It's time for us to bring you a new PDF manual.
Anyone trying to market a business, product, band or some other public figure knows this, and that they need to "get a Facebook presence" because "Facebook is huge". That's great, but how do you get started?
Get the latest free MakeUseOf manual, You Like This: The Facebook Marketing
Guide. This guide explains everything you need to know about promoting yourself, your business or your ideals on Facebook.
DOWNLOAD You Like This: The Facebook Marketing Guide
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-facebook-marketing-guide
In order to make the best of Facebook for marketing, you'll need to understand the tools
available, how they're used, best practices and how to set the tools up. But that's just
the start. Once you start piecing together this puzzle, you'll be able to manage your
marketing efforts across multiple Facebook products with ease and style. Angela's
guide outlines all this and more, so download now.
DOWNLOAD You Like This: The Facebook Marketing Guide
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-facebook-marketing-guide
Like all MakeUseOf manuals, this is completely free.
Make sure to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter (or via email) by
using this link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-facebook-marketing-guide
In addition, you might also want to check out a previously published PDF guide on
Facebook security to help protect your privacy:
http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-the-very-unofficial-facebook-privacy-guide
Enjoy!
MakeUseOf Limited
105 Collingwood Road
Colchester, C03 9BB
Essex / UK
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Download the Facebook Marketing Guide
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Android tablets for the Enterprise
Takeaway: Samsung has taken notice of the fact that business professionals are driving a lot of Apple iPad sales and it is taking steps to make its Android tablets very friendly to the enterprise.
Samsung has big plans to sell Android tablets to the enterprise
Takeaway: Samsung has taken notice of the fact that business professionals are driving a lot of Apple iPad sales and it is taking steps to make its Android tablets very friendly to the enterprise.
If we could do a scientific poll to find out how many of the people who have purchased the Apple iPad so far got it primarily to use for business, I suspect the number would be at least 50%.
That doesn’t mean that the professionals who buy the iPad are only using it for email and business meetings. They also use it to read books and watch movies, especially on business trips. The point is that business is driving a lot more of the iPad’s success than you’d think by watching Apple’s promo videos and reading the iPad coverage in the media — or, at least most of the media.
However, the iPad’s business story is not lost on everyone. I got a reliable report recently that shows how much Apple understands this dynamic. And, this week at CTIA Wireless 2011 I found out that Samsung gets it, too, because Samsung is putting a lot of resources on the line in order to get its newly-expanded line of Android tablets in the hands of business users.
In terms of Apple, I’ve recently heard from reliable sources that Apple has been holding a series of meetings and training sessions with systems integrators about helping businesses deploy and/or support the iPad. Apple has never been particularly friendly with businesses (Steve Jobs even famously explained what he hates about the enterprise), so this is a significant step for Apple that has been preluded by the steps it has taken in recent years to make the iPhone a lot more enterprise-friendly.
On the other hand, Samsung isn’t hiding its tablet strategy for the enterprise in private meetings or back rooms. It’s going after it with all the resources it can throw at the problem, and it gave enterprise integration and business-friendly features a prominent treatment in the CTIA presentation of its new 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch tablets.
We can break down Samsung’s enterprise plans into three categories:
- Enterprise middleware that it’s building into TouchWiz
- Business development with enterprise partners
- Development of a sales infrastructure for the enterprise
One of the first things Samsung is doing is building software into TouchWiz that makes Samsung tablets easy to connect to backend enterprise systems. That’s not just to support IT deployments but to make it easy for the tablets that consumers purchase and want to use for business to connect with corporate software and be palatable to IT.
“We think there’s the need to support the acceptability of these devices into the enterprise,” said Gavin Kim, Vice President of Mobile Content and Services at Samsung. Kim said the stuff Samsung is building into its Android tablets via its TouchWiz software is akin to enterprise middleware.
At its CTIA press conference on Tuesday, Samsung made the enterprise-friendly features of the new Samsung tablets a big part of the presentation.
- Built-in support for Cisco SSL VPN (the first Android devices to offer that)
- Device management with Exchange ActiveSync
- Hardware encryption (Samsung has also added a separate processor to its tablet just to handle the encryption and decryption of data)
- Lots of support for enterprise software, including Citrix, Polycom, Sybase, SAP, and more
“It’s not bullet-proof, but it’s a good step, and we’re just getting started,” said Kim.
In addition to the software partners just mentioned, Samsung’s Ken Daniels, Director of Strategic Alliances for Enterprise Mobility, said the company is talking to virtually “everybody” in the enterprise software space about making their stuff work with Samsung tablets.
Samsung is also reaching out to much smaller developers of business software, including vendors who focus on vertical markets and line-of-business apps, to help educate them about Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and 3.0 (Honeycomb) and encourage them to develop apps for Android tablets and find ways to make their systems work with Samsung tablets.
Right now, when big companies want to buy smartphones and tablets in large quantities they are typically going through the telecom carriers that they already have contracts with. Samsung is going to support that with a sales force that will serve as advisers and evangelists for companies that want to do large-scale deployments of Samsung tablets. Samsung will help them make the right product choices and then let them buy the tablets from their carriers of choice.
On the other hand, Samsung sees a new opportunity developing where large companies will want to purchase Wi-Fi-only tablets directly from Samsung — for example, a hospital system buying 10,000 Wi-Fi tablets that don’t need mobile broadband because they will only be connecting to the hospital’s campus-wide WLAN. Samsung is setting up a program to make it easy to drop-ship large numbers of tablets directly to these types of enterprises.
Another thing Samsung is doing to make its tablets more business-friendly is developing its own line of accessories aimed at professionals — desktop docks, hardware keyboards, bluetooth accessories, and cases — and partnering with companies like Belkin to make professional accessories for Samsung tablets.
Clearly, Samsung sees a huge opportunity for tablets in the enterprise and is making a lot of smart moves to grease the wheels for business adoption. Apple looks like it’s ready to avoid the mistakes it made with the Macintosh and be a lot more proactive about working with the enterprise on iPad adoption. And, don’t forget about Motorola. Even though the Xoom still needs to be refined, Motorola has a long history of building strong relationships in the enterprise. RIM, of course, wants a piece of this space as well with its forthcoming BlackBerry PlayBook, but it’s facing an uphill battle since it is badly losing the mobile ecosystem game to Apple and Android.
Ultimately, the enterprise tablet race is going to be an important undercurrent to watch in 2011.
Also read
About Jason Hiner
Jason Hiner is the Editor in Chief of TechRepublic. He is a former IT manager and an award-winning journalist.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Adobe fans - get ready for the patch
Adobe fans - get ready for the patch but watch out for the scams.
Don't pay for free software. You're giving scammers money and undermining the reputation of the free software.
Adobe fans - get ready for the patch but watch out for the scams
Adobe has been in the news this week after alerting Flash, Acrobat and Reader users about a forthcoming out-of-band patch for its products.
By wrapping a Flash file in an Excel spreadsheet, potential attackers have demonstrated a remotely-exploitable vulnerability.
(The attack doesn't seem to be in-the-wild, and the exploit files I've heard of seem to rely on a sequence of already-known and already-detectable malicious operations, so there is no cause for alarm. But do look out for the Flash patches when Adobe publish them next week.)
One of the side-stories to this Flash-in-Excel risk is the suggestion that the creators of the exploit chose Excel as the container, instead of the more common PDF, because the exploit couldn't be made to work on computers running Adobe Reader X.
The good news, says Adobe proudly, is that the new Adobe X security sandbox would prevent this attack. On Windows, anyway. Mac and Linux users aren't sandboxed yet.
The bad news is that any broadly-publicised good news about product Y is easily exploited by scammers. If people are positive about Y, and a new version of Y is being talked about in the same breath, then scammers rush to offer you Y, but under false pretences.
And that's just what Naked Security reader Wez reported to us today. He received an email offering him the very latest releases of the amazing Acrobat X:
The email explicitly claimed to come from Adobe in Ontario:
It didn't, of course. This scam is similar to a Fake Anti-Virus (FakeAV) ripoff, except that the hokum product is a program to process PDF files.
Like FakeAV, the site is very thin and shallow, consistingly of little more than a home page, a generic "privacy policy" which gives no company information at all, and a range of download options that all lead to the same page:
The next page, of course, is where you pay:
Who knows what you'll get? You certainly don't get a download link if you don't pay, so there's no evaluation period for this product. But if you do pay, you're promised - for two days only - a FREE GIFT!!!
Guess what? The free gift software you're being offered is OpenOffice. It really is free. Always. In fact, you can download it free right now from the openoffice.org website.
It's no big leap to assume, in fact, that the whole deal you are being offered is OpenOffice. After all, OpenOffice itself lets you edit and create PDFs. In that case, you'd be buying OpenOffice and getting it for free at the same time.
Twitter goes secure
Twitter goes secure - say goodbye to Firesheep with "Always use HTTPS" option
Good news on the social networking security front is that Twitter has finally got its act together to offer an Always use HTTPS option.
Twitter goes secure - say goodbye to Firesheep with "Always use HTTPS" option
Good news on the social networking security front is that Twitter has finally got its act together to offer an Always use HTTPS option.
If you turn on this option, all of your personalised interaction with Twitter will be encrypted - not only while you are logging in, but also while you are posting tweets.
A lot of people fail to recognise the value of using HTTPS on Twitter. As long as your username and password are sent over HTTPS, so no-one can sniff them out of the ether, who cares if your tweets go over plain HTTP? After all, a tweet is meant to be public.
The problem is that once you have logged in, Twitter sends your browser a session cookie. This is a one-time secret. It is unique to your account and the current session.
Because your browser retransmits this session cookie in all future requests to the Twitter site, Twitter can see that it's you coming back for more. So you don't need to put in your username and password for every single tweet you send. You login once, and the session cookie identifies you for the rest of the current session.
Unfortunately, if you login to Twitter over unencrypted WiFi - e.g. at a coffee shop or an airport lounge - then anyone who can sniff your session cookie can pretend to be you. That means they can post tweets as you. And you don't want that. (It happened to Mr Demi Moore, a.k.a. Ashton Kutcher, recently, no doubt to his considerable embarrassment.)
Turning on full-time Twitter HTTPS keeps your session cookie encrypted throughout your login session. This is definitely what you want.
Don't forget that it's not just experienced hackers who can sniff Twitter cookies and use them to impersonate you.
The infamous Firesheep plugin to Firefox automates this cookie-stealing process - known as "sidejacking" - so that anyone who can use a browser can do it.
To enable this new Twitter option, go to your Settings page.
At the bottom is the new Always use HTTPS option. Turn it on and click [Save], and then [Save changes].
Do it today.
(Note: as a commentator below points out, it's not clear if, or how, non-web-browser Twitter clients will support this new option. If in doubt, please ask the vendor of your Twitter client, or follow the Simplicity Principle and stick to using your browser when tweeting.)
Monday, March 21, 2011
Bruce Barton (1886–1967)
American advertising executive
U.S. congressman http://bit.ly/hw8ewO
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
It's a Facebook clickjack scam
Japanese Tsunami Launches Whale Into Building? It's a Facebook clickjack scam
Japanese Tsunami Launches Whale Into Building? It's a Facebook clickjack scam
Sick-minded scammers are up to their dirty tricks again, trying to make a quick buck out of the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami which has shocked people around the world.
Many people are shocked by the TV news reports, showing the devastation wrought on the people of Japan, and some of the video footage taken by media agencies and individuals in the country is truly extraordinary.
And it is against this backdrop that scammers have launched their latest campaign.
Japanese Tsunami Launches Whale Into Building
You won't believe this! Crazy Footage!
Other versions read:
GRAPHIC VIDEO.. Japans Tsunami Sends WHALE Smashing Into A Building!
Of course, this is just the latest FouTube clickjacking attack to hit Facebook, and sure enough if you click on the link you are taken to a webpage which tries to trick you into clicking (which will silently say to all of your Facebook friends that you "Like" the page).
Will you get to see a video of a whale launched into a building by the Japanese tsunami? No, of course not.
Instead, you're asked to complete a survey which earns commission for the scammers.
When I tried it, the survey attempted to tempt me with the offer of a purple iPad. Funny, I thought Steve Jobs only made them in black and white.
How to clean-up after a likejacking attack
If you made the mistake of clicking on a link spread via a scam message like the ones listed above, you should check your Facebook news feed and remove any offending links that you might have spammed out to your friends. Hover your mouse over the top right hand corner of the post and you should see a small "x" which will allow you to remove it.
And if you entered your mobile phone number, you should keep a close eye on your cellphone bill and notify your carrier to prevent bogus charges from stinging you in the wallet.
Remember to be wary of any links that look like this. If you really want to watch a video chances are that it's available for free - without you having to complete any surveys - on legitimate video sites like YouTube.
Going forward, it's essential that you stay informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks. Join the Sophos Facebook page, where more than 60,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.
We've also published some good best practices for better privacy and security on Facebook.
Bogus CNN video scams Facebook users
Japanese Tsunami RAW Tidal Wave Footage - Bogus CNN video scams Facebook users
Japanese Tsunami RAW Tidal Wave Footage - Bogus CNN video scams Facebook users
Facebook users are being tricked into clicking on links which claim to be raw CNN footage of the Japanese tsunami by cold-hearted scammers - as part of a plot to earn money by driving web traffic to take online surveys.
The videos, which in the examples seen by Sophos exist on a website called spinavideo, purport to be footage of the horrifying tsunami which hit parts of Japan on Friday.
Japanese Tsunami RAW Tidal Wave Footage
Clicking on the link takes unsuspecting users to a website which pretends to be YouTube, but is in fact designed to clickjack users into unwittingly agreeing to Facebook "Like" the page (which spreads the scam virally across the social network).
Users are then tricked into taking an online survey which earns commission for the scammers. No doubt the scammers are hoping that by pretending the video footage comes from CNN, more people might be tempted to click on it.
Remember to always get your news from legitimate news websites, and if you're hunting for a video make sure that you go to the real YouTube website rather than a replica set up by scammers.
How to clean-up after a likejacking attack
If you made the mistake of clicking on a link spread via a scam message like the one listed above, you should check your Facebook news feed and remove any offending links that you might have spammed out to your friends. Hover your mouse over the top right hand corner of the post and you should see a small "x" which will allow you to remove it.
And if you entered your mobile phone number, you should keep a close eye on your cellphone bill and notify your carrier to prevent bogus charges from stinging you in the wallet.
Remember to be wary of any links that look like this. If you really want to watch a video chances are that it's available for free - without you having to complete any surveys - on legitimate video sites like YouTube.
Going forward, it's essential that you stay informed about the latest scams spreading fast across Facebook and other internet attacks. Join the Sophos Facebook page, where more than 60,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.
We've also published some good best practices for better privacy and security on Facebook.
Hat-tip: Thanks to Naked Security reader Kara who contacted us about this scam.
Fake Android Market Security tool
Fake Android Market Security tool delivers more than just a cure for Droid Dream malware
Fake Android Market Security tool delivers more than just a cure for Droid Dream malware
Only a couple of days after Google published its Android Market Security Tool - that removes all malicious applications infected with Droid Dream malware and prevents their installation - a malicious version of the tool appeared on alternative Chinese application markets.
The Trojanized version of the tool is packaged with open source Java code taken from a project hosted on Google's own online source code repository. The project includes functionality to send MMS messages in the background, for example, when the device boots up.
A suspicious user will immediately notice the difference between the fake and the real Android Market tool if they check the permissions required at installation.#
While the original tool only requires three permissions, the Trojanized version requires additional permissions for "Services that cost you money" as well as the device location.
Another difference is in the version number of the package. The original Google tool version is 2.5 while the fake tool's development is lagging behind a little, being "only" on version 1.5.
The latest attack does not affect Android Market but there may be many people, especially in China, happy to install a free Google's tool which will protect them against attacks by a malware family.
An attack pattern of creating a fake security tool that detects non-existing threats is very common in PC world and already brings a lot of income for cybercriminals.
Judging by the popularity of Android devices and the recent increase in malware attacks, it may be just a matter of time before we start seeing highly suspicious products like Antivirus Android 2012 on the market.
Personally, I think that the ability to install non-market applications and ability to create third party application markets was a mistake for Google's Android team from the security point of view. This path is leading us to Windows-like threat levels.
Sophos products detect the fake Android Market Security tool as Troj/Bgserv-A.
Update your Apple devices to iOS 4.3
Update your Apple devices to iOS 4.3, or risk malicious code attacks
Update your Apple devices to iOS 4.3, or risk malicious code attacks
Apple has released iOS 4.3, the latest version of its operating system for iPhones, iPads and the iPod touch.
Although some will be excited by the promise of faster performance from Safari, better video streaming and the thought of sharing their iTunes library over WiFi around the home, perhaps the most important reason to install the update onto your Apple gadgets is security.
According to Apple, the new iOS 4.3 update includes a number of critical security patches - some of which are designed to prevent vulnerabilities being exploited that could lead to malicious code being run on your iPhone or iPad.
Details of the security fixes are included in an Apple knowledgebase article, and include protecting against maliciously-crafted TIFF image files that could be used to run malicious code on your device, and multiple memory corruption issues exist in WebKit, which could mean that visiting a boobytrapped website could lead to unauthorised code being executed.
These are, of course, the kind of vulnerabilities that have been exploited by malicious hackers and virus writers in the past and would present a way to deliver code to a non-jailbroken iPhone that did not involve entering via the official iPhone App Store.
There is no indication that these vulnerabilities have been exploited in the wild, but it would nevertheless be prudent to defend against them by installing the operating system patch to your iOS devices. Especially now that details of the security holes are known to the computer underground.
Bad news for iPhone 3G owners
There's bad news though for users of older Apple devices, however. The iOS 4.3 update is only compatible with the iPhone 3GS and later and the iPod touch 3rd generation and later. (It works on the original iPad, and the imminent iPad 2)
So if you have an earlier iPhone or iPod touch your device is probably vulnerable to attacks which exploit these security holes, and there is no official patch available for you to protect yourself. That's bad news for the many people who still have an iPhone 3G, for instance.
If you were looking for an excuse to upgrade your iPhone or iPod touch - maybe you've just been given a good one by Apple. But if you were happy with your iPhone 3G, I doubt you're feeling too good about having to reach into your pocket.
Apple customers can download the iOS 4.3 update via iTunes, and more information about the update can be found on Apple's website.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
DOWNLOAD Five-Star Guide For Your iPad
The iPad may not have changed the world of computing quite yet, but it is still a pretty nifty device. An e-book reader, a newspaper, an entertainment center and a workstation, this device can do a lot in a very small package.
Want to get more out of your iPad? Check out “iPad: a Magical and Revolutionary Guide”, the latest manual from MakeUseOf. Featuring the 40 best free apps for the iPad, this easy-to-follow guide contains a treasure trove of information that will make using your tablet that much easier. Learn the ins and outs of the market’s premier tablet, for free!
Whether you’re a casual iPad user looking to learn a bit more, or an iPad addict wanting to get the most you possibly can, our “Magical and Revolutionary Guide” is the manual you’re looking for. Best of all, it’s free!
(Tip: after downloading, drag the PDF file to iTunes to read this guide in iBooks!)
“iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide” outlines all this and more:
* Organizing your apps, with or without iTunes
* Tips and tricks for typing on the iPad, in every language
* Troubleshooting iPad issues, including battery life and app crashes
* Syncing your Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail accounts
* The best free apps for news, ebooks, drawing/photo editing, blogging/writing, TV, music, social media, remote control, productivity and games.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Microsoft begs users to stop running IE6
Microsoft has launched another salvo in its campaign to hammer the final nail into the coffin of an outdated, insecure product: Internet Explorer 6. Are you still running an old version of a browser in your company?
Beware of the the Stripping Girls
Stripping girls don't guarantee secure passwords: Is your password "topless"? A pixellated stripper might be enough to encourage you to use a more secure password - but does she take her clothes off too easily?
Sunday, March 6, 2011
8 Tools to Visualize Info on Twitter
8 Free Tools to Visualize Information on Twitter.
Twitter usually turns into a rapid flowing stream of updates. A whole slew of Twitter apps give you an interesting way to filter through what is being said on Twitter, and better yet let you visualize it. Check out the unique and unusual apps.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Leo Buscaglia The Time is Now!
Dr. Leo Buscaglia reminds us that the time to love is now. He also reads the poem "Things You Didn't Do."
The time is now to show our love for tomorrow may be too late.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things you didn't do
"There was a girl who gave me (Leo Buscaglia) a poem, and she gave me permission to share it with you, and I want to do that because it explains about putting off and putting off and putting off - especially putting off caring about people we really love. She wants to remain anonymous, but she calls the poem, "THINGS YOU DIDN'T DO" and she says this":
Remember the day I borrowed your brand new car and I dented it?
I thought you'd kill me, but you didn't.
And remember the time I dragged you to the beach, and you said it would rain, and it did?
I thought you'd say, "I told you so." But you didn't.
Do you remember the time I flirted with all the guys to make you jealous, and you were?
I thought you'd leave me, but you didn't.
Do you remember the time I spilled strawberry pie all over your car rug?
I thought you'd hit me, but you didn't.
And remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was formal and you showed up in jeans?
I thought you'd drop me, but you didn't.
Yes, there were lots of things you didn't do,
But you put up with me, and you loved me, and you protected me.
There were lots of things I wanted to make up to you when you returned from Viet Nam.
But you didn't.
Leo Buscaglia