The Best iPhone Case You Will Ever Own!

Do you have troubles with droping, scratching, or drowning your new iPhone? Do you want to write new blog posts in the shower, like I am right now? Well now you can!

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the generation 2 iPhone 4/4gs case. Just let me tell you, I am impressed.

If you all would direct your mobile web browsers with me to lifeproof.com
We will find that they claim four proofs. Water, dirt, snow, and shock. This is all you could ever ask for in a phone case. But how does it stack up to the competition, and it's own claims?

For comparison's sake we are going to line up the Lifeproof case against AT&T's favorite iPhone fortresses. I will share my experiences with my past iPhone protection (steps out of shower and dries off), the Speck and the fabled Otterbox.

Shock:
Most cases are designed to protect from scratching, but only true contenders in the iPhone protection business protect from a fall.

The Otterbox is legendary for taking some hard hits, however, I wouldn't want to drop a Speck out of much more than my pocket. Then there is Lifeproof. I would feel very comfortable with a little more than average use with this case. I won't be playing rugby with it, but I'm sure it make a fine ball.

Water:
Take your phone in the shower, I dare you. Attempt to capture brilliant full quality pictures underwater. Yea you didn't go and try that unless you feel like you want a new phone.

This case will go with you down, fully submerged, six feet and still have full functionality. That's nothing to shake a stick at. WARNING: people think it is weird when you call them from the shower.

Dirt:
The Speck was not dust proof by any means, but it kept clean. The Otterbox is a neat freaks nightmare, with all of its nooks and crannies. And neither of these cases could claim that they want you to drop them in mud, but Lifeproof does! Although, I don't recommend testing it strictly because angry comments scare me, but feel free to do what you want with this case, you are safe.

Snow:
Short of placing my phone in a freezer, I do not have the means of testing in the snow. With that said, I do not have any experience with iPhones and snow. If you end up with any and want to test that for me please leave a comment or contact me via g+ or twitter.

Design:
This case is well designed. Very slim and slides in and out of your pocket just like (if not better) than the Speck. Not to many parts to break, lose, or complain with two exceptions.

I will have to say that the hatch that protects your phone's charging port does come out at an awkward 90 degrees. This seams like it would be the only part you can break on it. The strange angle also makes it impossible to dock without purchasing a Lifeproof dock extender. The exact port size also makes it a challenge to get your phone charger in while fighting this hatch.

The only other complaint that I could see somebody having, is the screen protector. It tends to form a bubble over your screen which gives it a "plastic wrap" kind of glare. However, this seems to be a design element to allow for use of the touch screen under the pressure of water when fully submerged.

Summary:
The Lifeproof case is something that I will be recommending for a while. It's rich with features that you are not used to in a case. I think I will go lifeproof until they come out with bulletproof (the only thing this seams to be missing). With a multitude of colors this is great for mom, dad, girlfriend, Gram Gram, and whoever else may be on your shopping list.

To purchase a Lifeproof case or any of their accessories check out their website www.lifeproof.com.

Give Me Your Password Punk!

If you immediately felt like spouting off a password that you use for all social networking sites, email accounts, and anything else, DON'T DO THAT! There are enough ways that potential malicious persons could gain access to your valuable information and accounts, without you handing it to them. Let me give you a look behind the computer screen of password theives around the globe.

Let me tell you, it does not have to be a huge deal to get access to your password. I used to be a security adviser for websites, and occasionally still help out websites that I find flaws in. I could show anyone reading this how to get access to somebodies personal information in half an hour. (I won't, but I could). You may ask, "If it is that easy, then how do I protect myself?"

Make it Harder for them:
The correct response to someone waving a gun and asking for your password is, "Which one?" The biggest mistake you could make is having the same username and password for everything you do. If one of your accounts is breached, with any of the techniques I highlight below, and you have the same login credentials for every nook and cranny you occupy on the internet, you are in big trouble. Change those passwords! Do not make it easy for anybody to control your online presence.

I have created a hierarchy of passwords, based on my security needs and how much I can trust the website. I use different passwords for each of my e-mail accounts. (E-mail accounts need the most security because you can reset the rest of your passwords with them.) Then social sites have a very secure password. However, for smaller and less secure sites I will use another password all together, giving me more lines of defense between me and the potential hacker/cracker.

Password Complexity:
The most upfront approach to obtaining a password is to "Brute Force" it. There is an array of cracking programs that will guess passwords, one at a time. The website you are using should have some max login attempt, with some sort of lock, but let us not leave this up to chance.

The programs that "crack" passwords will use dictionaries, to guess words, and alphanumeric combinations to attempt to nail down your account. You want to make this as hard to do as possible. Use How Secure Is My Password to figure out how long it would take for "crackers" to gain access. This site is also great at catching some of the pit-falls like using a commonly used password.

How do I get Hacked?
Your head would spin if I outlined every way you could lose your online identity. I will give you the most common (and unfortunately easiest) ways that will eventually come your way.

Cross site scripting (XSS) is a serious threat.  You will not know what even hit you if you do not pay attention to your URL redirects. Javascript redirects placed on websites that do not block users from inserting their own code, or a well disguised bit.ly link can get you in trouble. Hackers will create a webpage that takes your cookies, or website information, and redirect you back to the website. They will look back at their log that was created by all of the unknowing victims, and do what they please.

You can stop this by turning off javascript redirects, and not following unknown links or videos. You can also turn off javascript all together if you are really worried.

SQL injection is not really something that you can stop, but a problem with the website you are using. Hackers can put lines of code that are parsed on the server that will change the way the website is intended to work. I have personally used a mind-numbing, four character, simple injection to gain access to account information and much more. I won't tell you what it is you have to find it yourself. SQL injection is illegal as far as I know, do not try it unless you have permission and you do not fear being sued!

The moral of this story is only trust websites that are secure. Again using different passwords for different logins will help you build up your defenses to protect your information.


Malicious Admins are an often a under estimated threat. Not only do they have access to the information on their site but can use your login information for other sites. Many users use the same password between sites. Use the same username and password on Google, or Twitter and you are done for.

If you want to learn more about your security, Check out http://www.hackthissite.org/. This gives you a perfectly legal way to learn and test the methods that can be used against you. Please use this for Educational Purposes Only!

If you have any other information that you think should have been added, tell me in the comments. You can also contact me via our Google+ page, or Twitter. If you liked what you read please let me know, by sharing and liking!

How long can Siri Proxy last?

Apple is not known for allowing users to freely develop, and tinker with their products. In all honesty, they would throw you in jail for changing a wallpaper if it wasn't very flattering. So what are they going to do with Siri Proxy?

Siri Proxy is a tampering proxy that will allow users to add custom commands to their talkative new assistant. Plamoni, the developer, says, "The idea is to allow for the creation of custom handlers for different actions. This can allow developers to easily add functionality to Siri."

Now phrases like, "custom," "tampering proxy" and "easily add functionality" are not usually something apple is comfortable with its users knowing. So, how long can this last before some lawsuit is filed?

Unfortunately they may have some grounds to shut the project down. In addition to controlling your thermostat it is also possible to use this to enable Siri, on an older iPhone or possibly any smartphone, (android, blackberry, ect...) with the setting of a few properties (not including installing the appropriate software). This kind of open usability could be absolutely devastating for a company who carefully closes all of it's code. It may also give Apple some legal traction.

personally would love the project to gain support. The possibilities are endless, and development for new commands would certainly be faster than anything that could be professionally pumped out of the silicon valley sweat shops.

If you want to get your own Siri Proxy server, so you can start developing your own commands, follow the instructions at https://github.com/plamoni/SiriProxy

If you have any comments, questions, or cries of anguish, look me up (Darrell Henderson, for those of you who didn't know) on google+! I will be more than happy to chat with you! Stay tuned on Neo_Flood and look out for some future posts!