Apple won't even let me delete auto-downloaded iOS updates anymore. They just download when I'm not paying attention, in the background, and take up anywhere from 500mb to 1gb of hard drive space, forever. Unless of course, I update.
I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
91–100 of 206 posts
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#92When obtaining new apps or devices, you can’t tell if it is a worthwhile investment because it could break in any number of ways. For your money, are you buying 2 weeks of functionality or 5 years of it? It’s not even enough to have a reputable seller because good apps are sold to terrible companies that ruin them later, or the developer just decides to add new money-making schemes later.
It seems that we need more guarantees (legally enforceable, i.e. you said you wouldn’t update your gizmo to do X but you did so I get compensation).
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Simply getting a featurephone for people in their 70s has one huge problem: T9 text input.
The people I know in their 70's don't text, and never have. Is that uncommon?
Probably not uncommon, but not a universal rule either - my grandmother (in her 80s) texts a reasonable amount.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree that there are certainly benefits to auto-updates, but where I tend to dislike them (especially on the phone), is where I have infrequently used apps. To stick with the Uber example, I don't live in a city with Uber, but have it on my phone for when I am. Why do I need to be burdened with using my data to constantly update an app I use once a year. This applies to a lot of apps (airlines, games, etc.). Games…
> burdened with using my data There's usually a setting that forces updates to only download over a Wifi connection.
There is on iOS
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
taxis do that to passengers for some 15years now. and that is only counting the video ads. If you count print you can go back all you want.
The adverts are why I use uber in New York rather than yellow cabs.
If you tap three times on the display it puts it in an accessibility mode which has a simplified interface and...no ads!
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#96>In 2016, when I got a new phone, the default setting changed and I would just wake up to my device stating, "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". I turned off auto-updates on my phone. So this happened. Last year or so I traveled to SF and tried to call an Uber home after a long day of walking around. My phone had 5% battery left. I opened the app and there it was... The maps and everything showed up, but then it…
Step 1: find a nearby cafe (the mermaid one should do just fine). Step 2: ask someone for a charger and meanwhile use the wifi to update the app, also buy something from the cafe Step 3: enjoy the thing you bought for a bit while your phone charges and you now have a place to wait your Uber without freezing in the rain
You can say the same thing with people being pissed off about forced Windows updates that got in their way: They could go make a coffee. I might have made it more dramatic than it really was, but forced updates do make people upset.
At least I don't have that problem with my Linux computer and I love it. It works exactly when I expect it to, and it updates exactly when I expect it to.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#97>In 2016, when I got a new phone, the default setting changed and I would just wake up to my device stating, "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". I turned off auto-updates on my phone. So this happened. Last year or so I traveled to SF and tried to call an Uber home after a long day of walking around. My phone had 5% battery left. I opened the app and there it was... The maps and everything showed up, but then it…
I've uninstalled around 10 free to play games and apps that Windows 10 installed without asking in the past 6 months, so I'm not sure those slashdot people should be using windows as a good example of having control either despite that 30 years of backward compatibility. :)
Technically they're not installed, those are just shortcuts to install them.
The issue isn't really one of backward compatibility but software design and function. As far as I know, Android maintains API compatibility all the way back to API v1. A simple app, like the calculator, written in API v1 should run on the latest Oreo device.
An app requires a remote service to function must maintain compatibility with that service to function. The trouble is compatibility updates and feature updates aren't delivered separately. So you can't avoid new features if a service compatibility prevents your old version of the app from functioning.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#98Auto Updates without user interaction is the biggest security benefit I can think of for a normal user. Yes you read that right. It's f*cking great that my parents can use an always up to date browser and OS and I don't need to worry if they have updated all their stuff. Update mechanisms like for Java and other stuff which pop-up and require user interaction are a thing most people will not get right. Actually I rea…
Auto Updates without user interaction is the biggest security benefit I can think of for a normal user. Auto updates are a great security benefit, yes. So it's a shame so many companies shit all over auto updates by rolling out poorly tested changes that introduce new problems, and similar behaviour that motivates users to disable auto updates.
Agreed. You should be able to get automated security updates and optional feature updates.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#99>In 2016, when I got a new phone, the default setting changed and I would just wake up to my device stating, "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". I turned off auto-updates on my phone. So this happened. Last year or so I traveled to SF and tried to call an Uber home after a long day of walking around. My phone had 5% battery left. I opened the app and there it was... The maps and everything showed up, but then it…
I agree with you. But.. > "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". is an interesting choice of example. The anger at updates only really makes sense for apps that are entirely local to your hardware. As soon as you have an app where part of it runs on a server that you don't control, that logic goes out the window. They can stop your non-updated app from working with no effort, just by making the server API incompati…
It didn't have to end up that way. The data is behind a cloud API because data is a source of power and the API is a control point. Whatever data the uber app needs could have been on his phone or in a cdn close to his phone or in a cloud computer operating on the user's behalf instead of for Uber. The balance of power has shifted asymmetrically towards centralized entities, but it does not mean that is the only possible solution. It is mostly a history lesson to understand why the balance today is what it is. It could have been different. Humans made all this stuff, there's no laws of nature saying software distributed systems only work if a megacorp is positioned in the center of it. Consider the world wide web.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#100If there are enough people that don't want stuff to happen, it won't happen. Unfortunately you are in a minority. People do have power and choice.
That is a statement I would really love for you to investigate the validity of, because there is nothing in the real world that supports that as a universal claim. If an industry has an established pattern and the only people who want that pattern to change have no influence (for instance, "not buying a cell phone" is not an option, whether you live in the US or rural Vietnam) then it doesn't matter how many people "want" that change, they have no leverage to effect it.