Danie van der Merwe

The Motorola Defy satellite dongle tested: Essential plan starts from $5 per month

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 18:33:51 +0200

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

“I think [satellite connectivity] is going to start coming in as a feature in the high end and then become just a default feature for flagship phones,” he said. “It’s relatively easy to take our chip [the MT6825 found inside the Motorola Defy] and add it to any 4G or 5G phone. It will be integrated into 5G modems going forward, kind of a default feature.”

It’s an exciting picture of a future where you aren’t entirely reliant on connectivity provided by your carrier or Wi-Fi network, and it could end up saving lives in emergency situations. While direct integration of satellite communication is still in its infancy, the service is available to anyone right now through the Motorola Defy and the Bullitt Messenger Service. The Motorola Defy is a palm-sized rugged dongle with MediaTek’s MT6825NTN chip inside. It connects to your phone using Bluetooth, talks to the satellite network, and is ready to send messages through Bullitt’s app when you don’t have any service.

The linked article goes into some detail about the hands-on testing with this device. It will work with any smartphone, and just requires the Bullitt Messenger app to use the Defy dongle (and your recipients need to have the app installed to receive messages for free [yes payment too if they want to reply]). The downside is you do need to carry this dongle with you. That said, it is a once-off purchase that includes the one year of the Essential plan (Up to 30 satellite messages per month with emergency SOS included) which is $5 pm after that and is actually quite reasonable. Receiving messages via the satellite service though is free of charge.

Being a separate dongle device, I'd imagine you can also share the use of it with a spouse or friend. The only bad news really is the satellite coverage for now is still only the USA and Europe. But it looks like from Q4 2023 that South America, Africa and also the Oceania region (and Japan) will get coverage.

For the next year or two at least, it will only be some of the flagship phones that get satellite comms built in, so a device like this may be perfect for the millions of mid-range smartphone users. Hopefully too, an increasing volume in usage, will make pricing even better over time.

See I tried a lifesaving gadget that's going to transform your phone | Digital Trends

I tried the Motorola Defy with the Bullitt Satellite Messenger app, a pairing that could save your life in an emergency when you don't have cellular service.

#technology #SOS #satellitecomms

technology SOS satellitecomms

Fairphone 5 Camera test: Benchmarks and Comparisons with Pixel 7a and Xiaomi 12T Pro

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 21:51:55 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Fairphone’s devices are designed with longevity, reduction of e-waste, fairer sourcing of materials and the welfare of workers in mind. The latest model Fairphone 5 5G comes with only slightly improved camera specifications but major improvements in the software department when compared to its predecessor Fairphone 4. As a result, the Fairphone 5 5G outperformed the 4 by almost 40 points in the DXOMARK Camera tests.

The improvements were most noticeable in photo and video, where the new device performed better across most test categories, including exposure, color, texture, noise, artifacts, and video stabilization. Thanks to good detail and well-controlled image noise, the camera did well in bright light conditions, making it a good option for landscape photography and similar photographic genres. In addition, photos and videos were generally exposed nicely. Colors could be slightly desaturated, however, and the video stabilization will struggle to satisfy more demanding videographers. In their tests, stabilization was often inaccurate, with residual motion and sharpness differences between frames visible in the recorded footage. Their testers also found dynamic range to be limited in some high-contrast video scenes.

The Fairphone is not a high-end phone, so no-one is expecting it to compete with other high-end phones, but for many, the camera is a very important phone component. Although the Fairphone 5 has bumped up the camera specs considerably from the v4, it is just good to know what to actually expect before buying this phone. This is why I find the DXOMARK camera tests especially interesting.

The linked article not only gives the benchmark figures, but also shows some still images and video, that can be easily compared with flagship phones.

I would really be interested to know if the Fairphone 5 would be able to accept future camera module upgrades eg. to a 100MP camera for example. That would be a real first for any smartphone!

See Fairphone 5 Camera test - DXOMARK

We put the Fairphone 5 through our rigorous DXOMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our [...]

#technology #Fairphone #photography #DXOMARK

technology Fairphone photography DXOMARK

15 Best Free (and mostly Open Source) Music Making Software for Linux, Windows, and macOS

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 17:00:47 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Are you a music producer and use Linux as your primary operating system, then music production is going to become easy for you after reading this article.

There is good music production software in Linux just as it is in Windows and Mac OS, though a few features may vary, but the underlying functionalities mostly are the same.

Although the focus in the linked article is really on Linux, it can be seen that many of these apps also run on Windows and macOS. About ten of them are open-source software, but also included are some free proprietary music apps too.

See 15 Best Open Source Music Making Software for Linux

Are you a music producer and use Linux as your primary operating system, then music production is going to become easy for you after reading this article.

#technology #opensource #music #audio

technology music opensource audio

Previously secret Israeli spyware that infects targets via ads on Microsoft Windows, Google Android, and Apple iOS devices

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 16:45:33 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Director of Activism Jason Kelley said Insanet's use of advertising technology to infect devices and spy on clients' targets makes it especially worrisome. Dodgy online ads don't just provide a potential vehicle for delivering malware, such as via carefully crafted images or JavaScript in the ads that exploit vulnerabilities in browsers and OSes, they can be used to go after specific groups of people – such as those who are interested in open source code, or who frequently travel to Asia – that someone might be interested in snooping on.

"This method of surveillance and targeting uses commercially available data that's very difficult to erase from the internet," Kelley told The Register. "Most people have no idea how much of their information has been compiled or shared by data brokers and ad tech companies, and have little ability to erase it."

It's an interesting twist. Sherlock seems designed to use legal data collection and digital advertising technologies — beloved by Big Tech and online media — to target people for government-level espionage.

"Since these ads are being served using known advertisement networks, anti-adware technologies such as not loading JavaScript, using ad blockers or privacy-aware browsers, and not clicking on advertisements should act as a guardrail against this attack," Dani suggested.

I suppose this gives additional impetus for many wanting to block ads... But if this one was previously secret, how many more are there that no-one knows about? Supposedly, the Wester will use this to spy on the East? We actually don't know what the East already has, because for some unknown reason we are always discovering what the West is up to in regard to alleged spying (even on their own allies). And as we saw this month, data privacy laws mean absolutely nothing to some major Western powers, as they just get a 3rd party country to do the spying on their behalf, and then pass the data back, or they buy the data from Facebook.

More and more, reading all of this, I can see why so many private citizens are insisting on having E2EE without any backdoors. Unfortunately, a citizen can no longer just trust their own government, and it is mostly lip service that is paid to privacy laws. So laws and political assurances mean very little in reality.

See Probe reveals secret Israeli spyware that infects via ads

Oh s#!t, Sherlock

#technology #spying #Israel #privacy

technology Israel spying privacy

Table Comparison of 14 different Free and Open-Source Photo Libraries

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 17:18:36 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Many are looking for alternatives to Google Photos, and this comparison table does an excellent job of comparing the most obvious features side by side. Make sure to expand the table for a complete view.

I'm still using Piwigo as it did an automated import of all my photos from Flickr, and although it is packed with features, many of its plugins are no longer supported. It works well still for me, but I've been thinking about alternatives.

Immich was one that looked really slick, and the closest I've seen to Google Photos, but one big weakness is there is no easy ability to import my existing Piwigo photos (over 10,000 of them). And it does not yet have any editing functionality.

But looking at this table shows me that in fact that Nextcloud Memories seems to tick all the boxes, including some edit functionality, and the ability to point to existing photo folders. Memories is based on Nexcloud's own Photos app but has some slight improvements. Its appearance is maybe just not as slick as Immich, but it seems very responsive otherwise.

All, but one, apps have demo sites that you can log into and have a good look at.

See Free and OpenSource Photo Libraries

Free and Open Source Photo Libraries

Many are looking for alternatives to Google Photos, and this comparison table does an excellent job of comparing the most obvious features side by side. Make sure to expand the table for a complete view. I'm still using Piwigo as it did an automated import of all my photos from Flickr, and although it is...

#technology #opensource #alternativesto #photos

technology opensource photos

WhatsApp will likely set the global standard for messaging interoperability: This is Why and possibly What

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 14:29:17 +0200 zuletzt bearbeitet: Thu, 14 Sep 2023 14:31:41 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

The world already has quite a few good open-source, E2EE and secure messaging protocols like XMPP, Signal, MTProto, Wickr, Wire, and more. But none have ended up dominating across messaging apps. Also, there is no defined W3C open standard for messaging, like there is ActivityPub for social networking interoperability.

We now have the situation (a good one actually) that the EU is forcing WhatsApp to interoperate with other messaging platforms. That means WhatsApp must offer interconnectivity using some protocol. But that protocol was not defined by the EU, and there is no open standard recommended by a standards body yet (seems W3C is still busy developing its recommendation for WebRTC as a messaging API [which Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts use] but that was not really created for this type of purpose, as I gather it was more intended for web applications).

In summary on the 'Why', WhatsApp can't be expected to create a separate protocol API for every messenger out there, so they must choose one that others can also adopt and use. In the absence of an international standard, WhatsApp must make a choice, and because WhatsApp is by far the biggest messaging platform on this planet, what they decide to use will be adopted by many other messaging platforms as either their primary or secondary protocol as well. That in turn (should) allows them to interoperate with each other too, thereby effectively creating a common messaging standard through popular usage.

So, 'What' could WhatsApp decide on? Well, I'm speculating that as they already built WhatsApp using the modified Signal protocol, that it would make the most sense for them to actually adopt that. The API they expose would just have to be a standard Signal protocol. The Signal protocol would likely mean the least effort for WhatsApp, and it is very well established as a secure E2EE messaging protocol already.

Of course, WhatsApp may also take the low road approach out of spite, and just for compliance purposes, adopt something that uses plain open text like SMS, and limit it to the EU region only.

Neither iMessage nor RCS really qualify for use as they are both limited to separate OS ecosystems. Although an approach taken like Beeper did, with transparently using Matrix rooms and bridges could work, I don't think WhatsApp will follow that approach as it is more complex than just exposing a standard messaging API, for others to do the work on connecting to. There is nothing wrong with XMPP and the other protocols, but I'm still thinking WhatsApp will stick to what they are more familiar with, and has the least effort involved.

If Apple had adopted RCS, then it may have been a different story, as RCS may have then made sense as it is designed for secure E2EE instant messaging with presence indication, etc. Or if Apple had opened iMessage up to Android, but now I'm just dreaming...

I am eager to witness WhatsApp's next move, as it will usher in a new age of cross-platform communication for everyone. Currently, most 'open' messaging platforms remain isolated, because they have not gained widespread adoption by other parties, despite being open. WhatsApp has an opportunity to change that, thanks to the European Union.

Bild/Foto

technology interoperability WhatsApp messaging

What is WhatsApp Plus, and how does it differ from WhatsApp?

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 22:18:40 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

A concern over WhatsApp is the inability to control your public privacy (especially as it's Terms of Service still include passing your metadata upstream to Meta). Contacts who pay close attention can learn more about your social routine (based on your online status and visible activity). Now, thanks to dedicated developers, it's possible to overcome some of these issues with the help of third-party apps. One of the most well-known and popular third-party apps is WhatsApp Plus. But installing this mod comes with risks and reapable benefits, which we address in this guide.

WhatsApp Plus is not on the Google Play Store. It's considered an unofficial app made by a third-party developer, Rafalete (a senior member of XDA, the creator of WhatsApp Plus). Any data you share will be affiliated with this developer. Also, it requires uninstalling the official app to run this mod. WhatsApp Plus uses the same source code as WhatsApp but adds some modifications. So, your privacy and safety cannot be guaranteed upon using this unofficial app. Another note is that you must also download the app from third-party sources, which brings another set of risks.

You also run into the risk of getting your WhatsApp account banned.

It also seems that the original article that was published about this at Android Police, has been "unpublished" so I'll link instead to the cached version, as it is quite a good article covering how to install it etc.

Some of the features provided by Plus include:
* Customizable themes and fonts
* More emoticons styles from Google, Facebook, and Apple
* Hide social status
* Freeze last seen
* Hide writing status
* Pattern and PIN lock
* Longer message recall duration
* Improved file-sending limits
* Anti-ban protection (?)

Unfortunately, WhatsApp does have some rather stringent app requirements (and also no easy API that can be used in place of the mobile app). Basically WhatsApp forces you to keep the app active on your phone, in order to use the service, so not even Beeper will help, as the WhatsApp app has to remain installed.

So, really, WhatsApp Plus is a WhatsApp user's only hope to try to evade the monitoring and metadata leaking. But you do need to read the linked article to check the potential downsides.

See https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AQo_SrTKam3wJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2Fwhat-is-whatsapp-plus%2F&cd=22&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

#technology #WhatsApp #privacy

technology whatsapp privacy

Mission Center: Another New GUI System Monitoring Tool for Linux

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 18:56:48 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Mission Center is a new, visually pleasing GTK4 and Libadwaita-based system monitoring tool written in Rust and explicitly designed for Linux. It uses OpenGL rendering for all the graphs to reduce CPU and overall resource usage.

The app offers a one-stop solution for tracking and managing CPU, memory, disk, network, and GPU usage. It lets users gain deep insights into their system’s behaviour and resource utilization.

Actually great that it is written in Rust. Although I've installed it, and it looks great, I'll probably stick to my Conky script that is super lightweight and shows all the essentials I want to monitor. For more detailed views, I'll probably use Mission Center.

System Monitoring Center is another really great looking such app. Where Mission Center does show something a little extra, is that it displays also whether there is virtualisation running, as well as all the individual CPU cores.

See Mission Center: A New GUI System Monitoring Tool for Linux

Monitor CPU, memory, disk, network, and GPU utilization on your Linux system with the new GTK4-based tool - Mission Center.

#technology #Linux #utility

technology Linux

Thank You EU: WhatsApp working on cross-platform interoperability with other messengers

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 16:28:34 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

The European Union has recently reached an agreement on a significant competition reform known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will impose strict rules on large tech companies that will have to offer users the ability to communicate with each other using different apps. WhatsApp has a 6-month period to align the app with the new European regulations to provide its interoperability service in the European Union. At the moment, it remains unclear whether this feature will also eventually extend to countries beyond the European Union.

Interoperability will allow other people to contact users on WhatsApp even if they don’t have a WhatsApp account. For example, someone from the Signal app could send a message to a WhatsApp user, even without a WhatsApp account. Third-party chat support is under development and it will be available in a future update of the app.

I, like quite a few others, completely deleted their WhatsApp accounts after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the then new Terms of Service that WhatsApp forced down on its users, allowing metadata to be passed upstream to Meta. As we all saw already, Meta could not be trusted at all with any metadata (the data relating to the usage of the app, locations, friends, and lots more behaviour data). Even now, I only recreated a Facebook account after getting the Beeper app, which would allow me to do Facebook Messaging without installing the Facebook app on my phone at all.

So, yes, I do have a few friends still stuck on WhatsApp, and who do not seem to realise they can also install other messenger apps like Signal, Telegram, etc. An interoperability will allow me to stay on Telegram and Signal, whilst being able to message some friends on WhatsApp (is this not really what Beeper also sort of offers, except that WhatsApp still requires the WhatsApp app to be installed, which is not an option for me at all).

I therefore welcome what the EU is trying to achieve. Just like e-mail can work between different e-mail domains, so should messaging. I realise there may be challenges, or limitations, to E2EE, but maybe this is why we need a standard too for this interoperability. Maybe if Matrix is used as the connecting medium, the chat message can be still E2EE between the parties using that Matrix room. Beeper is using Matrix as their interconnectivity (completely transparently to the user), and any Beeper-to-Beeper messages are fully E2EE. What they've done with Signal is to establish to separate E2EE channels from each client to the personal Matrix room in the middle, so yes it does break the full E2EE, but it may be acceptable for this purpose, if done in this way.

Ideally some new (or existing) protocol standard could be agreed on, and if that is supported in-app by WhatsApp and any of the other messaging services, it will be possible to do full E2EE messaging between end clients.

Why does this matter? Well, it is about that tracking and metadata. So, if I trust Telegram or Signal more than WhatsApp, then my metadata stops by my client, and that data does not travel over to WhatsApp, just the message and the friend contact who is already on WhatsApp. Like Beeper, my app will insulate me from WhatsApp.

The other big benefit will be that you use the app that you are most comfortable with, and do not have to install 7 other apps to communicate with everyone everywhere else (if their apps participate in the interoperability).

Users that want to stay on WhatsApp, can stay there. But yes, from a consumer point of view, they could now more easily move away from WhatsApp. That means WhatsApp must complete a bit harder to make their service really worthwhile to use (I doubt they'll change their privacy stance!).

See WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.19.8: what's new? | WABetaInfo

Discover what's new in the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.19.8 update: WhatsApp is working on a chat interoperability feature!

#technology #WhatsApp #interoperability #EU

technology privacy WhatsApp EU

SA Mobile Network Operators recycling Cellphone 'unused' numbers without notifying Customers

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 13:44:11 +0200 zuletzt bearbeitet: Sat, 09 Sep 2023 13:46:50 +0200

Danie van der Merwe

gadgeteer@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

From Daily Maverick 9 Sep 2023: Vodacom recycles numbers after four months of inactivity, whereas Cell C, MTN and Telkom do so after three months. These operators argue that the practice is driven by the high demand for cellphone numbers from new customers.

The recycling process has unintended consequences for both the previous and new owners of the numbers. Unsolicited calls and messages intended for the former owner often flood the new user’s device, creating a frustrating experience.

Apart from the irritation factor of losing one's long used number, and receiving birthday wishes and calls intended for someone else, there is a way more serious legal side to this. That is, that a user had to legally RICA this phone number to themselves, and that anyone else who can now access that number, can impersonate that person. It also means that any 2FA, or banking confirmations, will go to the new owner. Many banks insist on using mobile phones for 2FA as the SIM is RICA'd to the owner.

It is yet another very good reason why we should not use cellphone numbers for 2FA (or even e-mail addresses for login IDs). Neither of these two options are secure or permanent, and re-using an e-mail address for 500+ website logins, is already doubling the risk for being hacked.

Until passkeys can be widely used, users should be able to choose their login ID and password, and secure that with a synchronised 2FA app (so that if the phone is lost, there is still access to the 2FA keys).

But apart from the legal side of this, there is also the ethics side of it. A customer has to go through some cost and effort to have their SIM RICA'd, yet the network provider can just arbitrarily reassign that same number without even informing the user. I'm imagining that the network provider does formally cancel that RICA status? In fact, it is very interesting that the RICA process allows a second user to now be associated with the same number.

Actually now I'm laughing, because a month or so back, it turned out that the whole RICA process has been a complete waste of time and money, as it is in a shambles (just search for ‘pre-Rica’d’ Sim). If a RICA process is not up-to-date and well managed, it is a complete waste of time. You either do it, or you don't do it. You can't have a 60% RICA service with any legal weight at all. Anyone know how the RICA cancellation process works in SA?

On the network operators' side, I realise they have a challenge if a SIM number is just not used at all for many months. This is obviously not a problem for contract subscribers, as they are paying. But the network providers need to come up with some way of managing that ethically and legally, and I guess that will somehow make pre-paid SIM services either more expensive or more inconvenient. But so far, just turning a blind eye and hoping for the best, is starting to now bite.

It is high time anyway that we were no longer bound to e-mail addresses or mobile phone numbers. If my phone was lost or stolen, I should be able to just log in to my WhatsApp (if I still used it) or Telegram with any ID and password.

#technology #southafrica #SIM #RICA

Bild/Foto

technology southafrica RICA SIM