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Android P

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Re: Android P

#141

Post by chrisweekly »

wpietri wrote: post #21

Very nice. I am especially excited about these features: > App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. > Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want. I a…

your comment reminded me of a terrific article I came across a couple years ago, was thinking "ethical apps"... but that's not it... searched for hippocratic oath software, oh yeah -- Tristan Harris (ex-Googler) and "Time Well Spent" and Humane Tech https://humanetech.com/

(ironic that the website renders poorly on my iPhone given the mission and creds of its founder, but I digress)

The article I first read was https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/the-bin...

Recommended reading.

Re: Android P

#142

Post by taneq »

dmitrygr wrote: post #129
taneq wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is a perfect example of the bait-and-switch: Location now goes through Google's location services, so you're not saying "FindMyKeysApp may use my GPS location", you're saying "FindMyKeysApp AND GOOGLE may use my GPS location." For most apps (unless I'm wrong?) there's no way to let the app use my location without it going through Google's location services and sending data back to the Borg Cube.

go to settings, gps mode, select "always high accuracy" presto - no google - only actual GPS signals used. But good luck - you'll see just how terrible GPS is indoors and in urban canyons. Without wifi and BLE augmentation it truly sucks.

There's two issues here:

1) Using visible WiFi networks to determine location sends data to Google to use their geolocation database. Your suggestion here does stop this (assuming you meant to DE-select "always high accuracy" and instead select "device only" which uses the GPS without sending any data offboard.)

2) Google pushes the use of Google Play location services API over Android's location services system API. These services don't work unless you grant Google Play Services permission to use your location. Since Google Play Services also needs network access, you effectively have to grant Google access to your location in order to use any location services whatsoever in any application.

It's the second point to which I was referring in my post above.

Re: Android P

#143

Post by Lunatic666 »

taneq wrote: post #114
airlocksoftware wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Location tracking requires specific permission from the user, not as part of installation. I think you're a bit out of date. https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/deve...

And this is a perfect example of the bait-and-switch: Location now goes through Google's location services, so you're not saying "FindMyKeysApp may use my GPS location", you're saying "FindMyKeysApp AND GOOGLE may use my GPS location." For most apps (unless I'm wrong?) there's no way to let the app use my location without it going through Google's location services and sending data back to the Borg Cube.

You could use microg, then nothing goes to Google. https://lineage.microg.org – This together with yalp gives you a good experience and keeps you private.

Re: Android P

#144

Post by bkanber »

davidmanescu wrote: post #80

Adaptive Brightness: "solving a problem that's been solved numerous times, but this time using machine learning"

Eh, I find that the current adaptive brightness works very poorly. Sometimes slight shifts in my sitting or holding angle will cause the screen to dim.

Re: Android P

#145

Post by lern_too_spel »

untog wrote: post #132
lern_too_spel wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't use them. Unlike in iOS, you can replace all those apps with other apps that you prefer. No rooting or jailbreaking required. If you don't like Google Assistant, you can use Alexa or Cortana or something entirely different. If you don't like Siri on iOS, tough luck. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/7/17328758/amazon-alexa-defa...

Not true these days. If you want to use location, the app has to use Google Location Services. No matter what the final app is.

No need for Google Location Services unless you want to access Google's location data. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/pac...

Re: Android P

#146

Post by dyarosla »

dvcrn wrote: post #140
wpietri wrote: post #21

Very nice. I am especially excited about these features: > App Timer lets you set time limits on apps, and will nudge you when you’re close to your limit and then gray out the icon to remind you of your goal. > Wind Down will switch on Night Light when it gets dark, and it will turn on Do Not Disturb and fade the screen to grayscale at your chosen bedtime to help you remember to get to sleep at the time you want. I a…

I hope some of these things make it into iOS at some point too! Especially the greyscale stuff sounds great

Apple is known to shamelessly copy features that work and are consumer friendly- I have no doubt that they'll be keeping a close eye on how consumers respond to these updates.

Re: Android P

#147

Post by untog »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #145
untog wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true these days. If you want to use location, the app has to use Google Location Services. No matter what the final app is.

No need for Google Location Services unless you want to access Google's location data. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/location/pac...

You as a developer, yes. But you as a user have no choice if the developer has decided to use Google Location Services.

Re: Android P

#148

Post by balladeer »

airlocksoftware wrote: post #96
angry_octet wrote: post #51

Lots of slick UI stuff, but no meaningful updates to things that are well overdue: - Encryption of specific secrets for each app. - Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. - Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc). - Ad and js blocking capable browser. Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, all…

Location tracking requires specific permission from the user, not as part of installation. I think you're a bit out of date. https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/deve...

I think commenter was pointing that an Android app can fetch location even from the background (albeit w/ limits on frequency due to power consumption). It just needs to get that one Location permission from the user.

iOS has a fine-grained permission setting for this - you can decide whether to allow the app to access location or not when it's not in foreground, i.e "While Using the App".

Re: Android P

#149

Post by balladeer »

smilekzs wrote: post #111
angry_octet wrote: post #51

Lots of slick UI stuff, but no meaningful updates to things that are well overdue: - Encryption of specific secrets for each app. - Fine grained control of what information is shared with apps. - Ability to selectively deny particular data (and have the app keep working, e.g by giving it an empty contacts list, fake phone ID, etc). - Ad and js blocking capable browser. Why should installing e.g. the facebook app, all…

Denying / delivering fake data is #1 on my wishlist. Wechat (and pretty much all apps from China) needs to have absolutely minimum permissions. Currently I have to put them on a separate phone...

It was hard (and in some cases it still is) but I have started to just not the use apps and services that need blanket permissions. Like I didn't have TrueCaller on my phone until I moved to iOS where it surprisingly works w/o Contact permission. The last time I had checked it would simply refuse to work on Android w/o Contact permission. And I didn't give Uber location permission till it started to ask for "While Using the App" permission. Until then I used to manually enter the address.

Similarly, I have decided not to use many Dropbox apps that need R/W permission to entire Dropbox instead of any one folder that I can choose.

I think we kind of need to show these apps and services their place, so to speak.

Re: Android P

#150

Post by esaym »

About 18 months ago I bought a Samsung S6 off of ebay new in a box for $250. Was actually my first "real" smart phone. I've liked it quite a bit but was disappointed at them taking 8+ months to bring android updates. I was thinking I might get Oreo this August or so. But then I just learned that they've (Sumsung) discontinued all S6 support. So now I guess I'm screwed.

I really liked the samsung health app and the built in heart monitor. And I use samsung pay. I don't think any other phone has this and I would like to stay with samsung. But as I sit here and type this on a desktop running Debian that I built in 2008... I really can't support a company that thinks their hardware is only good for 3 years before you need to throw it in the trash.

Any tips? I don't really want to root and load a rom (and plus that would make me loose samsung pay and wifi calling I think).

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