Essential Phone, available now • Hacker News Board

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#391

Post by kllrnohj » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 8:59 PM UTC

git-pull wrote: post #85

I admire the gumption of making a new phone. But controlled obsolescence kills me. The real feature that improves in phones the past few years for me is the software and apps, not the hardware . My wishlist: - Give me a lighter, snappier OS. Not something clunkier and slower and uses more ram, gpu/cpu (aka battery life). - Actually support updates to the things for longer than 2-3 years. - (Not related to this phone)…

> Give me a lighter, snappier OS. Not something clunkier and slower and uses more ram, gpu/cpu (aka battery life).

The apps you[1] install are what use up all your RAM & battery. The OS itself is light, fast, and efficient.

[1] Well, that either you installed yourself or that your carrier/oem "helpfully" bundled for you.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#392

Post by busterarm » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:00 PM UTC

jensv wrote: post #384

busterarm wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? I need my phone to do three things: 1) Make and receive calls & texts. 2) Run a small number of ubiquitous apps (maps, ride hailing) 3) Not get hacked at DEFCON. Phones with the Apple logo on the back do this job best. Their security posture is just so much better and you don't have carrier-enforced forced obsolescence from the software side. You literally can always run the latest iOS until the hardware _just…

Don't forget about Blackberry! :P

New Blackberries are Android though.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#393

Post by Jaepa » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:00 PM UTC

throwaway613834 wrote: post #336

dmoy wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security update for one. Idk about 1-2 years, but if it doesn't get security updates I'm not getting email/sms/etc on it

But your email app will still get updates right? (I guess I'm using Gmail and assuming you are using something like it that gets updates too, but maybe I'm wrong.) Same with SMS - lots of apps that get updates. What's the exact issue?

Most will, some will drop support after its X major release behind. But that's not really the issue, the underlying system has a lot of security issues (as all complex systems do).

So just for 2017 there are:

- 326 code execution vulnerabilities

- 221 memory overflow bugs

- 114 memory corruption issues

- 309 privilege escalation bugs

http://www.cvedetails.com/product/19997/Google-Android.html?...

Granted, I'm sure a lot of these CVE are very low risk, and some are duplicates (because CVE). But there were a couple of notable really bad security issues. But this is just the Android, not all the of dependencies Android has.

StageFright was already mentions, and there has been a couple of iterations of this already, stemming from different bugs in a parsing library used with MMS. Included in this is a remote code execution and an privilege escalation.

Another fun one is Broadpwn, which is rather new one and was disclosed as BlackHat US this year. Its effects both iOS and Android and can be wormed trivially. It targets a widely used Broadcomm wifi chipset, and does not require _any_ user interaction. A malformed SSID broadcast allows for remote code execution. And when I say any user interaction, you can walk by something broadcasting this and you're infected.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#394

Post by haskal » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:00 PM UTC

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #367

maxaf wrote: post #25

Why would I spend $700+ on a phone with a dubious fate when I can spend $230 on a Moto G5 Plus and have Lineage OS running on it in no time, for a long time?

What exactly is Lineage OS? Their website is pretty hostile towards anyone trying to answer that question easily. The about page consists solely of two definitions of 'lineage', neither of which is a cutesy reference to the project.

It is what CyanogenMod used to be under a new name because CM got sold: https://liliputing.com/2016/12/cyanogenmod-dead-lineage-will...

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#395

Post by veeti » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:02 PM UTC

throwaway613834 wrote: post #379

tinus_hn wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just make sure not to open any videos from the internet. Hardly an issue!

> Just make sure not to open any videos from the internet. Hardly an issue! What? Chrome and Firefox protect against it [1]... do you not use either? [1] https://www.howtogeek.com/225834/stagefright-what-you-need-t...

The app-level "mitigation" is that media isn't automatically loaded. You are still just as vulnerable after you decide to play that innocuous-looking MP4 file.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#396

Post by rconti » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:02 PM UTC

martin_bech wrote: post #51

nicktelford wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They stated 2 years OS updates, 3 years monthly security updates in the blog post.

Its scary that this is impressive for Android, while still 2+ years less than ios. (iPhone 5s will get ios 11)

Yup, that grabbed my attention, too (so much so that I find a find-in-page for "2 years"). I had no idea things were that bad.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#397

Post by rconti » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:03 PM UTC

0xbear wrote: post #46

Now we'll know exactly how many Andy Rubin fanboys there are in the world. Why would anyone else buy a $700+ phone from a startup which might not even be there next year? My prediction: a few tens of thousand units will be sold mostly in the US, darn near zero anywhere else.

It's an Android phone. Why do I care if the manufacturer is still there a year later?

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#398

Post by rconti » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:04 PM UTC

wodenokoto wrote: post #371

I never buy phones on contract and I don't live in the states, so it can sometimes be hard to compare prices. But isn't this a fairly similar price to a similar iPhone/Pixel/Galaxy ? I mean, isn't this the price range for a premium phone and isn't this premium specced? Except for the silly "Everybody should be able to afford craftsmanship" line, I am having a hard time understanding why people are flipping out about…

Yes, it's a premium phone that's premium-priced, same as the competition. I don't quite get it either.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#399

Post by dkonofalski » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:05 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #261

archagon wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Removing useful features: Progress™!

As an Apple fan... I'm fine with it. I just kept adapters on the ends of my two pairs of headphones and it wasn't an issue. Then I got AirPods (any good BT headphones would work) and care even less . I was a tiny bit worried, but it ended up being a non-issue for me.

Same. I also really, really like the AirPods. It's gotten to the point where sometimes I forget they're in my ears and it feels like the music is just playing in my head. It's a really weird but exciting feeling for me.

Re: Essential Phone, available now

#400

Post by tjoff » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 9:07 PM UTC

davemp wrote: post #310

tjoff wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just buy a usb hub instead?

That's kind of clunky and may cause issues with multiplexing high bandwidth protocols like monitors.

Clunky in the face of connecting monitors and many peripherals?

If anything it would make it way easier.