I’m trying out the new Android app for Path – the new social networking service. I’ve discovered something rather troubling… Most of the app’s communication with the Path servers is over SSL. This means that no-one can see the data you’re sending and receiving. If there are snoops on your network, they will only be [...]
There was a lot of interest in my recent post about TfL’s QR statistics. Today, I present to you three very different QR codes and their statistics. These are all taken from the Metro newspaper on Tuesday January 10th. Wowcher First up is “Wowcher”, a big quarter page advert on page 28. Wowcher’s statistics show [...]
You may have heard of “Range Anxiety”. It’s the worry that your car will run out of petrol before you have a chance to find a filling station. I have “power anxiety” – the crushing realisation that my smartphone’s battery will be dead by lunchtime if I use it for more than five minutes. Over [...]
(After Ben Metcalfe’s post on the the vb.ly sage). As a mobile Internet consultant, companies often ask me which QR generator to use. There are many worth considering, but I always tell clients to avoid bit.ly. The security of Libya Internet organisations are probably not an immediate concern (you did know that’s what .ly stands [...]
I think that WP7 is one of the first phone operating systems which natively has a QR scanner built in. It’s rather hidden – you have to go in to search (not camera) then click the eye icon. However, it is one of the fastest and most accurate scanners I’ve ever used. It knocks Android [...]
When you create a QR code which contains a URL, it is vital that the code is not only as small as possible, but also as user friendly as possible. I’m not a massive fan of short URL services like bit.ly – but for shrinking the text you want to fit in a QR code, [...]
Back when I worked for them, I was (partly) responsible for some of Vodafone UK’s “Content Control” systems. I didn’t like the system then, and I don’t like them now. I understand the need that network operators have to protect themselves from bad headline and give people some control over what they see online. What [...]
As I’ve mentioned before, I hate SMS Spam. Last night, I received this unsolicited message. Now, I can try to unsubscribe using STOP ALL – and I have forwarded the text to VSPAM. But that’s not enough for me. I want to stop them sending any more spam SMS to anyone. Let’s do a little [...]
This is a project I developed for OTA11 – but didn’t feel confident showing it off. Not least because I was one of the competition judges! Preamble Many people download BitTorrent files. There are no BitTorrent search engines which are mobile friendly. Users have to try to navigate non-mobile-optimised websites. This is slow, inefficient, and [...]
This was going to be a Sponsored Post from ebuzzing – but they rejected it. Can’t think why… I think I’m turning into a Luddite. I see all these shiny tablets and… I just don’t want one! Don’t get me wrong, I drove myself crazy trying to get an HP TouchPad because a) Massive discount [...]
Update: A version of this article appears on Sophos’s NakedSecurity blog Last year I blogged about how easy it would be to pay for parking via QR code. Now it looks like Islington Council have partnered with Verrus to make this a reality. But is it any good? Well…. nearly. Let’s take a look. The [...]
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