Can I ask how you identify issues like this so quickly? I'm an infosec student, and I'd love to hear what your thought process is when briefly looking over the security of a certain website.
I guess I am being too optimistic. I really enjoyed reading that response, and you brought to mind a lot of things I just didn't really consider. Supporting other peoples devices would be a hassle, and a huge undertaking who does zero of that currently. Since you've debunked my theories :), rethinking it maybe it's just a great way to advertise, and get people touch, and feel the phone in person with a great salesperson next to them. The article I think said it is suppose to be up before the holiday season. And why run a test store in New York, New York? I wouldn't ever suggest doing a test run in an extremely high end area like that. Maybe it's up for Nov, Dec, Jan.. and than disappears.
While I agree with you that it would definitely help their sales by selling it themselves vs. the blue shirts. I can't seem to think they will only sell Amazon products. Not to say they will sell substitutes of their products as well, I think it would be a missed opportunity to stock it only with Kindles, and Fire Phones. It would be surprising to me at least, if their main objective with this store front was to increase sales of their products alone. I could envision them being a big box in the future with stores around the US. They've already got a lot of warehouses to back something of that caliber up.
I thought of a similar idea one day when day dreaming at my old retail job. What if in the future, all the stores become so small, malls could house 1000s of stores. You could go in, touch the product, try it on, but they were all just display models. And than you'd order it in store, and it would be on your doorstep the next day. No need to keep inventory in the store, and you pay a much smaller rental fee. And shrink could be almost reduced to zero.
Though I agree, it does sound insane. What would they stock? They can't supply everything obviously. I think it will be a good outreach to put a face to the company you're buying from, and make it more personal. I'm sure the employees will have little Kindles so you can quickly order things in stock. And gain the confidence from buyers that are hesitant buying things from online retailers. Potentially this could hurt stores like Best Buy, or the like. If Amazon can provide a better customer service in person, than people will choose them over the other. I'll be curious to see how this plays out for them.
From how I interpret the Stingray, it is executing a MITM attack. These types of devices are sometimes refereed to as IMSI-catchers, and sit in between the users phone, and the real network towers. [1]
My concern is what exactly is being contained, and collected. The cell phone companies are already collecting the same data, but I would assume that with the Stingray it makes getting access to that data much faster versus having to request it from the cell phone network companies. The article mentions what they are collecting with the Stringray, "When mobile phones—and other wireless communication devices—connect to the stingray, the device can see and record their unique ID numbers and traffic data, as well as information that points to the device’s location. By moving the stingray around, authorities can triangulate the device’s location with greater precision than they can using data obtained from a fixed tower location." This technology could very well advance, and allow them in the future to collect much more maybe. Gathering location seems to be the biggest reasoning behind using the Stingray.