Tin Foil Hat Show - Episode 015

Episode 15. Time to talk fast.  After missing my release by a week I come to the mic with short and to the point format for the TFH.  Trying to improve the output of the show and reduce the editing.

This episode's Podcast review was of the Hacker Public Radio Podcast network.  Podcasts by the community for the community it is one of the truly listener driven podcast networks because if the listeners didn't do it, there wouldn't be any.  It's a great forum for anyone to produce a one-off show that is important to the individual or even for a short series of podcasts on a single topic without the overhead of a complete podcast production payload.  Make sure you go look at the list of shows they have, and if you would like for there to be a show on your favorite topic....well then there is no excuse, it's time for you to make it!

The new episode should be in your favorite podcatcher for download already. If you haven't added me to your podcatcher software, please add the RSS feed on the right.

The podcast is also available to play directly online at the Fuzion Podcast Network.

For the instructions to get the show notes please see the instructions as posted in the post for the first episode. These instructions haven't changed. 

Feedback as always is welcome, tinfoilhatshow@gmail.com or you can contact me by any of the other methods listed here on this blog. Please remember that the show is very new and still settling in, but constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

Enjoy and please do send me feedback and corrections, it can only make the show better. A permanent link to the show's rss feed is listed on the right side of the blog.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Mobilize PGP - IOS vs. Android

I have recently considered GPG quite a bit.   I can imagine quite a few uses for which is it not generally used that could greatly increase the authenticity of the internet, while at the same time generating a real world "web of trust" which if were as common in the vernacular as "Facebook" then many of our issues today on the net could be resolved.

I've demonstrated with a Tin Foil Hat listener how easy it is to set up gpg and use it with one of several desktop email clients.  I would have to say that I think desktop email support for gpg is a fairly common feature.  But I then thought that for my work and personal emails, I tend to process quite a bit of that on my mobile devices.  Mostly these messages are for consumption and processing and don't have a high security requirement.  But with both my ipod touch and my andoid mobile phone I thought I'd run the two head to head to discover what might be available and at what price.

Please also understand that this comparison does not enter into commercial phylosophy, political alignments or any kind of sponsorship agenda.  I just wanted to know which of the two device platforms would allow me to use pgp on a mobile device in the easiest manner.

On my IOS 4.3 iPod Touch 2nd Gen, I did find some application offerings for PGP (commercial version of gpg) which either cost ~$50 or ~$4 for decrypt only.  I found no applications which used gpg, but that might be due to the gpl limitations in the iTunes App Store.

On my Android phone I had already installed the APG app which is free in price.  This is the pgp portion of the solution since the native google mail app is great for the interface, it doesn't support pgp at all.  Then I discovered the K9 mail applicaiton which is also free and works direclty with APG for encryption support and it really does work.  I was impressed as well, K9 is very similar to the google mail app while maybe being even a bit more responsive.

So, in conclusion if gpg encrypted or signed email is critical to you or your work I would strongly recommending an Android phone with APG + K9 mail.

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CafeNinja

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.