Month: December 2014

This Month research from the antivirus and internet security company Kaspersky Lab has been released. Kaspersky’s security bulletin for 2014 reports some shocking figures on current security issues.

The Bulletin reveals that every second user of Kaspersky Lab products for Mac OS X was exposed to a malicious cyber attack, totaling a staggering 3,693,936 blocked attacks. The Lab detected a total of 1,499 different malicious programmes for Mac OS X this year, 200 more than last year

There are multiple ways in which these attacks can affect your Mac device including;

• Remote access to systems which make contact lists vulnerable, and used for future victims
• Taking screenshots every minute
• A hidden remote control function which intercepts keystrokes
• Stealing bitcoins
• Stealing data from connected devices

The GEEX team can help you protect your business from viruses, give us 0121 285 0098

Microsoft makes Office Apps free for iOS and Android

Microsoft has made its Office Web Apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint free for iOS users, with Android versions to follow soon.

Since Microsoft released the apps in March, only people subscribing to Office 365 have been able to use the full versions of the apps. Non-Subscribers could use the apps, but only to view existing documents, and copy and paste content.

Now, all iOS users can create Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations on their iPhone and iPads for Free. The android versions are expected to launch in December, so an early 2015 release for the full versions is expected in early 2015.

There are still some features available only to Office 365 subscribers. These include unlimited free storage in OneDrive, using collaboration tools to word on documents with several people and editing files in Dropbox using 365.
Experts say that Microsoft decided to make its Office apps available for free because people are unwilling to pay for online office suites now that there are so many free options available. These include Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, which can be used through Google Drive, and Apples iWork office suite, which is free for people who bought their iPhone or iPad after September 2013.

Is your business confused about Office 365 and the cloud in general? Give us a call on 0121 285 0098 and one of our sales staff will help you understand the benefits of using 365 and weather you need to be moving to the cloud soon.

Microsoft has fixed a critical bug that has been present in every version of its operating system since Windows 95.

The bug was discovered by IBM researchers in May and was patched in this week’s Patch Tuesday run, but with Windows XP no longer receiving security updates, the critical bug could still exist in what remains the world’s second most used version of Windows.

Despite the severity of the flaw, Microsofts’s fix does not cover Windows XP because the company is sticking to its policy of leaving XP unsupported. The bug was patched in Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.

The flaw could allow attackers to run code remotely on affected systems. “The bug can be used by an attacker for drive-by attacks to reliably run code remotely and take over the user’s machine” said IBM researcher Robert Freeman.
A drive-by attach is when malicious software is automatically downloaded to a victims PC without the need to tempt that person into clicking anything. The simple act of visiting a website is often enough.

However, freeman concedes that IBM “hasn’t found any evidence” that hackers had taken advantage of the flaw but did say “it’s only a matter of time” before experts detect attacks that use the flaw to take over windows XP computers, which remain vulnerable.
The researchers believe the bug would probably have been worth a small fortune had some uncovered it earlier and sold it to hackers.

Are you still running Windows XP in your Business?

We can lease your business a new PC from as little as £4.00 per week and look after it for the full 3 years and refresh your equipment every 18 months so you have the latest equipment. Give us a call on 0121 285 0098 to discuss how it all works.

Now Office Apps are available for free for IOS and Android, here is a look at the Pro’s and Con’s of using them:

The Excel Pro’s:
The free version will come close to being able to meet most users needs.
The touch interface is well thought out with Dropbox integration.
Almost every function from desktop Excel is available to use with the numeric keypad speeding up formula entry.

The Excel Con’s
Compared to the desktop version some of its functionality is lacking or missing.
It is not possible to access images on OneDrive, only on IOS device.
Unless you’re creating and editing graphs in Excel for IOS it is free.

The Powerpoint Pro’s
An addition of presenter view using; video, audio (limited) and animation support.

The Powerpoint Con’s
There are fewer features on the IOS version to the desktop version.

The Powerpoint Pro’s and Con’s
You can see comments added on Mac or PC, but not edit them or add new comments. Comments are also entirely absent from viewing on a iphone.

The Word Pro’s
Free document creation and editing for most word documents.
With integration with DropBox a new version for smaller IOS devices is available.

The Word Con’s
Multi-user file editing for shared files is slow and has been deemed not up to scratch.
Problems also occur when files that are stored on Dropbox are being edited by multiple users.

Anyone who is after concentrating on in depth editing or the use of presenter view should look to go for a paid for subscription when it comes to using Powerpoint in particular. However iOS Office as a free tool is perfectly well developed and easy to view, create and present native documents.

NASA has designed its new spaceship to have control panels that look like that of replicas from the Gemini mission back in the 1960’s.

Their reasoning behind this to help astronauts to adapt easily to new digital influences, if the interface is recognisable and familiar as an object it helps make it almost immediately obvious how it works.

However, critics are arguing that skeuomorphic is not innovative and it therefore put constraints on the a computers full capability.

NASA calls the UI a ‘glass’ interface, as the manual controls are simulated on computer screens and given that the control panels are not innovative and operated by the touch there is reasoning behind this such as floating objects floating in space and knocking against the control screen and setting off an undesired action and also due to the controls often being operated by fingers covered in spacesuit gloves.

To operate the glass interfaces virtual buttons and switches, astronauts must rely on a series of edge buttons, which help them to quickly scroll through screens.

In the past the weight of all the buttons and switches added up and now the crew is now able to fly a lot lighter as the number of manual buttons have been reduced to 60 with remaining controls cut down to three screens.

Designed by app developer Yose Widjaja the two handed slide keyboard feels natural to use yet extremely fast. With so many other third party IOS 8 keyboards available standing out from the crowd can be hard. The Nintype Keyboard can do a few things that others can’t.

By typing with both hands you can just slide from letter to letter as opposed to having to tap each letter individually, even entering words much quicker than people typing using a keyboard. Its possible to use a combination of taps and swipes to write words and also insert punctuation.

It easily learns and saves words that are not in the dictionary and with its sliding capability by just entering as little as two letters of a word by flicking up from the bottom it will automatically input a word that you previously typed before. With the customisable top box it is also possible to display previously typed words for quick and easy use.

The app also includes a built in calculator, support from multiple languages, a tool for counting words per minute and a ‘word transformer’ for stylising the words you type.