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Dell's Mobile Connect Application Will Allow Users To Easily Mirror Their Smartphone on PC; To Come Pre-installed On Company's Future PCs (venturebeat.com)
From a report on VentureBeat: Smartphones and computers were designed in different eras, and they don't really work well together, forcing us to split our time between them. But Dell is trying to change that with Dell Mobile Connect software, which makes the two devices more interoperable. [...] You can now make and receive phone calls directly from your computer, and you can also send and receive text messages on your PC screen. This allows you to stay connected on your PC without worrying that you're missing phone notifications or calls. And you can use any Android app on your PC. That allows you to bring your small-screen apps like games to a bigger screen. If your computer doesn't have a touchscreen, you can control the mirrored phone game with a keyboard and mouse. [...] Dell will preload the software on new Dell consumer and business PCs, and it has a free smartphone app that works on either Android or iOS. Dell Mobile Connect will be available on all new Dell Inspiron, XPS, Vostro, or Alienware purchased worldwide in January 2018 or later.
Now there is an absolutely epic security fail in the making ... an application with tethers your phone and PC together, to allow you to control either from the other.
Which pretty much means a guaranteed attack surface against both of them.
This positively smacks of a remote exploit which is inevitable.
And it's more crapware which comes bundled with a PC to make it even slower and more annoying to use.
I'm sorry, but over and over when companies try to add convenience, they absolutely fuck up both privacy and security.
KDE connect provides this on Linux. I get the SMS popups when I do 2factor authentication.
Cheap storage VM.