Posted by Luke | Posted on 26-08-2009
Category : Internet/Tech, Security
Tags: GPS, palm pre, Privacy, Security
This scary news was discovered recently by a software developer, as the story is noted on the PreThinking states that the most recently released phone from Palm (the Palm Pre) was found to be sending somewhat critical information back to Palm. As we move into an environment where more and more of our mobile devices are becoming smarter we are generally aware that these devices may be more susceptible to nasties like viruses and malicious activity. Little do we expect that we will be spied on by the manufacturer of the product we are using.
The palm device has been gathering data such as GPS information from throughout the day, apps being used, time the apps are used for and what apps are actually on the device. This information has been sent back from the device to Palm over the mobile internet capabilities of the phone.
For a lot of the time this information may already be known by the phone company as they could presumably figure out your location based on what mobile towers your phone is using, but the negative thing about the whole situation is that the actual manufacturer of your device knows all of this information as well. Information like where you live, places you regularly visit, where you work thats scary stuff considering the manufacturers of other items you use don’t have access to this – imagine your fridge telling its maker where it lives!?!?
On the plus side, there have been no reports of any activity like this on smart-phones such as the iPhone, Blackberry or Google phones here in Australia. So for the time being we can rest assured that our info is still safe as the new Palm device isn’t available here yet.
All consumers of tech products should be quietly thanking all of the smart ‘geeks’ out there who notice things like this, they are the ones with the knowledge to notice these activities and make it known to the wider community. Lets hope they keep up the good work – for our sake
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25927464-5014239,00.html
I was reading the news story from the link above and it got me thinking. The article basically refers back to a case where a teenager had his girlfriends iPhone, it apprantly started hissing and then shattered, flying shards of glass around with one getting into his eye. The Child is said to be taking action against apple for this ‘faulty’ product.
In Apple’s usual manner when there is a story on exploding or overheating iPods, they have refused to comment or take any action on the issue. In my opinion I know that if there was a problem with the product Apple would probably be quick to replace all affected models, they have done his in the past with other products like laptops and iPods. Although from a public relations and reputation management point of view I believe that by Apple refusing to make any statements they are treading a very thin line which could impact on customers trust in the company and it’s products.
Rather than taking the path that Apple’s lawyers dictate each and every time I feel it would benefit the company in the long run to actually come out and say something in situations like these, something to reassure every iPod, iPhone and Mac owner out there that the products they are using on a day to day basis have been tested thoroughly, and that the situations where something is happening, are an anomaly and a small percentage of all items out there on the market. By taking this path rather than the path determined by the lawyers it would put them in a better position to recover if there ever was a situation where a batch of iPhones were faulty.
Apple you need to understand that while you may be sitting pretty now – if you continue down a path where you fail to recognize and rectify issues, these issues will one day snowball into a crisis and one that could impact how you proceed in the marketplace.
But then again, Apple never have been the conventional thinking computer company, have they?
Posted by Luke | Posted on 29-07-2009
Category : Internet/Tech
Tags: Dropbox, Live Mesh, Sharing, software, Synchronization
I have just spent the best part of the last two hours searching the net trying to find an easy to use solution to sync folders between two macs in our house, the iMac and the Macbook that I frequently use away from home – mainly at uni. The reason I spent so long on this is that I had been battling trying to figure out how to use Microsofts Live Mesh (Beta), I should’ve known better. While Live Mesh seems really great in theory, and verges on giving you some of the aspects of Apples Mobile Me but for free, but it just doesn’t deliver it in the easy to use & non frustrtating way that Mobile Me does.
Basically what I was after is something that would allow me to have a folder on each computer that would automatically keep the most up to date version of every file that I work on, on both computers. This is where I came across Dropbox! I downloaded the application and installed it, basically you sign up and get the option to select the free account or choice to two tiers of paid accounts. I selected the free one as I don’t require any more than 2GB worth of space to be synched. The install is quick and easy, after setting it all up on your initial machine you then install on the second computer, log in and viola, your files automatically start to sync up between your two computers. Now the great thing about this is that it automatically knows when something has been edited and copies the updates of the file to your other computers. Another thing I really liked is that if you accidentally delete something, you can log into the web based account and retrieve what you just accidentally deleted.
The other excellent thing about Dropbox is the ability to share folders/files/photos with friends and family. All you have to do is select the option to make that file or folder public, you can select who you want to have access to it by sending them an email or just note down the link that it provides you and anybody can view the selected files when they navigate to the link.
After having a hell of a time fiddling with Live Mesh to try and sync, it was a relief to find Dropbox and discover that it did exactly what I wanted – the first time & hassle free, I would seriously suggest giving it a go if you frequently use multiple computers or share files with others.
