Android
Why there is no such thing as a “hack-proof” phone — and why that is OK
I recently watched a viral video promoting a “privacy-first” smartphone. It is a compelling watch and it introduces useful operational security ideas. This post is not a critique of the creator or the product. It is a practical counterpoint from the perspective of a security professional, written to help non-specialists separate what is real, what is hype, and where nuance matters. The video discussed in this article is publicly available here: youtu.be/FR-zQXxcu…
In cybersecurity, absolute claims are a warning sign. “Untrackable.” “Government-proof.” “Unhackable.” Real-world security does not work that way. Security is always a set of trade-offs across privacy, security and usability, and the right choice depends on your threat model — what you are trying to protect, from whom, and at what cost.
Smartphone activations don't matter (iphone or android)
Whether you’re in the Apple or Android smartphone camp, at one time or another, your side used creative statistics interpretation to justify why you are the market favorite. The numbers used most often are total activations or total devices sold. But how important are these numbers? Until a platform reaches critical mass, it is very important for the manufacturer to keep pushing the platform forward. With critical user mass come the apps which in turn will drive additional growth. So a platform needs enough users to make the platform interesting to developers but after that point, who cares!
Good shows iPad's dominating the enterprise environment
A recent activation report by Good Techbologies showed that the iPad and iPad 2 continue to dominate the tablet in the enterprise market (96% of all activations on Q3 2011 compared to just 4% for Andoird). On the handset front, the iphone commanded 28%. The most popular Android phone was the Evo 4G at 1.6%. “This quarter, we saw Android smartphones gain in percentage of total activations,” Good Technology senior vice president of corporate strategy John Herrema said. “This is likely due to the consumers holding back purchases of new iPhones in anticipation of Apple’s latest release (the iPhone 4S) — as our reports indiciate, consumers are setting the agenda for enterprise mobility.
GHSA determines road risk of using a mobile phone while driving
An American association called the Governor’s Highway Safety Association recently released a report that use of a mobile phone correlates with increased risk of accidents in the United States of America (USA). To arrive at their conclusion, the association reviewed 350 scientific papers, published between 2000 and 2010, related to highway safety. Their review clearly showed that distracted driving accounts for 15-25% of all crashes (ranging from small fender benders to accidents with fatalities). Nothing here should be surprising as it based on common sense.
Facebook has identity and your attention
Facebook has become the premium identity management company on the web with 500 million+ users. Just think of how many apps allow you to log-in using your facebook ID (aka Facebook Connect). In late 2010, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) stated that 10,000 websites integrate with Facebook everyday (that is over 3.6 million new sites every year). Facebook knows who you are, what you like, who your friends are, where you have been (Places) and what you are thinking about (status updates).
IDC predicts users will download 183 billion apps by 2015
June 28 2011, IDC released an interesting report entitled “Worldwide and U.S. Mobile Applications, Storefronts, Developer, and In-App Advertising 2011–2015 Forecast: Emergence of Postdownload Business Models”. They make a bold prediction that users will download 183 billion apps by 2015 (compared to 10.7 billion in 2010). They further predict that the revenue model is changing from the traditional model (fee charged during initial purchase) to a freemium model (where the app is free but users may purchase additional functions though in-app purchases and advertising).
Is Apple's IOS or Google's Android more secure?
Which is better: Android or IOS? Asking “which mobile operating system is the best” is a great way to start a mini war between friends or coworkers. It seems everyone has taken a side and is willing to go down in a blaze of glory defending their position. The fine folks over at Symantec wanted to determine which mobile operating system was more secure (IOS or Android). They then took the analysis a step further by comparing the security postures of these mobile OS’ to their most popular desktop counterparts.
Will mobile apps kill the internet?
An interesting new report boldly claims that we now spend more time using mobile apps then on the Internet. Flurry, the firm that conducted this research, determined that the average user spends 81 minutes per day using mobile apps as opposed to 74 minutes surfing the internet. The real shocker is comparing this number with the data from a year ago: 91% jump when users spend 43 minutes on mobile apps and 64 surfing the internet. Other interesting information related to time spent :