By Gilbert Falso :: 1:34 AM
Many LinkedIn users rushed to install the business networking site’s new mobile email tool, LinkedIn Intro when it debuted yesterday. The Intro application applied technology from the former Rapportive app, which LinkedIn purchased in 2012, to allow it to associate e-mails you receive with profiles of LinkedIn users.
Intro was integrated into the iPhone mail application in a roundabout way, and when users installed the application, they had to agree to a number of new security certificates and settings in order for it to work. Among these steps was one that puzzled many people – the app made a copy of the email account that you synched with Intro – and then asked you to turn off the original e-mail account.
“I was a little taken aback by some of the security settings it seemed to change,” said Dan Harrison, a web developer from New York. “I’m pretty technically savvy when it comes to my phone, and this seemed out of the ordinary.”
Harrison was initially receptive to LinkedIn’s new features, but when he discovered that it appended a LinkedIn branded signature at the bottom of emails he sent, he was upset.
“The signature surprised me, and I’m not exactly sure what it’s doing on the back end,” he said. Harrison later uninstalled the application.
Although Intro does append an email signature by default, that feature can be toggled off in the Intro settings. But Harrison’s concerns about the back end aren’t entirely unfounded. LinkedIn was able to modify Apple’s iOS Mail app to display their data by temporarily shifting your incoming email to a proxy server that they control. That means that your email goes from your provider, in many cases, Gmail, to LinkedIn’s proxy server, is “read” by LinkedIn, their profile data is inserted, and then it is delivered back to your phone or device.
LinkedIn’s execution of the Intro app is clever, but its also a security concern for many. “I don’t know exactly what LinkedIn is doing on that proxy server,” said Roger Murphy, an IT security consultant from Dallas, Texas. “I assume they are injecting profile data based on the sender’s name, but what else could they do, or how long does your email data get stored on LinkedIn’s servers?”
Until security firms like his have more time to evaluate LinkedIn’s new app, Murphy recommends holding off on installing the application.
“Adding another path, another server for your email to travel to and from just adds another point where your privacy could be compromised,” said Murphy.
To completely remove LinkedIn Intro from your iPhone, follow these steps:
1) Tap the app icon for LinkedIn Intro.
2) Select the mail account you want to remove. If you added more than one account and want to completely remove Intro, you’ll need to do this multiple times.
3) Tap the remove account button.
4) Once all mail accounts have been removed, go into your iPhone Settings, and look under the “General” tab.
5) Scroll down and tap the Profiles section.
6) Tap all profiles that begin with “LinkedIn Intro,” and select the “Remove” button on the next screen. You must remove all Intro accounts if there are more than one.
7) Once the last Intro account is removed, you can delete the Intro App shortcut from your home screen.
By Paul Thomson :: 11:22 AM
The business and social networking site LinkedIn is down for users this morning, returning an error message or just a blank page when access is attempted.
No estimated time has been provided for a fix, but LinkedIn is aware of the issue, and has issued the following statement:
Our site is currently experiencing some issues. Our team is actively working on it. Thanks for your patience.
For LinkedIn, the outage is badly timed, as the network had scheduled a press event to discuss their mobile strategy at 12:15 PM, Eastern time. LinkedIn planned to share their mobile vision and show off new products. It is not known if the downtime has delayed or rescheduled the planned press conference.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 12:34 AM
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a parachute doodle on Google’s homepage!
That’s right, today’s Google doodle, an interactive one, celebrates the 216th anniversary of the world’s first parachute jump.
On October 22, 1797, in Paris, France, Andrew Garnerin was the first person to jump with a parachute that did not have a rigid frame. Much like the doodle illustrates, Garnerin jumped from hot air balloons that ascended as high as 8,000 feet in the air.
His first jump, however, was at a more tame height of 3,200 feet, using a silk parachute.
Garnerin’s first jump was not without incident, as the parachute lacked a vent at the top, so he pitched and turned somewhat violently. He landed unharmed about a half-mile from where the baloon took off.
Two years later, Garnerin’s wife, Jeanne-Genevieve, became the first woman to jump with a parachute.
Unfortunately, Garnerin died in a balloon accident while testing a new parachute design in 1823.
The Google doodle today is interactive – once the parachutist is released from the balloon, your computer’s left and right arrow keys will guide the descent.
By Paul Thomson :: 11:28 PM
With tomorrow’s big announcement coming from Apple about the next generation of iPad tablets, trade-ins of old iPads are on the rise, and the price is right – for now.
For the first time in nearly two years, Apple is introducing a newly redesigned tablet. That means that companies like NextWorth and Gazelle, which are in the market to buy back used gadgets, are experiencing a large number of customers looking to trade in their old iPads for cash to spend towards new ones.
A spike in buy-backs began last week, when Apple announced that it would be unveiling the next iPad on October 22. iPad trade-ins at Gazelle, for example, have reached their highest level so far this year. The tablet accounts for 20% of the gadgets being traded in via Gazelle’s website.
If you want a good price for your old iPad though, you had better move fast, and your old unit should be in decent shape.
Published data on resold iPads shows that prices tend to drop immediately after Apple releases a new tablet. Prices will drop again as soon as that new tablet is available for purchase in stores and online.
For example, last year, trade-in values for the iPad dropped about 4% in October when the new iPad version was announced, and then fell another 10% in November, when it was available for consumers to buy.
There’s still a few hours before Apple makes that announcement tomorrow morning, so if you’re looking to get top dollar, head to Gazelle, NextWorth, or any technology buy-back site before the big news breaks if you want the best deal.
By Gilbert Falso :: 10:57 AM
Many Facebook users are encountering problems this morning doing simple things on the social network.
While they can access the site and view profiles and news feeds properly, any additional interaction results in an error message, such as when trying to “like” a photo or a status, or leave a comment.
Facebook’s engineering team is aware of the issue, and has issued the following response:
“We are aware that some people are having problems posting to Facebook and we’re looking into it.â€
Users are reporting problems both with the desktop version of the site as well as with Facebook’s mobile applications.
The network has not identified a time of resolution for the issue.