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Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

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Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#121
post #65

We need more transparency from companies, this time it was a 'bug' that was visible to the end user (hey! who turned on power saving?). Would Google go public if they also develop a 'bug' that is not visible easily by the user or if it was not discovered by anybody but them? Like a 'bug' that changes certs temporarily to intercept your encrypted traffic or uploads random data elsewhere, etc?

You can avoid all of this by using an iPhone. Apple's business model does not involve ad revenue or data collection. Your data is collected but is used purely to improve the iPhone. Your data is intentionally obfuscated for privacy. For an example of Apple's strict policy, check out this article on Apple Maps: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-maps-f...

From "Guardians of Truth"[0]:

> This is why I've always insisted, for example, that if you're going to start talking about "AI ethics", you had better be talking about how you are going to improve on the current situation using AI, rather than just keeping various things from going wrong. Once you adopt criteria of mere comparison, you start losing track of your ideals—lose sight of wrong and right, and start seeing simply "different" and "same".

[0]: https://www.lesswrong.com/s/M3TJ2fTCzoQq66NBJ/p/etBrzxdfNop3...

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#122
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that Google has brought Android to ChromeOS and not the other way around, that Fuchsia is based on Flutter and not ChromeOS UI, and all the corpses of Web based OSes all the way back to Web Widgets Runtime on Symbian is quite telling about the performance of web UIs on phone hardware.

As far as Flutter vs ChromeOS UI, I think it makes sense because of how Flutter works and how much success it's seen being used on android/iOS which reflects how much work they put into it. Flutter literally draws every pixel on the screen, and they put their army of engineers to work on rebuilding native interfaces in android[0]/iOS[1] to replicate their interfaces. The amount of control that flutter gives them is p…

>Also I want to point out that rendering and performance of web UIs could be good on phone hardware, the native implementations just have to want that to be the case.

So that raises the question why Google, the king of the web, wouldn't want it.

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#124
post #65

We need more transparency from companies, this time it was a 'bug' that was visible to the end user (hey! who turned on power saving?). Would Google go public if they also develop a 'bug' that is not visible easily by the user or if it was not discovered by anybody but them? Like a 'bug' that changes certs temporarily to intercept your encrypted traffic or uploads random data elsewhere, etc?

> We need more transparency from companies

Yes. Best way to achieve it is to get Linux running on smartphones, finally, so we can manage our own updates.

(By the way, I'm not looking forward to an era of selfdriving cars which are updated remotely behind the back of the user.)

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#125
post #65

We need more transparency from companies, this time it was a 'bug' that was visible to the end user (hey! who turned on power saving?). Would Google go public if they also develop a 'bug' that is not visible easily by the user or if it was not discovered by anybody but them? Like a 'bug' that changes certs temporarily to intercept your encrypted traffic or uploads random data elsewhere, etc?

You can avoid all of this by using an iPhone. Apple's business model does not involve ad revenue or data collection. Your data is collected but is used purely to improve the iPhone. Your data is intentionally obfuscated for privacy. For an example of Apple's strict policy, check out this article on Apple Maps: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-maps-f...

> Your data is collected but is used purely to improve the iPhone. Your data is intentionally obfuscated for privacy.

As per Apple.

I see no reason to trust Apple any more I trust Google. Especially in the context of Snowden's disclosures of tech giants collusion under the Prism program. What they say is only remotely related to what they actually do.

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#126
post #65

We need more transparency from companies, this time it was a 'bug' that was visible to the end user (hey! who turned on power saving?). Would Google go public if they also develop a 'bug' that is not visible easily by the user or if it was not discovered by anybody but them? Like a 'bug' that changes certs temporarily to intercept your encrypted traffic or uploads random data elsewhere, etc?

You can avoid all of this by using an iPhone. Apple's business model does not involve ad revenue or data collection. Your data is collected but is used purely to improve the iPhone. Your data is intentionally obfuscated for privacy. For an example of Apple's strict policy, check out this article on Apple Maps: https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/29/apple-is-rebuilding-maps-f...

> You can avoid all of this by using an iPhone.

Not really. https://www.apple.com/lae/iphone-battery-and-performance/

> Apple's business model does not involve ad revenue or data collection.

I fail to see how ad revenue and data collection has anything to do with battery saving mode.

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#127
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that Google has brought Android to ChromeOS and not the other way around, that Fuchsia is based on Flutter and not ChromeOS UI, and all the corpses of Web based OSes all the way back to Web Widgets Runtime on Symbian is quite telling about the performance of web UIs on phone hardware.

As far as Flutter vs ChromeOS UI, I think it makes sense because of how Flutter works and how much success it's seen being used on android/iOS which reflects how much work they put into it. Flutter literally draws every pixel on the screen, and they put their army of engineers to work on rebuilding native interfaces in android[0]/iOS[1] to replicate their interfaces. The amount of control that flutter gives them is p…

Flutter original team started with former Chrome engineers and one of the first design decisions was to drop the Web UI concepts.

If I am not mistaken it was Timothy Jordan that explained it on an interview.

So Google, the company pushing Web UIs, including PWAs in collaboration with Microsoft, still thinks they aren't worthwhile to be the default stack on their devices.

Apple and Microsoft also have UI stacks where JavaScript has first class support (TVML and UWP) and like Flutter, completely dropped the DOM.

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a broken record at this point, but I'll say it again until I'm convinced I'm wrong -- FirefoxOS did great but was tragically mishandled. I'm 100% a FFOS stan ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_(person)#%22Stan%22_fans ) but it absolutely could have (and did) work -- they just fumbled the execution and 0 executives took responsibility (as per usual). While I appreciate Mozilla's recent exploits like the IoT Gatew…

I installed FFOS on my Nexus 4, and everything I needed from a phone, TOTP/SMS/Calling/Internet just worked. I even added SSH, nginx, and ran a webserver off it. I'm hoping for KDE Connect to come through. I want seemless integration from a mobile device to a desktop. A girl can dream

The only problem would be my banking app, which is pretty crucial.

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#129
post #4

This happened to me today! I was using my phone and then it went all weird with no haptic feedback when typing. I finally figured out that battery saver was on and disabled it... This really bothers me... I am starting to think we need a truly open source phone. That is hardware and software. like GNU/phone or something. We must have full control over our hardware and software! Viva La Gnu! (no clue what this actuall…

Totally agree. I'd even buy one if the hardware was 5x thicker and heavier.

But I think what we really need is the smartphone-equivalent of the IBM PC.

It would allow anybody to develop a nice OS.

And with emulators you could still run Android/iOS apps.

Re: Google activated battery saving mode on multiple phones, then rolled it back

#130
post #65

We need more transparency from companies, this time it was a 'bug' that was visible to the end user (hey! who turned on power saving?). Would Google go public if they also develop a 'bug' that is not visible easily by the user or if it was not discovered by anybody but them? Like a 'bug' that changes certs temporarily to intercept your encrypted traffic or uploads random data elsewhere, etc?

"Location collecting bug" was a favorite twice, last time not that long ago.
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