Ohhhh the weather outside is frightful, but the Bison are playing for a title. And I have places to go, but it's too cold, it's too cold, cold to snow..

BeBizzy Break Podcast : Episode 23 - Dropbox Paper and the Why's and How's of Podcasting

Dropbox Paper was announced last week and I started playing with it. It's a meeting management application that allows one to take notes, assign tasks, embed files and videos, and collaborate. Check it out.

Why and How Should I Podcast

Here's a simple list of what you neeed.

Software : Audacity is a free app, so $0

Microphone : A decent microphone will cost less than $100 through Amazon. The one recommended by many of the podcasting experts is the Audio-Technical ATR2500-USB

Place to Host/Distribute Your Files : I use Podbean for it's ease on submitting to iTunes and other resources.

Why Would I Podcat?

Works like a blog to get a message on your expertise out to the audience

It's primarily passive. Most people listen while they are driving, working, exercizing or doing something else. Podcasts can even be downloaded automatically. Reading emails and blog posts requires an active participant.

Notes (like these) can be added and supply keywords and other items that Google is looking for when indexing the site.

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Oh sure, first another blizzard, and now I almost get sucked into a nut website scam? 

Set BS detectors to stun!

EP22 - The Gacillia Nut Website Scam

I almost got taken by a scammer this week. I was approached, through text (?) by a gentleman who wanted a website built for his computer based in Washington DC. I do some work with a company out of Boston, and also have had past clients out east, so this wasn't totally out of left field. But something just didnt sound right. Below is the text sent to me...

"I have small scale business which i want to turn into large scale business now it located in and the company is based on importing and exporting of Agriculture products such as Kola Nut, Gacillia Nut and Cocoa so i need a best of the best layout design for it. Can you handle that for me ?. so i need you to check out this site but i need something more perfect than this if its possible .http://www.agroamerica.com.... the site would only be informational, so i need you to give me an estimate based on the site i gave you to check out, the estimate should include hosting and i want the same page as the site i gave you to check out and i have a private project consultant, he has the text content and the logos for the site."

James claimed to be hearing impared, so no phone conversation could be used. Now I know why. An internet search for Gacilla Nut revealed this scam IMMEDIATELY, right down to the exact copy of the contact. Apparantly the next step will be to say the credit card won't go through, and to provide him with a checking account number so he can transfer money. I think we all know what happens next. 

So, I've deleted the invoice, and will kill the contract with James. If anything else happens, I'll report back to you here.

In other news:

Fitbit bought Pebble watches. I've also heard that Pebble is now dead... I hope this isn't true. My first smartwatch was a Pebble and I loved it.

I updated three sites to Wordpress 4.7, which came out yesterday, with no issues. Hopefully this trend continues!

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Happy Wordpress 4.7 Eve, everybody! Start backing things up and getting ready to upgrade!

Episode 21 - Happy Wordpress 4.7 Eve, Google Handle and Chromebooks

Wordpress 4.7 is scheduled to drop tomorrow (12/6/2016) with promised security updates and more. 

Start updating and backing things up in preparation.

Google Handle is available for the Chrome browser and iOS. 

Makes it easy to create a task from an email and set a reminder to the Google calendar.

Chrome app to use in browser and iOS app available.

Thinking about getting a Chromebook, are you using one?

Also, we will be bringing Sara Hawkins back once or twice a month, so if there's a legal topic you would like us to talk about, send it to bebizzy.com or @bebizzy on Twitter!

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Well, we're digging out from our first big blizzard of the 2016-2017 winter here in North Dakota, but that hasn't stopped us work-from-home guys from getting stuff done.  

And just to warm up a bit, I took the opportunity to talk to Sara Hawkins about some basic legal issues this week

BeBizzy Break : Episode 20 - Change Your Google Password (again) & Sara Hawkins

Googlian - a malware attack was found on over 1million Google accounts that came from compromised phones. For sure, change your password, and you may want to take other precautions if you feel your phone and account has been compromised.

Sara F. Hawkins joins the podcast today in the first of a series of interviews centering around why and when you would want to engage an attorney as a small or solo business owner.

 

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Happy Week After Thanksgiving, everyone.

Hope you had a wonderful long weekend, or OK short weekend if you were working.

 

Episode 19 - Twitter Suspensions, 9.4 Billion in Mobile Profit, and Milebug

 

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, got his Twitter account suspended by accident last week. I've had this as well. What can you do once this happens?

Smartphone PROFIT for the 3rd quarter was $9.4 BILLION globally. Out of that, Apple gobbled up 91% of that profit.

Microsoft continues to attempt to make it OK for the LinkedIn purchase with the EU. Now opening Outlook to 3rd party app developers in regards to LinkedIn info

Real News - What is real news? Can you actually build something to filter out "semi-real" news? How does this affect advertising?

Milebug - Awesome Android and iOS app to track mileage and other expenses. I've been using it for years and highly recommend it.

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Happy Monday, everyone! Just a quick podcast today as I'm heading out of town for a client meeting.

Google has announced last week that while it likes mobile sites to be build with AMP (accelerated mobile page) in mind, it will still show desktop site results above AMP sites, even in mobile searches.

Takeaway might be to put AMP design on the back burner and focus on responsive right now.

Microsoft Azure Datamarket is closing March 31, 2017.

Start looking for alternatives now to avoid the rush

Facebook acknowledged it found reporting issues in video views and more back in September and it has adjusted numbers accordingly.

The company has promised to bring in more 3rd party data reviews to ensure the accuracy of information.

That's it for today!

 

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Oh the weather outside is frightful... or at least it will be in a few days. Big storm a'comin' to the midwest and heading east.

But inside here on the BeBizzy Break Podcast we're just talking about the holidays and your marketing.

Google Photoscan - need to digitize your old photos and upload them to social media or a secure cloud location? Photoscan will do just that. Available for the iOS & Android devices you can easily scan any old photo or document and keep it digitally.

Mandy Edwards from ME Marketing Services  joins the Break to discuss getting your small business ready for the holiday season with some tips on making your digital locations as well as your traditional marketing efforts a bit more seasonal.

Have a great weekend everyone! 

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

It's November 14, 2016... and it's 56° in North Dakota. Something's not right.

But on today's BeBizzy Break Podcast I talk a little bit about:

Yahoo! Mail, and why you should get rid of that thing moving to Outlook.com or Gmail

Why you should start planning on getting an SSL installed on your website to use HTTPS, even if you don't collect secure information and just want it to maintain your current search position.

And wearable device security. 

 

Don’t forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Well, it's the day after election day. Hopefully all of your candidates and measures passed, and if not, lick the wounds and get back to work, right?

Today we are talking about Scribblepost, a wonderful task-management system that I've been using for a few months. Paul Berkovic joins in from Australia to talk about the app and how you can use it to manage your business and your day better.

We also spend some time on : 

Election results and how we can celebrate/mourn the results, we really have to get back to working on our business

Microsoft lost 300 Million browsers last year, mostly to Chrome.

And, Wordpress 4.7 is coming, so get ready.

Don't forget to send us any suggestions for apps to review or people to interview. And subscribe to the BeBizzy Break Podcast on iTunes and Stitcher Radio. 

And as always, leave the technical stuff to us!

Episode 14 of the BeBizzy Break Podcast. On this episode we talk about:

Microsoft Teams - a Slack competitoTeam chat communication and file sharing

Introducting Microsoft Teams - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU-FMzZFF0 

Microsoft Introduces a trade-in program from Macbook Pros to Surface devices.Program ends November 11, 2016, so hurry up!

LastPass - making the mobile app free! You can use Lastpass to manage secure passwords across all of your logins and keep it safe with one secure passwordMobile traffic from StatCounter has finally passsed desktop. 51% of all web traffic is now mobile. - Have you updated your website yet?

Get ready for Snapchat Glasses - codename LagunaVideo camera sunglasses going on sale in the coming weeks

Synced to smartphone and snapchat accounts

Video files up to 10 seconds

Hype - Live Video Broadcasting app from the creators of VineCreators were not happy when Twitter announced Vine was being shut down.

iOS beta app

Competitors include Periscope, Snapchat, and Facebook Live and the rumored Instagram livestreaming app, GoInst