Most of these reasons can be applied to modern cars, apartment complexes, smart TVs, etc. Title should be "why I don't like this century"
speaking of web design - did smartphones ruin that blog's design?
Why I don't like smartphones
41–50 of 294 posts
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#42Most people don't want or need root access to their smartphone but will complain (no matter how much you tell them security is their responsibility when acting as root) when installing random software they found on the internet results in their banking details being stolen followed swiftly by all their money. There are products you can buy in pretty much every category if you need a general purpose computing device,…
What does having an ability to gain root access have to do with installing random malware apps? You can easily have a device with disabled root access and a curated store as a default and make gaining root access an added functionality (similarly how Android Nexus phones require you to issue a fastboot oem unlock command). Where does this idea that the only alternative to not having some non-technical people install…
A large number of malware sites will walk you through side loading and bypassing your security to install their app which may be a compromised game or app like a Trojan. Not having this access is the only way to deal with this.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#43Most people don't want or need root access to their smartphone but will complain (no matter how much you tell them security is their responsibility when acting as root) when installing random software they found on the internet results in their banking details being stolen followed swiftly by all their money. There are products you can buy in pretty much every category if you need a general purpose computing device,…
What does having an ability to gain root access have to do with installing random malware apps? You can easily have a device with disabled root access and a curated store as a default and make gaining root access an added functionality (similarly how Android Nexus phones require you to issue a fastboot oem unlock command). Where does this idea that the only alternative to not having some non-technical people install…
it's because the demographic you're talking about is vanishingly small, and therefore apple does not care about it. do you notice them hurting for customers?
i installed linux when i was 12. i've been working in this field for nearly 20 years. i'm abnormal, as 'techie' as they come, and i really just don't give a shit about having root access on my iphone. in fact i pretty much use it for a handful of things, primarily messaging, and that's it. i view my phone as a fancy microwave oven.
from a business point of view, you might as well ask amazon for root access on their hypervisors, or network switches. some people give you that. others don't, because they just care about the people who want that.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#44Most people don't want or need root access to their smartphone but will complain (no matter how much you tell them security is their responsibility when acting as root) when installing random software they found on the internet results in their banking details being stolen followed swiftly by all their money. There are products you can buy in pretty much every category if you need a general purpose computing device,…
I would believe (partially) in the argument of security, if locking down phones was not used for what, in my view, is a clear case of planned obsolescence.
Phones are unique devices in generally requiring you to buy new hardware after 2 or 3 years if you want up-to-date software. This is wasteful and infuriating. My 13 year old PC is still able to run the latest version of Ubuntu, and does a pretty good job at it.
I really really wish Nokia had gone the N900/N9 route. Or now that they somehow acquire Jolla. For us, developers, phones are small computers. There's no difference. Locked down devices are simply restricting our ability to do things. We need something different.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#45[deleted]
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#46Glad to know somebody else also recognising position:fixed problem. It's really a nightmare. Is it really difficult to understand for their product managers to see that blocking top 20% of user's mobile screen just to hang a navigation which serve no purpose whatsoever is not cool.
I assume they do it because other people do it. Because Facebook, LinkedIn, whatsapp, twitter and instagram are supposed to make you cool. Why would you break your site usability this way just to remove the need to copy the URL when you post it somewhere else?
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#47This person would be happier moving to a pre-computer environment - take a look at their pet hates: https://violations.devever.net/products - including: * AMD x86 CPUs * Intel x86 CPUs ...leaving, ARM CPUs, I guess? Windows ARM machines are also on the list. (And surely ARMs should be blacklisted according to his reasoning; he is unhappy with Intel's secure enclave, while ARM has similar features). Some people will n…
I have seen Kernel programmers walk around with MIPS laptops.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#48I'm not sure that this article is that contentious. Modern smartphones are unabashedly consumer devices made for the mass market and several of the criticisms in this article are features that most people don't want/need. What most people want/need from a smartphone is a device that lets them do things (e.g. send messages, keep up with friends, make phonecalls, browse the Internet) without getting in their way. They'…
> Now there's the obvious argument that people should have the freedom to control all their computing devices, but that freedom comes at a cost, which is that freer devices are, I would suggest, harder to maintain.(i.e. you need to understand more about the operation of the device in order to manage it). If you're a technical person, you may not see this as a problem, but remember mass-market consumers aren't necessa…
Sorry but I entirely disagree with you. From a security perspective allowing software installations form unknown sources is absolutely a concern for average users.
It's hard enough for IT professionals to maintain the security of general purpose computing devices, let alone non-technical users achieving the same goal.
Lets take a real-world exmaple. Look at the incidence of malware on a platform that allows unrestricted software installation (e.g. Android), with one that doesn't (e.g. iOS).
The problem is that making informed choices about whether a given piece of software is "trustworthy" is extremely difficult. Delegating that to a 3rd party (e.g. Apple) is for most people, likely the best option.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#49I'm not sure that this article is that contentious. Modern smartphones are unabashedly consumer devices made for the mass market and several of the criticisms in this article are features that most people don't want/need. What most people want/need from a smartphone is a device that lets them do things (e.g. send messages, keep up with friends, make phonecalls, browse the Internet) without getting in their way. They'…
But I am neither getting freedom nor security with smart phones. My 2 year old smart phone have never received a security update. It has become a piece of crap just within 2 years.
The iPhone receives plenty of security updates, and does so relatively quickly after the fix has been implemented.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#50The author has a couple of valid points, the one I definitely agree with the most is the one about centralization. I'm tired of hearing about some cool new app/program that sounds really great, but when I go check it out, it almost always turns out to be tied to the cloud in some way. It makes me want to say "Guys, great software, but can't I just buy it and run it on my own hardware without having to trust you with all my data?"
On the other hand, many of his points are also definitely geek-only (especially the one about not controlling one's phone). While I myself tend to agree (which is one reason I personally do not own a smart phone either), most people really don't want or need full root access to their computing platforms.