The IT Nerd

AVG has just came out with their he quarterly Android App Performance Report and it highlights some interesting findings based analyzing aggregated, anonymous data from over one million AVG Android app users to discover the top performance-affecting apps worldwide. Those findings are:

• Spotify has moved up two places from where AVG had ranked it in Q3 to take second position behind the social networking app from Facebook, whose constant background notification checks still have the greatest impact on overall Android Device performance, consistent with last quarter’s findings.
• Game On: demonstrating the ever-changing gaming landscape, last quarter’s gaming chart toppers, FarmVille and Puzzle & Dragons, showed major declines in their installed user base, contributing to the reason they dropped out of the AVG Q4 Performance rankings. They are replaced by new entrants, Boom Beach for overall impact and Deer Hunter 2014 for storage consumption.
• Seasonal Shopping Fever: over the Holiday shopping and sales period, the official Amazon for Android app entered the charts this quarter, ranked number five in the top 10 list of most all-round resource-consuming apps.
• Home Cinema Gets Smart: previously listed in the top three battery draining apps, Netflix this quarter no longer appears in the tables at all following  a November update that has resulted in significantly less battery drain. Good news for film fans!
• Helping Hands that Hinder: tools like Clean Master or background apps like Samsung’s Security Policies designed to help keep smartphones secure and smooth, actually rank among the highest drainers of battery, storage and data plan.

If you want to read the full report, click here. It’s a very interesting read for Android users.

Over two-fifths (43%) of those over 50 feel patronized by technology companies according to the latest study by AVG Technologies which surveyed almost six thousand people over the age of 50 about their technology habits and opinions as part of its ongoing AVG Digital Diaries research.

Let me hit the highlights from a Canadian perspective (seeing as AVG surveyed people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) as to what the study found:

Attitudes towards technology

• 64% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to shop“ (the lowest of all countries). 

• 93% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to find information“(the highest of all countries).

• 80% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to bank“ versus 77% globally

• 24% of respondents find it easy to keep up with/use the latest tech (the lowest of all countries). 14% say it is either very difficult or impossible (the highest of all countries).

• 86% of the sample agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to communicate with family and friends“.

• 78% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to entertain myself“.

• 30% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to keep myself fit and healthy“.

• 75% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to arrange travel“.

• 53% agree with the statement that ”Technology has improved my ability to share my life with others e.g. through photos, videos etc.“.

Device ownership/usage

• Among digital devices a camera is the most owned/used at 81%, followed by a Desktop PC at 70%, a laptop at 70%, a phone at 63%, a tablet at 47%, a smartphone at 45%, an eBook at 24% and finally by an activity tracker/wearable device at 4%.

• 77% of respondents use some app on their devices. The most predominant are banking/financial apps at 58% followed by social apps at 49%, shopping apps at 34% (the lowest of all countries), Entertainment apps at 34%, news apps at 32%(the lowest of all countries), 32% also use Travel apps, 14% use health-related apps and 7% use Picture apps e.g. Instagram, Snapchat (the lowest of all countries).

Social media

• 65% are daily users of Facebook, 29% use LinkedIn 20% use Google+, 16% use Twitter, 14% use Pinterest and 24% of respondents are not on a social network at all (consistent with results from other countries).

• 50% of respondents don’t use any communication service such as Skype, Facetime, What’s App, etc..

• The most widespread communication service is Skype with usage at 42% and Facetime at 20%.

Technology in general

• 33% of respondents think that tech companies patronise older customers.

• 48% think that companies talk down to them when they want help.

If you want to see some other facts from the study, have a look at this link. It’s very enlightening and perhaps perceptions of those over 50 need to change and change now.

AVG today announced the availability of its 2015 portfolio of protection, performance and privacy products. This includes the new all-in-one AVG Protection and AVG Performance suites for PCs, Android devices and Apple devices, and AVG Ultimate, which includes both protection and performance suites in a single package.

AVG Zen

AVG Zen can be downloaded from the Google Play store or when installing AVG Protection, AVG Performance, or AVG Ultimate. It shows at a glance the full status of the Protection or Performance settings customers have on the PCs, Android devices, and Mac computers they have added to the AVG Zen network.

AVG Zen’s refreshed look and feel for the 2015 products means users can easily:

• Add an unlimited number of their family’s devices.
• Run a scan remotely from their mobile device to their PC (and vice versa), other mobile device or Mac computer.
• Run Automatic Maintenance on Windows PCs and laptops remotely or check up on Android devices and Mac computers.
• Easily access individual products, such as AVG AntiVirus or AVG PC TuneUp, directly from AVG Zen.

AVG Protection: includes AVG AntiVirus or AVG Internet Security, AVG AntiVirus for Mac, AVG PrivacyFix and more, all-in-one package

AVG Protection delivers the latest versions and full range of AVG’s Protection products for desktop and mobile in a single suite, without the customer having to purchase the individual products. With AVG Zen, all PCs and mobile devices running AVG Protection products can be monitored for security issues. The new Remote Actions feature also helps users fix security problems, such as remotely enabling security features that have been disabled on one from another device, such as a PC or Android smartphone.

AVG Protection includes:

• AVG Internet Security: now delivers even earlier detection methods with our new outbreak detection and priority updates.
• AVG AntiVirus for Android: customers get the same great experience on their Android tablets as on their mobile devices. This includes locate, lock and remote wipe a smartphone using the Anti-Theft feature if it has been stolen. It also features app lock and backup, privacy settings for social media, call and message blocker and wipe device for improved online privacy.

Customers purchasing the AVG Protection subscription will receive the PRO products including AVG Internet Security. They can also add the devices of family members to their AVG Zen Network to share all the PRO benefits at no extra cost. The PRO subscription for unlimited PCs and mobile devices is $59.99 for one year, with the individual products also available. AVG Protection is also available as a 30-day trial fromwww.avg.com/protection.

AVG Performance: includes new AVG PC TuneUp, AVG Cleaner, AVG Cleaner for Mac, AVG Cleaner for iOS and more, all-in-one package

AVG Performance brings together all of AVG’s hero performance products in one single place, AVG Zen, for ease of use. It includes software and mobile apps to keep PCs or laptops running Windows, smartphones and tablets running Android, Mac computers and now even iPhones and iPads in top shape, an all-in-one performance suite that covers all popular platforms on the market. AVG Zen makes it simple to check the status of all the devices in the home and clean PCs remotely from a smartphone or a secondary PC.

AVG Performance includes:

• AVG PC TuneUp: AVG’s award-winning version includes 39 tools to speed up, fix up, clean up, and enhance battery life of all Windows® PCs and laptops with features like Automatic Maintenance, Program Deactivator and Economy Mode. The all-new AVG Cleaner for iOS feature safely removes leftover files from iPhone and iPads once plugged into any Windows PC and laptop. It also removes redundant files, such as corrupt downloads, temporary files, or invisible crash reports, helping free up space for their personal data or to install the new iOS updates. The Disk Cleaner feature has also been significantly enhanced support has been added to clean up leftover files from popular gaming platforms Steam and Origin, Skype, nVidia/Intel/AMD drivers as well as iTunes and Quicktime.
• AVG Cleaner for Android: with the new ‘large file scanner’, users can scan their Android phones for storage hogs, such as old downloads or videos in addition to enhancing battery life with ‘Battery Profiles’ and thorough cache cleaning. AVG Cleaner for Mac scans disks and looks for leftover files from Mac OS X and programs as well as duplicates that users may have forgotten about.

AVG Performance is available as a 30-day trial from www.avg.com/performance. The PRO subscription for unlimited PCs and mobile devices is $39.99 for one year, with the individual products also available.

AVG Ultimate which is a one-stop collection of tools for cleaning, optimising and protecting all your PCs, Android devices and Macs, is available as a 30-day trial from www.avg.com/ultimate. The Ultimate subscription for unlimited PCs and mobile devices comes in at $89.99 for one year. The individual products are also available.

International research conducted by AVG Technologies shows that Canadian small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and managed service providers (MSPs) are more optimistic than their counterparts in other countries that the Internet of Things (IoT) will increase revenues.

AVG interviewed 1,770 IT and marketing professionals in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and Canada from a wide range of industry sectors.  Of SMB respondents who were asked if the IoT would help make more money, 76% of Canadians believe it will compared to 49% of Americans and the international average of 57%.  Canadians also indicated that the IoT will create new business opportunities, 73% (strongly agree or agree) compared with 67% internationally and 69% of Americans.

Canadian businesses are also ahead in the planning for the IoT. Asked if they had substantial or moderate budgets for IoT, 84% answered ‘yes’ compared to 50% of Americans and an international average of 62%. Asked if their IT provider was ahead of the curve on IoT for business, 71% of Canadian SMBs answered “completely” or  “slightly” compared with 46% in the U.S and an international average of 58%.

The full release can be found here and it’s a very interesting read.

AVG today announced a number of updates to its flagship AVG PrivacyFix application, including extending its scope to Twitter and enabling users to assess their ‘worth’  to the key networks in terms of targeted advertising value.

The value of personal information is becoming big business to social media companies. With AVG PrivacyFix 3.0, users can now see not only the extent to which their social media account settings are exposing their personal information but can also understand how much they could potentially be worth to the companies who would look to monetize their social media interactions.

AVG’s free application allows users to take steps to assess their exposure and apply one-click fixes to their settings, which include:

•  Choosing who can tag them in photos on Facebook
• Preventing their location from being made public on the key social networks
• Deciding if others can find them through the email address attached to their account
• De-authorizing access to old and unused apps connected to their Twitter account

This latest version of AVG PrivacyFix also includes a new Progress Meter that gives users a better all-in-one view of their social media privacy settings, including showing which advertisers are tracking them online and offering a snapshot of their overall journey to taking control of their privacy.

AVG PrivacyFix is now available in English and seven additional languages – Czech, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Available for desktop and mobile devices running on the Android and iOS platforms, it is also integrated with AVG Zen, which lets users see their protection, performance and privacy status across all devices from one central place.

If you rely on teachers to teach your kids about online safety, you might want to rethink that according to research provided by security company AVG.

The research, in which almost 1,800 teachers globally were interviewed, indicated a need to provide teachers with more support and training for educating children on the subject of online safety. Two thirds (64 per cent) of respondents agreed that schools should provide better training on using the Internet as an educational tool, and 77 per cent stated Internet safety should be a dedicated part of the education syllabus.

This highlights the concerning gap between the knowledge and capabilities of teachers and the expectations of parents. Though more than nine out of ten (92 per cent) teachers of a wide range of subjects confirmed they use Internet content in class and 69 per cent discuss online safety on an occasional or frequent basis, only one in four have actually had formal training to teach online safety skills (28 per cent)

This says that teachers need to be better prepared to deal with online safety. In the age of cyberbullying and other online threats, this training in my mind is not optional. Now that also means that parents have to step up and fill the gap. AVG can help with that as they have an interactive book called Magda & Mo which can help to provide you with useful tools to help develop your child’s understanding of how to make the right choices online, and give you as a parent practical guidance on this important topic.

AVG used an online survey to interview 1760 teachers of a variety of subjects with children between the aged of 3-18 to identify levels of training on security awareness in the following places:

• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• United States

See where your country ranks and how concerned you should be.

AVG Technologies has revealed that by the age of ten years old, most children today will have already had their first ‘facts of life’ talk with their parents. This is up to five years earlier than their parents’ generation, the majority of whom (50 per cent) could not remember having had the conversation until the age of 15 – if at all (42 per cent).

To help to address this, AVG has created a series of interactive ‘click-or-tell’ digital books, called Magda and Mo. Developed with global Internet safety charity, Childnet International, the introductory book, ‘The Pirate’s Donut’, is a fun story for young readers and their parents to read together as they guide the title characters to decide between going online themselves or asking a grown-up for help. Other interesting facts can be found in the study which I’ve linked to as well as the video below:

According to AVG who commissioned independent technology market research specialist Vanson Bourne to undertake a study on the topic, Canadian small businesses (98 per cent) believe the Internet of Things (IoT) will bring fresh opportunities for their businesses. While 42% agreed that IoT will mean more time spent dealing with security hacks this was more than offset by the 84% of Canadian respondents who said that human error would continue to give them more concern than smart devices.

The research, which interviewed more than 2,000 small businesses in Canada, Australia, UK and USA also showed that there is much more to do to help them understand what IoT actually means. Of the 250 businesses surveyed in Canada, 61% of Canadian companies understood IoT to be a network of connected devices that are able to communicate with one another. The Canadian result compared to 57% overall.

Asked to list their concerns about Internet-connected devices, Canadian small businesses named their top three as:

1. Risk – 58% of the Canadian sample think the IoT will result in their organisation being more open to security breaches or hacking (53% overall, 54% USA). And 44% of those surveyed agreed that security software aimed at IoT would put their mind at ease (overall 57%, USA 65%)
2. Complexity – 48% of Canadian respondents said data security would be more complex (48% overall and USA) and 36% said backups would become more complex (33% overall)
3. Cost –44% of Canadians said that cost is a reason

A summary of the other main findings in the study were:

• The majority of Canadian respondents, 71%, report IoT as being relevant to their business to some extent (overall 70%, USA 80%)
• Of Canadian respondents, 58% (overall 59%, USA 65%) said the main benefits of IoT will come from increased access and 64 per cent from faster access (overall 60%, USA 66%) to more data. Of the Canadian businesses surveyed 60% see productivity gains (overall 60%, USA 69%) and 54% (overall 49%, USA 56%) said it will help customer satisfaction. However, only 41% of Canadians expected it to help them be more profitable (overall 42%, USA 51%).
• Canadians said the top 5 devices that could present a security threat to Canadian businesses were: IP Phones (68%), CCTV (38%), Factory Equipment (32%), Sensors (29%) and Smart TV (26%)
• The top reasons respondents associated with the Internet of Things that are preventing small businesses from buying and implementing smart devices were cost, ( 44% of Canadians compared to 45% overall, and 48% in the USA), and security (42% of Canadians compared to overall 44%, and 51% in the USA). Lack of demand was cited by 26% of Canadians compared to 26% overall, and 19% in the USA.

AVG has announced the launch of its latest mobile application, AVG Vault. The free app uses advanced encryption to secure personal digital items, such as credit card details, official documents, pictures and private notes. AVG Vault allows users to sync this encrypted personal data between their devices via cloud services. Data from lost devices can be restored on a replacement device. AVG Vault harnesses the Advanced Encryption Standard established by the US National Institution of Standards and Technology (NIST) to provide users with greater security for the storage of sensitive data on mobile devices. Whether at home, in the office, on vacation or on the road, AVG Vault helps ensure your personal items are with you and secured. Additional security features of AVG Vault include Idle Time Lock, which allows the users to set the app to lock after a set period of time sitting idle, and Attempted Access Notification, which locks the device and takes a photo of the user if anyone enters an incorrect pin several times.

AVG Vault is now available for Android and iOS devices.