Today, the latest trend for mobile workers is gadgets or services that read text-based correspondence in a human-like voice while on the road, and in some cases even allow the user to reply.

Technology continues to bring out the best in modern inventors today. Mobile devices are updated every few years, and many apps are developed and added to these gadgets, mostly with the purpose of making life easier and perhaps more fun for the users. These days, in addition to desktop computers and laptops, you can get work done with the use of your iPhones, Android, Blackberry, and many other smartphones and mobile devices.

However, the increase in the capabilities of mobile devices to include texting and other conveniences has also increased the number of vehicular accidents. As a result, many states have passed laws demanding that drivers only use cellphones that have “hands-free” devices like the Bluetooth and ear buds.

The latest trend in mobile working is gadgets or services that use text-to-speech technology to read your text-based correspondence in a human-like voice, and in some cases, even allows you to reply verbally, attaching the reply as an audio clip or transcribed back into text before sending. Examples of these apps are the DriveSafe.ly by iSpeech.Org and the Text’nDrive app for Blackberry or iPhone.

These tools can be very handy while on the road, and may seem to be good solutions to making workers more effective – but there are still safety concerns. According to Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst from London, Ontario, “While these new apps hold the promise of maintaining productivity while on the go, they ignore the basic fact that even hands-free communication at the wheel can be a dangerous proposition.”

Scott Steinberg, CEO and lead technology analyst for TechSavvy Global in Seattle, Washington agrees with Levy on safety concerns, but says, “. . . this is better than holding the phone up to your ear, which also may be illegal in your state, and certainly safer than texting or emailing while driving.” Steinberg adds that these apps do a “pretty good job … That said, hearing your emails is fine, but those who send out replies will still need to double-check messages if they’ve been transcribed into text to ensure it’s accurate.”

While these apps can certainly help you and your employees be more productive, we should always remember that any action taken while driving, even if it’s just talking on the phone with a hands-free kit, is distracting. Perhaps the best policy is to wait until you get to your destination. It’s safer, and you can focus solely on your work.

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While many companies think the federal Red Flag Rule applies only financial institutions, if you invoice customers for your goods or services, it applies to you, too. Regulations designed to minimize identity theft went into effect in June of 2010. Are you complying with them?

The federal government’s so-called “Red Flag Rule” requires all businesses that are potential identity-theft targets develop plans to spot red flags and prevent theft. Red flags include suspicious photo IDs, unverifiable addresses and Social Security numbers, and questionable account activity, to name just a few.

While many companies think the Red Flag Rule only applies to financial institutions, it actually applies to all creditors—with creditors being defined as “businesses or organizations that regularly provide goods and services first and allow customers to pay later,” according to a Frequently Asked Questions guide prepared by the Federal Trade Commission, which will enforce the Red Flag Rule.

In other words, if you invoice customers for your goods or services, you’re a creditor—and the Red Flag Rule applies to you.

How can you comply?  You’ll need to have a written policy that specifically addresses how you will prevent and handle identity theft. Other recommendations include data encryption, annual updates of your written policy, and staff training.

While this may seem onerous, you don’t want to ignore the legislation. Fines are $3,500 per violation—and the threat of a lawsuit from customers whose identity has been stolen.

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Open Wi-Fi networks are indispensable, especially for people who need to work on the go. But without the proper security, you may find that they can prove to be troublesome as well.

These days, more and more people are on the go, and many of them bring their work with them. And in this day and age, it’s ideal if you’re working – or playing for that matter – while connected to the internet, which is often through public Wi-Fi hotspots.

While connecting to public and open-access Wi-Fi hotspots is indeed convenient, using open networks also poses risks that endanger your security. The open nature that allows anyone to use the connection also enables unscrupulous people to gain access to your private information. The whole act of stealing information from people who are using public Wi-Fi networks is called ‘sidejacking’.

There are applications such as Firesheep, for example, that provide an easy-to-use platform that others can exploit to spy and harvest personal, sensitive information from you. And since Firesheep is a Mozilla Firefox plug in, virtually anyone can download and use it to sidejack people on the same network.

You can’t be too cautious with your personal and business data these days, so you always need to have the proper laptop configuration and security infrastructure to protect your system, especially when you frequently avail of open and public networks. To know more about this, please feel free to give us a call and we’ll be happy to draw up some security options that meet your specific needs.

Since its initial launch as a microblogging service in 2006, Twitter has taken the World Wide Web by storm, and if there’s ever a popularity contest among social networking platforms, Twitter would most likely be the winner. On its own, Twitter is a great service for connecting with people. However, without the third party tools, it wouldn’t be as phenomenal as it is today.

There are countless Twitter tools and apps available today. Here’s a list of six that are sure to be useful and effective in building relationships with your Twitter followers.

The first section introduces some basic tools, which you can skip if you’re already a Twitter expert. The second section describes tools that you may not have previously heard of, but are worth checking out since they can boost visibility, traffic, and clients.

The Basics

• Link Shorteners – Most Tweets (posts) on Twitter are not the usual “what I had for lunch” Tweets, but are more often people sharing links of articles, videos, photos, and more. Sharing links is a great way to help people better understand your field of interest and expertise while also helping them discover great content online. However, many links are very long, and do not fit within Twitter’s 140-character limit – so as the term implies, a link shortener shortens a specific link/URL. Try sites like Bit.ly, TinyURL and tr.im to easily condense your very long URLs into just 15-20 characters, leaving you room to comment.In addition to the practical need of shorter URLs, a majority of these tools also provide useful tracking reports so you can monitor the number of people who clicked on your links, which were the most popular, the dates when people clicked them, as well as give you an idea which topics are the most popular with your Twitter community.
• TweetMeme – That ever-present gray and green “re-tweet” logo enables readers to quickly re-post or “re-tweet” your post to their own Twitter followers. TweetMeme is a wonderful means to encourage your audience to spread the news about your status, tips, and words of wisdom.Like link shorteners, TweetMeme also tracks your links as they pass through the Twitterverse, and shows the total number of times your link was re-tweeted. Aside from helping you determine the popularity of given topics, it also lets the feisty competitor in us compare the success of our posts versus others and even ourselves.
• TwitPic – This is one of the numerous tools that let you take pictures with your mobile phone and post them directly on Twitter. Other similar tools are: TwitGoo, img.ly and yfrog. These tools are also usually integrated into whatever Twitter mobile application you’re using. You can also obtain statistics to monitor responses on your pictures. You can still also opt to link your followers to a Flickr account, Facebook page, or a web page that displays your pictures.

Cast your Twitter net even farther…

There are a lot of nifty Twitter applications out there that will help you create a solid and engaged community. When you’re ready to take your Twitter skills to the next level, below are three tools to get you started.

• TweetSwell – This great app allows you to create Twitter-based polls, wherein each reply doubles as a tweet and helps the poll become viral. TweetSwell  can also help maintain your brand identity by ensuring that your poll pages are synchronized with your custom-made Twitter layout. Similar apps are: Twtpoll and TwtSurvey.
• TwtVite – Somewhat related to Eventbrite, TwtVite enables you to use Twitter to get together in the real world. Check out the animated video to get a feel for how it works. For an actual example, read this case study about a Milwaukee bar owner who used TwtVite in hosting the biggest Tweetup in the Midwest.
• TwtQpon – Online coupons offer small businesses a fantastic opportunity to drive lots of new and repeat clients. This app creates online coupons that can be published on Twitter and many other social network sites. While apps such as Groupon and Living Social can also make online coupons, TwtQpon is specifically designed for social networks.

Since its initial launch as a microblogging service in 2006, Twitter has taken the World Wide Web by storm, and if there’s ever a popularity contest among social networking platforms, Twitter would most likely be the winner. On its own, Twitter is a great service for connecting with people. However, without the third party tools, it wouldn’t be as phenomenal as it is today.

There are countless Twitter tools and apps available today. Here’s a list of six that are sure to be useful and effective in building relationships with your Twitter followers.

The first section introduces some basic tools, which you can skip if you’re already a Twitter expert. The second section describes tools that you may not have previously heard of, but are worth checking out since they can boost visibility, traffic, and clients.

The Basics

• Link Shorteners – Most Tweets (posts) on Twitter are not the usual “what I had for lunch” Tweets, but are more often people sharing links of articles, videos, photos, and more. Sharing links is a great way to help people better understand your field of interest and expertise while also helping them discover great content online. However, many links are very long, and do not fit within Twitter’s 140-character limit – so as the term implies, a link shortener shortens a specific link/URL. Try sites like Bit.ly, TinyURL and tr.im to easily condense your very long URLs into just 15-20 characters, leaving you room to comment.In addition to the practical need of shorter URLs, a majority of these tools also provide useful tracking reports so you can monitor the number of people who clicked on your links, which were the most popular, the dates when people clicked them, as well as give you an idea which topics are the most popular with your Twitter community.
• TweetMeme – That ever-present gray and green “re-tweet” logo enables readers to quickly re-post or “re-tweet” your post to their own Twitter followers. TweetMeme is a wonderful means to encourage your audience to spread the news about your status, tips, and words of wisdom.Like link shorteners, TweetMeme also tracks your links as they pass through the Twitterverse, and shows the total number of times your link was re-tweeted. Aside from helping you determine the popularity of given topics, it also lets the feisty competitor in us compare the success of our posts versus others and even ourselves.
• TwitPic – This is one of the numerous tools that let you take pictures with your mobile phone and post them directly on Twitter. Other similar tools are: TwitGoo, img.ly and yfrog. These tools are also usually integrated into whatever Twitter mobile application you’re using. You can also obtain statistics to monitor responses on your pictures. You can still also opt to link your followers to a Flickr account, Facebook page, or a web page that displays your pictures.

Cast your Twitter net even farther…

There are a lot of nifty Twitter applications out there that will help you create a solid and engaged community. When you’re ready to take your Twitter skills to the next level, below are three tools to get you started.

• TweetSwell – This great app allows you to create Twitter-based polls, wherein each reply doubles as a tweet and helps the poll become viral. TweetSwell  can also help maintain your brand identity by ensuring that your poll pages are synchronized with your custom-made Twitter layout. Similar apps are: Twtpoll and TwtSurvey.
• TwtVite – Somewhat related to Eventbrite, TwtVite enables you to use Twitter to get together in the real world. Check out the animated video to get a feel for how it works. For an actual example, read this case study about a Milwaukee bar owner who used TwtVite in hosting the biggest Tweetup in the Midwest.
• TwtQpon – Online coupons offer small businesses a fantastic opportunity to drive lots of new and repeat clients. This app creates online coupons that can be published on Twitter and many other social network sites. While apps such as Groupon and Living Social can also make online coupons, TwtQpon is specifically designed for social networks.

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If you’ve seen a popup window warning you that your computer may be infected with a virus, think twice before clicking on it—you might be getting duped into spending money on malware.

Security firm McAfee has published a report early in the year showing that up to a million people worldwide fall victim to so-called “scareware” each year. Scareware, or rogueware, is software that poses as legitimate security software but in reality are dupes to steal credit card information from users, or even worse are Trojan Horses to spread malware. Scareware is distributed primarily through the Internet via malicious websites that pop out windows that fool users into thinking their system may be infected. Users who click on the popup windows are redirected to a website which encourages them to buy fake security software online.

Scareware are especially dangerous as it hits users in many ways: by duping them out of their money, injecting viruses or other forms of malware into their system, or even holding them ransom—for instance, by taking over users’ systems then demanding more payment to free the data stored in the infected computer.

It’s a good thing that there are many ways to protect your system against scareware. One is using security software from legitimate and well established software vendors—through their legitimate sales channels. Another is by being prudent with offers and downloads when online. For a small business there are other ways such as blocking or filtering these malicious websites to ensure the security of the entire business. If you want to find out more about these solutions to protect small business networks—let us know. We offer managed security services for small business that can protect against online threats.

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