4 Operating Systems in 1 year (Review)

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I took it upon myself to treat 2014 as a testing tool of trying out 4 different operating systems in 1 year. The idea was to try out each operating system for 3 months in everyday use without taking the SIM out and putting it back to my preferred phone (which was iPhone at the time). Therefore, do note that I “was” the biggest proponent of iOS. I was one of those users that jumped on iPhone early, having the 2G, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S and last but not least 5. Therefore I was opposed to any other operating system.  My least favorite at the time was BlackBerry BB10 OS, I had hate for it without even trying the OS out.

Prior to testing my uneducated, unscientific tests, this is how I thought they would rank up:

1. iOS
2. Android
3. BlackBerry
4. Windows (I thought because it was new, it would have lots of flaws)

The handsets I picked up were as follows:

1. iPhone 5
2. Samsung Note 2
3. BlackBerry Z10
4. Nokia Lumia 1520

The applications that I used on everyday basis are: email, contacts, SMS, Calendar, taking photos, voice notes, notepad (small notes), minor editing and emailing of Excel and Word, and of course phone calls. The only entertainment I have used is audio streaming, some youtube watching, and that’s about it. Therefore, you can consider myself a business user. I’m by no means a gamer. Take that into consideration as you read my final results.

My final rankings with a brief explanation:

1. BlackBerry Z10 – BB10 as an operating system is by far the easiest, and fastest to get the job done if you are planning to do business only tools. I found the keyboard to be the best and easiest to use, and navigating between the tasks required no effort or waste of time. Yes I was a hater, absolutely didn’t want to open my eyes to see a BB. However BB10 operating system changed my way of thinking.

2. Nokia Lumia 1520 – Windows Phone 8.1 is superb. It actually surpassed all of my expectations. It might have scored high because of Excel and Word editing (on a 6″ screen). However, I was able to do all of my tasks without a worry.  The OS is missing a few minor things, but overall it did the job.

3. iPhone 5 – When I was testing the phone I was transitioning from iOS 6 to iOS7. iOS6 was solid operating system, with the addition of iOS7 and since I used it mostly on iOS7 it scored low on my personal chart. For some reason it took significant amount of time to do things versus the top 2. I’ve become a lover of the iOS to a hater by trying out other operating systems. How the heck did that happen? In all seriousness, iOS is a great choice if you are planning to do business and entertainment. It would score #1 on my list if that was the case. But as I mentioned, I don’t do any entertainment/gaming. As a business device, it just doesn’t do the job as BB10 and WP8.1 did. At least for me.

4. Samsung Note 2 – Please take note that I’m not bashing the actual hardware. Samsung Note 2 is a beautiful handset, with amazing piece of hardware. The operating system is the worst piece of you know what. Wow! I think I found myself fixing things on it then getting the job done. If you are a business person, stay away from Android. If you want to play games and waste time, Android is the OS for you. If you are looking for just entertainment, I would say Android would score #1 on my list. Other then that, stay away.

Of course the rating above is a personal preference. However, I think people need to try other operating systems and not be committed to one. It might open up your eyes, like they have been opened up for me.

Spam Links showing up in WordPress

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I was contacted by a client who had experienced odd links / advertisements showing up in his WordPress setup. Furthermore, he had experienced emails bouncing back from his Contact Us form. The client has a dedicated servers with 5 ip addresses. Other websites are not experiencing any issues nor are the other 4 ip addresses. The odds are his entire server was not compromised.

Upon examining his infected website it appeared that majority of the links traced back to: http://www.genericstts.com. Some of the keywords that were used in linkage were: Play Craps Online, Play Bingo Online, and Meilleurs Casino en ligne.

This was a multiple task, first we needed to find out why his dedicated server was blacklisted and second, we needed to find out what was causing these links / advertisements.

There was absolutely no point in trying to un-blacklist his ip address because we needed to solve his website spam problem.

The obvious solution was to find if its a plugin or theme causing this or the actual WordPress that was compromised. After narrowing it down, it appeared that a plugin was compromised.

This is where you need to make a decision. Do you just wipe the entire system or delete just the plugin or trace the issue and try to eliminate the malware manually and keep the plugin and the website in tact. It all depends how much information you have stored in your wordpress setup, how much time you want to spend, or how much money you want to spend for someone to spend the time to narrow down the problem. The client wanted to trace the issue down. According to Fox IT, the proper solution should be to eliminate the user and to wipe the system down.

Now you can try and install clamav or maldet to see if it will find the malware and remove it for you, or you can try to find the issue manually.

I did it manually, since I knew which plugin was infected I took a look at each file manually. As it turns out it was a .PNG file that was infected. It did drop itself in two different spots. After getting rid of the two .PNG files, I also made sure you couldn’t write into those two directories.

After getting rid of the malware, I went to de-list the blacklisted IP.

All was back to normal.

If you require any sort of malware removal on your dedicated server (or shared) CONTACT US

 

Nokia Lumia 920 Update to 8.1 Cyan (scrolling fix)

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If you had updated from Black version to Cyan (8.1), you might notice a scrolling issue especially in the middle of the screen. You may observe a line across the screen (as if the pixels are getting stuck). I haven’t dug deeper into the issue, however there is an easy fix to this problem. If you do a phone reset from your “about” menu. Keep in mind that you will loose all information on your phone. BACKUP prior processing the phone reset.  When the reset is complete, download and restore all your applications, photos, etc. You will notice that the problem is gone. I’m curious what causes it though, I wish I looked into it deeper.

Deregister – Unregister – Turn Off iMessage

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You must have seen different tips and tricks on how to turn-off iMessage. Believe me I have tried them all and none seem to work. Those who still had iPhones/iDevices who tried to contact me via iMessage had their messages either go through or bounce back. The system rarely diverted them to me via SMS. Therefore, I lost a lot of incoming and probably some friends along the way:)

Needless to say after many complaints Apple actually released a tool that works.

1. Go here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage

2. Type in your phone number

3. Receive a 6 digit text message and type that into the browser

DONE!

Enjoy cutting the final strings from Apple 😉

PRO TIP: The link only works via browser. If you try with your handheld, it will load, but it will not send you a text message after you type in your phone number. Go figure. Use a fully functional laptop.

MacBook Pro: Bootcamp Windows 7 Ultimate – Mouse – Keyboard lock-up

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I’ve been running Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate on my MacBook Pro Late 2013 for at least 4 months. I’ve installed many applications on it, and had absolutely no issues. One day I went to boot it up and my mouse/keyboard would not function. I was stuck on the login/password (Windows 7 screen). I thought it was a fluke, I rebooted and same exact issue. I tried safe mode, and encountered same problem. I then attached a usb keyboard and mouse….still nothing. I was baffled. Nothing worked. I tried booting with PE, custom O/S’s that I have compiled, and still same issue. It didn’t make sense.

After messing around with it (on and off) for a few hours. I found a temporary solution. When you are about to boot into Windows 7 click F8. This will give you an advance boot up menu. And select the very last option “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement”.

My mouse and keyboard functioned once again. Here’s the fun Windows part, I can’t permanently disable Driver Signature Enforcement. By default it will not let you override it (at least I haven’t figured out a way to do so). OK, whats next? Well sign the drivers that need signing. However, I’m unsure what drivers are causing this as I haven’t installed any new unassigned drivers. I installed the latest version of bootcamp to see if that would fix it, however I’m back to F8.

Who is to blame? Microsoft? Apple? Or both….I’m going with both this time around.

Hope this helps someone who is stuck on a frozen Windows 7 username/password screen.

Blackberry Passport Outright Pricing

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I buy all my devices outright. I try not to fall into the contract trap offered by local telecoms here in Canada. I was actually shocked at BlackBerry Passport outright pricing. In Canada on the ShopBlackberry.com website it was selling for $699. For some strange reason on the U.S. portion of the website it was discounted -$100.00, dropping it down to US$599.00. Still a bit steep.

Of course the US/Canada pricing difference didn’t make sense either, I do realize ShopBlackBerry.com is owned by a third party, although is considered the official store for BlackBerry. Regardless, who in their right mind would pay $699.00 for a device that hasn’t really proven itself? I’m a BlackBerry fan and do want them to succeed, but whoever is pricing their devices is out of their mind and should be fired. Due to the pricing scheme this device will simply fail.

I don’t own any Google devices, but to me Google has the best pricing scheme next to Amazon. For example their Nexus 5 outright price is CA$349.00. That’s competitive, and if I was in a need of a phone, and if my current phone died, I’d more then likely purchase a Nexus 5. Amazon is in the same boat, their tablet pricing is superb.

With more and more people wanting to be “off-contract” with their carriers in Canada, BlackBerry simply missed the boat. I would have been all over this device if it was listed for $399.00 or heck even $499.00. However, anything above $500.00 is just asking for catastrophic fail.

Even if I was insane enough to go on a 2 year contract the asking price was $249.00. You mean, I have to get into a contract and I still end up paying $249.00? I’m better of getting an iPhone 6 on a two year contract and possibly profiting in the end. Very disappointing BlackBerry.

I’ll end up checking BlackBerry Passport when the hype is over and the device ends up in the $300 outright range. Until then…..

UPDATE: BestBuy (U.S.) has already dropped the 2 year contract price to $199. I expect the Passport to be $0 on two year contract by Christmas.

BlackBerry Z10 Band Switching LTE to 4G to EDGE

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I have been testing band switching (network mode)  on the BlackBerry Z10. As many of you are aware Z10 battery life is the one feature that is a nuisance.

To circumvent that issue, I thought if I switched from LTE  to 4G that it would somewhat improve battery life. Well it got even worse. Battery life lasted only about 6 hours. Whats up with that?

My next test involved switching network mode from 4G to EDGE. Traditionally BlackBerry phones that ran on EDGE could last for days with heavy usage. Unfortunately, that was not the case with the Z10. It average about the same battery life on EDGE as it did on 4G (moderate use).

Surprisingly LTE averaged the highest battery life on moderate usage at around 9 hours.

In conclusion, hopefully I have LTE coverage wherever I go, or I’ll need a secondary battery in my pocket.

Blackberry Passport

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I haven’t had the opportunity to see Blackberry Passport in person, but according to the specifications, it is absolutely an exciting form factor. The code name for Passport was/is “Windermere” and its supposedly thinner then any current BB10 models (including Q10). The most notable difference is the actual physical keyboard that doubles up as a touchpad.

The touchpad capability is interesting. Predictive text you are actually able to swipe up and select the proper word, just as you would on the current BB10 models via on-screen keyboard. Swiping, gestures and highlighting works the same way.

The form factor actual size has not been confirmed, however some specifications have been confirmed: 1440 x 1440 pixels, 4.5 inches (~453 ppi pixel density) screen, 3GB RAM, and 32GB internal space.

There have been a couple of videos that have surfaced demonstrating Blackberry Passport, however the posters never confirmed much of the information about the actual hardware. Their test run seem to demo the software portion only.

Blackberry assistant surfaced for the first time on the device (can be compared to Siri). I’m unsure if it will be included for those who have a BB10 device or will be exclusive for Passport users and future next generation BB10 devices.

For the first time in a long time I’m actually excited about a BB device.

Release is expected to be in October of 2014.

If you want to be notified for pre-orders in regards to BlackBerry Passport, you can register here.

VIDEO demo of BB Passport

BlackBerry Z10 Review (sort of)

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You will find internet flooded with BlackBerry Z10 reviews. Z10 has been around now for well over a year (Release: Jan 2013). But I thought I would give you a perspective from a dedicated iPhone user. A pure 5 month full time trial of Z10.

I took the sim card from my iPhone 5 (painful). I inserted into a fresh BlackBerry Z10. I must admit the boot-up time took forever. However, once the Z10 was up and running, everything worked the way I wanted it to. Email which BlackBerry has been known for, took seconds to setup. For 5 months straight I used the BlackBerry Z10 and it hasn’t let me down.

What do I miss (if comparing it to iPhone 5). There has to be something right? Or was I completely converted to BlackBerry (again).

OK here are the negative things about BlackBerry Z10:

  • Battery Life (lucky if I make it to dinner)
  • One hand typing (I found iPhone easier)
  • Editing (I found iPhone easier to edit text on)

OK now top positive things about BlackBerry Z10:

  • Two hand typing (is superb, almost as good as physical keyboard)
  • Voice clarity (crisp)
  • Calendar/Hub (productivity was better on Z10)

Now the big question. Will I be staying on BlackBerry? I’m very tempted to get another BlackBerry smartphone, the one I’m truly interested is the Passport. However, I also want to explore Android (again) especially the LG G3. Then there is iPhone especially with the upcoming iPhone 6 release. Needless to say, the consumer has a lot of options which is great.

In conclusion: I know this wasn’t the most in-depth review, however it wasn’t meant to be. It was a little study I did for myself to see if I could actually switch from iPhone and stick to it. And yes it worked and no I don’t have any complaints about it nor do I miss my iPhone 5.

BlackBerry buys German based anti-eavesdropping company

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BlackBerry is continuing their transition with the new CEO John Chen. Secusmart which was the security firm who customized smartphones for German agencies and various government officials (including Chancellor Angela Merkel).

This is a significant acquisition since a regular consumer is become more aware and concerned about Smartphone security. BlackBerry who was once the leader of mobile security has been overlooked by mobile giants such as Apple and Samsung. However, if you were to ask mobile security experts, they will tell you that BlackBerry is still the most secure Smartphone in the industry today. This acquisition placed a large stamp on BlackBerry continuing their conquest in containing their number one attribute which is security.

Will this move be significant enough for the regular Smartphone user to switch over to BlackBerry? Not likely, however this opens the door for BlackBerry to cater and continue solid operations for large corporation, government and businesses.