Wednesday Tech Bytes

August 28, 2018September 3, 2018

Windows 10 Enterprise Is Microsoft’s Most Secure Operating System Ever

Is Windows 10 Enterprise Right For Your Business?

With the threats of cyber-attack at an all-time high, there’s no better time to reexamine your company’s operating system to see whether or not it offers the level of protection you, your company, and your clients deserve.

Windows 10 Enterprise ranks high among today’s most popular operating systems for large companies and it’s worth the expense. This operating system is beneficial to large businesses for a variety of reasons.

It features intelligent security, simplified updates, flexible management, and enhanced productivity. There are a number of other solid benefits to using Windows 10 Enterprise.

One of the main things that users notice about this operating system is that it makes up for what was lacking in Windows 8. The developers added many of the same familiar features that made Windows 7 so popular.

But Windows 10 Enterprise has much better security and an optimized interface for greater mobility within the workplace. All of this combined makes a strong case for why large organizations ought to consider Windows 10. It can breathe new life into your workflow and enable stronger productivity.

Enhanced Security

In terms of security, Windows 10 Enterprise is a viable option for businesses of all sizes, but particularly useful for large businesses. Windows 10 Enterprise’s Advanced Threat Protection, or ATP, has proven well worth its weight for peace of mind. In fact, the operating system was virtually unaffected during WannaCry, the largest global ransomware attack to date.

Its solid performance under this type of intrusion is a testament to its capabilities to keep businesses protected. For this reason, large businesses with much at stake would do well to examine Windows 10 as an option, especially if they’ve been impacted by large-scale global attacks like WannaCry in the past.

Device Guard, Windows Hello, and Microsoft Passport are just a few added security features to help users maintain privacy.

Device Guard

Device Guard isn’t just one feature, rather a set of three features that work cohesively to protect your system and eliminate any untrusted code from infiltrating a Windows 10 system.

These features include Configurable Code Integrity (CCI), VSM Protected Code Integrity, and Platform and UEFI Secure Boot.

CCI is responsible for ensuring that only trusted code runs from the bootloader onward, while VSM moves KMCI and HVCI into VSM to protect them from attack. Finally, the last feature, Platform, and UEFI Secure Boot work to ensure that boot binaries and UEFI firmware are accounted for and haven’t been compromised.

Windows Hello For Business

Strong two-factor authentication is vital for robust IT security. Windows Hello for Business ensures a tough line of defense on PCs and mobile devices by going one step further. This new type of authentication boasts a unique type of user credentials associated with a device. It utilizes a biometric or PIN feature for better security, and even allows users to authenticate to an Active Directory or Azure Active Directory account.

Flexible Management

An improved interface is another big benefit of Windows 10. The ability to switch back and forth between different virtual desktops has been something Mac users have enjoyed for years now, and with Windows 10, the feature is now a reality for Microsoft users too. What’s more, the feature is simple to use, requiring just a tap of the task-switching icon.

In addition to enhanced security, Windows 10 Enterprise brings improved compatibility by way of the Microsoft Edge browser. From improved battery usage to new capabilities like reading mood and webpage markup, Edge is intended to make browsing easier and more efficient than before.

Windows 10 Enterprise also offers simplified updates with unique tools that help streamline deployment. IT employees wear many hats, and there isn’t always enough time in the workday to dedicate to repetitive tasks. Windows Autopilot allows for easy, seamless setup and deployment, meaning you can take a new device out of the box and have it fully configured and managed from the cloud, all with minimal effort from the IT department.

Insight into your organization’s IT health and overall efficiency is imperative for sustained growth. With Windows 10, IT managers can ensure employee compliance, a more effective user experience, and smooth upgrades.

Elevated Productivity

Windows 10 offers a world of opportunity for software for tasks both large and small. There is a whole selection of apps that can be full-screen or windowed. The new range of apps includes more powerful media and productivity apps, new photos, music, videos, mail, maps, and calendars.

If your business thrives on creativity, you’ll find a good range of new tools to take advantage of, including Windows Ink, 3D in Windows 10, and OneNote. OneNote offers a single place for notes and ideas, while 3D in Windows 10 allows users to add a new dimension and elevate their design work.

And in a further effort for simplicity and familiarity, Windows 10 apps are designed to sync across a variety of iOS and Android devices for easy navigating between phone and PC. Furthermore, Nearby Sharing in Microsoft Edge, OneNote, File Explorer and other apps enable users to quickly and easily transmit files and web pages to nearby PC users with the click of a button.

Wrap Up

Overall, it has become clear that Windows 10 and Windows 10 Enterprise carry a wide range of benefits for large businesses. If you feel that your organization could use some improvement in the areas of productivity, IT security, and a better user experience, then a switch to Microsoft 10 may be long overdue.

August 15, 2018August 14, 2018

What Are the Top 10 Phishing Email Subject Lines from Q2 2018?

Hackers are constantly throwing in new and clever phishing attacks that threaten email users’ security. KnowBe4, one of the top security attentiveness and simulated phishing platform contributors recently issued the top 10 phishing email subject lines from this year’s second quarter. Please note, the attacks used most often contain email subject lines that relate to a user’s passwords and security warnings.

An estimated 1 out of 3 people will open a phishing email each day. This tricky way of gathering people’s personal and financial information is getting bigger, despite all the warnings from technology experts.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a technique that hackers practice to steal personal information, like credit card info or login authorizations. The hacker replicates an existing login page from an online service such as Dropbox, Apple, Gmail or your financial institution. This made-up website holds a code that delivers all the personal data you submit directly to the hacker. To lure you to the bogus website, hackers send a believable email to you. Quite often, the email sent to you will ask you to log in to your bank account because your bank has exposed a transaction that you did not authorize.

Hackers can make these emails look and sound real and their exploits have been very successful. They often use fear. The email will make it sound like you need to take action NOW! So without really checking, the victim clicks the bad link and continues to the bogus landing page where they give the cyber thief their log-in and password information.

Why is Phishing a Concern?

It is reported that consumers, businesses, and organizations will lose an estimated $9 billion in 2018 globally. With so much personal information tied to finances now shared online, hackers use phishing in order to illegally steal your money.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) latest quarterly release reported:

Over 11,000 phishing domains were created in the last quarter alone.
The number of phishing sites rose 46% over the previous quarter.
The practice of using SSL certificates on phishing sites continues to rise to lure users into believing a site is legitimate.

Is Phishing Just a Risk for Personal Users?

Because they store a lot of files in the cloud, Phishing is also a risk for all kinds of companies: Digital design companies, financial institutions, security companies, etc. According to hackmageddon.com, there were 868 reported company security breaches or cyber-attacks in 2017.

What do Hackers need to be successful?

There are generally three things hackers do to gain access to your information:

Build an email account to send emails
Buy a domain and set up a fake website
Think of a tech company that is used often to mask itself as a legit website (Dropbox, Amazon, eBay, etc.)

What Can I Do to Avoid Phishing?

It has become increasingly difficult to guard yourself against phishing. As hard as Apple, Google, and other tech companies have worked to filter them out, hackers are always devising new ways to phish. However, here are some tips on spotting phishing emails:

Try to avoid clicking on buttons and/or links in emails.
Begin using password managers. A password manager aids the user in creating and retrieving complex passwords and storing the passwords in an encrypted database. Therefore, if hackers get one of your passwords, they can’t use it on any of your other accounts.
Don’t put total faith in the green lock icon in your address bar. This only ensures that it is a private channel but does not inform you about who you’re communicating with.
Allow 2FA (two-factor authentication). Two-factor verification is an extra layer of safekeeping otherwise known as “multi-factor authentication.” 2FA requires a password and username, and also something that only the user knows (mother’s maiden name) or has (passcode texted to another device, such as a cell phone).
Be extra cautious if the browser plugin of your password manager doesn’t show your login credentials automatically.
Be quick to report suspicious emails to your friends and colleagues. Organizations who make it easy for their employees to report attacks will see a significant decrease in cyber-attacks. The quicker an IT department can respond to a threat, it will minimize the threat potential damage inflicted on people.

Ironically, the trend for most of these phishing emails are warnings about security alerts.

Here are the top 10 from Q2:

Password Check Required Immediately (15 percent).
Security Alert (12 percent).
Change of Password Required Immediately (11 percent).
A Delivery Attempt was made (10 percent).
Urgent press release to all employees (10 percent).
De-activation of [[email]] in Process (10 percent).
Revised Vacation & Sick Time Policy (9 percent).
UPS Label Delivery, 1ZBE312TNY00015011 (9 percent).
Staff Review 2017 (7 percent).
Company Policies-Updates to our Fraternization Policy (7 percent).

August 9, 2018August 9, 2018

How Concerned Should I Be About An IoT Attack?

This video made by Cisco does an incredible job of showing how the Internet of Things (IoT) based attacks are already a reality in the business environment. The Internet of Things is changing our culture. For us to see innovations in medical care, manufacturing, and utility services, we have to adjust to this new way of operating a business and ensure our networks remain safe from attacks. A new Gartner (the world’s leading research and advisory company) survey reveals that almost 20 percent of organizations have experienced one or more IoT-based attacks in just the last three years. Also, they are predicting that global spending on IoT security will reach $1.5 billion in 2018, a 28 percent increase from 2017.

Who Needs to Defend Themselves from an IoT Attack?

Finance Industry

The rapid-paced world of finance has encompassed the digital revolution. Banks, investors, and financial institutions of all kinds track current market conditions and command precise, up to the minute data. Through IoT, the financial industry will link and grasp the buying performance of clients. IoT technologies will provide the financial market with real-time analytics to push a more significant revenue stream.

The Risk

Since the end goal for cyber-attacks is money, the finance industry is the apparent leading target for cyber villains. Financial institutions are a top target for ransomware attacks. Smart devices offer tremendous potential for finance with instant access to customer data, but IoT devices are a blind spot that exposes financial companies to easy unlawful access.

Financial organizations are stringently regulated, and they have to meet an assortment of regulatory and compliance standards. For a company to provide satisfactory protection of IoT devices, businesses need full asset discovery for all their devices on all of their networks. They also need an ability to keep track of the behavior and monitor the connections made by those IoT devices.

The Solution

It’s crucial for financial institutions to have a service that gives them instant protection of IoT. Their devices must connect safely to the network, and they need a system that monitors the activity and exchanges of these devices. Being able to automatically identify erratic behavior or suspicious connections will ensure that the companies remain secure and compliant.

Healthcare

Gartner Research states that 25% of healthcare attacks will initiate from IoT devices by 2020. And over 70% of hospitals now report that security risks around connected medical devices are their biggest concern.

The Risk

With the arrival of the Internet of Things age, the healthcare industry has a new task: The Internet of Medical Things. MRI machines, x-ray machines, and heart monitors, just to name a few, are devices that can now be infiltrated threatening the vital care of a patient.

The Solution

Most of the current IoMT devices were not intended to have a high security-first position. They cannot support an agent to ensure their security. Healthcare organizations need an agentless resolution that can recognize the devices, their performance, and the networks to determine if a medical device has been compromised. They also need to be able to quickly disconnect the device from the network if it has been compromised.

Manufacturing

IoT has made the manufacturing world more efficient by providing access to vital data in real time. IoT sensors provide companies with the ability to monitor the temperature in food manufacturing, the performance of the production line, and track quantities of their product up to the minute. IoT improves the manufacturer’s production efficiency to cut costs and provide better quality.

The Risk

Manufacturing is a multifaceted progression that relies on numerous moving parts to keep running smoothly. When this progression slows or stops production, it will have a disastrous impact on profit and may cause long-lasting damage to the reputation of the product or brand. IoT streamlines manufacturing, however, since it is connected, it is also vulnerable to attack. Invaders can influence IoT devices to send bad data that affects quality or productivity, halt systems altogether, and stop productivity. Compromised IoT devices in the manufacturing sector allow hackers to gain access to the network and steal whatever data they want.

The Solution

What occurs in manufacturing settings is the reality that these smart devices and sensors were not originally designed with security in mind. Most of these devices are totally unmanaged when it comes to security. With no way to protect the IoT device directly, companies need a new approach to IoT security. Being able to monitor device behavior to detect when it is connecting to a hacker’s network is critical. Also, interacting with inappropriate devices or systems in order to identify suspicious or anomalous behavior will save the manufacturer from peril. Companies need a smart security solution that can see any IoT or unmanaged device, and respond automatically to ensure there are no interruptions of productivity.

Cisco IoT

Summary

The number of IoT attacks, and the damage that they have done, have both been gradually growing. IoT security requires businesses to be able to keep track of their device’s state, performance, vulnerability, history, and reputation. Visibility and monitoring can help companies detect potential attacks, but in order to prevent an attack, their security system must be able to control all wired and wireless connections in order to spontaneously block traffic or disconnect compromised devices. This IoT security solution must also be able to assimilate seamlessly with the company’s existing network hardware and software.

As companies realize the very real dangers of an IoT attack, they must work together to design and create security solutions that protect their bottom line.

August 1, 2018July 28, 2018

Is LinkedIn Feeling The Pressure From Competitors?

Communicate More Effectively With These New LinkedIn Messaging Features

LinkedIn Messaging

While Facebook and Instagram are the social networks of choice for the modern day mobile user, apps like LinkedIn haven’t lost their luster. The professional network is still the master of its class, and a growing number of users are turning to the app to keep up-to-date with their network more than ever before.

LinkedIn Moves To A More Competitive Platform

Whether as a simple courtesy to its users, or an attempt to become more appealing to those who’ve made a habit of bringing their professional life to social apps, LinkedIn has implemented some significant changes to their platform, all aimed at making the user experience more worthwhile.

The company announced the changes in a recent blog post, making the case for why the professional network isn’t one to be ignored if instant communication is a big part of your business. From finding jobs to networking and communicating with teammates, LinkedIn boasts loads of potential, especially with these new features.

Compose Longer Messages

The ability to communicate freely and privately through social apps has become a necessity for many of today’s mobile users. Sometimes, you’ve got a lot to say, and scrolling back and forth as you’re typing to make sure you got it all out can be tedious. With this, LinkedIn has created an easier way to compose longer messages, implementing a larger message box for ease-of-use. There will be no more fishing for your cursor. Now, you’ll be able to fit everything you need to say, just as you need to say it, by stretching the message box to reveal more space.

Share Attachments On The Go

In today’s business landscape, work doesn’t stop once you leave the office. This is the reality for workers across all industries today. Between mobile workers and those who travel often for business, smartphones bear their fair share of the workload, and social networks would do well to keep this in mind when rolling out new features for users.

To make the process of working remotely more convenient, LinkedIn now allows users to share attachments on the go. According to the company, the ability to share attachments was among the most frequently requested messaging features by LinkedIn users. To do it, just tap the attachment icon and choose from the approved file types, which include PDF, XLS, DOC, and PPT. This one change alone is sure to bring big potential for the app and users everywhere.

Express Yourself With Emojis

Conveying emotions through words isn’t always easy to achieve. Rather than spend the rest of your workdays dissecting messages and searching for undertones, you can now incorporate emojis into your messages. Use the emoji picker on your desktop to add emojis to your text. Just search by category, and let the emojis do all the talking.

Start And Manage Group Messages

There are loads of reasons why chatting on LinkedIn makes sense. You may be discussing work with a teammate, gathering info about an exciting new job opportunity, or collaborating with other professionals within your industry. Whatever the reason, instant communication is vital for many people, and the company has addressed this with the ability to start group messages.

It’s now simpler for you to start conversations with people within your network. To do this, just tap the “+” button, which will prompt the suggestions of users to communicate within groups. These can include fellow co-workers from a recent or present company, old classmates, or people you’ve recently met. And if you need to remove someone from the chat, never fear. Simply tap the three dots on the top right corner of your group message and tap to remove people as you wish.

Mention Others In Your Messages

The tagging feature on Facebook and Instagram is a great way to stay connected with friends. LinkedIn has incorporated a similar feature, allowing users to mention other users in group messages or in one-on-one conversations to recommend others.

Copy And Paste Images From The Web

It may come as no surprise that many people opt for visuals over traditional text. The popularity of memes is a testament to this. Visuals are a part of everyday communication for countless users, and LinkedIn has recently come up with a game plan for that, too. Users are now able to copy images from the web, and even their phone, right within LinkedIn’s messaging platform. This makes communication easier and more fun than ever – a big plus for users and LinkedIn alike.

Wrap Up

Given LinkedIn’s emphasis on all things business and professional, it makes sense that the company would further strive to make its features reliable for just that. These new features are bound to attract a new wave of young professionals hoping to find new ways to use modern methods of communication to advance their careers and networks.

July 25, 2018July 25, 2018

Have You Heard Of Microsoft Whiteboard?

Create and Collaborate With The All-New and Completely Radical Microsoft Whiteboard

What do most companies have in common these days?

The need to collaborate on a multitude of projects. Enter the old-fashioned whiteboard. This key piece of “equipment” is where a group might gather around while someone draws or makes bulleted lists. They write down ideas and suggestions. Everyone joins the discussion with their own unique ideas. Then after the meeting is over, someone erases the whiteboard so the next group can use it.

In today’s world, that’s a pretty outdated system. With all the technological advancements now available, surely there’s something better. Consider Microsoft’s new Whiteboard, a thing of beauty to behold. You can draw on it, make lists, share ideas, and create almost anything.

Microsoft brings the old-fashioned whiteboard into our new modern digital world. Team members can draw, make notes, type, or just get wildly creative. One team member can take up where another left off. Collaborating is easy and fun and it inspires the imagination. Below are just a few of the tools available for Microsoft’s Whiteboard.

Surface Pen and Collaborative Inking

Tasks such as the creation of comics rely on inking for quality and authenticity. Activities associated with high-end software used in the creation of high-quality graphics and comic book effects require the collaborative approach. Microsoft Whiteboard provides a platform for contributors to team up on a project ensuring that authenticity and quality are top notch. In terms of inking, enhancement of graphics and texts, and presentation, the Whiteboard can’t be beaten.

Geometry Recognition

Geometry recognition has applications in security enhancements through the concept of hand geometry in identification systems. Identifications systems, in traditional standards, make use of widely-used and applied features such as fingerprinting, Iris scanning, and facial recognition. However, hand recognition, which is part of the Microsoft Whiteboard Surface Pen application, takes security to another level providing scientific association of the hand contours with uniqueness in identity authentication process.

Table Conversion

Metric conversion of various standards to derived versions is an essential daily activity for multiple applications. Microsoft Whiteboard provides this functionality ensuring that users in various fields with conversion needs are able to integrate this feature into their professional practice. Revisiting the collaborative use of students and organizations of the Whiteboard versions for PC, Mac, Android, Windows, and iOS shows that varying categories of users rely on teamwork to function and to impact growth. Financial analysis and data-related tasks make use of tables and the Whiteboard application provides an easier solution for multiple users working simultaneously.

Automatic Table Shading

The Surface Pen allows users to apply conditional formatting to their worksheets. For corporate and academic uses, conditional formatting made possible by the MS Whiteboard’s Surface Pen functionality allows for interaction with tabular features. And, it offers professional tools for presentations. With reference to the standards of creating tables and the definition of formatting rules in any given project, Surface Pen offers these features ensuring that professionalism is integrated into the task resulting in the reliable quality of projects. Shading is particularly useful in highlighting crucial sets of information, such as financial ratios in financial statements in the expression of priority decision-making pieces of data.

Student and Organization Collaboration

Higher educational institutions offer students opportunities to pursue their professional fields of study. Students also require teamwork to efficiently apply their acquired knowledge on a variety of projects. These requirements are hindered by the inability to work on projects from a remote location without necessarily meeting physically with the team.

Organizations, on the other hand, require professionalism and collaborative dynamics to meet special organization-specific targets. In this regard, teamwork between employees is facilitated to not only support the functionality of an organization, but also the optimal utilization of time as a resource.

Correlation of Adoption to Efficiency

Organizations and individuals seeking maximum productivity will enjoy working with the MS Whiteboard application. Teamwork and project work within organizations is so important these days with people running in different directions. The collaborative features of the whiteboard application make it easy and fun for groups to get together and brainstorm. Individuals and organizations can improve their creativity while functioning at optimal levels. The Whiteboard also ensures that their activities can be tracked, authenticated, and shared with others.

Corporate Application

The MS Whiteboard provides a location diversity function to organizations that operate at an international level. The financial and economic climate of various regions requires organizations to operate from multiple locations taking advantage of emerging markets and sustainability. By collaborating, stakeholders of one organization can work together from different locations contributing to the same project. This approach makes organizational performance a shared duty where reliable ideas are taken into account, processed for their validity, and executed on-demand basis. However, the functionality of this application also runs into difficulties where teams do not share a common language but have to work on the same project. The translation feature of the Whiteboard provides a temporary solution since translated communication may not be as effective as same language communication.

Academic Applications

The onset of online academic courses is one of the significant applications of the MS Whiteboard. Through remote learning, tutors and students can work, present, discuss, and collaborate on academic tasks. The Whiteboard is perfect for schools of all sizes.

Microsoft Whiteboard

Conclusion

Teamwork has never been easier with Whiteboard. It’s the latest technology to take creation and collaboration to the next level for any team. This is a great tool for ad agencies and many other businesses who have a need to design and build things together. The Surface Pen opens up a variety of opportunities for students and leaders alike. Collaborate with others to create something amazing with Microsoft Whiteboard.

July 19, 2018July 23, 2018

Save Valuable Laptop Battery Life (Tips/Tricks)

How Can You Keep Your Laptop Running Longer?

Getting work done in the airport or other remote location where you can’t find a spare plug to recharge your “dying” laptop can be tricky. Battery power only lasts so long on any device, and once it’s used up, you’re stuck hunting down a spare outlet (along with other travelers in the airport lounge).

Luckily, there are some fast and simple solutions to help you gain a bit more battery life. Here are 8 handy tips to try:

1. Turn On The Battery Saver In Your Laptop

Your PC or Mac laptop comes equipped with a way to lengthen your battery life. Adjusting a few settings can gain you some extra juice when you need it. Your laptop can automatically lower the power state for a number of components so you can ration your battery power more effectively. You can change settings to turn off applications you don’t need, shut down processes that aren’t required and adjust specific activities so your laptop consumes less power.

2. Turn Off The Keyboard Light

Do you really need to have the keyboard backlit? This is a power drain you can quickly fix.

On your PC, go to the Control Center. Next, click the Keyboard and Mouse, then Backlit Keyboard to adjust the lighting. Turn off the Backlit Keyboard.

Unfortunately, there’s no built-in setting in Windows 10 to adjust the backlit keyboard settings. However, some original equipment manufacturers like Dell offer their own software for this. They have settings to turn the backlit keyboard on or off, adjust the keyboard brightness, and automatically turn off the backlight after a number of seconds of inactivity. Do some research for your device to learn what options you have. While you’re at it, why not assign a hotkey for this? You may need to do this again in a pinch, and you’ll save some time.

3. Lower Your Screen Brightness

You certainly can’t turn this off, but you can adjust the brightness setting and resolution. Reducing the level of brightness to 50 percent will save you quite a bit of power when you’re running low.

4. Turn Down The Volume

Doing this will save you a bit more power. If you’re desperate for more time, this is worth doing. Lower the sound as much as you can. You can also switch from listening via the laptop’s speakers to a set of earbuds. If you don’t need the sound, turn it off altogether.

5. Disable Ports And Devices

This is an easy way to reduce your laptop’s power consumption. Close down anything you don’t need. Disconnect peripherals you aren’t using like external hard drives or a USB mouse. Some other things that hog power are your Bluetooth, graphics processors, optical drives, and Wi-Fi. Turn these off if you don’t need them.

For Mac users, disable your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the Menu Bar. If you use a PC, go to the Device Manager in your desktop and disable ports you don’t need. This won’t provide a lot of extra juice, but if you’re really lacking power, this is something to try. Also turn off any USB ports that aren’t being used.

To turn off devices on your PC in Windows, go to your Control Panel and look for the Device Manager. All of the devices will be organized according to their category. All you have to do is right-click what you want to disable and choose “Disable” from the drop-down. If you want to turn off your Wi-Fi, you’ll find this in the Network Adapters category. The graphics card will be under Display Adapters, and the optical drive under the DVD/CD-ROM Drives category.

6. Can You Spare Some Apps?

When the power is running low, it’s best to use just one application at a time. If you keep multiple applications and processes running on your laptop, you can say “bye-bye” to your juice. They can really eat up battery life. Turn off anything you aren’t using. On your Windows-based laptop in the System Tray, click the icon that displays hidden icons. Here, you can see what apps might be running in the background. Then go to the Task Manager in the menu, and you can see apps that are open. Turn off what you don’t need.

7. What About Turning Off Certain Computing Processes?

Just like you don’t need all those apps running, you should turn off processes that you don’t require. Anything that’s used to run video players or music can probably be disabled and won’t be missed. Also, turn off your cloud storage services, for now, to get back some precious battery life. You can turn them back on when you can find a plug.

For MacBook users, go to Login Items in System Preferences and Users & Groups. Disable anything you don’t need right now. If you want to see what’s running, hold down the Option key and click on the battery indicator in the Menu or open the Activity Monitor in settings to see what’s running. Select and turn off anything you don t need. Apple OS X has a Power Nap feature that you can turn on. This will switch off email and Twitter feeds so you can maximize your remaining battery power.

8. Finally – Always Keep A Plug Splitter Handy

If you can find someone who’ll share a plug, this is when you need that handy plug splitter. It converts one grounded outlet into three. A 3-outlet splitter is usually rated at 15 amps. You can plug three different devices into it. Just make sure their combined load is less than 15 amps or 1,875 watts. If the people using the plug aren’t so sure they want to share, maybe a free cup of coffee will change their minds. They can recharge from their coffee while you recharge your laptop battery!

No matter how great your remote setup, getting work done in the airport where you can’t find a spare plug to recharge your laptop is a little tricky. I hope these tips helped.

July 12, 2018July 9, 2018

How to Connect an iPhone to an Amazon Echo Device and Play Music on Alexa

If you are a fan of smart devices, then you may already have an Echo device – Amazon’s line of smart speakers that connect to other devices using Amazon’s voice-controlled personal assistant Alexa.

These Alexa-powered speakers from Amazon hit the market first before the likes of Google, Lenovo, and Apple followed suit with their own smart personal assistants. The top products in this space include:

Google Home Smart Assistant
Lenovo’s Smart Assistant
Apple’s HomePod
The Echo from Amazon

These products are taking the market by storm through Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo, the pioneer in this world of smart speakers, remains in command of the largest market share.

Amazon Alexa supports a large number of streaming services – both free and subscription-based on Amazon devices. The voice-controlled app lets you customize practically all the voice commands you use with your speakers and intelligently keeps track of these commands for you.

With Alexa, you can enjoy convenient playback control in your home as you stream music and other media through any number of your Alexa devices. Registering your Alexa device to an Amazon account also allows you to access your Audible library and Amazon Music library automatically, taking your home entertainment to another level of convenience.

Amazon Echo to iPhone

What if you have an iPhone home?

Apple devices and services are extremely selective when it comes to pairing and connecting to non-Apple services or devices. So, you may realize that Apple iTunes and Amazon Alexa do not play well together, which begs the question: is my iPhone able to connect with an Amazon Echo device?

The answer is a big YES! So pull up a chair, sit down and we’ll show you how it’s done.

Echo devices are Bluetooth enabled, which means you can control the audio playback on your device by speaking to Alexa. This is to say that you will be able to play and control your Apple music service on Amazon’s smart speakers if iPhone is what you use for your home entertainment.

Using Bluetooth to connect your iPhone to Alexa

You can connect an iPhone to the Amazon product via Bluetooth, giving you the ability to start streaming and control the audio with the following products:

1st or 2nd generation Amazon Echo
2nd gen Echo Dot
Echo Spot
Echo Show
Echo Plus

Initial pairing

The first thing you’ll have to do is get the two devices (your iPhone and the Amazon Echo device) connected.

This entails pairing the iPhone with your Echo device via Bluetooth. To do this, take your iPhone near the Alexa device that you want to pair. On your iPhone, open the Settings app. Navigate to Bluetooth and open it.

Say, “Alexa, pair” to put the Amazon Echo device in Bluetooth Pairing mode. With that command, Alexa should give you an audible acknowledgment that it is searching and confirm when your Echo device is in pairing mode.

Next, you’ll get a notification on your iPhone screen asking if you want to pair or giving you the ability to cancel the pairing request. Tap “Pair” to connect the two devices via Bluetooth.

Alexa should also give you an audible confirmation that it has just connected to [name of your iPhone], adding that now that you’re paired, you should just say “connect my phone” next time you want to reestablish the pairing.

On your Bluetooth screen, the Echo will now show as connected. You can see this by scrolling to Other Devices at the bottom where the particular Echo device appears.

Streaming music and more

Once you have paired your iPhone with Alexa, you can open the Apple Music app and select the specific song or playlist that you want to stream. You should then hear this selection play through your Echo speaker.

You can stream audio from iTunes, Apple Music, Podcasts, and even the Apple TV. You also have the option to play music from any third-party app that has audio, such as AudioBox or Pandora.

Controlling playback and more

Alexa is a voice-controlled app so you will be able to control your playback by simply speaking to it once it is playing.

You can tell the intelligent personal assistant to play, pause, raise and lower the volume, resume, and even skip ahead and back to the contents on that playlist.

You won’t be able, however, to ask Alexa to identify a song for you, nor can you make it play specific songs or other content from your iPhone. If you try asking your Alexa to play specific songs, it will simply break the connection to your iPhone and instead play music from the Amazon music source that you have set as your default choice, such as Amazon Music.

For that kind of command, Apple prefers that you use its own personal assistant Siri, so you’ll need to say “Hey Siri” for that.

Wrap Up

If you’re an iPhone owner and an Echo diehard at the same time, Bluetooth pairing is a great way to start using these amazing devices together. Though it does have its limitations, it still makes listening to your favorite music fun and easy.

July 5, 2018July 2, 2018

Microsoft Office Lens (How-To Article)

What is Microsoft Office Lens?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to send someone a handwritten piece of paper or an illustration on a whiteboard? Microsoft has developed an app called Office Lens that works like a portable scanner, taking pictures of hard copy documents and then converting them to digital files. Once you take the photo, you can crop it, rotate it, or give it a sharper focus so that it looks just like a scanned image. The app uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, which has been around a long time and is very reliable.

Click here to learn more

This application is available for Android, iOS, and Windows Phones. It integrates with other Microsoft applications such as OneNote and relies heavily on the camera. This App can even convert your images into other formats such as Word, PDF, and PowerPoint files. That makes it even more convenient to use.

Scenarios

You are in a corporate meeting and your boss or colleagues need detailed explanations of things discussed in another recent meeting. The problem is that most of the things accomplished in the meeting were done on a whiteboard. In the past, it’s been hard to share information like this with colleagues. With the Office Lens App, you would take a photo of the whiteboard, then edit it appropriately, convert it, and share it with others.

It works for receipts too. Keeping a pile of receipts is no longer tidy nor reliable and they can easily be misplaced. Lay the receipts out on a flat surface and take a picture of them. You can do this for each receipt or group several together. You might have five receipts from where you bought party supplies for an upcoming birthday at work. Take a photo of all of them at once, then you can forward that file to the accounting department for reimbursement. Files can also be saved to OneDrive for future reference.

How many business cards have you collected over time from different people? These are always hard to keep up with and some of them may be important. With Office Lens, you can take a snapshot of the card and save it to your mobile phone. Now you can throw the paper card away. You don’t need it anymore.

Keeping track of items in this manner prevents spelling and typing errors. Everything is photographed exactly as is so there are no worries about copying down the wrong email address.

Office Lens is a good program for use at home as well. For those who are parents, your kid’s childhood is important. Their very first writings and drawings can be stored in your device and even forwarded to grandparents or friends.

Sticky notes are used a lot around an office. They often contain important information but they are easy to lose. With Office Lens, you can take snapshots of the most important sticky notes so you’ll have them for future reference.

How does it work?

Make sure you install the Office Lens product that is compatible with your device: iOS, Android, or Windows. Follow the instructions to set it up properly. Be sure to allow the program to access your camera.
The camera will open and then a default “view” option will allow you to choose options such as whiteboard or document.
As you focus and move the camera, it will try to frame the object. Once you get a clear focus, just press the button to capture your image.
Office Lens will take a few minutes to process the image and then give you a preview of it. If you think you should trim it a bit, use the crop option in the upper right corner. Once you achieve your desired results, tap Done.
Finally, you will need to save the image. You have options such as OneNote or OneDrive. These are good places to store all documents like this. Sign in to your OneNote account, create a name for your image, and then save it in the notebook file of your choice. If you wish to store your image online, you can upload it to OneDrive, Word, your photo library, or even PowerPoint. You can also email the photo.

Why Office Lens?

This app is a great way to organize all your stuff. It’s easy to use and it integrates well with other Office applications. It can help you keep track of everything from sticky notes and business cards to receipts. Since it uses Optical Character Recognition, it provides better clarity than normal photo-taking programs and cameras. It can even give you a good image of bad handwriting.

Office Lens allows you to edit directly from the image. If you feel that your content needs more explaining or has omitted something important, you can add it on the image from your device and then save it in the most suitable mode.

The fact that you can convert your image into different file formats, such as Word, PDF, and PowerPoint ensures that the image can be opened from any user device, especially if you are sharing it in a group forum.

Wrap Up

Office Lens is one App that is user-friendly and can be applied to different situations. Whiteboard presentations, bills, and receipts from home, restaurant receipts or even the menu, can be saved for future reference. This is a helpful app that definitely makes life a lot easier.

June 21, 2018June 22, 2018

June 2018 Update for Office 365

This article will cover a quick overview of the Microsoft Office 365 for June 2018 updates. The first step to making use of monthly or periodical updates is knowing that they exist. Updates simply provide new capabilities to your software or make improvements on the already existing ones. The challenge is thus having the knowledge on how they work. In a business organization, it would be an expensive affair to conduct employee training every time there is an update. The good news is that Microsoft has already taken care of that. On May 21^st it launched the Microsoft Training Service, which is basically a digital customized service for Office 365 and Windows 10.

The classes are designed to help customers learn about the new updates without having a financial impact on management. The pre-pilot phase of this program has been undertaken by twenty-five organizations to help leverage training which includes customizable up-to-date content, right-sized experiences to an organization’s needs, and consumption tracking. These new services by Microsoft will be available as a pilot program in late July 2018. Be on the lookout. Those interested need to register at Microsoft Training Services Pilot.

New Outlook Features.

Outlook features across MAC, Windows, Web, and mobile devices help you manage your time better. Finding a location for your meeting is made easy. When you go to Outlook, before typing your location, it gives you a list of suggestions such as the last meeting, recently used conference rooms, and also common locations. Once you start to type in the location field, Outlook brings up a list of suggestions that are powered by Bing and then finally completes your location with necessary information including full addresses for public locations.

This Outlook service is even better if you are using an iPhone Operating System because it will use your current location, your destination address, and traffic updates to send you notifications on when you should be ready to leave for your next meeting. This amazing feature will soon be coming to windows.

Meeting Invitation Made Accessible

It is now possible to know who has been invited and who is attending a certain meeting. Outlook allows you to see the tracked responses and RSVPs for meetings that you have been invited to. This way, it is easy for you to decide whether or not to go. Sometimes two meetings may overlap. Someone else in your organization may already be going. You can choose to attend the other meeting and then sync up with your colleague later. This is very important as it makes time management a much easier task.

Time Zone

Outlook has added more features on the Time Zone functionality that will help you plan meetings at optimal times across different time zones. It is now possible to display up to three time zones on your Windows calendar. This way you are able to see what is happening in other locations.

New Features in SharePoint and OneDrive

Several features were launched at the May SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas for both SharePoint and OneDrive. There were new improvements on the built-in scan feature in OneDrive for both iOS and Android mobiles. These are accessed through the dedicated icon in the tab bar. That makes it easy to add images, annotations, and even multiple pages to your OneDrive.

Now it is possible to automatically upload videos and photos captured on your camera roll in upload for Business OneDrive. There is also another great improvement that gives users the ability to require and set a password when you share a folder with other people. This feature basically prevents others from accessing your files if your intended recipient accidentally forwards a link. These new features now give you the ability to stop other users from downloading files or documents shared through the view-only links.

Microsoft SharePoint Spaces

These are basically immersive, mixed reality experiences that enable users to view and interact with content from every angle. In addition, users can visualize and manipulate data and product models in real-time.

The Title Bar

It is now easy to quickly change your current document’s title, open the document’s location, share the document through an invitation link, and even access the document’s version history by simply clicking on the title bar and selecting the functions from a drop-down menu.

Security

Office 365 solutions ensure that you identify and manage personal data such as the prevention of data loss and advanced data governance. The New Office 365 is able to detect and protect against security threats. It helps users comply with the European Union Privacy law recently enforced, the General Data Protection and Regulation (GDPR).

To learn more about these helpful new changes, please visit: The Microsoft Blog.

June 12, 2018

Security – The Biggest Challenge For Companies.

According to a recent survey, around 29 percent of companies named security as the major problems in the upcoming years. The current percentage is a ten percent increase from last year’s survey results. While security is the biggest problem, efficiency and workflow was a close second, at 26 percent. Apart from cybersecurity and problems pertaining to privacy, emerging technology and infrastructure management have also been ranked as the top technological challenges faced by companies; regarding of the industry they belong to.

Tech Security

Challenges faced by tech companies

While firms do face these major challenges, coming up with a solution for them is a problem because half of the companies that cited security as a big problem don’t have the money needed to deal with the problem. Half of the respondents claimed that their firm’s budget was the same as last year while 8% of them stated that the budget allocated to the IT department was smaller this year. Another research also suggests that a large part of global companies, up to 55%, only have an IT audit assessment on a less-frequent basis; most commonly once a year.

It is a difficult task for security professionals to get the budget they require for setting up a proper, well-developed cybersecurity program. The problem is that security professionals are only handed the budget after there has been a major data breach or if there has been an incident that has left a negative impact on the company. A number of organizations find it hard to quantify security or put a monetary value on it.

With news filled about phishing scams and hacking incidents and social media websites talking about privacy, one can easily understand why security is such a concern. For instance, just last year in May, companies in more than 150 countries had been targeted. The targeted companies included big names such as NHS, FedEx, and Honda.

Just like law firms, tech firms also store tremendous amounts of sensitive data about users, which is why it is crucial for them to employ high-security levels. A lack of security on the part of tech firms not only shows negligence but also puts all the users at risk who’s data is stored with the company.

What security challenges do tech firms face?

The challenges to cybersecurity are regularly developing and are becoming more severe; making it vital for tech firms to stay on top of their game and constantly work on finding solutions, so they stay safe from security attacks. Mentioned below are a few of the common kinds of threat that tech companies can face:

Malware

Malware is highly common. Not only is it present abundantly on the internet, but it is also the tool that a majority of cybercriminals use for obtaining their goal. Whether it is for locking up computers and charging them for obtaining their goal or it is for infiltrating an organization and stealing confidential information; malware is the best tool. Similarly, malware can also be used for making public statements and getting people’s attention. In each cybersecurity incident, malware always has a role. In fact, it can also be used as a pivot into the company.

Users

While this might seem surprising but users are a threat too. For instance, the threat can come from the inside, i.e., a malicious employee, or it could also be because of accidental user actions.

Spear phishing

Another tool that is becoming more common these days is spear phishing, primarily because it is quite effective. Hardly anyone thinks twice before opening any PDF document or a Word document. Many of us, in fact, use it regularly for work without thinking. This routine of not giving a second thought before opening a document is exactly the factor that criminals count on.

For all these security threats, the solution is simple; user education. For any organization, it is crucial to teach employees to first think before clicking on anything; whether it is a link or a document. While user education is important, it doesn’t mean that technology selection should be neglected. Enterprise systems can provide a sufficient amount of security if their users are given the right cybersecurity training and know how to use the systems correctly. While this requires more money and more time, the training is crucial for keeping the firm’s data protected.

Furthermore, another step that firms can take is to use email gateway technologies that can help get rid of the malicious emails before it goes into the user’s inbox. This simple measure can go a long way when it comes to protecting the firm from spear phishing.

Bottom line

It cannot be denied that the industry is filled with challenges, that increase in difficulty with each passing year. However, the good news is that all problems can be solved if only firms make use of passion, ingenuity, and a systematic thought process for solving them.