A firewall restricts unauthorised access to your system by intruders, blocking certain types of network traffic. Firewalls can be implemented in software or in hardware. The hardware version is generally more secure than a software firewall installed alongside the operating system. Continue reading
“It’s in the Cloud…” The Cloud has become a go-to word in computing across all levels of users, even my septuagenarian neighbour, who doesn’t even own a computer. Although she does have a smart phone and a smart TV. Trouble is ‘the Cloud’ is actually several types of cloud. Continue reading
Tablets are starting to mature. Android’s new 4.1 release dramatically improves the user experience. Apple’s iPad is now on its third iteration and continues to dominate the market. Microsoft pushing hard with Windows 8 RT, which is likely to inspire a range of new models. The tablet market is growing and looks continue on the back of the iPad’s stunning success.
The question is now what to choose: large or small, iOS, Android or Windows? Continue reading
UEFI firmware was supposed to be the ultimate in boot-time security for PC’s. Then Microsoft added a ‘feature’ that blows a hole in it. Welcome to the Windows Platform Binary Table. Continue reading
We all know passwords are rubbish. We pick short ones, simple ones, easy ones; we never change them, we use our birthdays, childrens’ names, pets’s names, postcodes; and then we write them down on post-it notes and stick them to the screen. We think we’re clever when we use a password manager – right up to the point that gets hacked and all our passwords get published to FacePoke in one fell swoop.
What we need is something unique to us that we don’t have to remember or write down, that is always on our person and that will never change. Like a fingerprint. Lots of phones and laptops now have fingerprint scanners. That must be better. Except that’s worse. Continue reading
Three months with Motorola’s SIM-free smart-phone – £129 as at Dec 2015 – and one thing’s for sure: there’s no going back to contract phones filled with telecoms carriers’ bloat-ware crap.
With a fine, full HD screen, good performance, a pure, unsullied Android experience with automatic updates, it’s a reminder of Motorola’s place as a maker of quality handsets. Continue reading
