Stupid Things You Do With a Smartphone, How to Fix Them

(MSNBC) — Your smartphone can be your second brain, but it can also turn you
into a person with no sense of direction, poor social skills and next to no
privacy. Fixing these problems is easy, but first you need to know about them.
Here are all stupid things you’re doing with your smartphone.

Stupid Thing #1: You’re overreliant on your smartphone, causing you to forget important numbers and directions
A lot of people think your smartphone is making you stupid.
That’s not true, but you may occasionally rely on it to a fault — or at least to
the detriment of self-sufficiency. Rely
too much on turn-by-turn GPS and you’ll never learn how to get anywhere
yourself. You probably can’t recall more than a few of your contacts’ phone
numbers, which is fine until your phone’s dead and it’s an emergency. While you
can’t be expected to recall every little bit of data that crosses your path, you
can benefit a lot by storing certain things directly in your gray matter. If you
want to use your smartphone intelligently, it needs to be a supplement — not a
replacement — for the tasks you should be able to complete on your own.

To fix this problem, it may be time to reprogram
your memory. You’re not used to retaining information your smartphone can
provide, so you have to start taking the time to remember the information
you request. When you receive driving directions, look through them a few
times, repeat them aloud and remember them as you make your trip. You can
always reference them again at a stoplight if you forget a turn or two, but
making the effort to remember is the important thing. This way you’ll be able to
make the same trip again without the need to look up directions at all. After
enough trips in the same city, you’ll just know where you are without the aid of
your phone.

When it comes to your to-do lists and phone numbers, don’t just store them in
your phone. Write them down on paper, with an actual writing implement. The act
of writing can actually improve your ability to learn, so you’ll get more
out of the process. On top of that, look at phone numbers before you dial them
and say them as you dial to help you remember them. An easy fix is simply replacing
your favorite contacts’ names with their numbers. Thoroughly look at your
to-do list at the top of each day so you know what you need to get done, rather
than just referencing the list whenever you need a new task. Having your tasks
in your memory will help make you more productive because you’ll be able to plan
what you want to do and when quite a bit better. There’s nothing wrong with
having this information in your phone, but a good chunk of it ought to be in
your brain as well.

Stupid Thing #2: You won’t pay $1 for a great app
There are a
ton of great, free apps for smartphones, but sometimes there’s a better app for
a small price — a price many won’t pay. Take Sparrow for example. You get a free mail
client with your iPhone, and it’s not half bad. Sparrow, on the other hand, is
amazing — especially if you’re a Gmail user. It’s currently priced at $2, and
that’s a barrier to entry for many people in spite of high praise from friends
and people all over the web. When Apple started their app store, and Google
followed with theirs, we entered a world where software became very inexpensive.
It’s not unusual to want to avoid paying for it because we know there are so
many great options available for free. But
sometimes, it’s worth it.

Look at it this way: sometimes you’ll pay $15 for a meal you could make
yourself for $5. You do this because the $15 meal is going to taste better and
you won’t have to spend time making it. The same goes for apps:
sometimes you should spend a few dollars to get something awesome that
will save you time and effort — or that’s just really fun. If you’re concerned
about overspending, set a monthly app budget. Not only will you have a better,
more functional smartphone, but you’ll be supporting the developers who work
hard to bring you great things. It’s a win-win.

Stupid Thing #3: Your phone notifies you about everything
Your
phone’s notification system is like a dog trainer and you are, unfortunately,
the dog. When you’re notified all the time, you become accustomed to constantly
pulling out your phone to see what just happened. It’s gotten so bad for some
people that people
feel their phone vibrating when it’s not. If you’ve ever checked your phone
because you thought it vibrated but it turned out nothing happened at all,
you’ve probably enabled too many notifications.

I’ve
set my phone to silent most of the time and simply check it
periodically
to see if there’s anything new I need to know about. This works well for
me.
I’ve yet to miss anything urgent. That said, it’s not a solution for
everybody.
Chances are you either need notifications as they happen for work, or
you simply prefer to be more up-to-date. In that case, you just need to prune
your notifications so you receive the stuff you consider important and
ignore the stuff you can look at later. For the most part, this means editing
each app’s notification settings and keeping them on if they’re important, turn
off vibration if they’re unimportant, and turn them off if they’re useless. This
will minimize your daily distractions and help you avoid checking your phone
every second of the day.

Stupid Thing #4: You’re distracted by your smartphone while driving
Texting while driving is
more dangerous than driving drunk. You’ve no doubt heard that before, and
you probably still send text messages from your car — or at least check out that
last notification — while it’s rolling down the road. Chances are you know this is
bad, but the desire to send that text overrides your better judgment in the
moment. While you’d most likely be better off not using your smartphone at all,
it
is possible to drive safely while using your phone — at least in small ways.
The key is to keep your eyes — and your focus — on the road.

Realistically, you’re always going to have distractions in the car that are
going to hurt your focus. Keeping those distractions to a minimum will help you
drive more safely. This means using voice control to change a song or send a
text message while operating a moving vehicle, and both iOS and Android have
comprehensive voice control features. If you’re on an older iPhone without Siri,
Vokul can bridge the gap. If you’re an
Android user who wants a personal assistant like Siri, you
have plenty of options. Voice control is a much better way to control your
smartphone without taking your eyes or your focus off the road, but it still
qualifies as a distraction. Your best bet, if you just have to change that song
or send a text message, is to do it at a stoplight. Because you’re using voice
control you’ll be able to keep an eye on the light to know when it changes, but
you won’t need your full attention because the vehicle isn’t moving. If you live
by those rules, you’ll have a lot less to worry about.

Stupid Thing #5: You don’t monitor your privacy settings
Your smartphone retains a lot of personal data, and this points
to two privacy issues. First, if your phone is stolen, the thief has easy access
to your data. Second, apps on your phone may be tracking a little more
information than you want. Both problems are very simple to fix.

To resolve the stolen phone problem, secure your
smartphone with a password and enable remote wipe. This way no one can
easily access your personal data, and you can destroy that data remotely if
you’ve got something particularly sensitive.

To keep your phone
from tracking you in unwanted ways, schedule a regular
privacy audit once a month. (You should do this on the web and on your
computers, too, by the way.) This is easy (albeit a bit limited) on the
iPhone,
as you can just open the Settings app and tap Location Services to
enable or
disable app access. (In iOS 6, these settings will be in a new Privacy
tab that will allow you to toggle various types of information an app
can access.)

Managing your privacy on Android is a little more complicated, but you also
have greater control. First, you’ll want to make
sure your phone isn’t running Carrier IQ—a program that’s capable of
tracking and reporting a massive amount of data without your knowledge. Second,
an app called Privacy
Blocker can perform that privacy audit for you. It’ll take a look at the
apps installed on your Android and give you an overview of the data they’re
collecting. If an app is overreaching, delete it.

Stupid Thing #6: You neglect other people in favor of your smartphone
Social media may be intended to bring us together, but it’s
equally skilled at keeping us apart. When spending time with other people, you
can’t exactly interact with them when you’re using your smartphone — it’s that pesky
multitasking myth. Your phone’s a device intended to keep you connected to
people you care about. When you’re with them, it’s best to put the smartphone
away. Solving the problem is often that simple.

If you’re easily distracted, however, turn off alerts and notifications. If
other people you’re with are constantly checking their phones, politely ask them
to save it for later. Technology is awesome, but it’s
often addictive. It’s always with you, unlike people. So separate your
smartphone and your human time. It’s a better way to stay connected.

Incoming search terms:

• zap carrier iq

Smartphones Time for an UPGRADE ? [Searcher]

(Searcher Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Today, most of us use technology wherever we are – office, living room, coffee shop, on the road, and even in bed on the way into or out of sleep. This continual connectivity sometimes makes decisions about what to buy very complicated. And after the purchase complications comes the process of learning how to use many new devices in many new settings.

Of course, acquiring, learning, and adapting to new or newly revised technology is nothing new:

* Bicycle riders went from one speed, forward, to multiple speeds.

* Mass media consumers migrated from radio to television dials, then from black white to color and remote controls.

* TV viewers moved from antenna to cable to VCR to DVR.

* Everyone learned to use a computer rather than a typewriter.

* With computers, well, you know the learning process you traveled through, around, over, and sometimes under.

The history of telephones has generations moving from operator assistance to dialing to using a keypad. Cellular phone services began in 1983 and took a little more than 10 years to plow through the wired world to the wireless connectivity we experience today.

The new wireless technologies – cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth – are part of our landscape. Thank heaven and standardization, we do «of have to learn how the wireless signal works, it just works. What can be daunting is our need to use these devices effectively. It is not just cellular phones; but nowsmartphones and, of course, the proliferation of laptops, notebooks, netbooks, and tablets. Then there is that amorphous, vapor-laden term called the “cloud” that underlies and overlies all the services we get from our connectivity.

To decide what to buy, we have to understand the new phone features, what and why apps exist, and where our personal clouds are located. If you are a skilled user of all this communicating technology, you should share your knowledge with others who have less experience. In the case of information professionals, this sharing may be part of your day job. Lots of good, smart people still do not use a cellphone or use an old model flip phone or are just now getting rid of their wired landline phones. They are faced withlearning a new means of communication. The only real choices available are devices without wires – cellular or Wi-Fi. Former devices and accessories have to be donated or discarded, hopefully in a politically correct, green manner. Let’s explore what can be done to gain the new skill set needed to use the current great technology.

With all things digital, the world of analog is fading out of sight. Like satellites escaping Earth’s gravitational pull, technology is providing the means to break the chains to an office desk, a home, or any specific set of geographical boundaries. Today, we can carry a sophisticated communication system to send/receive messages, access databases, find map locations and directions, and even enable voice-to -voice connections.

We may fully recognize that breaking away from what we had and trying something newer is OK. But how can a decision be made with so much marketing, advertising, blogging, news features, TV shows, and friends everywhere telling us what to do? First, reach out to the current communicating population. Take the following steps to help you migrate to the devices, services, and support you choose. There maybe a lot of overlap, as these steps do not always require a specific sequence.

Getting Started

Before you take the very first step, forget any fear of the unknown. Drop that paranoia that something will fail you. Millions use these valuable devices, apps, and cloud-based information services. As long as you are not planning a trip to Mars or the moons of Iupiter, the selection and implementation process can be handled.

* Make a quick list of your computer devices and how you use them.

* Include work, personal, internet search, email, maps, entertainment.

* Identify age of devices in terms of years.

* If more than 3 years, upgrades or replacements are strongly recommended.

* If less than 1 year, revisit the process next year.

* Between 1 and 3 years, consider your options, including waiting.

* Gather communication usage information.

* Phone -voice calls, email, texting, video calls (Skype)

Office work, personal business

* Other- entertainment, search, maps and directions

* What do friends /co-workers use?

* Does everybody use the same? If yes or almost yes, should you stay with your crowd?

* Verify the reliability of information sources.

Sometimes the loudest do not have useful information.

* Are you currently connected to a network service in your office or at home?

Blueprint Your Alternatives

While there are many phone manufacturers, only a handful of companies provide cellular services. The selection process has a few chicken and egg components. For example, if you want an iPhone, services such as BlackBerry and Microsoft do not support it. If you want to use Sprint, make certain that it supports the device you want. For example, Apple’s new iPads are only supported by ATT and Verizon. In fact there are two different models – one for ATT and another for Verizon.

* Communication services providers – ATT, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mob ile, Verizon

* Phone bundled with a service plan is the best option.

* Phone has two prices – high price with no usage plan, lower with a 2 -year plan.

* Monthly fees – lots of choices that you can ignore or select.

* Number of minutes – the sum of calls made and calls received.

* Number of text messages – teenagers require unlimited; they should pay this fee.

* Data plan – if you access the internet for search, maps, entertainment.

* Family plan – two or more people with their own phone share services.

* Plans can be upgraded and modified during their term.

* Canceling the plan with the service provider has a cancel price based on the number of months left on the agreement

* Text messaging – lots of people say that texting is only for the under-23 folks.

* Ask others in your crowd if they use it.

* It lets you leave a message for someone without making a phone call.

* It is often used during meetings and in crowded places including beverage stops.

Data download

*Yes, tons of information is available for downloading – movies, game scores, books, news, magazines, et al.

* Photography – your pictures, family pictures, other pictures

* Ask others or try out any of these services on someone else’s device

Do not automatically accept or reject based on what you do today. Things change over time, including you.

* Where will you use the device?

* Determine locations of most use – home, office, city, the road.

Explore the carrier’s signal strength in these areas as well as travel between.

When buying a mobile device, mobile signal reliability is important.

* Money

* Nothing is free.

* Determine the cost of the phone plus the commitment for monthly fees for the life of the contract.

* Can you afford it? Is this a necessary business/personal expense?

Other Considerations

One school of thought holds that the next device coming will always be better, faster, and have more features. Generally, this is true of every developing technology, including televisions, automobiles, and computers. But if you always keep waiting for the next better whatever when looking at communication, you lose out on the functional capabilities of being able to communicate more effectively.

Buying new technology must involve considering the next 12 months as part of your decision process. lust buying based on what you needed yesterday will not help you build abetter tomorrow. When price is an obstacle, consider the lesser version of a phone ora device more than 1 year old. There are people who trade up every year as new features are announced.

When ready to buy the just announced, make sure you have source assistance as needed.

Sometimes the latest and greatest includes features you will not use. Perhaps you want a gold-plated version. Nokia, Baccarat, and Cartier’s all have gold and diamond phones and cases. If money is not a concern, GoldVish’s diamondencrusted, 18 -karat white gold phone is $1.3 million – but that’s without a service plan.

Capacities and features will eternally expand and continue to deliver an ever-growing list of capabilities that you did not believe possible or even useful. Maps and directions, for example, can replace an abundance of foldable paper jammed in a glove compartment. (And who wears gloves any more?) Communicating with kids and grandkids can change the frequency of connection and information sharing.

Making the Decision

Get off the chair or couch and make that choice. Buy it and start using it right away. If that is a problem for you, please contact me; I specialize in helping folks get unstuck. You are not sending a land rover to Mars or seeking a cure for the common cold. Learn what you need and choose. You will never need all available features but start with the ones we all need.

* Basic Features

* Make and receive calls.

* Keep a calendar and contact list.

* Synch with another computer or web service.

* Connect with a Bluetooth headset or automobile for hands-free voice calls.

Other Needs

* For any carrier, you will need an account on its website.

Download services and updates.

* Synch capabilities for music, apps, features, information.

Learning

* Determine what you do not know and need to learn.

* Tap information on websites, books, friends, IT office support.

* David Pogue of The New York Times writes good, practical books.

* Ask questions. Don’t be ashamed to ask. This is not an IQ test, it is learning how to drive a car, make a recipe, etc.

* The best time to learn is after buying so you can practice hands-on with the device.

Apps

* Know that you will never use every app – currently more than 750 million exist.

* After you are able to make and receive calls, try a few apps that have great appeal.

* Do not download a few hundred.

* Ask friends and co-workers what they use and what they avoid.

* Practice. Find what works for you and remove any app that is not useful.

First things first – making your experience better

* Learn how to charge your device. This normally has to be done before first use.

* Know how to change settings for:

On/off, volume up/down, screen brightness high/low

Auto screen shut down – leaving a device on all the time wastes a lot of battery life.

By the way, how do you get to that battery?

* Set up a security code required to access the device (usually four numbers).

* Register your phone with carrier and vendor.

* Make notes of model numbers, device serial number, phone number, and your security code and store this info in a safe place.

Installation Considerations

If you change phone numbers, you need to notify your contacts with your new number. If upgrading to a new phone with the same phone number, no problem. When switching from a landline to a cellular phone, you can often keep the original number. If the number has to be changed, remember to inform all concerned. By the way, do not make this number change announcement on public social media accounts. Your phone should stay limited to people you know.

When you discard an old phone, do not just throw it in a trash bin. Remove the SIM card. This Subscriber IdentityModule is a removable memory chip that holds personal identity information, cellphone number, phone book, text messages, and other data. Make sure this critical content does not travel out of your control.

Your phone needs some protection from scratching and other slips, drops, and children’s hands. There are covers for the sides and back that can add glamour and style or pictures, along with a better way to grip the phone. Often called skins, these covers come from lots of sources at many different prices. CheckoutiSkin.com, Griffintechnology.com, and Speckproducts.com. There are also cases and protection for sporty folks who need more than just drop protection. Otterbox and Casemate have a variety of choices.

When selecting a case, keep in mind how you will carry the device – on your belt, in a bag, in your pocket, etc. And you can have more than one skin/ case for when you want to match your outfit.

Often forgotten when traveling is a power cord. Purchase a second charging cord for the phone. Keep one at your main charging location, typically home, the other in your backpack, briefcase, or other travel pack. Go nowhere without a means to recharge your phone.

Just a Beginning

There is more to learn and you will. The fascinating aspect of mobile technology is that there is no end in sight for what can be included to mobile applications. From phone to tablet to notebook to cloud, “smart” will be everywhere. Where others go, will you follow? Your mobile world is about accomplishing real-life goals with tools that are easily obtainable. If you haven’t started yet, start now.

My Apps

APPS I USE FREQUENTLY:

* Calendar

* Contacts

* Bluetooth connections

* Text messaging

12 FAVORITE APPS LISTED ALPHABETICALLY:

* Calculator – add, subtract, etc.

* Disney Publishing – kids’ books and games

* Dragon Search – voice-activated search engine

* Evernote – write notes and synch with same program on computer

* Google Maps – see where you are, get directions how to go

* G-Park – never lose where your car is parked

* IMDB – great movie database

* iPhoto – Apple’s idea for photo-editing

* Netflix – movies anytime, same account as you have at home

* Pandora – set up radio channels for your favorite music

* Shazam – listen to music and search for name, artist, and where to buy

* Social media links – they all have an app

by Richard Oppenheim, CPA

Oppenheim Group

Richard Oppenheim

Your GPS Navigator – Richard@gpsfyl.com

(c) 2012 Information Today, Inc.

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Sprint Silently Pushes “Drive First” Child Safety Bloatware To Android Devices – Here’s How To Find It, And Kill It

A few months back, we told you how Sprint was offering a new service for parents looking to cut down on their teens texting behind the wheel. It’s called “Drive First” and for $2 a month, parents have the ability to enable the provided Android app to lock a teen’s phone from sending/receiving text messages while the car is in motion. Great too for parents. But what about the rest of us?

Well, what has rustled the feathers of a few Sprint customers is the application has been pushed to devices — whether you signed up for the service or not — via an app in the Play Store labeled “Smart Device Manager” by Location Labs. The application is already installed on users’ devices and requires a long, long list of permissions. Like every other preinstalled app, it cannot be uninstalled (a security measure, no doubt, to prevent rebellious teens from getting rid of it).

The problem some are having is that a glitch in the Play Store is prompting users to update the app/process, exposing the software on their devices. The Smart Device Manager process will continue running in the background, sucking up precious resources, however minimal. This process can be killed by jumping into your Settings Applications Manage Applications Running (tab) Smart Device Manager Stop, but the process will just start up again moments later. The only real way to remove this application/process is if you’re a rooted user with system access, in which case — you know what to do. “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

Carrier bloatware shouldn’t be anything new to anyone on a 2-year contract. We’ve seen OTA updates in the past where a few “bonus” carrier apps managed to slip onto our devices. But after the whole Carrier IQ privacy debacle, the last thing some Sprint users want is another 3rd party application with access to just about every permission in the book on their device. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up. Well, those of you that are a bit more anal about apps requesting loads of permissions running on your phone. Cheers.

Thanks, mmark27!

Why You Should Hack Your Android Phone

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Hacking your Android smartphone or tablet doesn’t have to be left to the criminals who want to steal your money or personal data. Any user can do it, and sometimes the device’s security will even be better as a result.

So should you hack your Android device? As with many things, the answer is: It depends.

“Rooting” a phone (known as “jailbreaking” if you’re using an Apple device) basically means giving yourself administrative privileges, becoming a “superuser” who controls the root directory. That allows more control to the system. But just because any user can root a phone doesn’t mean every user should.

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The pros…

First, let’s look at the benefits. Android devices have a tough row to hoe with security. The system is open, which means the information about how it works is available to anyone. Unlike as with Apple’s iOS mobile platform, there are few restrictions on what a third-party Android app can be programmed to do, although the Android Market recently added its “Bouncer” service to get rid of obvious malware.

Security patches are constantly being issued for the latest versions of the Android operating system. The latest major version, Android 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich,” offers firewall support, for example. But getting Ice Cream Sandwich on your smartphone or tablet depends on whether your cellular carrier or device manufacturer has got around to it yet.

[8 Android Trojans You Need to Watch Out For]

On top of that, there’s the sheer variety of Android devices, each with its own tweaks to the OS. Because of that, the version of Android that runs on an HTC Inspire, for example, is a bit different than what runs on an HTC Thunderbolt. Cellular carriers then toss in their own tweaks and add-on software as far as the manufacturer modifications will let them.

“Carriers have to build to the lowest common denominator” of possible manufacturer modifications, said Don DeBolt, director of threat research at Total Defense in Islandia, N.Y.

If a carrier doesn’t push out every Android system or security update to every user in its network, it may be because, unlike with iPhones or BlackBerrys, there can be big differences in the hardware between users.

An alternate universe

So if you want the latest and safest version of Android, you won’t always get it from a carrier or handset maker. Variations on Ice Cream Sandwich will soon be available from the developers of CyanogenMod or MIUI, two free alternative builds or “ROMs” for Android-based phones. The websites for both offer step-by-step instructions for rooting your handset or tablet.

CyanogenMod and MIUI (pronounced “Me You I”), both currently based on Android’s Gingerbread 2.3 kernel, have user interfaces somewhat different from stock Android, and some users say they offer better stability and security as well. For example, MIUI adds a built-in firewall while CyanogenMod offers the ability to fine-tune permissions given to apps (such as the ability to send and receive text messages).

“That comes in handy when dealing with malware,” said Jimmy Shah, mobile security researcher at Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee. “Normally, a user would need to accept all permissions to run a program, allowing the malware free access to your device and the ability to cost you money or steal private information.”

Aside from external threats, there’s often the problem of unwanted carrier- or manufacturer-installed Android software. Sometimes it’s just an annoyance, but it can be more insidious.

The hidden application Carrier IQ, which came installed on some Android phones, logged information about users’ text messages and keystrokes. According to the developer, that was only to diagnose problems on a network. But later it emerged that some of that information did end up on the CarrierIQ company’s servers. Rooting the phone lets you get rid of such software.

Lastly, there’s “device masking,” or pretending that your device is a different model than the one you’re really using. CyanogenMod offers this feature.

Jason Hall, who writes the Tech Review… In Reviewblog noted that an Amazon Kindle Fire can run any Android app, but will only install apps purchased through Amazon. Masking it as a Samsung phone allows a user to get apps directly from the Android Market.

… and the cons

So with all those benefits to privacy, security and expandability, why not root your Android device?

Well, rooting does take a bit of technical skill. Unless you know what you’re doing, you run the risk of “bricking” the phone. As the name suggests, that renders the phone into an expensive paperweight. This isn’t a complete disaster – one can usually “factory reset” the phone, with some work. But odds are you’ll void the warranty.

Then there’s the question of who to get the software from. CyanogenMod is well-regarded, as is MIUI. Both, for instance, have websites that show how to contact support or have support forums.

It’s less clear whether you should trust other websites, many of which offer a ways to root your device but don’t seem to have any way to contact them. There are many developer forums and online communities, but for the average person, searching them can be daunting.

“The bottom line is, who do you trust?” DeBolt said.

It’s also important to understand that rooting the phone doesn’t alter the fact that hackers and scammers are always trying to get around security protections, even if you have features such as adjustable app permissions. You may still need to install mobile anti-virus software, whether it’s free or paid for.

“There will always be the risk that more complicated malware can bypass such controls by using new or unknown vulnerabilities to gain root access, whether or not you modify your phone OS,” Shah said.

This story was provided by SecurityNewsDaily, a sister site to TechNewsDaily.

Why You Should Hack Your Android Phone

Hacking your Android smartphone or tablet doesn’t have to be left
to the criminals who want to steal your money or personal data.
Any user can do it, and sometimes the device’s security will even
be better as a result.

So should you hack your Android device? As with many things, the
answer is: It depends.

“Rooting” a phone (known as “jailbreaking”
if you’re using an Apple device ) basically means giving
yourself administrative privileges, becoming a “superuser” who
controls the root directory. That allows more control to the
system. But just because any user can root a phone doesn’t mean
every user should.

The pros…

First, let’s look at the benefits. Android devices have
a tough row to hoe with security. The system is open, which
means the information about how it works is available to anyone.
Unlike as with Apple’s iOS mobile platform, there are few
restrictions on what a third-party Android app can be programmed
to do, although the Android Market recently added its “ Bouncer ”
service to get rid of obvious malware.

Security patches are constantly being issued for the latest
versions of the Android operating system. The latest major
version, Android 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich,” offers firewall
support, for example. But getting Ice Cream Sandwich on your
smartphone or tablet depends on whether your cellular carrier or
device manufacturer
has got around to it yet.

[ 8
Android Trojans You Need to Watch Out For ]

On top of that, there’s the sheer variety of Android devices,
each with its own tweaks to the OS. Because of that, the version
of Android that runs on an HTC Inspire, for example, is a bit
different than what runs on an HTC Thunderbolt. Cellular carriers
then toss in their own tweaks and add-on software as far as the
manufacturer modifications will let them.

“Carriers have to build to the lowest common denominator” of
possible manufacturer modifications, said Don DeBolt, director of
threat research at Total Defense in Islandia, N.Y.

If a carrier doesn’t push out every Android system or security
update to every user in its network, it may be because, unlike
with iPhones or BlackBerrys, there can be big differences in the
hardware between users.

An alternate universe

So if you want the latest and safest version of Android, you
won’t always get it from a carrier or handset maker. Variations
on Ice Cream Sandwich will soon be available from the developers
of CyanogenMod or
MIUI, two free alternative
builds or “ROMs” for Android-based phones. The websites for both
offer step-by-step instructions for rooting your handset or
tablet.

CyanogenMod and MIUI (pronounced “Me You I”), both currently
based on Android’s Gingerbread 2.3 kernel, have user interfaces
somewhat different from stock Android, and some users say they
offer better stability and security as well. For example, MIUI
adds a built-in firewall while CyanogenMod offers the ability to
fine-tune permissions given to apps (such as the ability to send
and receive text messages).

“That comes in handy when dealing with malware,” said Jimmy Shah,
mobile security researcher at Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee.
“Normally, a user would need to
accept all permissions to run a program, allowing the malware
free access to your device and the ability to cost you money or
steal private information.”

Aside from external threats, there’s often the problem of
unwanted carrier- or manufacturer-installed Android software.
Sometimes it’s just an annoyance, but it can be more insidious.

The hidden application
Carrier IQ, which came installed on some Android phones,
logged information about users’ text messages and keystrokes.
According to the developer, that was only to diagnose problems on
a network. But later it emerged that some of that information did
end up on the CarrierIQ company’s servers. Rooting the phone lets
you get rid of such software.

Lastly, there’s “device masking,” or pretending that your device
is a different model than the one you’re really using.
CyanogenMod offers this feature.

Jason Hall, who writes the Tech Review… In Review blog noted that an
Amazon Kindle Fire can run any Android app, but will only
install apps purchased through Amazon. Masking it as a Samsung
phone allows a user to get apps directly from the Android
Market.

… and the cons

So with all those benefits to privacy, security and
expandability, why not root your Android device?

Well, rooting does take a bit of technical skill. Unless you know
what you’re doing, you run the risk of “bricking” the phone. As
the name suggests, that renders the phone into an expensive
paperweight. This isn’t a complete disaster – one can usually
“factory reset” the phone, with some work. But odds are you’ll
void the warranty.

Then there’s the question of who to get the software from.
CyanogenMod is well-regarded, as is MIUI. Both, for instance,
have websites that show how to contact support or have support
forums.

It’s less clear whether you should trust other websites, many of
which offer a ways to root your device but don’t seem to have any
way to contact them. There are many developer forums and online
communities, but for the average person, searching them can be
daunting.

“The bottom line is, who do you trust?” DeBolt said.

It’s also important to understand that rooting the phone doesn’t
alter the fact that hackers and scammers are always trying to get
around security protections, even if you have features such as
adjustable app permissions. You may still need to install
mobile anti-virus software, whether it’s
free or paid for.

“There will always be the risk that more complicated malware can
bypass such controls by using new or unknown vulnerabilities to
gain root access, whether or not you modify your phone OS,” Shah
said.

• 
  Rogues’ Gallery: The Dozen Most Vulnerable Smartphones
• Will
  the FBI Shut Down My Computer on March 8? Questions and
  Answers
• 
  10 Best Smartphones Review

© 2012 SecurityNewsDaily. All rights reserved

Apple to ban stealthy iPhone contact data harvesting

The company promised update to iOS after Congress asks about apps that grab address book without permission

Shortly after two U.S. Congressmen asked Apple to answer questions about iPhone and iPad apps that snatch users’ contact lists without permission, the Cupertino, Calif., company promised it will address the issue with a future software update.

Earlier today, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking him about iOS apps that have harvested users’ address book information without permission.

[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and Security Central newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]

Waxman and Butterfield cited reports that Path, which sells an iOS online journal app, was grabbing users’ address books and uploading them to its servers. After the allegations went viral, Path’s CEO apologized and said the company deleted the collected address books from its servers. “We now understand that the way we had designed our ‘Add Friends’ feature was wrong,” acknowledged Path CEO Dave Morin in a Feb. 8 mea culpa. “We are deeply sorry if you were uncomfortable with how our application used your phone contacts.”

In the letter to Cook, Waxman and Butterfield, who are the top Democrats on two House committees, asked whether “Apple’s iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts.” Waxman and Butterfield also sent a copy of the letter to Morin.

The legislators wanted answers to nine questions, including one about Apple’s earlier decision to require developers to disclose use of location data in their iOS apps. “You have built into your devices the ability to turn off in one place the transmission of location information entirely or on an app-by-app basis,” their letter stated. “Please explain why you have not done the same for address book information.”

In a statement issued to some media outlets, including the AllThingsD blog and the Reuters news service, Apple responded to that question. “Apps that collect or transmit a user’s contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines,” an Apple spokesman told AllThingsD and Reuters. “We’re working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release.”

Apple did not immediately confirm the statement’s accuracy.

In December, Apple reacted to controversy that third-party software was surreptitiously collecting a glut of information from iPhone users by promising it would provide an iOS update to remove the Carrier IQ code from all its smartphones. At the time, a company spokeswoman said, “With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information.”

Apple’s iOS App Store guidelines forbid programs from “transmit[ting] data about a user without obtaining the user’s prior permission and providing the user with access to information about how and where the data will be used.” Those rules also ban apps “that require users to share personal information, such as email address and date of birth, in order to function.”

Apple has not updated those guidelines to specifically mention address books, although they have long prohibited apps that “do not notify and obtain user consent before collecting, transmitting, or using location data.”

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+, or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com. See more articles by Gregg Keizer.

Read more about privacy in Computerworld’s Privacy Topic Center.

Carrier IQ detection tool converted to premium SMS Trojan

Android malware creators exploit the Carrier IQ controversy to distribute a premium SMS Trojan

Android malware writers are taking advantage of the controversy surrounding Carrier IQ’s smartphone tracking software in order to distribute a premium SMS Trojan, security researchers from Symantec warn.

“Android.Qicsomos is a modified version of an open source project meant to detect Carrier IQ on a device, with additional code to dial a premium SMS number,” said Symantec malware analyst Irfan Asrar in a blog post on Tuesday.

[ Learn how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Malware Deep Dive PDF special report and Security Central newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]

The Carrier IQ controversy began in November 2011, when security researcher Trevor Eckhart published a detailed analysis of a monitoring agent developed by the company and preloaded by many mobile carriers on devices sold to customers.

The Carrier IQ software is designed to collect usage data from smartphone devices in order to provide carriers with statistics about dropped calls, service interruptions, battery usage and similar information.

However, Eckhart claimed that the software can also be used for more privacy-intrusive purposes, leading some users to look for ways to remove it from their devices.

The premium SMS Trojan detected by Symantec masquerades as a tool for detecting the presence of the Carrier IQ agent, which some people are considering a rootkit, a surreptitious application with low-level system access.

The version analyzed by the security vendor’s researchers was localized in French and its icon was similar to the logo used by Orange, one of Europe’s largest telecom operators.

The Trojan does not appear to be spread from the Android Market, so distribution is most likely done through some form of spam messages that claim to originate from mobile operators, Asrar said.

Upon installation, the rogue software displays a window that contains some information about the device and claims that the Carrier IQ rootkit was not found. Users are then presented with a button to uninstall the app.

However, when this button is pressed, the Trojan sends an unauthorized SMS message to a premium-rate number registered by the malware’s creators, earning them money in the process.

An interesting aspect of this Trojan is that its code is signed with a certificate obtained from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). While the majority of manufacturer-supplied Android builds don’t trust this certificate by default, some older community-built versions might. Because the code is signed with a trusted certificate, users of such unofficial versions might not even see the permissions notification prompt when the Trojan is installed.

Some users might be understandably skeptical of the bleak predictions regarding mobile threats that were put forth in recent months by security vendors. “But to any skeptics out there, I can assure you some concerns, such as this threat, are not without merit,” Asrar said.

Hop, Skip and a Jump: Remembering Hedy Lamar

Just before the holidays, Pulitzer-Prize winning author Richard Rhodes — who wrote the definitive history of the Manhattan Project with The Making of the Atomic Bomb — published a new biography of film star Hedy Lamar: Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr. Why? There’s been a resurgence of public interest in this forgotten star ever since her wartime patents came to light. Lamar published her own memoir, Ecstasy and Me, in 1967, and two other biographies appeared in 2010, so Rhodes is in very good company.

Fans of classic film know Hedy Lamarr for her memorable silver screen performances. But this lovely actress also made a small contribution to wartime technology with her co-invention of an early form of spread spectrum communication technology, or frequency hopping, in which a noise-like signal is transmitted on a much-larger bandwidth than the frequency of the original information. In the 1930s, Europe (and much of the Western world) was on the brink of a second world war and military leaders from many different nations were scrambling to find advanced weapons technologies to gain an edge in the escalating hostilities. One place nobody thought to look was Hollywood, which might explain why an obscure patent filed in 1942 failed to garner much notice.

Born in November 1914 as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria, Lamarr came from “Jewish haute bourgeoisie” stock (Wikipedia’s words, not mine). Her father was a bank director and her mother was a Hungarian pianist, who made sure Hedy studied ballet and piano as a child. As a teen, the young Hedy attended a famed acting school in Berlin headed by director Max Reinhardt.

She dropped out of school to be Reinhardt’s production assistant and had bit parts in two films before starring as a love-starved young wife married to a much older man in a Czech film called Ecstasy. (You can view clips here, but must verify that you’re over 18, due to mild nudity.)

Not only did Lamarr appeared nude on screen, frolicking through the woods and crouching behind convenient bushes, but there were numerous close-up shots of her (ahem) simulating orgasm in quite explicit sex scenes. (She later recalled that far from being sexually transported, her expressions were in response to the director poking her in the derriere with a pin to elicit them.)

Even back then, all it took was a sex tape to launch a stunning young woman into a life of celebrity. Lamarr leveraged her beauty and sudden notoriety into what seemed like an advantageous marriage just before she turned 20, to a man 30 years her senior.

Her (first) husband was Friedrich Mandl, an arms merchant based in Vienna who sold munitions and manufactured military aircraft. Mandl forbade her to continue acting — in fact, he tried to buy up all the prints of Ecstasy, feeling that the expression on his wife’s face during those love scenes was indecent.

Lamarr initially took the restrictions on her freedom in stride: she dutifully presided over her husband’s lavish parties, attended by Hitler and Mussolini among others, and was often present at his business meetings. None of the men in the room gave a second thought to the presence of Mandl’s beautiful young wife — how could she possibly follow their manly discussions about wartime strategy and weapons? As a result, despite her lack of formal education, she acquired a great deal of knowledge about military technology, most notably guided torpedoes and the vulnerability of radio-controlled weapons to jamming and interference.

Disillusioned with married life –- especially her husband’s increasingly controlling behavior and shady business dealings with Nazi industrialists –- Lamarr disguised herself as one of her maids and escaped first to Paris in 1937, where she obtained a divorce from Mandl, and then moved to London. She would marry five more times before giving up on the institution. (One colorful version of her legendary escape has her attending a party with Mandl decked out in all her expensive jewelry, then drugging him with the help of her maid before fleeing.)

After meeting Louis B. Mayer in London, he signed her to MGM as Hedy Lamarr. Her debut was in the 1938 film Algiers. She went on to play many more roles — including a cringe-inducing turn as a native femme fatale in White Cargo, announcing ominously to each victim, “I am Tondelayo. I will come and make tiffin for you.” She also co-starred with Lana Turner and Judy Garland in the musical extravaganza Ziegfield Girl, and showed an unexpected flair for comedy opposite Clark Gable in Comrade X, in which she played a Russian streetcar conductor named Theodore.

In a town filled with stunning women, Lamarr stood out. Actor George Sanders once said that she was “so beautiful that everybody would stop talking when she came into a room.” But Lamarr was more than just a pretty face: she had a natural mathematical ability and lifelong love of tinkering with inventions. One of those ideas bore fruit when she met her Hollywood neighbor, avant garde composer George Antheil, in the summer of 1940.

Born in New Jersey to Prussian emigrants, Antheil studied music in Philadelphia and toured Europe as a concert pianist, before turning his hand to composing. His signature piece was called “Ballet Meanique,” a complicated score originally written for Fernand Leger’s 1924 abstract film of the same name. It called for mechanically synchronizing sixteen player pianos, as well as xylophones and percussion. He returned to the US in 1933 to compose for film, and also became a syndicated romance advice columnist, writer for Esquire, and author of a book entitled, Every Man His Own Detective: A Study of Glandular Endocrinology.

Legend has it that Lamarr approached him for endocrinological advice on increasing her breast size, but the two soon began chatting about weapons, particularly radio controlled torpedoes and how to protect them from jamming or interference. She realized that “we’re talking and changing frequencies” all the time, and that a constantly changing frequency is much harder to jam.

This became the basis for their design for a torpedo guidance system. Lamarr contributed the idea of frequency hopping, while Antheil drew on his experience with “Ballet Meanique” to devise a means of synchronizing the rapidly changing radio frequencies envisioned by Lamarr.

Their joint invention used a mechanism similar to piano player rolls to synchronize the changes between the 88 frequencies –- not coincidentally, this is also the standard number of piano keys -– and called for a high-altitude observation plane to steer a radio-controlled torpedo from above. They submitted their patent on June 10, 1941, and the patent was granted on August 11, 1942.

This was not an entirely new concept. Nikola Tesla alluded to frequency hopping in 1900 and 1903 patents, filed after he demonstrated the first radio-controlled submersible boat in 1898. Realizing he needed to shield the radio signals from interference, he devised two different techniques that relied on altering the carrier frequency to eliminate interference.

A similar patent for a “secrecy communications system” was granted in 1920, with additional patents granted in 1939 and 1940 to two German engineers, who also held German patents for their work. And evidence came to light in the 1980s that during World War II, the US Army Signal Corps worked on a communication system dubbed SIGSALY that used the spread spectrum concept as well.

Lamarr and Antheil had less success convincing others their idea was feasible. Examiners at the National Inventor’s Council questioned the robustness and accuracy of the internal clockwork mechanism responsible for moving the perforated tape through the system, while the U.S. Navy felt the clockwork mechanism was too bulky and unreliable to use with a torpedo, although Antheil argued it should be possible to miniaturize it to fit inside a watch. As Antheil later recalled:

In our patent Hedy and I attempted to better elucidate our mechanism by explaining that certain parts of it worked like the fundamental mechanism of a player piano. Here, undoubted, we made our mistake. The reverend and brass-headed gentlemen in Washington who examined our invention read no further than the words “player piano.” “My god,” I can see them saying, “We shall put a player piano in a torpedo.”

In fairness to the US Navy, that wasn’t their only objection; frequency hopping was a bit too far ahead of its time — technology had to catch up. It wasn’t until 1957 that engineers at Sylvania Electronic Systems Division adopted the concept, using the recently invented transistor for an electronic system rather than the original clockwork mechanism. The Sylvania system was installed on ships sent to blockade Cuba in 1962, three years after Lamarr’s and Antheil’s patent had expired, and its primary use was for secure military communications rather than remote control of torpedos. The same basic concept is still used in US defense communication satellites — and in modern cell phone technology.

Antheil died in 1959, no doubt still bitter that his work hadn’t been taken seriously by the military. He fared better than Lamarr, who wanted to join the National Inventor’s Council and was told she could be most useful to the war effort by exploiting her celebrity status to raise money — which she did, once selling kisses for $50K a pop and raising a whopping $7 million at a single event. Lamarr went on to make more than 20 more films, most famously Cecil B. de Mille’s 1949 Samson and Delilah. She played the title role of the Biblical temptress, of course.

But somehow, true greatness in Hollywood eluded her — partly due to the dearth of meaty roles for women in general, but also because casting agents couldn’t see past her looks to find her substance. (Her fellow bombshell actress Jayne Mansfield had a similar fate. Mansfield purportedly had an IQ of 163 — or 149, depending on which source you believe — spoke five languages, and was a classically trained pianist and violinist, but admitted her public didn’t care about her brains. “They’re more interested in 40-21-35,” she said.)

Lamarr retired from film completely in 1957, settling in Altamonte Springs, Florida, where she painted and dabbled in the odd invention — like a pocket on the side of a Kleenex box in which one could deposit used tissues. It was a quiet existence, apart from the occasional lawsuit, marriage or divorce, or shoplifting scandal (she was arrested in 1966, and again in 1991 at the age of 78, although the charges were later dropped).

Lamarr has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in honor of her film career, but she took particular satisfaction in being awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Award in 1998, more than 50 years after she and Antheil received their patent. “It’s about time,” she reportedly said upon hearing the news. Her son accepted the award on her behalf.

Lamarr died on January 19, 2000, in her Florida home.  Despite her wartime contributions, she will likely always be remembered more for her spectacular beauty than for her technological contributions, which are usually treated as an intriguing footnote to a life that was not exactly devoid of drama. “My face has been my misfortune,” Lamarr once observed, describing it as “a mask I cannot remove. I must live with it. I curse it.”

[Adapted from the archived blog; originally posted May 2011.]

 

10 Reasons to Root Your Android Device

Print

 

5.Custom ROMs

The general feeling among the modder community is that carriers make their Android UIs to benefit their businesses, not the user. If you want the best user experience, you have to flash a custom ROM that was actually made for users.

The term custom ROM is somewhat of a misnomer, but basically it is a customized UI for Android, and there are many from which to choose. Some of them focus on giving you the latest version of Android before your carrier releases an official update, while others focus on extra functionality or speed and stability.

There are too many Android mods to cover here, but you’ll want to determine your priorities and pick one that’s best for you. Or, you could get Boot Manager ($2.99) from the Android Market, which lets you choose between five different installed custom ROMs at startup.

Some of the most popular custom ROMs include CyanogenMod, which focuses on maximizing performance over flashy looks, but does let you choose themes. Based on Gingerbread, it gives you a Touch to Focus feature in the camera, custom gestures, permission management and much more.

MIUI, a Chinese-developed ROM, is also based on Gingerbread and provides a very distinct look. It only supported 16 devices at the time of this writing, but it’s updated every Friday and presumably will add more device support as its ICS-based ROM becomes more stable.

To find a ROM for your device, you can drill down to your device in the XDA-Developers forums, or check out this list on Theunlockr.com.

4. Upgrade Android on Your Own Schedule

Are you incredulous that you still don’t have a Gingerbread update for your Froyo phone after more than a year? By the time the carrier gets around to updating it (if it does at all), you may have a perfectly stable ICS update waiting for you if you were to root your phone.

Android custom ROMs allow you to get the latest Android OS before it is ordained from up on high by the company you’re paying a monthly bill to. At the time of this writing, there were even a variety of Android 4 ICS ROMs hitting the interwebs, although in general, stability is still a factor with them. It won’t be too long before those ICS ROMs are working as smooth as baby food, and it’s likely to happen before a whole lot of native ICS devices and sanctioned ICS updates come out.

3. Increase Battery Life

Many of the custom ROMs available aim to improve battery life through internal efficiency settings, app and network activity management, and the removal of bloatware. There’s also an experimental app in beta right now called Superpower, available on the Android market in a free and paid ($4.25) version. There are plenty of other battery-saver apps out there–many not requiring root access–but SuperPower goes to the extreme, aiming to provide automatic management of your data connection and radio bands, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, CPU speed, and more. that management is based on factors such as screen state, Wi-Fi connection state, download speed, foreground application, tethering state, sleep mode, charging state, etc. There’s no reward without risk, however; the developer wants you to know that the app is still buggy in beta and that you use it at your own risk.

2. Zap Carrier IQ

By now you know what Carrier IQ is, and you may have a rough idea of who’s using it. For example, Sprint has since vowed to stop using it. But trying to get a straight answer about how the information Carrier IQ extracts is being used could you take you down a long a frustrating road, ending in a dead end of paranoia. It would be faster and less mind-numbing to just trash it from your handset.

Thanks to Trevor Eckhart, the very man who discovered Carrier IQ on his Android phone, you can do just that. He posted a free .apk called Logging Test App over on the XDA-Developers forums that can show you if a program like Carrier IQ resides on your device. If the test comes up positive, head over to the Android Market and support this modern-day hero by plunking down a measly buck for the Logging Test App Pro Key, which enables you to remove Carrier IQ or other offending software. Of course, none of this is possible unless you root your Android phone first.

1. Because You Can

Finally, just like building your own PC, there’s a subjective sense of satisfaction and independence you get from rooting an Android device. Even beyond that, there’s a hint of a more rare intangible attached to it: duty. In some way, it’s your duty to flip the bird to the manufacturers and carriers that pay you lip service but not nearly enough real service. It’s your duty and your privilege to root, because you can. Google made Android open source, and thousands of good people are working on apps and ROMs for you to enjoy, giving you the opportunity to wield the most powerful smartphones available. Passing up the ability to root is akin to missing that opportunity.

You may not be a car enthusiast, but imagine you’re cruising on a German autobahn in a fresh Porsche Boxster with nothing but open road and perfect conditions in front of you. Do you keep it to a conservative 75mph? No, you jack it up into triple digits… because you can. You may not be an incorrigible drunk, but if you’re on a long weekend in New Orleans, you pour some booze into a plastic cup and stroll down Bourbon Street… because you can.    

You bought an Android phone, which probably means that either 1) you know diddly about smartphones and just got whatever was free on contract or looked cool, or more likely 2) you’re somehow attracted to the flexibility and customization freedom of Android that you don’t find in other mobile operating systems. So here you are. Live a little. Void that warranty! Root your Android, for all of the above reasons, and also just because you can. It’s not that hard to do, it’s kind of fun, and just like in a clichéd rom com, you’ll discover the value of what was right in front of you all along.

What reasons for rooting did we miss? We’d be honored if you shared your wisdom in the comments below.

@MaxTechMarkkus on da Twittah.

Editorial: Android’s hollow revolution and hope for 2012

Android needs to live up to its ambitions

There’s a moment at the end of the movie 1900 (one of Robert De Niro’s great early roles) where the peasants think they’ve finally won the revolution as Italy’s fascists are overthrown. We’re free, our harsh rulers are dead or gone! Then, however, the “revolutionary committee” comes and says they must give up their guns. After they do, they realize that they have just as little power as they did before; they just handed the power to another master, and now they don’t have the righteous energy to fight back.

That’s Android.

Google, and many of those who take its claims at face value, will insist that Android is a true revolution. You control your phone, not like that evil company Apple which tells you what apps you’re allowed to run or how your interface is supposed to look. At I/O 2010, Google even tried to very publicly frame the argument this way: it cast Steve Jobs as Big Brother and suggested that Google will lead the entire industry out of an Orwellian nightmare that will surely exist if Apple ‘wins’ and Android isn’t around to show a better path.

But that’s not how it works in practice. Phone designer customization is great for variety, but more often than not, it’s used to violate the very openness principles Google touts so often. While a few companies like HTC have offered an olive branch to modification, most Android phones are very deliberately closed off. The platform is defined by locked bootloaders, non-removable apps, disabled features, and of course massively delayed upgrades. You still have more freedoms than an iOS user, but it’s telling that much of the talk from users at Android-focused forums revolves around how to root the OS to get the control Motorola or Samsung won’t let them have.

And for all of Google’s public declarations of openness, it’s been well established that the company very willingly closes off Android whenever it likes. It only selectively offers source code and denied Android 3 source code entirely, waiting until 4.0 to come back. Certain parts of the OS are still off-limits to developers, and unlike a typical open-source project, you can’t just contribute code back. There’s something telling when a VisionMobile study calls Android the least open of all proclaimed open-source projects. More often it’s Google, not you, that tells you how your OS will work, even in ideal cases.

Just as important, if not more, is that carriers are given a free rein that they almost uniformly use to take away that freedom. They’re almost always the ones who prevent you from removing a music service you’ll never use, prevent you from using the built-in hotspot support, or install Carrier IQ, as mild a privacy threat as it now poses. It’s telling that Verizon has locked the Droid RAZR’s bootloader and that even the normally all-stock Galaxy Nexus, when on that same carrier, has its share of mandatory but unwanted apps.

What Android ends 2011 with, then, is a revolution with little meaning. It’s hollow. Samsung controls your phone, and the carrier controls your phone some more, while you have the least control of all. When we pick up an iPhone 4S, we paradoxically feel like we have more control over it. It might not let us install a replacement for the music player app, but because we don’t have third-party apps or interfaces forced on the iPhone, it feels like our phone — not one on loan from ATT or Bell.

Don’t look to Google for direct help, either. Mobile VP Andy Rubin has refused to step in and considers the control that carriers and hardware partners have to be a positive, not the liability that on-the-ground phone and tablet owners see. Not surprisingly, he has every incentive to limit how much control you get: Google makes a lot of its Android income from ad revenue splits with carriers and other partners, so it’s in the company’s vested interest to let networks dictate what you’re allowed to do.

So, what are we to do in 2012? While it may be difficult to have Google mend its ways regarding open-sourced code, the short answer is to vote with your dollars. Buy a Galaxy Nexus; if you’re American and don’t like Verizon’s limits, buy the HSPA+ version unlocked from an importer. Tell hardware builders and carriers that it’s your phone and that you don’t want them foisting software on your device that you can’t disable or take off. Going unlocked costs more, but it may be the only way to shake the overdependence on years-long contracts and closed phones.

To some extent, that’s already happening. The Nexus phones were once ultra-niche devices bought only by tech news writers and the very technically savvy. This year, the Verizon launch actually triggered lineups, something that hasn’t happened for any US Android phone since 2010. In our dreams, the Galaxy Nexus fosters enough sales that companies like HTC or LG decide to make at least one completely stock Android phone a year.

We likewise need to drop the illusion that iPhone owners are living under an oppressive yoke. They may let Apple control app policies, which can at times feel arbitrary, but they also don’t let carriers and third-party software developers run roughshod over their devices. Giving Apple that sway over the experience is a choice iPhone owners have made and often accept, or even enjoy.

In the meantime, Android fans need to accept that the revolution hasn’t really happened yet. As De Niro says at the end of 1900, “the padrone lives:” you just chose a different master to control your fate. If you’re happy with a non-stock Android phone, it just means you’re comfortable with the limitations or know how to get around them. Until Android is a truly and consistently open platform for actual users, not just corporations, the revolt only exists as a dream. [Toy soldier image via Dyzplastic]

– Jon Fingas

By Electronista Staff

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