A pretty comprehensive review on the Amazon Cloud Drive

A pretty comprehensive review on the Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon Drive reviews have generally not been kind. Leading the list of complaints has been the lack of a sync function, the mainstay of cloud storage. However, much has changed, including its name (it used to be Amazon Cloud Drive), and with little fanfare the service has become much better. In fact, it recently made our list of the ten best Dropbox alternatives mostly on account of its excellent value.

Whether Amazon’s cloud storage service deserves a first, second or tenth look from you will largely depend on your needs. There are still some issues with the service, including a lack of productivity tools and no server-side encryption.

If you’re ready to give the service a try, you can sign up for 5GB of free storage plus unlimited photo storage by heading to www.amazon.com. If you’re still deciding, the following Amazon Drive review will help you determine where it stands in comparison to the best cloud storage services.

For complete details, go to https://www.cloudwards.net/review/amazon-cloud-drive/

Ranking #1 is Pointless – Here’s Why Your SEO Goal is Leads, Not Rankings

Ranking #1 is Pointless – Here’s Why Your SEO Goal is Leads, Not Rankings

Ranking #1 is Pointless – Here’s Why Your SEO Goal is Leads, Not Rankings

Google’s Top 10 Local Ranking Signals in 2017
By looking at several studies, we’ve pulled together the factors that are most important for local rankings in Google. Some of those are unexpected to say the least. Get your local SEO cheat sheet.
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Every SEO conversation starts with “rankings.”

Every SEO KPI starts with “#1.”

But here’s the thing.

How to remove a virus from an iPhone or iPad

How to remove a virus from an iPhone or iPad

iOS malware is rare but not unknown. Here’s how to check an iPhone or iPad for viruses and wipe it clean

iPhone viruses are rare. (See Do iPhones get viruses?) In fact, we should probably point out first of all that it’s unlikely that your iPhone (or iPad, for that matter) really has a virus – it’s more likely that you’re seeing a misbehaving advert in one or more apps you use regularly, triggering behaviour that is intended to convince you that iOS is infected and you need to download an app to fix it, or redirecting you to a dodgy web page or a dodgy app on the App Store.

However, malware of one kind or another does exist for iOS, even though to remains extremely rare, and if you’re sure your iDevice has a virus, worm or other form of malware, read on to find out how to remove it, as well as how to avoid iPhone malware in the first place. Read next: iPhone security tips

How to find out if your iPhone has got a virus

Technically speaking, a virus is a piece of code that inserts itself into another program, whereas a worm is a standalone program in its own right; both seek to propagate themselves by hijacking messaging applications or via social engineering.

The first part of these definitions does apply to a small number of malware attacks on the iOS platform; a number of apps, including some entirely respectable apps, have suffered the insertion of malicious code or the hijacking of the developer tool used to create them, and although malware apps should be caught at the app approval stage before appearing on the App Store, those who have jailbroken their devices can install apps from other sources and may inadvertently install something dangerous. In either case, however, the isolated sandbox nature of iOS should prevent the malware attack from getting access to other applications (in order to spread itself) or to the underlying operating system.

The main questions when trying to work out what has happened to your malfunctioning iPhone or iPad are these:

Have you jailbroken your device? And if so, have you installed an application from a non-official source whose authenticity is questionable? If the answer to both is yes, you may have a malicious piece of software on your device, and should attempt to isolate and uninstall the culprit.

Does the unexpected behaviour manifest itself when you use certain apps only? If so – and particularly if it’s only one app – then you’re probably looking at an app-specific issue, and we’ll deal with this in a moment. Common behaviour exhibited by apps that have been hijacked include redirecting you to an unfamiliar web page in Safari, and opening the App Store without permission.

If the problem continues to happen no matter which apps are open, the chances are that your device is misbehaving because of a hardware problem, or because of an iOS change that you’re not used to yet, or because you or another user of the device has changed a setting, perhaps inadvertently. It’s extremely unlikely that malware has penetrated to the heart of the operating system and is causing problems throughout the system; this would be essentially unprecedented. In any of these cases we would take the device to an Apple Genius Bar.

Is a compromised app causing the problem?

Rather than a virus affecting iOS itself, it’s possible that you’ve simply got a problem app. This doesn’t necessarily mean the app is bad or that the developers are at fault; conversely, the fact that an app is legitimate or was made by a reputable company doesn’t mean it can’t be hijacked by malware or hackers. Because hackers cannot break into iOS itself, one of their most common strategies is to crack a developer kit, which may in turn be used by well-meaning and unaware app developers. The crooks thus gain the ability to redirect you to a dodgy website when you use the app which uses the compromised developer tool.

It’s usually obvious when one particular compromised app is causing the problem, because you only have problems when using it. The usual giveaway sign is that, when you’ve got that app open, you will periodically be redirected to a web page, or to the App Store, without your permission.

If you think one app is the problem, first of all have a look to see if an updated version of the app is available, since the problem may have been noticed and fixed. Also check the app’s website (if it has one) and/or the developers’ Twitter feed (if they have one) to see if the issue has been reported or discussed in those places. If the devs are contactable then you should report the issue to them; they may be able to offer a solution, but even if they can’t, they are more likely to find a fix if they know about the problem.

Assuming that updating the app doesn’t solve the problem, uninstall the app and try to manage without it for a while. If the problem disappears then you’ve found your culprit, and it’s time to decide if you can manage without the app in the long term. Even if you do decide to give it the chop, however, remember that you can check in with the developers from time to time and see if a satisfactory update has materialised.

Clear history and website data

Here’s a quick tip that may resolve web page redirect problems. Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data, then tap Clear History and Data to confirm.

How to remove iPhone viruses: Clear history

Power off and restart

Hold down the power button until the screen changes and the ‘slide to power off’ slider appears. (This should take about four to five seconds.) Then slide the slider so the phone powers down. The screen will turn black.

To restart the phone, hold down the power button again. This time it should take about 10 seconds. The Apple logo will appear; at this point you can let go of the power button. Wait until the passcode entry screen appears (you need to enter a passcode instead of using Touch ID the first time you unlock a phone after powering up) and then unlock the phone.

Has this fixed the problem? If not, you may need to take more drastic measures.

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: simple steps to online safety

With each new devastating breach of security—Equifax, Deloitte, and Sonic, to name a few—the need for increased cybersecurity awareness has never been more apparent. It’s a good thing, then, that this month is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM).

Observed every October since 2004, NCSAM was created by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance to ensure that every American has the resources they need to stay safer and more secure online.

And now Malwarebytes is doing its part. Each week on the Malwarebytes Labs blog, we’ll focus on a theme and provide helpful articles, useful tips, and valuable analysis so that you can increase awareness and spread the word. This week’s theme: simple steps to online safety. Now mosey on over to the blog to learn the easiest ways to protect yourself online!

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Using www or no www

If you own a website, you have probably, at some point, thought about your preferred URL. Perhaps you chose between www.yoursite.com and yoursite.com straight away and never thought about it again. Or maybe you switched to or from www at one point. While in the early days of the internet www was the norm, these days a good many sites of great repute -Yoast.com included ;)- don’t use www. So, are there any SEO-implications to choosing either option? I’ll get into that in this Ask Yoast!

Should I use www for Google or not?

“Dirkje Evers emailed us about a Dutch hosting company that had recommended to them that using www.example.nl was better than using just example.nl for Google. And whether they should take that advice or not. Well, no… That’s what we call…nonsense. In terms that I can use on video. Because I’m actually up to use some other terms. It’s absolutely nonsense, you don’t have to use www for anything. The only reason why you would use www.something is if people would otherwise not recognize your domain name as a domain name. Which is something that is bound to happen, if you have a somewhat older target audience. But other than that use whatever you want. Use www or do not use www, whatever rocks your boat.

Good luck!”