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Google have declared Droidscript is malware

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451–460 of 665 posts

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#451
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the issues that termux has hit, they're certainly moving that way. https://github.com/termux/termux-packages/wiki/Termux-and-An...

Only because Termux developers refuse to use Java APIs and don't accept Android isn't a POSIX clone.

Android certainly has an acceptable POSIX component when it's not artificially broken.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#452
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem with "alternative" platforms is just the lack of app support. I used to have a Nokia N9; great phone. But it didn't support WhatsApp and I was out on the loop on the WhatsApp chat all my other coworkers were in. Then there's things like banking apps, flight check-in apps, food ordering apps, dating apps, etc. etc. Can you do without those? Sure, of course. But if I want to order food where I live…

I dream of a dual phone (conceptually 2 phones glued back to back) where you do web and open stuff on one side, and the inevitable proprietary apps on googled-android on the other side, with a quick button to freeze the prop side (for power saving and mitigating spying). (Or same where the 2 phones are somewhat multiplexed on a single screen, preferably in hardware.)

You can do it on Pinephone with two different independent operating systems, one on the eMMC storage and the other on the microSD card. When you put in the microSD card, the devices boots from it. Otherwise it boots from the internal storage.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#453
post #14

I had to go look to see what this was: "DroidScript is an easy to use, portable coding tool which simplifies mobile App development. It dramatically improves productivity by speeding up development by as much as 10x compared with using the standard development tools. It’s also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, you can literally code anywhere with DroidScript, it’s not cloud based and doesn’t require an internet…

Time for one of these again. So... having read through their marketing material, this is an on-device tool that opens up what appears to be most of the Android application API to at least the user of the device, and potentially to any Droidscript applications they grab from other sources, and... maybe to other apps on the device? It's not clear from a quick read how extensive the runtime control is. So just right out…

Should the Chrome browser be also banned from Android since it is trivial to deploy ad fraud campaign on the web?

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#454
post #261
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep hearing this and it's totally wrong. Desktop Linux has a huge app ecosystem and arguably has more high quality software than Android does. All of this works on the pinephone and other similar devices.

Okay, so how can I chat to my friends or companies with WhatsApp on Linux? How can I order food similar to Grab or Gojek on Linux? How can I get a date on Linux like Tinder? You can't. Sure, there are technological solutions to all of those, but in the real world that alone is pretty much useless.

You can use Anbox if you really need some Android app.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#455
post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but this developer isn't "everyone", and there seems to be no reason not to explain in this case.

Unless the developer decides to share on Twitter or HN or w/e, and now malicious actors know as well.

I meant that this information is not a problem to share, and that sharing information in one case does not imply sharing it in all cases.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#456
post #14

I had to go look to see what this was: "DroidScript is an easy to use, portable coding tool which simplifies mobile App development. It dramatically improves productivity by speeding up development by as much as 10x compared with using the standard development tools. It’s also an ideal tool for learning JavaScript, you can literally code anywhere with DroidScript, it’s not cloud based and doesn’t require an internet…

Time for one of these again. So... having read through their marketing material, this is an on-device tool that opens up what appears to be most of the Android application API to at least the user of the device, and potentially to any Droidscript applications they grab from other sources, and... maybe to other apps on the device? It's not clear from a quick read how extensive the runtime control is. So just right out…

> Droidscript itself may not be engaged in advertising fraud, but it makes advertising fraud trivial to deploy.

I think that this is what has happened. The author of DroidScript claims that

> Unfortunately we also have to inform our users that we could no longer support AdMob for use in their own apps either, because we can't test it anymore and can't guarantee that Google won't treat them in the same brutal way.

So apparently users were able to do stuff with AdMob on DroidScript's back, and maybe AdMob registered these fraudulent actions with some Google-ID which was assigned to DroidScript.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#457
post #25

It's seriously time to re-embrace the idea of ownership and control of our devices, and reject Android and iOS altogether. Developing for those platforms has become worse and more restrictive over the years, and this kind of crap is now just everyday news. How good are Pinephones[1]? Are there better alternatives? [1] https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

> Small numbers (1-3) of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect. Their product line does not really inspire much faith. I can't say I've bought a device in the past 10 years which has dead pixels on the display. To me, this is a defect, given that I can pick up a device, overwrite Windows with Linux, and have a device without dead pixels.

[deleted]

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right to purchase. It's become an issue of defining "purchasing". But companies don't want us to purchase appliances, they would be much happier if we could rent them.

Gotta get that steady income. We're quickly becoming a society split between rentier capitalists and renters

On the other hand, if they expected us to rent phones, I imagine they would be a lot sturdier... And probably find a second life for them, though that's happening: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/samsung-starts-offic...

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#459
post #359
post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I can't agree with you" "I cannot continue this relationship" "I can't kill this guy" "I just can't eat meat anymore" "I cannot continue like this" These are all examples where someone clearly could for physical reasons, but they can't for other reasons they are bound to, whatever these reasons are.

Technically you are right. However the key here is exploiting the ambiguity. ‘We are unable to’ is a cowardly way of saying ‘we choose not to’, or ‘our policy dictates’.

"We refuse to" might be clearest of all.

Re: Google have declared Droidscript is malware

#460

Here's a thought. One of the most frustrating things to me about this kind of thing is that Google (or any other major tech company) could just ignore me and just tell me "you're malware". I get it. Technology people cost a lot of money, so I would propose that companies who the public depend on MUST offer consulting out-of-band at an hourly (or daily?) rate. This way the real issues are squashed. Now I know that I c…

Wouldn't that encourage the big company to find more issues in apps, and then tell devs to buy consulting hours to figure out how to solve them?
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