51–60 of 208 posts
Are people really handing their phones out that often?
I only hand my phone to someone else when:
* I've asked them to take a photo of me.
* They're riding shotgun in my car and need to call a contact or navigate with info readily available on my phone.
Neither situation is risk for people snooping around.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure. If you're willing to log out of your smart phone context, and restart any needed tools in the new guest context whenever you hand over your phone. Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted instantaneous user switching? That's a smidgen harder than the 40-year-old solutions :)
> Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted instantaneous user switching? That's a smidgen harder than the 40-year-old solutions :) These OS have been able to run multiple concurrent user sessions for 40 years, and fast user switching has been a feature of all desktop OS since Windows 9x went the way of the dodo. There are specific issues (core services of these systems are probably — sadly — coded with the idea that a single user i…
What about the memory overhead of concurrent sessions?
Who gets to run background processes, and when are they terminated? Because neither CPU nor battery life exist in abundance.
What happens to incoming calls/e-mails/texts/notifications? (Especially for the guest account, where you don't have a second phone number for that account)
What happens to e.g. alarms set by user1 if user2 is logged in?
Which settings are shared, which aren't? And if your phone storage is encrypted, how do you handle shared settings? What about privacy? Can user1 e.g. record GPS signals even if user2 is logged in? If not, what about "Find my phone" features?
Sure, conceptually it's a solved issue. Practically, there are innumerable details to be figured out.
Maybe just for browsing the internet it would be allright, but I won't hand over my passwords. Isn't there any keylogger yet for android/ios? You don't even need to go by the store/marketplace, just local, developper stuff and there you go. Do you want to log on my machine?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure. If you're willing to log out of your smart phone context, and restart any needed tools in the new guest context whenever you hand over your phone. Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted instantaneous user switching? That's a smidgen harder than the 40-year-old solutions :)
You mean Fast user switching? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_user_switching
a phone in guest mode would be totally useless. case 1: no apps. guest has to install apps. will guest have a itunes/android market account? does he enter his Credit card to buy paid ones he want to use? case 2: apps with no data from real user. He opens up foursquare/yelp to look for a restaurant... has to create profile
And that somehow makes it totally useless?
He can: talk on the phone, check his email on the web browser, surf to anything he likes, use any other app that doesn't require a profile, play a game, ..., ..., ...
Even calling case 1 "totally useless" is retarded. He can still do tons of stuff (call, browse, use as calculator, ...) except run apps.
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.
Sounds really cool, but I'm not sure what problem it actually solves. Typical ATM robbery today probably ends with the cash coming out of the machine and the robber running away, hopefully without injuring or killing their victim. Victim calls police, they take a report, get the video from the ATM cam, bank refunds the stolen cash, done. In the scenario that you're proposing, the only advantage is that police are cal…
Unless the thief takes off with the victims phone as well. Additionally there are sadly instances where the theft at the ATM is just the start of other crimes towards the victim.
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.
The "two PINs" idea would also be great for when a police officer pulls you over and asks you to hand over and unlock your phone. With the proper encryption you could even have plausible deniability.