Thursday, January 12, 2012

Tech Review: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Army to march with Androids, and other feds could follow


  • security
  • authentication
  • logistics
  • identity verification
  • services (Army) want to reduce cost
    • $1 trillion in potential budget cuts
  • access to unclassified info
  • SPAWAR (?)
  • hardened kernel for Android mobile operating system (sic.)
  • allow soldiers to connect their smart phones to tactical and mission command and control systems
  • secure Android kernel
    • evaluated by NSA
    • issued a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification
      • Dec. 2011
      • Allows Suite B encryption certification
    • Plan to moved to next level to connect into military networks at the secret level
      • April 2012
"A key driver for project is the need to access information stored within military mission command systems such as the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) and the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), he said. FBCB2 is the Army and Marine Corp's mobile command and control system and AFATDS is the DOD's primary tool for battlefield fire support."
  • Motorola's AME 1000 Secure Mobile Telephony Solution 

Air Force wants wearable computers


  • {unless the is combined to some battle armor or exoskeleton, no way it will work.}
  • {Sure give me some money and I will try to develop it too.}
  • {Unless the is some sort of battle armor, i.e. protects the solder or helps the move faster, no way.}
  • list some of the problems the Army had and why they have move to smart phones.

Kinect for Windows, free software kit to drop Feb. 1

  • natural user interfaces sensor
  • 18 million devices sold
  • Xbox 360

Logo openkinect shaded.svg

  • free, open source libraries to enable Kinect to work with Windows, Linux and Mac.
  • nice Ubuntu install instructions
Androids that Support Skype

  • list of phones
  • Android 2.2 and above
    • install
    • "enable video calling"
      • if the phone doesn't have this option
        • doesn't meet requirements to make Skype video calls
  • Skype 2.1

product image
  • This is what I should have bought for Dolores

product image
  • a 2TB drive back in the $50 per TB range.  
  • A welcome sight

Linux Kernel 3.2 Officially Lands in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

  • better support of large files
    • up to 1MB  on EXT 4
  • I/O-less dirty throttling
  • cross memory attach

Motorola: Carriers 'don't want' stock Android phones

  • running stock Android
    • unaltered Android
  • carriers don't want stock phones
  • most changes to stock are requested by carrier
  • different each carrier from the competition
  • Motorola not shipping unlocked bootloaders

Case Logic VHS-101 Portable Hard Drive Case: $8.84


Case Logic VHS-101 Portable Hard Drive Case

  • should fit my new drive

Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures (Xbox 360): $119 ($250 for PC)


Kinect Sensor with Kinect Adventures (Xbox 360)
  • what are the implications of this technology?
  • is the camera resolution really good enough to do something with?

How ads undermine Android security


Almost all free aps are major info grabbers.

  • put on system by
    • manufacturer
    • carriers 
  • Adds on app have same permission as app.

Virtualization doesn't fix all of Android's ills



  • Problems virtualization might fix:
    • Android fragmentation
    • update lag
  • Problems it wont fix
    • forward compatibility
      • {not sure why virtualization would not help for this}
    • performance
      • virtualization has a small performance hit
    • OEM branding and crapware
    • Carriers branding and crapware
  • things Google should do
    • virtualization
      • expected in 2012
    • minimum hardware spec
      • I don't really think this is important
      • I have changed my mind, this could really help if you know what hardware meets specs and what doesn't.
    • Get OEMs and carriers out of the picture
    • discourage locking bootloaders 
    • discourage branding and crapware
      • so long to the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook

iPhone cannibalizing Android sales


  • October/November sales of iPones soared from 26% to 43%.
    • that is huge
  • Android dropped from 60% to 47%
    • that is huge also
  • Does Google need to wake up?





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