Skype is a part of Microsoft software; it is
the most popular voice communication site in the world. It has over 350 million
users. The main reason Skype is so popular today is because it allows people to
have free PC to PC international calls, and you will not be charged more than
your monthly internet service rate. From any place in the world, you can make
unlimited, totally free calls to anyone provided that person is also a user of
Skype. Therefore in order to talk to someone through Skype you have to arrange
it between people. It is also possible to use Skype to make local and
international calls to both landline and mobile phones, through something
called PSTN networks. You can also receive calls from these phones on your PC
although this is not free it is very cheap compared to traditional landline and
mobile international rates. These services are called Skype Out and Skype In.
As a result in Skype becoming so popular, many people can be found on Skype
from friends to business partners. People around the world use Skype for
several things ranging from long-distance meetings with family and friends or
remote activity monitoring and also for business calls.
Forums
An internet forum is a discussion area
on a website. Website members can post discussions and read and respond to
posts that other forum members have added. An Internet forum usually allows all
members to make posts and start new topics. They
can be focused on nearly any subject; people have the option to post what ever
they wish. Internet forums are also known and recognised as message boards or
discussion groups.
An Internet forum is different from a chat
room. Members in a chat room usually all chat or communicate at the same time,
while members in an Internet forum post messages to be read by others whenever
they happen to log on. Internet forums also tend to be mostly related to a
topic and all posts are meaningful. A blog is also very different from an
internet forum, they are usually made by just the one person and all topics and
messages are posted by the one person onto a blog, where an internet forum
allows all members to make posts and start new topics.
Before a prospective member joins an Internet
forum and makes posts to others, that person is required to register. The prospective
member has to agree to a certain number of rules that the website may have.
When a member is finally approved by the administrator or moderator of the
Internet forum, they then continue to create their own user name and password. A
password is often supplied for more security. There will also be an option,
similar to many social networking site to place a picture of yourself next to
you name.
A separate conversation in an Internet forum
is called a thread. A thread is also known as a topic. Threads are made up of
posts written by other forum members. Internet forum members have the option to
create edit their own posts at any topic of their choice, post in their choice
of threads and edit their profile. A profile usually has information uploaded by
that forum member about their self such as what town they live in and their
interests.
An Internet forum administrator or monitor
also plays a part in all forums. A forum administrator can modify threads as well
as move or delete threads if necessary. Moderators often help the administrator
and moderate Internet forum members to make sure the forum rules are being
followed.
Blogs
A
blog is simply you own personal diary; it
is a website, where you write stuff on an on-going basis. It gives you a chance
to update a collection of your own private thoughts on a daily basis. Your blog
is whatever you make it to be. There are millions of them all across the World
Wide Web, and there are no real rules. Your personal blog is a collaborative
space of which you can share your political thoughts, personal stories and
experiences, images and quotes. Your get the chance to share anything you wish
that you may find interesting such as news stories or anything with a great
importance. If you wish to recommend websites or videos then you can also post
a collection of links.
The
layout of the average blog is pretty simply, new stuff appears up at the top,
so your visitors or following can read what's new on your page. They then have
the option to comment on it or link it to their own page if they like it.
Blogger
was launched in 1999 and since then blogs have reshaped the web. People are
becoming more aware of the new of the world which has resulted in an impact on
people thoughts and emotions towards politics and any current problems. Millions of people chose to use blogs daily which has given them a wider chance of
connecting with others and meeting new people who may have similar interests as
you. But you have to remember that even personal blogs are not safe and anyone
has the option to view you page, so you have to be careful not to post anything
too personal because there are risks, similar to any social networking sites.
Mobiles
phones
A mobile phone, otherwise known
as a cellular phone or a hand phone. It is a device that can make telephone
calls though a radio link while moving through a wide geographical area. Every
phone is connected to a cellular network which is provided by a phone operator.
A phone operator is a company such as ’orange’ or ‘Vodafone’. Every mobile
device requires a sim card in order to contact people, when purchasing a mobile
phone you have the option to either go on contract, in which case you pay a
certain amount of money each month over a period of time to pay off the cost of
phone. Whereas pay as you go allows you to pay for the phone you want and then
just put money on it whenever you fun out of credit.
The first hand held phone was
invented by Dr Martin cooper of Motorola in 1973. Mobile phones support a wide
variety of other services such as text messaging (SMS), MSM which is usually
picture messages, e-mail, internet access, Bluetooth, gaming and a camera.
The technology has adapted a lot
overtime therefore the mobile phones around today are a lot more advanced
compared to the hand held phone 20 years ago. This includes the visual aspects
as well as the hardware and software installed on a phone. When you put an
advanced phone around today next to a phone from many years ago the visual
difference is obvious, for example the I phone has a large touch screen and a
maximum of 4 buttons, the rest of which are on the actual screen. On the other hand phones from previous
generations just have the standard arrow keys, the numeric keys, and star and
hash tag keys. The screen is extremely smaller and everything you do is
controlled by the buttons you press. So overall the hardware of a phone today
is far more advanced.
Smartphones
A Smartphone is a mobile phone
built on a mobile operating system but they come with more advanced capability
and connectivity than a standard phone. The most commonly used mobile operating
systems used in modern Smartphone include the following, Google’s android, Apples
iOS, Rims Blackberry OS, Samsung Bada, Nokia
Symbian and Microsoft’s Window phone. These can all be installed to many
different phone models and each device is capable of receiving multiple OS
software updates.
A smart phone is a device that
lets you make telephone calls but also adds in features that in the past you
would have only found on a computer or a personal digital assistant, such as
receiving e-mails.
Smartphone’s will always have the
capability and ability to do more, this is one of the reasons that the
popularity of a Smartphone has increased
and the devices have become most appealing to attackers who try to
attack them with malicious software also known as malware. This is one of the many dangers that can
occur when using you personal details with you mobile, such as your e-mail.
A selection of Smartphone’s may
allow you to download apps such as personal and business finance managers or
even handy personal assistants. There are now apps that allow you to edit your
own photos and download music also, this is usually made possible through
iTunes. Maps are very useful to have downloaded also in case you are ever in
need of driving directions.
Accessing the web is a necessity
for most people in this generation; Smartphone’s are able to do so at much
higher speeds, this is through the use of 4G and 3G data networks, with an
addition of Wi-Fi to support many handsets. Although not all smart phones have
high speed internet access, all have some kind of internet browsing access
overall, this makes it much simpler to browse at your favourite websites more
often. This is one of many benefits of owning a Smartphone.
All mobile phones can send and
receive text messages, but the aspect that sets a Smartphone’s apart from an
ordinary phone is the handling of e-mail. Smartphone’s can sync with your
personal e-mail and most likely your professional email too. Some Smartphone’s
can support multiple e-mails at once, but even if this is not possible others
still include being able to access other instant messaging services such as BBM
for Blackberry’s, Skype, Whatsapp messenger and MSN.
Social
networking
A social networking site is an
online service or site that focuses on people getting to know one another and
to help build social relations among people who have real-life connections such
as shard interests or hobbies or even backgrounds.
The standard social networking
site is usually we based and provides the means for users to contact each other
over the internet, they consist of a personal representation for each user
which is usually know as a profile or ‘My account’. This makes every user an individual and
therefore can be uniquely identified.
The main types of social
networking services are those of which contains category places, these could be
done in school years or classmates, which means makes it much simpler to search
your friends and make contact. The most popular social networking sites today
are Facebook, Tumblr and twitter, all of which are completely safe depending on
your set privacy settings and who you allow to be you friend. You have to be
careful when publishing your personal details on any social site and be aware
that if you’re not careful that just about any person can find out information
about you which is always dangerous.
These sites are available to
absolutely any person of any age but are most popular to the younger generation
as these type of sites are a relatively new service, this is also the reason
that there is currently no confirmed charge for membership, in some cases a
charge price has not yet been established.
Social networking sites are extremely
common today; they are starting to take over some peoples life’s as they are so
widely available. It is now possible to upload these networking sites to your
phone which means wherever you go you can always have some form of contacting
people. This is not always a good thing though, nearly every teenager today has
access to their own personal ‘profile’, this means that they are easily
distracted, when really they should be concentrating on their homework and
revision for school. But social sites and blogs can be so mesmerising as for a
teenager they hold a lot of funny and interesting photos or quotes, this makes
it simple for people to sit on the internet for hours on end and completely
discard the thought of school work. I
know that social networking sites can become brain washing from personal experience;
I used to sit next to my laptop with Facebook open the whole time I was trying
to study for my exams. I automatically got distracted when someone either
engaged in conversation with me or a post caught my eye as i found it
interesting. This put me off doing my work as it was much less entertaining
then scrolling through Facebook news feeds. |
| The 'At' symbol which is nessersary in every email address today. |
Also known as electronic mail, E-mail
consists of sending real times message to another internet user who has their
own e-mail or in fact many recipients at once. This could also be known as
instant messaging through the internet, this is very similar to text messages
using a mobile phone. An E-mail message send over the internet consists of
three components; these are the message envelope, message header and finally
the message body. The first E-mail was ‘mailbox’ which was first introduced in 1965.
E-mail is one of the most popular forms of contacting people today, especially
to the younger generation. It is extremely useful to internet users in any case;
it is a quick way to contact you employees within a work force if you have
something to say of any importance, it saves you having to tell them in person.
E-mail today is comparable to using chat rooms, but unlike chat rooms people
have to be invited to a conversation in order to join.
When any person makes an e-mail
account, if they wish to contact people they know through email, they have to
make it slightly obvious who they are through the name of the email its self;
so that user can be identified easily. E-mail users can keep track of welcome
guests and contacts by makings a series of different categorized lists.
When a contact sends an email to
another user, the receiver is alerted of this message immediately without
usually having to be signed in to your personal email.
E-mail is almost essential today,
but it also exposes organizations to a variety of risks. One of the best ways
to minimise the risks of e-mail is for an organization to distribute an E-mail
Policy to all of the company’s employees and to make sure that new employees
receive it when they are hired.
The main risk of e-mails is that
it is easy for just about anyone to track down your email and send you an
attachment which may sound like it is advertising something or sending you a
useful piece of information, when really you could be opening up a link to a
virus which will attack your PC. This tends to happen often on MSN messenger
because younger children seem to think it’s funny to send around viruses.
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