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Android 10

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Re: Android 10

#471

Post by criddell »

kbenson wrote: post #393
criddell wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why they would do a default unencrypted messaging service today.

Probably because the spec started all the way back in 2008, and you could revise it yet again, even though almost nobody is currently supporting it, or you can get it out and improve the situation for many people, even though it's not perfect. I imagine pushing for an extension to support encryption might be a lot easier if there's actual uses to call for it. Given that Google has started rolling it out with a fallba…

> I imagine pushing for an extension to support encryption might be a lot easier if there's actual uses to call for it.

That's letting Google off the hook. Nobody knows better about the level of surveillance users are under. Encryption should be feature #1. For them to roll out an unencrypted service borders on malpractice. Luckily for them, software engineers aren't licensed.

> Google has started rolling it out with a fallback to Google servers

Even though Google may not be the most trustworthy company, I trust them far, far more than my ISP and cell company. If I could choose which back end I want to be on, I would choose Google's, especially if that meant messages would be end-to-end encrypted within that sphere.

Re: Android 10

#472

Post by thekyle »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #421
thekyle wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I recently purchased the Nokia 7.1 on eBay ($200) and it does everything I need in a phone and has nice build quality. I feel that there aren't really many applications that utilize the powerful hardware of modern flagships, so I don't see why I should pay the premium for it.

Depends on what you do with your phone. I noticed that even mobile web pages often lag on my 3-year-old (Snapdragon 820) phone. I noticed that most native apps lag on a 4-year-old Galaxy S6. I'm not sure how well new mid-low tier phones do.

That's interesting. My old phone was the OnePlus 3 (I used it up until a few days ago) and it had a Snapdragon 820 running Lineage OS Pie. I can't say I really noticed webpages lagging too bad but I use Firefox with uBlock Origin so that could be it.

Re: Android 10

#473

Post by mrguyorama »

ansible wrote: post #427
kalleboo wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way that hardware firmware on the CPU(?!) is what's holding back Android updates.

Yes and no. If you're not getting updates from the chip vendor, you're going to have a hard time moving to later version of Linux, for example. It would cost a lot of money to port new software to the platform, and then the question is... who's going to pay for it? If everyone still using a Nexus 5X chips in $50 USD to fund continued development, then maybe that could continue. But it is easier at some point to just…

The phone originally sold for $400. Is that really not enough money to fund software development for 4 years or more?

Re: Android 10

#474

Post by mrguyorama »

nudpiedo wrote: post #467
derrikcurran wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I doubt anyone wants to read white text on a black background. I do! Much less eye strain and easier to read for me. In fact, I read your comment in white text on a black background. My eyes are very sensitive to light in general though.

I hope you know that black color light doesn’t mean less light.

That's not how light from a screen works

Re: Android 10

#475

Post by penagwin »

mrguyorama wrote: post #473
ansible wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. If you're not getting updates from the chip vendor, you're going to have a hard time moving to later version of Linux, for example. It would cost a lot of money to port new software to the platform, and then the question is... who's going to pay for it? If everyone still using a Nexus 5X chips in $50 USD to fund continued development, then maybe that could continue. But it is easier at some point to just…

The phone originally sold for $400. Is that really not enough money to fund software development for 4 years or more?

And more to your point - The iPhone 7 is currently 450$ brand new and is nearly 3 years old. Not only has it received feature updates for those 3 years, but all it's predecessors down to the 5S have been receiving feature updates (ends this year unfortunately) - we should be able to expect the iPhone 7 to at least get another year or two of feature updates.

Re: Android 10

#476

Post by ModsCtrlideas »

dkonofalski wrote: post #332
ModsCtrlideas wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'll bite. Why is Apple harmful to capitalism? If you have an actual argument for that point, why is harm to capitalism a bad thing?

Less competition is bad for most people.i suppose it's a utilitarian viewpoint.

Re: Android 10

#477

Post by wyldfire »

ubercow13 wrote: post #462
wyldfire wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a subtle point, but I would describe "end to end" as covering the humans on both ends. Your WhatsApp client on your phone participates in the key regeneration and/or key update without user interaction. WhatsApp's default UI configuration doesn't notify anyone about key changes. Defaults matter, defaults for secure software matters extra. Nearly no one enables this notification feature. And even if they did, the…

What do you mean regarding old messages? I thought whatsapp didn’t store any old messages and chat history only existed on your device?

It does only exist on your device. Sadly, the WhatsApp client will receive a message from WhatsApp backend: "Fred Smith got a new phone and you should trust this new public key from Fred because I say so. Fred would love to have all the context so please re-send the old messages but encrypted with this new key." The WhatsApp client helpfully complies and hopes that Fred really did get a new phone and it's not Eve who somehow tricked WhatsApp into believing she was Fred. Or maybe WhatsApp was compelled by a lawful order to make it look as if Fred got a new phone.

The WhatsApp client never requests or even informs the user that this event took place. Though it is possible to change the config opt-in to get informed whether this occurred, it is not possible to deny the request for old messages.

Re: Android 10

#478

Post by MattSayar »

nineteen999 wrote: post #304
shpx wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Pixel 1 XL has a good camera and you can buy a used one for under $200.

Not to mention they are still getting updates, I'm installing Android 10 now.

Does it still get regular security updates as well? I read they stop those after a couple years as well.

Re: Android 10

#479

Post by shuckles »

kbenson wrote: post #447
shuckles wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does release date matter? Apple could re-release an old phone in a new package, as it did with SE, and qualify for your pricing comparison.

Because if I bought a new phone last year, why would I want to spend money to buy a new phone now that's worse than what I already had? Telling someone to buy an iPhone because of this is pretentious. Telling them to buy an iPhone that may be worse performance wise than their current phone is way worse.

It seems like in your original post, you were saying that iPhone was not a good value. Yet the A series chips consistently outperform Snapdragon by years, and software support for iPhone probably means a years old model has more official life than a latest Android.

I don’t think the reply was suggesting you get a new phone specifically. They were responding to your claim that iPhone is on face not a good value.

Re: Android 10

#480

Post by kbenson »

Mindwipe wrote: post #461
kbenson wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you install WhatsApp and I don't, and you send a message to my number what happens? I know what happens with SMS and RCS (which falls back to SMS), which is that it works, because every phone has it. If WhatsApp doesn't just work, then it's at a severe disadvantage any way you look at it. Coordinating the 10 people in my family group to not only install a new app, but choose it the next time they want to send a me…

> If you install WhatsApp and I don't, and you send a message to my number what happens? You can't, WhatsApp will only let you send to numbers that also have WhatsApp installed. There's an "invite friends" sharesheet that will send a signup URL, but that's it. > If WhatsApp doesn't just work, then it's at a severe disadvantage any way you look at it. Ultimately WhatsApp has won in most of the world, so this clearly i…

> You can't, WhatsApp will only let you send to numbers that also have WhatsApp installed.

That's my point. It's a very substandard experience for initial contact to SMS, which is ubiquitous.

> Ultimately WhatsApp has won in most of the world, so this clearly isn't that big of a problem.

Compared to SMS, WhatsApp is almost nothing. And given that maybe 2-3 people in my family group might have it installed, "won most of the world" is irrelevant for me, and probably most groups of any size or with people over 30, as there's likely to be a few people without it.

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