Tag Archives: Mobile

AVG

5 Smartphone & App Trends That Will Blow Your Mind

Leave a comment
Our latest AVG App & Trends Report unearthed surprising trends, about apps’ rise and fall—and their troubling tendency to suck phone life. Here we are pulling back the curtain …

For the full report, check out our AVG App Performance & Trends Report (H1 2016).

I live in my own tech bubble. I work in the performance division of a world class online security firm, so most of my colleagues get the latest apps, phones, and PCs. Many of my friends are also tech enthusiasts, always trying the newest and shiniest devices.

But step outside those spheres, and things change. There is a whole other reality out there. My family and wider circle of friends, people on the streets and trains, and people in other countries often don’t care about owning the latest tech or the newest app. That’s the real world. And I have once again been blown away by our AVG App Report and what people really do on their phones …

Without further ado, here’s the top trends that made me raise an eyebrow and mutter “Fascinating!”

 

Number 1: No, not everyone owns a Samsung Galaxy S7

Sure, I don’t expect everyone on earth to have the most expensive and up-to-date Android on the market. But finding out that phones from 2012 and 2013 are still alive and kicking is startling.

Number one on the list is the Galaxy Note II, a phone that came out in September of 2012 – almost four years ago. Then came the S4 Mini, a still super popular phone from early 2013 that apparently just won’t die off. With limited storage, old Android 4.x versions, and slowly dying batteries, their owners must be feeling the age when going about their daily tasks and using newer apps.

Though Samsung obviously completely dominates the Android smartphone space, it is not alone. Sony nabbed two spots in the top ten (The Xperia Z3 Compact and Z2 LTE A) and more than 10% of the roughly 20 million devices we logged anonymously that quarter.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/08/appreportpic1

Number 2: The Top 50 Most Commonly Used Android Apps are from Google

Google dominates the mobile OS world. No doubt about that. But Google also dominates its own world. The top most used apps on Android are Google Play Store, Google Plus, Google Quick Search Box, YouTube (yup, that’s Google), Google Chrome, Google Maps, and Google Hangouts. Only Facebook and the pre-installed Samsung Push Service made it into the top 10.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/08/appreportpic2

Number 3: Many Apps Are Just Websites-turned-into-apps

The top 50 also includes a lot of websites-turned-into-apps, like Facebook, Tripadvisor, and eBay. The trend is double-edged unfortunately: It’s app makers continuing to push users to their mobile app, sometimes very aggressively in the case of Tripadvisor, as almost every step on their mobile website www.tripadvisor.com leads to a “recommendation” to use their apps.

On the one hand, these apps generally offer a more pleasant experience, with nicer animations, more features, and often a better look and feel. On the other hand, many of them also register themselves as startup applications and constantly check for updates and notifications in the background. This drains power and bandwidth.

If your phone doesn’t make it to the end of the day, try one thing: Uninstall all these apps and try opening up www.facebook.com, ebay.com, tripadvisor.com (and all the other apps that you’ve got that are available online) on your mobile browser. The ‘manual’ approach is likely going to save you a lot of battery life going forward.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/08/appreportpic3

Number 4: Mighty No. 33

Another example of the “real world” bursting my tech bubble: I thought everyone except myself downloads and uses hundreds of apps. It appears both the real world and myself have something in common. I only have a total of 29 apps on my phone that I use more or less regularly, which is slightly less than average. Our anonymized data shows that users have an average of 33 apps installed. (I guess I should up my game as an enthusiast)

 

Number 5: Miitomo predicting Pokémon Go’s future?

Just recently, Nintendo had to announce that it’s massive Pokémon Go success will only have a limited impact on their revenue numbers, as most of the cash flow goes to Niantic, the company behind Pokemon (Nintendo owns only 13% of the Pokémon Go app). So while they don’t get as much as you might think they do get a boost.

But will it last? Is Pokémon just another typical app fad that goes wild and dies off? (Anyone still playing Angry Birds?)

Nintendo was in a similar situation with its first real app, Nintendo Miitomo, which let you chat with friends as Mii characters using a cool, fun environment. After launch, it died off quickly, as we anonymously logged over 127.000 installs in March – to only 17k in May. So Nintendo can’t just rely upon Pokémon Go to secure their future, but might need something that belongs to them and that reinvigorates the gaming market long-term….

AVG

One Hardcore Gamer’s Take on Pokemon Go

Leave a comment

An inside look into how Nintendo’s popular mobile game is bridging generational gaps and keeping you outside through the lens of one avid gamer. This piece originally appeared on GamesBeat.

All technical woes aside, Pokémon Go—which I’ve been playing nonstop since its release now—is a lot of fun. While it may not offer the complex gameplay, storytelling, or character development the past decade of Hollywood-standard video games has delivered, it’s engrossing — and its astronomic growth is a phenomenon.

Which got me thinking … what does account for the appeal? As a way to come up with an answer, I’ve made these four observations, which are as much about human nature as they are about gaming culture.

1. It’s just like that one Star Trek: The Next Generation episode

Pokémon Go has been compared to The Matrix, Ready Player One, and just about every other dystopia where technology controls humans. But while Pokémon Go arguably is an addictive worldwide phenomenon whose ultimate reach is yet to be determined … wait, am I talking myself out of my own conclusion that it’s not actually dangerous to society? OK, it’s not, seriously. It does, however, remind me to an eerie degree of “The Game” episode of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series. In “The Game,” the crew of the Enterprise became obsessed with an augmented reality game in which the object is to throw a flat plate (Pokéball, anyone?) into a cone (Do I hear Pokémon?) in order to score and move to the next level.

Apparently I’m in good company, because Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher in that episode and later saved the Enterprise, even Tweeted about it.

The verdict: While Pokémon Go doesn’t (yet) seem to psychologically manipulate people, it is, for better or worse, mesmerizing. And people love to be mesmerized.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/08/will pokemongo

2. I want it to keep getting better

Nintendo was once known for stellar gameplay and mechanics, but it’s been struggling to keep up with Sony and Microsoft in the marketplace. Niantic’s Pokémon Go is the first hit associated with the Nintendo brand in quite a while. As someone who grew up with Nintendo games, I hope they can turn this into a comeback and that the excitement around Pokémon Go can catapult them back to their former glory. Nintendo needs to take Niantic’s start and increase the depth, interaction, and engagement. Right now it’s simple—catch, level, feed, fight, train. Lather, rinse, repeat. Even casual gamers need more.

The Verdict: I guarantee I’m not alone in hoping Pokémon Go sticks around and gets more challenging, which just shows that people love a success story, especially when whoever’s being successful is somewhat of an underdog.

3. It bridges generation gaps

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/08/grocery pokemongo

 

I never expected that playing Pokémon Go would bring me closer to generations I must admit I barely knew—or thought I could know.

Pokémon Go has connected me with people—while grocery shopping, going for my morning run, or just walking down the street. Within the first three days I was stopped by kids less than half my age and a couple more than twice my age.

On day 2, I noticed several tweens in the grocery store pointing at me, whispering, “Look at him. …” I turned to them, held up my phone, and asked, “Pokémon?” Nods, and big smiles. Nearly 30 minutes later, while hanging out at the cheese counter where they’d caught a monster, we’d talked about smartphones, gaming, school, grades, friends, sports … and I got an all-too-rare glimpse into what it’s like to be a kid in 2016.

Day 3 brought me face-to-face with an elderly couple who wondered, as they saw me stop and hold up my phone during a run through the forest, what I was taking a photo of. I told them what I was up to, and they were in awe of today’s technology. This, too, became a conversation about how maybe they needed phones, about where they’d grown up, their family, their work, their life.

All the scary stories about people being injured or lured to harm by strangers while playing Pokémon Go, while true, likely don’t happen nearly as often as the sort of positive experiences I had with people in my own community—people I probably never would have talked to, were it not for Pokémon Go.

The verdict: People want to connect, and it’s amazing how the shared experience of a cultural phenomenon like a game—or a movie, or a book, or a TV show—can forge common ground among people who otherwise couldn’t be more different. And the more we have these experiences, the more open we are to recreating them.

4. It makes you go outside

Truth be told, this aspect of Pokémon Go does make me feel a bit uneasy: while the game’s become mainstream in a very short time and is all over the news, you can’t expect every last person on earth to know what it is or how it’s played. Which could explain the suspicious looks I’ve gotten while wandering around my quiet family neighborhood. While nothing bad came of any neighbors’ quizzical looks, I’m sure there were moments of confused uneasiness, and if you’re going to play, you’re wise to consider your surroundings and be conscious of people’s  privacy. And if you get “those” looks, explain it (or invite them to play, it could turn out well!—see observation 3).

But you can’t discount the really wonderful opportunity to explore areas near your home, work, or school that you may never have seen. I took it on my morning run (which usually follows the same route) and ended up going down beautiful forests paths I’d never seen and through neighborhoods I’d never been to. You’re essentially combining exercise, exploration, and gaming—which until now never really went together that well.

The verdict: While I am a bit torn about the overall benefits of Pokémon Go’s ability to bring you together with new people and new aspects of your everyday world (see: potentially freaking out the neighbors), there’s no doubt that its forcing players to go beyond routine is a big part of its appeal. People love adventure.

My verdict

Pokémon Go promotes exercise and getting outdoors … but it makes you look at your phone even more than you probably already do. And some of the things that account for its appeal—the fact that it’s somewhat mesmerizing—also have a flip side, in this case overly repetitive gameplay. You should play it, too, see for yourself, see if the appeal is well-founded, see if its current cult status is likely to last.

While I’ve noticed my interest waning (I spent hours on end in week 1 catching dozens of Pokémons and now use it only 15-30 minutes a day in week 2), I’m not sure yet if I’m getting tired of it overall, or if there’s going to be a “second wave” of excitement.

What’s your verdict?

AVG

What’s Killing Your Phone’s Performance? Probably 1 (or More) of These 20 Apps

Leave a comment
Have unlimited storage, data, battery? Then resume cat videos. But if you get “storage full” messages just before your kid’s solo or a smartphone that dies before lunch, read on.

If you feel like your phone poops out every time you really need it, don’t worry—it’s not you.

We hate to break it to you, but … It’s your apps.

We know, you love them. But it might be time to … take a break, from at least a few.

How can you know, though, which ones are sucking your battery life at the speed of light, devouring your bandwidth, and hogging every inch of space on your Android? AVG’s latest Android App Performance & Trend Report lines up the worst of the worst … and points out who’s cleaned up their act.

By analyzing anonymized data from 3 million AVG AntiVirus for Android users, we’ve done the hard work for you, and now all you need to do to get the most from your phone’s resources is compare your app roster to the lists below (Get the full report).

Top 10 user-run performance-draining apps

This rogues’ gallery highlights those which overall have the highest impact, meaning a combination of all 3 factors: battery life, data use, and storage.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/mobileperform

Notice anything? Spotify, Snapchat, and Outlook, apps that millions of people likely use every day, are in top spots. If you’re nowhere near a power outlet, our advice is simple: avoid using these apps for long periods of time. I myself notice that if I’m using Spotify, in particular, while browsing the web and checking email, that my Android barely makes it though a half-day before shutting down.

Snapchat’s top position was also no surprise. What was surprising was our discovery, during testing, that though the app appears to remove images and videos from conversations, Snapchat actually cached quite a few files. YouTube was also guilty of this, reaching 270 MB just after a couple of days.

Top 10 performance-draining apps that run at start-up

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/mobileperform1

Tops spots are held by Facebook and Facebook Messenger, because they continuously check for updates and send notifications. Our advice: Uninstall Facebook apps and use your browser and the web version (www.facebook.com), instead. You may notice that manually checking your feed only when you need to can make all the difference … and not leave you with a useless phone.

The last word … for now

It’s almost funny how the performance of our pocket-sized smartphones has exceeded that of PCs considered high-end just 5 years ago. Yet we’re still bound by 16 and 32 GB built-in storage, data caps, and battery technology that hasn’t improved in ages. Until the smartphone world resolves these issues, we’ll keep on keeping you informed about how you can get the most from your devices, without missing out on what’s so vital (and fun!) about them in the first place.

 

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/download button

AVG

The Top 5 Pokémon Go Woes … and How to Defeat Them

Leave a comment
Are you in danger of not reaching your full monster-snaring potential because of technical glitches? Never fear, fair gamer. I’ve battled the worst problems for you and bring you solutions.

 

While Pokémon Go is clearly a huge (and well deserved) success for Nintendo (and app maker Niantic), with well-thought-out gameplay mechanics, the experience isn’t as smooth as it is with many other Nintendo titles. Users have been complaining of outages, crashes, and frozen screens.

But never fear—you’re not alone. I, too, have encountered Pokémon Woes, and here’s how I fixed them.

1 – “No internet connectivity.”

 

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pgwoe1

You can’t play if you’re not connected. Simple as that. So what’s happening when you get this message? Chances are, Niantic’s servers are at that moment literally being overrun by the millions of users worldwide. With the game’s daily use starting to exceed Tinder’s and Twitter’s (in the US … so far!), no wonder Niantic’s struggling to meet these monstrous traffic demands.

Usually when you get the above message, you just have to wait it out. But you may also have luck with closing and reopening the app. It worked for me many times (I’m not known for my patience). Easy as that.

And if you’re having connection problems while catching a Pokémon, try turning WiFi (or 3G/4G/LTE) off and on again—also worked for me, more than once.

 

2 – “Lost GPS connectivity.”

I literally see this message every hour I play. Again, closing and reopening the app or turning GPS off and on again works wonders. In some cases, a little waiting helps, too, as the GPS problem may disappear on its own.

 

3 – FREEZE!

The game has frozen on me several times, in particular right after I’ve caught a monster. This is especially troubling, since my first thought was, “Wait, did I not actually catch that Pokémon???” But not to worry. Simply restart the app and check your journal. In every case where the game froze on me, once I restarted, I found that the game’s state was successfully saved. Whew!

4 – “Server unavailable. Please try again later.”

If you get this message when your connection is 100% working, then turn off your phone’s GPS, and then try logging in to Pokémon Go. After the game has loaded, turn GPS back on, which should fix the issue.

HOW TO DO IT

  1. Android: Swipe down from the top to get quick actions and notification bar. Tap on Location to turn it off (and later on again).
  2. iOS: Go to Settings, Privacy, Location Services and switch to Off.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pgwoe2

5 – Missing or incorrect map data

If your avatar is constantly in the middle of nowhere, or streets are displaying as … streets, then you should either delete the app or its cache.

HOW TO DO IT (FOR ANDROID)

  1. Open AVG Cleaner for Android (no worries, it’s free!) and go to Cache.
  2. Tap the CLEAR ALL CACHE
  3. Restart the app!

If that doesn’t work, or if you’re on iOS, uninstall the app, then download it again from Google Play or the App Store to get rid of all leftover (and potentially corrupt) data.

What’s your worst app issue? How’d you fix it? Let us know in the comments!

AVG

Want to More than Double Your Battery Life for Playing Pokémon Go?

Leave a comment
Pokémon GO is killing smartphones in less than 3 hours. Check out our in-depth app analysis of the phenomenon and 7 battery-boosting secrets to keep on hunting on the go.

Even compared to social or streaming apps like Facebook and Spotify, games are the real phone battery vampires (see our latest “AVG App Performance and Trends Report” for the top 10 ‘resource hogs’). And an augmented reality (AR) game like Pokémon Go makes even other game apps seem downright generous, as it constantly and simultaneously requires your phone to

  • Share location via GPS
  • Keep the screen fully lit
  • Operate the camera
  • Play sounds through the speakers, and
  • Render 3D graphics.

Whew. The result? When I played Pokémon Go on my morning run, my battery went from 100% to 50% in less than 90 minutes.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg1

 

“This has got to be the single most battery-hungry app I’ve ever used,” I thought. Being a data-driven guy, as well as a hardcore gamer (PC and console gaming more than mobile, though—more about that in a future post!), I immediately tested my theory and discovered that, if you’re nonstop seeking, catching, and levelling Pokémon, then your …

  • iPhone 6S Plus battery will go from from 100% to 0% in 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  • Samsung Galaxy S6 will survive Pokémon Go fever only an additional half-hour, lasting 2 hours and 40 Minutes before the screen goes dark.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg2

Enough! I refused to let battery issues get in the way of my mastering the game (full disclosure, I’m so far only at level 15 with about 200 Pokémons collected, but I am full-on obsessed). I proceeded to systematically try every battery-saving technique I know (plus a battery-saving Android app), and turns out the effort was worth it.

AND THE RESULT? The following tweaks made my phone battery last more than 5 hours during gameplay. That’s a 123% increase. Which could mean … 123% more Pokémons. 

(And so you know my outcomes weren’t a fluke, I repeated each test 3 times and averaged the results, for accurate data. I’m nothing if not thorough.)

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg3

 

1 – Use built-in Pokémon Go battery saver instead of reducing screen brightness (Android + iOS)

There’s no lack of quick online tips for boosting battery life when playing Pokémon Go, and most involve reducing screen brightness. Sure, it allows you to play longer, do you really think this is an enjoyable way to play?

 

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg4

 

Reducing brightness increases reflections, particularly in direct sunlight (and, um, a whole lot of the fun of Pokémon Go involves running around outside—notice they didn’t release the game in the middle of winter). Sure, this might be tolerable at night or indoors, but to really enjoy such a fun, colorful game, you’ll want to keep the brightness above 75%.

So instead of dimming, activate Pokémon Go’s built-in battery saver and keep the brightness near maximum. When you put your phone in your pocket or hold it upside down, the built-in battery saver will automatically make the screen go dark.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg5

HOW TO DO IT

  1. Tap on the Pokéball icon
  2. Go to Settings
  3. Tap on Battery Saver

In battery saver mode, you remain logged in to the game and can hear sounds or feel vibration when Pokémons are nearby, without the massive power drain. While you’re at it, you can also turn off music or sound effects, which also has a slight effect on battery life. Just don’t turn off vibration, otherwise you won’t know when one of the pocket monsters is nearby, wanting to be caught!

2 – Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi (or 3G/4G)

The game requires a nonstop data connection and a GPS signal. So if you’re at home, don’t use your 4G/LTE connection, which is one of the heaviest resource drainers you’ve got.

HOW TO DO IT

  1. iOS: Go to Settings, Cellular and switch off Cellular Data
  2. Android: Swipe down to bring up the quick actions and notifications center, turn off Mobile Data

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg6

If you absolutely need your mobile data connection (if you’re out and about), use a 3G connection, which often uses less battery than does 4G/LTE. The rule here is … there is no rule yet, you’ll need to test this a bit for yourself.

While 4G/LTE chips have become more efficient, in some rural areas with spotty connections you might end up draining the battery more quickly than when you’re using a solid 3G connection—or vice versa! Fortunately, Pokémon Go doesn’t drain a ton of data. During my 24 hours of nonstop testing, playing used only 4.2 MB on my iPhone and 5.9 MB on my Galaxy S6.

However, while this isn’t a lot of data, the game does transfer a lot of small data packets back and forth, preventing your 3G/4G/LTE chip from going to sleep, meaning it consumes more than it should.  If you’re on the go, you should also make sure that WiFi and Bluetooth are turned off, to give a little more edge to your battery life.

 

3 – Use iOS and Android’s battery saver

Both iOS and Android offer built-in battery savers that, for example, throttle your phone’s performance a bit, use a more energy-efficient display color temperature, and reduce background app activities to a bare minimum.

HOW TO DO IT

  1. iOS: Settings, Battery and Low Power Mode
  2. Android: Settings, Battery and Power saving mode (flip the switch)

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg7

 

4 – Don’t use any unnecessary resource-eating apps

As our regular AVG App Performance and Trends  report has shown, background apps can kill your smartphone’s battery even if you’re not using them actively.

To prevent that from raining on your Pokémon Go parade, turn off background activities and notifications for all apps you don’t need (in addition to the power savers, which limit most, but not all background activities). By doing so, your phone will spend less battery life checking for and displaying app notifications.

HOW TO DO IT

  1. On both Android and iOS, you’ll find the notification settings under Settings and Notifications
  2. Flip the switch for all apps whose alerts you can do without

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg8

 

5 – Use a dedicated battery booster (Android only)

To save even more battery life for Pokémon Go, I’ve also used our own AVG Cleaner for Android 3.3, which comes with dedicated battery profiles and even more settings to save battery life when you really need it (for example, when you’re trying to level up Pidgeotto).

HOW TO DO IT

  1. Download the free app, open it and tap on Battery.
  2. Now you have multiple choices …
    1. Go to Choose Manual Settings and turn off battery-draining functionality like WiFi, Bluetooth, Brightness, Screen rotation and Auto sync data.
    2. Select Home profile when you’re playing at home and Car profile when you’re out and about. Quickly switching between them helps squeeze even more juice from your phone’s battery.
  3. Bonus tip: After you’ve used it for a day or two, AVG Cleaner for Android will automatically show you your phone’s top battery-drainers, so you know which apps to avoid, stop, or even uninstall when playing Pokémon Go.
    1. Open the app and tap on Analyze. Scroll down to the Battery-Hungry apps section and Force Stop or Uninstall what you don’t need. For a full list, go back to the main menu of AVG Cleaner and tap on Battery.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg9

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg10

 

6 – Don’t zoom, don’t rotate, use less AR

One of the biggest drains on your phone’s battery is the GPU (Graphic Processing Unit), which is responsible for all the nifty 3D rendering in games, websites, videos and, well, everything you see on your display. Since 3D animations cost a lot of cycles, keep the rotation and zooming on the Pokémon Go map to an absolute minimum.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg11

Also, when catching a Pokémon, turn off the AR (camera) feature if you’re running low on battery, by flipping the switch in the lower right corner. Instead of the camera picture (which drains more battery), you’ll see a static landscape that’s a bit more power-saving.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pg12

7 – Or … give up and get a battery pack!

For my longer trips overseas I usually bring an external battery to keep my phones and laptops charged (not all airlines have gotten the message that people might appreciate a power plug on every seat). And while you don’t necessarily need a brick like this …

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.47.0/wp content/uploads/2016/07/pgfinal

… any battery pack that’ll charge up your phone at least twice should be good to satisfy your daily monster-catching needs.

Did it Work?

Let’s turn it over to you: Did our tips help you get through the day when playing Pokémon Go? Got more tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

AVG

3 reasons to never use fingerprint locks on phones

Leave a comment
Fingerprint locks—Touch ID on iPhones —may be easy to use, but they are far from perfect. After reviewing the risks, you may want to return to using PINs and passwords.

We officially have a password problem. The average user in 2015 had at least 90 online accounts, says Dashlane, maker of a popular password manager. In the UK, the number was 118. In the US, a whopping 130. Even more troubling, we store far too many login details on our phones and tablets (I am certainly guilty of this), meaning anyone with access to our phones can also access our accounts.

Fingerprint locks—Touch ID for iPhone users—promised to be our salvation. They are easy to use and depend on characteristics unique to each of us. We are also always attached to our digits, so they cannot be stolen or forgotten. And dactylogram complexity supposedly makes our prints nearly impossible to crack.

The reality, however, is rather different. Of the various reasons to not use fingerprint locks, for me, three stand out:

#1 People can hack your fingerprints (and scanners)

We leave fingerprints behind everywhere we go: on doorknobs, on railings, on cups and glasses, on keypads, on screens, in photos—you name it. So there are lots of places hackers can harvest this supposedly uncrackable password.

The Chaos Computer Club demonstrated this as far back as 2008. To protest a German politician’s proposal to implement biometrics, the club used a photograph to recreate his fingerprint. In 2013, it used latex to create a fake finger to open a lock. More recently, the approach has been repeated with playdough and Elmer’s glue, highlighting just how easy it is becoming to recreate physical prints.

Worse yet, fingerprints can also be hacked virtually. At the 2015 Black Hat convention in Las Vegas, a couple of security experts demonstrated a number of hacks for fingerprint locks. They built an app that mimicked a phone’s unlock screen; when used by the victim, it could approve a financial transaction. They pre-loaded fingerprints onto the phone, enabling access. They showed it was relatively easy to rebuild a fingerprint from the file used to store it. And they hacked the scanner itself, allowing them to grab fingerprint images whenever used.

#2 You can change your password

This is so basic it is often overlooked. When my email account was hacked several years ago, I changed the password and the problem went away. But if someone were to hack my fingerprint, they would always have it. Think about that what means. Fingerprints are forever. Once the bad guys have them, they can keep using or selling them to other bad guys. This is particularly disturbing when you consider how many government organizations collect fingerprints and the increasing number of private firms using it for authentications.

#3 Police don’t need your permission to unlock a phone with biometrics

It is also important to remember that we are not always in control of our own hands. All someone has to do to get you to unlock your phone is press your fingers against the screen.

This has been allowed in the US, where a judge granted a search order to police officers in Glendale, California. The position is that a fingerprint is “physical evidence,” akin to a physical key, which can be gathered as evidence or demanded by court order. Moreover, fingerprints are readily available because they are routinely collected as part of basic police and legal procedures. And because fingerprints are physical and not “testimony,” they are not protected by the Fifth Amendment’s clause on self-incrimination.

Not so passwords and PIN codes. Forcing a person to show you something “in their mind” is testimonial, and thus coercion is prohibited. Large tech companies (including AVG) make a similar argument about corporate information. Fighting the FBI to a largely unresolved standstill over access to the phone used by the San Bernardino terrorist, Apple made the legal argument that the FBI was attempting to force Apple to speak—and speak against its own interests, something that should not be allowed. The FBI dropped the case after paying a third party to hack the phone. While rent-a-hacker proved effective, it also proved rather expensive; and for the time being, most cases are unlikely to warrant such an investment.

Still, it is within the realm of possibility that law enforcement agencies could force or coerce manufactures to include back doors to devices for harvesting prints through fingerprint locks.

Final note on fingerprints and security

Of course I don’t expect people to give up using fingerprint locks. They are just too convenient. Right or wrong, however, the power of government to collect and store information on our digital selves is soaring. The FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System includes tens of millions of prints not related to criminal activity, collected from military personnel, government workers, and other innocents. And more generally, government files are not always secure. The 2015 data breech at the US Office of Personnel Management included 5.6 million fingerprints, suggesting fingerprints have become one more thing that can be hacked and used to violate our privacy, in this case, for a very long time.

Panda Security

Ranking of Attacks Aimed at Businesses: Protect Your Wallet

Leave a comment

pandasecurity-attacks-walletIn the first article of our series “Ranking of Attacks Aimed at Businesses”, we’ll introduce you to the top security threats aimed at companies and give you some tips on how you can protect yourself!

Staying up-to-date with security is an undertaking and requires effort and commitment. As technology develops and evolves, it is easy to fall behind. Cyber-criminals, on the other hand, are always ahead of the game and are constantly looking to exploit new vulnerabilities that accompany these innovations.

To protect yourself, it is extremely important to keep up with cybersecurity trends. Every year, the RSA publishes a report on the current state of cyber-crime that summarizes the hacking methods that are trending among cyber-criminals. Being aware of these trends is vital for IT security in companies. (The RSA is a group of American IT security experts that developed the RSA public key cryptography algorithm, and later renamed their computer network and security company the RSA.)

Attacking Your Wallet

Today, it is extremely easy to complete transactions on mobile devices, which is part of the reason this is an area that has quickly gained popularity among cyber-criminals.

More and more companies are setting-up services based from mobile phones. This benefits both customers (e-commerce apps, payment platforms, etc.) and employees, whose work is increasingly dependent on these devices. However, these conveniences also make everyone involved more desirable and attractive to cyber-criminals.

Although these transactions are convenient, there is a lot of fraud associated with these channels. Since mobile devices have not been around as long as other devices, like computers, security technology is not as advanced and they are usually less protected.

In 2015, the RSA detected that 45% of transactions, and 61% of fraud attempts, took place in mobile devices.

pandasecurity-attacks-wallet-2

In response to this, an interest in biometric identification systems has emerged, which identify users by analyzing some aspect of the body, or physical behavior.

There is an emerging special interest in biometric identification systems

Today, this technology can be found in facial recognition, fingerprint and iris scanners, and less commonly in voice or signature recognition. In addition, it is being investigated how other biometrics can be used for identification like our typing patterns, movement patterns, heart rate, and sweat levels.

 

According to the report of RSA, more than 90 % of banks are currently exploring the use of biometrics in their mobile applications (or intend to do so) within the next nine to twelve months. Many companies are following the same path. In fact, the future of authentication seems to be a mix of these systems with traditional ones, such as PINs and passwords.

Using a combination of both is the best option to ensure security in the future. More than one billion transactions, both online and offline, were influenced by mobile attacks in 2015.

If you want to boost your business’s cybersecurity, it is fundamental to invest in an advanced cybersecurity solution that will allow you to manage, control and protect your entire technological park from one place.

 

The post Ranking of Attacks Aimed at Businesses: Protect Your Wallet appeared first on Panda Security Mediacenter.

AVG

5 Great Ways To Reduce Mobile Data Usage

Leave a comment

Most mobile data plans aren’t unlimited: If you’re constantly hitting your provider’s data limit, these insights & tips will help you greatly reduce your 3G/4G traffic usage on the go.
If you’re not on an unlimited 4G data plan, hitting those 500 MB, 1 GB, or 5 GB limits isn’t hard. I did a test with some typical on-the-go tasks to see how much traffic went through the airwaves:
–    60-minute music streaming while driving (high quality, Spotify): 101.2 MB
–    45 Minutes of Netflix at night (HD): 471 MB
–    30 minutes of YouTube during lunch breaks (480p, medium quality): 113 MB
–    15 content heavy websites throughout the day: 27 MB
/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg13 1

 

All of these seemingly trivial activities amounted to 712 MB. Sure, Netflix isn’t something most people stream every day through their mobile service. But it’s not uncommon to watch a TV show on the train or the bus once in a while. Nor is browsing the web or listening to Spotify.
That’s why hitting the data limit of 1 GB, 2 GB, or 5 GB (depending on your plan) is relatively easy if you’re not on Wi-Fi at work or at home. Once that happens, your provider will likely throttle you back to 1997 web speeds (mostly 64kb/s or a limited EDGE rate).
Here are some things you can do to limit your mobile traffic and understand why you hit that mobile limit.
#1 – Pick the right plan!
As the tech guy among friends and family, one of the most common questions I get is “What plan do I pick? The more expensive Unlimited option at $70? Or the 1 GB for $19 or the 5 GB for $39?”
Well, it’s not an easy answer, as it depends on how much you want to do online. My advice is to spend half an hour using a data estimator tool. One example is Wirefly’s Data Plan Estimator: http://www.wirefly.com/content/phone-data-plan-information. There are others out there, but this one does a decent job and is accurate.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg18

 

Pick your plan based on the estimated monthly usage, add another 1-2 GB as a buffer, and you’ll be worry-free.

#2 – Limit your mobile usage and set yourself a warning
Android devices give you a built-in mechanism that allows you to automatically turn off mobile data when you reach a certain limit. It also gives you a warning once you hit a certain threshold. This is easy to set up. Go into Settings, tap on Data Usage, and move the sliders to your personal limit:

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg19

Flip the switch under Set mobile data limit.

#3 – Identify & stop the top traffic hogs
If you’re hitting your plan’s limit all too often, it’s high time you check which apps are actually responsible for this unnecessary drain. Some may be obvious and caused by your usage (e.g., if you stream Netflix all night, you will eventually hit the limit); others you may not be aware of.
Here’s where our free AVG Cleaner for Android comes in. Download it and let it analyze your apps behavior for a couple of days or a week. The APPS category shows the top Apps by usage; I was very surprised by which apps used up traffic over just two days.

 

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg25

Oddly enough, I didn’t play Crossy Roads and I certainly did not download anything from TubeMate. These are the cases where you need to open the app and try to figure out how to stop this secret consumption – or delete the app if you don’t need it anymore!

#4 – Navigate offline
Google Maps is probably my go-to tool to navigate when I’m on the road. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it’s not surprising to see it consume a couple of hundred megs if you’re using it heavily, as map data can be quite large (see below). Luckily, Google Maps allows you to store map data completely offline, which is not just brilliant for reducing data traffic but also for situations when data navigation is unavailable.
Here’s how easy it works. Launch Google Maps and tap on the little three lines in the top left corner:

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg27

Tap on Offline Areas, hit the PLUS button and then select the area you’d like to use offline. This includes all POIs, all streets, everything.

#5 – Prevent auto-download of messenger photos & MMS
Using WhatsApp or other instant messaging apps? Well, if you’re like me, you’ll likely get auto-dragged into the oddest group chats and be the victim of countless of animated GIFs, photos, and videos. If you’re on 3G or 4G, turn them off to save some bandwidth.
In fact, we recommend turning off the auto-download feature completely, even on Wi-Fi, as a security measure. If you’re running older versions of Android that haven’t been patched for the Stagefright vulnerability, this auto-downloading feature can put you at risk.
But don’t worry, you won’t miss any messages. Turning these settings off just puts you in charge of deciding what gets downloaded onto your device. Look in the Settings of any messaging app to disable the auto-downloading feature. If your messaging app doesn’t have that control, we suggest getting a new one.

#6 – Use compression in your browser
Most mobile browsers, such as Chrome or Opera, now sport compression features. Data will get rerouted through servers (e.g., Google’s), compressed, and then sent to you. You will notice that, for example, photos may look slightly fuzzier as JPGs as they will be compressed just a tad more. To turn it on, open your browser (Chrome in our example), and tap on Settings. Go to Data Saver and switch it on. The graph below shows that a single visit to The Verge that includes browsing a few pages resulted in a 10% data savings. Not bad!

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg26
There is a dark side to compression you need to be aware of. It also transfers your browsing history to whatever server is doing the compression and also disables any ad blocking.

AVG

5 Smartphone Battery Myths Put to The Test

Leave a comment

Battery life and proper charging is a science in and of itself, with lots of misinformation out there:  This myth buster helps you treat your smartphone’s battery the right way.

It’s still the number one woe of smartphone users: battery life. Even high-end phones (or laptops for that matter) are still based on technology that hasn’t seen much improvement in decades. That’s why hundreds of articles on “Great Ways To Make Your Battery Live Longer” pepper every corner of the interwebs. But which of the most commonly reported tips are true and which are snake oil?

Let’s find out!

#1 – Completely drain your battery to extend its life

Probably one of the worst battery myths out there applies only if you’re using an 80s or 90s nickel-cadmium battery in your … uhm … 1993 Sony camcorder or Sega GameGear. The ancient rule states that you have to completely drain your battery to 0% before recharging, otherwise the “memory effect” will settle in and reduce your battery life. Well, let’s turn to the truth. Today’s Li-Ion batteries aren’t affected by this rule and don’t “forget” their full capacity just because you plug in your phone at 30%, 50%, or even 97%. If that myth was still true today, both my one-year-old Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6S would probably die in minutes, as I pick them up from their charging cradles about 50 times per day to browse the web, take calls (which can last hours), or watch clips on YouTube.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg11

Li-ion batteries do have a fixed set of discharge cycles, usually several thousand, which takes years to hit. Moreover, the cycles work like this: If you discharge your phone to 75% (and charge it back up by 75%) one day and to 25% on the next day, you have completed ONE discharge cycle – not two.

Final verdict: FALSE

#2 – Drain your battery to 0% to calibrate the meter

The myth goes like this: your phone is poor at recognizing the actual charge. So giving it two clear benchmarks of 0% and 100% will ensure your meter is accurate. This is because Li-Ion batteries in your phone and other mobile devices lose a teeny tiny bit of their original charge over time, meaning your operating system isn’t communicating the proper battery charge to you. To make sure it does, you should completely drain your battery and then fully charge it every 2-3 months. The operating system logs this drain and can continue to display the current battery level correctly from 0-100%, even though the actual physical capacity may be reduced to 98%.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg12

Hint: our free AVG Cleaner for Android also shows the current battery health, as it compares the original charge capacity to the current capacity.

Final verdict: TRUE

#3 – Only use chargers and cables from your phone’s manufacturer…

…or else your phone will melt down!
…or else your phone won’t charge as quickly!
…or else your phone will become sentient and enslave you first and then all humanity next!

Sigh. I’ve been reading these myths for ages. Some of them were probably started by your handset makers, as they’d rather sell you their (more expensive) cables, chargers, docks, and wireless charging pads. In general, 3rd party chargers are as capable of charging your phone as manufacturer originals. However, don’t be a penny pincher. I can’t count how many $3.99 chargers I’ve bought at airports or random electronic shops in Asia that stopped working after a few weeks. If you want something reliable, go with the original cable that came with your phone or look at Amazon reviews. If a charging cable is made by reputable brand and has hundreds of five-star reviews, it’s probably a safe bet.

One thing to note, though: The new USB-C cables are an odd exception to this rule. There are now multiple implementations between USB-C by OnePlus and the official USB-C specifications. If you use one with the other, you might actually end up damaging your phone’s battery. Have a look at https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung for reviews and more on the matter.

/var/www/now.avg.com/18.46.0/wp content/uploads/2016/06/avg13
Final verdict: FALSE (unless you’re buying a USB_C cable or a no name one-star review cable from a flea market)

#4 – Unplug your phone at 100% …

…or it might overcharge! Or burn up!

A good friend of mine actually unplugged my phone at 100%, claiming it would damage the battery. Even some more reputable tech publications claim this is true. Well, it’s not. Any modern device stops or drastically limits the power flow to your battery once it hits its full capacity and simply powers the device itself. Having said that, I notice that my phone(s) heat up slightly when plugged in, which in turn and over loooong periods of time could arguably have an adverse effect on the hardware. But still, we’re probably talking years until any device fails just because it got a little warmer than usual.

Final verdict: FALSE

#5 – Avoid extreme heat and cold

Speaking of heat, this brings me to another typical battery tip: If you’re using your phone in extreme heat or extreme cold temperatures, it might damage the battery. This one is actually true, as ion flow and chemical stability are affected by severe temperature fluctuations and extremes. Moreover, the speed of the chemical reaction in your Li-ion increases with temperature, creating heat that then further degrades the battery or even damages the phone (luckily, phones have built-in mechanism to prevent this from happening: they shut off).

While excessive cold temperatures usually don’t damage the battery, they can severely reduce your battery life. You might have noticed that your phone dies a lot faster if you’re using it outside in winter time.

Final verdict: True

And here are two bonus myths tested

While not directly tied to the battery itself, many outlets claim that closing apps and turning off features (such as Wi-Fi) prolong battery life. Well, one is true, the other not so much. Closing apps barely has an impact on battery life, as your operating system simply “freezes” apps that aren’t running. Moreover, if you close them, it requires more resources (and thus power) to restart them. However, turning off some hardware features (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 4G) and reducing brightness can noticeably improve battery life.

Final verdict: False (for apps) and True (for hardware feature)

AVG

Encryption Apps: Smartphone security is a concern to all

Leave a comment

A growing number of apps are popping up promising to encrypt your emails, messages and more. There are several places where encryption can play a role on your smartphone device.

A growing number of apps are popping up promising to encrypt your emails, messages and more. There are several places where encryption can play a role on smartphones – securing voice, messages, chat, emails, files and pictures, basically any file or data in transit.  What are the pros and cons of these new features and apps and how do they work?

Let’s take a look at voice encryption, which I know may sound like something from a spy movie. Voice is complex to encrypt because both of the parties talking to each other on the phone would need to have the same app that offers voice encryption.  Voice encryption apps, like Cellcrypt and Guardlock, require the user to register, add or accept an invite from the other party. This extra step can complicate communication for the average user and their motivation to use it is probably around a “I’ll worry about it later or it’s just not important to me” level.

When it comes to encrypting data, if your phone is secured with a PIN and you have not changed the encryption defaults then your data should be safe. If you’ve been following the developments of the Apple vs FBI case surrounding the data on smartphones, you know that newer smartphones are by default encrypted and that it’s difficult to break. But once the phone is unlocked by the user, they are immediately open and the data is then accessible and potentially at risk from theft if the phone is accessed by a third party, even remotely. Think of it as an encryption layer over your entire house, with the downside being that once you get in through the front door, you can move around relatively easily.

Let’s talk about apps that offer encrypted storage. You drop the files in there and lock it with a pin, much like locking away files in a vault.  The benefit here is that you can make a judgement of what data is sensitive and store it accordingly, in the same way you would with physical documents by placing them in a safe. Examples of apps that do this are Vault-Hide and Vault!.

There are many chat apps that offer encryption in the same way as those encrypting voice encryption– both parties need to have the same app downloaded with a connection to the other person.  This is so that they can send message and files/photos to each other without someone in the middle intercepting them. Some of these also offer the ability to lock the app with a pin, so the beauty of that is even if someone unlocks your phone they are not going to see what you’ve been chatting about in that app.

Beware of apps promising encryption that do not have a pin/password to unlock the app, for the above reason.  If someone can access your phone either physically or remotely while in an unlocked state, then there is potential for them to access the app and see your chat and file transfers. Examples of encrypted chat apps are Whatsapp or Theema; however, Whatsapp does not offer the added protection of a password or pin.

The other place where caution is needed is on WIFI networks at public places such as coffee shops and libraries.  We connect to send and receive data and if we don’t have a VPN installed on the device, then our apps could be sending that private data in plain text to unknown services and would-be thieves.  There are simple and widely available tools that allow for someone to gain access to your data via a public WIFI.  Adding a VPN ensures that when data leaves your device, it’s encrypted and protects all data and app communication, although notes that this protection does not extend to voice. One good VPN to use is Hide My Ass!, part of the AVG family of apps, that obscures your location.

Now, if you want to take the ultimate step towards absolute privacy, you can purchase a Blackphone.  CBS’s 60 Minutes had a good episode that talks about the Blackphone and its ability to do everything I’ve mentioned above.  A “must-have” for anyone wanting to be like a character in a spy movie!