I really didn’t pay any attention to it. I mean, why would you? We all get them daily, “Attention, your site has been compromised”, “Warning, you may have illegal access on your server” etc etc. I get very few into my actual inbox, as my spam filter picks them all up automatically. This one for some reason came to my inbox.

No problem, I thought, had a quick scan of it with my eyes, just to check, but no – all looked quite spammy to me. So, I did what I normally do and just hit delete. It was written in the style of making it look professional to make people read it, (which is why I did), but it all seemed too unlikely that I paid it no attention.

However, being cautious, I loaded up my site straight away and went through every page, just to see if there were any potential changes that I didn’t make, and wording out of place, weird formatting changes etc. Nope, all looked fine. Phew. False alarm, as predicted.

That is, until I received a text message on Sunday night from the guy that hosts my site, saying that it’s been hacked and has been shut down! ‘Oh dear’, I thought, or words similar in meaning. This isn’t good. He said he’d been contacted by the technical team at my hosts, they’ve detected things that shouldn’t be on there, and for safety, have shut down my site so nothing else could be done.

For most of Monday, I was on skype with my host and my web guy, in a three-way chat window, whilst we were trying to figure out what things had been uploaded to my server, and how quickly we could get rid of it. It took him some digging, but found 3 or 4 pages that had been uploaded last Friday which were made too look like bank login pages. The cheeky scamps. I’ve no idea if they were indeed successful for the hackers in question, but they were removed immediately, as well as some dodgy ‘scripts’ that were causing more trouble, including an additional Trojan horse virus in one of the parts of my site.

That last bit was quite scary to me, as horses are quite sinister at the best of times. Luckily my web guy, Mick, managed to remove everything malicious, de-bug everything, protect the place where they managed to gain entry from, and updated everything that needed updating.

Absolute lesson learned, to make sure everything in the back end of your site is as up to date as can possibly be. My CMS was apparently a version behind, and that was enough for this canny hacker to find the weakness and gain entry. So, if you’re not sure if your site is as secure as can be, I highly recommend you check, or get your web person to do it on your behalf.

So, by around 3pm on Monday, everything was back to normal and my site was back online. It had been down for approximately 16 hours, but that could have been a lot worse, or meant building it again from scratch. My now-learned advice – back up everything, and keep it all up to date. Big Brother is apparently always watching!

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist

There are many times in life, examples of misheard communications. Your manager told you to do something but you do something else, Ordering the wrong stock as you were too busy concentrating on Facebook friend requests at the time. Well, if this sounds like you, then you’ll like this video. A tribute to those of you who hear something else entirely!

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist

A video I came across recently, with their interpretation on what Twitter’s really for!

Definitely some truth in that!

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist

It’s 6 days to go until the iPhone 4 will be in my hands. I’ve been thinking today about how it will change my existing user experience, new features that I will start to use, how it will change or enhance the functions I already enjoy using the iPhone for. Just how different is it likely to be?

I suppose really, the first question would be, when are you getting yours? I’ve seen today that o2 have stated that only existing o2 customers will be able to buy the new iPhone 4 at launch, as they have priority, with new customers coming to o2 not being able to purchase until at least the end of July. That’s great news for me, as I’m an existing customer; hopefully it means that they WILL have some handsets in my local o2 store next Thursday, so I can walk away a very happy customer!

With all the new features that Apple have crammed into this new unit, what do you think you will use the most? Has it really enhanced what you already use it for? I know I for one am looking forward to the built in HD camcorder, with the ability to publish immediately to youtube; instant video blogging! It doesn’t get much more powerful than that in my opinion!

Taking photos on my existing iPhone has always been a drag, with there only being a 2MP camera on the 3G unit. Pics are ok, but any movement, or anything less than bright sunshine and they look hideous. a 5MP camera is a very welcome addition for me.

Facetime, the video calling functionality between iPhone 4-iPhone 4 calls, is an absolute revolution. The picture quality seems much higher than anything I’ve seen with other 3G phones offering similar functionality. Of course, this is only enabled via a wifi network, but I’m sure as the carriers progress, we’ll be able to see it appear on 3G signals in the future. (Eventually). Of course, this isn’t anything that I’m expecting to utilise all the time, just a nice feature for when the need/want arrives.

The battery. Oh….the battery. Yes I’ve had some very long love affairs with my power cable of recent. I’ve been using it quite a bit, so have often had to top it up whilst I’ve been working at my Mac. I’m told by a friend of mine who has a 3GS currently, that the battery was significantly better in that unit – plus now in the new iPhone 4, allegedly 40% increase in battery storage, I should have a very nice surprise by the time I come to get mine! Hopefully I won’t have to spend as much time plugged in as I have been so far. The phone, that is.

So what about you? How will this change things for you? Bring on your specifics!

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

**PRICING UPDATE** – o2 have now finally released all their pricing for the new unit, as of today at 14:15.

As any Apple follower will know by now, we have the imminent release (June 24th) of the much-anticipated iPhone 4, the fourth generation iPhone (not 4G as many people have been stating, as it still runs on 3G technology, carriers can’t currently handle 4G).

I, for those that know me, will know that I’ll without question be buying my iPhone4 on launch day (not that I’m counting down the days!) With the new hardware and software included in this new unit, it’s a phenomenal device. As Steve Jobs in his keynote speech said, this is the biggest leap in technology since the original iPhone.

However, I have a bit of a quibble. Apple today have released the price of the sim-free device, £499 for the 16GB and £599 for the 32GB version. That’s all fine, and it’s the pricing for people that want a sim-free unit to use on whatever network they want, especially if they’re already in a contract they can’t get out of.

I’m not one of these people. I’ve been a customer of o2 since the launch of the original iPhone. I’ve always had good service from them, and overall have no complaints. I’m one of those people that want the new iPhone as an upgrade unit, therefore I’ll just start a new 18 month contract with o2, and get the unit for a lower price as it’s part subsidised by the carrier. I remember when I had the new iPhone 3G, I had the free upgrade to the 8GB unit, or I could have paid for the 16GB model. I’m more than happy to pay for the new unit, given the amount of technology packed within it – the trouble is, the pricing hasn’t been released yet. How will I know what to do? Whether to change providers? To see what pricing all the networks are offering.

Back at the point of the 3GS release, all the figures I seem to remember were all released at the same time, giving people all the information, all the options available. I still don’t know how much I’m going to have to fork out on June 24th. I like to know these things in advance! Is it just all the carriers holding on seeing what the competition are going to offer it for?

Am I the only one that’s infuriated by this? Please say I’m not! Come on o2/Orange/Vodafone et al, give us a clue what the pricing will be so we’re all informed in good time!

Come on o2, your comments here would be much appreciated!

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Do Journalists Need Voice Over Artists?

By Richard Aucock

I’m a motoring journalist. For the past 10 years, the written word has ruled. First, magazines, and now increasingly, websites account for the vast majority of my content. But, things are changing – fast!

Increasingly, it’s important to harness video, too. On many sites, video earns a huge number of hits; publishers love the ability for the right clip to go viral, and editors know the huge potential for the ultimate aim of the publishing world – reader engagement.

Budgets are no larger, though. In the past, professional video productions have been filmed, at four-figure expense. They look great but the cost-v-return just didn’t add up. Nowadays, motoring publications are looking to journalist-generated footage to up the video content.

The quality isn’t top notch but readers accept it because of the ‘inside track’ perspective. It’s a nice addition to a regular written road test that ticks many social media boxes.

Problem is, we’re writers for a reason! Presentation techniques are a mystery to us – we can write, but stick us in front of a camera and we go to stilted, stifled, stiff-arm’d pieces. Some of us are worse than others; it’s often possible to get a few pieces to camera out of us, but any more than that is tricky.

A lot of this can be rectified back at base, with a good voiceover of footage we’ve shot on location. But, again, we’ve had no training here: could this be almost as bad?

Thus, the questions – do we need to employ a professional voiceover artist, and if so, in what context? Should this be for all productions? Do readers accept a less polished approach for shorter films, if the imagery and message is worth it? For longer productions, is a pro voiceover a must – and how do we justify the cost to our publishers? Should we consider training from a pro (and would this help us in front of the camera, too?), or would they be averse to offering this?

The pressure on us to generate video will only increase in the future. Rather than worry about it, what can we do to make it easier – and how can voiceover artists help? Advice appreciated!

A link to an example of a journalist doing video…:

30 May 2010

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

One of my recent jobs was for a local PR and Marketing agency, to voice the narration for a documentary they were producing for schools distribution as an educational tool, to raise awareness in young people of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

The end result is a quite hard-hitting, very well made piece highlighting the dangers of SBS, and how even innocent play time with your child could easily cross over into being very damaging for their body, because babies are very fragile. I think it should be very effective in it’s delivery around the schools circuit.

This is a shortened version, for the benefit of YouTube’s time constraints.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist UK

Hopefully destined for a Sky TV channel, this is a TV promo that I recently voiced.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Right Click To Download Episode 3 – Feb 2010 - “Top Sales Tips, The iPad, & New Mobile Tech” (26m 24s)

This episode we’re talking to Gary Gorman, a sales expert from Paradigm Training, and getting his top 5 sales tips to make you more effective in your business. We’re also talking about the new revolutionary device from Apple, the iPad, and how it could influence the tech market. We’re also taking a look at the new mobile devices from Windows and Google. Will they be game changers and be true competition for the iPhone? You decide.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

I just thought I’d share with you one my latest projects – a national UK television advert for Autosport International. The advert is being broadcast currently, through Nov/Dec 09 up until middle of Jan 2010 on:

You can either catch it on those channels, or if you’d like to see it right away, you can view it below )