Digest of funny (and not so) misconceptions from the world of mobile electronics and the network space.
From the moment a person becomes acquainted with high technologies, the latter often give rise to rumors, delusions and concepts that have nothing to do with reality, are aimed at deceiving the user and for the most part cause only barely suppressed laughter. As part of a small selection, I will try to recall the main similar myths that came across my eyes. It will not necessarily be about mobile devices, plus not all of the situations mentioned can be attributed to mass.
Golden flower / VIP status
My first encounter with one of these myths happened in high school. By this time, cell phones with adequate support for mobile Internet have gradually reached our provincial town and, of course, have become an integral part of the youth. Along the way, destroying the myth that mobile technologies make people less sociable, my peers and I wrote thousands of SMS messages a month, which was facilitated by an action with a local telecom operator, and subsequently switched to messaging services over the Internet, be it ICQ, IRC or Jabber.
As the popularity of ICQ grew, various clients from different authors began to appear, which could be downloaded / assembled on different sites for your device. But the popularity also spawned a wave of spam in the style of 'Send this message to ten friends, and your flower in ICQ will go gold!'. I still don't understand who at that time could need a golden flower and how users imagined the interference of unknown persons in a third-party application installed on their phone, but oddly enough, a similar trend still occurs today, people exchange 'extremely important information' about the fact that, for example, WhatsApp will start charging for each message and in order to avoid this, you need to urgently send this message to the entire contact list, only in this case the account will be assigned a VIP status. Are you serious?
Airplane mode and tracking
One of my favorite topics is online security, anonymity, and the actions of government agencies to track certain user actions. Probably, this happened from the still exciting media fields of stories of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and other fighters for the right of net neutrality and transparent work of governments. Online anonymity is of course a difficult issue, especially when it comes to intruders and criminals.
It has always amused me how individual users who do not pose a serious threat to society and the state try to play spies / criminals and prefer to hide from the alleged surveillance of them by law enforcement agencies through their phone. What methods are used by these people 'in black clothes and balaclavas'? Disconnecting the phone, putting the latter in airplane mode and removing the SIM card from the device. Very reliable, isn't it? Airplane mode turns off your internet and mobile network connections, but is essentially just a more reliable version of Do Not Disturb. The software of the overwhelming number of mobile phones contains two parts of the OS, one of which is aimed at interacting with the user, and the second – at working with the infrastructure of cellular networks, even when the airplane mode is on. The identifiers built into the phone will allow you to track the owner of the device even without a SIM card through the Stingray device, which Snowden also talked about on his Twitter. By the way, I recommend, there are very interesting materials. For example, here's a video on how the NSA obtains data on mobile devices around the world.
Turning off the phone also does not always help, especially if the phone is one of thousands of devices infected with malware that simulates shutdown by turning off cellular networks and similar animation, but in fact leaves the device in working order, and, as a result, is completely under the hood of special services. There are ways to avoid surveillance, but the methods used are absolutely useless. Plus, if a person doesn’t actually do anything criminal, then the state authorities, by and large, don’t care about him. Another point is scammers, but this is a matter of care.
Social media and 'disclaimer'
Returning to the issue of anonymity and intellectual property on the network, one cannot fail to mention the trend that began to write posts in Facebook using the phrase that the user claims his rights to the photos, videos and information in the profile published by him and not authorizes the service to use it, thereby disagreeing with its new principles. Fortunately, only a few of my friends succumbed to the delusion, making me and some mutual acquaintances laugh. But the tendency to disseminate this useless text that has no legal basis has reached VK, fortunately, I am almost not there.
I laugh out loud, every time I see it =)
Firstly, there were no new principles in the privacy policy at all, users only succumbed to mass hysteria and picked up a wave of reposting and copying 'sheets' into their profiles. Hey, people, you are on a social network, on the Internet, if you don't want to be read, close the page from unwanted users, this functionality has long been present. You can rant on this topic for a long time, but I will not overload the material, it is very well written here.
iOS 7 and waterproof
My favorite examples of misconceptions and myths are strongly associated with products Apple, for some reason users of iDevices (however, not only them) tend to accept such incredible things at face value that they cannot even believe in the reality of what is happening. However, in September 2013, an unofficial advertisement for the update to iOS 7 leaked out in a style very similar to that used Apple in its promotional materials. Among other advantages, the water resistance of devices was indicated after switching to a new software version.
It is difficult to say how many devices were drowned, the viral nature was amplified by numerous publications on the network. But the lesson was learned at the cost of many 'sacrifices', spent nerves and money, it will not be forgotten for a long time. And users will certainly not repeat such mistakes in the future.
'Stylusgate'
Another media hysteria affected overly susceptible and susceptible users of Samsung Galaxy Note 5 phablets. A flaw in the design of the device, revealed by inquisitive users, when the stylus was placed in the corresponding groove with the back end, rendered the groove inoperative and prevented the stylus from being removed without going to the service center. It got to the point that Samsung changed the internal layout of the smartphone, after which the stylus can be inserted with either end and not be afraid of damaging the groove.
It would seem like a problem, but the publicity was quite wide, and users deliberately took risks out of curiosity. Don't be like that, dear readers, treat your gadgets with respect. And certainly not the way unknown people on the Internet suggest you do.
iPhone 7 and headphone jack
Much text has been devoted in the past year to the abandonment of the 3.5 mm jack in iPhone 7/7 Plus. The humorists who decided to check whether device users remember from Apple the lessons of the fall of 2013 did not sit idle either. Videos and images with instructions on how to restore the connector, which (it turns out), is simply hidden behind the speaker grill, began to actively promote on the network; the cunning from Cupertino just want to deceive honest users and make them spend money on wireless headphones or versions with Lightning. To do this, it was only necessary to drill a hole in the phone case of the desired diameter and depth. Those who were 'also recommended' to keep the phone in soapy water to clean it from shavings, place it in a microwave ('charge the battery at the same time'), thereby igniting a 'thin mockery '.
It turned out that the experience with iOS 7 had already lost its relevance, and there were users who believed in an unpleasant rally and performed the procedure with their gadgets. I sincerely want to wish them no more trusting such deceivers and funny people on the net.
Well, from the series 'urgently to the number', although it did not become viral, but quite claiming to be among the above-mentioned misconceptions is 'newcomer', which looks like 'trolling'. No comment.
I would like to wish all of you, regardless of the devices you have, to be more attentive and skeptical about dubious information from the Internet and not to repeat the mistakes of scattered users. Check the received facts, discuss with friends, do not hesitate to ask knowledgeable people, the risk of being laughed at is worth the intact device, as well as your emotional and financial resources .. And what examples of such cases have you met?