Regent App and Excursions

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

Well, that “line of folks” is folks with the desire to learn.  I never said it would be easy...   😄

 

I suspect more of "make it work for me" than actually "learning".

 

The number of folks who just "click the icon" because the grandkids saved all the login data to the device is higher than you suspect.  And when they can't just click, they are lost.   They aren't learning.

 

Another example...all the folks who get "bars" on their phones, but then don't understand why they can't get to "The Internet" when the satellite is down.

 

But, allow us to disagree on our perceptions.

[UUNetBill]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

I suspect more of "make it work for me" than actually "learning".

 

The number of folks who just "click the icon" because the grandkids saved all the login data to the device is higher than you suspect.  And when they can't just click, they are lost.   They aren't learning.

 

Another example...all the folks who get "bars" on their phones, but then don't understand why they can't get to "The Internet" when the satellite is down.

 

But, allow us to disagree on our perceptions.

Not that much disagreement from me...I see those people every day, across all age groups, who just expect things to ‘work’, with not even the most basic understanding of how it works, nor the most basic steps to take when it doesn’t.

 

If I had a dollar for every completely blank stare I’ve encountered while trying to teach tech to people, I’d probably own my own yacht.  A big one, too.   😜

[Gilly]

2 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

I see those people every day, across all age groups, who just expect things to ‘work’, with not even the most basic understanding of how it works, nor the most basic steps to take when it doesn’t.

 

I'm with you on that one, @UUNetBill.

[FlyerTalker]

4 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

If I had a dollar for every completely blank stare I’ve encountered while trying to teach tech to people, I’d probably own my own yacht.  A big one, too.   😜

 

Your handle just clicked....UUNet.  That's a name that goes back a ways, and I should have remembered it sooner.

[taxare]

So.....I am the original poster. I am currently on Explorer but don’t have a lot of information yet. Let me provide my perspective on a few items. I respect the three posters who have tried the system. First, I did receive the Regent email that I posted prior to leaving and agree with TC that they should also put something in the final documents. There is no way the App can be downloaded with the current bandwidth on the ship. They had a session on it and the vast majority of the people who attended the session hadn’t downloaded the App. I haven’t tried it real time yet except during the demo, the number of excursions in which it is being tested is very small. I asked to see and hold the audio wi-fi box. Is it larger and bulkier than a whisperer box, yes. I held it, put the strap on my shoulder, walked around a bit and thought it isn’t bad and it really wasn’t heavy. My personal opinion is a tour guide looking to make money during their “season” is not going to refuse to use it if it is fully implemented. As stated above, you put your phone in airplane mode, open the App and press the number for your guide. I have asked the destination services director to get me more specifics on the manufacturer and specs of the system. He says he is working on getting me that information. When I receive it, I will post it here and the tech experts can go at it. 

[Hambagahle]

On 8/28/2019 at 7:58 PM, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

Thanks for clarifying  The portable router makes sense.  What I was not believing really was that you would need data.

 

Yes, that's how the river cruises do it, I know, but as you say I doubt Regent could do it that way.  And on a river cruise you generally have the same guide all the time. I know some tours in Europe provide these sets, but it's hit or miss.

On the river cruises that we have taken (Danube and Elbe) different guides met us at each stop.  The "Social staff" from the boat just made sure we were in the right group with the right guide for the particular tour.   So it wouldn't be Regent who invested in the hardware but the local tour operators...

[taxare]

Ok, this is what I learned. The company that is providing the smart boxes is itour city guide GmbH. This is the wi-fi security statement they provided: “The smart boxes are equipped with integrated VPN protecting against outside internet attacks. The internal wi-fi networks are all protected with complex encryptions. Itour uses the latest security technology and, as with any local wi-if connection, once connected to the wi-fi network, the primary protection is from the devices’ own security settings. Since the smart boxes are continually moving when switched on, the network also provides another level of protection from outside attacks. In general, the security levels for customers using tour smart boxes are thus at least similar to private encrypted networks in the hotel industry”

 

Due to having a wonderful time on my cruise and the fair (at best) Internet I have not looked up the company. I’m sure those on this thread that are 100x more savvy than I am in this area will comment. As I mentioned in a previous post, the number of excursions that they have tested this on is very few. I spoke to a fellow passenger who tried it on one and they said the distance range from the tour leader was not as good as they would hope and therefore the sound went in and out, but they had no problem using the App. 

 

[rallydave]

16 minutes ago, taxare said:

Ok, this is what I learned. The company that is providing the smart boxes is itour city guide GmbH. This is the wi-fi security statement they provided: “The smart boxes are equipped with integrated VPN protecting against outside internet attacks. The internal wi-fi networks are all protected with complex encryptions. Itour uses the latest security technology and, as with any local wi-if connection, once connected to the wi-fi network, the primary protection is from the devices’ own security settings. Since the smart boxes are continually moving when switched on, the network also provides another level of protection from outside attacks. In general, the security levels for customers using tour smart boxes are thus at least similar to private encrypted networks in the hotel industry”

 

Due to having a wonderful time on my cruise and the fair (at best) Internet I have not looked up the company. I’m sure those on this thread that are 100x more savvy than I am in this area will comment. As I mentioned in a previous post, the number of excursions that they have tested this on is very few. I spoke to a fellow passenger who tried it on one and they said the distance range from the tour leader was not as good as they would hope and therefore the sound went in and out, but they had no problem using the App. 

 

If that wording is correct regarding protection from the internet, it is extremely concerning.  Thought it was simply a private network between the tour guide's box to the customers smart phones.  If the network is connected to the internet that would be a huge concern and don't know why it would need to say anything about the internet.  The system is simply a way for the tour guide to talk to the people on the tour thru a local network that based on the discussion is an extremely short distance.  Seems like we still need more details to understand the system, how it works, etc.  Way to many what ifs' to consider using this system.

 

Went to the website of the company and appears this is more than just talking there is multi media and perhaps it comes from the internet but, can't be sure.   Perhaps am ore tech savvy person can look at the company's web site and provide more infor.

[Travelcat2]

Is it me or is this thread going in circles?  I'm reading the same things that were posted on page 1 and 2.  

 

Bill, you are the resident guru on this topic and if you don't know the answers, perhaps someone could call Regent instead of repeating the same things over and over.  While I have no need for this, it is a concern, in general, when we take our phones off of the ship to take photos, for instance.  I have heard what FlyerTalker said from others (not on CC) and do believe that we can be tracked/hacked even with the phone turned off.  

 

 

[UUNetBill]

1 hour ago, Travelcat2 said:

Is it me or is this thread going in circles?  I'm reading the same things that were posted on page 1 and 2.  

 

Bill, you are the resident guru on this topic and if you don't know the answers, perhaps someone could call Regent instead of repeating the same things over and over.  While I have no need for this, it is a concern, in general, when we take our phones off of the ship to take photos, for instance.  I have heard what FlyerTalker said from others (not on CC) and do believe that we can be tracked/hacked even with the phone turned off.  

 

 

I don’t know if I can claim guru status, and frankly I’m not really up to speed on mobile technologies.  I do know that I’ve been reading for years how successively our mobile phones are to hacking and all other manners of vicious attacks but the fact is I’ve never been hacked and I’ve never known anyone who’s been hacked.  The only people I’ve known to have any kind of account hack are the ones that have weak passwords or leave their devices unlocked and unattended.  I honestly don’t think it’s as big a problem as some people make it out to be.

 

As to the tour city guide system, I glanced at their website and didn’t see any detIls on the security protocols - and for the life of me I can’t see why the transmitter would need to be internet connected.  One thing they mentioned is that the company can provide ‘loaner’ smartphones for those without devices.  Seems to defeat the purpose of the ‘bring your own device’ model, but it would be an option if you’re that concerned about security..

[rallydave]

1 hour ago, UUNetBill said:

I don’t know if I can claim guru status, and frankly I’m not really up to speed on mobile technologies.  I do know that I’ve been reading for years how successively our mobile phones are to hacking and all other manners of vicious attacks but the fact is I’ve never been hacked and I’ve never known anyone who’s been hacked.  The only people I’ve known to have any kind of account hack are the ones that have weak passwords or leave their devices unlocked and unattended.  I honestly don’t think it’s as big a problem as some people make it out to be.

 

As to the tour city guide system, I glanced at their website and didn’t see any detIls on the security protocols - and for the life of me I can’t see why the transmitter would need to be internet connected.  One thing they mentioned is that the company can provide ‘loaner’ smartphones for those without devices.  Seems to defeat the purpose of the ‘bring your own device’ model, but it would be an option if you’re that concerned about security..

Bill, while I agree they shouldn't need internet access, from reading info on the website they talk about multi-media stuff so possibly they are getting that extra stuff beyond the guide's talking from their website on the net????

 

As to loaner smartphones, that might be when the company is running the show and not when a customer like Regent has bought the package so would expect providing the loaner phones would require Regent to buy/rent/??? the phones to provide to passengers and nobody so far has reported loaner phones on board.

 

Sure would be nice if Regent would accurately describe the entire program and how it completely works.  So far only bits and pieces only from passengers on the trial voyages.and not really enough to get conclusive answers to all the questions  Getting the name of the company and finding the website helped a little but, not much in the way of details there either.  

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, UUNetBill said:

I don’t know if I can claim guru status, and frankly I’m not really up to speed on mobile technologies.  I do know that I’ve been reading for years how successively our mobile phones are to hacking and all other manners of vicious attacks but the fact is I’ve never been hacked and I’ve never known anyone who’s been hacked.  The only people I’ve known to have any kind of account hack are the ones that have weak passwords or leave their devices unlocked and unattended.  I honestly don’t think it’s as big a problem as some people make it out to be.

 

As to the tour city guide system, I glanced at their website and didn’t see any detIls on the security protocols - and for the life of me I can’t see why the transmitter would need to be internet connected.  One thing they mentioned is that the company can provide ‘loaner’ smartphones for those without devices.  Seems to defeat the purpose of the ‘bring your own device’ model, but it would be an option if you’re that concerned about security..

 

Opinions are opinions and in my opinion, you are the computer guru and FlyerTalker holds the title for airlines.  It is really great to have people that sail on Regent and have a lot of expertise in these topics.

 

One quick question.  Is it true that if your phone is in "Airplane Mode" or shut off that people can still track you and possibly steal information?  I believe that many of us are interested in the answer!

 

Thanks much!

[taxare]

I think Dave jumped to a conclusion that they would be connected to the internet. I don't understand that to be the case at all. The box is a wi-fi system that connects with the passengers phone. The question here came up about whether the wi-fi box and then the passengers phone could be hacked and what are the protections such as encryption. I believe they provided that. To me the question is whether the range is good and whether the passengers will buy-in. We can have a reasonable debate on whether this type of system is the best for Regent customers. I agree with Bill that a hybrid system would be better or else they have to have other receivers available. I am probably naive but I believe Regent did their due diligence on the security aspects. 

[DeepFreeze63]

We leave in 6 hrs for London and Explorer from Southampton to Barcelona on Monday for our 6th Explorer cruise. I intended to start developing a comparison of Explorer vs. Splendor, which we sail on its inaugural but will see what I can learn about this potential excursion "protocol". Received an E-mail on Thursday inviting me to load a RSSC app; we did and hopefully are ready. Of course, our experience will only be IF our excursions tryout the new system. Will report from the ship.

[UUNetBill]

12 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

One quick question.  Is it true that if your phone is in "Airplane Mode" or shut off that people can still track you and possibly steal information?  I believe that many of us are interested in the answer!

 

Thanks much!

Jackie, like I said, mobile tech is not my forte.  Honestly, I’ve read so many conflicting stories I don’t know what to believe.  My opinion, though, is that it’s theoretically possible to manipulate phones while they’re in Airplane Mode but the average person/thief/hacker doesn’t have the capability to do that.  It’s like the stories you hear about cops or hackers being able to listen in on your phone, or being able to activate your camera or turn on your phone when it’s completely off...I just don’t think it happens.  It may be possible but I don’t think it’s probable.

 

On the other hand, though, the tracking of both your phone’s physical location and browsing history a definite issue.  I think we’ve all experienced the flood of ads we get for a particular item if we search for it once on Google or Amazon.  I’ve also read articles where people have had their phones in Airplane Mode and when they shut it off there’s a huge data dump of location info...meaning the phone was tracking and storing your location even if it wasn’t immediately sending it to the servers.

 

My take on it is that there are over 330,000,000 people in America and even more phones.  I’m not a criminal and if there’s a government database out there that knows I went to McDonalds for a Big Mac last week, well, so be it...

Edited September 21, 2019 by UUNetBill
Typo

[rallydave]

8 minutes ago, UUNetBill said:

Jackie, like I said, mobile tech is not my forte.  Honestly, I’ve read so many conflicting stories I don’t know what to believe.  My opinion, though, is that it’s theoretically possible to manipulate phones while they’re in Airplane Mode but the average person/thief/hacker doesn’t have the capability to do that.  It’s like the stories you hear about cops or hackers being able to listen in on your phone, or being able to activate your camera or turn on your phone when it’s completely off...I just don’t think it happens.  It may be possible but I don’t think it’s probable.

 

On the other hand, though, the tracking of both your phone’s physical location and browsing history a definite issue.  I think we’ve all experienced the flood of ads we get for a particular item if we search for it once on Google or Amazon.  I’ve also read articles where people have had their phones in Airplane Mode and when they shut it off there’s a huge data dump of location info...meaning the phone was tracking and storing your location even if it wasn’t immediately sending it to the servers.

 

My take on it is that there are over 330,000,000 people in America and even more phones.  I’m not a criminal and if there’s a government database out there that knows I went to McDonalds for a Big Mac last week, well, so be it...

You have to remember Bill, airplane mode does not mean you are not connected to the internet.  We mostly all put our phone in airplane mode at times and just turn on our wifi and voila, we are again connected to the internet, just not via cellular.

 

As to turning your phone completely off, don't see how the phone can collect any data or how anyone can connect to it without the ability of the phone to talk or listen without power??  Also can't believe the phone can be collecting any data with the phone completely off.  Likely people think that if the screen is dark,orin  airplane mode it is off and that is not true so perhaps completely turning your phone off does work at least while it is off and not just a blank screen.

 

Bill, of course your thoughts on these comments are more than welcome.

[UUNetBill]

50 minutes ago, rallydave said:

You have to remember Bill, airplane mode does not mean you are not connected to the internet.  We mostly all put our phone in airplane mode at times and just turn on our wifi and voila, we are again connected to the internet, just not via cellular.

 

As to turning your phone completely off, don't see how the phone can collect any data or how anyone can connect to it without the ability of the phone to talk or listen without power??  Also can't believe the phone can be collecting any data with the phone completely off.  Likely people think that if the screen is dark,orin  airplane mode it is off and that is not true so perhaps completely turning your phone off does work at least while it is off and not just a blank screen.

 

Bill, of course your thoughts on these comments are more than welcome.

Dave, like I said, I don’t know mobile so I’m mostly forming my thoughts off of snippets I’ve read over the years.  Could be inaccurate, could be outdated, I don’t know.

 

Airplane Mode could mean different things for different phones.  I usually either do Airplane Mode or just shut it off when I fly, depends on my mood...but keep in mind that it would be easy to design a phone that would LOOK like it’s off even though certain sub functions are still energized.  So your screen, BT, RF, etc could be off but you could still be pinging GPS.

 

I guess I could read up on it some more, but I really think Apple and Samsung (and the others) probably don’t want too much of that info available because it might freak people out if they knew exactly how much info was being collected...

[UUNetBill]

So looking at my phone (iPhone X) it appears that switching into Airplane Mode shuts off cellular, WiFi, and BT but WiFi and BT can be independently reenabled.  Of course, I have no way of knowing what is going on behind the scenes with GPS and location services or whether the evil gubmint or a hacker could remotely manipulate my settings.    If I shut my phone off, what is still actually enabled?  Only the manufacturers know for sure, I think.

[rallydave]

One way to possibly tell would be to check the battery remaining immediately turn off then several hours later turn on and check battery. Not fool proof and the longer off the more accurate. If reading lower something is pulling power and if same possibly nothing running. 

[Travelcat2]

Bill, the first thing I found when I started doing some "light" research was this:

 

"Yes you can be hacked as even after switching off your phone static current is there. This experiment has been been done with a laptop and even proved. A German hacker showed this live at "Nullcon", the hacking conference held at goa in 2015. 5.3k views"

 

Upon further research, it seems that if you turn off your phone or allow your phone to run out of battery, it cannot be hacked.  I'm assuming that your phone needs to be on in order to use the app that we are discussing.  

 

Bottom line ...... I don't know any more now than I did 10 minutes ago. 

 

P.S.  Really wanted the iPhone X but, when iPhone 11 (not Pro) came out, the price was so good that I couldn't resist.  Just got it yesterday ....... it I an interesting phone (especially the facial recognition part).  The photos are supposed great but if I can't take my phone off of the ship and have it on, I may as well take my iPad.

 

[1985rz1]

4 hours ago, UUNetBill said:

So looking at my phone (iPhone X) it appears that switching into Airplane Mode shuts off cellular, WiFi, and BT but WiFi and BT can be independently reenabled.  

This is also how my Android phone works.  GPS is not disabled with airplane mode on my phone.

[taxare]

9 hours ago, DeepFreeze63 said:

We leave in 6 hrs for London and Explorer from Southampton to Barcelona on Monday for our 6th Explorer cruise. I intended to start developing a comparison of Explorer vs. Splendor, which we sail on its inaugural but will see what I can learn about this potential excursion "protocol". Received an E-mail on Thursday inviting me to load a RSSC app; we did and hopefully are ready. Of course, our experience will only be IF our excursions tryout the new system. Will report from the ship.

DeepFreeze, I will be getting off when you get on. If you get more information than I did great, but they had to go to Miami to provide me the information I posted above. The director of destination services does not know anything about the protocols. On the second day there is a half hour session on the new SmartGuide system. That is where I was able to see and hold the wi-if box. Have a great voyage, ours was terrific. 

[taxare]

DeepFreeze, one other point. I have never seen so many “visitors” at each port as on this cruise. They appeared to be travel agents getting a tour, lunch etc and they all had a Regent bag of brochures and goodies. I’m speculating but thinking they may have gotten a brochure on the Splendor. If so, you may want to get your hands on that to help you with your comparison.