computer-bug

Masque Attack

computer-bugMasque Attack was a recent vulnerability involving Apple’s mobile operating system that would allow hackers to use web pages, text messages, and emails to trick people into downloading fake apps that disclose personal information.

The concern is that fake apps resembling real apps such as banks or email program could replace genuine apps installed through the App Store, and siphon personal data without user knowledge. Obviously there is a potential for a sneaky vulnerability on any device, but it’s noteworthy for Apple, which many of its users consider more resistant to hacks and problems.

There is no evidence the vulnerability is being used in the US, but the bug affects iOS 7 or later. 95 percent of Apple mobile devices could be vulnerable.

Apple issued a statement about the matter, that it does not know of any customers who were affected by the issue, and to only download apps from trusted sources.

How To Avoid This, whether you use an iPhone, or an Android or Windows device:

  • Don’t install apps from third party sources. Only use Apple’s App store (or the appropriate one to your device) or your own organization if it has apps.
  • Don’t click ‘install’ from a popup, even if the popup seems legitimate.
  • If iOS says “Untrusted App Developer” click on “Don’t Trust” and uninstall the app.
NamelyMe

Namely Me

Namely Me Books – eCommerce Website

Namely Me Books eCommerce Website

 

Web Services Include:

Graphic Design of Custom Theme, Online Custom Book Order Management, Adobe Illustrator Print Processing, Custom Web Programming, WooCommerce Shopping Cart, PayPal Integration, Plugin Updates, Logo Design, Client WordPress Training, YouTube, Social Apps, eCommerce Web, SEO Friendly Website, Custom CSS Modifications to Theme, CMS Management, Widget Creation
NamelyMeBooks.com

How to Build A Web Presence

Have you noticed that some companies, small or large, seem to have it together when it comes to their web presence? Their website is set up and interactive, their social media is engaging and popular, their presence seems to permeate every corner of the web. From Yellow Pages to Yelp, you know exactly who they are. How do they build a web presence?

The Web Presence and the Website

A basic website is your first step towards establishing a web presence. Your website should be a home-base for all of your web content. It’s what should pop up first in a search for your business. Your website is where people should be able to find all of your content in one focused location.

A website does not need to be overly complex or cluttered with information – in fact, there are benefits to keeping it clean and easy to navigate. Visitors to your site should be able to find out what your business is and how to contact you with minimal effort.

Don’t think you can just build a website and forget it. Websites only thrive in search engine rankings if you are providing valuable content to people and updating it regularly. If you don’t have any knowledge to share, you can set up a “News” page and let people know what your business is up to. This kind of content keeps people engaged and gives them a reason to come back.

The Web Presence and Social Media

It’s hard to avoid social media; along with Facebook and Twitter, G+ is making its way onto the stage, along with dozens of other more specialized forms of social media.

Do you really need all that? Well, it certainly helps. Giving people more possibilities to land on information about your business means they will be more likely to choose your business when the time comes. If you are already making regular updates to your website, consider utilizing a program such as Hootsuite to easily update all of your social media outlets at once with topically similar information.

What social media should you be on? Facebook, Twitter, and G+ are the biggies. Beyond that, if you have lots of images to share, Pinterest or Tumblr might be welcome additions.

The Web Presence and Directory Sites

The goal of directory sites is to make your business available on any site someone might happen upon. Anywhere from Superpages to Bing to Yelp, your company should have a page. Sometimes these pages might already be created and you must claim them to correct and update the existing information. At other times, you will get to set everything up from scratch.

Plenty of for-pay services offer to fill in all directory sites in one fell swoop. There are also sites such as  Moz which scans everything for you and presents a nice To Do list on what you still need to fill in. This gives you a little more control over which information gets entered on each individual directory.

While you’re at it, if you have a physical location, be sure to check it out on Google Maps to make sure your info is valid. This information may be tied to your G+ account, so if you’ve already set that up, it might already be accurate.

Final Thoughts

If this all seems a bit much and hard to keep up with, don’t throw your hands up and miss out on potential business. Contact Appletree Mediaworks. We will be more than happy to work with you and help boost your web presence.

Ello and Social Media

What is Ello?

Ello?

Much of the tech or social-media sided web has discussed Ello. These conversations frequently come in the same breath as something disparaging about Facebook, which gives indicator that it is presumably, a competitor. But just what is Ello, and is it going to live up to the hype! Read on for some answers, and some noncommittal predictions.

The New Kid

To begin with, the obvious: Ello is a new social media platform. If Facebook and Twitter had a child, and that new-kid artsy hipster child was just a little too cool to hang out with Tumblr with its weird (and occasionally questionable) hobbies, and found G+ – product of influential parents – to be absurdly outgoing and trying way too hard? That might be Ello.

But Why?

Originally created by a group of designers and developers to be a private social network, Ello strives to be different right off the bat. And in a world of multiple social media platforms, it needs to. Ello caters to users who are burned out on Facebook’s unilateral decisions and catering to advertising, and to users who are disenfranchised with the notion of being a data-gathering product of Facebook. Ello’s big boast is that it does not collect and sell your data to advertisers, and never will. Instead, Ello claims that it will have special features which users can purchase if they want, and that is how the company intends to fund the platform. Will that be enough to support the massive number of invite-only users trying out the platform? Comments sections the internet over are on fire over this question.

The Platform

Visually, Ello is stark, and fairly easy to figure out because it is designed to be simple. White background, with blacks and grays – it looks the part of extreme minimalism and a courier –style typeface. You can customize your page and add a little color by giving yourself a header image, not unlike Twitter, and adding an avatar.

Adding friends is a little like following people on Twitter, and you can type @users to address someone in particular. The Omnibox is your basic post-box, people have the ability to comment, and you can upload media. There is no ‘like’ button, but Ello states that in the near future it will have a ‘Love’ button.

You have two options for following people – Friends, or Noise. Noise is @ello, and populated by photographers, designers and graphic artists at this time. Much like Tumblr, Ello is set up to accept animated GIFs and may find itself rapidly integrating with the same sorts of users that populate the more visual social media platforms. Friends, on the other hand, is the wall where you view people you have friended and the things that they post.

Beyond this, the ‘Discover’ area is where you get a search bar which, at this point, seems about clunky and less useful than it could be. Ello’s feature list promises to improve this, along with the addition of an emoji index, user blocking, audio integration, multimedia commenting, and mobile apps.

But will it last?

This remains to be seen. A number of social media platforms have popped up only to burn out rapidly through the years, and Ello’s pride is also its disadvantage: with no income from advertisers, the question on whether it could handle long term widespread popularity has been debated extensively. It could be a momentary fad, getting attention from people that want desperately to escape Facebook and its games only to die shortly after, it could fall into a particular niche audience, or perhaps it will prove to be a true alternative.

Time will tell, and Ello has time. The platform is still in beta, and still invite-only. It’s definitely worth watching.