I like this:

Antares also carried three coffee cup-size Phonesat satellites - called Alexander, Graham and Bell - into orbit as part of a space technology experiment for NASA's Ames Research Center in California. The tiny 4-inch-wide satellites use commercial smartphones as their main computers.

Unfortunately, Android has been hijacked by the carriers and handset manufacturers. There is no "Android" phone any more, only handset manufacturers (who screw up Android) and the carriers (who have no regard for Android security). Consider ..

Much of the Android vs iDevice confusion is based on the new Mobile Market:
1 - Carrier: Verizon, ATT, etc
2 - Handset Mfgr: Apple, Samsung, etc
3 - OS: Android & iOS
Notice that Apple controls 2 out of 3. Google controls 0 out of 3.

Zero? WTF? Think about it. You get a Samsung phone (2). They "improve" Android, leaving you with a big unknown in terms of OS (3). Carrier: Apple imposes HUGE restrictions on the carriers .. they act as a middle man between the consumer and the carrier. Google, OTOH, has zero control over the carrier.

We may not like it, but Apple has huge advantage over the security of their devices.

I like both Apple and Google, use lots of both.

But when I got my latest phone, I decided against Android simply because the handset makers and the carriers pissed all over Vanilla Android to "improve" it.

So now I get Google building a standard. Unlocked. Updateable. Frequency agile. GSM. Mobile world wide.

Heck, I even want Google to build their own cellular network or at the least a MVNO.

This is not a fight between Apple and Google. Its a fight against both of them against the horrid carriers and clueless handset mfgrs.

Let the battle begin!

I'd like to vote for a Dem. But one of the other ones. Why don't they have a primary too?

God, maybe AmericanSelect? Of them I fear.

Won't happen. Amazon give up their store front? Probably 10^6 $/min. Google strand their paying advertisers? I doubt it. Facebook have a DDoS from children without their toys? Really?

Pinboard.in for one. I suppose Yahoo would help too.

No. Your email password should be your strongest one. Indeed, if you give me your email password, so I can just view/delete your emails, all I have to do is beam into paypal, for example, and tell it you forgot your password. It sends it to your email account. I delete the email after learning your password to paypal.

You might think its hard to learn your login name as well as password but many sites simply use your email as your name, or a synonym for it. And if I can search your email account, I can easily find your login name anyway.

So guard your email login more than the rest. Really.

They don't store the passwords in the /etc/passwd file or use any standard unix tech. They just put them into databases using whatever they want, often plain text. They seldom use salt either, even if encrypted. I was surprised too!

Er.. what about sites that don't allow your generated password?

I hate it that lots of sites have very different PW requirements.

https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm has an interesting approach.
Which of these: D0g..................... or PrXyc.N(n4k77#L!eVdAfp9 is the more secure?

Er..what about keyboards that have different geometry? Phones differ, for example.

The strongest password needs to be your email account.

Why? "I forgot my password". Doh!

+1: I currently pay $57.80/month. A bit hard to believe when I found out the vast majority of my friends' cell bill was north of $90 for the same service!

But for me TMo wins just as well for service. I travel for a month in europe every year so need a mobile phone. Really mobile, like world wide. TMo has been great making sure it all works. They will SIM-unlock a new contract when you need it for travel.

The huge variation in opinion here has a lot to do with the phone being the most personal of our digital critters. Lots of different requirements and ecologies.

But, man! Where in the world do normal folks get $80-90/month for a PHONE!