Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 208 posts

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#181

Post by jiggy2011 »

brc wrote: post #136
baddox wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the fake PIN would only show a preset of money in the account (and still call the cops)? If the robber didn't know the victim, they might buy it.

I think that's the far more sensible option. Sure, they might get more violent and say 'use the real pin', but honestly, how are they going to know that there isn't only 67.87 in the bank?

If you've got some armed psychopath (or maybe more than 1) holding a weapon to you or threatening you on a dark night your probably not going to be thinking rationally.

All sorts of stuff is going through your head like "should I use the duress PIN?" , "can I remember the duress PIN?" , "will they know if I use it?" , "how could they know?" , "What if they somehow DO know, is it worth the risk?"

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#182

Post by jiggy2011 »

jerrya wrote: post #16

Somewhat related: I've long wondered why ATM cards don't have something similar. 1234 is my regular PIN. 1235 is my help I'm being robbed PIN -- it dispenses the cash, calls the cops, and tags the video.

What about simply having an emergency gun dispenser inside the ATM?

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#183

Post by jiggy2011 »

walexander wrote: post #12
ConstantineXVI wrote: post #5

I'm more bewildered to why no tablets seem to have multi-user functionality. In my experience, tablets get shared far more often than phones.

I work for a tablet manufacturer, and I spoke to an Android product manager at I/O last year about this. According to him, this is a feature that pops up once in awhile, but they have a long list of stuff to do and this is just one of those things that always gets bumped out. From my perspective as a platform dev, I'd like to get into some of the technical problems with changing this, but I could end up breaking some…

Maybe the encryption doesn't matter? By default in Windows users are hidden from each other stuff but the files aren't encrypted so only the FS permissions are stopping them from reading each others home folders.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#184

Post by jiggy2011 »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #5

I'm more bewildered to why no tablets seem to have multi-user functionality. In my experience, tablets get shared far more often than phones.

Again this might be the simplicity issue, tablets are sold partly on the idea that they are simpler than PCs.

Once you start adding stuff like login systems, seperate file permissions you start becoming a PC with a touchscreen.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#185

Post by jiggy2011 »

sambeau wrote: post #160
pavel_lishin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why not just avoid keeping weird stuff on your phone? Keep it somewhere else. My girlfriend texting me about medical issues isn't "weird", but I still don't want my mom to read it if I happen to hand him my phone for a few minutes. My mom emailing me photos of my childhood self taking a bath isn't weird, but I wouldn't want my friends to see them. My friend asking me if I'll be showing up to the Atheist Associa…

My friend asking me if I'll be showing up to the Atheist Association meetup isn't weird, but I wouldn't necessarily want my boss to see the message. Wow. I'm glad I don't live in a country where that would even be an issue. It would never occur to me as something anyone would need to be private in any country(until now). (Or do you work for a fundamentalist religious organisation?)

Being from the UK the whole idea of having an atheist organisation seems a little odd. Most people are technically christian but don't go to church and their beleif is fairly skin deep.

Religious apathy is sort of the default and religion doesn't really dictate public policy very much so having an atheist society would be a bit like having a society for heterosexual people.

Are atheists really marginalized enough in the US that it becomes necessary to band together?

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#186

Post by benvanderbeek »

forensic wrote: post #32
benvanderbeek wrote: post #2

Privacy is important. But why not just avoid keeping weird stuff on your phone? Keep it somewhere else. Or say, "hold on let me log out of my bank app" or something.

>keep it somewhere else Where? Keep my naked girlfriend pics in a recipe box? Wtf are you even saying? I'd rather not turn into a dull prude just because apple is too lazy to implement a guest account on their unix OS. I'm trying to imagine how dull and colorless your life must be. I took the pictures with my phone. The obvious place to keep them is on my phone.

So the civil answer to my question "why not just avoid keeping weird stuff on your phone?"

is: "I keep naked girlfriend pics on my iPhone. I don't think that's weird, but I don't want someone to see them."

I see your point. I apologize for using the word "weird." I assume that's what the downvotes were for.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#187

Post by jiggy2011 »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #185
sambeau wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend asking me if I'll be showing up to the Atheist Association meetup isn't weird, but I wouldn't necessarily want my boss to see the message. Wow. I'm glad I don't live in a country where that would even be an issue. It would never occur to me as something anyone would need to be private in any country(until now). (Or do you work for a fundamentalist religious organisation?)

Being from the UK the whole idea of having an atheist organisation seems a little odd. Most people are technically christian but don't go to church and their beleif is fairly skin deep. Religious apathy is sort of the default and religion doesn't really dictate public policy very much so having an atheist society would be a bit like having a society for heterosexual people. Are atheists really marginalized enough in…

not sure why the downvotes here?

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#188

Post by pavel_lishin »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #187
jiggy2011 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being from the UK the whole idea of having an atheist organisation seems a little odd. Most people are technically christian but don't go to church and their beleif is fairly skin deep. Religious apathy is sort of the default and religion doesn't really dictate public policy very much so having an atheist society would be a bit like having a society for heterosexual people. Are atheists really marginalized enough in…

not sure why the downvotes here?

I didn't up- or down-vote, but probably because the conversation is rapidly heading off-topic.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#189

Post by forensic »

benvanderbeek wrote: post #186
forensic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>keep it somewhere else Where? Keep my naked girlfriend pics in a recipe box? Wtf are you even saying? I'd rather not turn into a dull prude just because apple is too lazy to implement a guest account on their unix OS. I'm trying to imagine how dull and colorless your life must be. I took the pictures with my phone. The obvious place to keep them is on my phone.

So the civil answer to my question "why not just avoid keeping weird stuff on your phone?" is: "I keep naked girlfriend pics on my iPhone. I don't think that's weird, but I don't want someone to see them." I see your point. I apologize for using the word "weird." I assume that's what the downvotes were for.

Civil answers are overrated. I'm really sick of corporate leaders (e.g. You) telling me I should change my life to suit them. Their job is to accommodate the customer regardless of how weird my hobbies may be.

Re: Why Don’t Smartphones Have A “Guest Mode”?

#190

Post by burgerbrain »

TheAmazingIdiot wrote: post #170
WalterBright wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I will give it a try.

Do note that there are 2 ways to share a graphical user interface on X. The first way is by remotely running a program on your own Xserver. The programs' processes occur on the remote connection and are sent down the SSH tunnel and show up on your display. This is the common way in Linux. The second way is by an older program from the Windows world: VNC. VNC takes a local, running display (example: my gui) and allows…

There are several others as well. There are a couple different ways to make a "multi-head" setup in linux, which is what it sounds like. Multiple monitors/keyboards/mice all attached to the same computer allowing multiple people to run X at once independently.
Post reply on HN