RIM kicked out of the NASDAQ-100

The NASDAQ-100 is a stock market index of the world's largest non financial companies. NASDAQ recently announced that Facebook will be listed while Netflix and RIM will be shown the door (in 2013).

Although this is another strike against RIM, it isn't unexpected. With RIM's stock being so low and projections so bad, no one should really be surprised that they will be removed from the NASDAQ-100. 

If you don't trust my information, head on over and check the official NASDAQ release [here](http://www.nasdaq.com/article/annual-changes-to-the-nasdaq-100-index-20121214-00830#.UM6Swm80XTr).

How to detect counterfeit headphones

There are thousands of counterfeit products being sold on Craigslist, Kijiji, eBay and other consumer to consumer online sites. During a trip to New York last year, I even found counterfeit Apple products and headphones being sold in a brick and mortar store. As a consumer, you want to make sure you are buying the real thing.

First rule of thumb

Counterfeit products never perform like the real authentic product. Don't listen to what anybody says, they just don't. Best case, the counterfeit product just per form’s bad. Worst case, the counterfeit product may be dangerous for your health and safety.

Regardless of what you have been told, the Original Equipment Manufacturers charge more because their products are built to higher quality/safety standards. These higher standards require higher end components and all of this costs money.

If the deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Never buy products sold without boxes

There are legitimate reasons why an online retailer or store may be selling a product without the original box but I’m not interested. Too often, missing boxes are a technique used by those selling counterfeit wares and I’m not interested.

Always look for a box that is clean and complete. It should have the same original seals or shrink wrap as a product sold in a local big box store.

Before buying anything, visit your local bog box store and examine the product. Look at the box closely. What is written? How is it written? How is the box sealed? If the store will allow it, take plenty of pictures. You need an original reference for comparison later.

Start with the batteries

If buying a product that requires AA or AAA batteries, find out what brand they are. Name brand manufacturers use Energizer or Duracell batteries but most Chinese knock-offs I have evaluated came with some other Chinese brand one.

On a recent trip to the "fake mall" in Shanghai, we were accosted by retailers peddling fake Beats headphones.

Every single one we examined came with local Chinese made batteries (while the original comes with Duracell).

When a product comes with a manufacturer brand battery (some Bose QC brand headphones), this is a little more difficult but can still be useful. In this case, you have to compare every detail from an original with the one you are evaluating. Look for different fonts or font sizes. Look for errors in spelling or missing certification labels. Look at the shape very closely as some counterfeits come close but aren't perfect replicas. If anything is off even slightly, you may be looking at a copy.

Examine the box and manual

Previously I asked that you examine the original product in a reliable big box store. This info will now be put to good use. Look at the packaging. I mean really look at it like an inspector.

You are looking for cheap quality printing, faded packaging or labels, strange markings not found on the original box, different fonts or colors used on text, compare or product names and misspelled words.

Do the above check on the box and the manual. Take the time to really look for these telltale signs in detail. If you see any of the above, you are likely holding a counterfeit product.

Presentation of the product

Manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure the customer has an exceptional unboxing experience. Every step of the process is carefully designed to be easy and be a satisfying experience. Compare the placement and internal packaging of the product with an original.

Are items presented in the rights order (i.e. product, cables, manuals)? Is the product inserter into the packaging the same way as an original? IS the product presented properly (righ and left sides of the product in the right position, proper placement of the transport case, inclusion of the proper accessories, etc).

Finally examine the product itself

Go through the markers I mentioned for the packaging. Look for things that are different or unusual. Markings, finishing, quality, weight, etc.

The counterfeit Beat headphones I examined in Shanghai had very different weights than the original we were comparing it too. We then played Apple lossless encoded music from an iPhone 4s and you immediately could head the difference in the sound quality. The original was rich with strong clean bass whereas the counterfeit sounded like it was being played through a can.

Any edges on the original were clean and smooth. The counterfeit product had more jagged edges and looked "less professional".

What to do if you bought a counterfeit product

  • Try to return the product back to the seller for a full refund. Be nebulous about the reason.

  • Call your credit card company and file a complaint asking for a charge-back (aka a charge reversal).

  • If you bought it on eBay with Paypal, file a complaint and ask for a refund. In your complaint be as specific as possible and take pictures as proof.

  • If the item was sent via mail, you can sometimes file a complain with your countries postmaster who may choose to conduct a more in depth investigation and block additional shipment from that seller into your country.

What if I'm not sure

There may be situations where you have doubts but aren't sure something is counterfeit. In that case, contact the support department of the manufacturer and ask for help. Some may politely reply with "Too bad you should have bought it from an authorized retailer." But more often than not, they will likely give you specific queues to look for [on their product] to help authenticate it.

There was one case where I sent the questionable product to the manufacturer (asking being asked to do it) and was told it was a counterfeit. In this case the manufacturer had amazing customer service and shipped me a replacement (since the original was purchased from a brick and mortar store that should have been authentic).

Buyer beware!

Scammer want your password. Here's how to protect it

As a business leader working in the information security field, I usually add extra doses of "question everything", "trust no one" and "double check everything" into my life. As the holiday season approaches, everyone seem happier, more cheerful and sometimes more trusting.
Scammers are out in force trying to steal your information and identity so this post is a little reminder to be extra vigilant this holiday season. One tip is to
never ever ever ever ever share your password with anyone.
Understand that the "bad people" out there are experts at social engineering. Social engineering is the art of using social and psychological tricks to convince someone to hand over valuable information [that they normally wouldn't]. The minute you let your guard down, you are susceptible to being duped. Your bank or service provider should never ask for your password. 
Make sure when someone claims to be from XYZ company, they actually are. Never give personal information unless you can verify someone's identify or the are able to verify the validity of their claims.
If you receive a call from "the bank" asking for personal info stop and question everything? Ask for their identification and call back details. Call your branch to vaidate the provided information. Only after conducting your due dilligence should you even consider providing your info and then only the bare minimum. Remember that elements like CalledID can be faked.

You make bad decisions when too much info is available

We live in the information age where almost anything can be researched and learned from the massive information superhighway. But is too much information a bad thing?

Psychology today has an interesting article that claims the more we learn, the harder it becomes to make a decision. Pushing the point just a little more: more information may encourage us to make a worse decision.

The article is worth reading and one paragraph that stood out at me was this:

"The human mind hates uncertainty. Uncertainty implies volatility, randomness, and danger. When we notice information is missing, our brain raises a metaphorical red flag and says, "Pay attention. This could be important."

If information overload leads to bad decisions, then why do we do it? They have a great explanation

Learning is associated with the release of dopamine, the same as powerful drugs like cocaine. It's why we are so vulnerable to an Internet rife with attention parasites that leave us worse for the wear.

They also state that humans tend to over-estimate the value of missing information. Any time we feel info is missing, our subconscious assumes it must be useful. The moral of the story is to consciously decide how much information you really need to make a good decision and stick to your plan.

I wonder if we will ever see people claiming to be "Information Addicts". Do we need to create a 12-step program for information addiction? LOL

It may be time to check out Outlook.com if you use gmail

Full Disclosure

I have been using Google Apps for some time now and it has proven to be reliable, fast and easy to use. December 7 2012, we learned that Google was killing off its free Google Apps offering and forcing new customers to its $50 a year Google Apps for small business offering.

They said existing [free] customers will be grandfathered but who knows what the future holds. Truth be told, the one service I really use is GMAIL and Drive. I tried giving up Microsoft Office for Google Docs but found myself coming back to Office because it was easier to use and more feature rich.

Seeing as Microsoft has spend a considerable amount of money to revamp its email service, I wanted to see how it compared to the venerable GMAIL (in case I was forced to switch). So this is my personal Outlook.com versus Gmail comparison.

Storage Limit

Google offers an impressive 10GB of free storage space for all GMAIL users. 10GB is a lot of space for free but Outlook.com offers unlimited email storage. That's right, no limits.

Microsoft Outlook includes email storage that expands to provide you with as much storage space as you need. Your inbox capacity will automatically increase as you need more space. - Outlook.com storage limit

Recover deleted emails

This isn't a feature I would use often but the one time you need it, it could be a life saver. If you navigate to the Deleted folder, you will see a note that says recover deleted messages.

With Microsoft Outlook, you can recover email that might have been accidently deleted from your inbox. This is also helpful if your account has been hacked, because hackers often delete all the messages in an account. They don't specify how many of your deleted messages how many messages they keep or how far back but its still pretty cool. Contrast this to GMAIL which doesn't have a comparable feature.

Outlook.com gives you mail alias'

An alias is an email address that you can add to your existing account—they’re a great way to use different email addresses with the same inbox.

Aliases use the same contact list and account settings as the primary account. You can create up to five new aliases per year, for an overall maximum of 15. Deleting an alias removes it from the overall count, but not the yearly limit. - link

This is a neat feature that can help improve your account security and control spam. You can use an alias when selling something on craigslist or when signing up to a questionable newsletter. When you're done or annoyed, just delete the alias and your done.

Gmail doesn't offer anything comparable to this. You would have to setup a separate GMAIL account and then configure it to forward emails to your main account. This could work but is a hassle.

Unsubscribe

GMAIL is the king of SPAM filtering but Outlook.com has a neat unsubscribe trick up its sleeve. It detects when an email is a newsletter and allows you to unsubscribe (even if the newsletter doesn't mention the process).

While they try to unsubscribe you from the mailing list, they send all future emails automatically to the junk folder. Now this is what I call smart filtering.

The downside

Try as I might, I could only find one negative about the new Outlook.com and that is the fact that IMAP is not available yet (but the dev team has said it is coming). If you use an iphone, ipad or Android device, you can always use the Exchange sync which works wonderfully well.

What about using my own domain

There seems to be a way for you to use Outlook.com which your own domain name ([email protected]) but I have to test it before writing about it. I'll write up the process once I'm convinced it works well.

Gangdam Style + MC Hammer = good entertainment

I saw this and wanted to share a new spin on Gangdam style

 

An easy way to encrypt your emails and keep its contents safe

I had written an article a while back entitled "Is Microsoft Going Through Your Cloud Stored Files?". Whether the analysis of your content is done by a human, a robot or disgruntled employee, it feels wrong and there are times when you absolutely need to make sure the info in a particular email is secure & protected. 

You can always install one of the open source PGP alternatives but require complicated setup and key exchange (which makes these non usable by the average Joe). This is where Mailvelope is hoping to change the industry. 

Mailvelope offers free Chrome and Firefox extensions that encrypt outgoing emails via OpenPGP when using the most popular web based email services( Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo, etc). Their claim to fame is that it works with the web based clients offered by these services and is super simple to use.

The product is still in beta but has been shown fairly stable during normal use. You install the extension, generate your public and private keys and that's it. The installation walks you through the process and advance computer skills are not required.

Once the keys have been generated, you will see a lock icon in the message compose window [of your chosen email service], by clicking this icon, you can encrypt your message. Remember that to work, the other party also needs a PGP compliant client to decrypt your message and a public key exchange must also occur. The easiest setup is to ensure the recipient also installs Mailvelope.

I would never call encryption easy but this seems to make it simple enough for the general population to use. I will be interested in seeing how they eventually monetize their service.

 

Encryption icon on a gmail:

 

How an encrypted message looks

you click on the lock icon and it asks for your private key passphrase

 

Facebook helps FBI shutdown the butterfly botnet (mariposa)

The US Department of justice said it has arrested 10 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, New Zealand, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States related to the operation of the butterfly (mariposa) botnet. 
The exact infection rate can't be ascertained with certainty however it is believed over 11 millions systems are infected worldwide. As one of the biggest and most widely known botnets, experts estimate that it stole close to $850M by harvesting financial information from 800,000 people.

Facebook becomes the tool

You can read the FBI statement here, however the most interesting part of the story is this:
"Facebook’s security team provided assistance to law enforcement throughout the investigation by helping to identify the root cause, the perpetrators, and those affected by the malware. Yahos targeted Facebook users from 2010 to October 2012, and security systems were able to detect affected accounts and provide tools to remove these threats."

Cybercrime is on the rise

Criminals follow the money and right now, the money is moving online. As more of the world's financial transactions happen on the internet, more of the world's criminals gravitate to online crime. These nefarious individuals will use any means available to reach their goals and unfortunately most of the time, it involved tricking you to infect your machine then steal your information (banking, financial, corporate information, intellectual property, etc).

Could Google maps for IOS be released tonight?

AllThingsD is reporting that Google Maps for IOS may launch as soon as tonight on the Apple AppStore. Their information is provided by a "trusted inside source" so take this with a grain of salt. 

I'll believe it when I see it but I hope the rumor it correct. 

2012 Interesting Twitter Statistics

Every year, the analysts and engineers at tweeter crunch all the tweet data for that year and present interesting trends. They then compile this wonderfully interesting twitterified data into a special site where anyone can go and explore.
Click on the below image to see the full size version
They have broken down their findings into these categories (with the twitter description for each)
  • Golden Tweets: The top two Tweets that generated the most Retweets for the year, plus honorable mentions for a few others that caught attention around the world. 
  • The pulse of the planet: Some of the biggest conversations of the year that generated large numbers of Tweets and Retweets. 
  • Only on Twitter: Moments of serendipity and just plain awesomeness (if there is such a thing) are what we call #onlyontwitter. We list examples of Tweets that came to life organically on Twitter, and can be appreciated in an instant. 
  • Top trends: Lists of the significant Trends of the year in the U.S., UK and Japan. These phrases reveal what captured our attention based on sudden spike of interest, rather than what was consistently popular. 
  • New voices: From the Pope to Pelé, this year Twitter welcomed new voices from every corner of the world. 

Samsung announcement at CES 2013

On December 6 2012, I wrote an article about the rumors surrounding the Samsung Galaxy S IV. Samsung isn't wasting any time and has started teasing the public, encouraging us to "get ready" because "something new" is coming. 

Samsung has released a teaser video which doesn't clarify anything. We know CES 2013 is taking place January 8-11 so it is possible we will see a couple new devices announced there. The reality is we don't even know if these teaser is related to a mobile device but we can all hope.

 

Securely format your hard drive

Many readers will buy new computers and laptops during the upcoming holiday season and some wil sell their older products. For the security minded, nothing is more important than protecting your personal information so here is a quick suggestion on how to securely format your hard drive.

Formatting your hard drive is the only way to ensure your personal information is unrecoverable by the new owners. This advice applies to anyone that is using a mechanical hard drive (aka not an SSD). If you are selling a Windows based computer (or Linux) then my favorite tool is Darik's Boot and Nuke (affectionately called DBAN). 

The process is simple. 

  1. Download the DVD image and burn it onto a DVD disc
  2. Reboot your PC and make sure it starts from the DVD
  3. Your computer now boot into DBAN
  4. Choose the drive
  5. Choose how many times sector should be overwritten (default is a  three-way pass but you can use a 7 or 35 pass if you feel extra paranoid)
  6. then let it run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, ...

It will take a considerable amount of time (the bigger the disk, the longer it will take) so plan for it. In many cases, it can take a full day or more.

 

Mehr is the official video service for Iran

Iran's religious and political leadership view Youtube as a great evil and are launching an alternative called Mehr. Mehr allows registered users to upload videos and allows anyone to watch posted videos (like Youtube). Of particular interest may be the content provided by the national Iranian broadcaster IRIB.
Iran is increasing its control on information and is even expected to lauch it's own Iranian Internet (or should we call it a national intranet) in 2013. We have read reports from activists that many Iranian's, thirsty for uncensored information, have started using  technologies (like VPN, TOR,etc) to bypass controls. It is expected that the Iranian officials will slowly but surely implement stronger inspection tools to prevent bypassing of their controls.

Google Nexus 4 can LTE in select US locations

By all accounts, the Nexus 4 is a benchmark for other OEMs building Android devices. It is a beautiful, fast and intuitive device. The biggest complaint most customers have is the inexcusable lack of LTE.

Imagine our surprise when it was reported that some Telus customers were able to force their phone onto the carriers band4 (AWS 1700 / 2100MHz) LTE network. Now users on XDA Developers have made similar claims in the US where AT&T uses the AWS 1700 / 2100 MHZ (Phoenix, Raleigh, San Juan, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Chicago, Athens, etc.)

It is important to remember that band4 is rare in the US and even in supported US cities, reception may be spotty. Here is hoping a new version will be released with full support LTE.

Pandora shows some love in Australia and New Zealand

Pandora has been available on the desktop in Australia and New Zealand but Pandora has now announced that its radio stations are now fully available in those countries. What is interesting is that this is the first time Pandora has offered its full service portfolio outside of the USA. 
This also means the Pandora Android and IOS apps are now available for OZ and Kiwis (downloadable from the app store).

Ubuntu is spyware

Richard Stallman, the creator of the GNU Project and a leader of the Free Software Foundation, recently called Ubuntu spyware.

He made that claim because the latest version of Ubuntu (12.10) sends desktop search information to Canonical (the makers of Ubuntu) so they can show you customized Amazon ads directly in Ubuntu's program called Dash. His exact explanation was "Ubuntu, a widely used and influential GNU/Linux distribution, has installed surveillance code. When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical’s servers. (Canonical is the company that develops Ubuntu.)"

Stallman's issue isn't the advertising but rather the monitoring and surveillance done by Canonical to provide targeted advertising (as part of the core operating system). I do want to remind Windows 8 users that many of their built-in apps also come bundled with advertising but in the case of Windows, these aren't core components and you can easily skip using them.

Canonical has a built in switch to allow users to turn this surveillance off but most don't realize it's there. I believe a clear question should be asked during the installation (or update) about this and the switch can then be set to on or off depending on the users explicit response.

What is dash? In Ubuntu, the Dash has always let you search your computer for your files, photos and videos. But now it does more than just search your computer - it can search all your online accounts too. So, once you’ve saved the login details in the ‘Online Accounts’ function, you can expect to see your Flickr photos, Google Drive documents and more in your search results, alongside the files on your computer.

Lark Life available in US Stores

Related articles: 

I haven't been able to reach the Lark website for the last 24 hours but a tweet from their official account probably made some people very happy:

The official company tweet says that the Lark Life is finally available in US Apple stores. A quick search of the online Apple store came back empty (no Lark Life)

If you see one in a US store, let me know. I will also try to get my hands on one so I can run it through its paces.

 

Canadians hate the 36 month mobile phone contract

The CRTC is considering to create a national code for wireless services and had asked Canadians to provide input. A total of 1043 submittions were presented. It seems the most common complaint was the 36 month cell phone contract term that Canadians find excessive and that it stiffles innovation.
The CRTC used twitter to thank participants and asked their followers to check back January 28th for the draft version of the code.

 

 

CBC articled entitled "CRTC gets earful on 3-year cellphone contracts".

Kindle store comes to Canada

As a Canadian north of the border, we have had to rely on the US Kindle store until now. This meant we had a US centric portal with limited Canadian content and all transactions were conducted in US$. Amazon has finally opened a Canada flavoured version,were Canadian authors are prominently shown and we can pay in our own currency. 
Too bad we still can't get the full Amazon experience (many of the products sold in the US are not yet available in Canada, we can't buy the Kindle Fire HD, we don't have Amazon Prime, etc). 

Save $50 on a Kindle Fire HD 8.9" today only

The Kindle is a fantastic device if you live in the US and have access to its ecosystem. Well now Amazon is giving you one more reason to buy one [today], you get a $50 instant rebate on the already cheap Kindle Fire HD 8.9" tablet. Use the coupon code FIREHD89 during checkout.
I first spotted the deal on the Kindle Twitter account: