Does My Tablet Need Antivirus?

A Reader Writes In With A Good Question…

Q: I think I know what your answer is going to be, but I thought I would confirm. This week I bought a Galaxy Tab tablet and I am wondering if it needs antivirus like a regular computer does. Thanks.
Carol B.

A: Carol,
Congratulations on your new Android tablet computer. Let me answer your question with a question: does your Tab connect to the Internet?

I have stated here before, and will repeat; criminals (aka “hackers”) and hostile governments/orgs have made the Internet a dangerous place to visit, and I recommend that any device which connects to the web have security installed – and that means an “antivirus”.
Tablets and smart phones are not “immune” from “rogue” applications, spyware, etc.. No digital device is.

I do not yet own a tablet, but a quick look in the Galaxy Tab user’s forum suggests an equal split with folks recommending AVG Mobile (free) and Lookout Mobile (free) to their fellow Tab users. (Also, you may want to refer to 15 Mobile Security Tools.)

{note: If you have been using an Android tablet PC, and have an antivirus you’d care to recommend (or, infection story), please share it with us by leaving a Comment. Thanks!}

Something like over 10 million Americans had their identities stolen last year (and the year before) (and the year before) (and the year before). I’m glad you wrote in.

Today’s quote: “The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.” ~ Douglas MacArthur

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Music Radio For Your Phone (or Blackberry)(or PC)

Loyal readers know that some time ago now, I acquired one of those new-fangled Android “smart” phones. And (they) probably saw my recent mention that I was giving the new (to the USA) Spotify online music service a tryout as well.

image source = engadget.com

By definition, smart phones are more than just phones – they are cameras (movie cameras, even) and, with Internet access, web surfers and music players and GPS navigators and more. They can be mini televisions, and we can watch Netflix.. etc., etc., etc..

I was hoping that Spotify would give my ‘droid added music “streaming” ability – and it would, if I sign up for a premium service level (otherwise, it is PC only). Currently, though, I am not enough of a ‘music person’ (too busy) to justify a monthly fee for music access for my phone, though I can say that my early perusals of Spotify’s “library” lead me to think music lovers will find it a true bargain..

Currently, I plug in my headphones, and use the ‘droid’s FM Radio feature and tune in my fave local stations; or play some songs that I have loaded onto my memory chip (no, I do not purchase tunes). I have the Pandora app, but have found I never use it.. but here are some free music alternatives for you smart phone/Blackberry/iPhone owners:
[note: these can be used on your PC as well.]

• Pandora Radio
“Pandora radio is the personalized internet radio service that helps you find new music based on your old and current favorites. ”

• FlyCast
“FlyCast is the mobile broadcast network that gives you what you really want – choice. Choose what you want from the best music in all genres, talk radio, …

• Slacker Personal Radio
“Slacker Personal Radio is the easiest way to create free radio stations. Listen anywhere to free personalized Internet radio stations playing your favorite music.”

• Spotify (currently “invite only”)(Go there and sign up to receive an invite..)

Also, I have heard raves about XM Radio (Sirius), which requires a subscription.

I am sure there are other music services out there in Internet Land, and I hope music lovers will write in with their faves/reco’s. What music apps do you use?

Today’s reading:
• Netflix betting on subscriber fallout in Q3, everyone over it in Q4

“Netflix posted solid Q2 earnings on Monday, but naturally, all of the attention was focused on the recent price hikes. Nevertheless, Netflix execs feel confident that all the complaining is just hype.” Read more..

• Great Instructional Videos to Learn the Basics of Windows 7

“I am always on the hunt for instructional material for people that use their computers in their homes..” Read more..

Today’s quote: “Jumping for joy is good exercise.”  ~ Unknown

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Netflix and other news

Kind of a hodgepodge today.. Some interesting topics.

Big news in the tech world. Implications unknown. Some court has found that smart phone maker HTC has infringed on Apple patents, and now not only is the company (and other smart phone makers) in um, er, “a muddle” (without a paddle?) but the future of android is suddenly unclear .. perhaps doomed.

I love the idea of letting clueless (frequently “seasoned citizen”) judges decide the future of tech. I understand a few of them have heard of the “Internet thingy”, so maybe not all their decision will be hopelessly uninformed and short-sighted. Just 99.9% of them to date have been..

Here’s something to read, if you’re interested: Apple deals massive patent blow to HTC, Android in serious trouble

“Late yesterday an ITC judge ruled that smartphone maker HTC has infringed two Apple patents, and it seems likely that every single Android device out there infringes the same patents.” Read more..

~

And I suppose I should say something about Netflix, and their recent price hike. Seems many of you are quite upset. Many think it is pure and simple gouging, and are particularly incensed as they feel Netflix have us by the short and curlies: many are canceling their subscriptions.
Okay. I understand that. (And they certainly could have gone about it better!)

If enough people cancel – it is reasonable to speculate they will rethink.

But I suspect there is more going on here, and it is my hope that this increase in revenue will be reinvested. See.. Netflix needs bigger pipes (more ‘infrastructure’) to keep up with demand. Not only that, but how we view our entertainment is changing. Advertisement-based “network TV” is going the way of the Dodo bird. Netflix is trying to buy the rights to “content” — current shows and movies. The game is changing, and Netflix is trying to come out a winner as a “content provider”.. as NBC and CBS, et al, struggle to stay alive in this age of IPTV, and “streaming media”.
It takes serious money to compete with networks, media ‘moguls’, and Disney.

The Internet is changing the world, don’t you know? The issue is .. complicated. I am not canceling nor squawking — heck, I am so happy to be able to watch ‘on demand’ and commercial free, I might pay triple!
Man, do I hate ads.

~

I do not know how many times in my life, some yahoo has called me “Mr. Spock”. (So many, I have come to embrace, and adopt it.. and frequently use it myself when trying to describe myself to others.) I do not really look like Leonard Nimoy’s character. I get called that because I am seen as “logical” (and not “emotional”). Fortunately, I have discovered why — it turns out I am a “left-brain thinker”. That explains it! It hasn’t been easy…

• 10 curses of the analytical thinker

“Being a left-brain thinker can be an asset in the IT field. But as Alan Norton observes, it’s not without its shortcomings.” Read more..

There’s more news in the “world of tech”, but, it’ll have to wait for another day. Because it is sunny and nice and warm here again, (after a “cool” spell) all the way up to 82°, and I do have a small gap in my obligations. I am going to try to get outside and play. Maybe… throw a Frisbee. Haven’t done that in.. oh, 25 years?

Yawl take care now, ‘ya hear?

Today’s quotable: “Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.”  ~ Janet Lane

I got an “invite”: (testing now) Spotify hits U.S. shores, plus browser and uTorrent news

Big news hit U.S. shores this past week in the form of Spotify, the European on-demand music-streaming service. CNET Senior Editor Donal Bell calls it “the best free music option since stealing,” but unfortunately, you may not get to try it for quite some time since as of now, Spotify is invite only.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Next Great App for Android, iPhone –> Rootkit

Rootkit, SMS text messages used to build a botnet of smartphones

The “hot” tech items to own these days are the (not inexpensive) iPhone and Android “smart phone” devices. (If you doubt that, ask yourself why does the news infotainment departments send reporters and camera crews to film lines of people standing outside the Apple Store when a new model comes out?)

These phones are really not phones anymore, but mini-computers – which happen to make cellular phones calls. They are Internet-connected, so they can send/receive e-mail, text and ‘chat’, and download files.. such as movies. They contain address books of your friends and family… In short, they have everything a cyber-criminal wants to target.

In the interest of making the world a better place, “a researcher at ShmooCon DC this weekend will demonstrate a smartphone botnet spewing spam, and unleash proof-of-concept code that builds a botnet out of Android and iPhone smartphones.”

Yes, that’s right. A “researcher” will show us all how it’s done, and provide the code.

Georgia Weidman, an independent researcher, says her botnet attack evolved out of work she did on making an Android application send SMS text messages transparently such that the user didn’t even know it was happening from his or her smartphone. “As I did more research, I [realized] if I did this in the base operating system instead of in ‘userspace’ where most apps are, it would be a better way to do it,” she says. “If I can remotely control someone’s phone, it can be part of a botnet.”

While there has been plenty of smartphone research that pits one smartphone against another in an attack, she says, a more likely attack scenario would be a user unknowingly downloading an app that contains malicious code. “I think the majority of malware installations will come from a user downloading infected apps,” which can easily be rigged with rootkits given the lack of sufficient vetting of most smartphone apps, she says.

Well.. now that all someone has to do is copy>paste the code, yeah, she’s right. Invisible viruses that turn your smart phone into relay stations for spammers — sending us come on’s for V1@gra and C1al1s, and virus-laden links and attachments are only, I estimate, weeks away.

… and before you get too angry at this particular person, there is a whole industry of people doing this “research”, and several conventions have been going on for years. I believe that (some of) these people actually believe they are doing a good thing.

And maybe they would be.. if they only released the code to the affected device (or software) manufacturers and developers. But you don’t get rich or famous for that. (Maybe you heard about the “teen hacker” who got hired after writing viruses that attacked Twitter? There’s a lot of that kind of idiocy in tech..)

Here is the entire Dark Reading article, Researcher To Release Smartphone Botnet Proof-Of-Concept Code. I suggest you read it. Particularly if you own a smart phone.

In case you don’t know what a “botnet” is, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet…
Or why a “rootkit” is the worst kind of virus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit

Does your smart phone have an antivirus? A firewall? Maybe you want those things?
Maybe it’s important to know that the apps at the app store are not checked (aka “vetted”) for malware? Doesn’t that *smell*?

IMHO, there is something wrong with this whole deal. Top to bottom.

Related:
* iPhone Users Are About to Be Screwed Over. The addition of the NFC chip to the iPhone isn’t for easy credit card purchases, but so the phone companies can control your financial transactions. Be warned. ~ By John C. Dvorak

“There has been a lot of talk about the addition of an NFC (near field communication) chip to the next-gen iPhone. This will allow the phone to be used as a swipe-it-yourself credit card. I consider this technology to be the most onerous ever.”

* CNet’s roundup of security apps for Android.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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iPhone Speed

Here in the Silicon Valley there are enough iPeople that whenever Apple releases a new product, or Steve Jobs changes his shirt, or buys a latte, it is Front Page News. (Fortunately, Steve never changes his shirt…)

You might think I am exaggerating… and, okay, I am. But not by much. Apple is part of the “valley culture”, and rightly or wrongly, it has been a media darling. Apple is “hip” and it is “chic”.

photo from http://www.iphonebuzz.com

So I cannot help but know that tomorrow a new iPhone will be available to the public. And that there’s much “anticipation”. And much “excitement”. And that it is called an “iPhone 3G S”.
And that the “S” stands for “speed”.
(In the Geek world of tech, speed is “good”.)

Some of the hype: Faster processor, more RAM, more storage, faster Internet, and… “the new phone is packing some serious heat, with an upgraded 3MP camera with autofocus and auto-exposure, video camera with editing, longer battery life, and voice control too.”
And it has a compass.

Hmmm… video editing? The “stat” that catches my eye is that the plain-old iPhone 3G that this new “S” one is replacing will now be $99.

Now, I am clearly out of touch with reality, too old, or whatnot, because I think $99 is roughly twice what a phone should cost — “smart” or not. Or, should include a year of unlimited Internet. (No need to write in. That’s just my opinion.)

I will admit this: I have been thinking about acquiring a new smart phone, and at $99, I am, for the first time ever, considering an iPhone as an option.
If I do go that route, old Tech Paul will finally get to be “hip” and “chic” too.. and that’s worth something, right?

Today’s free link: Internet security blogger Bill Mullins posted an article that looks at a technology that is being implemented in the guise of being “Green” that could prove quite dangerous. Please click here and give it a read. Interesting insight and food for thought here.

Today’s free download: KeyScrambler Personal 2.4.1.1 A browser add-on, is recommended by PC World as one of the “15 Great, Free Privacy Downloads.”  It protects all your inputs against known and unknown keyloggers in IE, Firefox, and Flock: your login credentials, credit card numbers, passwords, search terms, Java, Flash, PDF Forms, web email, and more.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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