Category Archives: Android

Meme Watch: “Pocket Stasi”

I think the phrase “pocket Stasi”, meaning a cell phone that tracks and surveils you too much, has legs.

I first ran in to it yesterday, in a review of the Moto X flagged by David Farber’s email list:

… essentially, it’s the world’s most sophisticated cluster of sensors you can wear on your person, and it’s going to know every single thing you do, whether it’s driving, sleeping or taking a walk around the block. Google is betting that you will love your pocket Stasi so much you’ll never want to be without it—and Google is right.

I don’t know what the first use might be – maybe LibrarianShipwreck, The Stasi Agent in Your Pocket?

Yes, it trivializes the horror of the Stasi — totalizing sensors are bad, but not as bad as a secret police, nor is Google a pipeline direct to one. But I still think the phrase has legs.

Posted in Android, Law: Privacy | Comments Off on Meme Watch: “Pocket Stasi”

U Miami Has Its Own App

explorer taxMaybe everyone else knew, but I was surprised to learn that the University of Miami has its own Android/IPhone app.

Of course it’s a bloated 10MB monster, but even so. Rumor has it you can use it to check out books from the library, but I haven’t figured out how yet. The map looks useful, but a search for “Architechture School” and “Law School” returned not found.

First impression: Looks slick, but it isn’t very efficient, and it’s not terribly user-friendly. In other words, all very Miami?

Posted in Android, U.Miami | 2 Comments

Dear Verizon Wireless

There was nothing in the documentation to suggest that 4000 or so Google contacts and 196 apps (including all the cruft you pre-loaded on my phone and I cannot remove), would bork the Droid Incredible 2.

Anyway, I don’t have 4000 contacts. The phone, or the phone-Google connection, seems to have systematically put in multiple entries for the ones I do have due to some weird effect of matching contacts.

And most of the apps are very small.

Oh, and did I mention that the DINC2 startup screen (pictured) always makes me think of the Eye of Sauron?

Posted in Android, Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 2 Comments

Debunked

Real World Test Show That Android Task Killers Are Still Useless.

Had me fooled.

Posted in Android | Comments Off on Debunked