121–130 of 211 posts
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You're upset about them requiring hardware attestation in SafetyNet (I am too) so you move to a platform that is way less flexible and way more closed? Not a troll, I'm really curious.
In my case I am stuck with a spare phone on android 8 since they banned wireless scanning from 9 onwards. it's a matter of functionality over perceived security. fed up with google. will check out the PinePhone
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Wouldn't the solution be to allow people who have legitimately unlocked their boot loader to also install a custom attestation root so that safety net can still say “the software running on this phone is the software the user intended and not a malicious 3rd party”? Or maybe safety net is not so much about user safety as it is about platform lockdown and vendor safety. The number of times I’ve been laughed out of a p…
Bootloader unlock is under user control by definition - it won't happen unless you're physically interacting with the device. The legitimate case for safety net is platform lockdown for things like financial apps. Banks and other financial services like to provide some form of insurance to users wrt. losing money in a security breach, and they can't do this unless the app really is being run on a pristine, locked-dow…
I'm mostly worried about Termux. I can't imagine a phone without a decent terminal and I feel my options are going to be severely limited.
What sorts of uses do you have on a phone where a terminal is useful?
Half-jokes aside, keep in mind you can use small Bluetooth keyboards and get a micro-laptopish experience, or connect the phone to a monitor or TV and use a large Bluetooth keyboard to get a more desktop-like experience.
I imagine a terminal could work very well in those settings, if you need one.
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This is largely due to a limitation of Android itself. If your app wants to do any sort of background task that's not tied to Google Cloud Messaging, it needs to setup those background tasks. When your phone reboots, those tasks are cleared. Many apps use the "run at startup" permission to receive a notification from the system when startup has completed. It doesn't actually mean the app is running in the background.
Oh, I see. I was under the impression that these "Run at startup" apps were using the opportunity to check-in, report telemetry, and the evil ones to start GPS tracking.
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> at the same time regain my sanity from battery life, slowness and absurd support timelines If the phone had bad battery life or was slow to begin with, don't buy it. If it doesn't and it suddenly appears while you're using it... that's user error. Support: I'm really not sure what kind of support you're expecting, I assume not "how do I take a screenshot" kind of support. I once returned a phone for warranty but th…
For the support I meant the security and OS patches X years after the phone released. My wife iPhone 6s is still receiving iOS update at this time. Now try that with most expensive Android flagship. I don’t care if it comes from Samsung LG or Google I could always argue against you!
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Bootloader unlock is under user control by definition - it won't happen unless you're physically interacting with the device. The legitimate case for safety net is platform lockdown for things like financial apps. Banks and other financial services like to provide some form of insurance to users wrt. losing money in a security breach, and they can't do this unless the app really is being run on a pristine, locked-dow…
> Banks and other financial services like to provide some form of insurance to users wrt. losing money in a security breach, and they can't do this unless the app really is being run on a pristine, locked-down platform. This seems like a weird policy, though. I can access my bank via a web browser on a desktop computer, which is certainly not even remotely a "pristine, locked-down platform".
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The security changes are nice and needed so well done. Enforcing SafetyNet is probably also a net positive change, and you (and I) are a minority among the general user base. Sadly this was always coming, it was nice while it lasted, I guess. I'm not quite sure what I will do once my current phone dies. I don't see myself investing in the Apple ecosphere, so either go with the time (do nothing) or have a second phone…
> Enforcing SafetyNet is probably also a net positive change How so? How does SafetyNet make any end-user even slightly more secure?
It does provide major benefits to app makers who hope to control the user's device.
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I managed to get VS Code (as code-server) running natively and dotnet running on my Android tablet. It makes it a nice little development machine. Basically anything Android native is horrible for developers; you can't even get a decent IDE or text editor. You still don't have source control, web servers, programming languages, etc. Termux with a few addons gives you all that. I wish Google would recognize the value…
I am happy with Shader Editor and C# Shell, though. For anything better I use a proper laptop.
I'm mostly worried about Termux. I can't imagine a phone without a decent terminal and I feel my options are going to be severely limited.
What sorts of uses do you have on a phone where a terminal is useful?
* rsync (backups, pulling audio files, pushing pictures)
* vim
* git/hg (all my notes live in a repo)
* random scripts (ex. When I was losing weight, I tracked calories with some shell scripts. I also have one that uses root and /system/bin/input to automate things.)
I'm mostly worried about Termux. I can't imagine a phone without a decent terminal and I feel my options are going to be severely limited.
The option is simple although tiresome, reimplement it in Android Java or Kotlin, instead of trying to pretend Android is Linux, given that POSIX or Linux specific calls aren't even part of NDK Stable APIs documentation. Any app that access the Linux features directly just works out of luck, given that there are no compatibility guarantees.
It's literally a Linux system. I mean, yeah, Android/Linux isn't GNU/Linux, but there's literally a Linux kernel under there and it's certainly usable enough with termux or such providing a saner userland.