Nobody cares about data anymore: a rant on the state of smartphones

[WillDAQ]

OK, OK, I'll mention iOS, too. Apparently, it synchronizes using -- and saying this is like sticking two fingers down the back of my throat -- "the cloud". Maybe it works reasonably well, too, but guess whom I'd trust even less with my data than Google?

Simply wrong. My iPhone connects to the following:
- A hotmail account
- A gmail account
- An exchange server
- An IMAP server

It does this by connecting directly to all of the servers in question, no Apple involvement, it just works. If you have an Exchange server and Outlook then it syncs data to Outlook via the Exchange server

You can do various clever sync things (such as sync via Wifi to a mail program on a computer, or using iCloud to do something similar) but you don't need them.

 

[Dr_Grip]

The problem isn't so much them knowing where you were so much as CarrierIQ logging your keystrokes.

Good point. Without it, the carrier would only get text messages and unencrypted mail.

 

[prizrak]

Good point. Without it, the carrier would only get text messages and unencrypted mail.

The biggest issue was it seemed to also get encrypted pages (like say your bank's)

 

[Jens]

I wholeheartedly agree with you that today's smartphone operating systems seem to focus too much on the consumer market.

However, as a BlackBerry user (have had iOS and Android devices in the past) I can say that for me it does everything I want.
I've got four mailboxes, two calenders, my contacts list and Evernote syncing with it pretty much out of the box. And if you're using BB Protect you will never lose data when switching devices.
Something I often get are these Outlook meeting invitations, I don't use Outlook myself and both Mozilla Thunderbird and the standard OS X mail client all go 'What the fuck is this shit?' when I receive one of those, yet my BB handles them fine, it assigns the meeting to the correct category and places it neatly in my calendars, even notifying me when I had something else planned already.

Another reason I like BB is the fact that it seemingly is the sole platform that can sync everything correctly with my car's bluetooth, iOS couldn't handle syncing contacts (which is pretty essential) and Android failed at reading texts.

 

[prizrak]

Something I often get are these Outlook meeting invitations, I don't use Outlook myself and both Mozilla Thunderbird and the standard OS X mail client all go 'What the fuck is this shit?' when I receive one of those, yet my BB handles them fine, it assigns the meeting to the correct category and places it neatly in my calendars, even notifying me when I had something else planned already.

That's because BB was designed for Outlook essentially, try it with Lotus and see how well it works. Exchange sync on iOS/Android works just fine for those invitations so really a moot point.

EDIT: Also keep in mind that Mail.app is not integrated with calendar like Outlook is, calendar in OS X is separate application.

Had another thought technically if Apple, RIM or MS want access to your private data they could probably get it anyway since you are using their devices and if you think they would violate your privacy if you use their services there is really nothing stoping them from doing the same thing through some sort of a backdoor in their software.

 

[Wizegui]

Chances are Google already have most of that data already. With the internet, there is very little privacy. I'm pretty sure Google would be more likely to sell your information versus companies like MS and Apple where this sort of thing isn't their main source of revenue. Don't want CarrierIQ? Buy a Nexus device or an iPhone. I haven't had any issues with my iOS or Android devices for my email accounts.