Top 5 Android Apps to install for Streaming Shows and Movies!

Paul1 Reply

The Low Down!

I’ve recently been looking to to stream all my favorite shows on my Android device and thought this would be a good chance to help others in the same process.   So here they are!

CBS Interactive, INC

I can watch several of my all time favorite shows like How I met your Mother, NCIS, CSI, Big Bang Theory, Under the Dome, The Good Wife, and even an old Favorite the Original Series Star Trek!  Everything you Might need to watch and more from one of the Biggest I’ve seen yet.   The Streaming part of this can be questionable, but I am hoping this is a WORK IN Progress, since they released this recently for the Android, IOS, and Window 8.   I can only hope!

Crackle — Movies and TV

Crackle, is constantly changing and adding some new and old series to their lineup.   I can’t give tell you who is going to be on their but they have some great Anime Series and Science Fiction Series that you might like to check out!

The Discovery Channel

The Discovery Channel has several that you might want to add to your favorites.  The Ones that I am quite happy with are Mythbusters.   There are a ton of other series you should check out but I just love the Mythbusters episodes and they are my main pick right now!

The History Channel

This has some great Shows and topics that you will want to check out including The Bible, Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy, and The Universe!   Although I don’t watch all these, it has some great shows and specials and stuff that is constantly being added.  I am constantly checking to see what else is being added on each month.

Hulu Plus (Download the App)

You will need a Subscription to Hulu Plus for $7.99 a month to use this on you tablet or even your phone but The main reason I am considering this is because of Doctor Who and Maybe a few others but that is the main reason.   Hopefully Hulu will be getting new episodes in fall but only time will tell! oh And on a side note, you should also install Netflix if you decide to go that route also.   They have some great streaming episodes and movies that you might want to watch on your android device also!  

These are USA Streaming only but you can obviously get around that by using a VPN service like VPN4ALL.  You can stream these and other sites or Apps with the free VPN4ALL app that you can get from the Google Play Store!

Know of any Android Streaming apps you recommend, leave a comment and tell everyone which ones you think are best!

Protect Your Consoles From Hacks and Phishing

Paul

Only a few years ago, the largest threat to a gamer involved having to blow the dust out of their cartridges. Today, Hacking NetFlix reports that three out of four current-generation console owners utilize an Internet connection for gaming and streaming, making them vulnerable to identity thieves who prey on gamers. Today’s consoles provide an all-in-one entertainment device, but this makes them vulnerable to all the safety hazards of online play and communication. How can you protect yourself when playing online?

Xbox Live

Due to the necessity of using a credit card to access Xbox Live, Microsoft’s gaming console has proven a prime target for hackers. BehindTheGames reported in May of this year that a particularly effective hacking protocol left nearly fifty million users exposed to identity theft. Turning off Xbox Live will prevent digital identity theft, but makes you unable to enjoy your games online. Instead of cutting yourself off, you can get a Hard Drive Transfer Kit (this comes standard on new 120 GB Xbox 360 units) that transfers information from one hard drive to another, so that your information remains backed up and you can swap out the sensitive data when you want to play online.

Playstation Network

Since Playstation offers its online services for free, fewer hackers try to break into the console digitally. Keep in mind, “fewer” does not mean “none”, and Sony made headlines in 2011 when their online breach put millions of customers at risk. Ars Technica reported that they were fined just under half a million dollars for the security fault. The good news is that all of your information on a Playstation can be protected by simply placing all data onto one of the removable ports, loading it onto a USB drive, and taking the drive out. While your information remains digitally stored, hackers have a very long way to go before they find out how to remotely hack an unconnected USB drive.

Wii

With only about fifty percent of Wii users logging onto the Internet to play, Nintendo has avoided the data breach scandals of its competitors. In fact, their biggest brush with hacking comes from the pirates who try to “crack” or “brick” units to play modified games. Nintendo Life reports that the company has tested its new Wii-U against external hacks and found it to be “uncompromised”. What’s more, their data protection service is easier than any other. Simply go into the Wii shop channel and choose “remove account” in settings and features. This wipes your credit card and identity information, which you can simply re-enter whenever you want to make an online purchase.

Online Accounts

Credit card fraud and identity theft becomes common when a person fails to wipe their console of information, but console hacking can be prevented rather than retroactively dealt with. You can protect yourself by using LifeLock services against all-purpose identity theft, whether it stems from bogus emails or hackers. Lifelock advice applies to consoles, as well, according to its website. It’s recommended to use pre-paid credit cards for online purchases, so that a hacker who does get hold of a credit card number has stolen only chump change.

Julius Ballard

Julius is a blogger skilled in speaking technobabble to describe his two loves: gadgets and computers. LifeLock is a Sponsor to my webpage and anything you buy with that link will give me a commission so feel free to support my site!

Secure Browser Alternatives for browsing safely on the web!

Paul

Zero day vulnerabilites target Internet Explorer

Cyber Security Awareness Month

If you didn’t know October is Cyber Security Awareness Month and I wanted to give out some ways to keep you safe on the internet.   I know I am not the only to suggest some of this but if you didn’t know please don’t use Internet Explorer to web browse.   If should only be used for updating Windows and that is the extent of what it should be used for it.

Is Chrome more secure than Safari?

Safari, to my knowledge as a few vulnerabilities and thus you should be keep away from using it.   I won’t say much about this because we never really know who is actually going to use these but you can bet hackers know of ways to get into your system.

Which Browser is best?

Any browser you think is safe is probably going to be wrong.   I am going to tell you which browsers are safer but none of them are a 100 percent safe.   Each one of them has good and bad but I am going to at least guide you in the right direction.  

Chrome Browser

Chrome is one of the ones, I do recommend but it shouldn’t just be used by itself.   You should add a few extensions to better protect yourself:

  • Adblock Plus — Good to protect yourself from those annoying advertising.   (Please be aware that I use advertising on my site and that is how I pay for my hosting and other things like that.   Please consider white listing my website to allow advertising.)
  • Lastpass — This is one of those that I recommend on a constant basis because it makes sure you create a strong password that you don’t have to remember.   It helps make sure no account password is ever the same!
  • ScriptSafe — Keep unwanted scripts from playing when you visit a website!  Certain web sites should be allowed and white listed, like mine. 
  • Dolphin Connect — I use the Dolphin browser on my Android Device and this is one of those ways to keep track of all your bookmarks.   Not really security related but it is very useful!

These are just a few that I recommend when you use the Chrome Browser.

FireFox Browser

FireFox is another one that I recommend when you are looking to browse the web securely.  Although it isn’t 100% secure because none are.   Some of the Add On’s you should add to your FireFox Browser are:

  • NoScript Security Suite — It is another No Script app that lets you prevent unwanted scripts from running! 
  • Lastpass — Just like Chrome, it helps keep your passwords safe and helps you keep all passwords unique!
  • Adblock Plus — Just like Chrome this can help keep those annoying advertisements from showing but please remember to white list sites that do need to advertise and do not use annoying advertisements!
  • Web Of Trust — This is a good add on for Firefox to know which web sites you can trust more with and which ones that are not trustworthy!  (if you like my site could you review it and let people know what you think about this site!)

As you can see these are the two that I always tell my family to install, I usually don’t tell them to install both but one of these two but it is up to you if you want to have both web browsers installed on your system.   It just varies from person to person which one is better for your use!   I am sure there are more addon’s or extensions that you should add but these are the ones I tell my friends and family to install first.  Which one of these two browsers are you favorite?  Leave a comment and tell others!

 

The SQRL and the One Time Login (OTL).

Paul

VPN4ALL : Use Coupon code “savenow15” and get 15% off the lifetime of your account!Secured QRL Codes!

You probably are wondering about this.   I heard it from Steve Gibson and he calls it “squirrel” Code.  It basically helps those who are worried about security and privacy.   I just didn’t want to forget to talk about this myself.  Ever since I heard the podcast entitled “SQRL Episode 424”,  my mind has been trying to get a handle of the whole thing. 

What most people don’t know and haven’t yet figure out is how useful a QR Code is.   I did not think of this solution and would of laughed if I did.  It is really simple, but yet from what I have heard and understand it could be a game changer in the next few months.  I just have a few things that I must be fixed and standardized.   I wanted to share them with you and maybe in the same instants help the community with this problem.

One Time Login “OTL”

Since we are basically logging in every time we use a different QR Code we are only allowing one instance of the login for each time we use a SQRL login.  Thus we will need to limit the time and when we can use that one QR to login.   We also must figure out how we will deal with collision logins.  This is where the site or server sends out the same securely generated long random number to two different users.   This could happen if say we were using this on like Facebook or Twitter.   It is unlikely but possible, unless we disallow it to only be used once and then we get into the ridiculousness of even longer random numbers.   The only thing I can come up with is using the date and time to create the cryptographic challenge.   This would change the it from any two different users from getting the same challenge and thus we would avoid the collision of logins.  

Pretty Good Privacy

The next problem is which encryption key would we want to associate with the smartphone.   I personally think PGP is a good one to start off with and maybe even create the public key that is needed to accomplish this.   The Smartphone in question could be linked in some way to a server with our public key PGP.   I am unsure as to how well this will work but it would allow us to share that key whenever needed.   It may not work but I am thinking we should only use Open Source encryption and thus this is one of the many options.

If the Smartphone is stolen?

This is where PGP can be very useful, we could Revoke the key and tell everyone else this is is no longer trusted and thus we prevent illegal logins to our services.   I’ve heard people do with PGP and thus it should be really easy to implement in SQRL but again, I am not a designer or even ever created things like this so I thought we should at least throw that out and see what people say about it.

Needs to be Available Everyone

It needs to be available on IOS, Android, and even Windows systems.   When this happens it will make it that much easier for this to succeed. 

As you can see I have  these small questions that need to be answer and I even saw some others which I will gladly link to to better help those who may want to explore more into this realm that Steve has started.  

What do you have to say about this and are you curious to see this happen or do you think this will even work.  I may have missed something or do not fully understand it but at least I am wanting this to succeed.   What is your thoughts on this?

The Long Road home, and When things go wrong! (A Short story)

Paul

Road

The long Road Home!

It was a dark and stormy night and nothing in the world could stop the downpour. The rain came down as if the heavens opened up and started crying.   You couldn’t see a foot in front of you and not even the head lights could help.   You wonder if your going the right way or if took the wrong road.   This long winding road just seems to unfamiliar and and a little spookie.   You pas by farm houses and see only a flicker of light from a few of them.   You check your watch and it says it is 9:00 o’clock PM.   It seems kind of odd that all these houses would be dark.   Your gas gauge is reading empty and you will need to get more gas.  You come to a gas station and you pull in to the next available gas pump.   You hear “ching … ching… ching” as your car stops.  

As you wait, you hear foot steps coming closer and you look to see who it was.  You hear a “BOOM” from the storm, it makes you jump and ask  “Who are you?”   He replies, “The gas attendant, sir.  You can call me Bob!”.   “Sorry Bob, it seems I been feeling on edge.  Please fill my car up with regular unleaded.” I said to the attendant.   He says, “certaintly sir, and no problem, this country side can do that to some people.”

The story and you!

So as you can see this is where I left the story and I have been thinking something else should go wrong after that but my brain coulnd’t come up with it.   I am asking my readers what it should be and what you think of this short story so far.   Should I make the driving more exciting or should I make the driving more longer.   You will help me develop this story and hopefully we can have a little fun with this story.  I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions.