Heart of Texas Network Consultants Blog

Here are four of the best smartphone accessories out there, including ways to get more battery life out of your device, ways to communicate more effectively, and other portable conveniences.

USB is a popular technology in all modes of today’s society. You’d be hard-pressed to find a modern piece of technology that’s not compatible in some way, shape or form with USB. Thumb drives, chargers, and even portable drives all use this common technology. However, this also means that hackers can take advantage of its popularity to spread malware and other problems.

If you happened to plug your Kindle into your computer and get a blue screen of death, you aren’t alone. Many Kindle users have discovered that the Anniversary update to Windows 10 has caused an issue when attempting to use USB to charge the device or transfer books. It would seem that, within moments of connecting the Kindle to a Windows 10 device, the device will lock up and display the dreaded Blue Screen of Death before rebooting.

Hackers today are trying every approach possible to steal your device's data, including the hijacking of public USB ports. This technique is known as "juice jacking," and with this new threat, you should think twice about charging your device using a public USB charging kiosk, or even the USB port on a friend's computer.