Ardis loves his new Nexus 6P on Google Project Fi.

It’s Sean Birch’s turn to venture through the Pacific Northwest, so he is out of the studio for this week and next. (When’s Ray’s turn? #justsayin.) But Ray and Tom press on none-the-less. The Deemable Duo were joined by long-time listener Ardis Meade who showed us his new phone, the Nexus 6P and told us all about his phone carrier, Google Project Fi. Very interesting stuff if you’re in the market for a new phone or a new carrier. Stick around after the news for that.

By the way, we don’t just have a subreddit page for the fame and the glory. We have it because we want to know what you want us to talk about! We know you’re purusing the tech news all week. Go to our subreddit page, reddit.com/r/deemable, and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down.

And make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review on iTunes and on Stitcher. The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

If you have a response or comment for the show, give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

The Deemable Tech Podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at asmallorange.com.

THE RUN DOWN

Turns Out Disney Isn’t That Bad After All

CNN reports that one Star Wars superfan with terminal cancer got to screen the film early. Daniel Fleetwood is a 32-year-old who lives in Spring, Texas and a Star Wars enthusiast who camped out to see new releases of the films and collected Star Wars paraphernalia. He is also dying of spindle cell sarcoma and is not expected to live to see the official release date of the new Star Wars film Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Hashtag  ForceForDaniel promoted by actors Mark Hamill and John Boyega persuaded director J.J. Abrams and Disney studio execs to let Fleetwood view an early edit of the film according to a spokesperson from Disney Studios.

The film will be released to the public on December 18th.

Chrome OS And Android OS To Become One

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is planning to merge ChromeOS and Android OS starting in 2017, with a beta appearing next year. The first Chromebooks came out back in 2011. At the time, the idea that Google would release an OS that wasn?t Android created quite a stir. However Chromebooks soon made inroads thanks to their super-cheap, basic, and lightweight SKUs. Chromebooks have an OS that is essentially the Chrome browser plus a couple of simple add-ons. The Chrome app store has never really taken off, but the OS has delivered on its promises of being lightweight and receiving constant, invisible updates. While Android is also a relatively lightweight OS it works entirely differently from ChromeOS, and its update process is much more laborious. How the two operating systems will merge remains to be seen.

Facebook Kicks More Competition To The Curb

Facebook, and practically all companies on the web, stay in business from ad revenue. The more you are on the website, the more money they make. Yep, that’s right, Facebook is making bank from all those pictures of your kids and stupid quizzes you fill out.

Well, another social media network, Tsu.co, decided to share its revenue with the users. The more that people view your content, the more money you make. And you make money off of inviting people to join Tsu.co. You make money off of the posts that the people you invited posted. If that sounds like a pyramid scheme, it’s because it basically is.

And much like any other new social network that has started since Facebook took dominance, (Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, etc.) Tsu.co is trying to grow by letting its users share posts on Facebook.

This worked, right up until Facebook blocked them. Unlike how Facebook made YouTube videos look like crap on Facebook to make its own video platform stand out, Mashable is reporting that Facebook went with the nuclear option. Users cannot even mention the website on Facebook. If you type Tsu.co into a post or comment, Facebook will not allowed it to be posted.

Facebook says it’s because users posting links to Tsu.co are engaging in spammy behavior and Tsu.co encourages it. I will say after checking out Tsu.co, it doesn’t seem very spammy. It’s mostly the same type of posts I see on almost every social network: cats, muscle-heads, news, cats ? you get it.

Don’t Buy Things From The Guy In The Back Alley

Gizmodo reports that a security research blog claims that in third-party Android stores, popular apps like Candy Crush, Facebook, Google Now, Twitter, WhatsApp, and more are infected with adware that gives itself root access to a user?s device. It appears that hackers are taking popular apps and repacking them with their own malicious Trojans and uploading them to these other stores. Right now the Trojans do nothing but serve up ads, but with root access much nastier things are possible. So far, no Trojanized apps have been found in the official Google Play store. So as always, people, you sideload apps at your own risk. Playing outside the official sandbox is still the #1 way to get your device infected with malware. Be very certain that you trust an app?s maker before you sideload it.

One More Reason To Hate Comcast

If you live in Little Rock, Arkansas; Houma, LaPlace and Shreveport, Louisiana; Chattanooga, Greenville, Johnson City/Gray, Tennessee; or Galax, Virginia you’re about to have one more reason to hate Comcast. DSLReports says that the lucky customers in those cities will no longer have unlimited Internet on Comcast, but instead will have a cap of 300 GB per month starting in December. If you go over, you will be hit with $10 per 50 GB over the limit.

Why is Comcast doing this, you ask? They say it is for ?fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers?

According to the email DSLReports obtained, Comcast believes “that 300 GB is more than enough to meet your Internet usage needs.”

All hope is not lost though. You can still get unlimited Internet from Comcast in those markets. All you have to do is pay $35 more each month for unlimited Internet than you were already paying for unlimited Internet.

Teen Stoners Hack CIA Director’s Email. Yeah, It’s That Easy

A pair of teenage hackers who enjoy ?recreational pot smoking? are apparently on a hacking roll, according to Gizmodo. Calling themselves CWA, short for ?Crackas With Attitude,? they hacked CIA director John Brennan?s AOL email account last month. This week they did one better, posting the contact information of 34,000 government employees online, including the phone numbers of FBI agents. So far it appears that all the data leaked is legitimate.

The hackers have been communicating at times with the press, often via disposable Twitter accounts. Asked how he felt about hacking the government, one of them told Gawker, ?since only 13 i am pretty hype about it.? He also said he had no problem with being labeled a ?teen stoner?, saying that he felt that ?it just kinda describes us in away.?

This week Ray, Tom and Sean discuss the hacking of the adultery-centric site Ashley Madison, drones causing problems for California firefighters, and security flaws in Jeep Cherokees. That and more on this episode of the Deemable Tech podcast.

If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on our website, make sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher. And, while you’re there, leave a review. The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

If you have a response or comment for the show, give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

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Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there. We’re also looking for a new admin to help manage and moderate our subreddit page. Submit a text post to our subreddit explaining why you would make a great admin.

If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

THIS WEEK’S RUNDOWN

Ashley Madison gets hacked

Last week, hackers targeted AshleyMadison.com, an online dating site for married people looking to have an affair, and claimed to have downloaded its complete database of 37 million user profiles. The hackers, who call themselves The Impact Team, are threatening to release all the profiles publicly unless Avid Life Media, the company that owns Ashley Madison, shutters the site permanently along with sister site EstablishedMen.com.

Image credit: Ashley Madison

The hackers also take issue with Ashley Madison’s paid “full delete,” where the site charges users $19 to full erase their profile. The hackers claim that Ashley Madison does not in fact purge all of their records from their database, even after a full delete has been paid for.

Strangely, as of this podcast, the hackers have released only two of the 37 million profiles. One belongs to a man in Brockton, Massachusetts, the other to a man in Mississauga, Ontario, in Canada.

Stupid, stupid drones

Drones prevent firefighters from putting out a fire on the 15 Freeway in Southern California’s Cajon Pass. Cars were stopped on the 15 because of a wildfire and several caught fire. Firefighters were unable to get water to the cars because five drones were hovering over the site. Apparently this has been an ongoing issue with the wildfire that is so bad it’s been given a name, North Fire.

Drone operators have been flying around while firefighter helicopters have been trying to do their job. This particular incident was so bad, several people were severely burned, and twenty vehicles were completely destroyed. Two of the drones even pursued the helicopter.

In equally stupid drone news, an 18-year-old decided to attach a gun to a drone and fire the gun. He probably would have been fine if he hadn’t also decided to video record it and post the video to YouTube. The FAA is investigating the case to see if any federal laws were broken.

This isn’t the first time someone has weaponized a drone. In 2013 a company that creates screen protection built a drone, attached a gun to the gimble and shot some video of the Skynet-esque monstrosity shooting soda bottles and cans, and a Samsung Galaxy.

Hackers demonstrate exploit that allows them to remotely control Jeep Cherokee

Wired reports that white hat hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek were able to take control of a Jeep Cherokee using the Chrysler Uconnect system installed in the vehicle. The hackers performed their exploit remotely while Wired’s journalist was inside. The hacker’s code reportedly allows them to control the AC, change the volume of the stereo, control the transmission, disable the brakes, and kill the engine.

The hack comes just as senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal are introducing new legislation that will mandate digital security standards for cars and trucks.

Apple kicks Nest out of bed

Re/Code is reporting that the Apple Store no longer carries the Nest Thermostat, Nest Protect or Nest Cam online or in its retail stores.

This all happens of course after Google bought Nest last year, and Apple is about to launch the first of its HomeKit automation enabled products. No surprise, around the same time as the Nest Thermostat was taken off the shelves, the Ecobee 3, a wireless thermostat that does work with HomeKit quickly took its place.

Unfortunately, none of this is terribly surprising. Apple sold tons of fitness bands like the Jawbone Up and the Nike FuelBand… right up until they launched the Apple Watch when they quickly dumped the products off their shelves.

This could be a sign that Nest won’t support HomeKit. Which is sad for iPhone users who were looking forward to the day when we could tell Siri to turn the temperature down, like their Android friends can do with Google Now.

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If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

Andrew writes, “It seems like every week there’s another scary news story about a big bank or a major company getting hacked. Is there any way to safely shop online, or should I just stay off the internet altogether?”

You’re right, Andrew, there have been a few pretty severe hacks of some large corporations recently. Unfortunately, we probably haven’t seen the last of them. But here’s the thing: staying off the internet probably won’t help you at all.

Image credit: Sean MacEntee / Flickr

Most of the businesses that have been hacked lately were retail stores, and the people affected were those who had shopped in the stores’ brick and mortar locations, not online. Hackers found their way into the companies’ servers, and were able to skim credit card numbers as they were scanned into the database.

Banks similarly store your information in databases that are connected to the internet. While they take security precautions, those defenses are sometimes compromised by hacking groups that have become more organized and sophisticated.

You see, Andrew, you don’t even have to be online for businesses or banks to store your information online.

All of this can understandably seem pretty scary. Luckily there are systems in place to protect you if your information is stolen. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, says that customers can only be held responsible for a maximum of $50 for a fraudulent transaction, provided they report it to their bank or credit card company quickly. In fact, most credit card companies will rarely hold someone responsible for any fraudulent charges on their card, as long as they report those charges in a timely manner.

The trick is to keep an eye on your bank account and credit card statements. Be on the lookout for transactions you don’t remember making. Remember, the sooner your report a fraudulent transaction, the more likely you are to get all of your money back.

It really is okay to shop online, just as long as you use some common sense. For example, only give your credit card information to reputable online retailers. And make sure you use good, unique passwords. Like we’ve said before, long passwords of 15 characters or more are best. You should also avoid using easily guessable names or words for passwords. Have different passwords for different websites, especially the important ones like your bank, your favorite online store and your primary email account. We also recommend using a password manager like LastPass or DashLane.

Stay safe, and happy shopping!

Photo Credit: “Credit Cards” by Sean MacEntee is used under CC BY 2.0.

This week, Ray, Tom and Sean discuss the Federal Office of Personnel Management being hacked, Facebook finally adding support for GIFs, and a woman who didn’t realize the old computer she was throwing out was really a piece of Apple history worth $200,000. The guys are also joined by Ryan Thompson of GAAM (Games Arts and Music) to look at some of the week’s top video games news, including Lego’s new “Minecraft killer” game, Lego Worlds. All that and a whole lot more on this week’s Deemable Tech!

If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on our website, would you subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher? And, while you’re there, would you leave a review and say a few nice things about us? The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

The Deemable Tech Podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at asmallorange.com.

Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there. We’re also looking for a new admin to help manage and moderate our subreddit page. Submit a text post to our subreddit explaining why you would make a great admin.

THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

Woman junks $200,000 Apple I prototype

Okay, so you’re cleaning out the attic and you spot an old computer moldering in the corner, so you decide to cart if off to the electronics recycler. Stop! Is that an Apple I computer? Because if it is, it might be worth as much as $200,000!

Now the chances that you have an Apple I in your attic are slim, because only about 200 were ever made and they weren’t commercially available like their predecessor, the Apple II. But a woman in Silicon Valley apparently did have one lying around, as she showed up last month at a local recycler on dropped one off along with a bunch of junk, saying her husband had died and she was cleaning up.

The recycler is now searching for the woman because it is their policy to split half the proceeds of any sales with donors. Unfortunately, the woman left no information. In fact, when they asked her if she wanted a tax receipt, she said “No, I don’t need anything.”

An example of an early Apple I computer on display in the Smithsonian Museum.
Photo credit: Ed Uthman / Flickr

Science teacher suspended for using cellphone jammer to crack down on cell phones in class

This next news story was submitted by redditor FrakinBeast:

A Tampa Bay area science teacher has been suspended after he allegedly used a signal jammer to prevent his students from using their cellphones during class. The school board issued instructor Dean Liptak a five day suspension without pay, saying that he might have interfered with people trying to dial 9-1-1. It is not clear where Liptak acquired the jamming device, but they are available online. On its website, the FCC reminds consumers that “It is a violation of federal law to use a cell jammer or similar devices that intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications such as cell phones, police radar, GPS, and Wi-Fi.”

This is not Dean Liptak’s first run-in with the school board. He is a former professional wrestler and has previously been reprimanded for test questions referencing the velocity of a student thrown against the wall by a teacher, and the mass of a car running over a baby.

Facebook adds GIF support

After years of waiting, you can now share animated GIFs on Facebook! The site finally added support for GIFs this past week, and using it is as easy as posting a link.

Just like videos from YouTube, you simply copy and paste the link for a GIF into your status update window, wait for it to load, and hit post.

Also like videos, your auto-play settings affect animated GIFs. Depending on how you have those set, GIFs will either automatically start looping or they will show up as a still image with a little white circle that says “GIF” in the middle which you have to click to play.

We should note that while you can now post animated GIFs using links, you still can’t upload them directly from your computer or phone.

Facebook also tests pronunciation tool

In other Facebook news, they have started testing a feature that will let you tell the world how to pronounce your name. On certain profiles, a phonetic pronunciation of the user’s name is displayed in their details. You can also click that pronouncer to hear an audio clip of how to say the name.

They are just focusing on English speakers in the US at the moment. It looks like most people who fall into that category have this feature, which you can find in the About tab on your profile. Look under the “Details About You” menu for the “How do you say your name?” feature.

You’ll see that Facebook offers three suggestions on how they think your first and last names are pronounced, or you can enter your own pronunciation.

Amazon Prime launches same day delivery in 14 cities

Good news for Amazon Prime members living in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, and ten other select cities – you never have to leave your home again! Amazon is rolling out free same day delivery in your area for orders of $35 and up. For orders that don’t qualify for free same day delivery, it costs $5.99, truly a bargain when it comes to avoiding the unwashed masses! In fact, even if you live in one of the chosen fourteen cities you may not qualify for same day delivery, depending on where in town you are. Amazon has a zip code search page where you can check your eligibility.

Amazon has been rumored to be working on same day delivery for years. Expect these fourteen cities to just be the tip of the iceberg.

IRS and OPM hacked

The Office of Personnel Management, basically the HR department of the entire Federal government, was hacked this week. According to a letter released by the OPM, almost 4 million current and former federal employees may have been impacted, including yours truly. The source of the hack has not been confirmed yet, but CBS News White House Correspondent Major Garrett is saying all signs point to Chinese hackers.

As a former IRS employee, Ray is terriefied. The Office of Personnel Management has more personally identifiable information on him than his wife and his mother combined.

Netflix probably not planning to ruin everything

This week some news outlets reported that Netflix was experimenting with pre- and post-credits-roll advertising. This had some folks in an uproar – was Netflix about to devolve into a Hulu Plus-style cesspit of insidious advertising? Well, probably not. Think less Hulu Plus, more HBO. Netflix says it is experimenting, just experimenting mind you, with showing previews for Netflix’s own original series at either the beginning or end of streaming content. If this is in fact the case, this seems fairly innocuous to us and could even be welcome if the previews are well done and well targeted.

How did Vanity Fair keep Caitlyn Jenner a secret?

According to Mashable, Vanity Fair went to great lengths to make sure the story did not leak out. The story and photos were edited on a computer that was air-gapped. All network connections, Wi-Fi and bluetooth connections were disabled, and every night the files were deleted from the computer. The photos were even hand delivered to the printer.

GameStop to purchase ThinkGeek

In a surprise turn of events, game retailer GameStop appears to be buying nerd-themed online retailer ThinkGeek. ThinkGeek was set to be acquired for a cool $122 million by mall retailer HotTopic when GameStop swooped in and topped them with a $140 million offer. The acquisition will allow GameStop to display ThinkGeek merchandise in its stores, a move which has obvious synergies.

Valve begins offering refunds for all Steam games

Valve, the company behind the popular Steam PC game store and download client, announced this week that it is changing its refund policy.

It used to be that Valved that only offered refunds for games purchased through Steam in extreme circumstances. Their new policy, however, applies to all games.

“Maybe your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn’t like it,” the policy reads. “It doesn’t matter. Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any reason, if the request is made within 14 days of purchase, and the title has been played for less than two hours.”

This does not necessarily mean you can try out games for free, though. Steam said they reserve the right to decline a refund if they think a user is abusing the system. BUT they will allow you to return a game right before one of the famous ridiculous sales and then repurchase that game for the newer, lower price.

Lego Worlds Launches

TT Games and the Lego Group have made Lego’s hotly anticipated “Minecraft Killer,” Lego Worlds, available as an early access beta on Steam. For under $15 you too can help TT Games and The Lego Group debug their open world plastic brick building paradise. Lego Worlds lets players build existing sets, do free-form building and even customize your own mini-figs. Still missing from the game is any form of multiplayer. Possibly Lego is concerned about players sharing certain types of anatomically-correct tall buildings.

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If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

Photo Credit: “Apple I Computer” by Ed Uthman is used under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Q: I’m fairly new to Apple computers, and one of the reasons I made the switch from PC was to avoid viruses, hackers and other bad stuff. Should I install an antivirus program on my Apple laptop?

A: If you’re like us, Nancy, you’ve probably heard a lot of people say that Macs don’t get viruses. While this isn’t entirely true, there is a lot to back this claim up. Macs are safer on average, and it has to do with a couple of factors.

Image credit: Ricky Romero / Flickr

When hackers write a virus or a piece of malware, their goal is to make money. The most efficient way to make money is to get the virus on as many computers as they can. Apple has always had a pretty low market share in the world of home computers, usually around 10 percent. So, if you were trying to write a virus, what would make the most sense: writing it for the majority of computers running a version of Windows, or writing it for the small number of Macs?

Also, Mac OS X is based on Unix, which (without getting into all the nerdy technical details) makes it much harder to hack than Windows. However, this does not mean that Macs are unhackable.

You may have heard about the recently-discovered bug called Shellshock, which can let a hacker gain unauthorized access to computers running Mac OS or Linux. Although it impacts very few Mac users, it is just one of several bugs and security vulnerabilities that have been discovered in Mac OS X lately. Apple does a fairly good job of patching these up once they’ve been discovered, but it usually takes a little while.

To answer your question, Nancy: we actually wouldn’t recommend installing any antivirus software, unless you are using your computer to run a business. This may sound strange considering what we just said about recent bugs, but it has to do with the cost-to-benefit ratio. As we said, the chance of you getting a virus is very low. When you take those odds into account with the cost of antivirus software, and the amount of resources that software takes making the computer slower and less productive, it just doesn’t make sense to invest that much into it.

We do recommend, though, that you install antivirus software if you use your computer to run a business, especially if you work in the medical field or if the data on your computer is incredibly sensitive. Avast and Kasperky both make highly rated antivirus software for Mac OS X. Avast is free, and Kasperky starts at $39.95.

Every once in a while we like to cover something everyone should know, and this time we wanted to talk about securing your personal information – on your smartphone.

Image credit: Kelvinsong / Wikimedia

If you own a smartphone, you probably keep tons of personal information on it: your address book, emails, passwords, maybe even credit card data. Your phone knows where you work and where you live and who is texting you. It’s a gold mine for everyone from phone thieves to advertisers to hackers.

Many smartphone owners would be surprised at how easy it is to learn some basic hacks which allow you to extract data from someone else’s smartphone. But there are a few simple steps that they can take to make it much harder.

We want to emphasize that it’s probably impossible to completely hacker-proof your phone. If government spies are trying to break into your phone, they are probably going to get in. But you can stop your run of the mill identity thieves.

Tip #1: Lock your smartphone!

It’s so simple, and yet so effective! Why should someone bother hacking into your phone when they can just pick it up and see everything on it? You need a lockscreen with a password or an unlock pattern or a fingerprint scanner. Using a password is the most secure technique, and the more characters you have to enter, the better. But even a simple pin code or unlock pattern is better than nothing.

Most Android phones support unlock patterns. If you use one, though, you should take one extra step for security: wipe down your phone?s screen frequently! This way a thief can’t simply follow the smudged fingerprints on the screen to determine your unlock pattern.

Here’s another lock screen tip for those of you with iPhones: by default, iPhones allow you to do a few things without unlocking your phone, like voice dialing and previewing texts. You can disable this, though, and you should. Unless you like the idea of a stranger at the coffee shop reading your texts!

Tip #3: Don’t connect to open Wi-Fi networks!

Avoid that free coffee shop Wi-Fi if it doesn’t have a password! Any device, whether it?s a phone or a tablet or a laptop, which is connected to an open Wi-Fi is a hacker?s dream. With some basic software installed, a hacker can see almost everything anyone on the Wi-Fi network is doing – sending emails, logging into Facebook, etc.

The good news is, people are wising up to the fact that having unsecured Wi-Fi is not a good idea. Some places still offer it, though. If you don?t have to ask for a password to get in, it?s probably not a good idea to use that Wi-Fi.

Speaking of Wi-Fi: if you got your iPhone from AT&T it has an interesting extra feature. Any time an AT&T iPhone detects a Wi-Fi network called attwifi, it will automatically try to connect to it. That’s a problem, to put it bluntly. A hacker could just setup a network, call it attwifi, and wait for people?s phones to automatically connect to it so they can extract information. The good news is, this is a feature you can turn off on your iPhone, and you should. Just open the Settings app, tap Wi-Fi, and tap the check box next to ?Ask to join networks?. And contact AT&T customer support and tell them that you don’t approve of them making their customers’ phones vulnerable in this way.

Tip #4: Turn off location tagging on your smartphone’s camera

When you take a picture with your smartphone, it adds the GPS coordinates of the place where you took the picture to the image file. Later on, that can help you remember where you took the picture at. That’s convenient, but many times when you upload that picture to a website or email it to a friend, the GPS coordinates remain embedded in the file. Anyone who has that picture can figure out where you took it. And if it’s your house, well, now they know where you live. And that?s no good.

You can turn this feature off on Android phones, although the details depend on what phone you have. You should be able to find instructions with a Google search. On an iPhone, go to Settings, and then privacy, and then Location services and then you should see an option for the camera. Switch that to off.

Tip #5: Require a password for purchases

This is something we’ve talked about before, but it?s worth repeating: both Android and iPhone allow you to set a password on the phone that must be entered before you can make purchases on the phone. Stopping kids or others from running up charges on your phone is always a great idea.

Tip #6: Disable third party cookies

Everybody likes cookies, right? Well, maybe not if they are cookies on your computer which can allow advertisers to track what websites you visit. For those readers who don?t know, a cookie is a small text file that a website places on your computer or smartphone. They can be used to help websites remember to automatically log you in, which is great. But they can also help advertisers to track you which not everybody likes.

On the iPhone’s Safari browser you can stop this. Safari lets you disable ‘third party cookies’, which are the kind of cookies that many people don’t want, the kind that help advertisers offer targeted ads. Most browsers now offer a ‘DO NOT TRACK’ option as well. It’s a good idea to turn this on. Now here?s the thing, the ‘do not track’ option is not universally respected. There are some advertisers that will ignore it and track you anyway. But it can?t hurt to have it turned on.

Tip #7: Wipe your personal data before you return your phone to the store

Occasionally you may need to take your smartphone somewhere to get it repaired or to swap it for a working model. Before you do this, it’s a really good idea to wipe all of your personal data from your phone! What you need to do is reset your phone to factory defaults. Your smartphone should come with instructions on how to do this. Of course you should backup all your personal data before you do this as it WILL be erased!

So these are just a few tips that will help you keep the personal data on your smartphone more secure from thieves, from hackers and even from advertisers. And if nothing else, you should always, always –

LOCK YOUR PHONE.

Q: When ever I go on my computer I get a message that someone else is using my IP address. I am terrified. Is someone else pretending to be me? Please help!!!!!!

A: Linda, first of all, don’t panic: if a hacker wanted to pretend to be you, they wouldn’t steal your IP address. It?s unlikely you are being hacked. What is more likely is that you have two devices on your home network that are conflicting with each other.

Your mysterious IP address thief is much more likely to be a misbehaving wireless printer or mobile device that is using your WiFi network than a hacker. Wireless printers are sometimes the culprit, because some of them have pre-set IP addresses. If the WiFi router hands out that preset address to another computer or device, the router will get confused about who to send data to. Of course it doesn’t have to be a printer to blame, it could be anything that is using your Wi-Fi.

Try disconnecting your laptop from the Wi-Fi and then reconnecting. That should cause the router to assign it a clean IP address. Actually it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do that for every device connected to the Wi-Fi.

It?s possible, though, that this problem stems from either your laptop or another device on the network having a static IP address set. If that?s the issue you will probably need a technician to come out and look at it, as that starts to get a little bit complicated.

It?s also possible your wireless router is having problems, in which case it will need to be replaced. While that can be a pain, the good news is that you aren’t having your identity stolen by hackers!

Q: The other day I received a direct message on Twitter from a colleague of mine that said, ‘Is this what you were talking about?’ and a link to a web page. Like a dummy, I clicked the link. It took me to some random web page that didn’t have anything to do with me. I messaged him back, and he had no idea what I was talking about. Then, I started getting messages from other friends on Twitter asking what I was talking about. Somebody hacked our Twitter accounts! What can we do to fix it?

A: Ouch! You’re not alone though. In fact, Amanda Bynes, Britney Spears, Justin Beiber, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, Donald Trump, Burger King, Jeep, NBC News, the Associated Press, the New York Times, and even President Obama have all had their Twitter accounts hacked. Anthony Weiner, MTV, BET and Chipotle all lied about their Twitter accounts being hacked, each for their own reasons, but let’s not get into all that.

So, how do you fix it? There’s a lot to do, but we’ll help you get your Twitter account straightened out and secure.

The first things you need to do are log into your Twitter account and change your Twitter password. In case you may have downloaded a virus, you may want to do that from a different computer than the one you normally use. Make sure to pick a strong password, and make sure you change your password in your password management system (like Lastpass, Dashlane or 1Password) too. Also, in case you did download a virus, make sure to update your virus software and run a full scan.

If you can’t log into your Twitter account because the hacker changed the password, submit a password reset request. You should receive an email with a link to change your password. If you don’t, it’s because the hacker also changed the email address associated with your Twitter account. Now you’ll have to contact Twitter with a support ticket to get access to your account.

Once you’ve gotten into your account and changed your password, you want to revoke the access of any and all third party applications that have permissions on your Twitter account. Go to Settings and click Apps. You should find a list of all of the applications that you and the hackers have given access to your account. You could just revoke the permission of the applications that you don’t recognize, but the smartest thing to do is revoke all of them and then add them back one by one.

Now that you’re finished revoking your apps’ access to your Twitter account, start adding them back. You’ll need to go into each app and sign into Twitter again. Make sure that you change your password on any apps that have it saved. You will get locked out of Twitter for too many failed attempts to login if you don’t.

Finally, be a friend, and make sure to delete the direct messages that your account sent out while it was compromised. Also, make sure to send another direct message letting the person know that if they clicked the link they’ll need to get their account straightened out too. You might want to post something publicly on your Twitter feed as well.

What if someone hacked into your email, and stole all of your personal information? Luckily, many sites like Gmail and Facebook offer an extra layer of protection to make sure that you, and only you, can log in to your account. So how can you make your login more secure? The hosts of Deemable Tech, Ray Hollister and Tom Braun, look into two-step verification in this week’s Ask Deemable Tech.

RAY: Hi, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and we’re the hosts of Deemable Tech. On the show, we answer your questions about computers, tablets, mobile phones and the Internet, like this question:

FRANKLIN asks: My Gmail account was recently broken into by hackers who guessed my password. I have regained access to the account through Google Support and changed my password, but I am concerned that something like this could happen again. Is there any way to increase the security of my online accounts?

RAY: Yes Franklin, you could have stopped the hackers from getting into your Gmail account if you had enabled two-step verification. Many online services are now offering two-step verification, and it’s a great idea. The way it works with Gmail is that you provide Gmail with a phone number. Then, if anyone tries to either reset your password or access your account from a new computer or device, Gmail will contact you through either a text or a phone call. They will give you a pin # which must be used in addition to your password to proceed.

With two-step verification, any time you or someone else tries to access your Gmail account from a new computer, phone or tablet, not only do they have to enter the password but they also have to enter the special pin code they send to your phone. You can set up special, single use passwords for apps and devices that don’t have the ability to input pin codes.
Two-step verification allows you to greatly enhance the security of your personal accounts. I have enabled it, so if somebody tries to reset my Gmail password, or attempts to login to those accounts from a different computer or phone, I will be immediately notified by text. Meanwhile, they won’t be able to log into my account without that all-important pin code. Even if they know my actual password.

Setting up two-step verification for Gmail takes a few minutes, but is well worth your time. Sign into your Google account, go to settings, and under Personal Settings, then under Security there’s a link that says “Using 2-step verification.”
Once you’re there it will ask you for a phone number to either send you a text message or call you to give you a pin number for verification. Once you get the pin number, enter it back into your Gmail account. Now you are ‘double verified’.

TOM: Facebook has a very similar system under their security settings. They call them ‘login approvals’. To turn on login approvals, login to Facebook and click the ‘gear’ icon in the upper right hand corner of the web page. Then click on ‘Account Settings’. Now, on the left side of the screen you should see ‘Security’ right under ‘General’. Click that. On this page you should see the ‘Login Approvals’ section. Check the box next to it and click ‘save’.
You will then be asked to enter a mobile phone number where you can receive text messages. Facebook currently requires this to activate Login Approvals. However once it is activated you can also receive login approval pin codes through the Facebook app on your phone.

RAY: Now, we don’t want to make you completely paranoid that hackers are out to get you. But Franklin’s story is a sobering reminder that we need to take all the steps we can to protect our most valuable online accounts. And two-step authentication, or ‘login approval’, is a great way to add an extra layer of security to your Gmail and Facebook accounts.

TOM: Now we just gave you a lot of directions, so if you want to hear this segment again when you’re in front of your computer, go to Deemable.com and click the radio segments link.

RAY: To hear more answers to questions like this one, listen to our show at Deemable dot com, that’s D-E E-M A-B-L-E dot com. There you can listen to all of our previous episodes and, of course, subscribe to our podcast.

TOM: If you have a question for Deemable Tech give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or you can send us an email at questions at deemable dot com.

RAY: For Deemable Tech, I’m Ray Hollister

TOM: And, I’m Tom Braun.

Earlier this week, it was revealed to the public that the downloadable al-Qaeda magazine, Inspire, was infiltrated by the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters and British MI6 intelligence hackers in 2010. The mission, called “Operation Cupcake”, replaced a lethal tutorial on ?How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom? with an encrypted, heart-attack inducing recipe for “The Best Cupcakes in America,” which came from the Ellen DeGeneres talkshow website.

The 67-page al-Qaeda magazine originally contained articles such as ?What to expect in Jihad,” and articles written by Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri. As mentioned before, the al-Qaeda tutorial also included a recipe showing how to make a deadly pipe bomb with sugar, match heads, and a miniature lightbulb attached to a timer – all ingredients that could be easily found in the home. As the first English-language Jihadist online magazine, the purpose of the propaganda was to attract and recruit al-Qaeda supporters throughout the Arabian Peninsula and even “lone-wolf” terrorists in the US and UK.

As humorous as the mission sounds, “Operation Cupcake” was a failure in several ways. The Inspire, run by the extremist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, was reissued with the correct bomb recipe only two weeks later, had four additional editions that followed, and the intelligence agencies missed a golden opportunity to alter the ingredients subtly so that al-Qaeda may not have realized that the magazine was on the radar. In response to the operation, user “Symbiote” commented online, “Why not replace the bomb recipes with harmless things that look like they could be bombs, but have no chance of working? Or perhaps require large quantities of strange ingredients, to help trace where the people using the recipe are… MI6 (if this was them) should be better than this.” A similar Pentagon operation was blocked by the CIA last year because they believed that it would have exposed sources of valuable information… and they were right.

Even though today is National Doughtnut Day, if you’re at least looking to make some delicious Mojito and Rocky Road cupcakes, you know to search for “The Best Cupcakes in America” by Main Street Cupcakes.

Photo by Zack Whittaker via ZDNet