wow the head up my own butt is high in this one... :O
Why I don't like smartphones
111–120 of 294 posts
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#112> They are unequal devices.
I guess what the author is trying to say, but a better wording would be asymetric.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#113I've got a Jolla phone running Sailfish, which is reasonably open. I'm happy with it because as an advanced user I can enable developer mode and modify or fix things. It's a stable and usable system. But Jolla doesn't seem to be doing so well right now. Before that I had a Nokia N9, the only Maemo phone, precurser to Sailfish. Another capable although minimal system. That didn't go anywhere either, because Nokia sold…
The openness of Jolla is an illusion. Sailfish OS is barely open source: sure the core components are but when we move to the UI, you can hardly find any open code there.
Android on the other hand is fully open source.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#114pfffft... the first line shows an extremely limited world view. Plenty of people are creating using smartphones. Sure, no one is programming on a smartphone, but plenty of people are creating art via the cameras and on-device editing tools. And doing so much more spontaneously than when you had to awkwardly carry around a camcorder waiting for inspiration to hit. Similarly, lots of people only use PCs for consumption…
Yes I see people taking pictures with their phones but do you really call this creating art? I think it gives them the _illusion_ that they're creating something, and maybe that makes them happy, but personally I think it's an act of self-delusion, and quite annoying too.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I'm not sure I've seen one that told users to enable root, but from what I've seen of the android malware scene large parts of it rely on users installing software from non-Google sources and their lack of ability in discerning a good app. from malware. (one example of many http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/11/new-type-of-auto-roo...)
That seems to me to illustrate the point of a locked down environment fairly well...
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#116I 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…
> So is a photoalbum, so is a book, so is a TV, so is a music player
Comparing a powerful, expensive, fully programmable computer provided with cameras, GPS, radios with a photoalbum/book/TV is silly.
> They're becoming bigger, more powerful, and some can now be plugged in to monitors
You could plug a Commodore 64 to a television and write software on it, even if its CPU was probably less powerful than the battery controller of my smartphone.
It's obvious that smartphone OSes are designed to turn the device into an addictive toy. Your examples of not owning software and centralization goes on the same line.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#117The irony in this article is, due to the lack of a sensible line width, it is much easier to read on a phone than a PC
I took the CSS from bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com and turned it into a bookmarklet. Works alright at least on this page: https://jsfiddle.net/49uzxkeu/
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#118I 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…
The "asymmetric" way that phones work have tangible drawbacks for consumers, even if they are not power users. However, since the competition in the space is so fierce, I feel confident that it's only a matter of time until the situation improves.
I think in a few years phones will have significant "mesh-net" capabilities and will maintain significant amounts of distributed data using paxos and/or blockchain-style algorithms. It's only a matter of time before the "thin client" and server-driven software era will end.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#119I 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…
> because it's a consumption device rather than both consumption and production, is just silly.
Because it could be something else than just a consumption device (unlike a book or a photo album), as it's technically a general purpose computer. His point makes perfect sense.
Re: Why I don't like smartphones
#120Earlier 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…
I guess the reason is cost. There are times I want to reinstall on older operating system, and Apple seems to go out of their way to make it difficult? In some cases impossible.
Why not please your customers? Give them what they want? I don't even think the average customer would need a TOS of all the negatives using an older operating system brings.
They have a huge war chest. If a customer wants to be on the operating system that came on their device ten years ago; why make it difficult?
Could it be they want us to upgrade/buy regularly? For myself, I don't think I will ever buy another new Apple product. I will still give them as gifts though.