Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

xda-developers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 204 posts

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#121

Post by p1mrx »

danuker wrote: post #14
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #12

I can almost guarantee this is due to licensing issues with the camera firmware. Modern cameras aren't just hardware any more. They're a mix of hardware and advanced processing algorithms that really do make a huge difference in the final output. Those algorithms are often licensed from 3rd parties with specific licensing requirements. Sony has been reasonably good about enabling open-source and fixing these things i…

> they'll try to find a way to enable the cameras on unlocked phones in the future. In the meantime, I will only buy what ACTUALLY gives me control RIGHT NOW, namely, what is supported by LineageOS: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

Buying a LineageOS-supported device doesn't necessarily help. I bought a Pixel 2 from the Google store, and later replaced it under warranty due to a bad microphone. Now the bootloader is permanently locked, and security updates ended in 2020. This is a widespread issue with no known solution:

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/14920605/google...

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#122

Post by selfhoster11 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #12

I can almost guarantee this is due to licensing issues with the camera firmware. Modern cameras aren't just hardware any more. They're a mix of hardware and advanced processing algorithms that really do make a huge difference in the final output. Those algorithms are often licensed from 3rd parties with specific licensing requirements. Sony has been reasonably good about enabling open-source and fixing these things i…

Then put that junk in a secure enclave (that unlocking doesn't touch), or in a separate chip. Don't screw over your users who want to have some control over the device.

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#123

Post by a3n »

q-rews wrote: post #116
bluGill wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on the trap and how you set it. If you dig a hole for a house and someone falls in you are not liable.

That sounds wrong and likely varies wildly across jurisdictions. If you dig a hole on your property you better secure it, or else kids might fall in.

It's an "attractive nuisance." You'd better lock your hot tub and garage freezer too.

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#124

Post by slaw »

Hackbraten wrote: post #117
slaw wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is $850 markup. For $107 you can get UMIDIGI A11. decent phone with Android 11, global LTE bands, 4 GB Ram and 128GB Storage. https://www.umidigi.com/page-umidigi_a11_overview.html

Ben, is that you?

I am not Ben. Bootloader is also supposedly easy to unlock.

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#126

Post by surajrmal »

amelius wrote: post #39
sneak wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter whether it's the tyranny of Samsung being dicks or the tyranny of the copyright cartel jamming the fiction that is intellectual property down our throats (and thereby being dicks) that is fucking up one's phone. Perhaps the law needs to recognize that buying hardware should come with rights to the firmware. If all hardware is useless without firmware, then all hardware is useless without additional…

I think we should have a clear separation between hardware and software companies. This is how it worked in the old days when the internet was built. Hardware companies are getting too much power over our data, and we need more freedom of choice in how our data is treated and by whom, regardless of the hardware that we own. A company can be "good" one day and "bad" the next day. We shouldn't be forced to throw away a…

All modern investment in this space is explicitly trying to push for better hardware software co-design. This is seen as the path forward in light of Moore's law dying. There has always been a boundary where your ownership of software truly begins. In PCs it was at the firmware, and with smart phones it has been at some arbitrary location the os vendor has seen fit. The web had been the most crippling place for user control of software, and they own no part of the devices software or hardware.

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#127

Post by rightbyte »

andrew_ wrote: post #109
swiley wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never buy devices with non-free firmware. They're always full of garbage like this.

my needs are more utilitarian - I need a smart phone that's waterproof. Not a single one of the libre* phones are waterproof, let alone reasonably water resistant, so they're a nonstarter for me. I'm a nerd but I'm also outdoorsy. My phones have gone for swims in the Gulf of Mexico and been caught in squals more times than I can count.

My experience is that water proof phones ironically are more prone to water damage since they don't drain. Simple moist in a tent can kill it.

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#128

Post by commandlinefan »

TheCoreh wrote: post #83
baybal2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Japanese law which forbids taking photos without a shutter sound? Why???

IIRC people secretly taking upskirt photos in trains was a significant/frequent problem

... who can just turn the video on and off really quick (or even write a very simple app to turn the video on for one frame).

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#129

Post by paulcarroty »

agilob wrote: post #37
jankotek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had run LineageOS for some time. It works, but FDroid is missing too many apps, even opensource like Signal. I have to update apks manually every few months.

Signal team fought a long war against any forks or unauthorised builds of Signal. There are (or were) FDroid repositories with Signal compatible builds, but Moxie stated that any such build will be considered malware. Signal team was making such builds increasingly difficult to produce. Official F-Droid repo doesn't allow proprietary dependencies on which Signal depends for some messages (push?)

> Signal team fought a long war against any forks or unauthorised builds of Signal.

Yeah, this is main reason why I avoid Signal together with Google Services usage.

Re: Samsung kills the cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 if you unlock the bootloader

#130

Post by m4rtink »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #12

I can almost guarantee this is due to licensing issues with the camera firmware. Modern cameras aren't just hardware any more. They're a mix of hardware and advanced processing algorithms that really do make a huge difference in the final output. Those algorithms are often licensed from 3rd parties with specific licensing requirements. Sony has been reasonably good about enabling open-source and fixing these things i…

But why should customers care? They bought a device for good money and it stops working due to the user installing a different OS ? Good thing in the EU custom OS installs dont break warranty (even if vendors try to make you think otherwise).
Post reply on HN