Tag: mobiles
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Your phone is not the problem
Following the discussions in the blogsphere lately about our relationships with our phones, I'd like to echo Antonio Santos' sentiments, and add a few supporting thoughts of my own.
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What can you do with a software privacy polariser?
Samsung's 2026 phones will feature a dynamic privacy filter, blacking-out parts of the screen selectively from shoulder-surfers. I'm so curious about the capabilities of (and API for) this technology: what could I make it do?
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vole.wtf's 1% guild wasn't the easiest club to gain membership of, but somehow keeping my phone alive for long enough to snap this screenshot was even harder.
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Screenshot from an Android phone at vole.wtf/one-percent, showing a picture of Dan alongside other people.
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Somebody just called me and quickly decided it was a wrong number. The signal was bad and I wasn't sure I'd heard them right, so I followed up by replying by text.
It turns out they asked Siri to call Three (the mobile network). Siri then presumably searched online, found Three Rings, managed to connect that to my mobile number, and called me.
If Siri's decided that I represent Three, this could work out even worse than that time Google shared my phone number.
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Two Days Offline
This week we lost Internet access for two whole days, and it was pretty disruptive and annoying!
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Google Shared My Phone Number!
When people started calling my personal mobile number with questions about a voluntary organisation I'm involved with, I was confused: we weren't sharing that number. It turns out that Google had decided to take the number I used to verify my identity for Google Business some years prior and start putting it in Google Search results. WTF, Google?
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It is as if you were on your phone
When you use your phone to play this game, it really does look indistinguishable from being on your phone. Weird!
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On Wednesday, Vodafone announced that they'd made the first ever satellite video call from a stock mobile phone in an area with no terrestrial signal. They used a mountain in Wales for their experiment.
It reminded me of an experiment of my own, way back in around 1999, which I probably should have made a bigger deal of. I believe that I was the first person to ever send an email from the top of Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon.
Nowadays, that's an easy thing to do. You pull your phone out and send it. But back then, I needed to use a Psion 5mx palmtop, communicating over an infared link using a custom driver (if you ever wondered why I know my AT-commands by heart... well, this isn't exactly why, but it's a better story than the truth) to a Nokia 7110 (fortunately it was cloudy enough to not interfere with the 9,600 baud IrDA connection while I positioned the devices atop the trig point), which engaged a GSM 2G connection, over which I was able to send an email to myself, cc:'d to a few friends.
It's not an exciting story. It's not even much of a claim to fame. But there you have it: I was (probably) the first person to send an email from the summit of Yr Wyddfa. (If you beat me to it, let me know!)
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What they say: "This site works better in our app."
What they mean (optimistic): "We couldn't be bothered to make a good website."
What they mean (realistic): "We can track and monetise you better if we can coerce you into installing this."
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Transferring to a new phone network, 2022 edition
Stuart shared his experience of changing mobile network. I have only one tip to add...
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Chrome is the new Safari. And so are Edge and Firefox.
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I am not saying Apple’s approach is wrong. What Apple is doing is important too, and I applaud the work Apple has been doing in improving privacy on the web.
But it can’t be the only priority. Just imagine what the web would look like if every browser would have taken that approach … -
Exploiting vulnerabilities in Cellebrite UFED and Physical Analyzer from an app's perspective
Moxie Marlinspike "acquires" a Cellebrite UFED and hacks it, with all the delight and sarcasm you'd expect. Dan partially-translates.
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Spoiled by the Web
Tyler Sticka relates the time that Apple made him rebuild and resubmit his app because it was 3 years old. And no other reason.
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The Route of a Text Message
With each tap, a small electrical current passes from the screen to her hand. Because electricity flows easily through human bodies, sensors on the phone register a change in voltage wherever her thumb presses against the screen. But the world is messy, and the phone senses random fluctuations in voltage across the rest of the …
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The Simple Joy of "No Phones Allowed"
A few nights ago I saw Jack White in concert. It was a wonderful night, and a big part of that was due to a new rule he has imposed on all his tour dates: no phones.
When you arrive, you have to put your phone into a neoprene pouch, supplied by a company called Yondr, …