IT Support news

Symantec are currently testing a new product aimed at the Android phone user. Usually we see lots of software for security, anti-malware, anti-virus, anti-hacker.. blah blah.. the list goes on. Frankly much of it is a reinvention of the wheel by various vendors trying to gain market share in an already crowded area. That said, its a serious matter and we need to make sure we are protected. This means our phones too! – We often forget that now we use iOS, Windows and now android platforms on our mobile devices and these are as open to attack as any other operating system (almost).

Symantec have released a beta version of its Norton Mobile Security product. I’m not a fan of Norton products for lots of reasons I won’t bore you with but this one really caught my attention. It can scan your files (think dropbox perhaps), protect SD cards in your device, block malware and even block calls or SMS from unwanted sources.

The killer features though are the remote control features. Should your mobile be lost or stolen you have the option to show its location on a map, lock the device or even remotely wipe it. Great feature as we often have sensitive data on our devices in email or certainly the means to access sensitive data.

Check it out at Symantec or google ‘Norton Mobile Security’ if you can’t find it. Worth a look.. if you have a lot of phones i suggest you contact your IT support company and have a chat with them, they should at least be aware of these products and can tell you more.

Microsoft have bought Skype, so that’s not really new information. Paying over the odds for a telco that’s essentially making a loss is a bit weird though right? – All skype really do is sell ads to generate revenue at the moment so you can only think Microsoft must have big plans or they wouldn’t have paid over the odds.

To put this into context a little bit we need to roll back to 1987 when Microsoft bought a tiny little company called Forethought. Microsoft paid $14m for this little company. Why? The product they bought became Microsoft PowerPoint. Seems like a bargain now given how popular Microsoft Office is (its worth noting that Office alone rakes in over $14bn a year for Microsoft).

So if you aren’t already a skype user, sign up and try it. Then watch that space.. I can’t helping thinking Microsoft have big plans for this product.

3G outages experienced lately were blamed on a switch problem by Orange, who have apologised and denied any problems have arisen from the network share with T-Mobile. Fixes have been issued and reassurances they are working on a permanent solution came with a thank you to call centres experiencing a high volume of customers unhappy at not being able to gain access to mobile data services, largely in the London area. Orange maintain that despite the problem in recent weeks it is committed to investing and improving its services and delivering a stable network for customers.