1. Operator? Could You Help Me Make This Call?
Sometimes, the latest, up-to-the-minute cell phone news makes me wanna just jam a pencil into an ear. It’s interesting once in awhile, sure—especially when your contract’s run out and you’re in the market. But that generally happens only every two years. I don’t get the folks who must have a 24/7 news feed about every cell new phone and carrier announcement. (That’s why I do stuff like a WWII tech article. I’m very close to the demographic of IEN readers so, I figure, if I find that stuff interesting, so might readers. Hopefully.)
That said, here’s an exception to the pencil-in-ear compulsion.
The NSA, says PopSci, is building their own ‘top-secret secure smartphone.’ Here’s a clip…
Reuters got some details on a top-secret smartphone project at the National Security Agency. Project leader Troy Lange is developing special software that turns an everyday, commercially available smartphone into a tool with top secret access. And he wants every employee in the Defense Department and intelligence agencies to have one.
U.S. intelligence agencies, it seems—even with all of the country’s technology, gadgets, and cool stuff coming out of DARPA—is very, very far behind on secure cell phone technology. Apparently, ‘the NSA is still in the dark ages of communication.’
The government does have its own suite of secure mobile phones that connect to something called the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, but they’re not exactly sneaky, with bulky builds and limited capabilities. Apparently generals hate them, and have been known to switch to their personal cellphones to have classified conversations, Reuters reports.
They’re even looking at the possibility of an app store with classified apps.
My take? I’m seriously surprised that they didn’t have this stuff worked out long ago. For now, many spooks have to sit down at a wired computer to get their email, calendar invites, etc.
‘Special software’ should be one part of many that also includes special hardware, a special network (or subnetwork), and a dedicated, unique OS. An app atop Android or iOS just won’t cut it. Anonymous is probably already circling like stealth vultures in Guy Fawkes masks, just waiting to break into whatever new, ‘special software’ is adopted. We think we have problems with Wikipedia now? “We’ve only just begun…”
2. Mudflap: That Hurt, Man! Skids: It’s Supposed to Hurt—It’s an Ass Kickin’!
(Those’re quotes by ‘the twins’ in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That movie’s a keeper; much better than the first one. Yeah, I’m warped.)
In the context of smartphones, the iPhone is getting its pretty little butt kicked by Android. Welcome to the Apple CEO chair, Mr. Cook.
Here’re some useful numbers for industrial software developers.
How bad is the whoopin’? According to Neilsen, 43% of U.S. smartphones are based on Google’s Android OS. The iPhone’s number? 28%. It gets worse for Apple. In the past three months, the gap has widened to 56% and 28%, with RIM and its Blackberry OS bringing up the rear at 9%.
Analysts are saying—and Apple is hoping, of course—that the next ‘magical’ device, the iPhone 5 (to be announced on Tuesday) will narrow the gap. It’ll be interesting to watch. If you’re a software developer, however, it’s pretty clear that Android is a good bet.
I’ve already predicted that RIM won’t be around in 5 years. It’s not kept up with what users want and need and, like the Apple of old, arrogantly sits back and expects that its dedicated followers will keep them going. They won’t. There are fewer and fewer dedicated Blackberry users every day. What about RIM’s Playbook? They just slashed prices on those, probably heading toward another tablet fire sale. Since Amazon just announced its entry into the Android tablet space, the unfortunately-named Kindle Fire—at a world-beating, profit-losing (They’ll make it up on eBooks, movies, music, etc.) $199 prince point—it’s only going to get worse for RIM —very quickly.
The only way RIM can survive? Work with U.S. intelligence agencies on the above secure smartphone initiative. They’ve already got the hardware experience, manufacturing savvy, government connections, and reasonably secure network to start with.
3. Video of the Week
Humans use tools. Animals use tools. But, um, fish use tools? Apparently and surprisingly, yes.
This guy travelled a good fish-distance to find a tool (a rock), then opened a clam by hurling it against the tool. You’ve gotta see this…
Okay, so it’s not a fancy Snap-On tool. It’s a rock. But imagine what has to go through that fish head during the above process?
1. Wow. This looks like a particularly tasty clam.
2. Damn. I can’t get into it with just my fish lips.
3. Hmm. How can I get into it?
4. Ah! I’ll use a rock!
5. Damn. No rock handy. Find one, I must.
6. Say, this looks like a perfectly appropriate rock!
7. Damn. Now I have to schlep it back. Fish lips don’t fail me now.
8. I went all this distance for a rock to open a clam? This clam had better be worth it.
9. Ah! Now I’ve got it! Rock, meet clam!
10. Finally, my tasty clam snack. Mmm.
Seriously. Even the evolutionary professor who filmed it said, “It requires a lot of forward thinking.”
Next, that blackspot turkfish will have his own tool chest. And clam shop. Maybe it'll evolve to use a vise, or a hammer. Heck, he could charge other fish for the service and become the first-ever capitalist-of-the-sea. He could launch an ocean-wide clam-rock chain and have a Clam Opening Grand Opening, and…okay, I’ll stop.
Fascinating. Darwin is smiling proudly.
4. I Hear the Zombie Apocalypse Train a Comin’
Wanna know where it’s comin’ ‘round the bend? See the yellow and red areas below…
It is, however, a map plotted by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford, showing points on the planet from which the term ‘zombie’ was Googled. A range from yellow (fewer zombies) to increasingly darker shades of red (more zombies) not only indicates frequency of those Google searches, but offers ‘an early warning into the geographies of the impending zombie apocalypse.’ Those aren’t my words, but those of the OII.
Interestingly, the high-search areas also have high populations and considerable air traffic between them. So, if a Zombie Apocalypse did happen, the map would probably turn-out to be pretty accurate. Gotta love technology.
5. Aluminum Shortage Could Affect More than Netbooks
Recently published at Electronista was an article about how ‘chronic aluminum shortages’ could force production cuts of Windows ultrabooks. Here’s a clip (Links intact)…
An industry news tip stemming from Digitimes has some of the key companies making aluminum panels for ultraportable notebooks, including Foxconn and Catcher, fully occupied until at least the end of 2011. MacBook Air competitors that use aluminum, such as the Acer Aspire S3, Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, and Toshiba Portege Z830 might all be constrained as a result.
Oh, well. Apple production is booked and other companies take the hit. That’s not suprising.
Here’s the surprising part: there really is an aluminum shortage that is expected to extend beyond this year. Here’s a clip from the related CommodityOnline piece…
The world is producing less primary aluminum as China consistently reduces its output, say analysts with Harbor Intelligence. “Modest output restarts outside China are not enough to compensate,” Harbor says.
During the July-October period, China’s output dropped by 2.1 million (annualized) tons, and continuing cuts are expected.
Keep that in mind for your new designs.
6. New Manned ‘UAV’ and a New Reason for It
While Boeing’s proposed replacement for 707-based, military radar jets are expected to manned, they’ll handle ‘an awful lot of what we’ve come to associate with drones—spying-on and killing bad guys.’ That’s from DefenseTech.
Called the P-8 AGS (Airborne Ground Surveillance), it’s based on the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon subhunter…
Commander of the Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran broke the news about the plans for the presence of this force in the Atlantic Ocean and said that the same way that the world arrogant power is present near our marine borders, we, with the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence, shall also establish a powerful presence near the marine borders of the United States,” the story said. The reference to the “world arrogant power” was presumably intended to refer to the United States.
Here in my East Coast neck of the woods, I went an entire year without hearing any nearby air traffic. For the past six months, however, it’s been frequent, consistent, and clearly military. Huh. I can’t help but wonder what’s going on.
The good news? We’re much better prepared for Iranian patrols than a Zombie Apocalypse.
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