Amazon-Branded Smartphones - Essay Example

Amazon-Branded Smartphones What is Heartbleed? Why it is a talk of town today? It is a newly discovered bug that put users’ information at risk. Information like password and any other sensitive data for both web users and web developers can be seen and exploited by hackers. Heartbleed enables a hacker to access the memory of data servers. It gives them the ability to penetrate the very core of a website because it leaks sensitive information– it bleeds. Basically, website stores usernames and passwords, but some eCommerce websites stored credit card information, as well. This information is highly vulnerable to being hacked. Have you heard about OpenSSL or SSL? SSL means Secure Sockets Layer. It is responsible for hiding your information if you logged in on a certain website. It is also responsible for hiding administrators’ and webmaster’s credentials for a particular site. What is OpenSSL then? It’s open-source software. SSL is being implemented across the web using OpenSSL. OpenSSL is a component of a widely used program to run a website like Apache and Nginx. Hence, a vast number of websites are at high risk of Heartbleed. Most questions raised by internet users if it is safe to change their passwords in the midst of the bug issues. It is advised that if the site’s operator does not confirm yet that a particular site is already safe from Heartbleed, stay calm, and reset your passwords if it’s already safe. There is no effect if you are going to change your passwords in the midst of the vulnerability issues and would just give hackers the chance to discover your new passwords. Is there a way a user can check if the site he joined in is vulnerable of Heartbleed? Yes. LastPass is a program and a great tool for checking if a website is secure or infected by Heartbleed. It will check the website’s very core if it has traces of OpenSSL vulnerability. LastPass, aside from checking a website security, it will also give a free access to its tool that will remember all the user’s passwords. LastPass will encrypt and protect passwords. The user will then access his online accounts using a single log in password or entry through LastPass. REFLECTION: The most important thing that we can do during this unsecured times is to stay calm. We can do a lot of things to protect our accounts online, but we can only do the best response to Heartbleed if we will stay calm. Don’t panic. If you are a banker online, do not worry, because most bank accounts do not use OpenSSL. They are using more secured data encryption tool. But, you still need to make sure that your accounts are secured. Watch for email newsletters coming from your bank. The bank’s webmasters surely will send you an alert about Heartbleed if ever a particular online banking platform is also infected. How calm am I? I am using ugly passwords. I used passwords combinations that are hard to guess. I found randomcodegenerator.com a very helpful tool to generate the ugliest password ever. I wrote all my passwords on a piece of paper. I made a copy of them. I put a copy in my wallet. But right now, I want to consider LastPass. I can’t remember my ugly passwords, but LastPass promises to remember it for me. I will check it out. How about you? Student Name: First Name Surname - Course number and section. Title: Facebook squashes marketers’ ‘like’-bait in News Feed update By: Jennifer Van Grove Published: April 10, 2014 SUMMARY: Facebook has taken another step to improve users’ experience! Have you read Newsfeed that asks you to like pages and stories? Say goodbye as Facebook will penalize pages and marketers who share their contents other than the natural way. Asking readers to like and share content on Facebook is beyond the natural way. One rule of thumb – share the best contents naturally. It’s solicitation. Facebook defines it as like-bait. Some marketers ask feed readers to like, share or click a link that contains nothing but ads. In connection, marketers will notice a change on the number of reach each of their page updates gets. This is done by Facebook to protect the people – you – from spam. Due to freedom and less restrictions on Facebook, marketers and webmasters take the advantage to drive traffic from the giant network to their own static and landing pages. How can we understand more about “like-baiting”? It is explicitly asking the readers to like on the content. It aims to boost the views of a particular content. Say it has a normal page impressions of 1000, by soliciting likes, comment, share or recommendation, the impressions would double up! This is not normal. Facebook understands that great contents naturally go viral with the millions of eyes looking at the Facebook timeline. But it should not be the case of the contents that are merely commercial in nature. While it gave a sigh of relief to Facebook users, it gave displeasure to marketers! REFLECTION: Whoa! Is social network like Facebook taking an approach like Google now? As I’ve seen it, Google slapped many marketers in their faces. That is the main reason why they are running to Facebook for help to increase their targeted traffic. They built Fan Pages! They built Facebook groups! With Google Penguin and Panda updates, marketers who are promoting their contents other than the natural way got penalized by Google, giving a cut of their organic traffic! Since Facebook is the giant social network – they run into it since the latter can give them targeted and real traffic right from their Fan Pages! The traffic could multiple millions of views by way of like-bait especially using memes! Now that Facebook has taken steps to improve the users’ experience, I am not sure the next step marketers would take to recover the loss of traffic and revenue! Twitter? Let’s see. Student Name: First Name Surname - Course number and section. Title: Microsoft to Windows XP users: The jig is up By: Lance Whitney Published: April 8, 2014 SUMMARY: Microsoft has ended the support for Windows XP. These means that PCs’ health is vulnerable to malware and viruses. That is why Microsoft encourages users to stop the XP habit. It does not mean that Windows XP will stop working – it will remain to be Windows XP anyway. But the end of Microsoft support means that XP won’t be treated anymore to bug fixes and the like. If there are new vulnerabilities found on XP, Microsoft would no longer take charge for fixes such issues, giving hackers the chance to penetrate on the system and exploit the data available on your drive. In addition, it also cuts offs the telephone support for XP users. You are all alone! Right now, in this modern world, there are estimated of 18 to 30 percent number of PCs that still runs Windows XP. That’s quite a number! Many businesses still use Windows XP because of the compatibility issues of their programs. Some companies are using accounting systems or software that are not yet compatible with the higher versions of Windows like Windows 7 and 8. Tom Murphy said that they have announced the end of extended support for Windows XP in September 2007. That was seven years ago. He is the director of communications for Windows at Microsoft. Since then, they have been working hard to raise awareness about the end of support, and helping users to migrate to the new versions of Windows, as well. More so, it is reported that more than 95 percent of the ATMs still run XP! But Murphy said that banks ensure the security of their ATM machines and similar equipment as opposed to the system that is used to browse the internet. REFLECTION: I was alarmed to hear the news. It was broadcasted on the Television before I search for news online. I am aware that there are still non-geek folks out there who love the features of Windows XP. I may call it a sentimental value. It has been part of their online life – their XP features. However, as Murphy said, they have raised awareness for this expected event seven years from now! It’s quite a long time and I am sure that many people are ready to switch to modern OS like Windows 7 or 8! As for the 18 percent Windows XP users, they should understand the risk. They have no security encryption like what the banks use to protect their system even if they are using XP, as Murphy has explained. I have encountered malware before, and modern malware cannot be easily identified as malware! They look like a promising program that can boost up your PCs performance – but it’s dangerous. While anti-virus can protect your old programs, but as software like Avast continually improve their system, as well, it might be no longer compatible with XP! Beware! Try to adapt! Change your OS Now! Student Name: First Name Surname - Course number and section. Title: Amazon phone: Forget the 3D gimmicks. It’s all about the price. By: Roger Cheng Published: April 12, 2014 SUMMARY: It’s about the price as Amazon’s expected Smartphone will be sold out in the market for a low price than its competitors. The products might be released this fall. It is said to offer a product that undercuts competitors. It has a lot of wonderful features like 3D and multiple front-facing cameras, but the only way to penetrate the market is to offer a budget-friendly gadget! One of the reasons is that, end users impressions about Amazon-branded Smartphone are way behind those manufactured by Apple and Samsung. Samsung is the leading provider of Smartphone and it controls nearly a third of the market. Apple owns 15 percent. There are small chunks left for Amazon to market with, and with its cheap price for the device – they can penetrate the existing and loyal markets of Apple and Samsung. Who knows? In addition, the long term plan for Amazon is not to make a profit for selling the device itself. As a giant online shopping market, they aim to make money by ways of their services and products sold on Amazon. They use Amazon-branded Smartphones as a medium for people to buy on Amazon! The company plans to highlight its streaming service, app store and shopping store. Giving customers the mobile access these services can trigger more repeat orders and patronage. sold on Amazon. They use Amazon-branded Smartphones as a medium for people to buy on Amazon! The company plans to highlight its streaming service, app store and shopping store. Giving customers the mobile access these services can trigger more repeat orders and patronage. REFLECTION: I am more about the quality of a product. Over the years, I’ve been loyal to a brand. But somehow, I am not skeptical to try another brand if I can see a great advantage in switching. Amazon has been a trusted name for years, not on Smartphone though. But the price could be attractive, plus all the bells and whistles that Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S family have for their high-end gadgets. I am more interested in the camera features; especially that selfie is still an addiction for youngsters and young adults alike! Student Name: First Name Surname - Course number and section. Title: How to clean your laptop By: Matt Elliot Published: April 11, 2014 SUMMARY: You need soft, lint-free cloths, mild dish detergent such as Dawn, a can of compressed air, and Isopropyl rubbing alcohol in cleaning your laptop. Before you start cleaning your laptop, you need to switch it off. Better remove the battery if it’s possible. Firstly, you have to clean the lid and bottom panel. Mixing a couple drops of Dawn and cups of warm water is a good solution. Dip your lint-free cloth and use it in wiping the surfaces of your laptop. Make sure to dry it up. Next task is the keyboard. Make sure that there is no liquid that will spill inside your keyboard, use the can of compressed air to remove the liquid. Using Isopropyl rubbing alcohol is effective because it will evaporate faster. You are almost done! Improve the laptop’s performance by cleaning its vents. Use the can of compressed air to remove the dusts inside. It can boost your device’s performance because it can better control its temperature when that part is already clean. If you plan to clean the inner parts, like dust that is stuck behind the vent, make sure to consult the user’s manual, and keep the small screws in a box. REFLECTION: It is always advisable to work in a tidy environment. I always clean my laptop with a lint-free cloth and a solution I bought at the computer store. But note – you have to be extra careful in cleaning your laptop, especially the screen! The screen is very sensitive, so always use a lent-free cloth; you can also use micro-fiber cloth you can buy in the nearest computer store. Safety first – always unplug your device before cleaning as it can cause electric shocked! Do not disassemble your device if you do not know what to do, always ask for help. Read More