Jona Tech's - Tech Blog
Home PC/Computer Security Check
1/31/2010
Enough blogging about Android for a while. Let's talk about computer PC security briefly. There are a handful of things to keep in mind so that you can avoid having computer security problems.
1st of all computer security is and will be a never ending cat and mouse game. The bad guys in most cases, are always a step ahead and security software companies have to be quick to detect and provide updates. Luckily there are some basic things you can do to secure you computer.
Use a firewall. For most home PC users, a software firewall will do but business level firewalls should use a dedicated hardware firewall.
Keep your virus software up to date. When your virus software alerts you an update is available, download and install it immediately.
Do not have your wireless router broadcast your SSID. Your home network can't be found by would be hackers if they don't it's there.
Secure the data on your wireless network by using the strongest encryption available for your router - usually WPA or WPA2.
Ensure only your devices are allowed on your network. This can be done by entering the MAC address of each device you want in your router's settings.
Use strong passwords. This means atleast 7 characters with uppercase, lowercase, one symbolic character (?,#,*,!,...), and atleast one number. Strong passwords are almost impossible to crack with password crackers.
Lastly, make sure the website you're on when ordering products is secure. This can easily be checked by looking for "https" in the location bar of your browser.
These are just a few basic computer security checks you can make that helps keep out intruders. There are many more things you can do to secure your PC. Contact Jona Tech today if you have any questions.
Android Phones - The Missing Piece
1/9/2010
Google is doing a great job getting adoption of their mobile OS by carriers. Even AT&T whose network can barely handle data traffic from the iPhone is going to add Android Phones to their smartphone lineup. But as you may have already read or heard in other posts, the Android Eco-System is not optimum. Basically, in Jona Tech's opinion, the lack of an "iTunes Store" equivalent for media and applications is a real detriment for both consumers and developers with the latter being especially important. Without developers, you have no apps. No apps leads to consumer dissatisfaction. Consumer dissatisfaction leads to low sales of Android power devices.
How does Google get more developers or keep developers happy? Google needs to do a better job of exposing them. They need to provide a consumer friendly 1 stop shopping experience. They need to enable the ability of developers who write applications for a living, make money.
Currently, there is no iTunes equivalent for Google. Until this is made available, then Google Android smartphones will not be able to surpass the iPhone.
Google is Personalizing Search Results
12-27-2009
I recently became aware of this when my SERP for "Novi Computer Repair" for Jona Tech jumped to the top of the results page. I was excited after tweaking my pages for SEO and thought I had jumped over my local competition. I got curious and logged off my iGoogle account and tried the same search - "What the .....?" was my reaction. I went to the 3rd page now!!
I did some research and posted on forums to see what was going on. Apparently, Google made a change (a quiet change) early in December of 2009 to optimize search results based on the searcher's search and click history. I guess after constant mods, re-uploading, and searches on Google for "Novi Computer Repair", Google optimized the results just for ME.
What does this mean to SEO's? My opinion is not a whole lot or it shouldn't. I would keep doing whatever works for our clients. The reason if you think about. Lets say a potential customer needs a computer repair business in Novi. Unless they have a chronic computer breaking problem, this would be the 1st time they perform this search and they would not have a prior Google history on this. This means to me that the search is still somewhat organic and non biased.
One more point - Google does allow you to turn off or suspend personalized search results.
Google Android 101
12-21-2009
Jona Tech needs to blog about Google's Android because it seems most none techy people don't have any idea what it is and how it relates to consumer electronics and mobile phones.
First and foremost, Google's Android is an operating system or OS for short. It's like Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 are OS's for your PC. Like Microsoft, Google is providing Android to all or most mobile phone manufacturers to use and it's available on most carriers - Verizon, TMobile, Sprint. Unlike Microsoft Windows, Android is open for modifications by all that use it and can be customized. In short Android is the Windows equivalent for cell phones.
Android is available to multiple cell phone makers like LG, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and many others. The widely popular iPhone OS is available ONLY to Apple iPhones. Who will win the battle for the cell phone space? By the looks of our Preferred Smartphone OS Poll - it's too close to tell right now.
