Posts by Planty 328 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2015
The open source nature of android means Google cant hide patch issues behind closed doors like apple can. We will never know how many critical vulrabilities that apple discovered themselves and quietly fix without telling the world....
Google and android does have this luxury, and thus provides clickbait fuel for blogs like this.
Microsoft use dirty tricks on win10 to route traffic via edge and bing (and in turn attempt to set defaults back we malware style accidental clicks) REGARDLESS OF YOUR BROWSER DEFAULT AND SEARCH DEFAULT.
I get a call every other week from the mother in law saying the internet doesn't work properly, she ended up with crap edge bing again, and I have to set it all back. They play on unsuspecting punters to just give up eventually..
Because if you use Windows 10, you will be finding Microsoft helpfully ignoring your preference, every now and again resetting your privacy settings, and forcing their own browser and search via start menu search...
Try it out, run the latest win10 with swiron (or any browser) with all protocol and type handler's set to your default. The use start menu search for something. It will open in edge and bing. Totally ignoring your choice...
I get a lot of stuff (maps, Android, chrome, chrome OS, docs, sheets, gmail, calendar, photo storage, music service, loads more besides), all free (in money terms!) I used to have to pay real money for this. What I give up in exchange is well worth it. I have nothing to hide, it's anonymous to 3rd parties, and if it means if/when I see an advert that it is relevant, rather than irrelevant, all the better....
Anyone that does care, either doesn't understand the deal, and thinks Google should give all that stuff for free, without any return, or they have something to hide, or they actually think Google is a person in a room, *here look, Andrew has ordered butt plugs from Amazon!!!! "
And why did you believe you have the right to buy this music? Isn't it possible that for commercial reasons, it's not available on your country.?
Why therefore do you then feel you did enough to warrant strealing it?
I mean if its raining and I can't find an empty hotel room for the night, is it OK to break into someone's house, so I don't get wet????
"A malicious Android app that downloads itself from advertisements posted on forums "
Try again. I does nothing of the sort. even withstanding you need to have turned off only allowing browsing in the Google Store, after ignoring the warnings of doing so, AND you oped out of the app scanning, even then, it doesn't "download itself". It's a message dialog generated by the BROWSER that is trying to fool you into downloading and installing an APK.
If you can't understand these basics, should you really be writing about security?? Just sayin'
Torn, both companies are scumbags, Microsoft are scumbags deep in their DNA and everything they do and say has an agenda that involves fsking someone over. Kaspersky are scumbags for their constant security scare stories that treats nonsense FUD scare story and real security vulnerabilities with equal importance, anything that means they can sell a product along the way.
The best I can hope for is an extended court case that's cost them both heavily...
I bet this one still comes with the horrible metro UI and store of shite and candy crush...
A true workstation windows10 would come with a windows7 / Windows NT shell and he strpped of all the bullshit that everyone hates about windows 10. I still can't decide if Microsoft know what everyone's hates, and just refuse to remove it, or if they are simply just clueless.
A windows7 built on window 10 core is what everyone really wants. It's almost available in the form of win10 LTSB + classic shell. But of course not available unless you are the select few..
"The market's growing fast, but only the cheap stuff with no strings attached is selling"
Joint #1 (given the guesswork of IDC numbers) is PSVR, which isn't a cheap freebie that's bundled with a phone contract...
There is a huge gulf between Samsung's offering that is given away free with a mobile phone, and once you watch the rollercoaster demo, you sell it on ebay, to PSVR with a real and rapidly expanding library of full blown VR games....
Indeed, all the "experts" using this as an excuse to bash the NHS are looking pretty silly right now. Even if the NHS had spent many millions eradicated every single XP machine from every dusty corner of the organisation, it would have made bugger all difference. The real issue here was the speed they didnt apply patches.
They clearly quarantined critical security patches for far to long (2+ months), so if anyone needs to be to blame, it's not the NHS, it's not government funding, it's not some other hidden political agenda, it's solely on who is responsible for timely patch deployment.
Perhaps you might want to tell us more about what Motorola phone, as clearly it's possible that several reasons are playing out here:
1/ It's really old and truely past the point where the manufacturer should support it it.
2/ It's a really cheap phone that due to it's low price, you are expected to crush it and buy a new one each year
3/ It's a network locked phone, and your phone network has device to not sent out patches.
None of these problems of course are ANYTHING TO DO WITH GOOGLE.....
"Put simply, Google has a problem. Seven months after the first Nougat phone shipped in volume, 92.8 per cent of the installed base still runs software from 2015 or older"
Measuring big version android adoption numbers is flawed to the extreme and nothing more than lame clickbait. Google security patch every month all versions back to 4.4. Pretty much all major manufacturers are picking up those security patches to older versions, some are switching to newer OS, but either way, saying they are running software from 2015 is a basically a total lie.
So if phones are getting security updates, the android API is very mature, what precisely is the problem with a phone running the Android version it shipped with? The answer is, as long as you are getting patches from your manufacturer, and Google continue to add features via Google play services to all phones in the field, then there is absolutely nothing wrong, in fact you are likely better off, and will maintain your phone's performance and battery life.
So I am calling out anyone saying otherwise a liar that has an agenda, or really doesn't have a clue what they are talking about
" it can act as a plastic Oyster card: it will get you through the barriers without having to wake up and unlock the phone, as rivals do."
I don't have to do either of these things on nexus5x and android pay.
Also can't remember a magnetic stripe was any use outside America (with its 1990s banking systems). So yes, Samsung pay is dead in the water... Late and irrelevant.
Affects all windows upto and including windows 10.
There is no excuse for running xp, but there is also no excuse for pretending it was the cause in all of this, it wasn't...
The only way to protect yourself is avoid the security nightmare that is Windows. If you only use web, buy a Chromebook. No malware, no key loggers, no constant intrusive updates, no need for antivirus, 2 second boot, it just gets the job done.
This weeks windows vulnerability affects ALL versions of Windows. Let's not pretend something newer would have been immune. It might have been safer, but by how much? Windows is still horrendously insecure ... Also the screenshot clearly shows windows 7... Nothing to do with xp or win2k..
The widespread nature suggests worm and self replication and self execution..
None of the advantages of a Chromebook.
I'm seeing none of the advantages of a Chromebook (aside from headline grabbing hardware cost, which looks like nobody is actually going to hit). These don't have Chromebook bulletproof security (read-only runtime, signed boot), nor the 2 second boot time, nor the 10hr battery life, nor the zero maintenance either..
Yet again, Microsoft having no real answer, and just throwing some bodged up offering out there to see if anything sticks.
systemd-free Devuan Linux hits version 1.0.0
Keep telling yourself it doesn't matter... The real news is new and shiney Microsoft apps aren't being released not even in development for Microsoft mobile platforms.
It that's not the tell tale sign , then nothing is. Do you want to buy some magic beans? I have some for sale....
Again, what is wrong with this? Google allow anyone to use Android and do whatever they want with it. It's not Google's job OEMs are doing a shit job. Perhaps Google should give them free money or something? Or perhaps you might like to bring them some free money, as after all, you seem to believe they are a charity....
"If there was a version of Android that was cut loose from Google's clutches then that'd be fantastic. "
??? Are you for real???
https://source.android.com
Go grab it, do what you want with it, within the terms of the a
Apache2 licence ... That's about as cut loose as anything can be. Plebs
But how is it Google's problem that others have not been prepared to pour billions into setting up the app ecosystem and free offerings that Google have done?
Google docs, Gmail, photos, YouTube and loads more. It's not cheap or easy to set that sort of thing up and offer it for free. There is no point pouring money into that unless there is even the remotest chance of it working, there are really only a handful of companies that might be able to do it, but again, why is this Google's problem? They had the foresight to fund this, to develop an opensource OS (off Linux of course), but with significant outlay...
This article stinks of the sound grapes of Microsoft desperation. But rather that cold ring the Microsoft tears in a bottle, perhaps it's time for Microsoft to swallow it's pride, build their own Microsoft android handset running services and a Microsoft android store??? It's really the only option they have....
"Phone makers found that even with a forked Android based on the “open” AOSP code base, it was hard to get a functional phone without Google’s proprietary software"
Sorry that it utter nonsense. Phone makers don't want to spend the time or money making their own, it's easier to use Googles. That is the reality. Android is fully functional and free out the box, but the freeloading stops there. If you want to offer shiny stuff, you sign up with Google, or write your own.
"Google, which dominates mobile with a marketshare of over 80 per cent, imposes conditions on phone makers that are just as rigid. A phone is useless without Google's proprietary mobile services"
There is a HUGE difference. Microsoft were imposing self imposed rules, the rule you mention isn't a rule at all, ANYONE can legitimately download Android source code, make their own distribution, and their provide their own set up features ontop of Android. The fact that few bother, is simply because the Google offerings are so good, you would need a bottomless pit of money to do so. Much like the amount of money Google has spent developing Docs, Maps, Gmail and so on, and providing them FOR FREE.
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