Salon.com > Smartphone

The Department of iPhone Security

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:03:00 +0000

A South Florida TV news station is reporting that over the last few months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been raiding local smartphone repair shops and seizing counterfeit Apple parts. As many as 25 shops have been raided and "between $250,000 and $300,000 in counterfeit Apple parts" have been confiscated. In the case of at least one of the raids, the owner of a repair shop claimed that the ICE agents were accompanied by Apple representatives.

"It's a wide investigation that is multi-state. We are looking at whole industry spectrum of repair shops that are using substandard products," said Gerard O'Neill, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Miami Field Office for Homeland Security.

O'Neill says it's a public safety issue and that is how Homeland Security is involved.

He says consumers have be hurt by overheating phones that were repaired using counterfeit parts.

"There are trademark and licensing violations as well," he added.

According to Abel Abella, the proprietor of one of the raided repair shops, "20 ICE agents and two people from Apple came to his store."

Why would anyone want a Facebook phone?

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Let's assume that all the rumors are true, and Facebook is set to reveal -- as early as this Thursday -- its long-awaited "Facebook Phone." This will be a mobile device whose home screen belongs to Facebook. Turn it on, and you'll be able to text, take pictures, check your news feed, update your status and perhaps even make free phone calls, all within the confines of an integrated Facebook user interface. No time-consuming extra clicks necessary to launch the Facebook app -- your phone will be the Facebook app.

There's no mystery as to why Facebook would want to launch a Facebook phone. Facebook claims around 650 million mobile users and Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly totally focused on adapting Facebook to the mobile environment. The more Facebook can dominate your mobile experience, the more revenue-generating ads it can deliver to you. The future of Facebook is inextricably enmeshed with the future of the smartphone, so why wouldn't the company want to have one of its own?

Who has the best smartphone?

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:45:00 +0000

"Aesthetically pleasing" is very subjective.

I was deep into the fifth page of the reader comments of the first installment of Ars Technica's excellent "The State of Smartphones in 2012," when I encountered this observation, which is simultaneously the most illuminating and worthless Internet comment of all time. It was a response to the declaration by Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham that the "Live Tiles" user interface in the brand-spanking-new Windows Phone 8 operating system was more "aesthetically striking" than the icons of Apple's iOS or the widgets of Google's Android.

(With Live Tiles, the restless smartphone user can expand or shrink the on-screen real estate devoted to a particular app or function, providing a level of configurability alien to the straitlaced universe that iPhone lovers, in particular, are accustomed to. Remember this, for future reference: Windows: freedom! Apple: tyranny!)

Facebook pushes Android on employees

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:49:00 +0000

For years Facebook had given its employees iPhones, but in recent month the company has launched an internal campaign urging workers to shift to Google's Android smartphones. According to a report by TechCrunch flagged by CNET, "the company’s headquarters is plastered with ... eye-popping posters asking Facebookers to 'switch today'."

The push, noted CNET, appears to be underpinned by the fact that Android controls a far larger percentage of the smartphone market than Apple: