To those of you with a decent understanding of IT-Security:
I'm preparing a presentation on the security threats to web-enabled mobile devices and was looking for some input in regards to iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phone.
I've got enough material for the Android part (and I guess Symbian too), but I'm having trouble finding enough cases of breaches for those previously listed OSes.
What are the real technical reasons why they seem to be less exploited? I'm not interested in the "popularity" arguement here, so no reason to post that.
So is iOS's walled garden approach keeping the programmers from having access to the information they need to find the loopholes? Is it the same with Windows Phone and Blackberry?
Did they just build those OSes from the ground up while constantly looking for loopholes, what Google didn't do, or is it something else? Does this have to do with the withholding of source code?
Thanks in advance to those that help enlighten me!
Does no one know, or do you guys simply not want to take the time to post anything?
Hell, I'd even take a push in the right direction (besides lmgtfy).
Related
My dream is to open up my own company and design my own mobile os and to make smart phones. Working for Google like designing things would be cool too. I am heading off to college this fall and I need some help picking a major. What major would I need to go into to do things like this. Please help me. Also i have a term paper and I have to write how to achieve my dream job, so if you can answer quick that would help thanks in advance! btw I signed up for electrical engineering - is that good?
Firstly, ud need to know the name of the company
Google is the company, android is their mobile os flagship.
I don't think electrical engineering will help much as a major, but having an understanding of that stuff will help. But definitely look into computer science, software engineering, and pretty much anything computer related, especially things like systems engineering, and for phone development, you will DEFINITELY want to look into anything involving embedded systems.
You will need experience programming software and firmware, so programming courses are a must, so take as many of those as you can.
The most important thing you can do, though, is find books and resources for yourself and teach yourself as much as possible outside of school. A lot of courses revolve around a specific subset of material and may not discuss the topics that interest you. That, of course, will depend on your school's curriculum requirements and the professor teaching the class.
Whatever you do, though, make sure it is enjoyable to you and that you aren't just settling for something easy or convenient.
From a tech vet at Google:
http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_nex...oogle-interview-questions-hiring-process.html
I don't know how to code any kind of app or software at the moment, but I'll probably be taking a course on software development over the Summer and I was curious about the current state of mobile operating systems.
Namely, which platform would be the most beginner friendly?
I've heard great things about WP7 and Silverlight being easy to develop for, but iOS is also very attractive because there's just so much knowledge out there right now about it. Then there's Android, but I've heard it's a little more difficult and piracy is a bigger issue.
Any guidance would be much appreciated!
No answers? *bump* ... Don't need a new topic.
Since u don't know advanced coding, Android is good. See appinventor.org
I'm currently evaluating some mobile device management solutions and had a few questions for the wise xda forum goers. I realize that this is primarily a device hacking/development community, but I assumed that surely some people here have some experience with this as an end-user or otherwise.
First and foremost, what recommendations can you guys provide for solutions? I've evaluated six or seven vendors, but I'm leaning toward AirWatch, Good Technologies and BoxTone. I'd really like something with a perpetual license scheme due to the way my organization's finances work. I also want something that won't frustrate my end users, has broad device support and provides security and app distribution functionality.
Does anybody have any test device recommendations? I'm thinking of using an iPod Touch and Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0. I'd imagine you developers could chime in on this. I don't need to test any mobile network functionality with these, just different interactions with the OS and apps. I'm pretty set on the iPod Touch, but I also need an Android test device similar to the iPod Touch and preferably under $300.
I'd appreciate any thoughts on this. I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for, but I was hoping to get some real world insight aside from the vendor references.
P.S.: It's scary what MDM can do. For anybody considering this at their organization, administrative buy-in is key, and make sure you use this power responsibly.
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
Mobile Device Management
The mobile phones which were only a calling device earlier have now become a smart business tool. As mobility is increasing it brings with it ample benefits, however at the same time it creates number of new challenges in terms of usage and the data stored on them.
Hi all
MY QUESTION
How much work is it to get Ubuntu working on a cheap tablet, (in terms of weeks and stress/reliability)? I'm about to spend a year writing tablet software that needs cheap hardware. If I find a capable Android tablet going cheap, is it reasonable to consider getting Ubuntu working on it, instead of restricting myself to the Android OS to use cheap tablets? Would Ubuntu C++ apps still kill performance? (Ubuntu will save me lots of development in other ways.)
ALL comments pleease, however brief and knee-jerk.
BACKGROUND (all feedback gratefully received)
I'm at the design stage of a project to use tablets to improve education in poor countries. Extremely briefly, the tablets will use elements of social media to enable children to collaborate remotely and asynchronously on projects, and game aspects to get the kids excited, who have probably spent the day working on the fields, and to welcome kids with special needs. The system will enable education to continue in complex emergencies, such as droughts and conflicts. Currently most kids drop out after grade one as the education they're offered is so poor. Tablets can support teachers and enable kids to get more out of their classroom and homework time.
The system needs some clever back-end engineering to operate a local social network if there is no internet connection. (I'm thinking something like NodeJS acting as both a p2p client and a server.) It also needs to run on cheap devices, if it is to be adopted by third world Ministries of Education.
I am currently torn between Android and Ubuntu for tablets. Android will presumably be the cheapest platform for the foreseeable future - tablets now go for as little as $40 wholesale. However Ubuntu for tablets now offers the ability to bring a proper IT education to these children, as they can learn office software, desktop OS, etc. Ubuntu also provides source code I can customize, eg, GCompris, Tux4kids, KDE and Epoptes. I can see Ubuntu on other tablets here, but it seems the Nexus 7 is the cheapest tablet I can currently get Ubuntu on and performance is still an issue. Is that fair to say?
I can write everything using C++ and OpenGL to squeeze as much as possible out of every processor cycle. I have been a developer for 15 years, but am pretty ignorant when it comes to hardware/OS level.
My alternative is using something like Titanium and Unity, (I don't think HTML5 will perform well enough), so I have a bit more platform flexibility, at the price of having to develop everything from scratch, and using technologies for the back-end stuff that aren't as ideal, (such as Android Java and/or Titanium JS). But perhaps that keeps more options open for me?
My feeling is I should go for Ubuntu, but the price needs to reliably reach considerably below $100 to become a nationwide system in a poor country.
Obviously any comments or thoughts on any aspect very gratefully received. Don't restrict your comments to my question - I want all your wisdom!
Huge thanks for reading all this and any contributions
Chris
Re-post
perhaps you would get more of a response if you made this a bit shorter, and re-posted on ubuntu.stackexchange.com, android.stackexchange.com, and programmers.stackexchange.com
Also, perhaps a little off topic, but have you considered using coffeescript? :cyclops:
Thought it might be a stackoverflow question, this forum is amazing for tablet OS dev though. As ever I blather on too much...people have complained in the past.
All three? Wouldn't that be bad netiquette?
That's kind of a tricky question because technology is always evolving and prices fluctuate so much that in a year you might be able to get a device for half the price. I'm not knowledgeable about the new Ubuntu options but if your gut says go Ubuntu, than do it.
Thanks, I'd love to say gut instinct served me well, and I'm all for intuition, but I wouldn't trust it enough to dedicate 6 months of development on its hunch. However these replies and the act of writing the question has crystallized my view a little so I now have more targeted questions.
found this excellent guide on the hassles of porting an OS to a new device...
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Porting-Android-to-a-new-device/
and this
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...droid-kernel-porting-from-one-device-to-other
So looks like a month, best case, with expert developers and a device well-known for being hackable. So to port ubuntu to a $40 device, I'm thinking three+ months, plenty of risk, and much pain.
Some other interesting posts:
A little gritty detail on porting kernels: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...droid-kernel-porting-from-one-device-to-other
A tutorial on building (compiling, not developing) a kernel: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2110842
The best post I found on porting ROMS: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1941239
Porting modules from within kernels: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1751966
Porting cyogenmod, (a ROM, not a Mod, as anyone on this forum probably knows): http://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/15492-general-cyanogenmod-porting-discussion/
A new kernel developer: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2173411
A vocab for noobs like me: http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/beginner/android-rom-and-rooting-dictionary-for-beginners/
I was wrong. Ubuntu Touch is based on the CyanogenMod kernel, which is widely ported.
From Canonical's FAQ on the bits of CyanogenMod used: "The kernel and a few low level drivers for network, video, audio and some other hardware features are taken, all the higher level parts have been taken out. On top of this the whole Ubuntu is started in an chroot environment." ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/FAQ#How_is_Ubuntu_Touch_connected_to_Android.3F)
As a result it has already been ported to about 40 devices, and porting to a further 30 is work in progress, listed here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices
CyanogenMod officially supports 172 devices, and unofficially supports another 59.
Officially supported devices: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices
Unofficially supported devices: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Unofficial_Ports
Wow - that's a mouthful, eh?
Hi, I'm an Electrical Engineering Student going into my third year of Engineering. After taking my first Digital Processing class I fell in love with hardware and software. My friend who's a mechanical engineering student in the same year and I created a company and by using community fundraising, we've finally made enough money to start thinking of actually embarking on a large enough quest. Here's the thing - you've probably understood where I'm going with this so without further ado - We want to create a smartphone. We are a team of around 7 engineering and computer science students wanting to create an android smartphone who have not the slightest clue on where to start.
There is a whole slew of things I could be looking for from you guys and I'd greatly appreciate if you all could help me out. I have only once owned an Android device and it was running Android 4.0 when I had it - ever since then I had switched to iPhone (not because it was superior but rather because it was the more financially viable option since I was a software developer and making apps on the App Store generally generated more revenue than apps on the Play Store) therefore I am very VERY noob in terms of Android OS. That being said, here's a short list I came up with of things I think I may need but feel free to add suggestions if you choose to do so.
Information on the Android OS
Information on ROM creation
Information on picking parts
Information on manufacturing opportunities (i.e. factories that will custom produce a prototype or two for you)
Information on creating a Stock ROM for your device lineup
Information on finding the most absolutely stock version of Android (does that exist?)
Information on perhaps other projects in the same ideaspace
Information on how smaller companies such as OnePlus or Essential started to create their phones.
Information on languages I should know (I already know a lot of languages but perhaps there's something more lower level than I need to know?)
Overall, thanks for reading this post and I hope to see replies soon!
Best Regards!
RoyalKingMomo said:
Wow - that's a mouthful, eh?
Hi, I'm an Electrical Engineering Student going into my third year of Engineering. After taking my first Digital Processing class I fell in love with hardware and software. My friend who's a mechanical engineering student in the same year and I created a company and by using community fundraising, we've finally made enough money to start thinking of actually embarking on a large enough quest. Here's the thing - you've probably understood where I'm going with this so without further ado - We want to create a smartphone. We are a team of around 7 engineering and computer science students wanting to create an android smartphone who have not the slightest clue on where to start.
There is a whole slew of things I could be looking for from you guys and I'd greatly appreciate if you all could help me out. I have only once owned an Android device and it was running Android 4.0 when I had it - ever since then I had switched to iPhone (not because it was superior but rather because it was the more financially viable option since I was a software developer and making apps on the App Store generally generated more revenue than apps on the Play Store) therefore I am very VERY noob in terms of Android OS. That being said, here's a short list I came up with of things I think I may need but feel free to add suggestions if you choose to do so.
Information on the Android OS
Information on ROM creation
Information on picking parts
Information on manufacturing opportunities (i.e. factories that will custom produce a prototype or two for you)
Information on creating a Stock ROM for your device lineup
Information on finding the most absolutely stock version of Android (does that exist?)
Information on perhaps other projects in the same ideaspace
Information on how smaller companies such as OnePlus or Essential started to create their phones.
Information on languages I should know (I already know a lot of languages but perhaps there's something more lower level than I need to know?)
Overall, thanks for reading this post and I hope to see replies soon!
Best Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to start with exactly which hardware components you will put in the device. That is what will decide everything about how the software should be built.
As for figuring out hardware and design, you won't get much help here with that.
The majority of this community is everyday users, the rest are software developers and most of them are self taught non professionals. We deal with custom software development here. This forum won't do you any good until you have a working hardware design.
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