Glo Networks Technical Blog (Glo Blog)

Recent research by hardware manufacturer Intel (and supported by the Confederation of British Industry) has highlighted the lack of investment and expertise in IT in small businesses in the UK. Their study of 3000 IT decision makers for businesses of 250 users or less shows:

• the majority still use fax machines more than smart phones
• a large percentage expose themselves to security risks by using personal laptops and mobile devices for work and are unaware of the data protection rules they’re potentially breaking by doing so
• most did not know what ‘the cloud’ is, even those that were using it already (e.g via Gmail)

There were several other worrying facts relating to investment in IT equipment (a third do not intend to buy new laptops or tablets for at least a year) and security (two thirds spend under 10% of their IT budget on protecting against attacks).

It’s disappointing that in this digital age many small businesses still do not appreciate the efficiency improvements that can be attained by updating IT infrastructure or the importance of maintaining IT security. At Glo Networks we are proud that none of our customers fall into this group (and those that may have previously have had our help to make the required improvements). Don’t let your business your business be one of those stuck in the IT ‘dark age’!

Posted by James in Desktop Hardware, Desktops and Laptops, General, Hardware, Laptop Hardware, Mobile, Servers, Small Business Software | No Comments »

Tablet devices have become popular business tools in the last few years, they offer many of the benefits of laptops without some of the drawbacks. The iPad is currently the most popular tablet device and as such it’s prevalence in the business world cannot be underestimated.

One would assume that Apple, who are surely aware of the business application of their product, would ensure that its default settings are the most secure, with the option to lower the security for convinience sake if the owner should wish.

Alas this is not the case. In iOS5 at least (this is the only OS we’ve tested on) the setting which allows the new Smart Cover to unlock the iPad 2, which is enabled by default, can be exploited to enable access to the last app left open without entering the password!

The exploit is incredibly simple too:

• Lock the iPad 2 (make sure it’s passcode protected);
• Hold down the power button for 2 seconds until the “turn off” slider appears;
• Close the Smart Cover;
• Open the Smart Cover;
• Press Cancel.

This will open the app that was open when the device was locked! You are unable to use the home button to access the home screen and switch to other apps but this is quite a big security issue none the less. If you were to lock the device with the Mail app open then someone using this exploit could access all your emails,send emails as you etc.

We’ve done a bit of testing, if you lock when on the home screen and then use the exploit you are presented with the home screen and are able to scroll between pages of apps, and use the search function, but are unable to open any apps.

Disabling the Smart Cover unlocking setting (under General Settings) will prevent this exploit, at the cost of a small amount of convenience (adds another step to unlocking the device after opening the Smart Cover). This is not a stand alone incident however; the iPhone 4S, by default, has a setting enabled which allows access to Siri without unlocking the device. This in turn allows access to many security sensitive apps (Mail, Calendar, even sending texts and making calls)!

Posted by James in Cool Stuff, General, Mobile | No Comments »

There was an obvious air of disappointment when the new iPhone version was announced. The gadget loving people of the world held their breath in anticipation of the iPhone 5 and instead were presented with the iPhone 4S.

Although the 4S may not be what was expected the device is not without its improvements compared to the iPhone 4. Much attention has been given to the dual-core A5 chip, and just a much to the 8 megapixel, f/2.4 aperture camera.

The real show stealer was Siri, which, while still in the Beta stage, has been all over the media. Fans have claimed the voice controlled personal assistant application is a ‘smart and saucy pal’, while some (notably the Android boss Andy Rubin) seem to feel we shouldn’t be talking to our phones, rather we should be using them to talk to people, and that the novelty may wear off.

Although there has been so much talk in the media regards the new iPhone version there is one feature which the 4S can be proud of that hasn’t had a great deal of attention: the inclusion of Bluetooth 4 capabilities. While other smartphones have had just as powerful processors, better resolution camera’s and voice control the iPhone 4S can claim to be the first smartphone to use the new Bluetooth version.

The Bluetooth 4 specification was completed back in June 2010 and includes the Classic (regular) Bluetooth, Bluetooth High Speed and the new Bluetooth Low Energy protocols. The low energy protocol can use as little 0.01w and run on a single coin cell (watch style) battery. This allows it to be integrated into much smaller, low power devices. Although it’s not in many products at the moment there has been lots of speculation on various devices that could benefit from this, including medical monitoring and home automation and control devices.

Perhaps the lack of fanfare is due to the current lack of compatible devices, but it seems quite likely that Bluetooth 4 will soon become the standard, with other smart phone manufacturers playing catch up with Apple in that department at least. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for new and interesting uses of the technology and will be sure to share the news when we spot it!

Posted by James in Cool Stuff, General, Mobile | 1 Comment »

Since the release of the iPhone 4 Glo Networks have been impressed by the functionality of the video calling app, called FaceTime. FaceTime allows video calling between two iPhone 4′s via the internet (requires both device to be connected to WiFi).

Utilising either of the devices cameras (the iPhone 4 has a  camera on the front and the back) you can either switch from an existing voice call to video with a tap of an onscreen button or you can initiate a video call from the contacts list. As you can use either camera it’s possible to choose between showing your own image via the front camera, or showing whatever you point the back camera at (and still see the person you’re chatting to).

Apple seem to have been marketing the video calling capabilities of the new iPhone for leisure use, with adverts showing things like a couple sharing their baby’s smile or friends helping each other decide what to wear, however, we, here at Glo, are beginning to see  potential in the app for business purposes (particuarly in our line of work!).

Here’s an example: Imagine a situation where a cable has become unplugged in a server room. The person who discovers this may not know where the cable should be plugged in, and as such phones their IT support provider. Now from experience we can tell you it’s not always simple to describe cables, or the sockets they should be plugged into over the phone. However if both of the people in the call were able to use FaceTime they could simply point the rear camera at the cable in question and the support engineer will instantly be able to see what they’re dealing with!

Although FaceTime is only available on the iPhone 4 at present, and only with a WiFi connection,  Apple has pledged to release it as an open standard, allowing other companies to develop around it. This means you could soon be seeing FaceTime appearing on other devices, and possibly (with support from phone service providers) over 3g!

Posted by James in Mobile | 2 Comments »

Windows Mobiles, and before it Pocket PCs, have been around for years. And I’ve been an advocate of them since 2001 when I started with my Compaq Aero. Obviously things have changed with Symbian, Android and iOS (iPhones) but I’ve always headed back to the Windows Mobile Devices in the end, that is until now ..

Having had an iPhone 3G  since it’s launch I’ve been a reluctant fan. I say reluctant fan as it’s GPS was very flaky (moving me to a motorway slip lane at it’s whim), screen resolution is ‘low’, none-upgradable storage and battery is plain daft, not having access to the Gbs of space on the device and lastly not being able to carry out any form of customisation all mounted to a less than perfect experience.So I tried out the Motorola Droid (Milestone) with Android and the HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.

Even though the Motorola had a physical slide out keyboard I couldn’t use it. My manly thumbs just couldn’t press the one key I wanted at a time and resulted in me spending ages correcting myself. Androids App Store, marketplace wasn’t as easy to use as the (Apple) App Store and I really couldn’t find a nice text file reader that did exactly what I want (AirShare on iOS). Android seemed nice and I can see the potential but it just wasn’t polished enough for me and so the device went back within 5 days.

The HTC HD2 was another fun experience but lasted nearly 5 months. A fantastic bit of hardware with a gem of a screen. Everything looked amazing on it with it’s high resolution. In the end though a number of niggles got to me, the on-screen keyboard just didn’t cut the mustard and, though it was a good attempt, it just didn’t have the same responsiveness that the iPhone offers.

All this makes me wonder how good the HTC EVO is. Combining the lovely HTC hardware with the new ( hopefully polished?) Android OS, sounds like it could be the ideal match!

So now the iPhone 4 is here, and looks like it could well be the answer to my wants and needs. Although one of my colleagues here at Glo did brave the queues and pick up an iPhone4 on release day, we’ve yet to have an opportunity to give it a thorough testing, however with a bit of luck the GPS will actually work correctly off the bat and I wont need a car cradle for it to fo it’s job properly! With Skype no longer working or supported on Windows Mobile devices and no sign of it ever coming to Windows Phone 7 and a similar situation in the case of a decent Spotify client coming, I doubt I’ll be heading down the MS phone route again. Pitty as I have had a lot of love for that platform, it just looks very aged now.

Having said all that the Samsung Galaxy S running Android looks is very interesting indeed !

Posted by James in Mobile | No Comments »