What I find quite interesting amongst my colleagues is that they are deeply invested/locked into either the Google ecosystem or the Apple ecosystem. I know zero people who have recent experience of using both iOS and Android - they’re either in one camp or the other, and have only superficial knowledge of what it’s like to use the other. It feels like two parallel universes running side by side, just out of reach of…
Is it unusual in the U.S. to carry two phones? I've had a work provided phone and a personal phone for a long time and so most of the people I know. Sometimes I've had a work iPhone and a personal Android, and now a work Android and a personal older iPhone.
Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
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Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#202It's been mentioned before in other articles, but I don't think it can be understated how much iMessage makes it difficult to be the "odd man out" if you're on an Android phone. And it's not just about teenagers, and it's not about "green bubbles". I recently went on a vacation with friends, 4 other folks on iPhones and me on an Android. Our group chat experience almost made me consider getting an iPhone. The inabili…
As much as I hate promoting Facebook products, "let's make a WhatsApp group" seems to be the socially-acceptable solution to this. Everybody has it installed and always seems to be happy to switch communication over to it if somebody in the group suggests it.
Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Performance, battery life, dependence on Google, inconsistent UIs from different manufacturers, bloatware from networks, networks control updates, most phones don't even get much in the way of updates.
Even the Pixel software just feels like a knock-off of iOS. Same UI paradigms, gestures, etc but everything feels cheaper.
Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes https://apps.apple.com/us/app/oldr-redirect-for-reddit/id158... You can also have Reddit links opened automatically in eg Apollo.
Is it also possible to make and use your own plugins? Also I'm a bit confused that browser plugins are apps. Are they actually running as individual apps, or part of the browser? Can they get taken down?
All extensions are distributed as native apps, usually bundled into the primary app and are (when applicable) installed into Safari when they’re installed onto the device.
There are Content Blockers, App Extensions (into/out of Safari), Web Extensions (“of” Safari), share extensions etc with different limitations and abilities that run individually within their apps and message Safari and other apps, or have rules read ahead of time by Safari with no runtime access, or run within Safari using the WebExtension API etc etc
The archetypal web browser plug-in via the WebExtension API totally exists and are convertible for the most part to Safari’s very proprietary but very user conscious ecosystem.
Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#205Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Call me crazy, but I think there is room for a third platform. Especially if this platform was bootstrapped in a smart way, for example with an emulation layer to be able to run applications from Android. Or perhaps WebAssembly will make it viable to do more things from a (mobile) browser. I really miss the N700-N9 series with Maemo and Meego. It was so elegant and simple.
I have no idea if they will try it again someday, but I would love to see Microsoft give this another go. I think strong messaging about "quality over quantity" of apps would actually be a boon to them. I never go looking in the App Store for new apps anymore - just give me my video streamers, a Reddit client, Spotify, Slack, Discord, and Signal and I'm good to go.
Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's pick your poison. The only reason I'm still on android is because at least I can (still) have root there. I'm saying still because of safety net. But if apple let me have root, i'd probably prefer an Apple over Google. Mobile phones and their user hostility is a cancer. I'm seriously considering using a full GNU/Linux handheld for mobile things i can do in a browser, and keep an android phone for app garbage tha…
Call me crazy, but I think there is room for a third platform. Especially if this platform was bootstrapped in a smart way, for example with an emulation layer to be able to run applications from Android. Or perhaps WebAssembly will make it viable to do more things from a (mobile) browser. I really miss the N700-N9 series with Maemo and Meego. It was so elegant and simple.
And it already exists: GNU/Linux phones running desktop OSes, Librem 5 [0] and Pinephone [1].
Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#208my biggest complaint with smartphones these days is front facing camera makes no sense. put mini screen on back with back camera for selfies. if people want face unlock, a low quality, underscreen front facing camera should be suffient but to me, finger unlock on back is superior experience.
Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#209Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
A few example of the top of my head: - DriveDroid to boot a PC, I haven't used a USB stick to boot off in... years? - /etc/hosts - Viper4Android for system wide EQ - Messing with user hostile apps such a firefox when they disable your addons although they still work, proven by the fact that I was able to make them work again as root Edit: more things - Wireguard kernel module - Adding a CA to the trust store to MITM…
> - Adding a CA to the trust store to MITM yourself This is possible on iPhones isn't it? I definitely remember Fiddlering my self a few years back on my iPhone.