a month after they get over $100 million dollars in ?a financial boost. So if you use Living Social, please be careful. Online, we should all be careful. I don’t think these hackings have any end in?sight. ?What are some tips we could use to protect ourselves?
Apr 26, 2013 | Computer technology, Entertainment
What do the Edsel car, Crystal Pepsi, the XFL,?and Burger King’s bacon sundae?have in common? They were hyped up products that turned out to be disasters.?Thinking about where the Windows tablet might end up, I wonder what some recent tech flops are.
10. My Space: In the mid-2000s, this was the next big thing. But?My?Space couldn’t handle competition from?Facebook, You Tube or Google Plus. This New My Space has about as much potential as New Coke did in the 1980s.
9. Sony PSP Go: Great concept at the wrong time. This gadget was to download games. Well, by 2009-2010, you could do that on many of your hand held devices, and skipped the $250 this ill-timed electronic cost.
8. Google Buzz: Sometimes, it’s just best to stick with what you know. Nobody was using this social media. The only thing it was good for was for?critics to pounce on.
7. Sony Mylo: Remember these little guys? How are you going to attract 15-24 year olds with an expensive price tag and lack of PSP games? Sony Mylo lasted about two years.
6. HD Radio: This was supposed to be a plus?for?free radio service. They didn’t count the cost of manufacturing and poor marketing.?They didn’t count on competition from?Sony or Insignia.
5. Sony Aibo: I have fond memories of this electronic dog. But it got expensive and old, and by 2007, it got put down.
4. Facebook E-Mail: Aren’t there enough companies that offer email service?
3. Apple Maps: The Statue of Liberty site has no Statue of Liberty. The Eiffel Tower is cut in half. Woolworth’s lunch counters are still in service. Welcome to the world of Apple Maps.
2. Windows 8: It had the same capacities as Windows 7, except a start button. When a company makes a new product faction, that faction is?supposed to be better, not confuse everybody.
1. Microsoft Zune: In 2006, this was supposed to rival the iPod. Instead, it made it’s competition look so good. In 2008, Zune revenue was less than one percent of iPod. In 2011, this monstrosity was finally discontinued.
Can you think of even bigger flops?
Apr 25, 2013 | Computer technology
?A workman is only as good as his tools?; much how an internet marketer is limited by the SEO tools at his disposal.
The problem is though; SEO has changed a lot in the last 12 months, and in 2013 you need a new internet marketing strategy to make your links as natural as possible. This has made a marketers? job more difficult, but there is help out there.
There are a still some SEO tools ? both free and paid for ? that you can use to improve the visibility of your website. So whether you?re just starting out or have been playing the SEO game for a long time, you could always use a helping hand. Here then, are our top 5 free SEO tools:
1. Google Analytics
Used on 10 million websites and counting, Google Analytics is the undoubtedly the King of free SEO tools. The user-friendly dashboard provides marketers with details statistics about their websites? overall performance; aiding your SEO efforts.
For example; you can see how much traffic is coming to your website and from what sources; visitor behaviour around your site; and those all important conversions. Armed with this information, you can make informed decisions as to the next step in your SEO campaign.
2. Google and Bing Webmaster Tools
Google and Bing Webmaster Tools are essential for making sure that search engine spiders have crawled and indexed your pages. These two tools are basically the same ? but for different search engines ? and offer tools that:
- Submit your sitemap and check this for errors
- Monitor how frequently your website is crawled
- Provide link reports and highlight any broken or suspicious links pointing to your site
Many marketers focus their efforts on ranking in Google, but Bing shouldn?t be forgotten. Search Engine Watch recently reported that Bing has a 16% market share making it a very lucrative market for webmasters.
3. SEOQuake
SEOQuake is a comprehensive browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, that should be an important tool in your SEO efforts. When activated, SEOQuake will display important information about a webpage including Google PageRank, AlexaRank, Domain Age and more.
This is hugely beneficial for your link building, as it can help you place your links on authority websites; in turn, boosting your website?s visibility and authority. You can get all this information from a number of other SEO tools; but SEOQuake provides it all in one go making it a must-use for marketers.
4. Open Site Explorer
Competitor backlink research should be an important part of your internet marketing strategy. And with Open Site Explorer from SEOMoz, it is easier and quicker than ever to access this kind of information.
This free SEO tool boasts a really user-friendly interface and is pop-up free (unlike some free tools on the web). By entering a website URL, the tool will provide you with a comprehensive list of the pages on the net linking to that domain.
5. YoastSEO for WordPress
Our final pick and a firm favourite amongst web markers is the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. If your website is built using this CMS, you really should install Yoast as it makes optimising each page simple.
Never again will you forget to add your ALT text; Yoast walks you through the whole process of on-page optimisation. This is a great tool for beginners or multi-admin websites, as it ensures that all the important information is present and correct.
By including these tools in your online marketing strategy, SEO doesn?t have to be a challenge. In fact, you can give your 2013 SEO strategy a real boost by putting these ? and other ? tools to the test. What are your favourite SEO tools?
Superdream are a full service agency specialising in digital and SEO. Find out more on their website.
Apr 25, 2013 | Computer technology, News, Uncategorized
Microsoft?refuses to answer that question. Don’t expect it to be high. According to Strategy Analytics, an independent research firm, they sold around 3 million Window Tablets. But that’s not a good number. Not by a long shot.
If these numbers are true, then they own less than eight percent of the tablet market, compared to 48% of Apple and 43% of Android. The only good thing Window tablets did was chip into the ‘others’ category; that’s down from 2.7% to one percent. This report claims market confusion, limited distribution and app shortages are the culprits of Microsoft’s woeful tablet sales. I guess it’s better than where at Q4 12: zero percent!
What’s to make of these numbers? I guess some would?say it’s a good start for Microsoft’s tablets. But I respectfully disagree. If this is such a good sign, why didn’t?Microsoft come out with these?numbers? If it had better apps and organization, then Window tablet’s numbers would be higher. I?just know they better get their act together. The same report said ?over 40 million tablets were sold between January-March 2013. That number was less than 19 million in Q4 2012. So we’re talking double within a matter of months. So is this 7.5% number good for Windows tablet? Can Microsoft compete in the ever increasing tablet market?
Apr 24, 2013 | News, Wireless
The battle between Apple and Android has been going on for a while now. But I think it was the release of Samsung Galaxy?3 is what gave Android and it’s allies the edge. The numbers don’t lie. But what about the Samsung Galaxy 4?
They have very big shoes to fill. In fact, some call Galaxy 3 the greatest smartphone device of all time. But it looks like they’re giving it the honest try: 1080p 5-inch display, 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and 9.88 watt hour battery. The feel of Galaxy 4 is different. It’s thicker and has more of a square texture. It’s all plastic, so if you’re passionate about the plastic vs. metal debate, take that into consideration. The cover is a lot better than the SG3. It unlocks the phone and a ‘no lock passcode’ is set.
Now let’s look at the software. It runs on Android 4.2.2. This notification panel has more option and features. All the applications use Air View. It’s multi-window use is perfect for today’s multi-tasking, which so many of us are doing these days. It’s speed and power is just as good, if not better. My favorite feature is the camera. One pet peeve about picture taking is when you have the perfect setting, then a stranger walks behind you as you snap the picture. With Samsung Galaxy 4’s camera, you can erase that stranger. They’re other cool camera features I don’t have time to get into here.
Like I said, I’m not sure if the Galaxy 4 will or can pass the Galaxy 3, but they’re putting forth the effort. I think the SG3 has the better look, but I’d get the Galaxy 4 for the speed and camera alone. I haven’t heard much about price yet, also a concern to me and I’m sure many Americans out there. Will you be in line for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy 4?
