Steve Litchfield

A bit of a rant, but... it's all so meaningless. I open up Google Maps to look something up and am told that I'm a 'Level 6' 'Local Guide' and I'm 'only 2743 points away from Level 7'! Moreover, I'm being prompted to 'Earn my Novice Director badge'. As I drive around or walk around in my town, do you think it matters one jot how many points I have, or what my Level is, or what my virtual title is? Of course not! To detox from this nonsense, I head into Booking.com's app to plan an away day. Ahem. Front and centre, I'm told that I need to 'Complete 10 bookings before 20 November 2024 to unlock Genius Level 3'! Eh? What? Why? What happens when I hit Genius Level 3? Did anything happen when I reached Level 2? Nope.  Time to relax and chill. I start up Audible. Apparently I've collected the High Noon, Marathoner, Night Owl and 'Done & Dusted' badges. What do I do with them? Print them and sew them on a jacket??

Guest writer (and friend) Mike Warner chips in with clarification on things that I (and almost everyone else) gets wrong about Android security... In Android there are three levels of security and updates to functionality. From the highest to lowest levels we have: Google Play Services Google Play System Update … and the (often monthly) Android Security Update Google Play Services implements all the Google developed services, such as App Notifications, Location, Advertising, Google Pay and Mapping and is updated by the Google Play Store automatically to fix any security issues or add new functionality. Google Play Services is distributed only to Google Certified Android devices, so some Chinese phones like Huawei and devices running forks of Android, like Amazon Fire tablets, do not contain this module. Without Google Play Services, the OEM has to provide their own App Store and replace the Google defined services with their own set of services to ensure that Android apps expecting th