Draw Electronic signature Form Android
Make the most out of your eSignature workflows with airSlate SignNow
Extensive suite of eSignature tools
Robust integration and API capabilities
Advanced security and compliance
Various collaboration tools
Enjoyable and stress-free signing experience
Extensive support
How Do I Use Sign in Android
Keep your eSignature workflows on track
Our user reviews speak for themselves
Draw Electronic signature Form Android. Investigate by far the most user-friendly experience with airSlate SignNow. Control your whole record digesting and revealing process electronically. Change from portable, pieces of paper-based and erroneous workflows to automatic, electronic digital and faultless. It is simple to make, provide and sign any paperwork on any system everywhere. Be sure that your important enterprise instances don't slip over the top.
Discover how to Draw Electronic signature Form Android. Follow the easy information to get going:
- Design your airSlate SignNow accounts in clicks or sign in with your Facebook or Google bank account.
- Take pleasure in the 30-day time free trial offer or go with a rates prepare that's great for you.
- Find any legal format, build on-line fillable types and discuss them firmly.
- Use sophisticated features to Draw Electronic signature Form Android.
- Signal, personalize signing get and gather in-person signatures 10 times speedier.
- Established automatic reminders and get notices at each and every step.
Moving your tasks into airSlate SignNow is simple. What comes after is a straightforward approach to Draw Electronic signature Form Android, together with ideas to help keep your colleagues and companions for greater partnership. Encourage the employees with the greatest equipment to remain on top of enterprise functions. Improve productiveness and range your business faster.
How it works
Rate your experience
-
Best ROI. Our customers achieve an average 7x ROI within the first six months.
-
Scales with your use cases. From SMBs to mid-market, airSlate SignNow delivers results for businesses of all sizes.
-
Intuitive UI and API. Sign and send documents from your apps in minutes.
A smarter way to work: —how to industry sign banking integrate
FAQs
-
What is the topmost app in the Android store?
When we look for apps to add to this list, we're after those that excel in two areas: uniqueness and elegance. A unique app provides something that no other app can. Take a look at Tasker, which gives you incredible control over your Android device, if you can master its numerous tools. An elegant app may not be the most original app, but the way it accomplishes something makes it a joy to use. Lots of apps let you browse the news, but few do it as stylishly as Flipboard.We also consider timeliness, design, price, security, and popularity when putting the list together. Each and every app in the list is excellent in its own way. Taken together, they are like a snapshot of the best of the Google Play store at the time of writing. If we missed something, or you have a recommendation, be sure to drop us a line in the comment section below. And now, we humbly present the 100 best Android apps of the year.BrowsersDolphinFreeA clean, tabbed browser, Dolphin delivers an excellent user experience on Android, almost making you forget that you're on a mobile device. Dolphin also supports tight integration with services like Evernote and LastPass, as well as robust settings. My favorite feature is gestures, which might not always be efficient but are definitely cool to use. Dolphin also has integrated ad-blocking and support for Flash. Yes, Flash!FirefoxFreeWhat's incredible about the Android version of Firefox is that it feels as mature, if not more so, than Firefox on the desktop. It's lickety-split fast, and its clean design is a joy on mobile. Mozilla makes a big point about how it doesn't collect your data, and I was pleased to see that the app comes with a full complement of security settings—including an option to protect your information from advertisers. Like the desktop version, Firefox for mobile has a robust selection of plug-ins.OperaFreeNot to be confused with its Mini cousin (see the next entry), Opera is a full-fledged browser for Android. With a slick design, it aims to be your gateway to Web content with features like a built-in news portal and the Opera mobile apps store. Opera also takes it easy on your data plan with special video compression and ad-blocking software.Opera MiniFreeDon't be fooled by its unassuming exterior: Opera Mini is a clever, stripped-down version of the full Opera browser designed to thrive where network conditions are not their best. And it doesn't skimp on features, either. Opera mini gives you access to special Opera Web apps, a handy homepage complete with news and social media updates, a surprising array of powerful security settings, and even ad-blocking.Back to Top ↑FoodCookpad RecipesFreeCookpad connects you with a vibrant array of recipes. Easily add favorite recipes, manage shopping lists, and find new recipes you'll love based on those you already like. Once you start using it, you'll have one less excuse to eat out.Pepper Plate Recipe, Menu & Cooking PlannerFreePepperplate makes it easy to access your recipes from any Android device so you can cook up a storm wherever you go. On the desktop side, the service connects to websites like Allrecipes and Epicurious so you can import recipes (and sync them to your phone) with just one click. You can also easily build shopping lists and keep your recipes handy wherever you are.SeamlessFreeRemember the bad old days of ordering food? You needed takeout menus, knowledge of the terrain ("will they even deliver out here?"), cash, and faith that the person jotting down your order got it right. Seamless takes care of all that, even letting you pay via credit card from your Android. The downside? The app only supports restaurants in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC. Sorry, everywhere else.UntappdFreeThis handy app lets you record each brew you try along with a rating and tasting notes. Think of it as Swarm for beer! No more staring at a tap list, trying to remember which ones you've had before. The app also has a vibrant community of beer drinkers that can point you toward new discoveries, and an extensive list of beers. It's also a handy way to find your favorite brew near your current location. While it's not perfect, it can change the way you think of beer.YelpFreeIt pays to be a little skeptical of crowd-sourced reviews, but Yelp can tell you a lot more than just what people thought of a bar, restaurant, or just about any other place where you spend money. Many locations list hours of operation, contact information, and menus, making it easy to find the perfect spot in your neighborhood or a new city.Back to Top ↑Health and FitnessClueFreeMenstruators the world over will rejoice over Clue, a simple app with a beautiful design for tracking one's period and predicting when the next will occur. Using the data you enter about your cycle—and other factors—you can use Clue to plan ahead, whether it's for pregnancy or just to keep ahead of your cycle. Reminders and a handy calendar tool can help take the guesswork out of life. Best of all, it's totally gender neutral, and not pink.Eve by GlowFreeTracking one's period isn't just about knowing the cycle, but also the other factors surrounding it. Eve by Glow lets you track physical and emotional states, which can lead to some important insights when you take the time to interpret your own data. Eve also boasts a vibrant community and a wealth of information about sexual health built right in.FitbitFreeYou might know Fitbit from its popular fitness trackers, but the app that powers those devices works well on its own, too. Using your just your smartphone (assuming you meet the minimum hardware requirements), this fitness app can count steps and log activities to help you achieve daily goals. There are also social features, so you can compete against your friends. It's a must-have (really, you must have it) for Fitbit users, but also a smart choice for anyone looking to be more active.My Asics Run CoachingFreeMost running apps charge you a pretty penny to access training regimens. That's not the case with My Asics Run Coaching. This app, for both iPhone and Android, has customized plans for 5K, 10K, 5-mile, 10-mile, half-marathon, or marathon runs. It's also not on a fixed schedule. Instead, the app adjusts your plan based on your running data. This app will get you off the couch and on the road to victory. PCMag has a full review of the iPhone version of My Asics Run Coaching.MyFitnessPalFreeThis calorie counter and exercise tracker aims to help you lose weight the old-fashioned way—expending more calories than you take in. With its smart design and an extensive library of foods, it makes quickly logging the calories you take in and what you burn while exercising a snap. A barcode scanner makes it even easier to log that post-workout snack. This fitness app also plays nice with other such apps, so your data won't be tied up in just one place. MyFitnessPal won't give you a whole workout regimen, but it can make you more aware of your habits. PCMag has a full review of MyFitnessPal for the iPhone.Runtastic PRO$4.99Runtastic can do much more than just track your favorite running routes. This excellent fitness app keeps track of all sorts of useful data and can return information-rich maps to help you plan future outings. It also features a fully integrated music player, for a seamless workout experience. Use it for cycling, hiking, and walking, too.Runtastic Six Pack Ab WorkoutFreeIn today's lazy-yet-busy world, it's difficult to find time to get to the gym to truly blast your abs. If you're trying to build a washboard set, consider Runtastic's Six Pack Ab Workout app. It lets you create a customized workout to target the specific muscles you want to transform into rock-hard edifices of chiseled humanity. Just follow the avatar on the screen through the moves, and you'll be the mayor of six-pack city before you know it. PCMag has a full review of Runtastic Six Pack Ab Workout on the iPhone.Back to Top ↑Music and PodcastsApple MusicFreeMarking one of Apple's first forays into Android development, Apple Music brings the company's impressive musical catalog to Android. The app is built around Apple's subscription-based streaming service, which dishes up all-you-can listen music for $9.99 per month, or just $4.99 for eligible students. It suffers a bit on Android for being divorced from the Apple ecosystem, however.BandcampFreeFilled with both up-and-coming and established acts, Bandcamp is one of the most exciting music marketplaces there is. The app was initially built around streaming songs you'd already purchased on Bandcamp, but now it's a one-stop shop for digital and physical band merch. If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of music, this is an essential app.DeaDBeef PlayerFreeIf you're an audio nerd or just prefer to have a lot more control over your music collection, take a look at DeaDBeeF. This sprawling app supports AAC/MP4, ALAC/MP4, APE, FLAC, MOD, MP3,OGG, WAV, and more. There's also a 10-band equalizer so you can get your tunes sounding just so. If the idea of buying Neil Young's weird music player doesn't appeal, DeaDBeef is the next-best thing.Pocket Casts$3.99Android has struggled with podcasts (they don't call 'em "Droidcasts," after all), but Pocket Casts is here to help. This highly customizable app is great for chilling out with an episode of your favorite casts, and it can also sync among different devices so that you can pick up right where you left off. Time to start listening.Slacker RadioFreeWhile Pandora may have introduced the world to streaming radio, Slacker Radio has refined it. You can listen to what Slacker thinks you'll like, or try out one of its human-curated channels and playlists. It also has hyper-specific playlists that appeal to particular tastes and moods, such as Yacht Rock.Songkick for ConcertsFreeSongkick is the bridge between the music in your digital collection and concerts in your area. Once installed, Songkick scans your device for tunes and then lets you see when and where your favorite artists are playing. If you see a show you're interested in, you can also purchase tickets all from within the app. Add multiple locations to Songkick to catch concerts when you're on the road.SpotifyFreeWith its huge inventory of music, Spotify has become a mainstay for free, legal music streaming. You can shuffle through smartly selected songs, find your favorite albums, or explore one of the service's excellent playlists. Close ties with artists means that new tracks are sometimes available the same day they hit the shelves in record shops. Those still exist, right?Stitcher Radio for PodcastsFreeThough its interface is a bit tricky, Stitcher connects you with just about every podcast out there. Podcasts are organized by subject, or you can just search for a familiar title. Shows can in turn be organized into playlists for a continuous stream. Once you've exhausted all your favorites, let Stitcher recommend something new. With a special emphasis on sources like NPR, CNN, and ESPN, Stitcher has a little bit of everything.Back to Top ↑Personal ProductivityAny.doFreeAt its core, Best To-do list & Task Manager. Free, Online & Mobile is a list manager. You can quickly create a shopping list and have it synced among your devices and even share the list with others. The app also doubles as a task manager, keeping you on top of what needs to be done. This very capable app sports many features, but I particularly like one called the Best To-do list & Task Manager. Free, Online & Mobile Moment, which encourages you to take a second and review your plans for the day. Lists are one thing, but building good productivity habits is quite another.EasilyDoFreeIf you're the forgetful type, EasilyDo is your savior. Once you hook the app up to a slew of supported social and calendar services, it suggests simple actions from a unified dashboard. Did you know it's Susie's birthday? EasilyDo will remind you and suggest you send her a message or a gift. It makes the little things easier, and proves its worth with saved time. It covers everything from to-do lists to tracking packages to storing your travel information.EvernoteFreeOnce you start using it, this note-taking app becomes a powerful tool for organizing just about everything. Notes can be anything—text, images, audio, or a mix—and are organized into notebooks. One of its killer features is optical character recognition, which makes the text in images searchable. Cloud-storage makes it the perfect tool for organizing the little pieces of a project into a finished draft.Inbox by GmailFreeInbox by Gmail isn't a tool for email power users. For everyone else, however, it's fantastic. Google took to heart the lessons of the now-defunct Mailbox and offers a client for Gmail with gestures, reminders, and some of the tricks pioneered by productivity pros. My favorite features include automatic package tracking, travel document detection, and the bundling of like emails. It also happens to be one of the best-looking material design apps to date.MintFreeMint is a fantastic online service for keeping track of your finances, and it really shines on Android. Once you've entered all your information, you can easily see where your money is going. And Mint's budgets help you make spending decisions on the fly. Another great feature is the Mint widget, which helps you keep your finances in mind by keeping your account balances in sight. Mint can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it's well worth the effort to learn.PushbulletFreeIf you've ever had to email a link or a picture to yourself because that seemed like the easiest way to get it off your phone, Pushbullet is for you. Simply put, it's the missing link between your PC and your Android. This handy service lets you send notes, URLs, files, addresses, and even lists among your devices. You can even push all these things to your friends, too.WunderlistFreeIn a crowded app store full of to-do apps, Wunderlist for Android distinguishes itself as one of the prettiest and, more importantly, the easiest to use. It's ideal for making to-do lists, grocery lists, or lists shared with friends and family. Best of all, Wunderlist is cross-platform with numerous native apps and a spiffy, interactive website that keeps your lists within easy signNow. Purchased by Microsoft last year, this app has a bright future on any device.Back to Top ↑PhotossignNow Photoshop ExpressFreePhotoshop CC is a notorious beast of a desktop application, but Photoshop Express is a svelte app, with powerful tools to make the most of your mobile snapshots. Sure, it'll do the Instagram-ish filters, but it also lets you make fine adjustments to images with a beautiful, simple interface. It even seamlessly connects to various other services for sharing.Autodesk PixlrFreeIf you've ever browsed through image-sharing services and wondered where the picture collages came from, Pixlr is a good guess. This photo editor can do more than just build mosaics of pictures. It has a host of effects and adjustments that run the gamut from subtly artistic to ridiculously bombastic—perfect for giving your images a touch more pizzazz.FlickrFreeRemember Flickr? The venerable photo sharing service is an Editors' Choice Web service, and the Android app has a lot to recommend it, too. Offering a free terabyte of photo storage, a truly gorgeous app, and excellent photo and video editing tools, Flickr is more valuable than ever. Plus, the app connects you to the vibrant community of photographers on the service. Best of all, it can automatically back up photos from your phone.Google PhotosFreeGoogle Photos puts the search giant's powerful image-discerning magic into your phone. It can identify faces, even as they age over decades, as well as animals and places. The search results aren't as good as those of Google Image Search, but the app can perform impressive feats such as identifying specific dog breeds. It is rounded out with smart editing tools that use machine learning to manipulate specific aspects of photos, such as skin tone and the deep blue of oceans and skies. The service also offers effectively infinite storage for all your photos, so even if you merely need a dead-simple photo backup solution, it's hard to beat Google Photos.InstagramFreeIt seems like just yesterday that Instagram was adding video. Then direct messaging. Then advanced photo editing put it on par with Photoshop Express for image correction and manipulation. The latest addition is Instagram Stories, which will surely be familiar to fans of Snapchat. With a clean, minimalist interface, Instagram is the king of social photo apps.PicsArt Photo StudioFreeWith tons of effects, controls over layers, drawing tools, and collages, PicsArt can contend with Photoshop and is one of the best photo editing apps for Android. If you think it's just a lowly Instagram clone, you're wrong. When you're looking to take your smartphone snapshots to the next level, seek out this app.SnapseedFreeDon't get me wrong: I love Instagram. But if you want more control than Instagram affords, try Snapseed. This app straddles the line between full-fledged image editor and filter app, and it brings a lot of useful tools to the table. Best of all is the amount of control it gives you over how filters and effects are applied to your images. Run a photo through Snapseed before Instagramming it.Back to Top ↑Reading and NewsCalibre Companion$3.99Calibre is the giant of ebook management, and this app is the perfect (ahem) companion for it. With just a few clicks, you can add any book from your computer to your device over USB or Wi-Fi. You can also store your ebooks on the cloud for easy access from wherever you are. What's so surprising is how well it works, and how easy it is to use. If you've got a lot of ebooks and are ready to cast off the shackles of Amazon, this is the app for you.ComiXology ComicsFreeThe Amazon-owned Comixology—the iTunes of digital comics—offers a near-perfect combination of store and comic book reader in its wonderful Comics app. The free app transforms your Android smartphone or tablet into a digital long box that houses and syncs your purchases across multiple devices. Even better, the new Comixology Unlimited service lets you devour an ever-expanding catalog of titles for just $5.99 per month.ESPN FreeWhat impresses me most about the ESPN Android app is the sheer number of sports it covers. Everything from American football to Brazilian soccer to Indy 500 is available. For those unmissable games, you can set alerts and follow specific matches as they unfold. It also connects you to videos and news headlines, courtesy of the popular sports cable network.FlipboardFreeWith its slick, streamlined interface, Flipboard is one of the best apps for reading the news. With it, you browse the articles, videos, podcasts, and other media that matter most to you. The app's signature magazine-style interface lets you explore the day's headlines in a gorgeous environment. The Daily Edition feature gives you the most important news along with themed stories for each day of the week. Flipboard has been one of our top picks for years, and it's easy to see why.KindleFreeThe official Amazon Kindle apps puts all of your existing Amazon ebook purchases at the tips of your fingers, and it gives you mobile access to the Kindle ebook store for impulse purchasing. Best of all, it syncs your notes, bookmarks, and where you left off among all your devices.OverDriveFreeThe library is an often-overlooked public resource, but OverDrive brings it back into the fold with its app. Supported by over 30,000 libraries worldwide, the app lets you access your local library's array of available eBooks. Use it to download titles, place holds on titles not yet available, and read your borrowed ebooks. The only requirement is a library card (or its digital equivalent).PocketFreeYour bag of holding for Internet content, Pocket saves articles, images, and videos for later reading. I especially like how it reformats articles for more comfortable reading on a mobile device, and how it syncs content to your tablet, phone, and online account. With the close integration between Pocket and the Android sharing tools, you can pocket just about anything from your phone.Back to Top ↑SecurityAvast Mobile Security & AntivirusFreeAvast has the distinction of packing tons of features into an entirely free package. Inside, you'll find antitheft tools, app management, safe Web browsing, a battery manager, and an antivirus engine that receives top marks from independent testing labs. It's a top choice for Android antivirus apps.Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus$14.95 per yearNeed Android antivirus? It's hard to do better than Bitdefender. This app has received perfect scores from two independent research labs, and scans your phone in mere seconds. It also includes excellent phishing protection, powerful antitheft tools, and Android Wear integration.Dashlane$39.99You're terrible at passwords. Don't take it personally! Everyone is terrible at passwords. That's why we all need apps like Dashlane, which generate, save, and replay login credentials wherever they're needed. This smart, cross-platform service makes sure that your passwords, payment information, and other vital information is stored securely but never out of signNow.LastPass$12After a major overhaul to this powerful password manager its appearance finally matches its performance. With LastPass, you can access your saved passwords, secure notes, and filled forms from your Android, and you can also create new ones that sync to all your devices. The new version of the app ingeniously melds the password manager with a built-in browser, putting the app's auto-login features at the forefront. Staying safe has never been easier.Net Nanny$12.99Smartphones are a problem for parents. Give one to a kid and they could have too much freedom, use it to talk with strangers on the Internet, access inappropriate content, or just rot their brains with Candy Crush. Don't give a kid a smartphone and they'll be hard to get a hold of, have no emergency contact, and so on. Net Nanny offers a solution with fine parental controls that give kids the benefits of owning an Android while minimizing the risks.Norton Family Parental Control$49.99When it comes to parental control, it's hard to do better than Norton family Parental Control. You certainly get what you pay for, as this app sports powerful Web filtering, call and text blocking, location tracking, and app management. Best of all, parents can use it to control an unlimited number of devices, so it will suit families of all sizes. The only downside? It doesn't block anime.NordVPN$8.00With NordVPN you can rest assured that no prying eyes will see your Internet traffic. This app sports an excellent interface, a handy server selection tool, and a hundreds of available VPN servers across the globe. NordVPN's signature feature is its assortment of specialized servers, which are optimized for activities like peer-to-peer downloading, video streaming, and access to Tor.OrbotFreeTor is probably more famous for providing access to the so-called Dark Web, but it also provides a useful way to connect to the Internet while keeping your movements private. Working with a special browser, Orbot connects you to Tor within seconds. However, I have found in my testing that it sometimes takes a few attempts to get online.Private Internet Access VPN$6.95On the desktop, Private Internet Access VPN offers the protection of a virtual private network along with numerous advanced features. The same is true on Android, where you can connect to any of its over 3,000 global servers. This service also has the option to block ads and online trackers, if you so wish. It might not be much to look at, but it's among the most powerful VPN services available.Back to Top ↑ShoppingAmazonFreeAmazon is the Internet's marketplace; the one place where you can buy just about anything—and it's cheap too! On Android, two of my favorite features are the barcode scanner and photo search, making it easy to surreptitiously comparison shop from one of the brick and mortar stores the site is killing. You can also make purchases from Amazon's streaming video store, but Kindle ebook titles are still unavailable for purchase. Depending on where you live, you can take advantage of super-fast shipping that can sometimes deliver a package before you even get home.Google WalletFreeGoogle Wallet has gone through many permutations over the years. Its latest is as a person-to-person payment app, letting you easily send money without pesky cash or credit cards getting in the way. And in that role, it really excels. It's a strong alternative to our top choice, Venmo.GrouponFreeThe original deal locator for mobile, Groupon partners with businesses to offer low prices to a limited number of people for a limited time. While the value of Groupon's offerings is sometimes debatable, it offers a useful way to try a new restaurant or a totally new activity in your area.PinterestFreePinterest is a social network of stuff, a place to "pin" things that interest you on themed boards. The Android app offers a great way to gather images from around the Web for making lists or just collections of stuff that catch your eye. I've used it to help redecorate my living room and for selecting a tattoo artist. It easily integrates with your browser for fast pinning, and you can view the pins of others for added inspiration.Samsung PayFreeHere's the bad news: Samsung Pay only works on a handful of devices and, yes, only Samsung devices at that. But if you can get your hands on a phone with Samsung Pay, the world is your electronic payment oyster. Whether it's sending money between devices, paying for something on your phone, or using the built-in magnets to trick card-swipe readers into thinking they've just read a credit card, Samsung Pay does it all. It's nothing short of astonishing.SliceFreeFor all our technical savvy and disruptive startups, physical package delivery is still the backbone of ecommerce. The Slice app automatically detects shipping details from your email and then tracks the packages for you. You can watch your precious commodities make their stately way to your doorstep, get alerts when they are delivered, and even receive warnings if they've been recalled or the price has dropped. In short, Slice is an online shopper's best friend.WallabyFreeOdds are, at least one of your credit cards has some kind of rewards program—be it cash-back, miles, or points. But it's a hassle remembering which ones to use, and where. Enter Wallaby, an app designed to help you maximize your rewards. Consider this handy shopping buddy the next time you look to spend some plastic cash.VenmoFreeThere are lots of ways to pay for things with your phone. But Venmo has a smart mixture of clean design, ease of use, and social functions that give it an edge. It doesn't do much, but it does let you easily send and receive payments from friends. And unlike other payment systems, it has momentum. It's usually the app people ask about when the group is splitting up the check.Back to Top ↑Social Media & CommunicationCircle of 6FreeWhile most social apps are there for fun, Circle of 6 is here for when you're not feeling safe. Two quick taps sends one of three pre-written text messages to as many as six of your contacts. One message sends your GPS location and a request to be picked up, while another asks your friends to quickly get in touch with you. The app also includes links to the RAINN and Love is Respect hotlines.EventbriteFreeIf an event isn't being organized on Facebook, it's probably being done through Eventbrite. This service makes it easy to manage invites, RSVPs, and even ticket purchasing. Attendees get handy reminders about the events they planned to attend, organizers can see guest lists. I particularly like that Eventbrite can generate QR codes, making event check-in a breeze.Facebook MessengerFreeThe problem with most mobile messengers is convincing your friends to sign up. But the odds are that most people you know are already on Facebook. This is handy, because the Facebook Messenger app is fantastic. It's simple, clean, and easily handles voice and video calling. But for me, the best part will always be the gorgeous stickers.Google HangoutsFreeLike Facebook Messenger, nearly everyone you know is probably already using Google Hangouts whether they realize it or not. All you need is a Google Account to send instant messages, images, and even participate in video conference calls with up to 12 other participants. Very few other services come anywhere close, and none offer it for free. Tight integration with Google Voice means that you can also use this app to send and receive voice calls and text messages. For some, it's the only communication app they need.LinkedInFreeMost people are probably familiar with LinkedIn as a service only visited in times of desperation; after being laid off or after a day in the office so bad that you're just not going to take it anymore. While that might still be true, the LinkedIn app aims to be a companion to LinkedIn Web service that you check every day. Sure there's the all-important profile pages showing off your work experience, and the handy tools for networking, but the service now includes visitor metrics and a newsfeed for a decidedly more social feel. It's also sometimes the only way to chat with a businessperson you're looking to connect with. It's like Facebook for grown-ups.Nintendo MiitomoFreeWhen Nintendo released Miitomo, we were confused, enthralled, and then obsessed in rapid succession. In this app, you create a cute avatar of yourself (or, as it is heavily implied by the game, another you that is simultaneously you and not you) called a Mii. You answer questions in the game, like "what's your favorite food?" and then watch as your friends' Miis spout answers back at you. But the most fun is dressing up your Miis and posing them for bizarre photos. PCMag has a full review of Miitomo on the iPhone.SnapchatFreeAt first, Snapchat was a little dangerous, popular with the hip and the young, and utterly baffling to everyone else. With Snapchat, you quickly snap and exchange photos with one or several friends. The app also supports video snaps, as well as voice and video calling. The catch is that whatever you send will vanish after a few seconds. Though it's popularly associated with sexting, it's also just a fun and ephemeral way to share the world around you. New updates make the service much easier to use, let you save old snaps, and build ongoing public stories. The more things change, the more they just turn into Facebook.Signal Private MessengerFreeThere are a lot of apps out there that pay lip service to security and privacy, but Signal was built from the ground up with the goal of letting people easily communicate without having to worry about being overheard. The Signal app is a complete phone and SMS client replacement (though it works just fine as a standalone app, too) for sending and receiving encrypted calls and messages. A recent update has greatly improved the app's look and feel, proving that security and usability don't have to be at odds.Twitter PeriscopeFreeStreaming live video used to be a real pain, even on a desktop computer. But apps like Meerkat and Periscope changed all that. Periscope has Twitter's blessing, and it lets you share video and chat with other users with ease. Best of all, it saves your Periscopes for later viewing. Periscope is a lot of fun, but it's facing stiff competition from the Facebook app's recent addition of live video streaming.WhatsApp MessengerFreeIn a world rife with messenger apps, WhatsApp is among the most successful, boasting an enormous and dedicated user base. Add to that an integrated Web version that lets users take their chats to the desktop. Recently, this app was bolstered by encrypted messaging provided by the minds behind Signal. It might just be the largest secure messaging service out there.WickrFreeSometimes the most secure message is one that simply doesn't exist. That's the thinking behind Wickr, a fully encrypted secure messaging service that even handles media messages. The twist is that you set a lifespan for each message, ensuring that your private messages stay private, the way Snapchat message do. And, if you doubt their security chops, here's what the company's founder told the FBI when they asked for a backdoor.Back to Top ↑TravelDuolingoFreeIf you're looking to learn another language, Duolingo gamifies language learning with bite-sized lessons and a friendly interface. Starting with simple vocabulary and building from there, Duolingo is your guide to learning a new language or brushing up on one you already know. The more you use the app, the more you unlock and—with practice—the more you learn. This free app currently supports Danish, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Or more practical choices, like Esperanto and Klingon.Google MapsFree Google Maps has been your guide for years, and this excellent app just keeps getting better. With just a few taps, Google Maps tells you exactly how to get to your destination. It even supports walking, bicycle, and mass-transit directions, as well as Uber. The app's road knowledge is so keen that it can tell you which lane to be in while using turn-by-turn directions. And because this is Google, you can easily search for locations nearby.Google TranslateFreeProbably my biggest fear as a traveler is being unable to communicate with other people. Google Translate takes a bit of the edge off, quickly translating either written text or spoken words. You can even use the app to do the speaking for you, and input text through your camera or handwriting. The app can translate 103 languages with a data connection and 52 when you're offline. It can't handle Tamarian, but it's sure to be a handy tool here on Earth. It even works on your watch and while using other Android apps!SwarmFreeIf you miss the check-ins and badges of the old Foursquare, check out its twin: Swarm. This bright, colorful app is laser-focused on check-ins, making it easy to let your friends know where you are and earn cute badges in the process. Some classic features have now returned to Swarm, like leaderboards and mayorships. It seems silly, but it's actually a great way to remember that perfect breakfast spot you visited last time you were in town.TransitFreeWho needs Uber when so many cities offer world-class public transit? The Transit app shows mass transit options—including busses, ferries, and trains—and the estimated time of arrival in 87 cities in North American, Europe and Australia. Here in New York, it even tells you how many bikes are parked at local Citi Bike stands. This app keeps you in the know no matter where your travels take you.UberFreeUber certainly has its problems. Between its questionable business tactics and its bad press, it's understandable to be suspicious. But the truth is that if you're looking for a way to get a ride, regardless of what city you're in, Uber will be there. You can even use it to order food in some areas. A great feature: You can request a wheelchair-accessible vehicle through Uber.Weather UndergroundFreeWeather Underground combines a slick design with a focus on really useful weather information. I particularly like the ability to report weather conditions in your area and the extremely useful comparative forecasts that deftly show how conditions have changed since yesterday. With an accompanying set of useful widgets, it's the best weather app on Android.Back to Top ↑UtilitiesArrow LauncherFreeWhen Microsoft started rolling out apps for Android, I don't think anyone anticipated the venerable software manufacturer to go and roll their own theme for Android. And yet, we live in a world where Microsoft's Arrow Launcher is a thing. With a focus on productivity, it puts your most recently used apps at the forefront and has numerous customizable settings to tweak it to your needs. If you've grown tired of stock Android or, God help you, TouchWiz, give Arrow a try.Netgear Wifi AnalyticsFreeNetgear's free Wi-Fi Analytics app lets you get the lay of the Wi-Fi landscape. With a few taps, you can see the strength of networks in the area and what channels have the most interference. It's the perfect companion to our article on how to set up your wireless network.SwiftKey KeyboardFreeAn impressive keyboard replacement, Swiftkey suggests what it thinks is the most likely next word as you type. A pioneer of this technology, SwiftKey can speed up your typing by inserting whole words with a tap. The app also supports Swype-like input, over 100 languages, and 80 colorful themes.Swype Keyboard99 centsSwype was the first to introduce dragging your finger from letter to letter to input text, which has since appeared in SwiftKey and even Google Keyboard. The developers are not resting on their laurels, however: Their app has numerous input options, including the powerful Dragon Dictation, gestures, handwriting recognition, and SwiftKey-like predictive text. Swype is a sprawling app that makes mobile typing a breeze.Tasker$2.49I'll be honest: I am intimidated to the point of fear by Tasker. But I recognize that this is perhaps the most powerful app available in Google Play. With it, you can script basic actions for your Android to perform when specific conditions are met—like flash the LED when you receive a text message. Learning to use something this powerful can be tricky, but the rewards seem worth it.Zooper Widget Pro$2.99Many Android apps come with handy widgets that you can place on the desktop or lock screen. But who wants to merely accept what they're given? Zooper Widget Pro lets you easily assemble widgets to meet your exacting needs. It's the perfect tool for truly getting the most out of your Android.Back to Top ↑VideoCrunchyrollFreeWhen we wanted to watch anime back in the bad old days, we had to duplicate third-generation VHS tapes of Neon Genesis Evangelion or, God help you, pay some shifty guy for a CD of RealPlayer files. But now, the streaming service Crunchyroll spoils anime fans with choice. Boasting an extensive backlist of popular anime, this app even debuts episodes shortly after they premiere in Japan.Hulu$7.99 per monthHulu has long been the king of streaming TV. It's the best choice for when you want to see current shows and not wait until they're collected for sale or streaming on another service. But it also has a deep well of great movies to draw from, including many obscure gems. If you need to see Brooklyn 99 on your Nexus 6P, then this is the app for you.Netflix$7.99 per monthDespite ups and downs in the quality of its library, Netflix dominates the world of streaming TV and movies. Although Hulu has more TV and more varied movie offerings, the sheer volume of movies and TV in Netflix is still remarkable. The service also creates its own—sometimes indispensible—content, including original comedies, cartoons, dramas, and documentaries. Some of the shows have become cultural phenomena, making Netflix a must-have. Shows such as Black Mirror, Stranger Things, and The Crown (the most expensive TV show ever made) are often the conversation topics of the day. And now with offline viewing capability in the mobile app, you can download select episodes to watch at your leisure.Sling TV$20Have you ever needed (I mean, really needed) to catch your favorite show but found yourself nowhere near a TV? Technology is finally here to solve the problem with Sling TV, an inexpensive service that lets you watch live TV via the Sling TV Web service on any Android device. Get ready to cut the cord and kick cable out of your life.WWEFreeWhen we reviewed the official WWE app for iPad, it earned perhaps the most begrudged Editors' Choice in PCMag history. But that itself should speak volumes about the quality of the app and, uh, the quality of the wrestling content. Whether you're watching the latest bout or catching up on classic matches, this app is there to assist. It might even give you a new appreciation for the bizarre, semi-fictional meta-sport that Americans have loved for decades.Back to Top ↑Workplace ProductivityAsana$800Trello and Best To-do list & Task Manager. Free, Online & Mobile are great for personal to-do lists and small projects, but Web service Asana is the 800-pound gorilla of task management for teams. Collaboration tool Asana is all about workflows and checkbox tasks that can be assigned to individuals. It's a powerful tool with an excellent interface, and new features are added regularly.DoodleFreeThe hardest part of scheduling a meeting is getting everyone to agree. Jeff is free Monday and Wednesday. Jill is available Monday, but not Tuesday. And the other dozen people have their own schedules to contend with. Doodle lets you suggest times, and then see which work best for everyone. It's an invaluable planning tool.DropboxFreeDropbox pioneered the personal cloud service, where all your stuff would be available no matter what device you were using. On Android, it holds its own—even against the highly integrated Google Drive. Dropbox can also act as a seamless backup for your images, automatically uploading every photo to the cloud. If you're a heavy Dropbox user, this app is a must-have.GoDaddy Bookkeeping Essentials$9.99 per monthIf you're a freelancer, the most important thing you need to do is get paid. Enter GoDaddy Bookkeeping. In addition to having the most doubled letters of any app I've yet seen, this app lets you save and track your invoices so you're always on top of your finances. The app even prepares you for tax time. It's a must have for any freelancer. You can read more about the service in PCMag's full review of GoDaddy Bookkeeping Essentials on the iPhone.Google DriveFreeIf you use Android, you have a Google Account, and that means you have access to the excellent Google Drive cloud storage service. With Drive, you can easily access synced files across all your devices no matter where you are. With the additional Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Photos apps from Google, Drive is the center of a productivity hub on your Android.Microsoft Office LensFreeDespite the fact that we are well into the 21st century, paper still persists in offices. But Microsoft Office Lens lets you turn physical documents into digital ones using your Android. It can even capture doodles and notes from a whiteboard. If you want portable document scanning, but aren't keen on getting an Evernote account, this might be the solution for you.Microsoft WordFreeMicrosoft Word is, simply put, the alpha and omega of word processing, and one of the key apps in Microsoft Office 365. You'll find it on every kind of computer in every kind of setting, and now it's available for free on Android. Word plugs into Microsoft's cloud infrastructure to keep your documents in order, but its main selling point is that this really is Word. What you make on your phone will look exactly the same on the desktop. For the worker on the go, it's essential.MyFax$10.00While fax machines might not be as visible as they used to be, they continue to be an important part of how companies and governments do business. Enter MyFax, the service that lets you send and receive faxes without the hassle of a fax machine or a dedicated phone line. All from your Android. You can also use this service to send and receive faxes from your email client of choice. Simple!SlackFreeSlack has gone from the new hotness, to controversial productivity tool, to essential office tool faster than you can say "hot take." With a familiar, instant messenger feel, it's easy to get started with Slack. But the service became popular because of its wealth of advanced features, like customizable alerts and a Do Not Disturb function. You can even host VoIP calls through Slack with your coworkers. A free account will get you started, but a monthly fee unlocks even better search tools. And be sure to install the Giphy plugin for maximum productivity.
-
What new electronic gadgets have amazed you the most in 2017?
Tern Vektron: Folding electric bike shown in TRON movie.ReMarkable : Tablet havinv sketchpad and jounal kinda.Dashbot : An in-car voice control gadget like Amazon alexa made spclly for car.Motiv Ring: Formed from a lightweight titanium shell, will track your activity type, time spent moving, your active and resting heart rate, calories burned and steps taken/distance covered. It’s also swimproof (waterproof to 50 meters) and shower and washing-up friendly.Kodak pixpro: The first 360° VR action cam. You can edit your recorded video and imagery through the camera’s pixpro editing and stitching software.Razer Project Valerie : It is a multi-monitor portables with the powerful gaming laptop which has two auxiliary displays behind its central screen. when the three 4K iGZo displays are all extended and operating together, they deliver a total screen resolution of 11,520 x 2,160!!Kuri Smat robot: Household robot,offering the ability to entertain children, keep an eye on your property, search the web for you, play music and podcast etc.NVidia Shield TV : Supports Gaming and video-watching,upgrades with google assistant.Asus Zenfone Ar : a Google tango-enabled handset with a massive screen, impressive specs and has – serious Ar credentials.Dell Canvas: It is a horizontal smart workspace that features a 27-inch QHd screen and support for touch, totem, dial and pen input.LG levitation: It is a station features a floating, egg-shaped speaker that hovers above a base unit and pumps out your tunes of choice, the speaker delivers audio in 360 degrees and will descend automatically back into the base when it runs out of juice.LG Tone studio: It is a bluetooth headset is a good example of this, with the personal wearable system boasting wireless earbuds that charge whenever they’re stored inside the neckband, making them easy to carry and charge at the same time.The tone studio also features a hi-fi daC (digital to analog converter) and delivers audio in awesome 3d surround sound.Lenovo Miix 720: Is a hybrid two-in-one that features a 12-inch, 2,880 x 1,920, 3:2 screen with a kickstand, a seventh-generation intel Core i7 Kaby lake processor, an intel Hd 620 Gpu, up to 16Gb of RAM, and an ssd drive of up to 1 Tb.LG Signature OLed TV : It is just 2.5mm thick and Can be mounted on magnets. It has dolby Vision and dolby atmos built-in, giving you a cinema-like experience in your own living room.Netatmo Smart Smoke: It is an smoke alarm, triggering 85 Db alarm when it detects smoke, sending real-time alerts to the user’s phone. The message sent depends on which room the smoke is detected in, too!Technics Grand Class Sl-1200Gr : It is a vinyl type record player,which is setting new benchmarks for audio fidelity and build quality.LG Sj9 soundbar: It is the world’s first soundbar to support Dolby atmos-encoded effects ,supports high-res audio, and can upsample low-bitrate audio files.HTC Vive: A wireless VR headset.Canon Powershot G9 x Mark ii: Canon’s pocket-friendly shooter is a super-streamlined, portable powerhouse, offering a 20.1-megapixel sensor, a diGiC 7 processor and a light-friendly f/2.0 lens and auto-nd filter.Lazer Genesis LifeBeam: It is a lightweight helmet monitors your heart rate via a rechargeable sensor in the headband. A processing unit sends data to your cycle computer, smartphone or smartwatch via Bluetooth, so you know whether to pedal harder or ease up.Beast Athlete: This wearable for strength training uses an accelerometer to measure the power, speed and force of your movements. It can help you prevent injury and perfect your form. Data is pinged to the companion app, where you can adjust workout goals to your taste.Under Armour HeatGear CoolSwitch Supervent Sleeveless Shirt: This compression vest with four-way-stretch material uses CoolSwitch technology – a coating on the fabric that draws heat away from your skin. A mesh back panel enhances breathability and dries sweat.The Ring Video Doorbell: Is easy to install and offers something really cool – the ability to see who’s at your door wherever you are. You could tell the postie to leave your parcel around the back, or simply tell ‘unwanted guests’ that you’re not interested.Yale Smart Home kit: It comprises of a brain-shattering 104dB alarm (with a key pad), a sensor, PIR cameras, and a smart hub and app to control it all. You can remotely arm and disarm with a simple swipe in the iPhone or Android app.YuNEEC Typhoon h ProRealSENSE: Loaded with Intel RealSense obstacle detection tech that maps the world in 3D and helps avoid collisions. It shoots 4K video and comes with an Android tablet-equipped controller.DJi INSPIRE 2:The original Inspire was the number one choice for professional broadcasters. This second gen can shoot 5.2K video, while forward, downward and upward obstacle sensors enable flight in tight spaces.Dali Katch: A Bluetooth speaker with rechargeable battery which can work for 24 hrs.Penclic’s Mouse B3 – which is designed to combat repetitive strain injury (RSI).Nodus Hifold Wallet: A slim card wallet, internally RFID-shielded to prevent ‘card clash’. Pop your primary contactless card in the front slot and simply tap your wallet to pay.HuaWei HoNor Selfie Stick: Lightweight, pocketable, extendable up to 66cm and perfect for those monopod moments, this mini selfie stick fires off via the audio jack on your Android or iOS phone.Aftershokz Sportz Titanium: These bone-conduction headphones offer the perfect combination of sound, sports safety and visibly good looks.IXoost ESAVOX: A sound system made out of Lambo parts for the biggest raging bull. It has two side cabinets, housing a 6.5-inch and 8-inch speaker, stand either side, like a pair of doormen escorting the centrally-mounted 1-inch tweeters and 15-inch sub with two stereo valve amps.
-
What is the main reason of the downfall of blackberry company?
Shortly after the release of the first iPhone, Verizon asked BlackBerry to create a touchscreen “iPhone killer.” But the result was a flop, so Verizon turned to Motorola and Google instead.In 2012, one-time co-CEO Jim Balsillie quit the board and cut all ties to BlackBerry in protest after his plan to shift focus to instant-messaging software, which had been opposed by founder Mike Lazaridis, was killed by current CEO Thorsten Heins.Mr. Lazaridis opposed the launch plan for the BlackBerry 10 phones and argued strongly in favour of emphasizing keyboard devices. But Mr. Heins and his executives did not take the advice and launched the touchscreen Z10, with disastrous resultsLate last year, Research In Motion Ltd. chief executive officer Thorsten Heins sat down with the board of directors at the company’s Waterloo, Ont., headquarters to review plans for the launch of a new phone designed to turn around the company’s fortunes.His weapon was the BlackBerry Z10, a slim device with the kind of glass touchscreen that had made Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. the dominant names in the global smartphone market.But one of RIM’s directors was frustrated by what he saw, and spoke out, according to one person who was in the room. There is a cultural problem at RIM, he told the group, and the Z10 was a glaring manifestation of it.The speaker was none other than Michael Lazaridis, the genius behind the BlackBerry, the company’s co-founder and its former co-CEO. Minutes earlier, he said, he had spoken with Mr. Heins’s newest executive recruits, chief marketing officer Frank Boulben and chief operating officer Kristian Tear.Mr. Boulben and Mr. Tear had dismissively told Mr. Lazaridis that the market for keyboard-equipped mobile phones – RIM’s signature offering – was dead.In the board meeting, Mr. Lazaridis pointed to a BlackBerry with a keyboard. “I get this,” he said. “It’s clearly differentiated.” Then he pointed to a touchscreen phone. “I don’t get this.”To turn away from a product that had always done well with corporate customers, and focus on selling yet another all-touch smartphone in a market crowded with them, was a huge mistake, Mr. Lazaridis warned his fellow directors. Some of them agreed.The boardroom confrontation was a telling moment in the downfall of Research In Motion.Once the giant of the smartphone business, RIM, which was renamed BlackBerry Ltd. in the summer, is now on its knees. The company reported a $965-million (U.S.) fiscal second-quarter loss Friday, primarily because of a massive writedown of Z10 phones that sit, unsold and unwanted, about eight months after they first hit the market. The company is cutting 4,500 jobs, 40 per cent of its work force, in a desperate bid to bring costs in line with plummeting revenue.Investors, who have lived through the destruction of more than $75-billion of the company’s market value over the past five years, are still wondering how BlackBerry managed to blow its runaway lead and became a bit player in the smartphone market it invented.An investigation by The Globe and Mail, which included interviews with two dozen past and present company insiders, exposes a series of deep rifts at the executive and boardroom levels.Those divisions hurt the company’s ability to develop products just as it faced its greatest challenge from more nimble and creative rivals – and contributed to the downfall of Canada’s biggest technology company.Once a fast-moving innovator that kept two steps ahead of the competition, RIM grew into a stumbling corporation, blinded by its own success and unable to replicate it. Several years ago, it owned the smartphone world: Even U.S. President Barack Obama was a BlackBerry addict. But after new rivals redefined the market, RIM responded with a string of devices that were late to market, missed the mark with consumers, and opened dangerous fault lines across the organization.Months before their boardroom showdown, Mr. Heins and Mr. Lazaridis found themselves in another strategic standoff in which they were pitted against Jim Balsillie, Mr. Lazaridis’s long-time business partner and co-CEO.Inside RIM, the brash Mr. Balsillie had championed a bold strategy to re-establish the company’s place at the forefront of mobile communications. The plan was to push wireless carriers to adopt RIM’s popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) instant messaging service as a replacement for their short text messaging system (SMS) applications – no matter what kind of phone their customers used.It was a novel plan. If RIM could get BBM onto hundreds of millions of non-BlackBerry phones, and charge fees for it, the company would have an enormous new source of profit, Mr. Balsillie believed. “It was a really big idea,” said an employee who was involved in the project.But the plan ran into stiff opposition at senior levels. Not long after Mr. Heins took over as RIM’s CEO in January, 2012, he killed it, with Mr. Lazaridis’s support.That was it for Mr. Balsillie. Weeks later, he resigned from the board and cut his ties to the company.“My reason for leaving the RIM board in March, 2012, was due to the company’s decision to cancel the BBM cross-platform strategy,” Mr. Balsillie said in a brief statement to The Globe and Mail, his first public comments on his departure. He declined a request for an interview.Mr. Lazaridis, who declined to speak about board matters, resigned as a director this past March after delaying his retirement by a year at the board's request.Now, BlackBerry’s future is in doubt. This week, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., a Toronto-based investment company, announced a plan to lead a $4.7-billion takeover of the company. The offer is conditional, and requires a group of so-far uncommitted institutional investors to back Fairfax and provide financing.The company’s near-collapse is a painful situation for Mr. Lazaridis, a gifted engineer who co-founded RIM in a tiny Waterloo office above a bagel shop in 1984.“It’s really hurting me,” he said in an interview. “I can’t imagine what the employees must be thinking. Everyone is talking about the most likely scenario being that it will be broken up and sold off for parts. What will happen to the Waterloo region, or Canada? What company will take its place?”Competition risingMike Lazaridis was at home on his treadmill and watching television when he first saw the Apple iPhone in early 2007. There were a few things he didn’t understand about the product. So, that summer, he pried one open to look inside and was shocked. It was like Apple had stuffed a Mac computer into a cellphone, he thought.To Mr. Lazaridis, a life-long tinkerer who had built an oscilloscope and computer while in high school, the iPhone was a device that broke all the rules. The operating system alone took up 700 megabytes of memory, and the device used two processors. The entire BlackBerry ran on one processor and used 32 MB. Unlike the BlackBerry, the iPhone had a fully Internet-capable browser. That meant it would strain the networks of wireless companies like AT&T Inc., something those carriers hadn’t previously allowed. RIM by contrast used a rudimentary browser that limited data usage.“I said, ‘How did they get AT&T to allow [that]?’ Mr. Lazaridis recalled in the interview at his Waterloo office. “ ‘It’s going to collapse the network.’ And in fact, some time later it did.”Publicly, Mr. Lazaridis and Mr. Balsillie belittled the iPhone and its shortcomings, including its short battery life, weaker security and initial lack of e-mail. That earned them a reputation for being cocky and, eventually, out of touch. “That’s marketing,” Mr. Lazaridis explained. “You position your strengths against their weaknesses.”Internally, he had a very different message. “If that thing catches on, we’re competing with a Mac, not a Nokia,” he recalled telling his staff.RIM soon earned a chance to show up its new rival. RIM’s early smartphones had been a hit for Verizon Wireless, one of the biggest U.S. wireless players. Frozen out of the iPhone – Apple had signed an exclusive deal with AT&T – Verizon executives approached RIM in June, 2007, and asked if it could develop “an iPhone killer.” The product would need to have a touchscreen with no physical keyboard. Verizon would back the U.S. launch with a massive marketing campaign.RIM executives jumped at the chance. At one management meeting, Mr. Balsillie called it RIM’s most important strategic opportunity since the launch of its two-way e-mail pager.The product was the BlackBerry Storm. It was the most complex and ambitious project the company had ever done, but “the technology was cobbled together quickly and wasn’t quite ready,” said one former senior company insider who was involved in the project.The product was months late, hitting the market just before U.S. Thanksgiving in 2008. Many customers hated it. The touchscreen, RIM’s first, was awkward to manipulate. The product ran on a single processor and was slow and buggy. Mr. Balsillie put on a brave face, declaring the launch to be “an overwhelming success,” but sales lagged the iPhone and customer returns were high.The Storm campaign didn’t seem so disastrous at the time: RIM was in the midst of a torrid global expansion. In August, 2009, Fortune crowned it the world’s fastest-growing company. A year after the Storm launch, market research firm comScore reported that four of the top five smartphones U.S. customers intended to buy in the next three months were BlackBerrys.But the Storm had failed to give Verizon Wireless the Apple-killer it coveted, and RIM soon abandoned the product. So the carrier turned to Google Inc. and its new operating system, Android, and built a massive marketing campaign around Motorola’s Droid phone in 2009 – at the expense of marketing dollars to support BlackBerry products. Verizon’s “iDon’t” campaign highlighted all the shortcomings of the iPhone that Android addressed with its consumer-friendly user interface.Rather than hurt Apple, the Droid and other Android-powered phones began to steal share first from Palm and Microsoft, and then RIM. By December, 2010, Android’s market share in the U.S. had grown to 23.5 per cent from 5.2 per cent a year earlier, as RIM’s dropped by 10 points, to 31.6 per cent, according to comScore. By late 2011, Android commanded 47.3 per cent of the U.S. market, while RIM had just 16 per cent.A shift by smartphone usersThis post-iPhone period was an era of strategic confusion for RIM. The overall state of the industry “was a bit schizophrenic,” said Patrick Spence, RIM’s former executive vice-president of global sales, who left in 2012. “There was a time when the [wireless] carriers tried to keep data usage predictable. Then it shifted to a period of trying to drive much more usage in different packages, when the iPhone became compelling.”If there were new rules of the game, RIM would require new tools. The summer after the Storm launched, Mr. Lazaridis bought Torch Mobile, a software development firm that created Internet browsers for mobile phones.But the process of moving, or “porting,” the Torch browser onto RIM’s highly-customized system proved complex and time-consuming. RIM’s technology was based on Java computer code and an operating system built in the 1990s, while the Apple and Android systems used newer software platforms and standards that made it easier to build friendlier user interfaces. “This really meant we were not positioned for the future,” Mr. Lazaridis said. In order to survive, RIM would have to change its DNA.RIM executives figured they had time to reinvent the company. For years they had successfully fended off a host of challengers. Apple’s aggressive negotiating tactics had alienated many carriers, and the iPhone didn’t seem like a threat to RIM’s most loyal base of customers – businesses and governments. They would sustain RIM while it fixed its technology issues.But smartphone users were rapidly shifting their focus to software applications, rather than choosing devices based solely on hardware. RIM found it difficult to make the transition, said Neeraj Monga, director of research with Veritas Investment Research Corp. The company’s engineering culture had served it well when it delivered efficient, low-power devices to enterprise customers. But features that suited corporate chief information officers weren’t what appealed to the general public.“The problem wasn’t that we stopped listening to customers,” said one former RIM insider. “We believed we knew better what customers needed long term than they did. Consumers would say, ‘I want a faster browser.’ We might say, ‘You might think you want a faster browser, but you don’t want to pay overage on your bill.’ ‘Well, I want a super big very responsive touchscreen.’ ‘Well, you might think you want that, but you don’t want your phone to die at 2 p.m.’ “We would say, ‘We know better, and they’ll eventually figure it out.’ ”Trying to satisfy its two sets of customers – consumers and corporate users – could leave the company satisfying neither. When RIM executives showed off plans to add camera, game and music applications to its products to several hundred Fortune 500 chief information officers at a company event in Orlando in 2010, they weren’t prepared for the backlash that followed. Large corporate customers didn’t want personal applications on corporate phones, said a former RIM executive who attended the session.Meanwhile, it turned out consumers didn’t care so much about battery life or security features. They wanted apps. Apple’s iOs and Google’s Android systems were relatively easy for outside software developers to use, compared to BlackBerry’s technically complicated Java-based system.Blackberry’s apps looked “uglier” than those programmed in more modern languages, and the simulator used to test the apps often didn’t recreate the actual experience, said Trevor Nimegeers, a Calgary-based entrepreneur whose software company, Wmode, has developed apps for BlackBerry. Further, RIM exerted tight control over developers before it would sign off on their apps for use on BlackBerrys, stifling creativity. “Developers wanted to be embraced, not controlled,” Mr. Nimegeers said. As a result, hot apps such as Instagram and Tumblr bypassed BlackBerry.A split companyOne key to RIM’s early success was its corporate structure. It is unusual for a company to have two CEOs – Mr. Lazaridis focused on engineering, product management and supply chain, while Mr. Balsillie looked after sales, finance and other corporate functions – but for a long time, it worked. Mr. Lazaridis’s side of the shop made the phones, and Mr. Balsillie’s sold them. The two men were collegial and collaborative.Below the top executives, however, the two sides of the company didn’t always get along. And as the company grew into a leviathan with $20-billion in annual sales, the structure sometimes made it difficult to get definitive decisions or establish clear accountability. That contributed to a chronic problem for RIM: speed. “They were always slow to market, and there were always delays in launching,” said James Moorman, an analyst with S&P Capital IQ Equity Research. “It was compounded by miscalculating the speed at which the consumer market changed.”Sometimes, feedback from customers that might inspire changes would die at middle management, because senior executives didn’t want to bring it to Mr. Lazaridis, a former insider said.The split company also lost a major unifying force when chief operating officer Larry Conlee retired in 2009. Mr. Conlee was a whip-cracker who held executives to account for decisions and deadlines, establishing a project management office. Many insiders agreed that after he left, a slack attitude toward hitting targets began to permeate the company. “There was a gap” after Mr. Conlee’s departure, Adam Belsher, a former RIM vice-president, told The Globe last year. “There was no real operational executive on the product side that would really get teams to hit deadlines.”After relying on its own technology for so long, Mr. Lazaridis decided the company’s next advance would come from outside. In April, 2010, RIM announced a deal to acquire Ottawa-based QNX Software, a cutting-edge software maker that would provide the building blocks for the BlackBerry 10 operating system – the new platform Mr. Lazaridis knew the company needed.QNX was a specialist in industrial controls that used up-to-date software tools to run applications ranging from 911 call centres to wireless broadband services in vehicles. Its technology was the perfect core for smartphones and tablets, RIM’s leaders felt.Mr. Lazaridis decided to take a page from the business strategy book The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. The book outlines how established organizations that succeeded against challengers often did so by allowing small, cloistered teams to develop their own disruptive products, free from the influence of the rest of the organization.Mr. Lazaridis decided he would isolate the QNX team and get them to focus solely on the new operating system, while leaving existing programmers to work on products for its existing platform, BlackBerry 7. Eventually he hoped QNX, led by its CEO Dan Dodge, would retrain his entire organization.But first, RIM had to answer a key question: If it wanted to remake the BlackBerry on the QNX system, what was the best way to do that? Should it move over some of its old Java-based applications, or rewrite them all from scratch? If the company abandoned Java altogether, what would it mean for third-party developers who used it?These were not easy decisions. Discussions among the senior leaders in Mr. Lazaridis’ organization dragged on for a year – far too long, according to several insiders.Eventually, the decision was made: BlackBerry 10 would be built from scratch. The problem with that approach was that a new team was being entrusted to recreate the BlackBerry. Those who had created the original system were still working on devices for the BlackBerry 7 platform. Once again, the company was split.“We had bought a powerful operating system and needed to move to it. But the BB7 was late,” Mr. Lazaridis said. “Every week, I was getting requests for more hires, more resources. The conundrum was, how do I pull resources off the BB7 to rewrite all the apps on top of QNX?”PlayBook painThe QNX team’s first assignment was to work on an operating system for the PlayBook, RIM’s answer to Apple’s successful iPad tablet. Mr. Lazaridis saw the work as a precursor to the BlackBerry 10 line of smartphones and was impressed by what the team brought to the product. “It helped our developers experience the power and elegance of QNX,” he said.But the QNX team was overwhelmed and needed to draw heavily on the company’s other resources to complete the PlayBook. Similar issues arose later on the BlackBerry 10. The tablet, originally slated to come out in the fall of 2010, didn’t appear until April, 2011, and it failed to sell. It was an awkward accessory to RIM’s smartphones, and lacked e-mail, contacts and apps. Once again, RIM had missed the mark: Tablets that sold well worked as standalone devices, which the PlayBook wasn’t.Some questioned the wisdom of launching the PlayBook in the first place, feeling it was a needless and costly distraction. And the decision to isolate QNX also created tensions and morale problems: Those who weren’t on the team worried about their future.“To me, the most logical thing would have been to integrate the operating system organizations into one,” said one senior executive who was caught up in the fray. “Then you’d have a whole team, not 150 people sitting around saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do next,’ and another 150 people saying ‘I’m over my head.’ ”Meanwhile, RIM’s lack of an advanced smartphone meant that it continued to bleed market share to Apple and Android, especially in the United States. In December, 2010, Verizon Wireless announced it would invest in fourth generation (4G) LTE technology to accommodate the growing demands of customers who wanted to surf the Internet on their phones. It signalled to device makers that it would look to feature 4G smartphones in its marketing.RIM’s 4G phone effort was the BlackBerry 10, but it was far from ready. RIM executives tried to make an engineering argument to carriers that 4G technology was no more efficient than 3G, and that its Bold phones were just fine. Mr. Lazaridis, Mr. Heins and chief technology officer David Yach “were trying to reshape the argument because they knew our products couldn’t go there,” a former executive said. “It was a fight to stay in [promotional] programs with carriers. We lost channel support and feature ads.”The PlayBook debacle and mounting delays of the BlackBerry 10 harmed the organization in other ways.For years, Mr. Yach and Mr. Lazaridis had enjoyed a close working relationship. But as the well-regarded Mr. Yach began to question the company’s ability to hit deadlines on products, his views were dismissed and he was made to feel he wasn’t a team player, damaging their relationship, observers said. He left the company in early 2012.The PlayBook flop merely added to the sense of a company in decline; 2011 became a signNow turning point for RIM. As it became clear the brand was getting trounced in the market, and the BlackBerry 10 project was hit by signNow delays, the stock plunged, falling from $69 (Canadian) in February to less than $15 by the year’s end.The pressure mounted on Mr. Balsillie, Mr. Lazaridis and the board. In January, 2012, they stepped aside as co-CEOs and handed it over to Thorsten Heins, a German executive who had run the company’s handset division.Almost immediately, there was division about how to roll out the BlackBerry 10. The original strategy had called for the company to launch an all-touchscreen version first, because sales were still going well for the company’s BlackBerry 7 keyboard phone.But by 2012, sales of BlackBerry 7 phones had lost steam, and Mr. Lazaridis, now deputy chairman, felt the company should switch its priority to getting a keyboard version out, to meet the demand from BlackBerry die-hards.“This is our bread and butter, our iconic device,” he told an executive at the company. “The keyboard is one of the reasons they buy BlackBerrys.”Mr. Heins’s new management team held firm, sources close to the board said. “They believed everything was going to full touch” and that the QNX-designed system was clearly superior to what was available on other mobile operating systems.To Mr. Lazaridis, abandoning the company’s competitive advantage in the hopes consumers would embrace yet another touchscreen was too risky a strategy, setting up the showdown at the board last year. In the end, management agreed to continue developing the Q10 keyboard phone. But the all-touchscreen Z10 would be launched first.By the time the first BlackBerry 10 smartphones were unveiled in January of this year, market observers generally agreed that the products were two years too late – a view widely shared among many senior RIM insiders.“Buying QNX was the right play ultimately,” said Mr. Spence. “But we didn’t make the turn fast enough. Everyone underestimated the complexity” involved in building the new system.A BBM planFor 20 years, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis operated in tandem, building an increasingly successful partnership that allowed each other’s strengths to flourish.They shared an office in their early years, even possessing each other’s voice mail passwords.As RIM grew, they worked in separate buildings but spoke several times a day. “They had a relationship I wish I had with my wife,” one mid-level executive said.But they had different personalities and their lives seldom intersected outside the office. They have barely spoken since leaving the company.For Mr. Lazaridis, science was both a job and a pastime. Mr. Balsillie was brash, competitive and athletic, and wore his reputation for being aggressive, even bullying in meetings, as a badge of honour. If anything, he viewed that outward toughness as a job requirement, not unlike tech CEOs such as Steve Ballmer at Microsoft Corp. or Apple’s Steve Jobs. “Show me how else you build a $20-billion company,” he once confided to a colleague. “If I was Mr. Easy-going, they would kill BlackBerry.”The two rarely disagreed on key strategic moves – until their last year together. Mr. Lazaridis believed BlackBerry 10 would herald RIM’s renaissance. Mr. Balsillie wasn’t so sure.Mr. Balsillie was concerned that Google had commoditized the smartphone market by making its Android operating system available for free to any handset maker. By 2011, wireless carriers were warning him that they would be ordering fewer BlackBerry products unless he dropped his prices to match rival manufacturers.So Mr. Balsillie pushed an alternative plan.The idea started with Aaron Brown, the executive who oversaw the services division at RIM. By 2010, this division was earning $800-million per quarter in revenue from the monthly service access fee it charged mobile carriers for every BlackBerry subscriber. More than 90 per cent of that was profit. Carriers tried to chip away at those fees – Google and Apple didn’t charge them – but RIM always pushed back. Mr. Balsillie was particularly insistent on keeping the service fees. But the executives knew the company’s weakening position in devices would increase pressure on services revenues as well.Even after its terrible year in 2011, RIM still had several advantages, including close relationships with the world’s major carriers. It also had BlackBerry Messenger.RIM developers created the BBM app in 2005 to enable users to communicate not by e-mail but by using their devices’ “personal identification numbers” or PINs. It was the first instant messaging service built for wireless devices, and it caught on quickly. It was reliable, free, always on and users could send as many messages as they wanted at no extra cost, unlike basic text messages. PINs were random codes, not phone numbers or e-mail addresses, enhancing privacy. That made BBM extremely popular in countries where citizens didn’t enjoy as many freedoms as Western democracies, and helped drive handset sales there.BBM’s developers added a few clever elements that also made it addictive. For example, users would know when a message had been delivered and when it had been read, marked D and R. Today there are 60 million monthly active users.But BBM only worked on BlackBerrys. As Apple and Android took off, BBM knock-offs appeared that could function on those devices, including Kik Interactive Inc., founded by Ted Livingston, a former RIM co-op student. Today Kik, boasts 85 million users, more than BlackBerry (which sued Mr. Livingston for allegedly copying its program). Others, such as WhatsApp, are even larger. Instant messaging “is the killer app of the mobile era,” Mr. Livingston said. “We think there will be a Google or Facebook-sized company that comes out of this category.”RIM’s Mr. Brown believed he could tap into this unfolding trend. While working with Mr. Balsillie on other projects, around late 2010 and early 2011, he began to talk up the concept of offering BBM on other mobile platforms.Mr. Balsillie loved it. At the time, some carriers were pushing for rebates on their monthly service fees. Mr. Brown was willing to comply if the carriers would agree to open new parts of their business to RIM. He and Mr. Balsillie struck upon an idea: Why not give carriers the opportunity to offer BBM to all their customers – no matter what devices they used?Most wireless executives were not fans of instant messaging services and other “over-the-top” apps such as Skype because they eroded the carriers’ revenue from text messaging.To counter that threat, carriers banded together to develop a standardized “rich communication service” (RCS) platform that would enable their customers to exchange text messages, videos, games and other digital information. But the initiative has gained little traction; one commentator recently labelled RCS a “zombie technology.”SMS 2.0Mr. Balsillie began floating the idea that carriers could instead offer BBM as their own enhanced version of text messaging, generating revenue for carriers while providing a cut for RIM. He called it “SMS 2.0.” (SMS stands for “short message service.”) RIM would agree to reduce the fees it charged for services, in exchange for gaining access to hundreds of millions of non-BlackBerry users.He and Mr. Brown discussed several options. For example, carriers could offer BBM as part of a standard “talk and text” plan for entry-level smartphone users. Because of its extra functions, BBM would save customers from having to buy a data plan.Or, carriers could offer an expensive plan that included BBM and other offerings from BlackBerry, including one gigabyte of cloud storage on which they could keep photos or songs. The carriers could then sell extra services such as radio through BBM. It would also make the wireless companies’ customers “stickier” – less likely to defect – since they couldn’t move stored data to rival mobile carriers as easily.The SMS 2.0 plan was a throwback to RIM’s move a decade earlier to form partnerships with mobile providers and share revenues. It was a chance to make BBM the dominant chat messaging service, and would have created a new storyfor the BlackBerry brand.A few carriers responded positively to Mr. Balsillie’s initial entreaties and by mid-2011, he was calling SMS 2.0 the company’s top strategic priority.To round out the strategy, and build a suite of cross-platform services, RIM made a few acquisitions, such as instant messaging firm LiveProfile. The service had about 15 million users and worked on Apple and Android devices, giving BBM the entrée it needed to those platforms.But the plan deeply divided the company. BBM was still an important driver of BlackBerry sales. Making it widely available to competitors represented an added threat to RIM’s faltering handset business, led by Mr. Heins at the time. Many inside the company felt a cross-platform BBM made sense, but only when BlackBerry 10 was out. Mr. Balsillie and proponents of his plan felt that would be too late.“It’s fair to say [the risk to handset sales] was a shared concern of everybody I spoke to,” said former RIM executive Mr. Spence. “But it was hard to deny the fact [carriers’ text messaging] revenue was declining. These carriers were looking for a solution and this was a potential solution.”One former executive felt Mr. Balsillie was overestimating the revenue potential of his software-driven strategy. As Mr. Balsillie talked up SMS 2.0, Mr. Heins and his team increasingly cast doubt on it internally. “He was absolutely canvassing behind the scenes working to kill it,” said one company insider.As for Mr. Lazaridis, he was supportive of launching BBM for rival operating systems, but was concerned about the costs and risks involved in building out the SMS 2.0 strategy, said a source close to the board. “We weren’t in a position to be investing in free services that required massive capital expenditure [and could provide] zero payback for maybe a few years if we’re successful,” the source said. Like others, Mr. Lazaridis worried about handset sales.But Mr. Balsillie was increasingly convinced that SMS 2.0 was the way to go. After pitching the plan to CEOs of 12 of the largest wireless carriers in the world in late 2011, he believed he could sign up at least one major U.S. carrier – insiders say AT&T was interested – as well as Telefonica and one or two other European carriers. That’s all it would take, he felt, to convince others to adopt BBM en masse.But other RIM executives who were part of the growing SMS 2.0 team also encountered resistance.Mr. Balsillie was pushing to formally launch SMS 2.0 at an industry conference at the end of February, 2013. But with the company under mounting pressure to overhaul its top leadership, he and Mr. Lazaridis handed the reins to Mr. Heins in late January.A few weeks later, Mr. Heins killed the SMS 2.0 strategy, backed by Mr. Lazaridis.“We had to get the BlackBerry 10 out, and we couldn’t be distracted,” said a source close to the board. “Everything else was shelved. And if that meant getting rid of strategies that didn’t fit, or weren’t complete, or required resources, I think [Mr. Heins] did the right thing.”The Globe and Mail requested interviews with Mr. Heins and with Barbara Stymiest, the chair of the board. The company declined, but agreed to agreed to provide answers to written questions.Asked why he shelved SMS 2.0, Mr. Heins said in an e-mailed response: “There are so many [instant messaging] alternatives in the marketplace that we wanted to be careful to launch only when we felt we could clearly differentiate our offering.”Mr. Balsillie, no longer an executive but still a board member, urged directors to reconsider, but they backed the new CEO. Mr. Balsillie couldn’t abide by the decision. He resigned from the board in late March, then sold all his stock. Few people knew the reason for his departure, including his long-time co-CEO, Mr. Lazaridis.BlackBerry did launch a version of its BBM application last weekend for iPhones and Android devices, but simply as a stand-alone app. Andrew Bocking, the executive who oversees BBM, said that with built-in capabilities to have group chats, share photos, calendar items and other features, “it really takes BBM to a whole other level … I believe there is an opportunity for a dominant player in instant messaging and there will be one winner-take-all.”To those who championed the SMS 2.0 strategy, most of them now gone, RIM should have been well on its way there already.A fizzled launchFinally, close to six years after Apple unveiled the iPhone, the long-awaited BlackBerry 10 made its debut at a glitzy launch event in January, featuring singer Alicia Keys as the company’s “global creative director.” It was a minor detail in a much larger story, but the made-up title and meaningless job irked some who wondered why the company was distracting itself with celebrity endorsements while in the fight of its life.The Z10 device itself won a number of positive reviews. The New York Times’ David Pogue, who previously had predicted that the BlackBerry was doomed, began his review: “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” But eight months later, it’s hard to see the launch as anything other than a total business failure, given the sheer volume of unsold smartphones now written off.The marketing campaign was confusing and vague: An ad that ran during the Super Bowl failed to explain what made the product distinct. A source close to the board said directors weren’t shown the ad before it ran, and some didn’t understand the content or the slogan, “Keep Moving.” There were no lineups, and no buzz for the product – nothing like the frenzy of publicity that seems to surround the launch of each new version of the iPhone.Once again, the market had shifted, and there was little demand for the Z10 in an era where sophisticated operating systems were commonplace and phones were getting cheaper. The one advantage the BlackBerry may have had over its rivals – a physical keyboard – wasn’t present in the first model to hit the market.“The only people still clamouring for a new smartphone from BlackBerry were in it for the keyboard,” said S&P’s Mr. Moorman. “Then they come out with a touchscreen. Anyone who wanted a touchscreen was already gone.”As it turns out, both Mr. Balsillie and Mr. Lazaridis were proven right. It was hard enough to compete in a commoditizing smartphone market. Leading with the wrong product on top of that only made BlackBerry’s task more hopeless. Mr. Heins’s strategic errors only compounded the challenging situation he had inherited.The product was difficult to sell for other reasons. One company insider said it could take close to an hour for young sales staff to demonstrate the product in dealer stores.And many long-time BlackBerry users found that the new system was too different from the classic BlackBerry experience for their liking. Many of the little “moments of delight,” as they are called in the company, were forgotten or overlooked by the QNX developers who lacked ties to the company’s past. For example, users can’t hit “u” and look at the last unread message in their inbox, nor can they easily shift to the next or previous e-mail, as they could on older BlackBerrys. Pocket-dialling is a constant hazard.Meanwhile, the company was slow to provide service to business users – such as helping them to transfer applications they had written for the old BlackBerry system. Software developers were left with dead-end investments after learning they would have to rewrite their apps for the new system if they wanted to remain part of the BlackBerry world. Many simply didn’t bother.“The decisions we made over the last two years were made within the context of a volatile, competitive and ever-changing marketplace – and always with the goal of delivering the vital technology that our customers need,” Mr. Heins said in a written response to questions about the success of the BlackBerry 10 launch. While he called the launch “a signNow accomplishment and one that involved the reinvention of our company,” he acknowledged it “did not meet our expectations.”As for Mr. Lazaridis, he has not given up on the enterprise he founded 29 years ago.He is still a minority shareholder in BlackBerry, and continues to be the subject of rumours he may join a group to buy out his former company.Mr. Lazaridis declined to discuss any such plans, but it is clear he believes the BlackBerry story is not over.“Many companies go through cycles. Intel experienced it, IBM experienced it, Apple experienced it. Our job was to reinvent ourselves, which we all believed BB10 would do,” he said.“The fact that a Canadian company was able to compete in that space with two of the largest tech companies in the world is a big deal. People counted IBM, Apple and other companies out only to be proven wrong. I am rooting that they are wrong on BlackBerry as well.”
-
What types of websites are most likely to contain viruses or malware?
What types of websites are most likely to contain viruses or malware? Websites that sell ads from real-time ad broker networks. By far, by far, the most common way for viruses and malware to be spread from Web sites is through poisoned ads.What is the most dangerous website?So be careful when you visit these sites, since your computer may not come out in good health, after your visit.#1 Ucoz. com. Description: Site hosting. Global rank in malware hosting: 14.#2 sapo .pt.#3 Amazonaws .com.#4 Blogspot .de.#5 4shared .com.#6 sendspace .com.#7 comcast .net.Can certain websites cause viruses?Yes, it's entirely possible to get infected by simply visiting a website. Most commonly via what we call "Exploit Kits". Right now, EK are used to deliver a lot of dangerous malware (such as banking trojans and Cryptoware) to computers worldwide. So using a standard Antivirus and Antimalware won't cut it.Can you get a phone virus from a website?How phones get viruses. The most common way for a smartphone to get a virus is by downloading a third-party app. However, this isn't the only way. You can also get them by downloading Office documents, PDFs, by opening infected links in emails, or by visiting a malicious website.Threat 1 >> Malicious Flash files that can infect your PCThe Place: Websites that use FlashsignNow's Flash graphics software has become a big malware target in recent years, forcing the company to push out frequent security patches. But another danger you might not know about is associated with Flash cookies. Flash cookies are small bits of data that their creators can use to save Flash-related settings, among other things. But like regular cookies, Flash cookies can track the sites you visit, too. Worse still, when you delete your browser's cookies, Flash cookies get left behind.If You Have to Go There: To help protect against Flash-based attacks, make sure you keep your Flash browser plug-ins up-to-date. And you can configure the Flash plug-in to ask you before it downloads any Flash cookies.Threat 2 >> Shortened links that lead you to potentially harmful placesThe Place: TwitterScammers love Twitter since it relies so much on URL shorteners, services that take long Internet addresses and replace them with something briefer.And it's very simple to hide malware or scams behind shortened URLs. A shortened link that supposedly points to the latest Internet trend-du-jour may be a Trojan horse in disguise.If You Have to Go There: Simply don't click links. Of course, that takes some of the fun out of Twitter. The other option is to use a Twitter client app. TweetDeck and Tweetie for Mac have preview features that let you see the full URL before you go to the site in question.Some link-shortening services, such as Bit.ly, attempt to filter out malicious links, but it seems to be a manual process, not an automatic one. TinyURL has a preview service you can turn on.Threat 3 >> E-mail scams or attachments that get you to install malware or give up personal infoThe Place: Your e-mail inboxAlthough phishing and infected e-mail attachments are nothing new, the lures that cybercrooks use are constantly evolving, and in some cases they're becoming more difficult to distinguish from legitimate messages. My junk mailbox has a phishing e-mail that looks like a legitimate order confirmation from Amazon. The only hint that something's amiss is the sender's e-mail address.If You Have to Go There: Don't trust anything in your inbox. Instead of clicking on links in a retailer's e-mail, go directly to the retailer's site.Threat 4 >> Malware hiding in video, music, or software downloadsThe Place: Torrent sitesTorrent sites (such as BitTorrent) are often used for sharing pirated music, videos, or software, and are a trove of malware. No one vets the download files--they may be malware in disguise.Ben Edelman, privacy researcher and assistant professor at Harvard Business School, thinks torrent sites are the most dangerous places to visit, since they don't have a business model or reputation to defend (by comparison, many porn sites rely on being deemed trustworthy). "The [torrent] customers, they really don't want to pay," he says.If You Have to Go There: It's probably best to avoid torrent sites entirely, given their untrustworthy content, but if you must visit, use a secondary PC to protect your main system. Use antivirus software, and keep it updated. Scan downloaded files and wait a couple of days before opening them. Brand-new malware can be tricky to catch, but the delay in opening may allow your antivirus software to get the necessary signatures.Threat 5 >> Malware in photos or videos of scantily clad womenThe Place: ‘Legitimate' porn sitesPorn sites have a reputation of being less secure than mainstream sites, but that assumption doesn't tell the whole story. "There is no doubt that visiting Websites of ill-repute is deadly dangerous. If you make a habit of it, it's a given that you'll be attacked at some point," says Roger Thompson, chief research officer with security firm AVG. "Unfortunately, staying away from those sites won't keep you safe by itself, because innocent sites get hacked all the time, and are used as lures to draw victims to the attack servers."And as mentioned earlier, many porn sites operate as actual, legitimate businesses that want to attract and retain customers. That said, it may be hard to tell the "legit" porn sites from malware-hosting sites that use porn as a lure.If You Have to Go There: Be suspicious of video downloads, or sites that require you to install video codecs to view videos (see the next threat, below). Using tools like AVG's LinkScanner and McAfee's SiteAdvisor (or SiteAdvisor for Firefox) can help you weed out the malicious sites.And, again, consider visiting such sites on a secondary machine. You don't want your browser history on the family PC.Threat 6 >> Trojan horses disguised as video codecs, infecting your PC with malwareThe Place: Video download sites, peer-to-peer networksIf you watch or download video online, you've likely been told to download a video codec--a small piece of software that provides support for a type of video file--at least once. Usually, these bits of software are perfectly legitimate (for example, the popular DivX codec), but some less-than-reputable download services or video sites may direct you to download a piece of malware disguised as a codec. Security software company Trend Micro provides a good example of what these attacks look like.If You Have to Go There: Your safest option is to stick with well-known video sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. And for catching up on the latest episodes of your favorite TV shows, sites and services like Hulu, http://TV.com, ABC Home Page - ABC.com, and iTunes are safer than peer-to-peer networks.Threat 7 >> Geolocation--your smartphone and perhaps other parties know where you areThe Place: Your smartphoneThe smartphone market is still in its infancy, really, and so are the threats. One possible concern is the use--or abuse--of geolocation. Although plenty of legitimate uses for location data exist, the potential for inappropriate uses also exists. In one case, a game listed on the Android Market was in reality a client for a spy app. In a less invidious example, a site called Please Rob Me showed that--for a time--a stream of FourSquare check-ins indicated that a person was away from their home (the site's goal, mind you, wasn't to condone theft, but to raise awareness of the issue).Apple recently updated its privacy policy to reflect changes in how it handles location data in iOS 4. The policy now states that "to provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use and share precise location data." You can read more on Apple's new privacy terms and what they mean for you.If You Have to Go There: Be particular about the location-based sites, apps, and services that you use. As shown in the screenshot at right services such as Yelp provide good examples of useful location-aware apps. On the other hand, weigh the privacy implications of services like FourSquare or the new Facebook Places feature, and consider how much you feel comfortable divulging. (Read more on how to retain privacy on FourSquare and Facebook Places.)Threat 8 >> 'Poisoned' search engine results that go to malware-carrying WebsitesThe Place: Search enginesSearch engine poisoning is the practice of building tainted sites or pages that are designed to rank high in a search on a given topic. For example, according to a recent study by the security firm McAfee, 19 percent of search results for "Cameron Diaz and screensavers" had some sort of malicious payload. Breaking news topics and Facebook are also common search targets for attackers.If You Have to Go There: Pick and choose which sites to go to. Don't just blindly click search results; check each URL first to make sure that it really leads to the site you want.Threat 9 >> Malicious PDFs that try to fool you into installing malwareThe Place: Hacked Websites, plus your inboxAs Microsoft has become more serious about Windows security over the past few years, would-be attackers have had to find new ways to infect PCs. Attacking flaws in signNow is one of these newer methods. So-called poisoned PDFs are PDF files that have been crafted in such a manner that they trigger bugs in signNow and signNow; posted on a hijacked Website, they may let an attacker commandeer your PC and access your files and personal info.A newer variant takes an otherwise innocent-looking PDF document and inserts malware into it. signNow may pop up an alert asking if you want to run the malware, but hackers can edit those messages to trick you into opening the file.How serious is this problem? In 2009, attacks using malicious PDFs made up 49 percent of Web-based attacks, according to security firm Symantec.If You Have to Go There: First, always make sure that you're running the latest version of signNow.Threat 10 >> Malicious video files using flaws in player software to hijack PCsThe Place: Video download sitesAttackers have been known to exploit flaws in video players such as QuickTime Player and use them to attack PCs. The threats are often "malformed" video files that, like malicious PDFs, trigger bugs in the player software that let the attackers in to spy on you, plant other malware, and more.If You Have to Go There: Keep your player software up-to-date. Apple and Microsoft periodically release patches for QuickTime and Windows Media Player, respectively. Avoid downloading videos at random. Stick to well-known video sites such as YouTube, or to download services like iTunes.Threat 11 >> Drive-by downloads that install malware when you visit a siteThe Place: Hacked legitimate sitesA drive-by download occurs when a file downloads and/or installs to your PC without you realizing it. Such downloads can happen just about anywhere. Some sites are built to lure people into a drive-by download; but in a common attack method, criminals will hack a Web page, often on an otherwise legitimate site, and insert code that will download malware to your computer.If You Have to Go There: The first thing to do is to keep your security software up-to-date, and to run regular malware scans. Many security suites can flag suspicious downloads.Threat 12 >> Fake antivirus software that extorts money--and your credit card informationThe Place: Your inbox, hacked legitimate sitesFake antivirus programs look and act like the real thing, complete with alert messages. It isn't until you realize that these alerts are often riddled with typos that you know you're in trouble.Most fake antivirus software is best described as extortionware: The trial version will nag you until you purchase the fake antivirus software-which usually does nothing to protect your PC. Once you send the criminals your credit card information, they can reuse it for other purposes, such as buying a high-priced item under your name.Threat 13 >> Fraudulent ads on sites that lead you to scams or malwareThe Place: Just about any ad-supported WebsiteHey--ads aren't all bad! They help sites pay the bills. But cybercriminals have taken out ads on popular sites to lure in victims. Last year, the New York Times site ran an ad from scammers, and earlier this year some less-than-scrupulous companies were gaming Google's Sponsored Links ad program and placing ads that looked like links to major companies' Websites."The bad guys have become very clever at exploiting online advertising networks, tricking them into distributing ads that effectively load malicious content--especially nasty, scaremongering pop-ups for rogue antispyware," says Eric Howes, director of research services for security firm GFI Software.If You Have to Go There: Most large sites, such as PCWorld - News, tips and reviews from the experts on PCs, Windows, and more, have ad sales departments that work frequently with a core group of large advertisers, so it's probably safe to click a Microsoft ad on the New York Times site. But as the Google Sponsored Links incident shows, nothing is entirely fail-safe.Threat 14 >> Questionable Facebook appsThe Place: FacebookFacebook apps have long been an issue for security experts. You don't always know who's developing the apps, what they're doing with the data they may be collecting, or the developers' data security practices. Even though you have to approve apps before they can appear on your profile and access your personal information, from there the security of your data is in the developer's hands.If You Have to Go There: Be selective about the apps you add to your profile--don't take every quiz, for example. Check your privacy settings for Facebook apps, as well: Click the Account drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of Facebook's site, select Privacy Settings, and then click Edit your settings under ‘Applications and Websites'. There, you can control which apps have access to your data, and which of your friends can see what information from apps (such as quiz results); you can also turn off Facebook apps altogether.Threat 15 >> Sites that lure you in, get you to sign up, then sell your e-mail address for spamThe Place: 'Free electronics' sitesYou've no doubt seen sites around the Web blaring, Get a free iPad! Get a free notebook! A free iPod! It's easy! These sites aren't typically dangerous in the classical sense--you probably won't get infected with malware--but your personal information could be sold to other businesses, who can then use it to sell more stuff to you.If You Have to Go There: Read the privacy policies. And then read them again. Also, beware of privacy policy loopholes--even though a site says that it won't sell your private data to third parties, depending on the language of the policy, they may still be able to give your information to "affiliates."Threat 16 >> Phishing 2.0 on social networks that tricks you into downloading malware or giving your Facebook login information to a criminalThe Place: Social networksQuestionable Facebook apps and malicious shortened links aren't the only dangers lurking on social networks. Sites like Facebook have given rise to new forms of phishing. Scammers might hijack one person's Facebook account, then use it to lure that person's friend into clicking a malicious link, going to spam sites, or giving up their Facebook login information--thereby giving scammers one more Facebook account to hijack."One of the bigger dangers currently facing users is malware, adware, and spyware spread through social networks like Facebook and Twitter," says Eric Howes, director of malware research with Sunbelt Software. "Users may receive spam via these networks offering them free deals, links to interesting videos, or even widgets to enhance their Facebook profiles. In many cases what's really being pushed on users is adware, spyware, or even malicious software that can exploit users' PCs."If You Have to Go There: Don't trust every link posted to Facebook, even if one of your friends posted it. Be especially suspicious if the post is out of the ordinary for that person. Check the person's wall or Twitter @-replies to see if anyone is concerned that the person's account has been compromised.And if you suspect that your account has been hijacked, change your password immediately. Both Facebook and Twitter have resources to help you keep up-to-date on the latest threats on both sites. Facebook users should visit its security page; if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @spam and @safety for Twitter security best practices.Threat 17 >> Oversharing--exposing too much personal information on your social network profilesThe Place: Social networksHow many times have you seen friends on Facebook or Twitter publicly divulge a bit more information than is necessary? Oversharing isn't just a matter of getting a little too personal--it can leave your private information viewable to the general public. But it's avoidable."There is a subtle danger that few people understand with the social networking sites, and that is the idea of information leakage," says AVG's Roger Thompson. "People, particularly teens, put all sorts of information online, without realizing that many more people than just their friends can see that data."Oversharing could very well lead to more serious privacy issues further down the road, Thompson adds. "As today's young teens signNow an age to apply for a credit card, I fully expect an onslaught of fraudulent card applications on their behalf, because they unwittingly divulged so much information. Harvesting is going on now, and we have no idea who is doing the harvesting."If You Have to Go There: This particular threat is relatively easy to avoid, in that a little common sense can go a long way: Just be mindful of what you post. Do you really need to publish your home address and phone number to your Facebook profile?Finally, be certain to check your privacy settings to make sure that you're not divulging your deepest, darkest secrets to all 500 million Facebook users.
Trusted esignature solution— what our customers are saying
Get legally-binding signatures now!
Related searches to Draw Electronic signature Form Android
Frequently asked questions
How do i add an electronic signature to a word document?
How to create electronic signature image?
How to sign pdf with png signature?
Get more for Draw Electronic signature Form Android
- How Can I Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- How Can I Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- How Do I Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- Can I Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- Help Me With Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- Can I Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- How To Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
- How Do I Electronic signature Tennessee Police Presentation
Find out other Draw Electronic signature Form Android
- Primerica presentation pdf form
- Ccsd release form
- Ccsd use form
- Clark county parks and recreation leaders of the future form
- Hepatitis b vaccination consentwaiver form category i
- 772 elementaryunsatindd my ccsd clark county school district form
- United methodist church audit form
- Buist family directory information and release form
- Winloss statement ho chunk gaming form
- Member authorization this form is to be filled out by a member
- Ho chunk win loss form
- Gt independence phw form
- Principal contract form
- Iris participant hired worker paperwork checklist gt form
- Notarized bill of sale sweetwater county wy sweet wy form
- Standard form medical examination
- Unemployment benefits for railroad employees blet division 333 bletdivision333 form
- Unemployment railroad form
- Ba6 form
- B650 form