I surrender to the Borg....

[Beyond GenetiX]

Yeah, that does bring up a question. How much are the apps offered at the Play Store vetted to prevent exploits? And no, I'm not inclined to just load stuff in helter skelter from basically anonymous sources.

Which brings up another question. What are the major security holes in these devices? I do not intend to do much in the way of internet browsing with it. But do firewalls need to be installed on them to protect against direct intrusions?

In all honesty, the security aspects of Android are well above my pay grade, so take this entire post as nothing more than anecdotal opinions. In the decade or so that I've been using Android, I've yet to have a single virus-type issue with any phone, and I've had a pretty cavalier attitude about just trying things and seeing what happens. Samsung does use a security platform called Knox, which seems to be pretty highly rated.

Here's a for instance regarding Knox: when I rooted my S7, it required flashing a custom "engineering" bootloader to the phone which would set the stage for even allowing me to subsequently flash the actual program that gives root access. After changing bootloaders, it would give an impossible-to-miss security notification every time it boots up. The flashing software I use is called Odin, which, I think, is basically what Samsung uses to load firmware at the factory. Without Odin (or installing a custom recovery), I doubt it'd be a remotely simple matter to even make such significant and potentially dangerous changes to the modern Samsung flagship devices.

If you look hard enough, I'm sure you could possibly dig up someone who's actually had some sort of infection on their phone, but in all my years of nonchalantly taking chances, I've never really had any problems that didn't stem from simply not sweating the minutiae of whatever I was trying to do. IMO, if you're never intending to get into the modding scene, you probably don't really have much to worry about.

The Android wizards at the XDA-Developers website I linked you to would be able to give much more knowledgeable answers about these advanced subjects than I could ever hope to. If you find yourself with some time to kill, it may be worth browsing the non device-specific sections of the website and looking into general Android security.

Addendum: I think that the main "security" complaints/concerns probably stem from app permissions. When you install an app, it'll show you a list of all of its required permissions - everything that it can directly access. Like, if you're trying to install a stupid little calculator app, it may be a bit fishy if it requires access to your GPS location and contacts list. With anything Google, I suspect that there's some degree of collecting/selling certain data for advertising purposes and such. Although I never give them a second thought, you may want to make it a point to keep an eye on what any given app needs to access.

+1 for XDA developers
+1 for rooting
Not real crazy about TouchWiz either.

I am/was a bit of a rom (read only memory) junkie, at one point in time I was flashing a different rom twice a week. I have never seen any type of virus on any of my devices, however I have had to fix two devices that picked up ransom wear. Both people admitted that they downloaded an attachment off of a website (xxx). The attachment was an app disguised as a picture attachment. This is where safe mode can be useful, especially if you don't have a pc to do diagnostics with.

CyanogenMod (no longer exists) was my favorite daily rom, great on battery life. LineageOS is basically the new CyanogenMod.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, you guys are WAY beyond me with that rooting stuff. I'm still trying to figure out the basic stuff.

Today Connie and I took the bikes out and rode the St. Marks bike trail. Luckily the new case I ordered for the S8+ came in this morning, and it had a belt clip so I was able to bring along the phone for a test run to see if it would fall off or not. So I promptly forgot I was even carrying it, so it's not like it was uncomfortable or anything. Matter of fact, we were on the section of the trail that had a lot of standing water on both sides, and I nearly ran over a small cottonmouth laying on the asphalt. So as I rode further along the trail, I was thinking that it was too bad I didn't have one of my cameras with me. Well DUH!! Then I remembered that I DID have a camera with me! But I didn't turn back, because another biker heading the other direction has just passed us, so I imagined the cottonmouth was long gone by then.

So when we got down to the end of the trail, we always head down to the boat launch area to walk out onto the little covered pavilion they have there. Some sort of small heron was looking for food along the water's edge, so I decided to try out the camera then. I also tried out the video capabilities, but unfortunately only had it set for 1080 and not 4K. I also had trouble figuring out the zoom function and somehow along the way the camera got itself set to take a "selfie". I didn't figure out how to switch that to the back camera till later, so that ended the video/photography session.

Anyway, I just uploaded the video raw to YouTube to see how it would look. I guess it's not too bad for something from a phone....



https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=xvU-zKISdhk

And the photographs didn't look to bad neither. So I'm guessing this thing will do in a pinch when I don't have one of the lug along cameras with me.

 

[Fangthane]

I doubt smartphones will ever come close to replacing your DSLR, but they've gotten pretty damn good at capturing acceptable snapshots in a pinch. If you're not expecting miracles out of the phone, one fairly unobtrusive device can replace several others. Camera, computer, GPS navigation device, multimedia entertainment - hell, it's even got a built-in pedometer and pulse monitor for the health fanatics.

Radio reception is spotty in my area , and most of the stations around here are wholly uninteresting to me anyway, so I just stream podcasts or Pandora Radio through my car's Bluetooth-enabled head unit when I'm out putting around. That also comes in handy when I'm using GPS, making it impossible to miss the voice prompts.

Once you get past the idea of being part of "The Collective," I think you'll find that you made a good choice in giving smartphones a shot.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, I feel like I am getting there.

But these things sure seem to bring out the "neat-freakiness" in me. I really hate seeing fingerprints on the screen. And using it for a phone with my face pressed up against it just makes things even worse. And yeah, I do have a clear screen guard on the phone. But that doesn't look any better with smudges and fingerprints on it. So I have a microfiber cloth here and I seem to be cleaning it constantly. One thing I did learn, was that it is best to not try to vigorously rub a cloth across the screen while the phone is on. All KINDS of things start happening then when apps get triggered......

 

[Fangthane]

I'm anal enough about fingerprints that I probably wipe my screen off 20 times a day. Once the shiny-new-thing aspect begins to fade away, you'll probably find yourself being content to just wipe it on your shirt like I've come to do.

 

[WebSlave]

Yeah, Connie has already told me that she isn't loaning out her phone to anyone. She just doesn't want their finger prints and face smudges all over HER phone. Not sure how keen I would be on that idea myself, come to think of it. Guess we have a touch of germ-o-phobia here.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, had another interesting piece of evidence today about the inroads the Borg is making on society. I've been fiddling around with a wireless security camera setup I bought, and one of the advertised features is that I could load up a program on my laptop (and an app on the smart phone too) that would allow me to monitor the cameras in real time while I am away. So I'm setting this stuff all up and got it somewhat working. As an aside, their advertised range is way, WAY overly optimistic, so it will likely go back anyway. One of the wrinkles I was wrestling with was to get the program to run on my laptop. It was basically in an infinite loop saying that the driver was out of date, no matter how many times I reloaded the latest one they had. So I contacted them about it. Come to find out that they are completely dropping all support for laptop and PC browsers and only planning on offering a mobile app.

So yeah, another sign, I think, of things to come. Are laptops and PCs eventually going to become obsolete? Or perhaps downgraded to such an extent that they will have to run mobile apps or nothing? Android for PCs?

Oh, one interesting thing I was doing with my smartphone yesterday while playing around with that video camera setup was to use it as a Wifi analyzer. It never did log any signals related to the security cameras, but it was interesting walking around the yard monitoring the various signals my router and the repeaters are putting out. Darn shame this camera kit doesn't just tie into an existing Wifi network, because I probably could have gotten it to do what I wanted it to do that way. As it is, the best they will do for me is to have them mounted on my porch. The DVR is located in my den, which is a necessity because it requires an ethernet connection to my network. You would think they would at least have a wireless connection from the DVR to my network, wouldn't you?

Anyway, this thing is called the Defender HD Wireless. As I told the manufacturer, it's really not ready for prime time. It would work OK as a baby monitor, or something that didn't require the cameras to be any further than 25 feet away with walls inbetween. But as an outdoor security monitoring solution? Nope. Luckily I bought it from Home Depot, and they have an excellent return policy. Matter of fact, if any of you aren't aware of this, if you get their own credit card, anything you buy using that card gets you a 1 year return guarantee. That in itself is a great perk. Just too much junk being sold these days that it just might take you a year before it breaks or you figure out it's just not all that it was cracked up to be. I've been buying some battery powered gardening tools, so if those batteries crap out in less than a year, I can box it back up, and take it back for a full refund.

 

[Fangthane]

Android for PCs?

That's been available for at least the past several years. For s and giggles, I once installed Android on a crummy Windows netbook, probably 3 years ago. I'm thinking it was fairly clunky, but still kinda nifty nonetheless. I never bothered to try it again, but I have to assume functionality has gotten at least somewhat better since then. If you want to give it a shot with your security system before returning it, you could start here:

https://www.google.com/amp/www.androidauthority.com/install-android-pc-668643/amp/

 

[WebSlave]

Well, I guess the novelty wore off. I haven't even turned the phone on for two weeks now.

 

[LauraB]

LOL ... sadly, I am not surprised. My smart phone is a phone. I talk, I text. Beyond that, I don't do much else, even with all the bells, whistles, gadgets and uh, other crap to track me and my activity, lol.

 

[LauraB]

Oh, and I do take photos, the camera is pretty good. Gotta give credit there.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, I do tote it along with me when I go out with Connie to run errands. And I guess if a photo opportunity ever arises, yes, I can see where it might be handy having this thing along. But truth be known, a while back Connie and I took a bike ride along the St. Marks trail, that runs through some swampy areas, and we almost ran over a cottonmouth laying on the trail. I remember thinking that I wish I had a camera with me, and obviously completely forgotten that I had a phone with me that could take photos. So duh!

So let me ask this. Is there an app for a smartphone that you could use to capture someone weaving all over the road with a photo or video and have it automatically reported to highway patrol? Actually this would likely be a good app to have embedded into a dashcam.

Speaking of apps, I tried several that didn't even come close to doing what they had promised and I wound up just deleting them. Maybe that kind of soured me on this whole thing.

As for using a phone, heck, now I have four phone numbers I need to remember. My old phone line I've had ever since I moved down to Florida, a new one as a VOIP land line, my cell phone, and Connie's cell phone. My old business line doesn't even have a phone attached to it any longer, as I use that as a spam filter now. I have it set up to forward people who may call until they can remember the new phone number, and everyone else just gets a request to leave a message. If they leave a message and I have a good reason to want to call them back, then all is well. But if they don't leave a message, too bad, because I just presume it is some spam phone call telling me my ad with Google has expired.

As for my cell phone number, except for Connie and myself, only two other people know it. Connie's cell phone number? Well, it's on my cell phone, otherwise I sure as heck don't remember it. She hasn't turned on her phone since she got back from Delaware, which was a couple of weeks ago, I think.

Wonder how long it will be before paying that monthly bill for these smart phones just gets real old?

 

[Lucille]

I am getting a new phone and switching carriers. Apparently the area where I am moving only gets spotty reception at best and only from a few carriers (I can confirm that, my Metro PCS phone hardly worked at all when I was in the area).
No cable internet to the home I'm looking at either.
I briefly considered just doing without a cell phone but I guess I have been assimilated by the Borg to such an extent that I ultimately decided that wasn't an option.

 

[Fangthane]

my Metro PCS phone hardly worked at all when I was in the area

If you're not in or very near an urban area, T-Mobile's network is often next to useless. I just switched to Metro a few days ago, my decision based on signal strength claims on their coverage map. The Metro 4G LTE service I get here is mostly slower and less reliable than the spotty Sprint 3G I had before switching. Now I find myself regretting the restraint I showed when the twits at the Metro store tried to convince me that my unlocked Boost S7 was incompatible with the T-Mobile network. I guess the fact that the SIM card was working fine in the phone wasn't enough of a context clue to the contrary.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, I actually got to use the smartphone for something practical today. Was planning on taking a couple of the vehicles out to put gasoline in them, not because of the hurricane, but because I haven't driven them for months now, and I figured the gasoline in the tanks is getting pretty stale by now. But I remembered reading accounts of some gas stations being depleted, so I found an app called "GasBuddy", or something like that, and it has a display that shows which stations in any area are noted as being out of gasoline. So I checked that and found that there are quite a few in the Tallahassee area noted as being depleted of stock. So heck, I don't really NEED to put gasoline in those vehicles right now, and quite likely there might even be lines at the stations with gasoline available. So I decided that several days delay isn't really going to make any difference, and if someone else REALLY does need gasoline, I sure as heck don't have any reason to deprive them of it. So I'll wait till this blows over.

Anyway, this was one handy use of the phone that I can see being useful, especially while out on the road. I can use the app on my PC, but it only showed prices and didn't give me the display of available gasoline, for some reason.

 

[WebSlave]

Found another interesting app. Called "Waze". Kind of cool to basically in real time look at traffic conditions. Apparently the routes heading west along the Florida panhandle are all experiencing very heavy traffic and stoppages right now. LOTS of people evacuating the lower part of the state apparently. Couple that with a lot of server stations being out of gasoline, and things are likely going to be getting ugly.

Maybe these things (smartphones) DO have a practical use after all.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, I will say one thing about this smartphone stuff. When wifi goes away or is not otherwise available, these apps are as slow as molasses. I'm curious to see how well (or not) it works when Connie and I are on the road, as I know reception for stuff considered as "data" here at the house is not very good. Just barely one bar showing. But at least the actual phone service seemed pretty decent, regardless.

 

[Lucille]

I'm just amazed. I can talk to my phone (by first saying 'OK Google) any time my screen is on and get info without having to type in search stuff.

 

[WebSlave]

Well, a lot of water under the bridge since I started this conversation. And truth be known, I believe I have been fully assimilated now. I carry my cell phone with me everywhere, and keep it turned on next to the bed at night. I even bought a new one recently. Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Takes very decent photos and video. Has more functions than I have time and stamina to check out. And there is a new AI function that I can ask questions to and gives me very verbose answers. Often TOO verbose, but I guess too much info is better than not enough. I even had someone ask me what I would look like without my mustache, and a minute or less later I was able to use an app on my phone to SHOW her. I am TRULY afraid to say the words "Beam me up, Scotty", as I am not certain of the consequences.

I guess the turning point was when Connie got diagnosed with cancer and I was running her to all of her doctor appointments, emergency room visits, chemo treatments, etc. I found that I could not keep up with correspondence with all of the doctors via my home phone when I was just not at home all that much. So the cell phone became critical for me to stay in contact with all those facilities that she needed to be in contact with nearly constantly.

I guess Borgdom isn't all that bad. If everyone you know is Borg also, I guess you stop seeing things from the outside looking in. Borg is now the new normal. Matter of fact, my landline VOIP line hasn't been used for at least a year. And I am giving out my cell phone number whenever needed instead of that land line. And yes, I CAN remember that cell phone number now.

I still don't do internet stuff on the cell phone, nor read emails using it. Except when I was in Thailand for 3 weeks and I needed to use the phone for email correspondence at that time. I don't do any banking or financial stuff except for the occasional purchase I make through Google Pay. Never logged into my PayPal account on my phone nor set up anything else for that sort of function. No bank account links, or anything of that nature.

So no, I guess assimilation into the Borg is not all that bad. Actually even useful in a lot of ways. Every other Borg is right at my fingertips. The interesting thing is how it has wiggled into my life and made it feel like a necessity instead of an option. Yes, if my phone burst into flames, I would feel like I would HAVE to buy a new one tomorrow. Heck, I don't know how many sites I have login options whereby I am sent a code to my cell phone for verification.

I guess the real trick is that being in the Borg, you really don't realize just how assimilated you have become.

But I still draw the line when it comes to a brain implant of a phone interface. At least for now.........

 

[JColt]

I use mine to take picture and blow it up. Need serial number off something with tiny print?

Last year just before I retired guys laughed because I took a picture of the employee list. Print not big enough? Nope I can read it but now I have 60 plus peoples addresses and phone numbers with one pic. No need to enter info.

Yesterday I went to meet 3 other former co workers. Watched one in parking lot looking for us. Texted her come in and turn right. Then she did it when other 2 showed up.

Bought some new beard shampoo and conditioner. Nothing like extremely tiny gold lettering on black background. Blew it up so I could make sense of it and not end up with blazing headache.