In the summer of 2011 Facebook set up their own bug bounty program to encourage more of their users to find and help prevent any bugs or glitches found within the social media site. With security being paramount to the success of many companies it is vital that social media companies are careful with the data their users have entered.

This is an intuitive method of software testing in which Facebook only have to pay out when users find bugs – much cheaper than hiring a whole software development team. Having access to a huge variety of software testers is also an advantage as they combine different skills and experiences to find bugs that others may miss.

Last year Sony revealed last year that 12700 credit card details were stolen by hackers, leading to the closure of their PSN online network for 23 days to the dismay of millions of its users. The cost of the outage was huge to the massive technology firm’s reputation, as well as its wallet, having to give out compensation packs to lure its tiring and agitated user base of over 77 million back in. This shows that even the biggest companies in the world can make oversights in testing and as a result be held hostage by hackers.

These flaws are more important to the users, whose information they willingly give up to sites and is at risk of being exposed and stolen against their will. And when that comes to bank details many users will find that to be a deal breaker when it comes to using that service again in the future.

To find out more about what bugs are common in software take a look at our Top 10 Reasons for Bugs in Software post.

Facebook’s new method to prevent information leakage is to offer hackers who have found an exploit within the social network, of over 800 million members, is to give them a debit card. Read the rest of "Hackers to Receive Debit Cards From Facebook"

Silicon Beach Training provide a host of great mobile development courses, including iPhone App training, Android App Training and Mobile Web Design courses. However, every new app needs to be tested thoroughly before launch.  With a wide variety of operating systems, screen resolutions and hardware combinations desktop software testing needs to accommodate for. This, however, is a mere drop in the ocean when compared to the multitude of mobile platforms and smartphones that need to be tested before launching an app.

With apps becoming increasingly popular and complex the need for testing has never been higher, but with so many smartphone platforms, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile (and then there’s the tablets!), each of which running different software versions, button layouts, screen sizes and sporting different hardware, covering all of your bases is becoming a time consuming and expensive task.

As well as the software and hardware differences between devices you also have to take into account the number of mobile phone networks that the devices operate on. This makes the number of unique combinations to test vast! So buying one of every type of phone isn’t a practical solution. Especially as there are over 350 types of Android device alone!

Luckily there are other ways which when used will bring your testing time and expenditure down considerably. Here are seven of our favourites: Read the rest of "App Testing for Smartphones and Mobiles"

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There are lots of Software Testing tools and applications out there that make the life of a Software tester easier, from free open source tools to expensive professional applications. However – if you’re running Windows 7 on your PC you already have a free software testing tool, and I bet you didn’t even know it!!

If you’re looking for a Software Testing Qualification check out our range of ISEB & ISTQB Software Testing Training courses!

Meet the Problem Steps Recorder!

This handy little tools enables you to track your interactions with any piece of software, taking screenshots and logging your actions along the way, and also enables you to make your own notes about your user experience.

Read the rest of "Tools for Software Testers: Problem Steps Recorder in Windows 7"