Add also the factor of “Holy Apple does it, so it cannot be wrong”. Explains all the poorly informed rationalizations.
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@bcsizemo - well said.
@shaddack - There was a baseband os exploit used to jailbreak the iPhone 3, but you are correct that the current carrier unlock is achieved by a newer baseband os exploit.
@FunkDaddy - I don’t think bricking someone else’s property irreversably is ever okay. At the very least the phone should be restored to functioning if the “tampering” aka repair is reversed. I agree fingerprint biometrics are a gimmick for convenience not security.
Excellent point. I have noticed a LOT of opinions without any actual research or hands on knowledge in this thread, the stating of suppositions as facts. Funny how people will defend apple actually destroying customers property as a “feature”. LOL.
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One last thing… and a side tangent.
In the age of these super locked down devices, I am saddened that they cannot be unlocked by their rightful owners at the end of their lifecycle to be re-purposed. these are amazing little computational devices with a great set of sensors and would make all sorts of fun projects, but unfortunately we aren’t allowed/able to do with our own property as we want.
once the manufacturer stops supporting them they are effectively headed to a landfill.
grrrr…
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Or worse, once you start putting them in a security database.
Consider the Office of Personnel Management data breach reported a last year. The identities, financial information, personal details and more, for millions of American government employees with security clearances, plus their relatives. 21.5 million people total. Details on which of them are in financial difficulty. (And imagine the blackmail possibilities when you cross-reference that with the similar number of leaked Ashley Madison users. Chinese and Russian intelligence officials must of had a Stimulating Personal Moment.)
Also included in the data breach were 1.1 million fingerprints, making secret agents no longer safe even if their names are changed. As noted above, “good luck changing that password.”
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Or, rather, six ways to say “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
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My sympathy was somewhat muted when I read that he simply bought another iPhone.
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I think it’s called Stockholm syndrome.
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Sure, malicious firmware sucks, but biometric data isn’t exactly private. You leave fingerprints all over the place.
A fingerprint is a login, not a password. It’s convenient, but not secure.
And destroying a phone over minor damage or a repair is not secure, that’s willful, malicious destruction of property. I expect Apple to get sued over this. Even if their EULA allows them to treat their customers with malice, that will not hold up in every country.
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Now that you mention it, those were Android sensors. “Those are not the sensors we are looking for.” I’ll just go sit in the corner over here and be quiet now…
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and buy Apple.
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Resting Bitch Face?
Rat-bite Fever?
Rubidium Fluoride?
Reserve Bank of Fiji?
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I posted that in “Have You Seen This?” a few days back, thought for sure you’d have seen it then.
It’s gotten enough circulation he apparently took it offline finally.
“Wile E. Coyote, SUPER GENIUS”
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i hadn’t. and i was confused. then terrified. then really, really angry.
This is my single biggest gripe with Android at the moment, and the single thing that has me considering an iPhone most. I don’t really like Apple, never bought into the ecosystem even a little bit, but at this point, my inability to update Android to secure it from zero-day 475-day hacks is re-fuckingdonkulous, yo. I like *nix, I run *nix, but Android drives me crazy. I used to hate on iPhones, but I’m getting so fucking sick of Android that I’m actually starting to feel like there’s a third problem here: There are no really great phone OSs. It’s actually a problem shared by computers to a far lesser extent, but that’s another story.
This behavior by Apple isn’t great. I think there’s an argument to be made that it really does lock things down from a security standpoint, but I have a philosophical objection to mandatory security at the consumer level (whole other ballgame when you’re sysadmin and handling company-owned machines) when the sole party “injured” is someone tinkering with their device in a way that affects no one else. Microsoft doing mandatory updates of IE was an ecosystem issue. Apple doing push updates over a fingerprint reader is a lot harder to defend no matter how you slice it. Biometrics aren’t secure enough to begin with to be worth this aggressive an approach.
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Cyanogenmod?
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Who makes your phone. Samsung, Motorola, Nexus, all seem to be pretty good about releasing updates. Google commits to 4+ years for all of its phones. Quite a few models of phones can have their android flavor swapped out with the latest stock android.
I recently picked up a new unlocked Motorola for $100, as opposed to $900 for the iPhone. I put a fast 64gb micro sd card in it for an extra $20. I still have my iPhone 5s, and my iPad, and they are fine devices. I’d recommend that people switching either way find a friend with one of whatever and give it a spin for 5minutes and see how you like it.
Best of luck!
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I’m sure the hardware and screen quality are completely equivalent too!
I find Android apps basically almost unusable at this point. Low quality, poor UX, often ads embedded in them, etc.
I have the same issues @ActionAbe does with iOS and iPhones, frankly, but for my phone, I just want shit to work and be at least somewhat secure, especially since I do have people interested in 0daying my machines to get data that I have access to.
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I picked up a Windows Phone for $160 Cdn, no lock-in.
Good UI, no embedded ads. No doubt the processor and screen specs are different, but not that you would notice. Unlike the iPhone it has a standard USB port, the battery is replaceable, and it accepts micro SD cards. It even receives FM radio.
For apps it has the browser, email, messaging, office apps, mapping, live bus schedules, cloud services, camera, music and everything else I want.
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No, of course they aren’t. The screen isn’t as high of resolution, but is plenty sharp and has good colors and looks fantastic. The camera is the only area where the difference is actually noticeable. If I wanted a phone with better specs I would have got a higher end Samsung. Many of the apps are faster then then their iOS counterparts for whatever reason, but i think that has more to do with the code then the processor.
That is funny, I have found the exact opposite. Usually there are additional features in apps for which I have the same ones on my iPhone, because they can. For example Whatsapp syncs with my Mac over bluetooth, the iPhone version doesn’t do that. Skype can transfer calls to another device, the iPhone version cannot do that. I use AirDroid to get all the fancy iPhone like call from my mac features that were introduced in Yosemite, plus I can reply to sms and texts right from my mac and listen to voicemails, transfer files and documents, it has more features then the integration baked into El Captain and iOS. Facebook messenger can pop a widget over top of other apps without interrupting them. I get TRUE app multitasking which is great for running background apps. I can transfer files between apps and have an accessible filesystem. The PhoneGap integration is light years better. As a developer I appreciate that the Google apps are better integrated as are the intel apps.
It is cool being able to run any of my android apps from my desktop as well, I wish apple would allow iOS apps to run from a mac.
As a user who also has 2 iPhones in my house, as well as 3 iPads and one Android tablet and my Android phone, I can tell you that just as many iOS apps have ads in them.
yeah, i understand that. that is why i switched to android. my iPhone needed to be recovery mode reset twice inexplicably. The mic stopped working, and I found out that this is not uncommon based on the huge number of threads on the apple community forum, and ironically it isn’t due to the mic, it is a known shorting issue with the gyroscope and the proximity detection. the constant issues are what prompted me to jump to the other side of the fence.
As far as security, iOS is easier and more secure out of the box, but less powerful for people who know what they are doing. You can’t install a real firewall (inbound/outbound) or any sort of malware/antivirus detection in iOS, nor can you specify as granular of permissions or run apps in different user spaces with different permission sets. An android phone that has been secured is more secure then an iOS phone which cannot have its security increased, but I understand that is beyond the scope of the average user.
The number of apps with malware or snooping code is estimated to be only 1/3 less on the Apple store over the Google Play store. Apple pulled 25 apps back in September.
Yep same with Android, being able to USB host and use SD cards is HUGE. Good points. The FM radio is nice as well for when I’m out of cell service in the mountains. True tethering, being able to use your phone as a portable wifi router, being able to have your phone drive a big screen and use a keyboard/mouse combination, those are all things that Android and Windows phones can do that you can’t do in iOS.
One nice thing about windows phones is Cortana, which is so far ahead of siri and hey google.
Of course, I’m not really advocating anyone pick the same thing as me, I think everyone should use what works the best for them at the end of the day. I’m just relaying why I picked what I did and how pleased I have been.
They all have their strengths and weaknesses.
Also @enso, aren’t you supposed to be telling us how great the Firefox OS and phones are? 
hee hee
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