Why I have not moved from iOS to Android

Like so many people, I would like to move away from the giant technology empire Apple's iPhone to the giant technology empire Google's Android phones instead. I would like to get away from Apple's quasi-monopoly of 21% of the world wide smartphone market, and join Google's quasi-monopoly of 70% of the world wide smartphone market[1].

However, I have not done so yet, and here are some of my reasons:

1. Google allows third party app stores, which means that developers with malicious intent always can find places to post malware that has not been verified. It also means that there is no central place where I can find all safe apps.
2. Android has no working Security Updates. More than 60% of Android users have old versions of the OS without Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) and Data Execution Prevention (DEP).
3. If an Android application wants to access several things on your phone, like GPS and address book, it is all or nothing. You cannot allow the application access to some of the features but not others.
4. Many Android devices are impossible to upgrade to newer secure versions of the OS.
5. There is no working support for car radios. When I connect my iPhone to my car radio, I can browse songs and playlists with the built in radio, and play counts are updated accordingly. Android devices can only be connected as storage devices, like dumb hard disks.
6. There is no built in support for iTunes U in Android.
7. There is no decent application to type off line and then sync with the cloud. Google Drive/Docs for Android does not allow you to edit documents off line. Apple's Pages for iOS lets you write a novel off line, which then is automatically synchronised with iCloud, as soon as the phone is connected to the net again.

Is that list rational? Not entirely. There is a big flaw: I start off with iOS and see what I lose if I were to move to Android. If I had started with Android, I'm sure I could make a similar list why I should not move to iOS.

Is the list accurate? It is as accurate as I could make it with a few minutes of googling. However, it does not take up all sides. For example, there are Android apps to use iTunes U. It is just that they are not built in, and I am not sure what kind of limitations they have.

Will I ever move to Android? I could move to Android or Windows or any phone OS that proves to me that it covers my needs or habits. Currently, I do not know of any such OS except iOS. In the future, I hope there will be other ones.

Security - in Spite of Google, Amazon and other Big Players

Next time you go to a bar, bring your Kindle, and leave it at the table, when you leave. If you do not have the device password protected, someone may pick it up and buy books for thousands of euros without any control at all. Amazon will not be checking any password at the purchase. You can easily deactivate the Kindle remotely, once you discover the theft. From then on, the thief will not be able to read the books any more. However, you will still have paid for them.

Now you are more careful, so you password protect the Kindle. You read a great book on it, and you lend the Kindle with its password to your teenage son. When you get it back, it has one gigabyte of books about motorcycle maintenance on it. And your bank account is in the red.

At a coffee break at work, write a raving review about that great book you bought for the Kindle. To be able to write the review, you need to log in to Amazon. A colleague calls you next door to show pictures of his baby, and you do not lock your computer. A passerby sits down at your computer and uses your Amazon account to buy a 10 000 euro lens to his camera. And a 6000 euro camera to his brand new lens. (I have not tried this, but there seems to be no password request here either.) For good measure, he buys a couple of more ebooks and downloads a bunch of mp3 files using your account as well.


Why can't they ask for a password at each purchase?

And now Google have their music download service Google Play. Before you go home from work, you quickly open a browser window at your work PC to write a quick thank-you mail to your dentist. Another colleague calls you next door to look at pictures he has taken of his cat. The dishonest passerby comes back, and using the same browser as you used for the mail, he opens Google Play, where he can buy and download mp3 files all night using your account. (Your colleague really has a lot of cat pictures.)

Why can't they ask for a password at each purchase?

To "increase" the security, it seems all those online mail providers have decided to get to know everything about our lives. Never before have so many people known my mother's maiden name or the name of my first pet. We are supposed to choose passwords that are so strong that we are bound to forget them, and then all mom's childhood friends can easily access all my personal data.

What is really bad, is that security questions often are mandatory. How many of us do not have a list where we list not only our many passwords, but also all the different maiden names we give to different online companies: "Mom's maiden name with Yahoo: Smith. Mom's maiden name with Google: Leclerc. Mom's maiden name with Apple: Pope Pious XIVXC..."

My secret dream is that all security questions and passwords one day will be replaced by a simple request for a promise. "Yes, I am above 18 years old, and I am really Magnus, cross my heart. Please, let me read my mail - and nothing else."

Impenetrable security grid

Privacy and Security Clean Up

Your most treasured online IDs can be accessed by other applications, sometimes because you once consciously allowed it and sometimes because you inadvertently allowed it. And, I bet, sometimes because it just happened without anyone actually telling you. This is a list of some links to lists of apps that can access your accounts.

• Google
• Facebook App Settings
• Microsoft, Windows Live
• Dropbox
• Twitter
• flickr
• Yahoo
• Linked in

Why not go through the list and make sure you know who can access your account data?