NSA is Telling Mobile Users to Turn Off Find My Phone, WiFi, and Bluetooth
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The NSA is Telling Mobile Users to Turn Off Find My Phone, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Here’s Why

The National Security Agency (NSA) is recommending that people who are concerned about privacy turn off Wi-Fi, Find-My-Phone, and Bluetooth whenever they do not need to use those services. Yes, this is the same NSA about whom we have written in the past, including for being spanked by the court…

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How to Turn Your Cell Phone Into a Wifi Hotspot: WMWifiRouter

Turn your cell phone into a wifi router with WM WIfi Router! No more trying to figure out how to tether your laptop with your mobile phone; now your phone can be a wireless access point for any wifi-enabled device, be it laptop, another phone, or even a desktop computer! With WM Wifi Router you can turn your cell phone into a wifi hotspot effortlessly, and it works on dozens of different mobile phones!

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Can Your Car be Hacked through its Onboard Wireless?

With the increase in wifi in automobiles, coupled with onboard computing and tracki.. er, diagnostic capabilities, there has been a lot in the news lately about hackers wirelessly hacking cars. But how likely is it that your vehicle could be hacked?

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With Chevy’s In-Car Wifi Hotspots in 2015, What Mixed Messages?

General Motors (GM) has announced that many 2015 Chevrolet automobiles will have native, on-board 4G LTE wifi next year. The list of cars that will have onboard wireless hotspots includes the Chevrolet Corvette, Chevy Impala, Malibu, Volt, Equinox, Silverado, Silverado HD, Spark and Spark EV, and in Canada the Chevrolet Trax.

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Free Wi-Fi in New York City Courtesy of Google

We first reported that Google was aiming to provide free public wifi Internet access to the world over seven years ago, and they kicked off that goal by offering free wi-fi to Mountain View, and now they’ve announced that the area of Chelsea in New York City is the latest recipient of free Google wifi as they do their part to grow Manhattan’s Silicon Alley.

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The Copyright Alert System: Did You Get a Warning from your ISP for Downloading Copyrighted Material? Here’s Why

Be prepared for a series of virtual hand slaps if your ISP is saying that you downloaded copyrighted or infringing material or files. A “graduated response” program, aimed at cutting down on illegally downloaded files, was rolled out at the beginning of July and has drawn widespread criticism for both its intent, and execution. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO, Cary Sherman, is at the helm of a new initiative that aims to punish those accused of illegal downloading.

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Smart Meters: Are They Eavesdropping On Your Internet Usage?

Are smart meters (or as some call them “smartmeters”) the next great energy saver, or are they a privacy risk for someone hacking your wifi, Internet, or electricity usage data? Maybe both. Some are calling them a great way to save energy and money on our monthly energy bills, some are saying they are a sign that big brother is tightening his grasp, but either way, smart meters are stirring up some serious controversy. From public meetings in Vermont, to gun-toting homeowners chasing utility company workers who are aiming to install smart meters off their property, these tiny little devices have not arrived quietly.

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Turning the Homeless into Portable Wifi Hotspots: “Homeless Hotspot” Business Model Debuts at SXSW

How many times have you thought “Damn, if only I could get on the Internet right now! Where is the nearest public access wireless hotspot?” And how many times have you seen a homeless person standing on a street corner trying to raise some cash? Well, BBH Labs (the Bs stand for Bartle and Bogle and the H stands for Hegarty) have what they believe to be the answer: combine the two by turning the homeless into on-demand portable wifi hotspots. BBH debuted the so-called “Homeless Hotspots” at South by SouthWest (SXSW) this week, in Austin.

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How to Password Protect and Disable Wifi on an iPod Touch and iPad

If you are a conscientious parent who wants to let their child use an iPod Touch (or “iTouch”) or iPad, but who wants the iPod Touch wifi disabled before you give it to them, you may be frustrated at the lack of any way to disable wifi so as to lock down the iPad or iPod Touch internet access. You can’t password protect the internet access on an iPod Touch or iPad, as there are no passwords for iPod iTouch wifi. In fact, natively, there is no way to disable or password protect the iPod Touch internet access (how stupid, Apple, get on the ball here! Give us some iPod Touch wifi apps to disable wifi!) Oh sure, you can put parental control restrictions on individual applications (Safari, Email), but your child can still turn the iPod Touch wireless internet on, and for some parents, that’s still too much of a risk (and we say “Bravo!” to them for ‘getting’ it). There is, however, an iPod Touch hack that will allow you to disable wifi on your iPod Touch or iPad, by password protecting the iPod Touch wifi on/off switch, and here it is.

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Verizon iPhone 4 Sales Lackluster Despite On-Demand Mobile Hotspot Capabilities

The iPhone 4 was unleashed on the Verizon network earlier this month, and despite some nice extras unavailable on the AT and T iPhone 4, including the ability to use your Verizon iPhone to create and share a wireless mobile hotspot, the sales of the Verizon iPhone have been, by most accounts, underwhelming at best.

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What’s the Big Deal About Google, Verizon, and Net Neutrality? We Explain.

Tech news and forums this week have been overrun by chatter about the legislative proposal for net neutrality that Verizon and Google jointly released on Monday. The proposal, which both Google and Verizon posted to their blogs at 1:38 p.m. EST and 1:47 p.m. EST, respectively, was, they say, intended to spark discussion, and spark discussion it did. If your head is spinning with this week’s discussions of network neutrality, wireline, wireless, a private Internet, and “differentiated online services”, read on.

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How to Use and Connect to Your Mifi Wirelessly While it is Connected via USB to Your Computer

The Verizon Mifi 2200 (also known as the “Mifi wireless internet hub”) is a personal access point, or PWAP, and is a wonderful thing – a wifi hotspot in your pocket, wherever you are. And you can let up to 5 people connect to it wirelessly – unless you are charging it via your computer’s USB connection, in which case you can only use it as a USB modem for 1. Until now – here are directions for how to use USB to charge and connect with your Mifi, and still have up to 5 computers (including yours) connect to it wirelessly.

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Personal Wireless Access Points (PWAP) Becoming More Popular

Personal wireless access points (known by some as PWAP), also known as personal wireless hotspots, are becoming increasingly popular, as people are less and less willing to go without their Internet fix one minute longer than necessary.

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How to Connect to a Starbucks AT and T Wifi Hotspot with a 3G iPad

One of the perks of getting the iPad 3G is that, in addition to the 3G, says AT and T and Apple, “you’ll have access to over 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, and more.” In other words, you can connect your 3G iPad, via wifi, to more than 20,000 AT and T wifi hotspots (usually named “attwifi”), at no additional charge. But how do you connect at these 20,000+ AT&T hotspots at no additional charge? How do you connect to a Starbucks AT&T wifi hotspot, for example, with your iPad 3G?

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Google Offers Free Airport Wifi for the Holidays

Google is gracing nearly 50 airports in the U.S. with free airport wi-fi for the holidays. Two of the airports – Seattle and Burbank – will keep their free airport Internet access, and offer free airport wi-fi permanently. (The full list of airports offering free Google wi-fi is below.)