Android phones, apps and tablets

hmm Streisand looks interesting. Might give it a whirl. Already have a VPN server but it's ultra barebones.

I've got a factory spec Samsung S5. Recently when I try to log on to my work account I get the attached "403 error log in""message on the screen. For love not money I cant get into my account. In addition when I try to search and post- after logging into the muff wiggler forum from the same handset I get bounced straight back out with a message saying the request is only for those logged in .

Is this coincidence or is there something else going on?

1 Attachment

• 403 Forbidden.pdf

Is your device's date and time correct?

@hippy I like that weather widget. What is it?

Aix weather :)

AIX Weather widget. It's hit and miss with accuracy but I think that's more to do with this country.

Awesome, thanks.

Signal

I've just gone to install Signal, and ironically baulked because it seems to want all of the permissions. I'm sure it is fine, but just seemed a bit ironic.
(Looking forward to getting 6.0 to have the app by app control over permissions)

Signal is really secure, and a damn good replacement/add-on for SMS.

It does ask for a chunk of permissions, but most of these allow it to replace the existing SMS app fully, i.e. when you start a message that you can choose contacts, that you could share your location with a contact, that you could start a phonecall (dropping back to a regular call if the recipient isn't on Signal).

The guy behind it, Moxie, is one of the greatest coders of our time, and the entire codebase has been peer reviewed by people obsessed with security and privacy.

It's about as good as you're ever going to get to offering all of the features that they do for the least possible intrusion... but because of how Android assigns permissions it definitely looks intrusive.

Ah, didn't realise it was rolled to work as a full SMS replacement. That makes more sense then.

Still it'd be nice if there was an version which just simulated IM, which would presumably need almost none of the permissions

It's "secure when it can be", which means it replaces your SMS so that if you're chatting to someone and half way through they go get Signal, it instantly starts using that and encrypting everything.

The drop-in replacement to SMS is to improve the messaging experience, and then make things really secure whenever you're communicating with someone known to have Signal.

Another misconception is that people imagine it's anonymous... anonymity isn't a requirement for privacy though. Mostly I got it because I chat with my wife and at some level I wasn't comfortable with the fact that our messages, private to us and our marriage, were essentially publicly accessible. Now I use it for all messaging communication, and if I'm chatting to someone for more than a few moments I won't continue if they're not on Signal. Crazy, I realise.

https://whispersystems.org/blog/signal-desktop/

Not heard of it before. What does it have that Whatsapp doesn't have (given that Whatsapp messages have end-to-end encryption)?

Or is it an underlying trust issue, given that from what you say Signal is open source and publically auditable whereas Whatsapp is more reliant on being informed that conversations are encrypted.

Whatsapp is Facebook so Zucker is stealing all your messages and then using them to try and steal your sexual partners from you.

It's a level of encryption and security that is bat shit crazy... it's impressively good. All of the cryptographers I know (I know a few) seriously think Moxie has created the best in class.

But then... it's just a good app. It's a drop-in replacement for SMS.

The real beauty, there has never been a system this secure, that is also so effortlessly convenient.

That's really it's beauty. It's so damn simple.

Is anyone using the Moto X second generation? I thinking about dropping some notes for it. It's a little bit bigger that I'd like but there doesn't appear to be many offerings <5 inches. I'm a little concerned over the relatively small battery.

I had one until I dropped and smashed it. I had dropped it many times, and wasn't using any case or protector... any phone would've died.

I loved it, and my only complaints would be that the battery sometimes didn't make the whole day (top-ups were essential), and that towards the end I was getting close to the storage limit.

Have you tried Conversations for secure messaging?
Security/privacy nuts seem to rate it. But it's not an SMS client. And it's a paid app.

Yes.

And confide, wickr, WhatsApp.

Signal wins IMHO. People I know who know nothing about encryption can use it, and those of us who do know stuff are happy

I've got the missus and some mates using Signal. Works pretty well for chat and SMS replacement. Simple but effective.

hmm... I don't think i'd like going back to charging during the day.

Did anyone buy the wileyfox swift when it was on for 99.99? It's back to that price and I was looking for feedback.

I eventually just used one of those cheap £8 external USB battery chargers.

I didn't need it most days, the Moto X (2nd ed) battery was good enough. But I was glad I had it for those times I did need it.

Part of my motivation for getting the Nexus 6p was the larger battery. It's huge, and I barely drain half before a day is done, even with things like VPNs running constantly (encryption takes CPU cycles, which uses battery).

The bigger battery is one of the things I'm really appreciating about this Moto X Play. Fairly often I wouldn't do stuff on my phone because I knew it wouldn't last till I got home, I don't have to think about that now.

External battery packs are good if you have a bag but a bit of an arse otherwise. This is the best portable one I found, enough to give you about 50-70% of battery, pretty portable and has a captive cable http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E67MPYW/ The Anker ones are good for bigger sizes.

The Moto X 2014? I have one (actually had two, they replaced the first due a problem with the headphone jack) and like it a lot. Great size and I haven't yet felt the need to root it (I did the first one, but I didn't gain much) which speaks a lot for the little tweaks Motorola added.
I agree with @Velocio about the battery, but I'm pretty heavy on it. I just wish they would give a microSD slot. I don't want to stream music/video over 4G, even if 4G is fast enough it's a waste of bandwidth.

The design of the front of the Moto X (2014) leaves the glass a bit vulnerable to being smashed (nothing sits above it, which often happens on other phones) and the cost of repair is just over €200.

Other than that, my wife loved hers. She currently cant use it as we are in dispute with Moto about the damage that their repair centre caused to the metal frame of the handset during both the original glass repair, and their repair that was supposed to fix it.