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Chris Smith writes that Apple CEO Tim Cook, speaking during the WWDC 2014 opening keynote, took clear hits at his company's main rival, making fun of Google's Android several times. "Over 130 million customers who bought an iOS device in the past 12 months, were buying their first iOS device," Cook said. "Now, many of these customers were switchers from Android." "They had bought an Android phone... by mistake," Cook added, igniting the crowd in attendance, "and then sought a better experience, and a better life, and decided to check iPhone and iOS." Cook went on to say that nearly half of Apple's customers in China in the past six months came from Android.
Cook took another hit at Google for its fragmentation issues. "If you look at a broader group, over a third of [Android] customers, are running a version of Android from four years ago," Cook said. "That's like ancient history." Cook also addressed Android's vulnerability to malware. "Android dominates the mobile malware market," the exec said, because of its fragmentation. "No wonder experts are saying things like this," Cook said, quoting ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: "Android fragmentation is turning devices into a toxic hellstew of vulnerabilities."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday June 05 2014, @03:25AM
its a lie that android is upgradable (long-term).
I can upgrade the kernel, userland, ip-stack (etc) of even linux kernel 1.2 distros. I can start very very old and upgrade and keep things secure.
can't do that with android.
I have an original nexus that is stuck at 2.something and while the hardware still works, the software is utter shit and the system has to be powered off/on many times a day just to reset the x/y calibration on the pointer/touch. simple shit like that, google refuses to fix. "just buy another phone". NO.. FUCK YOU, GOOGLE. just FUCK YOU.
apple is no better.
I want a valid 3rd choice.
I hate apple.
I hate google.
but I do need a phone with more than dumb features.
please, industry, give us a valid 3rd choice for those of us who want to upgrade and keep our phones for years and years. I don't need faster hardware. I don't do that much fancy shit on the phone. simple email, simple mapping/gps and voice. but it should be secure and not have the vendor say 'sorry, go re-re-rebuy your phone again'.
so, I'm not in anyone's fan camp, here. apple sucks, google sucks and phones generally suck. and they're very expensive, too (which makes the suckage suck even more).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday June 05 2014, @03:43AM
This one looks fun: http://hackaday.com/2014/05/29/phoenard-arduino-phone-as-small-as-an-arduino-mega/ [hackaday.com]
Should be kickstarting in a few months.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday June 05 2014, @03:53AM
the problem is, phones will never be fully open. the lower level chips are still locked up and there's all kinds of evil going on in there (I have a hint, but only a hint of the kinds of things carriers can do to your 'phone' at the chip level).
to get on their network, you have to use a closed chip. so there can never ever be full trust in any cell phone anymore.
still, I'd be happy to be free of the google spying and the apple lock-in, so even if the new arduino phone is not fully open, it might be open enough to be usable and more secure than the others.
fwiw, I was told (by some google people) that the 'reason' why android can't be upgraded is that they linked the graphics system into the rest of the phone and its not separate like real linux on the server or desktop is. I can upgrade the kernel or ip-stack or user tools or apps - all independantly on real linux boxes. on android, its broken by design. I think the evilness was that they WANTED the phones to be a 'rebuy over and over again' thing. and lets be honest, most of google is younger 'engineers' and they typically have a short attention span (sorry but its true) and the modern generation is fully onboard with throwing out hardware and they could care less. they want 'teh new shiney!' and and old phone is a cultural embarassment to them.
I just wish with all the brainpower google says it has, it would dedicate just ONE GUY to fixing a showstopper bug on the once-flagship N1 phone. it has been bad since day-1 and even with the last cyanogen update (years ago) the x/y calibration thing was never fixed. you tap on a spot and it vibrates at you, as if a negative x or y offset was entered (which is obviously impossible). the ONLY fix is to turn the phone off and back on again. THAT 'fixes' it.
the fact that the n1, their best phone (once) is so totally abandoned means that I no longer believe the hype about linux phones being 'upgradable'. they are, only as long as the vendor wants them to be, and slightly longer than that once the free software guys take over. but you won't get years and years of upgrades. that just does NOT happen (and its very upsetting to see that happen to a linux system).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday June 05 2014, @06:51AM
But shouldn't a phone be able to isolate that chip, so it effectively is its own device (that is, the relation between the chip and the rest of the phone is roughly the same as between a computer and a modem)?
Yes, you cannot get rid of possible vulnerabilities at the phone level (that is, anything you could do also to a dumbphone, like the Java engine in GSM chips). But it should be possible to protect the computer functionality of the smartphone.
I'm pretty sure you meant "couldn't".
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tibman on Thursday June 05 2014, @01:46PM
If they are separate chips, then yes for sure. You can talk with the GSM/GPRS over TTL serial or something. I think the problem is it is more expensive to isolate peripherals from the cell chip. The microphone for example needs to be connected to the cell chip but controlled externally by "our" chip. So we can completely cut signal to peripherals to prevent unauthorized access. Unfortunately some peripherals are integrated with the cell chip, such as GPS (potentially the most privacy invading one).
Here is an easy to use example: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/GPRSbee-rev-4-UFL-p-1777.html?cPath=19_20 [seeedstudio.com]
You can drop it into any XBee carrier. There are a lot of hobby platforms out there with XBee shields/capes/breakouts.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by jasassin on Thursday June 05 2014, @05:05AM
I have an original nexus that is stuck at 2.something and while the hardware still works, the software is utter shit and the system has to be powered off/on many times a day just to reset the x/y calibration on the pointer/touch. simple shit like that, google refuses to fix.
I don't know your exact situation but have you looked at: http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=hammerhead [cyanogenmod.org]
Its android 4.4 for nexus 5. CyanogenMod offers 4.4 for almost everything. I'm typing this on an original kindle fire with CyanogenMod 11 kikat android 4.4. Kicks ass way faster than the crap it came with.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 1) by axsdenied on Thursday June 05 2014, @06:58AM
I thought the original nexus did not get the latest Android because hardware is not good enough to run it.
And if you really want to run 4.x.x, get CM11. It runs on your phone.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday June 05 2014, @02:03PM
there is not enough memory for the BLOAT that the fools added to android. that and the fact that the video system is 'not fast enough' (?) to support new additions. that's the official word I heard.
2 yrs ago there was talk about a real google project to reduce the mem footprint and allow new os's to be ported down to older phones, but that never happened. again, there's no money in supporting older phones. the carriers and sellers want to re-sell things to you and google is part of that ecosystem.
they simply did not maintain multiple trees and backport the security stuff (at a minimum) to the older source trees.
it reall astonishes me. the highest amount of brainpower in the bay area (they say so..) and yet they abandon their flagship with showstopper bugs.
there was a time I respected the intellect of the folks at google. but after seeing how they trash projects and ruin most of the things they touch, I feel the complete opposite now. very book-smart people but poor leadership and such a lack of experience in the world (they are all SO young) that they simply CANNOT be the company they all aspire to be. its just yet another group of youngsters with too much money and too many distractions to keep them stimulated. old ideas like 'support' mean nothing to them and they could not care less.
I never expected apple to continue to support old phones. but the promise of linux WAS that upgrades can come and won't be limited by the vendor. but in reality, they don't come and they are limited by the vendor, just the same as apple.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 1) by clutch68rs on Thursday June 05 2014, @06:41PM
In full agreement with TheGratefulNet. My anecdote would be the opposite of Mr. Cook's analysis, in that we purchased iPhones first, realized our mistake, dumped the iDevices, and never looked back. It will be curious to see some emergent 3rd choices, though, and I hope they are successful (Firefox, Ubuntu, Jolla/Sailfish, etc)