WHO links Mobile Use and Cancer

A new study from the World Health Organisation's cancer research agency has reignited the concerns surrounding the possible link between mobile phone use and brain cancer.  

The agency research has said mobile phones are "possibly carcinogenic" a review of the research suggests an increased risk of a malignant type of brain cancer cannot be ruled out.  However, they have concluded that it was "not clearly established that it does cause cancer in humans".

Ed Yong, head of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: "The WHO's verdict means that there is some evidence linking mobile phones to cancer but it is too weak to draw strong conclusions from. 

The majority of previous studies have concluded that there is no link between cancer and mobile phone use, and that remains the view of the majority.  It is clear, that given the potential consequences of the most recent announcement, further research is needed to clarify the risk.   If you are concerned, the suggestion is to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands free devices or texting.

Quote for the Week!

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

Michael Jordan 

PayPal to Sue Google over NFC

Google is facing a law suit courtesy of PayPal who claim that the internet search giant stole the technology for turning smartphones into digital wallets.

The argument resolves around a former employee, Osama Beider who PayPal alleges he obtained trade secrets before becoming Google’s vice president of payments in January 2011.

Google have yet to see a copy of the complaint and have therefore declined to comment until a later date.  The technology called Near Field Communications is widely used in Japan, it has recently gone live in the UK, and is set for launch in the US in this summer.

MobileWallet or not, as a user of the Android Operating Systems you should have boughtinto some form of security.  Anti-Spam,Anti- Virus and Anti-theft are all available for less than £20.

Did You Know?

Around 80% of European smartphone users have been hit by spam?

• Adodo’s Anti-Spam recommended software gives you complete control over which messages are accepted or blocked by providing an easy to use application that will help minimise the spam received.
• By using the efficient user interface, you can easily select the best mode to suit your lifestyle.
• A simple Blacklist can be used to stop annoying messages from problem senders, or use the Whitelist to ensure only messages from approved senders are received, including contacts in your address book.
• Alternatively, you can use both lists together to help easily manage the problem senders and important contacts by simply adding each senders address to the appropriate list as new messages arrive.

Use the AntiSpam software, together with the AntiTheft and AntiVirus software to provide a powerful defence against threats to smartphones, ensuring protection and peace of mind. 

Find out more, call us 0115 9701471

Take the BT Savings Challenge

 

Whether you're currently with another supplier or an existing BT customer, taking the BT Savings Challenge with Adodo, will allow you to see the potential savings and benefits.

The report we provide you with, will simply highlight where you could make savings, or confirm that you are doing everything right.    

Compare your telecoms now with the BT Savings Challenge.

Calling all residents of Newquay, Everything Everywhere need you!

BT has started the search for volunteers in Cornwall, specifically the South Newquay area, to trial new high-speed 4G broadband.  

The project will take place from September to December and will be the first chance for UK customers to test 4G technology, which is set to roll out nationally by 2014.

The trial will act as an experiment to see if 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) could provide a cheap solution to getting high-speed internet to places currently regarded as black spots with slow or no broadband connection.  The alternative is a costly one, with the prospect of digging up roads to provide further cabling not at the top of anybodies wish list.  

AVG Survey Suggests that we are too Lazy about Smartphone Security

The results of a US based survey have highlighted that most mobile phone users are dangerously lazy when it comes to security. 

The majority of mobile users have no real qualms about making purchases via mobile, and tend to use the same phone in both a personal and business context.  Each of these scenarios is considered amongst the most common vulnerabilities in web security.  Despite this, few of us use phone-locking passwords and duplicate the same passwords for mobile apps that we use on our desktops.

Security firm AVG and research and consulting firm The Ponemon Institute are responsible for the survey;

Approximately, 84% of consumers use the same smartphone for both professional and personal tasks.  This doubles the risk of confidential information being shared should your phone ever be lost or stolen.

Particularly if you are among the 66% of respondents that keep personal and personally identifiable data such as an email addresses, or personal dates on your phone.  Or worse still, if you are amongst the 23% of respondents who said they stored passwords on their phones.

Worryingly, 67% of consumers surveyed said they were concerned about receiving marketing ads and promotions, but just 44% said they were worried about the possibility of a mobile virus attack.

Consider the details your store on your smartphone, especially if you use it for online banking or to make purchases, should you be so relaxed?  Mobile fraud is on the rise, make sure that you are protected.

For less than £20 you can protect your smartphone with an Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Anti-Theft all-in-one solution.  More information here.

Quote for the Week!

"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally."

David Frost 

The Mobile Wallet Has Arrived

Quick Tap – the system that allows people to purchase items using their mobile phone has been launched in the UK, and its gathering popularity in Europe.  

To use the service, you will need Orange and Barclaycard accounts as well as a handset that is set up for contactless payments.  The service is made possible by Near Field Communication (NFC), the short-range wireless technology that underpins many wireless payment systems.

The NFC enabled Samsung Tocco Lite handset goes on sale Friday 20^th May 2011. 

Among shops signed up to the system are McDonalds, EAT, Pret-a-Manger and some Boots stores, Subway, Little Chef, Wilkinson and the National Trust. 

What Our Customers Say

“The focus of Adodo is a business with a social conscience that provides an excellent service with thought and consideration. Adodo is a company built upon exceptionally high standards and supports people into-work, leading by example to deliver services with quality”

Steven Wakeling, IBA

Did You Know?

A smartphone can be infected by viruses in the same way as a PC?

• Adodo can provide full protection against viruses, trojans, spyware, or other malware.  With our chosen software we can provide continuous protection without interfering with normal use. 
• The software will instantly detect any new malware as soon as it appears on the handset and makes sure it cannot do any damage. 
• The software provides a simple way to manually scan the smartphone and reminds you to scan newly inserted memory cards giving confidence in the safety of the data on your smartphone.

We are proud to offer a state of the art anti virus solution which is fast, effective, thorough and battery friendly.

Find out more, call us 0115 9701471

Vodafone’s Profits are up 10%

The rise in popularity of smartphones is the driving force behind the sharp rise in Vodafone’s full-year profits the company has said.  

Pre-tax profits for the 12 months to the end of March were £9.5bn, up almost 10% on last year’s figures.

Chief executive of the company, Vittorio Colao, said "Customers have adopted data services in increasing numbers, as smartphones proliferate and the tablet market begins to take off".

The group has been slimming down its portfolio, and recently sold stakes in Chinese and Japanese mobile operators, not to mention last months sale of French mobile operator SFR which raised 7.95bn euros.  All proving very sensible moves in a difficult climate.  Vodafone believes that they are entering the new financial year in a very “strong position.” 

Is Google's Android Leading the March?

Google's Android operating system is growing up at speed, and one indication of this is that it's becoming the leading mobile platform for innovation. There are a host of companies using Android to try out all sorts of new ideas.

One of which is a new phone from Motorola, called the Atrix.  It’s a good looking touchscreen handset that boasts the same features as the majority of top-end Android handsets such as, dual-core processor, front and rear-facing cameras, and loads of social media integration.

What sets it apart according to Motorola is a range of accessories that they believe transforms the phone into the only computer you will ever need when you are on the road. 

The Atrix laptop dock looks much like an ordinary laptop computer - except it turns out to be just a dumb screen and keyboard with the ‘brain’ being the phone, that slots in at the back. It’s not cheap and weight may prove an issue, but this could be the ideal travel partner for the high-flying executive.

Another piece of Android innovation is from HTC, the company which has probably done more than any to make Google's mobile operating system a success.  Their new tablet, the HTC Flyer, doesn’t set the mind ablaze with excitement on first glance, but it does offer a new level of interaction in the form of a pen.  

With this tablet, the pen may work where others have failed because when you launch the tablets rather nifty notes app, you can call up a touchscreen keyboard or you can tap on the icon at the corner of the screen, choose a brush or pen, and start painting or writing.  This is of use, for the simplest reason that typing on a 7” inch screen is hard to type on, and may become redundant on a bigger screen. 

The Android’s growing popularity and race for innovation, should kick start a response from Apple, who only upgrade products once a year and they should be worried.  

That said: There are still security worries with regards the Android operating systems, and if you haven’t already, we suggest you explore your smartphone security options for less than £20.  Click here for more information!

Quote for the Week!

"Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture."

Lydia M. Child 

Microsoft To Buy Skype

The giant wheels are in motion for Skype to become Microsoft’s largest ever acquisition at $8.5bn (£5.2bn).  

Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users but doesn’t make a whole lot of money, so what is in it for Microsoft?

Well Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer summed it up: "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world.”

So in truth, they are buying into potential, and it is huge potential if you consider what could be achieved if the Skype software is married up with the Xbox Kinect and an HD television set. 

For home use, we could potentially be talking home schooling or even patient care delivered remotely and in vision.  For business, Microsoft could potentially challenge the dominance of firms like Cisco and Polycom.

One major stumbling block has to be overcome first though; how do you marry an open voice/video-over-the-internet service with a company notorious for bureaucracy?

If you want to find out more about video, voice or audio conferencing Ask Adodo 0115 970 1471 | solutions@adodo.co.uk | facebook.com/AskAdodo | www.adodo.co.uk

Need to Charge Your Phone? Just Shout at it!

As big believers in the importance of new technology, the latest breakthrough in charging mobile phones has certainly divided office opinion.   

It seems, scientists have devised a gadget that enables sound energy to be converted into electricity, meaning that your mobile phone could be charged as you speak.  The greater the volume of speech, the greater the charge, which could result in people inexplicably shouting into their mobile phones to regain power.

So if you are already irritated on the bus when someone is using their smartphone to play music to the masses, or you’re baffled by those that walk around, seemingly talking to themselves with a head piece hidden behind their ear…be warned…its about to get worse!

Is this set to be the most irritating inventions in history?

Talk Talk Offer Security from the Server

Internet giants, Talk Talk, are about to offer their customers the option of filtering malicious or offensive material out of their broadband service from centralized server level.  They claim to be the first major ISP to offer such a service.

TalkTalk's Home Safe runs on the company's central computer system and sits between the web and individual home connections.  The anti-virus system works by scanning a site that someone wants to visit to see if it harbors malicious programs. Those found to be clean will be put on a "white list" for 24 hours.

Parents worried about their children seeing adult material will be able to log on to a web page and define their own content filters, so that sites containing pornography or online gambling, for example, can be blocked completely.

However, the ingenious selling point, will be the option to put timed locks on certain websites, such as Facebook or game portals, to stop children viewing them when they should be doing school homework.

Rik Ferguson, senior security researcher at Trend Micro is not entirely impressed; one of his most significant concerns is the danger posed by larger sites frequently hit by threats.  He suggested that the 24-hour "all clear" white list might not work for sites such as Facebook due to the frequency and speed that rogue apps are developed.  

Quote for the Week!

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other."  

Abraham Lincoln

 

Are Apple Tracking You?

Security researchers have claimed that they have found a hidden file on Apple devices that secretly records their owners' movements.  According to the report filed, data has been stored for years in some instances.  

In a website posting, the company responded to these claims, saying that they had never tracked user location and had no plans to do so in future.  In an online question and answer document, Apple went on to say:

"The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested."

Apple has now released a software update that cuts the amount of stored data to just a week, claiming that the issue of long term storage was just a bug.  The update is available through the iTunes store.  To prevent the collection of any data completely, users must disable the location services setting on their iPhone or iPad.

Another reason to read the small print!  Permission for the tracking is given by users, it’s tucked away nicely in the terms and conditions for the iTunes store.

SmartPhone Made of Paper, to be Revealed

Canadian researchers have announced that on the 10^th May they will reveal the prototype of flexible smartphone made from electronic paper.

The device emerged from the collaboration between researchers at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University, Canada and Arizona State University's Motivational Environments Research group.  It boasts all the same features as a normal smartphone, and triggers different features when it is bent, folded and flexed.

Creator, Dr Roel Vertegaal believes that "Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years".  

The prototype, that is only a millimeter thick, is built from the same e-ink technology found in Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.  They have bonded this to flex sensors and a touch screen that interprets drawings and text written on it. The prototype will go on display at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Vancouver alongside a device they call the Snaplet.

The Snaplet is designed by the same team, and operates as a wrist strap that can be manipulated in a similar way to the phone.  It is a watch when convex, a PDA when flat and a phone when concave.

Please note, Adodo is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites

Do You Have More Than One Site?

Adodo provide tailored solutions to all of our clients, this is vitally important when it comes to clients who have multiple sites. 

In all cases we consider the communication systems that are already in place, and what vision the business has for the future.  We then provide cost effective recommendations on the latest technology available to mobilize our clients in delivering excellent service and response to their customers.

Linking systems across sites;

• Consolidates the call analysis for all sites into one manageable system.

• Allows FREE calls between sites. No longer pay thousands a year on calling mobiles or landlines for people in different sites.

• Improves business efficiency as well as communication to customers. This is because calls can be directed to the relevant person across the entire organisation, through the use of a single internal telephone directory.

• Organises your communications and streamlines the way calls are handled. You can have the main business telephone number ring extensions across multiple sites and you can transfer customers directly to an internal extension at the other site - for FREE.

As the Italian’s say “Caio”

Disaster recovery preparation is also a major benefit of multi-sited solutions.   

Why?  Because in a multi-site network with Call Servers distributed across the company's IP WAN, all Call Servers are constantly receiving updates from each other. This provides real resilience against local outages and network downtime. 

Full remote survivability means that even if an IP link between sites fails it will still be business as usual as calls can still be made and received over the local ISDN network, with full system functionality - not just a sub-set of features - available to each employee. Once the IP WAN link is restored, only database changes are forwarded between Call Servers, minimising the traffic between sites.

Disaster Recovery - Be Prepared

Disasters in Business can range from staff not being able to make it into the office due to natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, like the snow, to IT failure, or terrorist attacks.  Knowing the types of disasters that could affect your company will minimize your exposure, as will, having realistic objectives that are based on the needs of the business.

Disaster recovery plans should be clear, precise and comprehensive, concentrating particularly on the recovery and safeguarding of Voice and Data systems, should disaster strike.  A key element to good business continuity is having a disaster recovery plan in place that is tested and ready to implement when needed.

Every organisation, large or small, should have a Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery plan, and Adodo are here to help you do just that.  The SpliceCom maximiser's modularity and distributable architecture make it the ideal business telephone system for contingency plans. Not only is it simple to add maximiser modules to expand your business telephone system, it's just as easy to add extra resilience and system redundancy exactly where it's needed for business critical applications - in a very cost-effective manner. 

5 Tips For Disaster Recovery Planning:

1. Protection Planning and Day to Day Business need to be linked
Voice and Data services are intrinsic to the way modern society does business, what repercussions would you face if your phones stopped working and customers could not reach you?  Whilst people realize the best practice of creating a Disaster Recovery plan, they also see it as a compromise and face issues relating to cost. However, preparing for it should not be a burden and should be integrated with day-to-day priorities.

2. Put a Plan in Place
The plan needs to represent all functional areas within IT prior to, during, and after a disaster. It needs to include applications, networks, servers and storage. Contingencies, such as “what-if” scenarios should be considered as part of the planning process. It should be kept current as a part of day-to-day priorities.  It also needs to be tested regularly to ensure the business can recover the operation successfully and in a timely fashion.

3. Define Disaster Recovery responsibilities 
Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly defined across the spectrum of potential business disasters.  For example, a plan needs to consider redundancy of roles when ensuring that people are available to cover various responsibilities in the process.  It is also important to set sensible Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).

4. Address Disaster Recovery risk
The definition of what constitutes a disaster also has to be considered because the plan needs to address the right risks.  It is essentially an insurance policy.  However, what happens when the backups don’t work? Application recoverability must be validated through the recovery of backups to the application level.  It is also important to have alternative recovery services; perhaps Data needs to be protected offsite so that if disaster strikes it can be recovered to the affected site.

5. Consider Costs 
Voice and Data protection and recovery requirements may seem expensive, but what is the real cost of downtime? Being able to address the I.T. cost for Disaster Recovery is an issue of integrating Disaster Recovery into standard operations as much as possible. 

There's too much at stake for you not to have emergency management and continuity plans in place. How can we help you?

SIP - Now A Reality

In October last year, it was predicted that 60% of all telephone lines would be replaced by SIP in 2011.  

Modelled on the internet, its openness allows enterprises and carriers to interoperate over IP connections. It is increasingly being regarded as a well designed and mature foundation for VoIP.

SIP trunking technologies are certainly becoming more popular to SME’s as a way to lower costs. Typically, a single ISDN30 line installation could cost in the region of £6,000 and savings could be as great as 40% when replacing a normal BT landline service.

However, there are other benefits too, such as increased flexibility, especially as scaling the number of users is easy to do. There have been problems in the past with the robustness of connectivity for voice packet applications but the technology has vastly improved and it is now considered a viable alternative to ISDN. 

When asked whether SIP trunks are ready to replace ISDN? BT’s Head of Sales Engineering, John Bedwell said; “Yes, though I believe it is a good idea to understand what journey the user is on”

We agree, which is why we encourage users to adopt an auto failover as a resilience mechanism for any potential failures. 

Quote for the Week!

"Action is the foundational key to all success."  Pablo Picasso