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A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

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Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#91

Post by Aachen »

lalopalota wrote: post #24
ByThyGrace wrote: post #9

I still have old Android phones that I'm not using because of outdated kernels/OS versions and their disadvantages in terms of vulnerabilities, but given the hardware is completely fine I would use them as offline general purpose tools if I had an easy way to install old store apps in them. So does anybody know if there is perhaps an archive of old APK app files (old as in Android KitKat and earlier)?

back when Yalp Store was working, it would let you decrement version numbers. if the author hadn't removed them from the play store and you guessed correctly, you could download older versions. i think sites like apkmirror also provide older versions.

The newer Aurora store works the same, but you have to guess the version numbers and I'd assume they don't go back very far. Since Aurora and Yalp both just talk to Google's app repository, Yalp presumably has the same limitations and you wouldn't find something of 8 years old there.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#92

Post by dotancohen »

metalliqaz wrote: post #60
ibnishak wrote: post #53

One of the very few apps I actually paid for. The mental peace that comes with not leaking my data to yet another calendar application alone was worth it. I find this business model lot more sensible than demanding that open-source developers should eternally martyr themselves. You can see the effect of this in the feature set of these applications. If you are the semi-paranoid kind, the following stack of opensource…

It's nice that a flow exists for your use case, but when I see things like this I'm always puzzled by the use case in the first place. The only reason I use a calendar on my phone is to sync my schedule with the wife/family. We put things on a shared calendar. I use it to capture appointments and check if we have commitments on a given date. Otherwise I would never use a calendar on my phone. So syncing between accou…

The calendar app uses the internal Android calendar service, which can be synced via Davx. I sync mine with NextCloud.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#93

Post by Aachen »

ByThyGrace wrote: post #9

I still have old Android phones that I'm not using because of outdated kernels/OS versions and their disadvantages in terms of vulnerabilities, but given the hardware is completely fine I would use them as offline general purpose tools if I had an easy way to install old store apps in them. So does anybody know if there is perhaps an archive of old APK app files (old as in Android KitKat and earlier)?

F-Droid has a few versions of history for each app, but that might not be enough for 4.4 compatibility in some cases. Many apps haven't been updated in years though, so those will surely work :). I recently installed a metronome thing whose last release is from April 2013, works as intended on Android 11.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#94

Post by dotancohen »

IshKebab wrote: post #17

Why do all calendar apps put months next to each other, instead of using a continuous vertically scrollable view with them on top of each other? It's maddening! Actually Google got this right at one point - but then they reverted to the stupid way!!

Business Calendar Pro uses a continuous vertically scrollable view for months. I love it.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#95

Post by Aachen »

jqpabc123 wrote: post #86
Aachen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they are only "free" if you don't mind the nag screen and the orange theme which can only be changed in the purchased version Wow, add a gimmick as a little perk to those who donate without actually impairing functionality for free users and next thing people will comment on how annoying it is that the color orange can't be changed. I've never before heard someone complain that a color can't be changed in an app, i…

* it doesn't bother me enough to figure it out.* Doesn't bother me either now that I use a different app.

Heh, that's also always a solution of course :)

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#96

Post by sureglymop »

dotancohen wrote: post #92
metalliqaz wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice that a flow exists for your use case, but when I see things like this I'm always puzzled by the use case in the first place. The only reason I use a calendar on my phone is to sync my schedule with the wife/family. We put things on a shared calendar. I use it to capture appointments and check if we have commitments on a given date. Otherwise I would never use a calendar on my phone. So syncing between accou…

The calendar app uses the internal Android calendar service, which can be synced via Davx. I sync mine with NextCloud.

In that case why don't you sync your calendar with Nextcloud directly using CalDav? I use DavX5 for this and it works great, actually i think DecSync is a fork of DavX5.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#97

Post by Aachen »

josephcsible wrote: post #87
Aachen wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note GP asked about Android and you're speaking of a Google Play account that you can login to from more than one device to access its content including previously purchased content. I guess for most people they see Google Play as an integral part of Android... ask Huawei what happens if Google can't do business with you or what if you don't like google so much. Of course, one would be even worse off with Apple where…

You can copy apps off of Android phones even without Google Play.

Yeah but it's not a migration. E.g. you don't get access to your data in many (most?) cases, often thanks to security consultants like myself who see their scanning tool warn that backups are enabled for an app and put a recommendation in the report to not let users access their own data. (FTR I've never done that, but had colleagues that I had to argue with...)

Just yesterday in an OpenStreetMap chat, I had to disappoint a user who wanted to access a locally stored recording in some app. They didn't have root and so they couldn't access it from outside the app.

Backups aka accessing your own data is one of the biggest problems I have as an android user, with as only solution rooting the device and treating it like a normal desktop OS where you also have root, except various apps start to complain when you do so. Apple really has the nicer solution here via the iTunes software.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#98

Post by mort96 »

metalliqaz wrote: post #61
ffpip wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having pro versions where you can change colors defeats the idea of open source Do you have any other ways the developer can make a living? AFAIK the pro features (excluding the closed source 3rd party SDKs) are all open source. You can build them on your own or download it off F-Droid.

I am an oss dev. I make a living at my day job.

Same here. As a result, the vast majority of my programming effort goes into my day job, and my OSS projects are critically understaffed.

Which works okay for me and my projects, but if I wanted them to be serious players in the market rather than just side projects, I would need to find a way to earn money in a way which doesn't eat most of my time.

Personally, I want FOSS software to be able to be serious players in the market. Therefore, I want them to have enough developer resources to make that possible. Therefore, they need to make money.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#99

Post by josephcsible »

Aachen wrote: post #97
josephcsible wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can copy apps off of Android phones even without Google Play.

Yeah but it's not a migration. E.g. you don't get access to your data in many (most?) cases, often thanks to security consultants like myself who see their scanning tool warn that backups are enabled for an app and put a recommendation in the report to not let users access their own data. (FTR I've never done that, but had colleagues that I had to argue with...) Just yesterday in an OpenStreetMap chat, I had to disap…

You're absolutely right about the data, but I think the context of this thread was more about transferring the .apk itself, to avoid having to download (and potentially purchase) it again.

Re: A group of open source Android apps without ads or unnecessary permissions

#100

Post by kortilla »

Aachen wrote: post #69
jokoon wrote: post #11

I use the calendar one. Since it went not free, the free version doesn't generate notifications or alerts anymore. I almost missed appointments or meetings because of this. This is planned obsolescence at best. I seriously despise everything about this.

Use the older version you liked then? I somehow feel a sense of entitlement here. Changing a pricing model for new releases has nothing to do with planned obsolescence; planned obsolescence is making something bad so that you have to buy it new sooner. You got it free. The whole concept also isn't a software thing: one can limit a license duration but software doesn't wear and break prematurely. A date-based kill swi…

When software auto updates that’s effectively what happened here.
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