Reviews Of New Internet Security Tools

Author Bio: This review of new Internet security tools is brought to you by Helen Wallis on behalf of London based IT Support firm Cheeky Munkey, who provide IT services including IT outsourcing, hosting, cloud services, VoIP or Web filtering.

It is beneficial to have an internet security tool that prevents keyloggers from being able to see what you are typing.

If it is coming up to the expiry date of your current internet security tool(s), then you have one of two choices, renew or replace. If you are not satisfied with your current internet security tool(s), then you may want to consider trying out one of the three security suites we have reviewed below.

Panda Internet Security 2013:

Panda Internet Security 2013 claims to offer protection against internet threats, giving you and your family peace of mind when using the internet to browse, shop and interact. The security suite provides protection against viruses, online fraud, identify theft and spam.

Pros:
The best feature of the 2013 security package is its private data protection browser. You can use it with either Internet Explorer or Firefox. This browser tool runs on a separate network to your PC and is free from website history so that you can enjoy private browsing. This is particularly useful for those who regularly use their credit or debit cards to shop online.

Panda Internet Security 2013 is also fantastic for cleaning up malware, blocking unsafe URLS and preventing USB-based spyware attacks.

Cons:
This internet security tool is let down by the fact it fails to offer encryption and shredding features. In order to obtain these features you have to upgrade to the global package. The software is also missing a tool for vetting social media websites, which is something expected from most modern day internet security tools.

Final thoughts…
Panda Internet Security 2013 offers a light, fast and complete security solution, however it is still considered to be fairly basic. Although it offers a wide range of features and uses modern cloud based technology to offer extensive protection, there are still necessary features missing which prevent it from being a high ranking security package.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013:

Kaspersky have been producing security software since the nineties. Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 is a mid-level product that covers all of the key bases well. It has a wide range of features including anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-phishing tools as well as extensive parental control and an intelligent firewall.



Pros:
This internet security tool has the added benefit of the ‘Safe Money’ feature. This enforces a secure browser when you are online banking or using your card details to make a purchase. It uses a virtual keyboard to encrypt the keys you press so that people trying to key log cannot record your actions.

Kaspersky 2013 also provides better parental control than most other suites on the market today. Parents can easily set up restrictions and block websites giving them the peace of mind that their children are safe whilst browsing the internet.

Cons:
Although Kaspersky’s malware clean-up is very effective, the process does take a long time. Many people have also found that the tool slightly slows down the overall performance of their computer systems.

Final thoughts…
Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 is a brilliant package to own. It has everything you need and is competent across all areas including phishing and spam protection. The new ‘Safe Money’ feature is a fantastic addition and perfect for protecting your details whilst you complete online financial transactions.

AVG Internet Security 2013:

The AVG Internet Security suite for 2013 provides all of the features you would expect from an average security package. From the looks of things it has had a makeover and is now adorned with pretty colourful tiles which have been optimised for touch screen operation. The question is whether or not the company has channelled all of their efforts into the security tool’s aesthetics, rather than its features?

Pros:
AVG Internet Security is a fantastic anti-virus tool and has the added benefit of a do not track feature, which is great for private browsing. The spam filter is exceptionally effective and the online shield is competent at blocking dangerous websites. Overall it is a great all-rounder.

Cons:
If you are looking to install security software on a device that is already affected by malware, then the AVG Internet Security 2013 tool probably isn’t your best choice. Many people have found installation to be tricky on infected devices.

Another issue is the software’s firewall. Although it is competent at doing its job, it can be easily disabled. This is a re-occurring mistake of many internet security tools.

Final thoughts:

The AVG Internet Security suite provides a fantastic antivirus tool, but you could also argue that the free version of the software does too. The standout feature is definitely the spam filter, which out performs many other versions.

Conclusion:

The three internet security tools we have reviewed are great all-rounders, each with strengths in different areas. If you have had a good experience using one brand over another, then it is likely you will stick to what you know. However if you are looking to try one of these three internet security packages for the first time then we would recommend Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 over the other two tools. It benefits from having the stand out ‘virtual keyboard’ feature which is very beneficial to those who shop or bank online. 


Image credits: Robbert van der Steeg&david.orban.

Surprising News On What People Do With Their Mobile Phones

One of the biggest ways that you can tell what year a movie or TV show is from is by noticing what telephones people are talking on. If it’s an old rotary phone, it’s generally prior to the 1970s. The same goes when it comes to what mobile phone device they are using. Remember those huge car phones that became popular in the 1980s as a status symbol among the rich? The phones, which recently seen in the National Geographic Channel miniseries on “The 80s,” were big and unwieldy and literally cost as much as a car did back then.

Mobile phones have changed over time:

Even 15 years ago, just having a cell phone was still seen as an expensive luxury, although the size of the phone was smaller than the 1980s. How the world has changed since then. Now mobile phones are ubiquitous these days – a recent Pew Internet Survey found that an incredible 91 percent of people now have mobile phones, with 56 percent of them having smartphones. So if you are interested in reaching people for your business, you should consider mobile advertising campaigns.

So what do you think people do with their mobile phones? Here are some surprising facts about mobile phone usage:

1. After text messaging, checking email is the most popular non-calling activity with smartphone users, with 75% of the American users using the phone to check their email, according to a recent survey.
2. According to a recent study, participants checked their mobile phones an average of 34 times a day, usually checking their email and Facebook accounts.
3. Here is a rather disturbing statistic – some people use their phones everywhere they go, including the restroom. Yes, an incredible 75 percent of people have used their phones in the restroom.
4. According to the Daily Mail, a new poll has discovered that the most common way a person finds out his or her spouse has been cheating is by going through their mobile phone.
5. Emails devoted to shopping during the holiday season are increasingly popular, and 45% of people check such emails on their mobile phones.

Interesting statistics, to be sure. If you are interested in mobile advertising campaigns, you need to pay attention to such things. After all, it is important to find out where people are using mobile phones, who is using them, and what they are using them for, in order to best reach your market.

One way to do so is to use an email marketing and advertisement company like LiveIntent. Companies who run email marketing platforms like them can help your advertising efforts. Since email is something that your target audience will check on various platforms, this is a good way to reach customers on their desktop computer, or their mobile phones. And the ads can show up just in emails where the readers are more likely to buy your products, thereby helping your marketing impact and increasing the chances people will be interested in your product. Good luck.

Author Bio:

Lisa Swan writes for a variety of computing sites. She lives in New York City.

How To Optimize Your WordPress Blog For Speed?

There are over 60million websites currently using the WordPress platform and content management system (CMS). This number includes sites hosted on the actual WordPress site, as well as those that use external web hosting but continue to use the WordPress CMS.

Despite there being hundreds of custom WordPress themes, plug-ins, applications, and various other features that users can take advantage of to make their site unique, the fact remains that most of the time, it is extremely easy to tell if as site is a WordPress site or not. If it is, then there is nothing wrong with that. However, all site owners, not just WordPress customers, are always looking to have the quickest, best performing site possible.

The Power of Speed:

Various pieces of research suggest that three seconds is how long your site and its pages should be taking to load. Given that different research has shown top sites like Amazon and eBay to fall well outside that, we’ll take that with a pinch of salt. At the same time, you have to know that big brands are going to be given more slack by browsers. If your small business WordPress site is slow, there’ll be no sympathy.

Here are some tips for speeding it up.

Look at Your Server:

Is your site on a U.S. based server, but you’re actually targeting browsers in the UK? If so, you’re experiencing a familiar problem, one that is slowing down your site and undermining your objectives massively.

Ensure your server is based where the majority of your customers are, so that they’re getting the experience they should be whenever they head to your site.

Compress All Images:

Some guides such as this one are saying, “Remove your images,” but where would the sense in that be when web design is focused on visuals more than ever?

If you’re using your website for blogging, images will make it more engaging and attractive, too.

The answer is simple: keep the images, but compress them, before you upload them. You do this because even if your site automatically reduces the actual size, the file size remains the same. Image Optimizer is a great tool for doing this, and can reduce file size by up to 80%.

Minify:

Using Minify in addition to compressing images yourself will make your site even quicker, as it streamlines everything so your server can load it quicker.

A note of caution, however; don’t believe that, because you’re using Minify, that it is okay to load up your site with heavy functions and applications. All that will do is give back the performance gains you’ve earned, and possibly make your site even more of an ordeal for browsers. Rather than seeing Minify as an opportunity to make your site more complex, see it as your chance to make a simple site even better.

Take Advantage of the Cache:

You’ll need to use a WordPress caching plug-in for this feature, but it’ll take a significant chunk of time off your page loading times. Caching works by storing your data externally, so that repeat users can get data from there rather than having to put pressure on your server each time they land on your site. If you have static web content, this will massively reduce loading times of pages, and your servers’ workload, as browsers will just get the same data repeatedly from the cache.

The Big Impact:

If you put all of these ideas into practice together, you can expect to see an improvement in page loading times of up to 65%. In a world where time really is money and people want data immediately, can you afford not to be doing more to get your important information in front of your customers’ eyes quicker?

Author Bio:

Robert McKinley is a technology expert who regularly blogs on the impact a VPS host can have on website speeds in comparison to a shared hosting platform. Robert also specializes in areas associated with CMS-based websites, taking a particular interest in WordPress and Joomla.

Why Recycling Your Old Laptop Is Important?

In a fast-moving world such as technology, computers become outdated quickly and the need to dispose of them properly becomes more and more important. Figures from United Nations show that around 50 million metric tonnes of electrical waste is accumulated around the world every year.

Regardless of how much landfill space they can take up, computers contain hazardous chemicals such as lead oxide, mercury, nickel, zinc and cadmium. If these toxins and other heavy metals end up in landfill rather than a recycling centre, they can cause soil and water pollution and endanger wildlife. For example, cadmium can damage organisms in the soil which then affects the breakdown of organic matter. The substance has also been known to kill fish, which reduces their numbers.

At the same time as being a reason to produce laptops using less hazardous materials, it is a big reason to make sure your laptop is disposed of correctly when no longer needed.

What is computer recycling?

Laptop recycling is the process of either refurbishing a unwanted device or harvesting it for parts that can be of use elsewhere. Unwanted items can either be sent to a refurbishing business, a specialist recycling service or, if still in good working order, donated to schools and clubs in your area. Recycling can be as simple as donating to friends and family.

If the laptop is nearing the end of its life, be careful when donating to charity – it can prove a headache if they are left with, and have to dispose of, a non-functioning laptop.

At a recycling facility, the computer will be taken apart and its metals and plastics recycled where possible. Harmful materials will then be disposed of in the correct manner.

Recommended for you: Why Computers Recycling In Areas Should Be Done?

What are the benefits of recycling?

As mentioned earlier, proper disposal of unwanted electrical items avoids them unnecessarily clogging up landfill space and protects the environment. If you are donating you can also allow other people to buy laptops at an affordable price.

Many refurbishing companies give their revamped computers to school systems, correctional facilities and charity programs which allows the less fortunate to learn how to use them to prepare for their future.

What’s in my laptop?

There are some very valuable things that go into making a laptop; engineered plastics, steel, copper, aluminium and precious metals like gold, platinum and palladium. The recycling process attempts to recover these for use elsewhere once the device has reached the end of its life. In 2009, only an estimated 38 per cent of computers thrown away were recycled properly. The remainder end up in landfills where these materials are no longer available for reuse in the manufacturing of new products.

Often, the company you buy your laptop from will offer a free return service – ask before you buy. If this is not an option, your local council may run a scheme. For more details, go to the Environment Agency Website or contact your local authority. Whichever method you choose, make sure all of your personal data has been wiped from the machine before you give it away.

Image Credit: Flickr.

Author Bio:

Guest post contributed by Simon Jones. A technology geek who loves to give hints & tips when it comes to technology, not just using it, but also how to dispose of it correctly when the time comes, to help the environment. Simon also has a large knowledge of Business Software - BT Business Direct and helps people in business find the right software for their needs.

The Most Important Phonecalls Of All Time

Imagine a world without telephones, it’s pretty inconceivable. In a time when near enough everyone is little more than a punch of a few digits away, the youngest among us may struggle to think of a time when letters were the modus operandi.

Once, if you wanted to talk to someone you had to meet them face-to-face. The idea of which will surely send a shiver down the spine of many a tech-savvy, textaholic pre-teen.

So, what have been the most technologically significant phone calls in history? Perhaps these:

1867 – The beginning:

The first telephone call ever made. There is some question over whether Alexander Graham Bell or Elisha Gray should be fully credited with the invention of the telephone. It was, though, Bell who made the first telephone call in history in Boston on March 10, 1867.

The phone call, to his research assistant Thomas Watson – who was only in the next room – was as simple as: “Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you.”

1926 – The first transatlantic conversation:

After calling people within the same city, and then people within the same country, had been mastered the time came for overseas correspondence.

By 1926, making a call across a vast ocean was not a new idea. As early as 1915, short transmissions had been demonstrated as viable and calls had been made to ships for some time. A full conversation across an ocean as big as the Atlantic had not been a reality until the first call from London to New York was made. The first telephone cable between the UK and the US was laid underwater in 1956.

1946 – The first mobile telephone call:

Obviously a world away from the tiny, smooth handsets we have today, mobile phones have been about in some form or another for over 60 years. In the US, engineers from Bell Labs began work on a system to allow telephone calls to and from automobiles – this first of which was on June 17, 1946 in St Louis. Shortly after, AT&T offered Mobile Telephone Service. A range of unreliable, rudimentary mobile phones that offered limited coverage. Reporters and truck fleets were among the first to use the early mobile phones, which were very expensive and equally cumbersome.

1973 – The first hand-held call:

On April 3, 1973, Motorola employee Martin Cooper made the first ever hand-held mobile phone call to Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs. The device was the huge – to today’s eyes at least – Motorola DynaTAC prototype. It weighed 2.5 pounds and measured 9 inches long, it offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took ten hours to re-charge.

Prior to 1973, mobile telephony was limited to phones installed in cars and other vehicles.

1992 – The first text:

Not really classed as a ‘telephone call’ but important all the same. Short message service (SMS) was born on December 3, 1992. British engineer Neil Papworth, 22 at the time, used his computer to wish a "Merry Christmas" to Richard Jarvis, of Vodafone. He didn't get a reply because there was no way to send a text from a phone in those days.

That had to wait for Nokia's first mobile phone in 1993.

Image Credit: Flickr.

Author Bio:

Guest post contributed by Lauren Jones, an expert in the telephone system business, helping people & business to see the benefits of call handling services.

Do Password Strength Meters Actually Work?

Password strength meters are helpful in some cases, but are not always used effectively.

Consumers who frequently access websites are sometimes prompted by strength meters to improve their password security. A new study conducted by the University of California at Berkeley, Microsoft and the University of British Columbia indicated that these systems can be effective if they are established properly.

Serge Egelman, a research scientist at UC Berkeley, told ArsTechnica that people are more likely to enter passwords they have previously used when asked by strength meters to change their credentials. This is often the case for new accounts or ones that are not of great importance to consumers.

"Whereas we show that in a different context - when changing passwords for high-value accounts - then the meters actually do have an observable effect on behavior in that people do choose stronger passwords," Egelman told the news source. "And ironically that's the context where we're least likely to see real meters in real life."

Password strength meters are a good reminder that online security is necessary for anyone accessing important accounts through the Internet. Consumers who neglect such protection may experience major problems such as identity theft if hackers obtain this valuable information.

Rather than only generating strong passwords when reminded, people can use effective tools like a password manager to keep all of their accounts protected with complex and hard-to-crack passwords. These solutions constantly generate new credentials so users always have the latest safeguards for their websites.

Another great aspect of password managers is that they remove the burden from consumers who are constantly tasked with remembering a dozen or more unique credentials. Sometimes people decide to use the same passwords for all of their accounts because it is easy to do so, but this approach invites trouble if hackers know this particular phrase.

Password strength meters are helpful in some cases, but are not always used effectively.

Best Picture Sharing Apps of iPhone And Android

Nowadays image Sharing is kind of Common. There was a time when Digital Cameras were used for this purpose however now most of Smartphones features a nice camera to capture a stunning image.. However simply taking photos isn't enough, everybody desires to Share their photos with their friends and family, therefore here are some applications that can be used to share photos from your Smartphone. Whether it’s a iPhone iPod or iPad or an android Smartphone.

Flickr:

Flickr is a picture sharing and video Sharing App, it's a cross platform app that can be used from Windows also as From Smartphones, it has been taken by Yahoo In 2005. Its network has countless photos which you can like or share.

Wink:

You have Personal photos and you only wish to share with somebody special in your contacts. Here let me present you the right app. As it’s a personal image sharing application. From this app you'll be able to directly share photos along with your specified contacts. It conjointly syncs your contacts from your phone memory therefore you don’t need to Add individuals on your own.

Instagram:

Instagram is a image sharing, video sharing and a social Application, from this photos may also be shared to other social networks sites like Facebook, twitter, Google+ and tumbler. it had been created in October 2010 and its one of the foremost quick growing application; In august 2011 instagram proclaimed that a hundred and fifty million photos were shared through instagram. You can also edit your photos and apply numerous different filters to your photos before uploading or sharing them. Photos can be liked and commented upon; its platform it very tempting and this application is used from Windows and Android and iOSSmartphones.

It’s a free app,In both PlayStore and iStore.

Photobucket:

It’s a image sharing application only for android users and it's expected that its IOS version is going to be released shortly; as it’s a really far-famed and quick growing application for videos and image sharing, its one among the numerous advantage is that you can link the uploaded photos to Numerous other websites, it’s a cross platformapplication; you can use it on windows and your smartphone or tablet, image can be edited with a lot of filters present in the tools and another awesome feature is that the you can combine your different pictures to create a combo image. It’san extremely nice application that can be used for sharing photos along with your friends and family.

SphereShare:

Sphereshare is presently an android application however it'll be shortly launched for IOS.. Its speciality is that you just can upload panorama photos from your android smartphone or tablet and share them along with your friends and family. Photos of 360 degrees can also be uploaded and there is a option to see them in 3D, which make them look real. Photos can be liked andyou can comment on them and you can upload and download the images and share them on social networks sites like Facebook, twitter, tumbler and Google plus. And you'll be able to also check in at some city or area through this app with yourGoogle account