Google Fights Back • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Fights Back

#171

Post by reilly3000 » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:28 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #80

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is already not Google. The "Don't Be Evil" corporation that valued open source rather than open-washing, that valued openstandards over "oops, we didn't mean to break that for you!" isn't here anymore. The company that bends over backwards, much farther than the law requires, to enable the surveillance state. I despise Apple. Especially on mobile. No SDCards, no headphone jack, walled garden app stores. Ugh ug…

I fully switched from Android to iOS when iPhone X came out in November 2017. I realised in the next months that the perceived "freedom to tinker" on Android is something hugely overrated. I could achieve almost everything I wanted on my iPhone -- it just took a bit of time to find the proper apps. Later Apple added the Shortcuts which is a very solid automation app. Many Android users also lament the lack of a visib…

No need to jailbreak. Just dial 3001#12345# for field mode and enjoy the stats!

Re: Google Fights Back

#172

Post by blub » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

darkwizard42 wrote: post #62

falcolas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is also holding the plunger that helped create the dam breakage. Not to mention the pry-bars being applied to any attempts to fix the dam. EDIT: For those who want to downvote, consider that the vast majority of Google's revenue comes from the use of your personal information to target you with ads, and that most of the advances in ad targeting using personal data have been made by Google.

I think you are espousing an "ADS ARE INHERENTLY BAD" mentality that just doesn't resonate with people. I want to know about the best services that are useful for me. I do not want to be advertised women's swimsuits on Instagram (I'm a male with no interest in purchasing said item). When I see ads that are useless its infuriating. However, when I see an ad for Allbirds or a cool new leather jacket, I feel very much i…

"However, when I see an ad for Allbirds or a cool new leather jacket, I feel very much inclined to explore or purchase a product that I will genuinely be happy with"

You've been trained to buy things and don't even realise it. What would happen if you didn't see that ad for the jacket, would you go without clothes? Heck, maybe you'd go visit a store and meet new people. Or you'd save more money.

The whole premise that we need advertising to make us happy is ridiculous.

Re: Google Fights Back

#173

Post by chaostheory » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #80

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is already not Google. The "Don't Be Evil" corporation that valued open source rather than open-washing, that valued openstandards over "oops, we didn't mean to break that for you!" isn't here anymore. The company that bends over backwards, much farther than the law requires, to enable the surveillance state. I despise Apple. Especially on mobile. No SDCards, no headphone jack, walled garden app stores. Ugh ug…

I fully switched from Android to iOS when iPhone X came out in November 2017. I realised in the next months that the perceived "freedom to tinker" on Android is something hugely overrated. I could achieve almost everything I wanted on my iPhone -- it just took a bit of time to find the proper apps. Later Apple added the Shortcuts which is a very solid automation app. Many Android users also lament the lack of a visib…

> Many Android users also lament the lack of a visible filesystem but that's a huge plus in my eyes.

iCloud is accessible as a "filesystem" on iOS. It's a decent compromise that doubles as a dropbox replacement

Re: Google Fights Back

#174

Post by nirvdrum » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

pdimitar wrote: post #146

nirvdrum wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finally gave in and moved back to Android. My wife wanted my Lumia 950 XL and she loves it. She's not going to be pleased when she needs to move to something else. That dedicated camera button is an incredibly nice feature. As for photos, I wouldn't say I take hundreds of gigabytes. The point is I don't want to have an anxiety attack over running out of space where I have low coverage. I can get a 512 GB microSD ca…

Well, I am not a religious technological ecosystem zealot and you'll get no hate from me. Use what serves you best. I recognise that your scenario isn't well-served by Apple. Of course you'll switch.

Same boat here. I'm not with Android because I think the OS is better or because I hate privacy. It's a matter of cost (I think I paid $650 net for my S9+) and lack of hardware options.

I'm preaching to the choir, but it sucks that the only two viable options these days require such huge trade-offs. And that the premium for privacy is so much greater than what typical Android hardware costs.

I'm glad you've been able to find a trade-off that works for you. I'm hoping something changes in this duopoly system we have.

Re: Google Fights Back

#175

Post by pdimitar » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

reilly3000 wrote: post #171

pdimitar wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully switched from Android to iOS when iPhone X came out in November 2017. I realised in the next months that the perceived "freedom to tinker" on Android is something hugely overrated. I could achieve almost everything I wanted on my iPhone -- it just took a bit of time to find the proper apps. Later Apple added the Shortcuts which is a very solid automation app. Many Android users also lament the lack of a visib…

No need to jailbreak. Just dial 3001#12345# for field mode and enjoy the stats!

Nice! Had no idea. Thank you.

Re: Google Fights Back

#176

Post by blub » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:33 PM UTC

phasnox wrote: post #165

Yet another hit piece. It's disgusting how obvious and desperate these are getting. > To put it more succinctly: “Yes, we collect a lot of data. But that data makes amazing things possible.” I don't like Google, but stating that collecting data is bad just because, doesn't sell it for me. Oh, and this refers to data already available to the general public. It makes me wonder if there is something behind. What's the a…

It could be that it's a hit piece concocted by the secretive privacy cabal, still working at their evil plan to hurt people by making them control their private information and at the same time to inconvenience powerful corporations from doing whatever they want.

Re: Google Fights Back

#177

Post by sidyapa » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

Regarding that lady. I am from India and I see 100s of people everyday struggling with this exact problem, unable to read what's written. BUT as awesome the technology is it doesn't solve the advertised problem. The very same people, almost everyone I know/see are above the age of 20 and don't even bother to learn the language when they easily can from the $.01 books available almost everywhere. You can give them a tool but how will you give them the motivation?

Re: Google Fights Back

#178

Post by joefkelley » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

holy_city wrote: post #26

areoform wrote: post #7

Google owns my soul. Their boxes know when I sleep, when I wake, how much I exercise, what I listen to, my innermost thoughts, my chats with loved ones, what I watched on Netflix last night, what my company does, the flu I have at the moment, what the hypochondriac in me looks up in the middle of the night, what I buy, whom I call, what I spend money on, where I spend it... I nominally pay for these services, but I s…

The blatant disregard for privacy is what bothers me the most. Like when I started getting push notifications from Android for my credit card payment with my exact balance due, which they could only have gathered by parsing my emails from the bank. It's easy to resolve that by changing the contact info/settings with the bank, but just the fact that engineers at Google thought users would appreciate having their priva…

Wait, so you trust them to store the email, and parse it for something like spam detection, but not for some smarter feature? What specifically are you concerned about that is a problem with this and not with them having the email in the first place? Sounds like you shouldn't be using Gmail at all tbh.

Re: Google Fights Back

#179

Post by andai » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

loudtieblahblah wrote: post #101

pdimitar wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully switched from Android to iOS when iPhone X came out in November 2017. I realised in the next months that the perceived "freedom to tinker" on Android is something hugely overrated. I could achieve almost everything I wanted on my iPhone -- it just took a bit of time to find the proper apps. Later Apple added the Shortcuts which is a very solid automation app. Many Android users also lament the lack of a visib…

>Many Android users also lament the lack of a visible filesystem but that's a huge plus in my eyes That's awful in my eyes. What's more is my inability to browse that file system without a third party application when i want to simply move files to my computer. The only reason I'm even contemplating the move to iOS, is b/c I have a android based, digital audio player that has 2 SDcard slots that I keep disconnected f…

Now you mention it, the only thing I really do with my filesystem on Android is organize my audio collection. What audio player do you have?

Re: Google Fights Back

#180

Post by ProAm » Wed, May 08, 2019, 7:39 PM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #77

pier25 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Privacy is going to be the most valuable commodity of the 21st century. Pretty bold statement. Can you expand on that?

OP is probably confusing service with commodity, as privacy is not a tangible to be sold or exchanged.

No I did mean commodity, but a personal commodity. Essentially when you are born you are born into a certain level or amount of privacy. And slowly as you age and use technology, everything you wished to remain personal or private is slowly given away or sucked away, stolen, etc.... It's near impossible to remain a private individual in today's world. And privacy is something that once gone you can never get back. So I refer to it as a personal or individual commodity, and these corporations would love nothing more than to take that from you... for in their words "the greater good".

Clearly an opinion piece.