May I copy your homework? a/k/a Samsung's design mentality →
While I’m on the topic of Android…
Seriously, Samsung, you can do better than this.
Google and OEM-based attack vectors →
On paper, Android conceptually seems like a grand, world-bettering idea. Common OS shared by a world full of hardware manufacturers, self-monitoring through it all. In execution, however, it seems to have been a nightmare. From the horrible slowness of new OS adoption to malware to “XYZ” skins to maintaining security….a nightmare.
From the Ars article, “"One of these security tests scans for pre-installed PHAs [potentially harmful applications] included in the system image," Google officials wrote in their Android Security & Privacy 2018 Year In Review report. "If we find a PHA on the build, we work with the OEM partner to remediate and remove the PHA from the build before it can be offered to users."“
This is indeed some complicated stuff but even a layman could see the challenge here.
A taste of life with Google
Spending most of your life outside of Google’s reach tends to lessen ones perception of the horror that is being a product, rather than a consumer. The “Apple way” attracts me not only because they sell high quality products but also because they are crystal clear that they’re selling me a product, and I am the consumer.
Google intrigues me for many reasons, chief among them is their ability to convince millions of people that they should enjoy free services while blindly ignoring what happens with their information or why they would be allowed to use all of these products for free. Deep in my soul is a nostalgic longing for “Alta Vista” or maybe even “Dog Pile” on a crazy day.
Back in 2005-2006 personal email was quite the challenge for many. Google’s search engine had already become the defacto synonym for the phrase “internet search” but email remained a challenge. Friends would change their email address on a regular basis as they switched ISP’s and existing solutions like Yahoo and Hotmail were subpar at best. Storage became a problem as was the ability to scale and provide these services at levels of exponential growth. Queue Google….all hail Gmail. Gmail came with the promise of large amounts of storage and free email. As a 1990’s part-time PC user who rode the Netscape train all the way to H-E double hockey sticks and refused to use IE I knew what was going to happen next.
Speeding up the story…I couldn’t sign up for MobileMe fast enough and even tolerated it’s failures (my personal email still ends in @me.com). iCloud has grown to do a wonderful job for me but internet search is the wildcard, pun intended, with Duck Duck Go as my default for several years. It’s not Google, but it does the job.
A recent curioristy-induced purchase of a cheap Chromebook brought me to terms with he current reality of consuming Google’s services. I dove head first into the Chromebook and all associated services. The Dell hardware was underpowered but not horrible, especially considering the price point.
Rather than bore you with an in-depth analysis of Google’s services and what it’s like to use them I found it more humorous to share three screenshots of my first attempted creation of a new email message, my first attempt to watch a youtube video, and the resulting first seconds of viewing a youtube video. How do people deal with this?
These apps are stealing your data and it should be a crime →
This is a recurring rant that those close to me are expected to endure on a regular basis. As an early social media evangelist I could not have imagined the depths to which companies like FaceBook and Google (among others) would sink.
Gruber and Rene discuss this in depth on the latest episode of The Talk Show - The Talk Show Episode 245
I joined Twitter in May 2008, early enough that I could’ve had my four character nickname as a user ID. I joined Instagram in October 2010. I’ve walked away from it all now, no FaceBook, no Twitter, and no Instagram. My belief in privacy and need to talk from a position of integrity motivated this decision.
There is no “free” product! Unless you’re a paying customer then you are the product and pay with your personal data, family details, pictures of your children, and more.
A recent post by Rene shares some common practices that simply make me cringe…