Vivaldi: A New Web browser For Tech Savvy Users

Oslo: Veteran software maker Jon von Tetzchner launched a new Internet browser on Tuesday, offering an interface for high-volume users who “have problems fitting all their open tabs on one screen”, he said in a Reuters interview.

Known as Vivaldi and available on desktop computers from Tuesday, the browser’s initial launch covers the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

“A mobile phone and a tablet version are in the pipeline. We are working on it, but they won’t be out until they’re ready,” said von Tetzchner, who owns 90 per cent of the company’s shares and has paid for the development.

Vivaldi: A new Web browser aimed at tech savvy users

Vivaldi browser offers an interface for high-volume users who “have problems fitting all their open tabs on one screen.”

“At some point it will need to fund it self and to reach that point we will need a few million users. I have no doubt that we will reach that number quite easily,” he added.

With features like personalised notes, bookmarks with small screen shots and speed dials with options for multiple groups and folders, Vivaldi hopes to attract high-volume users.

Despite tough competition from the likes of Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera Software’s browser, von Tetzchner believes there is still room for more.

“We welcome everyone, but this is first of all a browser for people who expect and need more,” he said. “There is without a doubt a demand for this type of browser even though I don’t expect it to take more than a few percent of the total market.”

Vivaldi has signed a few affiliation deals ahead of the launch and is in talks with several potential partners for functionalities like search and online shopping.

“We have made several deals and have started a dialogue with others. But because some of these are potential competitors, we’ve wanted to go live with the browser first.”

Named after the 18th century composer Antonio Vivaldi, the name carries an inescapable reference to von Tetzchner’s previous role as co-founder and long-time head of browser and mobile phone technology firm Opera Software.

He left the company in 2011 and later formed Vivaldi.net, a social media platform which he said at the time would target computer geeks wary of aggressive advertising and government surveillance.

You can download Vivaldi Browser from here.

Vivaldi: A New Web browser For Tech Savvy Users

Online Marketing Techniques You Shouldn"t Ignore

If you’ve got a business, whether it’s focused online or offline, online marketing techniques are a must. At the very least, online marketing techniques can generate interest in an offline business. At the most, online marketing techniques can increase your exposure far and wide, helping you to make more sales! The following techniques should not be ignored if you want to be a success. Some have been around for a while; others are fairly new in comparison. Take a look!

SEO 

Search engine optimisation is essential for all businesses. The higher you are up the search rankings for certain search terms, the more chance you’ll have of making sales and getting conversions. You must have an offsite and onsite SEO strategy for the best results. You probably won’t be able to do this alone, so hire a reputable company to help you. SEO needs to be consistent if you want to keep your ranking in place.

PPC 

Pay Per Click advertising can help you to get your site to the top of the search engines almost instantaneously, but you must pay for the privilege. Depending on the search term, it could cost you a little or a lot to be shown. Despite what some people say, SEO and PPC can be used together in harmony to create a strong online marketing strategy.

Email Marketing 

Email marketing can be a huge help for certain businesses, when it’s done right. You should never, ever spam your email list, as you’ll quickly get blocked or unsubscribed. Keep your goal in mind when composing the email, as this will help you go in the right direction. You should also consider writing out multiple emails and then split testing them to see which works best with your audience.

Publish Blog Posts 

By publishing helpful, informative blog posts, you’ll increase your exposure. People will share these blog posts if they like them. If they are particularly helpful, they may even keep on coming back to you for more information, recommending you to people they know too. This can help you to get a great reputation, and of course increase your sales.

Build a Strong Social Media Presence 

A strong social media presence helps to give people ‘social proof’ that you are a reliable, trustworthy business. Not only that, you can engage and build strong relationships with your target audience, explains Today’s Growth Consultant. Building relationships will always help you to sell more, rather than shameless promotion!

Host Competitions and Giveaways on Your Website/Social Media 

People love free stuff, so consider hosting competitions and giveaways on your website and social media. You could ask people to sign up for your newsletters in exchange for an entry, or ask them to share your social profiles. You should soon find you have a lot more followers by doing this! If the giveaway is tempting enough, you should experience a substantial growth.

Use these techniques, and you should find your business is thriving in next to no time. Enjoy!

picture source

 

 

Online Marketing Techniques You Shouldn"t Ignore

How To Tackle Cyber Crimes With Smarter Habits

Oops, did I click something dangerous? Matt Law, CC BY-NC-ND

Hackers gain access to computers and networks by exploiting the weaknesses in our cyber behaviors. Many attacks use simple phishing schemes – the hacker sends an email that appears to come from a trusted source, encouraging the recipient to click a seemingly innocuous hyperlink or attachment. Clicking will launch malware and open backdoors that can be used for nefarious actions: accessing a company’s network or serving as a virtual zombie for launching attacks on other computers and servers.

No one is safe from such attacks. Not companies at the forefront of technology such as Apple and Yahoo whose security flaws were recently exploited. Not even sophisticated national networks are home free; for instance, Israel’s was compromised using a phishing attack where an email purportedly from Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, with a phony PDF attachment, gave hackers remote access to its defense network.

To figure out why we fall for hackers’ tricks, I use them myself to see which kinds of attacks are successful and with whom. In my research, I simulate real attacks by sending different types of suspicious emails, friend-requests on social media, and links to spoofed websites to research subjects. Then I use a variety of direct, cognitive and psychological measures as well as unobtrusive behavioral measures to understand why individuals fall victim to such attacks.


What is apparent over the many simulations is how seemingly simple attacks, crafted with minimal sophistication, achieve a staggering victimization rate. As a case in point, merely incorporating the university’s logo and some brand markers to a phishing email resulted in close to 70% of the research subjects falling prey to the attack. Ultimately, the goal of my research is to figure out how best to teach the public to ward off these kinds of cyberattacks when they come up in their everyday lives.

Wise advice. Julia Wolf, CC BY-NC-SA

Clicking without thinking

Many of us fall for such deception because we misunderstand the risks of online actions. I call these our cyber-risk beliefs; and more often than not, I’ve found people’s risk beliefs are inaccurate. For instance, individuals mistakenly equate their inability to manipulate a PDF document with its inherent security, and quickly open such attachments. Similar flawed beliefs lead individuals to cavalierly open webpages and attachments on their mobile devices or on certain operating systems.

Compounding such beliefs are people’s email and social media habits. Habits are the brain’s way of automating repeatedly enacted, predictable behaviors. Over time, frequently checking email, social media feeds and messages becomes a routine. People grow unaware of when – and at times why – they perform these actions. Consequently, when in the groove, people click links or open attachments without much forethought. In fact, I’ve found certain Facebook habits – such as repeatedly checking newsfeeds, frequently posting status updates, along with maintaining a large Facebook friend network – to be the biggest predictor of whether they would accept a friend-request from a stranger and whether they would reveal personal information to that stranger.

Such habitual reactions are further catalyzed by the smartphones and tablets that most of us use. These devices foster quick and reactive responses to messages though widgets, apps and push notifications. Not only do smartphone screen sizes and compressed app layouts reduce the amount of detailed information visible, but many of us also use such devices while on the go, when our distraction further compromises our ability to detect deceptive emails.

These automated cyber routines and reactive responses are, in my opinion, the reasons why the current approach of training people to be vigilant about suspicious emails remains largely ineffective. Changing people’s media habits is the key to reducing the success of cyberattacks — and therein also lies an opportunity for all of us to help.

Harnessing habits to fight cybercrime

Emerging research suggests that the best way to correct a habit is to replace it with another, what writer Charles Duhigg calls a Keystone Habit. This is a simple positive action that could replace an existing pattern. For instance, people who wish to lose weight are instructed to exercise, reduce sugar intake, read food labels and count calories. Doing this many challenging things consistently is daunting and often people are too intimidated to even begin. Many people find greater success when they instead focus on one key attainable action, such as walking half a mile each day. Repeatedly accomplishing this simple goal feels good, builds confidence and encourages more cognitive assessments — processes that quickly snowball into massive change.

Something weird in the inbox? Martin Terber, CC BY

We could apply the same principle to improve cybersecurity by making it a keystone habit to report suspicious emails. After all, many people receive such emails. Some inadvertently fall for them, while many who are suspicious don’t. Clearly, if more of us were reporting our suspicions, many more breaches could be discovered and neutralized before they spread. We could transform the urge to click on something suspicious into a new habit: reporting the dubious email.

We need a centralized, national clearing house — perhaps an email address or phone number similar to the 911 emergency system — where anyone suspicious of a cyberthreat can quickly and effortlessly report it. This information could be collated regionally and tracked centrally, in the same way the Department of Health tracks public health and disease outbreaks.

Of course, we also need to make reporting suspicious cyber breaches gratifying, so people feel vested and receive something in return. Rather than simply collect emails, as is presently done by the many different institutions combating cyber threats, submissions could be vetted by a centralized cybersecurity team, who in addition to redressing the threat, would publicize how a person’s reporting helped thwart an attack. Reporting a cyber intrusion could become easy, fun, something we can all do. And more importantly, the mere act of habitually reporting our suspicions could in time lead to more cybersecurity consciousness among all of us.

This article is part of an ongoing series on cybersecurity. More articles will be published in the coming weeks.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Read the original article.

How To Tackle Cyber Crimes With Smarter Habits

What"s New In Windows 10? Spartan, Cortana & Gaming

Microsoft recently revealed the final version of Windows 10. It is expected to roll out the new OS later this year. There are numerous features available in this new version and above all for the first time Microsoft is releasing their OS for free. Like like Android and iOS operating systems, Windows 10 and future OS will be available for free from now on. Any device running Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 will get a free upgrade.

If your PC or laptop is running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and your Windows phone has the Windows Phone 8.1 OS, you will get a free upgrade to the latest version of Windows 10 – in the first year.

What is not clear is if users on laptop and desktops will have to pay after the first year. In an age, where free OS and software is the new mantra, Microsoft has taken the right step by making Windows 10 free of cost. Hopefully the free upgrade will continue after year one as well.

Windows 10 Spartan browser.

No more Windows Phone, it’s all the same: Unity across operating systems is something that Apple and Google have been going on about for sometime and Microsoft also clearly believes that this is the way forward.

What this also means, is that the name ‘Windows Phone OS’ is actually defunct. Also tablet users can forget the horror of having to deal with something like a new Windows RT on their devices, which received terrible user feedback.

Windows 10 will ensure that desktops, mobiles, laptops, tablets, 2-in-1 devices will all run the same Windows 10 OS, which will be optimised based on the platform. This is great news for those who are heavily invested in the Windows eco-system and for app developers who won’t have to create a separate app for mobile or tablet.

Bigger Start Menu, Action Centre: There have been some improvements thanks to feedback from testers of the Windows Insider program. The Start Menu is now available in full screen instead of the limited in Windows 8.1. The Action Centre has quick buttons to switch Wi-fi and Bluetooth on or off.

There is a new Notification Centre which is seen above the Action Centre and notifications in these will be synced across devices. The Notification centre brings you updates and alerts from your email, weather, news sources you’ve subscribed to and it also has Cortana built in.

The Control Panel and Settings menu have been merged into a single folder. Also when using a 2-in-1, when you go from a desktop mode to a tablet mode, users will be prompted if they want to switch to tablet mode.

Cortana for Windows:

Microsoft has gone a step ahead of Apple by bringing its personal voice-assistant Cortana to all Windows 10 devices, including desktops and laptops, which is a massive plus point.

On the desktop, Cortana will be seen as a search box located beside the Start button. Cortana now supports 7 languages and can speak in impersonations as well. You can also ask Cortana to open apps on your desktop such as PowerPoint or Word. You can also dictate emails in Outlook using Cortana and send them by voice commands.

As we noted here, Cortana has a new feature called Notebook that keeps a tab on all the saved information. It also keeps a track of the sports scores, travel, weather and such similar information that you may be interested in. You can also add other things that you want Cortana to keep a track of.

Universal apps for PCs: Microsoft is going the Apple way by finally introducing universal apps. These will have a similar design across devices and will work across PCs, laptop, smartphones and tablets.

Outlook will come with an in-built Word engine which provides the Office ribbon, which allows multiple ways of formatting Office documents. The calendar app will also be synced across devices and will sport a consistent design as well. There’s also a new Photo App gallery, which looks inspired by Google+.

All pictures taken on the devices, as well as photos on One Drive will be merged together and the app will automatically delete the duplicate files to reduce the clutter. The Photo app will automatically enhance your photographs by default, much like Google+. It will also create Photo Albums automatically based on date, location and the people in the photographs.

Other universal apps on the list will be for Videos, Music, Maps, People & Messaging.

Project Spartan:

Microsoft unveiled its Project Spartan at the event, which is indeed a new browser which comes with Cortana built in with its contextual searching. For example, if you look up restaurant on Spartan, Cortana will throw in a map, menu and contact details as well.

On Spartan some of the new features will allows users to annotate a webpage using a stylus or touch interface, click on any section of a webpage to type out a comment and then share this page with friends or co-workers. Also while the page shared will be frozen, the links inside them will be active.

Reading mode in Project Spartan, similar to the reading mode in Apple’s Safari, will put articles in a layout that gets rid of all the unnecessary elements on a page. You also get a Reading List feature that syncs across all devices, even offline, which is quite identical to what’s seen on the Pocket app.

By the way Microsoft has clarified that the introduction of Spartan doesn’t mean that Internet Explorer 11 is going anywhere. According to a blogpost, the company wrote that “Spartan loads the IE11 engine for legacy enterprise web sites when needed.” Essentially enterprise websites that older technologies designed only for Internet Explorer, such as custom ActiveX controls and Browser Helper Objects will load on Internet Explorer, which will also be available on Windows 10.

Internet Explorer will use the same dual rendering engines as Spartan, ensuring web developers can consistently target the latest web standards, says the blog post.

Gaming on Windows 10:

The Xbox app will come bundled with all Windows 10 devices. A new feature will allows users to record 30 seconds of gameplay which can be sent across to Xbox Live so that Xbox users can watch it as well.Windows 10 also brings cross-play, which lets users play with a friend on an Xbox One while they are using a Windows 10 PC. Microsoft also has plans to launch Windows 10 on the Xbox One platform.

Game DVR, which gives simple access to recording, editing, and sharing a player’s most epic gaming moments on an Xbox will now come to Windows 10, and is accessible by simply pressing Windows+G.

Also games on Xbox One can be streamed through your home network to your Windows 10 PC or tablet, anywhere in your house. Xbox One gamers will also be able to many of their favourite console games on their PC. And many Xbox One accessories will work interchangeably on the console and PC.

What"s New In Windows 10? Spartan, Cortana & Gaming