Posts by Tim Seventh

No one saw it coming: Rubin's Essential phone considered anything but

Re: Saw it coming, just didn't care.

As for SD card... I can't go there with you. It feels too much like saying you want a floppy drive on an internet connected device. 256GB on phones these days... Do you really need more?

This really isn't a question you should be asking since it seems you use iPhone only. So you've already compensated for it. But for android devices similar to a pc, the real argument is the difference between only one internal soldered storage vs an additional removable storage. If I use the floppy drive logic, it will be only one internal soldered floppy drive vs an additional removable floppy drive.

A removable medium will always have these benefits.

Case 1, flexibility in file transfer. Let's try transferring 256GB of files to your phone. Let's go with the cable, darn now you can't use your phone for 1-3hrs unless you wait near the pc. Let's try with the cloud, what? that's 3-7hrs of waiting near a wifi or I get a +$500 bill on my data bill. Oh wait, you have an sd card? Transfer your files to the sd card, then come back when it's ready. You gain the freedom to use your phone without waiting.

Case 2, secondary backup. Oops you broke your phone after taking a long day worth of photos in the rural area with no data signal. Now you can't turn it on. At least you still have your last cloud data backup. Oh wait, you saved the photos on the sd card? Great, it'll still be in there. Just plug it in to your pc and all your photos will still be there.

Case 3, the ability to upgrade. 256GB phone meet my quadruplet (4x) 256GB media collection sd cards. Wait, 512GB sd cards are finally out? Buy, insert, upgrade. You can never have too much space, only too little. (ok ok this one is extreme. not all phone support 512GB, but the users get to decide at least)

The eagle has been grounded: Dutch anti-drone squadron retired

Re: Simple solution

just mandate that all drones must be shaped like pigeons

along with the feature, droppings delivery.

Oregon will let engineer refer to himself as an 'engineer'

Re: let me guess

"To be a software engineer you need to have graduated from a 4yr accredited engineering program."

No, you'll still just be "a college grad from an engineering program".

Software Engineer itself is just a proud title, like any other titles like "Artist", "Manager", "Programmer", "creator", "writer", etc. They are given by person / people/ company to look better commercial, because there are no governments in this world who can create license/certificate for software engineering before they are outdated. Their xp machines are kind of self explanatory.

Back to topic, the whole Oregon State thing was just overreaching especially when stating "Engineer" is just a plain title. He didn't state the specific "Swedish electronics engineer", "Qualified Engineer", "Professional Engineer", "Licensed Engineer" or "Practicing Engineer" and got the practicing unlicensed engineering fine. Screw them for being an a***hole.

Japanese quadcopter makes overworked employees clock out

Re: when you like what you do...

"well, when you LIKE what you do, spending long hours doing it comes naturally."

This.Is.Japan, not the UK or other western countries. They have the old company culture where you work in the same company from day to night (6?am - 12am) until you retire (they call them salary-man).

It is the cultural norm for them to work long-hours as a representation of company loyalty, and hardworking for the family. Except that's really F*** up when you literally don't have any time for anything, including the family part. Heck, if they even have a family or any kid at all. There's a reason why Japan's population growth is dropping as one of the fastest. Their spending of long hours in office is not nature. Their employees are not happy, their productivity isn't any better for their company, it should be stopped.

Also there is no "owning their own businesses" when they culturally have to be loyal to their company.

"hard work and dedication does deserve a reward" but this is Japan, they would be lucky to even be able to ask their boss for "a reward" when everyone else likely did it without a reward.

Microsoft adds nothing to new Semi-Annual Windows Server preview

Re: Knowing Microsoft

They are features! not bugs!

Car rental firms told: Tell your customers about in-car data slurps

Re: I tend to stick

"after the car is returned with no such damage."

Always if not often you should try this. Buy the second tier car insurance above no insurance (or the one where you pay a small sum if there's any damage) on top of any insurance you already have. For some 'greedy" reason, those car rental company no longer charging extra when there's no damage. Just "maybe" it's because they can't earn as much with the car insurance in place compare to no insurance.

Also, do take pictures (especially existing dents) of the car right before driving out for your record in case they do charge you for unknown "dents".

Nokia 8: As pure as the driven Android - it's a classy return

"If it wasn't for the fact that my current Huawei, nearly 3 years old, still really performs well for me, I might have considered this. Suffice to say that buying a replacement Huawei is a no-no for me because of the EMUI (aka "Hi! I'm an iPhone!") interface, the only downer here (yet again) is the sodding sealed battery!"

ftfy.

Re: But google insist!

"When we can configure an android device with the same preferred applications we use elsewhere and NOT be forced down googles choice because you can't remove them ... but then it would be nice if say Firefox ran on android device without crashing when one ends up on a google search page"

Yes there are a lot apps that needed google play services and some cannot finish loading up without google stuff, but Firefox isn't one. Firefox for android works without google services, and works searching with google. May I suggest you to reinstall Firefox? if not please do file a crash report.

Re: A Serious Contender

I want to buy a phone outright (ie: not on contract) with as close a stock Android experience as possible that has decent specs and will be properly supported with updates etc. long term. Shenzen Generics are a better proposition in terms of cost and for a less bloated OS of course but I don't want a phone from a company from a country that is subject to laws that have caused the likes of

You have your point, but do keep the facts intact. Shenzen Generics phone you buy (should you buy) often come in at least two versions, one for china, one for international. Where the china version is the one subject to china laws (no google) while the other isn't. However neither one of them comes with less bloated OS, just like most Android-based device. Nokia here frankly is an exception (no bloat, stock Android, stock gapps, maybe some updates?, sd card, headphone jack).

Spy-on-your-home Y-Cam cameras removes free cloud storage bit

"Now add the word unlimited to the front of any of those expressions"

Unlimited free Windows 10!?!? Wow what a deal!

/s

AI taught to beat Sudoku puzzles. Now how about a time machine to 2005?

Reasoning?

I wouldn't call sudoku an exercise for "complex reasoning", since you can't reason with sudoku to get a solution (It'll defeat you with complex logic).

The End of Abandondroid? Treble might rescue Google from OTA Hell

Re: Google could help a lot

Sure, Windows can be installed on many different pieces of hardware but you can't swap a drive with an active Windows install between PCs. That's what the article claims is now possible with Android, where an identical OS load can be booted on multiple different types of hardware.

You mean swapping a windows installed hard drive to complete new hardware? You can do that for Windows, it's just all your drivers will be mess up and you might lose your windows license for oem home/pro grades. You can do that with Linux and macOS too. Mobile OS's are the ones you can't do that, because iOS started as devices specific and android copied that.

Though I have to think even they do that the OEMs still have to distribute it.

The article sourced xda-developers where the devs said they were able to get Android 8 rom working. In another word with treble, xda-developers can also distribute it.

The better Android gets at updates the more problems there will be, simply because software updates are never perfect.

At least you'll get a choice instead of no updates at all.

'Break up Google and Facebook if you ever want innovation again'

Re: We have containers, we have DevOps, we have the cloud and we have the iPhone X

"We have containers, we have DevOps, we have the cloud and we have the iPhone X. What more innovation could we possibly handle?"

Laser sharks in a sharknado with flying cars and hover-board in light speed! Insanity Innovation at its best.

Researcher: DJI RCE-holes offered me $500 after I found Heartbleed etc on its servers

Researcher turned down a $30,000 bug bounty

and from the linked source, JDI didn't really do anything for him except for blaming him with colorful words. The two developers were not related to the person who sent Kevin the offensive letter ('we can sue you with computer misuse act, etc' letter) which caused Kevin to turn against JDI.

So loads of garbage and cutting it short, JDI is still the same piece of sh*t.

Don't shame idiots about their idiotically weak passwords

And the really, really Really Crazy ones pick the next digit from pi as their next number. Let's see, last time I used the 10^-235 digit, time to use the 10^-236 digit!

Linus Torvalds on security: 'Do no harm, don't break users'

Re: Sometimes you can't have it both ways...

"But what about the time in which the bug got discovered and the moment of implementing the actual fix? That's the moment when a system will be vulnerable, and a security hardening might be capable of preventing further damage from taking place if an attack were to occur."

I think it's more to the point that linux shouldn't dictate the user choices (not like Windows 10 force update). If you do want a security harden whatever, you sandbox it under your control to avoid damage. But if another user who just want X program to work, he/she should still be able to get X program work regardless of security.

Some users here are sysadmin, which explains the bias. It is common to think as sysadmin, you want to secure your system as much as possible.

But in reality, you did a lot of work to balance the line of being secured but breaks something or being not secured but it will still works. You test patches ahead to avoid breaking the userspace all the time. You did it because you wanted the control.

Now imagine you don't have control and linux decides for you, your team and your company, breaking a lot of user programs. That probably isn't good for you, and linus thinks so too.

edit: we're talking about the enhance hardening from the security guy (explained in another article), which he explained it like a sandbox, but the problem is it would stop the processes with the vulnerability which means it can break user software.

Facebook notifications to reveal who saw dodgy Russian election ads

Re: Facebook

I haven't, but I've seen it. It's a book you use on your face, right? This guy used it.

I'll walk myself out.

Phone fatigue takes hold: SIM-onlys now top UK market

"So instead of voting this down, look at where people are heading: It's cloud this, and cloud that so we might as well embrace it - it works!"

Until they travel, then we all laugh at their very expensive data roaming bill or their now not so smart smartphone with nothing to stream from cloud.

"The only way forward is to progress and if that means binning your ten year old piece of crap, then so be it."

But you are ten+ years old, right?

Ba dum tss

Re: Water Resistance

Maybe it's just me, but common sense (aka elementary school science class material) is you don't put electronic into water. It's because it'll short circuit when touched by water, and you'll get electrocuted if you touch it too.

So, it's common sense that you shouldn't expect electronic to be waterproof even if it says waterproof and you should avoid using electronic near water. So same goes for a regular phone and a smartphone. The exception is electronic that is designed from the start to be on water like a boat. This reminded me of this Darwin award.

Also water resistance is just resistance to getting a little wet like a spill, which is completely different from dropping into a pool.

OnePlus 5T is like the little sister you always feared was the favourite

Re: So Close!

"When phones only had 4 or 8GB of storage, an SD card would be a 'must have' feature. However, in these days of phones with 128GB storage, it isn't as crucial to as many people"

The SD card surely had its benefit when the phone memory is low (4 or 8 GB), but today it still serves as an alternative to local backups and quick data transfer. Imagine you had a 100+ videos collection at close to 128GB, using cloud backup restore or even phone wire to transfer the data will feel like age. But with an SD card, you can transfer to the SD card while you use your phone and plug it in when it's ready. Of course in reality it will be less than 128GB, but you get the idea.

"Some apps will by default store to an SD card, but if the card is removed"

I can't say for sure but I haven't see apps auto move to SD card for some time with newer android, but back in the days of early android it does that for some branded device with low storage. If it does happens now a day, a simple fix is to install the app without the sd card and insert the sd card back later.

"In WhatsApp this makes some data permanently unavailable"

You might want to look for the Whatsapp folder and backup everything there. If you done it right, you should now have a backup of a folder called Databases with some whatspp message files, and a backup of a folder called Media with all your whatsapp documents / photos. If you reinstall the WhatsApp app with the whatspp message files in the right location, your messages should return back to the way it was with your 'data' available.

The SD at most would break the WhatsApp app but not the backups, unless WhatsApp never created a single message backup by itself.

Some 'security people are f*cking morons' says Linus Torvalds

Re: Linus Torvalds is not a Security Expert

"If you have a compromised Kernel, it needs to die, the moment you allow potentially suspicious code to run at the kernel level it is already game over."

Introducing the Windows 10 auto-updates! Where it just updates anytime anywhere as long as MS says so. Using your Windows for analysis? Windows Update! Using your Windows for overnight work? Windows Update! Using your Windows for online game? Windows Update!

you can almost not feel the heat from the users' complaints. /s

Re: Did Google implemented it on its servers to test it fully and at scale?

"Does Google actually have fanboys? I thought it only had victims products, i.e. those who have given up and surrendered to the almighty Google overlords."

FTFY.

Are you one of Google's product yet?

User experience test tools: A privacy accident waiting to happen

Re: F-ck Digital

"I've always worked on the assumption that there is no privacy on the net, and no secrecy. As long as you operate on that basis there isn't really a problem. There's no privacy or secrecy in a busy restaurant or crowded pub either, and it doesn't stop us using them."

I agree mostly the main point, just not the whole point. I always work on the assumption that there is no privacy on the net, but I keep operating on the basis that it is a problem that I should know. It keeps me on my toes that one day everyone/ someone would know everything about it including who said/did it if I said/did it on the net (or in a restaurant where the waitress overhear it).

This is why in the public, I usually say whatever public topic proudly to the point that people on the next table would all give weird looks at me.

OnePlus 5 x T + five short months = Some p*ssed off fanboys

Re: Who cares?

"Surprisingly I can call people on it. "

Smartphones can be used to call people?

Re: Yawn - another (boring) "is this news" comment.

From AC

"This counts as a comment?

Poster reads story, doesn't find it interesting, posts boring "this isn't news" comment.

Rinse and repeat, just replace one ac with a different ac, or maybe the same one, who can tell?

Is there so little to do? Don't the commenters get bored with publishing the same stuff over and over and over?"

Oh No! the AC created an infinite AC recursion! Quick! Somebody exit the loop bef

Windows on ARM: It's nearly here (again)

Should have Done it Years ago

since the mobile race.

Windows 7 had xp mode integration for software compatibility to bridge those from windows xp.

Windows RT should have the x86 emulator for software compatibility to bridge those from x86 windows.

But since it didn't, no one really came use them.

Heads up: OnePlus phones have a secret root backdoor and the password is 'angela'

Root and no root

When you get free apk to root device, they get raged at for backdoor and insecure.

When you don't get root access, they get raged at for uninstallable bloatware.

Just to say, most one click root aim at loopholes to root their devices. So this could potentially make those users who wanted rooted device harder to get root. Not saying the researchers reporting this is bad, but they should have posted it privately and not on twitter. Now all those root loving power-users know who to hate. icon->

Audio spy Alexa now has a little pal called Dox

Re: reg getting boring...

@AC

"I don't know if the reg is just getting older with its reader demographic, but i'm with those here getting annoyed with the luddite thinking. There is no evidence that Alexa is "spying".

Umm, read before you post?

Quoted "Earlier this year, American police forced Amazon to hand over recordings from an Alexa mic as part of a murder investigation." and "Amazon initially resisted the warrant". Both highlight there's something Amazon got from Alexa, otherwise there's nothing to resist because they've got nothing to hide.

If that's not enough, think in technical. How does Alexa know your voice? How does Alexa know what you said? Both of which need voice analysis software. If it's not done in the local device, then it's done on someone else's device. It's even stated on the wiki that they use Amazon Web Services.

To verify, it is simple. Turn off internet. Can it still recognize your command? No? you got spied.

Better filters won't cure this: YouTube's kids nightmare

Re: Oh, look, parents are passing the buck again...

"The world we live in now is not all about toys, dolls and board games so guess what? kids like to use tablets and phones. As a parent how would you tell your child they can't use them even though all their friends are?"

Yes I would tell them they can't use them, and sucks to be them. see icon ->

For real? What kind of first world problem is this? Third world countries can't even afford tablets / phones for every kids in the room, and yet they still raised kids. It's your money, your savings. You have the say.

I know I am being mean, but if they really want it I would make them work for it. Let them help you mow the lawn, wash your car, clean the floor, fold the cloths, or prepare the dinner. It's a much better child labor development than giving to them for free. Not to mention, it gives them a feel of responsibility, product value and minimum wage.

Oh wait your kids are <6 years old and can't do any work?... Sucks to be them.

" I have two young children 4 and 6... kids like mine they just re-enable it even though I've never let them see me disable it. I know, lets go one up and install an app lock, sure I'm getting smug now thinking, "get round that you smart arses", what happens next? Oh they just boot the tablet into safe mode."

4 and 6 years old yet they can do that without being taught? Give them a computer quick! They will surely become the next technology founders very soon.

Look, ma! No hands! Waymo to test true self-driving cars in US with Uber-style hailing app

The minimum requirements

"There will be an emergency stop button for a passenger to hit, just in case."

They should also include an emergency physical handbrake, just in case the software stop button bugged out.

Transparent algorithms? Here's why that's a bad idea, Google tells MPs

algorithm as microwaves, automobiles, and lights?

Seems like their engineers were not well educated. Microwaves, automobiles, and lights operation and fundamental concept were taught in elementary school to high school, from classes, to kids books, to school projects.

So if google's algorithm is the same, then surely some of its concept and operation will need to be taught in school. Oh wait they were trying to be secretive?

How we fooled Google's AI into thinking a 3D-printed turtle was a gun: MIT bods talk to El Reg

Re: I think I might have AI

"Daily miss-identification of objects are so common I seldom notice the mental correction later on."

And you know you have a problem when the guacamole scratches your face!

Disregard the scratching, I think the bigger problem is him/her trying to eat the guacamole.

It's 2017 and you can still pwn Android gear with Wi-Fi packets – so get patching now

Re: Dear Motorola

"Dear Reg readers... is there ANY brand of <200quid phones that actually provides long term (> 2year) patch support?"

Any phone officially supported by lineageOS will likely have longer term patch support. In terms of <200quid phone, there are a number of brands that have phones at that price like asus, sony, LG, xiaomi, etc. It'll be better to search it yourself. If you can't decide, start searching from their second to first recent released phone.

"Or, put another way, what are the chances of me ending up with a non-bricked, fully-functional phone if I try installing lineageOS on it?"

If you picked a phone from the lineageOS official support list, then you'll have the highest chance of getting a non-bricked near fully-functional lineageOS rom. Otherwise, if you find your phone under xda-developers with threads of users tested the rom, then you'll have the second highest chance of getting a non-bricked near fully-functional lineageOS / custom rom. If you search around and only found one thread, a video or a website with a lineageOS / custom rom link, unless it gave you clear instruction, it'll have the lowest chance of not bricking your phone OS (if you didn't physically break the phone, you can reflash and try another rom).

*near fully-functional because some developers will tell you some roms have known-issues.

Since it sounds like you haven't flashed a lineageOS before, here are a few key tips if you are interested in flashing lineageOS / custom rom.

- Unlock bootloader - Most OEM locks your phone so your phone can only install their rom. Unlocking it is required to install lineageOS and other custom rom. Different phone has different ways to unlock them. Search them first.

- Phone driver - some phones require specific driver to be recognized by a PC before installing/ booting a custom recovery. Some phones may need it. Search them next.

- Custom recovery - this is a different recovery from the OEM recovery, and it let's you wipe your phone and flash your firmware, lineageOS rom, root manager, and gapps. One known custom recovery is twrp recovery. Search for the device specific custom recovery should it be required.

- rooting - this is to get admin right of phone. LineageOS should now come with it, but you'll need a "root manager" like Magisk to manager your apps for root. Most root manager needs to be flash in custom recovery and some need the apk installed afterward for it to work.

- gapps - this is a google apps bundle. The bundle is device cpu specific and will not flash if you downloaded the wrong one. The bare minimum is gapps pico. This is optional for lineageOS but you might need it if you use google apps and apps that dependent on google api.

- backups - if you haven't backed up before flashing lineageOS, well... do it now. Google backup only goes so far in terms of phone backup, so do test the backups before wiping the phone.

tl;dr research lineageOS rom ahead to ensure no phone brick.

Seldom used 'i' mangled by baffling autocorrect bug in Apple's iOS 11

"As an Apple user A☐ belA☐eve that A☐ A☐s an overrated letter anyway. No need for A☐t. Excellent work, Apple."

ftfy

Oh, Google. You really are spoiling us: Docs block cockup chalks up yet another apology

Re: Double negative

"deny via Twitter that Facebook eavesdrops on users"

because posting it on Facebook will end up on Facebook's eavesdrops database. Better to post it on Twitter instead.

FBI: Student wrestler grappled grades after choking passwords from PCs using a key logger

Chemistry student used keystroke-logging

"Degrees are also usually rescinded"

That's ok, because he was clearly in the wrong major. There's no chemistry in computer science.

Google Drive ate our homework! Doc block blamed on code blunder

Re: Vapourous clouds

"""the cloud" is just someone else's computer."

While of course technically that is true... Google's architecture is space age. Gmail for instance encrypts and shards the database for your email across hundreds of servers across multiple geographically dispersed data centers. Your computer doesn't do that."

Data centers are still computers. Also you don't own it, it's not yours. So it's still "just someone else's computer".

Car insurers recoil in horror from paying auto autos' speeding fines

Re: If I am not driving, then I am not responsible for failure to follow road rules.

While I agree that if it's self-driven then it is not the "passenger's" responsible (because you're not the driver anymore), I do feel that both the Parliament and the manufacturers are responsible for these road rules.

Even today, speed signs and roadway are changed with little to no informer. It's like " It was on display at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard." The parliament should be fully responsible for informing this. The manufacturers, on the other hand, should be fully responsible for updating their cars up to whatever new road rules they were informed. This means no more 'reading' speed limit, especially for self-drive car.

With the car insurers, the whole event really isn't up to them to decide. Asking them to pay for speed tickets was kind of pointless where there should be no speed tickets for self-drive car. In fact, we might not have the same owner car insurance anymore with self-drive car. Instead, there will be new extended manufactures warranty for the manufacturers, and smaller damage insurance for self-made car damage.

It will be kind of like buying an iPhone. If there's a problem due to manufacture, apple pays for and gives you a new one. If you dropped the iPhone and broke the screen however, you then have to use apple care to repair the damage.

Google's phone woes: The Pixel and the damage done

Re: Are you serious?

"You do realize their primary rival in phones, Samsung, had a little glitch great feature where they were burning peoples' houses down and lighting them on fire, right?"

FTFY

Hey, you know why it's called the iPhone X? When you see Apple's repair bill, your response will be X-rated

"Buy 2 screens, or buy a new phone!"

Meanwhile Australia: $419 for screen repairs, $819 for other damage

$819

Only $180 from a new iPhone X!

Car trouble: Keyless and lockless is no match for brainless

Can't use the remote locking/unlock function?

Step 1: Go back in the car and click the all-lock button

Step 2: Get back out of the car

Step 3: Use the key to lock the last door

Step 4: ????

Step 5: Profit (manual operation, win)

Malware hidden in vid app is so nasty, victims should wipe their Macs

Re: A complete wipe?

"The solution is the same no matter what generation of .gov software your country has installed.

Erase the partition WashingtonDC then create a new partition and format with whatever .gov .people system you feel you require."

FTFY

The Google Home Mini: Great, right up until you want to smash it in fury

Re: Sometimes, voice activation is useful though...

" I cannot for the life of me work out how to do it on my phone any other way :( "

touch the microphone icon on the Google search widget and say loudly "how to set alarm on android".

Here's a hint, you'll need to click on the clock app first.

WPA2 KRACK attack smacks Wi-Fi security: Fundamental crypto crapto

Re: Why does anyone care about wifi security?

"I don't have a phone with data"

wait then how are you going to read El Reg on the go? Don't tell me you're going to white hat hack other wifi routers on the go. Especially in an emergency, in the middle of nowhere, dying of desktop-less, it is essential to access El Reg newest articles at all cost.

/icon

Re: Why does anyone care about wifi security?

"My router is wide open to all comers. Who cares? Those with the foil hats on, do you never use Starbuck's or any other public wifi?"

Well. When you're in Starbuck, you should be drinking coffee. When you're in the public, you should be walking or doing whatever activities in the public. You shouldn't need their wifi at all. Not to mention those wifi are super slow unsecured unreliable hacker welcoming internet connection.

Even if you do, public wifi should never be on your convenient reliable internet access list. It should only be your last resort in a life emergency.

As El Reg user, you should have at least (+/-)1MB phone data for emergency, so you don't really need that public wifi anyway, right?

Supreme Court to rule on whether US has right to data stored overseas

"What if the US parent has direct technical access?"

No one in the "US" has "direct access" to things not in "US". Cloud is just someone else's computer. 'Someone else over there' gave you 'permission' to access it. If the Irish employee took the server down, you will no longer have access. No matter how hard you yell or do in the "US", the server will still be down because the "US" don't have "direct access" to that computer. The internet line, the power, the resource and the jurisdiction are all under Ireland.

The only time it is "direct access" is when you have physical access or within country land reach (one state to another), which in this case, they don't.

Open source sets sights on killing WhatsApp and Slack

Re: Searching for old messages in different apps = nightmare

"It is annoying having messages in loads of de-coupled systems. I have some friends who use iMessage, some who use FB Messenger, some who use Whatsapp, some on traditional text, the occasional email(!).... the list goes on."

Obligatory https://xkcd.com/1810

Oh and I am the guy who uses Wall (Bathroom) for messages. Please add that to your list.

OnePlus privacy shock: So, the cool Chinese smartphones slurp an alarming amount of data

Re: And I'm still here...

"Please explain why I should be worried my phone manufacturer can link the details of the phone it made to my phone number and network?"

It's because sometimes you might not want other people to know that you've play candy crush for a total of 748hours and 163hours while in the office washroom without your consent.

Re: Does IMEI count as personally identifiable info?

"My newish TV was stolen recently"

I'm still waiting for someone to steal the CRT TV in our open garage. Then I'll finally have an excuse to get a new TV for movie night.

Maybe I should buy one of those apple logo sticker and tape it to the sides. That might make the TV more attractive to the thief.