Chimo NgeBlog : 6 Great Windows Phone Mango Features For Business

Microsoft's big Mango update to Windows Phone brought the platform to version 7.5. It has over 500 new features, most aimed at the consumer, but some of these features will also help professionals.

1. Connecting to a hidden SSID: Some people use a hidden SSID under the illusion that it provides some level of security, even though it doesn't. Windows Phone 7 originally wouldn't connect to a hidden Wi-Fi access point at all. Now it will, but there is a caveat. The manufacturer or carrier also has to ensure the phone is running an updated Wi-Fi driver. If you have Mango and still cannot connect to a hidden SSID, contact your carrier. Mango has the capability and Microsoft has done all it can on this front.
2. Threaded email conversations: This is one of those love it or hate it features and some people love it. If you fall into that camp, then do nothing. Mango enables this by default. You can easily turn it off on a per-mailbox basis though.
3. Linked inboxes: If you have to manage multiple mailboxes, you can now see them all at once. Mango keeps the databases separate, but visually it looks like one big mailbox with all of your mail. A reply is sent from the mailbox it was sent to and all preferences are kept separate, so things like how long an email is retained and signatures are on a per-mailbox basis. You can link all, some, or none of your mailboxes, depending on your preferences.
4. Better live tiles: Live tiles in Windows Phone 7 were nice but didn't always function properly, especially third-party tiles. The more you had enabled, the more likely you were to run into problems. Once you had 15, you were maxed out. Additional live tiles were static. Mango upped the limit to 30 live tiles and improved the performance of all of them. They work best when a third-party developer redoes its tile to support multitasking. So feel free to add as many inboxes, people, and weather tiles to your homescreen. Having multiple weather tiles, with apps like WeatherLive, makes traveling easier as you can see the weather conditions at all of your travel destinations at a glance.
5. Contact history: This has been greatly improved. Simply pull up a contact in the people hub, or tap on a person if they are pinned to your homescreen, and swipe to the history section. You will be able to see all of your recent interactions with them via phone, SMS, and email. Tapping on any of those will bring you to that item. You could reply to an email right there, for instance. An additional swipe to the What's New section will show you their social interactions on Twitter and Facebook, including things like @replies to you.
6. Task switching: If you are like most professionals, you are doing multiple things at once. Twitter, email, checking out an Excel document, looking for directions, etc. Now you can seamlessly move through these by pressing and holding the back button. A task window showing thumbnails of recent apps pops up that will allow you to go directly to any of them. This works with all apps, but the experience is faster and more likely to return you to exactly where you were if it has been rewritten to support this feature. If you have ever used or seen the app-switching cards in WebOS, then you know exactly what this looks like.

This barely scratches the surface, but it gives you a hint of some of the improvements in Mango that makes the life of a professional, especially one that travels, a bit easier.

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Chimo NgeBlog : How to Stop Your Smartphone from Constantly Tracking Your Location

Your smartphone tracks your location for all sorts of useful things—driving navigation, updating the weather forecast, and even live traffic updates. However, if you'd rather not have Google and Apple tracking that information—not to mention having it available on your phone for thieves to find—here's how you can turn off location tracking.
Photo remixed from an original by Yurchyks/Shutterstock.
Location tracking actually provides lots of useful things to us, but while Google and Apple collect all that data anonymously, it's still stored on your phone (and in Apple's case, your computer). Anyone with the right tools could easily find out where you've been with your phone over a significant period of time, so if you're worried about this, you may want to turn this features off. Here's how.

Disable Location Caching on Android

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Luckily, Android's location tracking is actually an opt-in feature. You may or may not have enabled it when you first set up your phone. To find out, head to Settings > Location and Security, and uncheck "Use Wireless Networks". This will make applications like Maps a bit slower to grab your current location, and it won't be quite as accurate, but Google won't be collecting any location data, nor will it be stored on your phone thereafter. However, if you want to clear the previously cached locations from your phone, you'll need to rooted your device. Then after installing the free Location Cache app, you can view a map of your tracked locations on it, as well as clear them from your phone and disable the cache with one tap.

Disable Location Tracking on iOS

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In iOS, the situation is a bit more complicated. Turning off location services will stop sending data back to Apple, but it will still cache your location on your phone, so anyone with access to your computer or your phone can see where you've been (since iOS syncs all that information back to iTunes). The only way to do anything about it is to jailbreak your device and install the previously mentioned Untrackerd app. Untrackerd is very simple, though, just install it, and it'll clear your location cache and prevent it from recording anything in the future. It doesn't even have an icon on your home screen—just install it and forget it.

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Location tracking can be a great thing—in fact, we think it's one of the best things about smartphones. However, if you don't like the idea of big brother knowing your whereabouts—or if you're concerned about what could happen if your phone was lost or stolen—these simple tips should help keep your phones clean of location information.

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Chimo NgeBlog : 10 Tips for Safe Computing

Today, we are more dependent on computers and the information that they store than ever before.  From spyware, viruses, and Trojans to identity theft and computer hardware malfunctions —any disruption can have a huge impact on our lives.  No matter how savvy the user, safe computing practices are a combination of physical protections using computer software and security settings and the secure actions of the user. You need both to make a difference. Below are 10 tips that will help you protect your computer and ultimately the information stored on it.   

1. Keep your computer updated:

1.     In the evolving world of software viruses, it is essential that computer owners use anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.  Most anti-virus software gives the user the ability to do automatic updates.

2.      Whether individuals choose to update their operating system software automatically or manually, we recommend making it a continuous process.  It is also important to keep other software on your computer updated.  Software updates often include essential bug fixes and security features that address existing vulnerabilities.

3.     Finally, enable the personal firewall on your computer. This will help to keep unauthorized people from snooping around your computer when it’s connected to the Internet. 

2. Create strong, secure passwords

There is power in strong passwords.  We recommend passwords that contain at least 8 characters with a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.  Strong passwords are less likely to be hacked than very generic passwords.  Use creative pass-phases to avoid having to write down a password.  Do not share your passwords with anyone.

3. Download files legally

Along with the possibility of significant legal penalties, downloading music and movies from peer-to-peer networks can be harmful to your machine.  These downloaded files are sometimes riddled with viruses and spyware. 

4. Keep personal information safe

Reduce your risk of identity theft.  Never share your personal information via email, no matter how official the email looks.  Official business that requires personal information should not happen via unsecured email. 

5. Scan email attachments and validate links

In an effort to keep viruses off your machine, scan all attachments that are sent to you.  Viruses can lurk in emails from friends and family.  While you may be fooled about an email that contains a photo you would like to see from a friend, anti-virus software will know the difference.  If you receive a link in an email from a trusted source, hover over the link using your mouse and look in the bottom bar of your web browser to reveal the true URL and validate that the link is legitimate. This will ensure that you know where you are going on the Internet, and whether or not you want to go there.

6. Lock your computer

When leaving your computer unattended, physically lock it to prevent theft of the machine.  We also suggest that users lock the screen with a password to safeguard data. 

7. Log off any public areas

Remember when using a public computer or network, it is just that…public.  Be sure that you completely log off  the site or machine when you are finished using it.  Users should be especially mindful to uncheck boxes that will remember users’ login information when logging into online services, such as email and bank accounts. 

8. Back up important data

We have seen final papers vanish—hard drives crash and files become corrupt.  If you have important information that you cannot afford to lose, back it up.  We recommend that you store this information securely and even consider storing extra copies at another location.

9. Limit information on social media sites

People will post almost anything on social media site.  For many people, birth dates, anniversaries, addresses, phone numbers, and a lot of other personal information can be found on social media sites.  Protect yourself from identity theft and other scams by limiting what information you disclose online and who can see that information. 

10. Avoid surfing websites that you don’t already know

Browsers are quickly becoming one of the larger vulnerabilities in computing. Adware and spyware are written specifically to exploit Internet Explorer and Firefox. So try and stick with the websites you trust.

While these steps are not foolproof, they will go a long way towards extending the life of your machine and protecting the valuable information contained on it. 

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