Have a look at Level-3′s response time from the other day. During this time, I noticed some sites were slow or non-responsive.
Why are their no decent stories on how the NSA taps at the ISP level? It’s not like Google is saying “come on in with your network taps, boys!”. The tapping is happening at Level-3 and other ISP’s.
I recently had to get a new phone – my (not so trusty anymore) Droid 4 lasted about 2-3 hours of the charger, which doesn’t work so well while traveling. Carrying external chargers isn’t very practical, so Leo Laporte’s review of the Moto X won me over. So glad I got it, and it’s so nice to not have to worry if my phone is fully charged, or my portable power source has enough juice.
For now, I’m still on the Stock Moto X ROM, which is fine. 4.4 is coming soon, so I don’t need to install a custom ROM (yet). But, I still wanted root, since there are a few reasons to root your phone, even if you keep the stock ROM. Here’s a few reasons:
1. Cerberus: https://www.cerberusapp.com/ LoJack for your phone, but with root, it survives a factory reset! It snaps a picture, silently, if you enter a wrong password when trying to unlock the phone. Also has the usual, Wipe, locate, send an annoying sound to locate, etc..
2. Titanium Backup: http://www.titaniumtrack.com/titanium-backup.html Titanium *really* backs up your phone. It also lets you uninstall or “freeze” any bloatware that the manufacturer or carrier loads on your phone that you don’t need or use.
3. Root Call Blocker Pro: http://fahrbot.co.uk/apps/8-root-call-blocker Why? Your phone doesn’t even make a sound. It just blocks the call *before* it even gets to the Android dialer. No other app can do this (that I’m aware of). Other call blockers make your phone ring at least once. Not this one.
4. Network Spoofer: http://sourceforge.net/projects/netspoof/ For showing people how easily people can take over an unsecured open WiFi, like at a coffee shop or your in-laws who don’t use WPA or keep their access point wide open. It’s also kind of a funny app. It’s funny to watch everyones facial expressions when they all get re-directed to the “Rick Roll” youtube video 
5. WiFi Protector: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1350941 protects you against #4 (or any app that does MitM attacks or otherwise does arp cache poisoning.
6. DriveDroid: http://softwarebakery.com/projects/drivedroid I can use my phone to serve up several bootable linux distributions for any PC, using a USB cable. As a sometimes sysAdmin, this is a necessity, and having a few bootable linux iso’s ready to go, always on me is very useful.
Trying to choose a new phone is tough – none of them meet all my needs, so I have to give up some things.
Most Important:
1. Physical keyboard – sorry, the on-screen keyboard doesn’t work for my needs. I do sysadmin work, and when I’m using SSH to login to servers or even run commands from a Windows command prompt, I need accuracy. I cannot afford to make a typo. I also have to enter crazy mixed case, numeric, and symbols for passwords. That turns into a lot of extra key presses with a software keyboard. I can cruise through them with a slider.
2. Battery Life – what good is a phone if it doesn’t have power? Enough said.
3. Speed – as I get older, and have more responsibility, I don’t have time waiting for my phone to catch up with me.
4. Root access – I customize my phone to the way I work, and some of that customization requires full access. Automation apps like “Automate It” and “Tasker” require root. Also, a decent backup app like “Titanium Backup” also require root.
5. Vanilla Google – Android has really come a long way from the early days, and when manufacturers had to add their own skin on top of Android to make them more competitive with iPhone features. Android has jumped ahead of iOS, and the stock Google experience (in my opinion) is much better than the custom skins from HTC, LG, Sony, Samsung, etc.. Motorola probably has the closest to a stock Google experience than any other manufacturer, so I’ll probably stick with Moto.
Least Important:
1. Thinness – I’ll take a thicker, sturdier phone with a real keyboard any day. I really don’t care how thin my phone is. I use my phone for real work, and not show.
2. Weight – Having a super light device makes them feel a bit cheap, and less durable. Some of the light, thin phones I have tried, felt like they would snap in half, or shatter if I dropped them.
3. Manufacturers custom skins – I don’t like any of them. Motorola wins hands down here. As close to a stock Google experience as you can get. Too much fluff just hogs resources.
My Choices:
1. Droid 5 (rumored)
2. Droid Maxx
3. Moto X
I’m hoping for the Droid 5, as the physical keyboard is my number one need. I can carry an external battery charger if need be. Hauling around a physical keyboard (if the right size) might be a possibility, but I’d rather have it built it..
