Turn on Google two-step authentication

No excuses: It's time to turn on two-step authentication

Using 2-step verification - YouTube

Your Google account holds your e-mail, apps, music, books, documents, cloud storage, credit cards and more. It’s time to protect that stuff with more than a simple password.

If you’ve been watching the wider tech world over the past couple of days, you’ll be familiar with the recent misfortune of Wired writer Mat Honan, who succumbed to a devastating hacking attack that annihilated his iCloud, Twitter and Google accounts and locked down several devices in the process.

In Honan’s case, the attack was enabled by compromised (yet publicly available) personal info, as well as failures by Amazon and Apple customer support, rather than a traditional brute-force attack or contact with malware. But a crucial part of what allowed the attackers to take down not only his Apple accounts and devices, but also his Gmail and Google stuff, was the fact that he wasn’t using Google’s two-step authentication to protect his account.

Stories like these always bring home the importance of basic digital security precautions. And one of the most basic, yet most effective steps you can take to protect your account is turning on two-step.

Read on to find out how and why you should do it.

What is two-step authentication?

Two-step authentication adds an extra layer of security by requiring you to enter a six -digit code, generated by Google and sent to your phone, when you sign into your account. That means even if your password is cracked, your account should still be safe. Chances are whoever’s trying to break into your account from afar also doesn’t have your phone in their possession, so they can't get that secondary code.

You can set up six-digit verification codes to be sent via SMS, or if you’re an Android, BlackBerry or iPhone user, there’s an app called Google Authenticator, which you can use to generate a code instantly. These apps work by accessing your Google account on your phone, then scanning a secret barcode on-screen using the phone’s built-in camera.

What about Android devices and certain ap​ps?

Sometimes an app or device that uses your Google account isn’t able to ask you for a verification code, or it isn’t practical or desirable to have it ask for one. The main example here is Android devices. Sign into one with two-step authentication enabled and you’ll need to use an “application-specific password” instead. These are passwords that give a single app or device access to your Google account at any one time. You can get to them by navigating to accounts.google.com and clicking “Security” from the sidebar, then “Authorizing applications and sites.”

Yes. This part is a pain. But it's important to do.

For example, if you’ve got a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 7 tablet, you’d create one for the phone and another for the tablet, and you'd only need to enter it once on the device you're using it for. If you need to stop either from being able to access your Google account, for whatever reason, you can simply hit “revoke” next to the name of the device. And as that password is 16 characters long and only usable by one app or device at a time, everything’s kept securely siloed.

Contingencies

Two-step authentication is good, but it isn’t flawless -- what if your phone’s stolen, for instance? To make sure you’re not locked out of your account if the unexpected happens, Google has a few contingencies in place:

• When you first sign up for two-step authentication, you’ll be asked to provide backup phone numbers, which you can use to get hold of a six-digit verification number in the event that your primary phone is indisposed.
• You’ll also be given a set of backup codes, each of which allows you to sign in once. If your main phone is unavailable, and you’re unable to get to any of your backup numbers, this will allow you to sign in once and set things straight.
• Contrary to what you might think, the Google Authenticator app for Android doesn’t require an Internet connection to work. Even in airplane mode, it’ll generate a working verification code.

How two-step could’ve helped Mat Hona​n, and how it might help you

Amazon and Apple’s customer service blunders (combined with iCloud’s lack of two-step security) had already ensured that Mat Honan’s iPad, iPhone and Macbook were toast. However, enabling two-step auth. could’ve saved his Google account, and the Twitter accounts that were associated with it.

Assume you don't have two-step authentication turned on. If you want to try to recover your password (because you're dumb and forgot it), you're given a few options for account recovery. Part of this involves letting you send a recovery email to an alternative email address you've already linked, and this is only partly obfuscated on the recovery page. That’s how the hacker got into Mat Honan’s account -- without two-step, his recovery address of m******n@me.com was easy to guess. From there, it was simply a case of taking advantage of lapses in Amazon and Apple’s customer services security to take over that account, and then have a password reset email sent to that me.com address.

Had two-step authentication been enabled, the hacker would’ve instead seen a message like this when they attempted password recovery -- an instant roadblock in their attempts to hijack Honan’s Google account.

Journalists, especially those dealing in technology, aren’t normal cases when it comes to phone or web account usage, so if you're not broadcasting your name all over the Internet, you're less likely to fall victim to these kinds of shenanigans.

Nevertheless, it's a simple and easy precaution, and one that everyone with a Google account, and particularly those heavily invested in Google's ecosystem, should take. Depending on how you use Gmail, an attacker gaining control of it could effectively have the master keys to your digital life. What's more, they could gain access to all the purchases and other content associated with your Google account -- if you're a big Android user, that could amount to a significant quantity of stuff. Worse still, if they pulled the plug on your account, you might lose all of this.

So despite the minor, occasional inconvenience, please, please turn on two-step authentication on your Google account.

No excuses: It's time to turn on two-step authentication | Android Central

How to highlight PDFs using Adobe's free Reader program

PDF for Lawyers: How to highlight PDFs using Adobe's free Reader program

A reader emailed to ask how to highlight text in Adobe Reader. It used to be that you couldn't do this in the free Reader program. But now you can! Here's how you do it. First, you'll need to have the latest version of Adobe Reader, which is Adobe Reader X. (If you don't have it then you can download it from here). Then follow these steps, which are also depicted in the screenshot below.

1. Click the COMMENT tab, then
2. Click the HIGHTLIGHT TEXT choice
3. Drag your mouse across the area that you want to highlight.

CAVEAT: this won't work on a PDF that hasn't been made text searchable. Reader won't OCR (or render a PDF "text searchable"). You need the full version of Acrobat to do this, or some other program.

PDF for Lawyers: How to highlight PDFs using Adobe's free Reader program

Best Earbuds You'll Find Under $10

Lifehacker: The Monoprice 8320s Are the Best Earbuds You’ll Find Under $10

Picking the perfect set of headphones can be hard, especially if you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars. If you have a small budget but still want some good sound, look no further than the Monoprice 8320 earbuds.

Our friends over at The Wirecutter pitted these earbuds against a few others in the $30 range, and found that the Monoprice 'buds easily blew the others away. They aren't the only ones, either—just check out the reviews over at Head-Fi. After buying a pair for myself, I have to agree: these earbuds kick some pretty serious butt.

The Pros: They've got some great thumping bass, and while there isn't a lot of sub bass slam, they do a great job of making you feel the music without overpowering everything else (like some "enhanced bass" earbuds do). Mids sound surprisingly great, and highs come through loud and clear. They're a little strangely shaped due to the large drivers inside, but once you figure out how to put them in your ears (upside down, as shown in the video above) that's hardly an issue. The cable is a nice mesh cord instead of the usual rubber, which can crack and tangle a bit easier, which is great. It isn't as nice as other mesh cables—it still tangles up a bit—but the tangles are much easier to get out. Either way, it's a really nice touch that you don't see a lot in this price range.

The Cons: It isn't all butterflies and rainbows, of course. They feel a little cheap and plastic-y, but again, what do you expect for a $7 pair of headphones? The nice thing is, if you don't love the feel of the 'buds or cable, there's a huge thread over at Head-Fi detailing some mods people have done on these headphones (not to mention lots of people proclaiming their love for these babies). The rubber tips that come with it are also pretty bad, at least if you have small ears. It doesn't come with any other sizes, so if the stock tips don't fit your ears, you'll definitely want to buy some aftermarket tips if you want the good sound described above. And lastly, they don't come with a remote for your phone, but you can always buy or make an adapter to solve that problem, too.

The bottom line: Are they going to blow a pair of $100 headphones out of the water? Of course not. But they'll definitely destroy everything in the $10 range, and probably even beat most $20 and $30 headphones, too. Check out the video above to see a bit more of them, or hit the link below to visit their product page over at Monoprice. And if you're interested to read more about how they stack up against other headphones, be sure to read the Wirecutter's review as well.

Monoprice Enhanced Bass Hi-Fi Noise Isolating Earphones

The Monoprice 8320s Are the Best Earbuds You'll Find Under $10

Satechi Slim Surge Protector

Cool Tools: Satechi Slim Surge Protector

If you are sick and tired of electrical surges screwing up your gadgets and devices connected to a power outlet, then here is something that you might want to consider. The Satechi Slim Surge Protector is said to come with 2.1 Amps of juice for each port and consists of 5 protected power outlets. It currently retails for a highly affordable $15.99 each, and with 2.1 amps of power, it can charge just about the majority of power hungry devices out there in the market, ranging from the new iPad to the Amazon Kindle Fire, iPhone 4S, and Samsung Galaxy S3 amongst others.

Capable of protecting up to 5 devices from electrical spikes and surges, making sure that your collection of expensive electronic equipment and valuable data will remain safe at all times, there is also the inclusion of the Safety Shutdown Technology that relies on thermal fuses in order to power off the user’s system so that it will offer protection against fire and other damage just in case a power spike occurs. The presence of a green LED indicator that lights up will let you know that your equipment is being protected.

Satechi Slim Surge Protector » Coolest Gadgets

8 Best Tips To Increase Windows Laptop Battery Backup Time

Technix: 8 Best Tips To Increase Windows Laptop Battery Backup Time

When we buy a laptop, then we do focus on some of the parameters like RAM, Hard Drive capacity, Graphics card, Cache Memory and few other features. One of the most important features about the laptop, which we usually forget to consider, is the battery backup. For the first year of usage you will notice that the battery backup is adequate as compared to the other laptops around you (or as promised to you by the seller), but then it starts degrading suddenly and then the only option with which you are left is to change the battery.

6-Cell Li-ion Battery is the most common battery used in most of the laptops. There are certain tips with the help of which you can take care of the battery life and make it durable, please do take care of all the tips mentioned below:-

1. Never ever put your laptop on your bed while using it, this is one of the major problems for the decrement in the life of laptop battery. When you put your laptop battery on your bed mattress then it blocks the heating vents of your laptops and all the area of that mattress starts heating up along with the laptop making it a hotter base for you laptop. Thus for the cooling of your laptop, motherboard increases the speed of the cooling fan of your laptop which in return starts eating up your battery backup.
2. Try to put your battery away from high temperature. Your laptop battery loses its durability if it is kept consistently under high temperature. If you have got 2 batteries for your laptop then always keep the other battery wrapped up in a plastic under a cold environment and make sure that the other battery has been discharged up to 50 percent.
3. Never ever let the battery backup go below 15 percent. You must have heard people saying that once must fully discharge the battery and then charge it again to increase its life, but that is not completely true. This tip will work only when you have not discharged the battery below 15 percent; if it goes below 15 percent it will put high stress on the battery which may permanently hamper it.
4. Never unplug your laptop battery in between a charging cycle. This simply means that never unplug the battery while it is getting charged and not reached its 100 percent (or I should say unless one cycle is complete).
5. Do not remove the battery while using your laptop. I have seen people with the habit of removing the battery from their laptop when it gets plugged in to the external supply. If there is an electricity supply cutoff then all the data will be lost and believe me there will be high chance that your hard disk may crash (depends on how older your laptop is?). Now if your laptop has a problem of overheating (which happens due to the accumulation of dust into the heat vents blocking heat flow from your laptop to outside), then it advisable to remove the battery if laptop body temperature goes above 60 degree Celsius.
6. Never overcharge your battery. Please do not let your laptop be plugged in even when you battery has been fully charged. Doing so will decrease the charge capacity of your battery or I should say it will reduce the backup time of your laptop. Once your laptop gets fully charged remove the power chord from the laptop and use the laptop on the battery back until it reaches it’s 15 percent capacity, then plug that power chord again and do not unplug it until it is fully charged.
7. Things to remember to increase the backup-time while using your laptop on battery. If you using your laptop on backup and an immediate power supply is not nearby then try to keep the brightness at low as possible, this will really help a lot as brightness is main source of drawing the battery out. Apart from this, try to switch off the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (which are nowadays switched on from the same switch on your laptop) and all the unnecessary processes which are still running on your system. Let me explain this with an example of a situation, if you are using internet through a Wifi router and you are writing certain application and suddenly electricity cuts-off, then you can do the following; Lower the brightness, turn off your Bluetooth and Wifi, deactivate all the firewalls and anti-virus installed on your system (as now you are not connected to internet), Mute the speaker and try your best not to play any media file.
   Do all this and then see the difference, I can guarantee you that your battery backup will be increased by 50%.
   From time to time keep on defragmenting your hard-disk, it will arrange data efficiently thus reducing the power used by hard drive, if you have any other hard drive connected through USB then please remove it and then empty the CD\DVD ROM.
   
8. Power Options, select these options as per your requirements, if you don’t have much idea about it then select the default package for maximum batter as specified in the screenshot above. It will be wiser to put the laptop into hibernate mode rather than sleep mode, as in the hibernate mode OS will pause all the operations and will completely shut down the system whereas in the sleep mode, only hard disk will be turned off and touchpad with other peripherals will be active to get any command and then wakeup the system from its sleep mode.

Read more: http://www.technixupdate.com/8-best-tips-to-increase-windows-laptop-battery-backup-time/#ixzz1z77Qgjq3

8 Best Tips To Increase Windows Laptop Battery Backup Time