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Why I don't like smartphones

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Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#101

Post by foxrider »

Ok, so these seem biased, because majority of Android smartphones can in fact be use as equal devices - you can connect a keyboard, fire up VIM or anything else in chroot and you are good to go. If battery power is what you are after - not only there are amazingly long lasting android phones, there are aftermarkets batteries for any model with removable lid.

He even directly addresses the point iOS devices are blackboxes.

So yeah, I call bullshit on this one, even thou I can see where he is coming from with this.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#102

Post by jhasse »

raesene9 wrote: post #85
jhasse wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No problem: http://blog.binamuse.com/2014/09/coregraphics-memory-corrupt... If you got an older iPhone, it's best not to open random PDFs anymore.

neat bug, although only the iPhone 4 and earlier would be unpatchable for it, and those devices are pretty much stuffed from a security standpoint anyway as they're vulnerable to the old DFU mode jailbreaks... I was kind of thinking more of examples of malware where people were actually using the lockdown of the OS to stop users removing it, but hey I said exploits and that's an exploit.

On the other hand: Have you ever heard of examples of malware which told the use to root their phone?

I think CyanogenMods solution, where root access has to be enabled in the Developer Settings, which have to be enabled by tapping the Android version number 6 times, is the perfect solution: My mum would stop immediately doing such a complicated thing if she wanted to install something.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#103

Post by eunice »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #80
leadingthenet wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone receives plenty of security updates, and does so relatively quickly after the fix has been implemented.

Not only isn't this relivant it isn't even true or at least very misleading. Apple patches the newests version of iOS. Sometimes older versions get a security update here or there, maybe. So you'd have to be running the latest version of you want security fixes. Which isn't always possible due to compatibility or performance/stability. If your iPhone is 3 or more years old you can forget any support from Apple whatso…

the 4S from 2011 runs the latest iOS

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#104

Post by mattmanser »

foxrider wrote: post #101

Ok, so these seem biased, because majority of Android smartphones can in fact be use as equal devices - you can connect a keyboard, fire up VIM or anything else in chroot and you are good to go. If battery power is what you are after - not only there are amazingly long lasting android phones, there are aftermarkets batteries for any model with removable lid. He even directly addresses the point iOS devices are blackb…

Normal people don't plug keyboards in to their tablets and phones.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#105

Post by camillomiller »

foxrider wrote: post #101

Ok, so these seem biased, because majority of Android smartphones can in fact be use as equal devices - you can connect a keyboard, fire up VIM or anything else in chroot and you are good to go. If battery power is what you are after - not only there are amazingly long lasting android phones, there are aftermarkets batteries for any model with removable lid. He even directly addresses the point iOS devices are blackb…

Creation doesn't mean necessarily "programming". Design, art and music creation, photomanipulation... We have many surrogates of that on our smartphones. Although I think that considering iPads, iPhones and smartphones barely as devices for consumption is a limited vision, I have to admit that the discrepancy and "inequality" of these devices is evident. The problem is: most of the people wouldn't be creators anyway. Those who are on a Pc/Mac, usually are those who try and find ways to be creators on their smartphones and tablets.

By the way, you don't necessarily have to "call bullshit" on someone who simply put forward a singular/unusual vision that happens to be different than yours. You can simply "disagree".

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#107

Post by raesene9 »

izacus wrote: post #69
raesene9 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unrestric…

And now compare it to OS X installations. Or Linux. A platform that doesn't have a rampant malware problem and still isn't completely locked down. We managed to somehow survive 30 years of unprecedented innovation and computer usage and NOW we suddenly need locked down devices where a single company decides which applications may be used on them and can forbid and innovative competition at will? Why would you defend…

lol you're not in the security industry are you?

OSX and Linux are both vulnerable to malware and have incidences of it, however (for desktop) they're relatively small targets, so get less attention. The idea that they're somehow resistent to malware is amusing.

and yep times are changing. I started in IT in 1995 and the environment now is massively more hostile than it was then, also the number of users has gone up a lot too, so there are a lot more people who aren't well placed to secure general purpose computing devices.

I'd argue that there's plenty of competition and if someone wants to use a nice open computing device, they can. The fact that most people choose not to, should tell you something about their priorities.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#108

Post by jhasse »

cableshaft wrote: post #82
IkmoIkmo wrote: post #24

I don't really see how some of his points support his position. e.g. I don't own a smartphone, because it's a consumption device rather than both consumption and production, is just silly. So is a photoalbum, so is a book, so is a TV, so is a music player. A smartphone is all in one and it's incredibly useful. Beyond that, it is in ways a production device. It's a messaging device, a photo and video taking device, it…

Almost every app (and many games) being made nowadays are thin clients making api calls where all the work is done on the server. I don't like it. I like having games from decades ago and still being able to play them long after the companies are dead and its employees working on other things. On my own time I try to come up with software that can run entirely without the need to communicate with servers, or even wit…

Hm ... Candy Crush Saga runs perfectly fine offline. So do SeriesGuide, MAPS.ME, and Podcast Addict to name a few apps on my phone. Can you show me an example of an app which is a thin client (and doesn't actually need Internet connection)?

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#109

Post by DatBear »

foxrider wrote: post #101

Ok, so these seem biased, because majority of Android smartphones can in fact be use as equal devices - you can connect a keyboard, fire up VIM or anything else in chroot and you are good to go. If battery power is what you are after - not only there are amazingly long lasting android phones, there are aftermarkets batteries for any model with removable lid. He even directly addresses the point iOS devices are blackb…

Have you ever written, debugged, tested, and deployed a mobile app solely from a smartphone? That's the point he was making. They're unequal in that the apps on them can't be made by them.

Re: Why I don't like smartphones

#110

Post by nommm-nommm »

anonymfus wrote: post #18

Why "smartphones"? If he uses mobile phone which he does not consider "smartphone", he is hypocrite because most of the listed problems apply to them ever more than to so-called "smartphones". If he does not use any mobile phone, he just should name the article "Why I don't like mobile phones".

>Why "smartphones"?

Because smartphones are replacing general purpose computers.

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