This blog is my attempt to share information with faculty, introducing new apps, websites, or other snippets of information that may be of use to faculty. I am also using it to keep track of projects I'm working on that might be good to reference in the future.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Dark Side?

As my son puts it, I finally came to the Dark Side.  I now have an iPhone.  My Android was having battery issues and my daughter upgraded her iPhone, so I am using her old iPhone4 for now, just checking things out.

Upon doing some security research, I've discovered that the iPhone is much more secure - because of recent updates to iOS7, but primarily due to the closed nature of how iPhone allows apps to be developed.  As much as I'd prefer the easier open development method of Android (Google), one thing Apple has done with it's closed structure of app development is to make sure, for the most part, that apps are clear of viruses and spyware.  As an end user, I was fairly comfortable in the risks involved as an Android user, but I can see if someone is not as comfortable using technology, it would be much safer to have an iPhone.

A recent report stated that Android exploits/attacks went from 200 in 2012 to 743 in 2013.  These are primarily similar to Windows infections, by programs pretending to valid programs so users install them, but really they are Trojans attacks (hiding malicious code in something that seems useful).  The Android OS is secure, but it the lack of control and checks over apps that is the issue.  You have to rely on the truthfulness of the developer, which in this day and age you can not always trust.  As a tech person, I could 'double check' some of the apps if not from a reputable, big name developer to make sure I was limiting my risk, but the less savvy user may not feel comfortable doing that.

I still have a Kindle, and love it, but will check out the iPhone for now.

The first thing I noticed is that Google has a bunch of apps for the iPhone, and it seems pretty well integrated.  It seems Google (and I have to give them credit for this), has decided to develop it's own apps to integrate with the iOS so that iPhone/iPad users can take advantage of the Google apps line.

Hopefully more to follow shortly....


 

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