You've Got The Smartphone Now Get The T-Shirt

A Friend In Need - T-Shirt

Says it all really!  Get your shirt here.

No Wonder There Are More Than One Million Victims Of Cyber Crime Daily

The worry about crime used to be if you had had your wallet stolen; or did you just leave it in a 'safe place' and have forgotten where that 'safe place' was?

You put your valuables in a safe with the local bank, or if you could afford it and wanted to take the risk, within the home.  In many ways this approach has changed over time and in others it has not.

We are still very trusting when it comes to matters financial but if the recent report from Norton is to be believed, perhaps we shouldn't be so blasé.  They surveyed more than 13,000 online adults aged between 18 and 64, from 24 countries.

The results showed that Baby Boomers were less susceptible to cyber-crime than the later Millennials and the highest number of cyber-crime victims were to be found in Russia (85%), China (77%) and South Africa (73%).

Cyber crime victims were more likely to be male (64%) than female(58%) which is probably a reflection of testosterone-fuelled impulses!

Source: 2013 Norton Report

With an estimated $US113 billion of cyber crime taking place over a year, the situation is likely to get worse with an increasing move away from desktops to mobile devices.  The survey revealed that almost half of respondents leave security concerns behind when they hit the street. They don't use basic precautions such as password protection, security software of any kind, or backup their important files.

Here's another sobering revelation; 57% aren't even aware that security solutions for mobile devices even exist!

No wonder then that there are more than one million victims of cyber crime daily. With the lines blurring between home personal life and work there are increased security concerns for business as well. One in five respondents admitted sharing work information with friends and family.  

36% reported that their company had no policy in place when it came to the use of mobile device for work and 27% of all adults admitted they had lost their mobile phones or had them stolen.  So considering these results, how secure is your business data?

Other points of interest to those concerned with online security include:

• 41% of online adults surveyed have been victims of hacking, malware, scams, viruses, fraud and theft in the past year
• Half (50%) have been victims of either cyber crime and/or 'negative situations' over the same period.  This includes being bullied or stalked online, or receiving nude images from perfect strangers.

When it comes to social media people appear to be just as lax, if not more so. 39% didn't bother to log out after a social media session and a quarter actually share their social media log-in details and passwords with others. Somewhat surprisingly then considering the slack attitude portrayed, only 12% of the sample admitted that someone else had hacked into their social media account and pretended to be them.

We've grown very attached to our mobile devices but have largely forgotten the Internet security risks and the security protocols that we rigorously applied to our desk top systems.  

Given all of the above, perhaps it is now time to think far more seriously about how we can personally fight cyber crime by being more diligent; especially if we are wedded to our smartphone or tablet.

Related articles

• Cyber crimes costs UK businesses average of £3m per year

Getting Your Smart Phone Fix

It comes as no surprise to learn that smartphone addiction is a very real thing, albeit a pleasant one for most in the 18-24 year old demographic.

According a new survey conducted by IDC in conjunction with Facebook, our interaction with each other through our smart phones starts almost as soon as our eyes open in the morning. Within the first 15 minutes of waking up 4 out of 5 smartphone owners are checking their phones.

The focus of the study was to understand how smartphone owners use their phones over the course of a day and the week, with an emphasis on social and communication applications and services.

Smartphones have become woven into the fabric of everyday life.  In the USA where the study of 7,400 people was conducted, half of the country's total population use a smartphone and this figure is projected to rise to 67.8% of the population by 2017.  That's 222.4 million interconnected people.

A sense of being 'connected' was the primary motivation and sentiment experienced by respondents. Talking on the phone (43%), texting/messaging (49%) and direct messaging via Facebook(40%) were the services that drove the highest levels of connectedness across the largest number of people.

Friday to Sunday had the highest levels of engagement and the ease of being able to slip a smartphone into one's pocket was also a major factor.

The average daily time spent communicating on smartphone was 132 minutes and only 16% of that time was actually spent on phone calls. 84% spent their time texting, sending and receiving email and engaging through social media.

Facebook who co-sponsored the survey will no doubt be heartened to learn that 70% of respondents use Facebook on their phone and of this group, 61% use it each day.

82% read their Facebook news feed while 49% responded or posted comments on friends’ updates.  Interestingly, playing games on Facebook was not a dominant activity with only 16% showing this preference, while 7% used Facebook to find apps that interest them.

The survey found that Facebook dominates the total time spent on social and communications activities (on a smartphone),  making up 1 out of every 4 minutes.

One final word on Smartphone addiction; 63% of smartphone owners keep their phone with them for all but an hour of their waking day. And of course, many also use their phone as their alarm clock the next morning!

The full report can be viewed here.

Related articles

• 5 Steps for Kicking Your Smartphone Addiction (at Work) | CareerBliss
• Australia becoming smartphone addicted: report

When A Blackberry becomes A Rasbberry?

It might be time to consider selling those Blackberry shares? Apple is clearly king of the fruits.

At Last... A Mind Reading App!

While this app. may appear frivolous at first glance, it has some quite profound implications for the future.

Using XWave enables you to control on-screen objects with your mind. It trains the brain to monitor and ultimately control the depth of relaxation (derived from Alpha Waves) and your attention span (derived from Beta Waves).

So how does it work?

The device's sensor reads the user's brainwaves (through the skull), converts them into digital signals and then displays them in various colours on the screen of the iPhone.

The company blurb says:

"XWave, powered by NeuroSky eSense patented technologies, senses the faintest electrical impulses transmitted  through your skull to the surface of your forehead and converts these analog signals into digital. 

With XWave, you will be able to detect attention and meditation levels, as well as train your mind to control things. Objects in a game can be controlled, lights in your living room can change color depending on your mood; the possibilities are limited to only the power of your imagination."

So it would seem that the evolution of mankind has taken yet another step - connecting your mind to your phone.

All this for $US99.99, battery not included!

Related articles

• The app that can read your mind: iPhone brainwave detector was only a matter of time (dailymail.co.uk)
• XWave: The iPhone App That Almost Reads Your Mind (techie-buzz.com)
• XWave Lets You Control iPhone Graphics with Your Brain (mashable.com)
• PLX Devices XWave brain interface for Apple devices ships (slashgear.com)

Better Than A Flushing Toilet?

Image via Wikipedia

According to a survey just released by Tesco mobile most Brits rate the iPhone as a more important invention the flushing toilet and just behind the discovery of penicillin.

Even more surprising is the revelation that they rank it ahead of the car and the camera.

It is pleasing to note that the 4,000 respondents did rank the invention of the internet higher, at number four.

Without the internet the iPhone would be as useful as a food processor before the invention of electricity.

I will be upfront and reveal that I do not own an iPhone; which is an almost sacrilegious confession in gadget - happy Singapore.  This excludes me from lunch time discussions on the most exciting App. of the day. Not that I find this overly worrying as to be truthful only a few of these are used on a regular basis.

3G Phones (and now 4G) are tangible evidence of the convergence of technology.  The iPhone is one of Apple's most profitable inventions with more than 42 million units sold in the first launch in 1997.

There have been times when I have felt like throwing my mobile into a flushing toilet, especially when the faulty battery cover prompts an automatic reboot.

The survey also reveals that spectacles rank in the top twenty of all time inventions.  This too is hardly surprising as staring at a small hand held screen all day will guarantee the need for this body adornment.  My prediction is that the increased use of one will have a similar ranking impact on the other.


Here then is the full list of the Top 20 Greatest Inventions:

1. Wheel
2. Aeroplane
3. Light bulb
4. Internet
5. PCs
6. Telephone
7. Penicillin
8. iPhone
9. Flushing toilet
10. Combustion engine
11. Contraceptive pill
12. Washing machine
13. Central heating
14. Fridge
15. Pain killers
16. Steam engine
17. Freezer
18. Camera
19. Cars
20. Spectacles

Related articles by Zemanta

• The iPhone: better than space travel, slightly worse than the wheel | Media Monkey (guardian.co.uk)
• Giant constructivist iPhone sculpture (boingboing.net)
• iPhone 4G casings begin to leak (crunchgear.com)