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Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

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Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#571

Post by bb88 »

bjowen wrote: post #551
bb88 wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to look at how badly a company can treat its customers... Incorrect. The easiest way to identify a monopoly is to identify the number of competitors in that space. Google has at least one meaningful competitor to Android -- Apple -- so it can't be a monopoly. Anticompetitive behavior would be illegal, except this isn't anticompetitive, since there is a meaningful competitor…

“Number of competitors in that space” is not unrelated to “and still get away with it.” If this (monopolistic) behaviour could be corrected by competition, why hasn’t competition with Apple corrected it?

You can't have it both ways. A monopoly cannot exist if there is meaningful competition. Last I checked, Apple was still the #1 smart phone manufacturer.

Anti-competitive behavior would be if Google bought up all the manufacturers in China say. And kicking off a developer off the play store doesn't do anything to Apple as far as I can tell.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#572

Post by fulafel »

cameronbrown wrote: post #542
fulafel wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced that other network io is blocked. There seem to even be commercial competition for GCM: https://pushy.me/

It's not when the device is awake or has a wakelock. But since Android's Doze (basically deep sleep battery saving state) GCM is the only service that can wake it up.

I thought the device wakes up from Doze regularly, and then you can poll for the notifications. The SDK docs sound this way too: "While the device is in Doze, apps' access to certain battery-intensive resources is deferred until maintenance windows"

But it seems these maintenance windows aren't frequent enough (every 15 minutes?) for some apps.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#573

Post by MiroF »

zaroth wrote: post #345
ilikehurdles wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are the only options for installing apps "Strict App Store" and "Open App Store"? That's a false dichotomy. Let apple have its app store but remove the restrictions on installing apps from outside of it. If I want to install an apk directly from a publisher's website I should be able to.

Do you suppose those apk’s get to use the full set of iOS APIs and Services and not pay Apple for it?

Yes, I should be able to install whatever I want on the device I own.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#574

Post by MiroF »

ericmay wrote: post #180
oblio wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could just not void the warranty (more or less) for installing apps from other sources. Your mom always uses the App Store, everybody else is happy.

Which sounds fine until your mom hears about this cool App Store from her friend on Facebook, downloads a bunch of crap, and winds up at the Apple Store with Apple having to fix damage caused to her phone. I’m a little less sympathetic with the repairability stuff, but when it comes to the App Store, daddy Apple is doing a job that I want them to do, and changes here are not to my benefit and would make me less likel…

If there's an app that can cause damage to my phone, that is Apple's problem for having an exploit in their sandbox and I would certainly expect them to repair the damage

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#575

Post by ummonk »

cbanek wrote: post #96
javert wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S., phone providers are protected by the government. You can't compete with them. The government has basically granted them fiefs. I feel like cars are great. I don't know where the complaint is there. There is an enormous amount of variety in cars. It's really amazing. Definitely a triumph of capitalism. I also don't really have a problem with banks. There seems to be plenty of options. People mostly just c…

I think the car industry is a racket because they frequently have lots of recalls that affect safety, but they often don't admit it freely. (like the Takata airbag incident) Same for requiring car dealerships, and negotiated pricing. Getting a car serviced for a recall then having to wait for months, possibly while not being able to drive your car can be a real problem. Utilities like cable / internet aren't really p…

Airlines are great. Southwest, Alaska, and JetBlue offer good service at extremely low prices. Aviation travel prices in the US have gone down dramatically over the past several decades. Just don't fly United.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#576

Post by hasseio »

mmathieum wrote: post #561

Hi all, I'm the developer of the app in question. I have regained access to the Google Play Console. Working on publishing the new apps. More details in updated Medium article. Thanks

Can you give us more details? Which icon was hidden? And how?

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#577

Post by JohnBooty »

longblack wrote: post #569
JohnBooty wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: why should anybody have to learn how a computer works? I mean, I do it for a living and I'm glad I know. But I don't really know how bridges, or electric guitars, or cars, or genetic engineering, or oil paintings work. It's awfully gatekeeper-y to insist that computers should be these totally wide-open, unsafe spaces. I mean it's almost exactly like saying people should know how to rebuild an engine…

I like your car engine analogy; car's have the same level of widespread use as computers, yet I would wager a large percentage of people would struggle to perform much in term of car maintenance. Anecdotally, I know a multitude of people who have no idea how their car engine works, so much so they would not know how to check the oil level. As a further point, drivers are (with edge case exceptions) not kept away or l…

It's certainly good to know how a car works, or a computer works.

Recently, I fixed a number of small (non-drivetrain) things on my car and I wish I knew more.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#578

Post by tinus_hn »

Ensorceled wrote: post #182
tinus_hn wrote: post #86

Surprisingly he never mentioned what the actual violation was, nor of him asking what it was.

Did we read the same article? Can you clarify, because he quotes the notifications he received and his appeal?

The notifications are that he violated the ‘deceptive behavior policy’. His appeal is that he is willing to change his behavior.

A reasonable question would be how his app is violating the policy. But he does not ask that, his appeal is that he was not given the chance to clean up his act, so he just should get 1 strike. Which suggests that he is aware how the app is violating the policy.

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#579

Post by oarsinsync »

UnFleshedOne wrote: post #545
oarsinsync wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you manage battery life when multiple apps need to keep its own persistent connections open to its own home server for push notifications? How do you explain this to end users, when even tech-savvy people assume bad-faith when it's pointed out that many APIs are cloud-backed, forgetting the most obvious example of a cloud-backed API that is provided? Or, how does the mobile OS vendor perform any kind of spam p…

Android somehow solves those I think? Unless those solutions are suboptimal?

Android devices with comparable performance characteristics and battery life feature larger batteries than comparable iPhones.

Arguably, iPhones are too thin and light and should be thicker and heavier and thus could have bigger batteries. This doesn't help anyone who already has a phone (and iPhones remain supported for up to 5 years after release - that's a long tail)

Re: Google just deleted my nearly 10-year-old free and open-source Android app

#580

Post by oarsinsync »

jasonlotito wrote: post #523
oarsinsync wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you manage battery life when multiple apps need to keep its own persistent connections open to its own home server for push notifications? How do you explain this to end users, when even tech-savvy people assume bad-faith when it's pointed out that many APIs are cloud-backed, forgetting the most obvious example of a cloud-backed API that is provided? Or, how does the mobile OS vendor perform any kind of spam p…

> How do you manage battery life when multiple apps need to keep its own persistent connections open to its own home server for push notifications? Apple already has extensive experience in this area with macOS. > Or, how does the mobile OS vendor perform any kind of spam protection at all on push notifications if they have to open their notification gateways to absolutely anyone Do they? They could just as easily re…

> Apple already has extensive experience in this area with macOS.

macOS runs on platforms with persistent power and/or significantly larger batteries. The power drain caused by persistent connections is negligible given the size of the battery.

> Do they? They could just as easily require that apps outside the App Store provide their own push notification infrastructure.

This was one of two options - allow apps to manage their own push notifications (which requires apps to maintain persistent connections to external servers) or open up the gateways to anyone (which doesn't). I can't think of a third option, but I'm open to suggestions.

> You act like these things are impossible to overcome.

Nothing is impossible to overcome, but most things require trade-offs. In this case, I see the trade off being battery life vs spam (and that's only if you open up the platform, which is the other trade off - open vs closed platforms)

> People keep saying they are a hardware company. Are they really?

If you've paid attention to any apple earnings reports in the last 2 years, they themselves state they're trying to pivot towards services over hardware, specifically because the hardware market is no longer a major growth market.

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