Phones, Autos and Bluetooth

If you’ve purchased a new iPhone or Droid phone and expect it work seamlessly in your relatively new car, you may be experiencing technical difficulties. Phone technology is miles ahead of automotive communications technology.

We have to admit it drove us “nuts” for a while, trying to get our new iPhone to sync with the Bluetooth system in our car. The hands-free voice capability did not work, and for someone – such as yours truly – who is always on the road and needs to communicate with customers having urgent needs, Bluetooth is a necessity.

We contacted a lot of different companies, and we essentially learned that you need to take a step back to move forward. The latest phones use Bluetooth 4; even the newest cars are running Bluetooth 1 or 2.

Thus, your solution is to downgrade the app on your phone to match the Bluetooth version in your car. While it’s not ideal, we understand the reason – as the situation currently exists. Even if you have the latest and greatest communications technology that was available for your car, it quickly goes out of date. And while it’s easy to get a new phone every year and get other devices pretty often, you generally don’t get a new car every year.

We can help you match your phone and other devices to your car’s Bluetooth system. Sometimes we can even walk you through the steps over the phone. Call us at 973-433-6676 or email us for help. Just have your car’s year, make and model info handy as well as the make and model of your cellphone or device. The ultimate answer will be for auto manufacturers and suppliers to figure out a better way for you to upgrade your car’s Bluetooth version, but in the meantime, we can help you now.

Low-Cost Upgrades for Your Office Systems

When an office system doesn’t seem to perform at the warp speed it once did, your instinct may be to replace it. We won’t call that “warped” thinking, but you can get more mileage out of your equipment. It’s been a good way to get off to a great start with new clients who come to us with a sense of desperation.

One client came to us after their server crashed. In discussing the problem, we learned that most of the company’s people worked from outside the office. They used GoToMyPC to log in, access their files and do their work. The limited access meant that employees had to schedule their time to access the server and their files, and that was grossly inefficient.

The client wanted to add more applications and files to the system, and they were ready to buy a new server to accommodate all they wanted to do. We showed them that it was unnecessary.

Our solution was to set up a Dropbox system. It eliminated the need to schedule server access, simplified the process for getting files and made life much easier. Dropbox is one of many applications that use off-site storage for files – aka The Cloud – but it’s the one that worked best in this situation.

We also made life easier for Michelle at another new client’s office. Michelle is not a person; Michelle is a desktop PC in a three-person office, and the problem was that the three people in the office couldn’t access files when they needed them.

Our simple solution was to install a network drive in Michelle. Now, everyone can work efficiently.

Of course, there are times when a new server – and little reorganization – can solve the problem. One client had a number of printers with identity crises. Some of the printers had the same names but served different functions, and some that served the same functions had different names.

By installing a new server and standardizing the nomenclature for all the printers, the server can assume administrative responsibilities, allowing all the technology to run as it’s supposed to.

By the way, if your office has Macs and Windows-based software, we can set up a virtual PC that can run the software faster than a regular PC.

Do you want to find less expensive ways to have a more efficient office? Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to discuss your current setup and your productivity needs. It might be an easier fix than you think.

 

Wear it…Do it

A really close friend of ours who crossed a trip to CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas off his bucket list said wearable technology was the fascination for him. Will you want to trade a Rolex for an Apple Watch? It’s a fun trade to ponder.

If you have a Rolex, you know it’s an exquisite timepiece that speaks to the ultimate in quality and fashion. But Internet-connected watches are stepping up in quality as a timepiece – and let you do things like read and write emails and text messages, open your garage door. It’s a sign that a lot of functional apps are moving from your phone to your wrist.

Sony’s Smart Watch 3 and LG’s LG-W120L were two headliner smart watches at CES. But the prospect of the Apple Watch, most likely in March, is the elephant that’s not yet in the room but is walking to the door.

Is Apple going to be cutting edge? Only time will tell. But one thing about Apple is that its new products generally work well out of the gate. The company vets its developers and tests their work, and the result is a relatively bug-free application that’s as secure as you can get.

So, as the Apple apps move from the device to the wrist, Apple Pay is an indication of what we can expect. All you need to do is have your phone in your hand, put your thumb on the reader and go. It’s taken off so fast, that we’ve come across cashiers in stores who haven’t yet learned how it works. If you can transfer Apple Pay from an iPhone to an Apple Watch, you’ll be able to activate the reader and press your thumb in one motion.

Whatever we wear and use to access the Internet, 2015’s realities will be compared to the movie “Back to the Future II,” which looked some 25 years or so into the future. We don’t have flying cars or robots like Rosie from the Jetsons, but we have drones, and some companies say they are close on hoverboards and self-lacing shoes.

Once wearable technology becomes more commonplace, we are sure that app developers will quickly find ways to make it more usable. When Apple introduced the iPad, it seemed to need to justify its existence. Today, tablets are becoming replacements for laptops for certain types of applications, especially for people who travel or do a lot work from outside the office. Wearables are likely to take over many of the functions of mobile phones, and that means people will be walking into offices and homes and accessing our networks.

We’ve already talked about network security. In addition, you’ll need network stability to make sure all those new devices and technologies can work as you and everyone in your office or home expects. Nothing gets more frustrating or aggravating than the latest-and-greatest technology that doesn’t work. We can help you step forward to the future by analyzing your network and the load it will need to handle. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to set up an appointment. And, we’ll check out your security at the same time.

By the way, we still think automobiles have the longest way to go in the Internet of Things. Yes, there’s a lot of good phone integration, and you can use apps to send commands to your car. BMW is even testing a valet parking app. That will most certainly be a convenience – especially if all I need to do is talk into my watch.

Protect Your Networks as IoT Grows

What can’t we do over the Internet? Pretty soon, the answer will be: Practically nothing. We may not live like the Jetsons, but in the expanding age of IoT (the Internet of Things), we can do all sorts of things, from turning lights on and off to connecting with life-saving healthcare information and equipment systems. While the future is bright, you need your “shades” in form of network protection.

Here’s why it’s critical: Every device and every app that you use over the Internet exposes you to hackers who can get into your network and computer system and those of other people and businesses. Your network router or gateway is your first line of defense. There’s nothing magic about what you need to do to protect it.

The first thing is to turn on your router’s or gateway’s firewall. It sounds so basic, but we’re always amazed at the number of people who simply neglect it. You’ll need a password for it, and our advice is to make it long and to include at least of the four following characteristics: a lower case letter, an upper case letter, a numeral and a special character. If your computer has a firewall, turn it on, too, and make sure you have anti-virus and malware protection installed, updated and activated.

But network security is more vital than ever because the devices you use for a smart home, for example, may not have built-in security or a strong security system. Every time you turn lights on and off, lock and unlock a door or change your thermostat over the Internet, you can be vulnerable to a hack. If you are on a secure network, and if your network in your smart home is secure, you’ll be much better able to protect your system (and all of the data).

Network security can be even more critical for businesses. Some types of businesses depend on remote access to sensitive files than others, and those files could contain information on your business or your customers’ businesses that a hacker can use to monetize in any number of ways.

If you are buying and activating more smart systems as you expand your Internet of Things, we urge you to talk to us. We can help you understand the security risks you need to manage and help you select the security systems that can best manage those risks. No system is foolproof or perfect, but making yours as strong as possible will minimize your risk of getting hacked. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to strengthen your existing security system or find a new one.

 

Eye on 2015

Every year holds promises for new technology. Here’s what we see coming in 2015.

For Apple fans, we expect to see the Apple Watch and the iPad Pro. With the iPad model, we’re likely to go from mini to maxi. Some details are starting to leak out, including a 12” to 13” screen, which would put it into the Microsoft Surface category. Speculation includes a new processor and four speakers in the new model with a release date in early spring.

Early spring is also a rumored release time for the Apple Watch. We’ll be watching.

On the Microsoft front, we just loaded a test version of Windows 10. We’ll see how it flows and what similarities it has to Windows 8 and the things we liked in Windows 7. Rumors abound on this product, too, but we hear rumblings of a Microsoft “event” for late January. The rumor mill also points to the operating system working across all platforms, including smartphones, tablets and Xbox One consoles.

We expect a continuing trend toward more use of Microsoft Office 365. We sell it to a lot of our clients and continue to recommend it. We helped a client with Exchange cut costs from $700 to $96.

We also look for improvements to Office 365 and Outlook for the Mac. It was released on Halloween (how’s that for “trick or treat?”), and we immediately downloaded it while traveling. It has the look and feel of Office and Outlook, and while there are some differences between Windows and Mac in the way I use it, the Mac version is 1000 times better than it was. We still don’t have One-Drive for the Mac, but we’re hopeful that will come out next year.

The other tech darling of the consumer world is 4K ultra high-def TV. Flat screen TVs with 720 and 1080 resolution have gotten dirt cheap to the point that you can save a lot of space and electricity costs by junking your “tube” TV.

But if 4K TV catches on in 2015 as we expect, it’s just a matter of time until you’ll want to have it. Priming that pump will be the growth of non-cable, non-satellite content delivery technology from Amazon, Apple TV, Roku and others.

New content delivery systems are just another reminder that technology can change on a dime. So if you’re contemplating a new purchase, be sure to talk to us – especially if you’re buying technology for your office and are looking for tax-saving opportunities. If you don’t need next year’s soon-to-be latest and greatest, you can find some good pricing on this year’s technology and be eligible for applicable tax write-offs for office systems. Call – 973-433-6676 – or email to set up an appointment.

iOS 8 Family Affair

With iOS 8, Apple made great strides in helping families manage iCloud accounts and Family Share. Now, you can have separate accounts for up to six family members with parents able to control what their children buy and download.

Sharing music, apps, photos, movies and other iTunes purchases was a pain in the neck before Apple got all of its bugs out of iOS 8. We always found the biggest problems involved tracking what individuals bought in the iTunes store and then keeping adults’ and kids’ content separate. This had little to do with what’s appropriate; it was more a matter of neither wanting the other’s content.

Now, all you need to do is get iOS 8 on all devices – iPhones, iPads – and the Yosemite operating system on Apple computers. You can go to Settings on each device and enable Family Sharing and then go to iCloud settings. The set-up can be a little complicated. One person, designated as the Family Organizer, needs to go to Settings > iCloud > Set up Family Sharing… and follow the instructions, which include entering an iTunes ID and agreeing to paying for anything downloaded by the family members.

Here’s where it can get a little tricky – and there are some things we are still testing out as a family. While I am our Family Organizer, my wife and I have Approval Rights for any purchases made by our children. However, we also have it set up so that if someone – like a doting grandparent – gives them Apple gift cards, any charges for their downloaded material is drawn from their accounts before their parents pay.

We have helped a number of clients set up Apple Family Sharing, and we can help customize your set-up for your family’s needs. Just give us a call – 973-433-6676 – or send us an email for an appointment. And remember, we are available without any holiday surcharges to help you set up any electronics during this festive time of the year.

Caution is Key to Online Safety

Take a deep breath and Look Before You Click during the holiday season. More scammers, hackers and schemes abound at this time of the year, looking for holes to breach and get critical personal data. Here’s a review of our tried-and-true safety measures.

Watch your email. It’s one of the easiest pathways into your computer and all of your valuable personal data. At this time of the year, scammers and hackers take advantage of harried shoppers, who are likely balancing work and shopping and not paying full attention to all of their email.

Here are some identities a cyber-invader may assume to get inside your computer:

  • Bank or Credit Card Company
    • Do you have an account with that bank or credit card company?
    • Is it really one of their actual email addresses or domains?
    • Does your bank or credit card company normally contact you about this?

Your Best Course of Action: Close the email and go the bank’s or credit card company’s website to see if there are any alerts that match the email. If you’re still not sure it’s a fake message, get the phone number from the website and call. You can also look at a bank statement or credit card to get a customer-service phone number. Don’t click on any link in a questionable email.

  • Retailer or Shipper
    • Did you actually do business with that retailer?
    • Did you agree to use that shipper when you bought something online?
    • Are you being asked to click on a link?

Your Best Course of Action: Close the email. If you printed a hard copy of your order confirmation, you should be able to see the name of the carrier and a projected shipping date and delivery date and verify the information in the email. For protection, go to the retailer’s website and log in if you have an account. That should provide you with updated information on your order’s status. If the retailer has provided you with a shipper and a tracking number, go to the shipper’s website and enter the tracking number there. If you’re still not sure, call customer service.

  • Charitable Solicitations

Your Best Course of Action: Close the email. If it’s a charity you want to support, find its official website and give a donation there.

  • Email from a Friend in Need

Your Best Course of Action: Close the email. If you really think it’s legit, call your friend or send a new email with a different subject line. If that person is a close enough friend to send money, you should have full contact info – or know a way to get it.

When conducting business online, make sure you give your information over a secure website page. There are a couple of ways to check:

  • The website address begins with https
  • You’ll see a padlock icon in the address bar

Some other precautions to take include:

  • Buy from a large, reputable online or brick-and-mortar merchant. Generally speaking, retailers who work through Amazon or EBay have been vetted and have contact info posted online. If you’re not sure, buy from someone else.
  • Don’t send sensitive personal information by email. It’s too easy for someone to intercept it.
  • If somebody calls you about an account or purchase or charitable donation, you can ask to call that person back – and then go to a website to get a phone number you believe is trustworthy.
  • Make sure your antivirus, spyware, malware and firewall programs are up to date and running.

Above all, Look Before You Click. Make sure you understand exactly where a click will take you and what will be put on your computer. As Michael Conrad’s Sgt. Phil Esterhaus warned TV’s Hill Street Precinct police officers: “Let’s be careful out there.” And if you run into trouble, make your emergency call to us – 973-433-6676 – or send us an email.

Buy Now, Buy Smart

Now is a good time to buy a new computer. Between upcoming holiday gifts and companies making end-of-the-year purchases, there’s a lot of demand – and supply. Sellers will throw the word “bargain” around very freely and tempt you at every turn. Shop smart to get your true value.

Let’s start with the “five-year rule.” It’s nothing like the “five-second rule,” and therefore, it has nothing to do with your computer falling to the floor. (Whether your computer is still usable depends less on picking it up within five seconds than it does on how far it falls and how cushioned the floor is.)

Five years is about the length of a computer’s useful service life. After five years, your total system can be woefully out-of-date. The computer itself slows down in many cases because your hard drive has less room to write and rewrite the data in the files you use – even if you faithfully run defragging programs to manage the space. If you have an old computer, you are likely to have old software and connection ports, such as older USB, that are all too slow to support newer, faster, more robust systems. That holds true whether your computer is for business or home use.

If you have a computer approaching five years old, it really doesn’t pay to upgrade the software. Your old computer won’t have the processing power to run the software effectively, and your connection ports may not support functions such as Skype or streaming video. If you have kids who are into any of the many popular online gaming activities, such as Minecraft, they won’t be able to keep up, and they won’t be able to maximize learning experiences online.

We’re not telling you to go out and buy the fastest computer on the market. But we are telling you to consider this:

  • Figure on your computer lasting five years.
  • Give a lot of thought to how you plan to use your computer.
    • Are you just surfing the Internet and answering email?
    • Do you plan to use processing-heavy applications such as
      • Complex spreadsheets?
      • Photo editing?
      • Art and graphic design?
      • Skype or other videoconferencing?
      • Online collaboration with large files?
    • Do the applications you depend on require you to upgrade frequently?
    • Will you need speed, video and sound for streaming movies, TV and games?
    • Will you be integrating your new computer with wireless devices over a Wi-Fi network?

Once you know what you expect from your computer, you can better assess what’s on the market. You can look at whether a Windows-based or Mac system is better and whether a desktop or laptop is better. You might also want to consider one of the newer tablets that use the cloud to provide a full range of computing capabilities with the convenience of a tablet.

Nothing beats going to a few stores to try out the computers to see what feels comfortable for you. You can also ask questions, but be prepared for the possibility that the sales person may be trying to steer you to a specific brand or model or may not know any more than you. Give yourself a budget. While you may go over it or find something less expensive than you planned, a budget will give you a guideline for evaluating the apples and oranges you’ll come across.

At the same time, don’t concentrate on just the hardware. Here are key considerations:

  • If you are going to use your existing software, make sure you have your original disks and product keys. You can generally download Internet browsers, programs such as Adobe Reader and drivers for peripherals such as printers – but you can’t do it with application software.
  • Have all of your passwords for your Wi-Fi system, email, cloud storage, etc.
  • Have all of your data files – word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, pictures, etc. – backed up on a portable hard drive, the cloud or CDs and DVDs. There are systems to transfer data files from one computer to another, but you should have it all backed up anyway.
  • Be prepared to buy new software or migrate to cloud-based subscription services. Your software may be so out of date that it won’t run on a new computer.

Finally, make us your first and last stop. We can talk about what you have now, how you’d like to use your new computer system, how long you plan to keep it and how much you’d like to spend. We can help you evaluate the most viable options, and then you can go out and see some things for yourself. Then, come back to us. We can help you choose the best package for your needs, and we may be able to get you a better price.

Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us to set up a time to talk. We want to help you find a system you can.

Armor for Your Mobile Wallet

The battle between Apple Pay and Current C is about to intensify as more shoppers start to use the mobile wallet functions in their smartphones and devices. We believe Apple Pay has better security, giving you more armor for your iPhone’s commercial capabilities.

The heavy-duty armor, as far as we are concerned, is the two-factor authentication that’s part of the Apple Pay system. The system keeps your credit card information separate from the transaction, and you need a fingerprint to complete the transaction. So, if somebody steals your iPhone, they’ll also need to cut off the finger with the print you’ve registered as your “signature.”

The banks and financial companies who back various credit cards have bought into Apple Pay, too, and it would likely behoove many merchants to go along with the idea. Banks and credit card companies are moving to the EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard, Visa) system that replaces the magnetic stripe with a chip, and they are shedding their responsibility for covering fraudulent charges. That responsibility will shift to the merchants.

The security benefits are enhanced by Apple Pay’s ease of use with Near Field Communication (NFC). A post on Tech Radar gives you a simple explanation, but we’ll simplify it a little more for those who don’t want to click through.

It’s a short-range, low power wireless link that essentially uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology (think EZ Pass) to transfer small amounts of data between two devices just a few inches apart. It doesn’t need any pairing code as with Bluetooth, and it’s so low-power, it doesn’t need a battery in the device being read. Tapping your phone on a contactless payment terminal in a shop, train station or coffee shop identifies your account and takes payment through the app on your phone.

Your phone’s SIM card is a smart card that identified your phone to a network, and phones besides iPhones have NFC capability.

We have some issues with one of Apple Pay’s major competitors, Current C. I don’t think it’s as easy to use, but more important, the system collects a lot of personal information, and it has been hacked. Current C, as we understand it, is linked to a consumer’s checking account, and we don’t use debit cards because of the risk associated with debit card security issues.

We also don’t like the customer-data collection aspects of Current C. It functions like a loyalty program, and we should all have the choice of deciding if we want to be part of any merchant’s loyalty program.

Finally, Current C is more cumbersome to use. You need to log in and pull up a QR code that the store reads. With Apple Pay, you just hold your phone close enough to the reader for it to read your fingerprint.

We think the finger is just scratching the surface. Because fingerprints are unique – even with identical twins – mobile wallets using the Apple Pay principles can spread to boarding passes, door locks or anything else requiring accurate identification.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and start a conversation. And if you have any questions about setting up an Apple Pay account on your iPhone, we’d be happy to help. A phone call – 973-433-6676 – or an email will get it started.

 

Shedding Light on the Flashlight App

A cable-based news network reported that flashlight apps on Android-based phones can steal data. It created a stir in the general and technical news media. Yes, somebody could write an app that can track some of your activity (and sell it to marketers) or could launch a virus. But there’s a bigger-picture lesson to be learned: Use common sense.

Let’s start with a few of “givens.”

First, there’s always someone out there trying to get your data and resell it – whether it’s your sensitive personal information or just some data to help a marketer target you. Ultimately, you have the responsibility to protect your data – though we can help you put systems in place.

Second, you have control over what gets installed on your device. You need to take time and care when you download and install apps to make sure they are safe and secure.

Third, if you have an iPhone or an iPad with a camera, you have no reason to download a third-party app for your flashlight. It’s been there since the release of iOS 7.

With that being said, what’s going on with the flashlight apps? You can dig into some of this yourself, starting with a report from Fast Company about the app Brightest Flash sharing location and device ID information. (Please note, most of you allow this information to be used with many other apps, such as those that provide directions while you drive somewhere.) The app’s developer was automatically sharing location and device information with advertisers and other third parties–even when users opted out. In fact, before they could accept or refuse the app’s terms, it was already collecting and sending information.

That got scaled up in a special report on a cable news channel, in which viewers were told this could be bigger than Ebola. What further rankles me is that the report on the How-To Geek website made specific references to the iPhone flashlight app, which is built into your device. It made a mountain out of a molehill.

However, the report noted: “The fact is that Android app permissions are a mess and you have very little control over what apps can do once you’ve agreed to install the application other than just trusting Google. Your best bet is to avoid installing apps that have permissions that look suspect, or only install apps from really reputable companies.”

All of this brings us back to why I like the iPhone and Apple apps. Apple may come across as control freaks, but the company vets all of its apps and app developers to give you better protection. Some device users find that restrictive; I find it comforting.

To be sure, hackers and virus writers are looking to invade Apple computers and devices, and it’s only a matter of time until they succeed often enough to create problems. For now, our advice is – as always – to look before you click and decline if you’re not sure. Also, as always, never hesitate to call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us if you have any questions about any apps you’d like to download.