Month: September 2013

Another reason I’m passing on the latest iPhone is because of the 5th Amendment and the fine legal line between something you “know” and something you have or are. Or to put it simply, is a password more secure because you “know” it and the government would have to compel you to give up that knowledge rather than something that is tangible in the sense of a fingerprint or other biometric data that you “have” or “are”? It will be an interesting court case for sure.

Sen Al Franken (D-MN) has posted a series of thoughtful questions for Apple (and consumers) to ponder with this latest iteration of technology…

(10) Under American intelligence law, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can seek an order requiring the production of “any tangible thing[] (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items)” if they are deemed relevant to certain foreign intelligence investigations. See 50 U.S.C. § 1861. 

Does Apple consider fingerprint data to be “tangible things” as defined in the USA PATRIOT Act?

via Sen. Franken Questions Apple on Privacy Implications of New iPhone Fingerprint Technology | Al Franken | Senator for Minnesota.

To use the cliche, it’s not that I have anything to hide but I would like to keep as many constitutional aspects of my US citizenship (especially in 2013) instead of trading them off for quicker access to iTunes purchasing.

With an app, of course.

Fascinating to ponder that Google is trying to basically blow up the PC industry with Chrome (the Win 8 Chrome app runs exactly like my Chromebook and I’m betting they take that over to OSX as well) and is doing a similar thing with this decentralized Android strategy to iOS.

Rather than having the big updates come to a device via an operating system update (“yay iOS 7 is coming out with all of these great new features!” etc), with Google Play Services the table has been turned and allows for Android to stay up to date despite the actual version number that a manufacturer might ship with the hardware.

Oh my this is interesting…

This is how you beat software fragmentation. When you can update just about anything without having to push out a new Android version, you have fewer and fewer reasons to bother calling up Samsung and begging them to work on a new update. When the new version of Android brings nothing other than low-level future-proofing, users stop caring about the update.This gets even more interesting when you consider the implications for future versions of Android. What will the next version of Android have? Well, what is left for it to have? Android is now on more of a steady, continual improvement track than an all-at-once opening of the floodgates like we last saw with Android 4.1. It seems like Google has been slowly moving down this path for some time; the last three releases have all kept the name “Jelly Bean.” Huge, monolithic Android OS updates are probably over—”extinct” may be a more appropriate term.

via Balky carriers and slow OEMs step aside: Google is defragging Android | Ars Technica.

My Nexus 4 is the best phone I’ve ever owned (having owned every previous iPhone up to the 5 and a couple of other Android phones like the Galaxy S3). Being a relatively recent convert to the Android world, the ecosystem is such a better fit for me than iOS (though I still respect that platform, of course). And if the next Nexus phone is anything like the new Nexus 7 tablet, I’ll love it even more. Seriously, the new Nexus 7 tablet is just phenomenal.

That said, I’m excited about the potential Nexus 5. I’ve been pondering the Moto X since I do have an upgrade available on Verizon, but I’m going to hold out for an upgrade to my beloved Nexus 4 on its $30 a month T-Mobile plan with no commitments or contracts…

As is often the case with smartphone leaks, the first one opens the floodgates to a wave of others. It looks like Googles next Nexus device, which most are calling the Nexus 5, will be no different. As discovered by S4gru, a smartphone manufactured by LG has appeared on the FCCs site with enough detail to associate it with the device that Google itself leaked in a KitKat promo video earlier in the week.

via The LG Nexus 5 with LTE may have appeared at the FCC | The Verge.

I can neither confirm nor deny that my next book will be based on this sentence…

“In the future, superpowers will be made or broken based on the strength of their cryptanalytic programs,” a 2007 document said. “It is the price of admission for the U.S. to maintain unrestricted access to and use of cyberspace.”

via N.S.A. Foils Much Internet Encryption – NYTimes.com.