The Lost Decade

The Lost Decade

It has been 10 years since I got my first mobile phone and many memories come to my mind, the first phone that I had was a Sony Ericsson that I used to call R2-D2; the little bastard was resilient (took several plunges into all sorts of beers), the life of the battery was amazing and the most important part was that I had no need to look at it constantly because:

 
1) The display was monochromatic and tiny.
2) SMS was expensive
3) The games sucked

One thing that I miss the most about that phone was that I tuned it with stickers that I would rip from beer bottles, some sort of “drunk passport”, if you will.

We have seen the evolution of mobile technology; from expensive to somewhat affordable; from all Blackberry to Apple, and then Android… and Windows. But seems like we are somehow stagnant among 2 main Operative Systems (perhaps 3)… but what makes them different and how are they the same?



The Latest…

Android Lollipop 5.0
iOS 8.1.2   
Windows Mobile

Because of Stylometrics, we will limit ourselves in this review and will only analize the two most popular operative systems in the world: Android and iOS by Apple.

	Android	iOS
Developer	Google	Apple Inc.
Customizability	Can change almost anything	Limited. Jailbreak ;-)
Media transfer	depends on model	with desktop application
Available on	Many phones and tablets including Kindle Fire, LG, HTC, Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Nexus, etc.	iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV.
Internet browsing	Google Chrome (other browsers are available… Orbot)	Safari (other browsers are available)
Open source	Kernel, UI, and some standard apps	The iOS kernel is not open source but is based on the open-source Darwin OS.
OS family	Linux	OS X, UNIX
Messaging	Google Hangouts	iMessage
Voice commands	Google Now	Siri
Maps	Google Maps	Apple Maps
Device manufacturer	Google, LG, Samsung, HTC, Sony, ASUS, Motorola, etc.	Apple Inc
Available language(s)	32 Languages	34 Languages
App store	Google Play – 1,000,000+ Apps.	Apple app store – 1,000,000+ Apps

Devices:

Android devices are available at many different price points, sizes and hardware capabilities.
iOS is only available on Apple devices: the iPhone as a phone, the iPad as a tablet, and the iPod as an MP3 player. These tend to be more expensive.



Mobile payments:

Android uses Google Wallet, some Android phones are equipped with an NFC chip (near-field communication) that is used for making wireless payments simply by tapping the phone at the checkout counter. This service integrates with Google Wallet but is not available on all Android phones or wireless carriers.

iOS uses Apple Pay. Its integration with fingerprint identification arguably makes Apple Pay easier to use. iOS offers Passbook, an app that collects in one place tickets, reward cards, and credit/debit cards.


Security:

Android’s applications are isolated from the rest of the system’s resources, unless a user specifically grants access to other features. The most widespread malware on Android is one where text messages are sent to premium rate numbers without the knowledge of the user, and the sending of personal information to unauthorized third parties. As it is the more popular smartphone operating system, it is more likely to be the focus of attacks.
iOS… Apple reviews all the apps and verification of the identity of app publishers. However, if the iOS device is subject to Jailbreak and apps are installed from outside the App Store, then it can become vulnerable to attacks and malware. 

 

iOS

• Massive app ecosystem

• Deeper integration with Facebook and Twitter

• iOS-only apps

• Interface is locked down

• Software upgrades

• Better privacy controls

Android

• Massive hardware selection

• Highly customizable user experience- Several people have shifted from iPhone to Android. Android's connection to the Google ecosystem of services is strong and arguably more useful compared with Apple's cloud services suite.

The Master.

“Diagnostic Capabilities”… it all started as “a security feature”, “an experiment”, “customer service satisfaction surveys”, “maintenance”…  then this “toy” called Stingray was developed for the police… and it ended up in Malte Spitz exposing Deutsche Telekom.

 

Location tracking… The deepest privacy threat from mobile phones is the way that they announce your whereabouts all day and all night, through the signals they broadcast.



Kudos to EFF!

Beware of:
1) Mobile signal tracking — Towers
2) Mobile signal tracking — IMSI catcher
3) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth tracking
4) Location information leaks from apps and web browsing
5) Turning phones “off”… if many people at one location all do it at the same time, it's a sign to the mobile carriers that they all thought something merited turning their phones off. (That “something” might be the start of a film in a movie theater, or the departure of a plane at an airport, but it might also be a sensitive meeting or conversation.) An alternative that might give less information away is to leave everybody's phone in another room where the phones' microphones wouldn't be able to overhear the conversations.
6) Burner phones… Phones that are used temporarily and then discarded…There are a number of limitations to this technique, though.

…A note about GPS… GPS satellites only transmit signals; the satellites don't receive or observe anything from your phone, and the satellites and GPS system operators do not know where any particular user or device is located, or even how many people are using the system. This is possible because the individual GPS receivers (like those inside smartphones) calculate their own positions by determining how long it took the radio signals from different satellites to arrive. The tracking is done by apps running on a smartphone. They ask the phone's operating system for its location (determined via GPS). Then the apps are able to transmit this information to someone else over the Internet.

 

Spying on mobile communications…Mobile phone networks were not originally designed to use technical means to protect subscribers' calls against eavesdropping. That meant that anybody with the right kind of radio receiver could listen in on the calls.

 
Infecting phones with malware… Phones can get viruses and other kinds of malware, either because the user was tricked into installing malicious software, or because someone was able to hack into the device using a security flaw in the existing device software.

So, why The Lost Decade? Well… we have closed many gaps because of the internet, we have been able to reach and meet people that in other circumstances we would not be able to… but we have turned into a more ignorant and narcissistic society, a society in which the ego and appearances are everything… 

 

...a society in which good and evil have switched names, making everyone believe that compliance and submission are freedom and peace.  
 

 
ACLU-How the Government Is Tracking Your Movements

P.S. It´s been two years since Aaron left, but the legacy of the Internet’s Own Boy remains. 


 

First: Stay curious. Read all the time.
Second: Don’t accept things as they are, or assume they’re that way for a good reason. Aaron questioned everything. Sometimes it got him into trouble. But the beauty of skepticism is that sometimes you see things everyone else is furiously ignoring.
Third: Become good at something. And then use it to make a difference. Aaron was a genius computer programmer. He said it was like having magic powers: he could think of something and then make it real.
Fourth: Ask yourself what you could do to make the biggest difference in the world. And then challenge your answers. A raft of psychological research tells us that humans generally do things first, and then come up with reasons for them afterwards.
And lastly: Stay alive. 


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