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  Geebo 11:26 am on December 26, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: flying, Galaxy Note 7 ( 2 ), Samsung ( 4 ), secuirty ( 4 ), traveling ( 16 )   

  Someone thought it was funny to make a Galaxy Note 7 prank on a plane 

  

  If you’ve flown anywhere within the last few months you probably heard an announcement about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smart phone. The reason is that the Note 7 has had a problem with some of the batteries exploding, therefore the device has not only been recalled by Samsung but it’s also been banned from being allowed on commercial flights. Also, if you’ve ever flown ever, you should know that when it comes to security, no one has a sense of humor. Not the TSA and not the plane’s staff.

  However, that did not stop someone from naming their device ‘Galaxy Note 7’ while using the in-flight wi-fi on a recent flight from San Francisco to Boston. Only after the warning of diverting the flight at 3am to a closed terminal was the device found not to be a Galaxy Note 7.

  You’ll also have to remember that this was also done during the holiday traveling season. People are already on their last nerve when it comes to flying. especially with connections and delayed flights and the likes. A stunt like this if taken to its illogical conclusion it could have had the potential to cause at least a massive regional snafu.

  So if you’re in an airport and you’re telling yourself “this will be funny”, no, no it won’t. Don’t be that guy.

  Samsung to start reselling the explosive Note 7 | Greg's Corner is discussing. Toggle Comments

   

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  Geebo 10:50 am on December 23, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Nintendo ( 3 ), phishing ( 92 ), Scams ( 1,656 ), Super Mario Runner   

  Super Mario Scammers 

  

  The character of the little Italian plumber Mario has been a mainstay of video games for over 30 years ever since his introduction as ‘Jumpman’ in the arcade classic Donkey Kong. So it should come as no surprise that when Nintendo released a Mario game for Apple devices recently, that it broke download records for iOS devices. It should also come as no surprise that scammers were immediately trying to take advantage of the game’s popularity.

  The game, called Super Mario Runner, comes in two versions. There is a free stripped-down version and a deluxe version that unlocks the full game for $9.99. Several places online are offering to unlock the game for free but as the saying goes there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Most of these offers are nothing more than phishing attacks that ask you for your personal information with the promise of unlocking the game for free on your iPhone or iPad. Of course that never happens and now you’ve just provided and identity thief with all the information they could ever need.

  Many of us have fond memories of Mario somewhere in our childhoods. Leave it to the lowly scammers to take something so cherished and innocent and corrupt it. While not the lowest of the low, these scammers are at least in the top ten of the low, or bottom ten depending on your perspective.

   
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  Geebo 11:00 am on December 22, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: charity ( 18 ), Christmas ( 16 ), consumers ( 5 )   

  Why don’t corporations just make a donation instead of making you buy something? 

  

  It happens all year round, but you see it a lot come Christmas. A number of companies will claim to make a donation to charity if you buy their product. I’m sure you’ve heard the pitches before. “Buy our phone and will donate part pf the proceeds to such and such charity.” I always wondered why don’t the companies just make a large donation to the charity and say “Hey, we’ve donated a big chunk of change to ‘Charity X’. Why not buy our product since we’re such good guys?” Personally, I would rather buy from a company like that then one that makes you jump through hoops for charities to get the money.

  Of course the answer is marketing. The companies are more worried about profit than charity, but if they appear charitable it could make them more appealing to certain sections of the population. According to an article from TIME Magazine, the appeal to our generosity could make some of us buy a product that we wouldn’t necessarily even be in the market for. The same article from TIME also has tips on how to avoid less than reputable charity practices from certain companies if you are in the market for this type of purchase.

  Personally, I’m of the mindset where if you’re going to give to charity, just give to charity and do so without buying something you may not want or need as it looks like you’re justifying your own consumerism by claiming philanthropy.

   
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  Geebo 10:58 am on December 21, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Android ( 8 ), ios ( 3 ), Safety ( 46 ), smart phones ( 14 ), tablets ( 3 )   

  Keeping your kids safe on their new devices 

  

  With Christmas fast approaching many children will be receiving new devices this year, whether they’re tablets or smart phones. With these new toys come new responsibilities, not only for the children but for parents as well. In the age we live in you can’t just hand your children one of these devices and send them on their merry way and expect no problems. Unfortunately, in our society not only are there the predators that we’re all concerned about but there are financial predators as well who want to take advantage of your kids disguised as apps and data caps.

  Many games for children on these devices have what they call ‘in app purchases’ which means that the players of the game can buy in-game items with real world money. Not only that, but many of these games use data from your cellular providers data plan and can either run up quite the data bill or burn through your allotted data rather quickly.

  To help you and your children avoid these pitfalls we’ve found two good resources on how to protect your children and your wallet while using these new devices. iOS devices, which are the ones made by Apple, are relatively simple to enable safety and financial restrictions. Android devices on the other hand, the ones made by companies like Samsung and various other manufacturers, are a little more difficult to restrict, but can be done.

  Just look at setting up your child’s new device as the modern equivalent of having to assemble the toys that our parents did on Christmas Eve for years, except now not only are you keeping your children engaged but you’re keeping them safe as well.
   
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  Geebo 12:05 pm on December 20, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: AIM Group ( 5 ), craigslist ( 129 ), Facebook Marketplace ( 67 ), robbery ( 12 )   

  Everything old is new again: Facebook Marketplace used for robberies 

  

  Back in October, we posted on this blog about how Facebook’s new Marketplace feature was not only rife for abuse, but that the abuses were already taking place. These were some of the same abuses that have plagued craigslist for years.

  Now, industry watchdog The AIM Group, is reporting that Facebook Marketplace is now suffering from an even bigger problem that is also reminiscent of craigslist, robbery. At least two armed robberies have occurred and in one incident a victim was stabbed while being robbed. If history is any indicator, it won’t be too long before the media is calling someone the ‘Facebook Marketplace Killer’. By AIM Group’s own estimate there have been 105 murders related to craigslist as of October, 2016. With as many users as Facebook has, they could potentially dwarf that unfortunate number.

  The problem with Facebook Marketplace is the same that craigslist has always had and that’s the lack of moderation. Facebook is making the same mistake as craigslist by relying on the community to police the ads rather than having in-house moderation. While human curation isn’t the be all and end all to keeping its users safe it can go so much farther than relying on an untrained community. Unfortunately, Facebook has a history of mishandling any kind of human editing staff. With its brand and userbase, Facebook has the potential to be even a bigger criminal hive than craigslist ever was.

   
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  Geebo 12:01 pm on December 19, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: smart phones ( 14 ), unlocked phones   

  Should you buy an unlocked phone? 

  

  Up until a few years ago it was actually illegal to unlock a cell phone in the US. Back then unlocking a phone meant to make it so that the phone could be used on multiple carriers. Now you can buy an unlocked phone straight from the carrier, but should you? Well, that depends on your lifestyle.

  One of the pros of an unlocked phone is that you can switch carriers almost at will depending on what kind of deals the carriers are offering, and since you own your own phone you don’t have to worry about contracts. They’re also great of you travel overseas because you can buy local coverage in almost whatever country you may be visiting. A big con of owning an unlocked phone is that they can be incredibly expensive. A top of the line phone, like an iPhone, or Samsung Galaxy, can run you close to $1,000 or more depending on what features you want. Unfortunately, not a lot of people have a cool grand just lying around to buy a high-end phone.

  That’s not to say that there aren’t more affordable alternatives. A number of carriers have plans where there is no contract and the plans are all prepaid. The phones are more or less unlocked and are much less expensive than the top of the line phones and a lot of the phones work just as well. You may also be able to find a refurbished top of the line phone that’s being sold at a discount by one of these carriers.

  So if you can afford an unlocked phone, definitely get one, but most people can get buy with just their carrier’s subsidized phone.
   
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  Geebo 12:08 pm on December 16, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 182 ), fake news ( 12 )   

  Facebook’s fighting fake news again 

  

  It feels like old home week again when it comes to the news. First we had yet another Yahoo hack and now Facebook is implementing new measures to fight fake news, again. This time they mean it.

  According to reports, Facebook is testing new tools for reporting fake news. It’s basically the same tools they have for reporting spam. When some users click the little down arrow that comes with most news stories on Facebook, they’ll be able to flag the story as false or misleading. This is said to trigger a review process that could end up have the story labeled as misleading or disputed.

  While it sounds great in theory, I’m sure there’s no way that the system could be abused. That was sarcasm by the way. This system could remind someone of the ‘community policing’ touted by a certain less than scrupulous classifieds site. While it was originally intended to report scammers and illegal ads, it’s since deteriorated into a tool for petty squabbles and trolling.

  This doesn’t even take into account that Facebook takes money from just about anyone in order to ‘boost’ their post or news article. It almost seems a conflict of interest for Facebook to rake in all this cash while claiming to fight fake news when anyone can pay to be featured.

  It seems like Facebook is trying to be both the cause of and the solution to fake news but logic dictates it can be only one of them.

  Facebook and craigslist team up to fight fake news, not notice irony | Greg's Corner is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Geebo 11:27 am on December 15, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hacking ( 32 ), technology ( 7 ), yahoo ( 13 )   

  Is there even any point to keep using Yahoo? 

  

  Here we are again, discussing the Rasputin of the internet. No matter how many times someone tries to kill Yahoo, it’s still here. Once again the former king of the internet has announced that it’s discovered a new hack. Along with the 2014 hack that disclosed over 500 million user accounts, there has been an additional hack that took place in 2013, and exposed more than one billion accounts. That’s right, billion with a b.

  So why are we still using the services of a long dying brand? From most reports, the only services that Yahoo still excels at are stock reports and fantasy football. Yet hundreds of millions of people continue to use Yahoo mail even though they’ve been hacked multiple times. Both Google and Microsoft offer superior products in GMail and Outlook.com and neither service has fallen victim to major hacks like this.

  The reality is that while we see many people talk about privacy on the internet, but for the most part we don’t really care about security and privacy. What we really want is ease of use, which is why so many of us have passwords like ‘password’ and ‘123456’. Not only that, but one could imagine that the majority of Yahoo users are legacy users since Yahoo has been such a huge player on the internet even before Google.

  However Yahoo’s problems are really their own fault. They’ve failed to evolve in an ever-changing tech world with new threats emerging everyday. With security not being a priority for Yahoo they continue to be the butt of many jokes in tech circles. However, user complacency and apathy continues to keep this tech Titanic afloat.
   
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  Geebo 10:57 am on December 14, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook ( 182 ), parenting ( 5 ), Parents Portal, social media ( 89 )   

  Is Facebook’s Parents Portal any good? 

  

  Having children in today’s digital age of social media can be trying. It’s always great to have access to resources to help you navigate the social media minefield for your children. That’s why I’m sure some parents were relieved to hear that it’s been announced that Facebook now has what they call a Parents Portal. The question remains, is it actually helpful? Well, that depends on who you ask.

  The Getting to Know Facebook section basically tells you how to use Facebook, which kind of everybody already knows. One would imagine that the most important section one would be the Parenting Tips section, however it reads like someone from a previous generation trying to explain to their parents how not to make the VCR continually flash 12:00. The tips they provide are very basic common sense tips to the point where they almost seem condescending. The problem is that some people need these common sense tips though as they’re either too trusting of the internet or their own children.

  The highlight of the Parents Portal is that on its Expert Advice page, it provides links to legitimate resources for parents that require more information on how to work with their kids when it comes to their social media behavior.

   
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  Geebo 10:55 am on December 13, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hacking ( 32 ), hello kitty, identity theft ( 132 ), personal information ( 3 )   

  Why hackers want your kids’ accounts 

  

  We’re used to hearing about companies being hacked and personal information being stolen. Usually it’s a tech monolith like Yahoo or a retail giant like Target. However, it seems that some hackers are targeting sites and services used by children. Popular Mechanics has reported that children’s sites like V-Tech and Hello Kitty are being hacked for their users information, and their users are children.

  So what would hackers want with the user information of children? A lot of it is what some would call a long con. Hackers could hold on to this information for years until the child turns 18. Then they could use that information to do the usual with stolen personal information. They could open banking accounts, take out loans, apply for credit cards, etc.

  So while you may think that your 10-year-old’s current personal information may currently be useless, that’s not to say that it can’t be eventually be used for bad intents. What you can do is what most adults do. When signing up your kid for some website or service, use false information. How many sites do we adults sigh up for and give the service fake names and addresses. I’ve lost track of how many services I’ve signed up for where I used the address of 123 Fake Street. Also, I think it goes without saying that you should never let your young children sign up for services on their own as they tend to freely give out their personal information. Plus, this would be a great teaching moment to your kids as to why and how their personal information should be protected.