Robots - iPhone Robots

I was skimming through articles on Wired.com, and I saw one that said something about the common man’s robot being headless… so I decided to check it out. The article started out discussing how we have all these cool technological devices in our homes, but no robots, even though that was a big thing of the sci-fi future before. This group got together and created a base (with wheels, so it’s movable) for an iPod/iPhone. You download the Romo app (that’s what the robot is called), and it gives the device a face, and it’ll even change features and track you with the sensor. They’re working on creating a lot more advances for it, such as facial recognition between family members and friends, so that it has a “personality”. You can control your Romo with another iOS device, so you could potentially use your outdated phone as the “brain” and face of the Romo, and your current phone as the controller. It looked like they’re even attempting to bring this to the Android market, as well. I think it’s really interesting how our smartphones have become central to our lives, and this is just an example. Our phones are finding ever more uses in our lives and how they interact with us daily. The hardware and the software is there, we just have to learn how to apply it all in a way that is affordable for the “common consumer”. One of the great things about this is that the team opened up the software coding and everything to let other developers create programs that are compatible with Romo, and thereby making it even better and a bigger part of the consumer’s life. One of my favorite parts about the article was the video at the end that gave a spiel about Romo, which I have included a link to on this page.

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/02/common-mans-robot/
http://vimeo.com/51263340#

Mobile Updates

Yes, I'm paying attention to the cell phone tech world right now, so we get another post about iPhones! Apple released an iOS software update, and I have been delaying on updating for weeks (no real free time to just let my phone update itself). I actually decided to look up reviews about the new iOS before I got any of the problems that may be contained, and I'm glad I did. It has bugs. Vodafone (UK iPhone carrier) has announced that the update is causing problems with 3G connectivity for the iPhone 4S. One of the other problems that has come to light is that the new update drains the battery, and it's a huge problem. This isn't an unusual problem, but I just noticed it on headlines and articles while scrolling through updates about iOS 6.1. People who used to get through the day on one charge now can't. I can't make it through the day anyway on one charge, and I don't want to see what would happen if I got the new iOS. I'd probably make it a couple of hours before needing a charge, and that's not a possibility for me. Hopefully Apple will get this fully fixed soon, and I can get my phone updated.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/02/vodafone-warns-iphone-4s/

Jailbreak

For the longest time, I never quite understood what "jailbreaking" your phone was. And I didn't really care about it, as I was perfectly fine with using my iPhone with only iPhone apps, and I felt it was other people's choices to jailbreak their phones or not. I came across an article on Wired about how Apple was trying to prevent federal regulators from legalizing jailbreaking. They stated that it could bring about "'potentially catastrophic' cyberattacks", however all of the cell towers are still up and working. Jailbreaking allows users to run whatever apps they would like, rather than being limited to just that particular App Store, by giving root access to your device.

I can definitely see the potential for attacks that this enables, but the jailbreak is able to be done by exploiting five bugs that are already in the code for iOS. I feel like if a person is serious about attacking others, then they wouldn't do it through their mobile phone or even their tablets. They would most likely want to use their laptop or desktop computers, but that's my opinion and I feel like I have more flexibility and control over my laptop than over my cell phone.

Apple has stated that they have put in these protection measures in the iOS devices to help prevent jailbreaking and the potential threats that accompany it. However, I feel like this needs to be treated similar to our computers. I have protective measures in place to help prevent myself from being attacked/exploited/damaged. I am sure that if I truly had the desire to attack others (which I don't), then I could. I don't have that desire, so instead I take protective and preventative measures to protect myself from those attacks. I would be okay with doing the same thing for my phone, honestly, if that would be what could help protect my data.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/02/cell-towers-survive-jailbreak/

Chips for Students

A school kicked out a student because she refused to wear a lanyard with an RFID-chip student ID. Her reasons for it aren't really what caught my attention. What struck me curious is that these chips are associated with their Social Security number, and it monitors the students' movements all across campus. While I'm all for incorporating technology into our lives, this seems very "Big Brother"-esque. It also seems that the more personal information you have linked to the chip, the more chance there is that it could be compromised. I understand why the schools want to track the movements of the students - to get funding for the school - but it's also very invasive, in my opinion. I like my privacy, and I wouldn't want my movements being tracked everywhere.

So in hopes that someone else besides me notices how invasive this has the potential of being, I will hope for The Doctor to come and stop this (we have a Whovian over here!).

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/school-kicks-out-sophomore-in-rfid-student-id-flap/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/11/student-suspension/

The FBI should have hackers?

I was reading through wired.com today, originally I was working on another assignment for a different class, and I saw the article "The FBI Needs Hackers, Not Backdoors". It caught my attention, so I decided to read through it.

The FBI is saying that there should be "mandatory wiretap backdoors" in all of our new technological devices such as smart phones, tablets, etc. According to the article, "For the last few years, the FBI’s been warning that its surveillance capabilities are "going dark," because internet communications technologies — including devices that connect to the internet — are getting too difficult to intercept with current law enforcement tools". However, what the authors' of the article suggested is that the FBI should use the vulnerabilities that are in place already instead of creating new vulnerabilities with a mandatory backdoor. AKA the FBI should get better at hacking - or they should hire hackers - to solve their problem. There's a lot more information contained within the article regarding it, and you can find it here: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/01/wiretap-backdoors/

Happy reading!