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Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

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Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#121

Post by monocasa »

dralley wrote: post #109
themafia wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re telling me pagers used by a terrorist organization ending up in the second-hand market. Four children were killed and dozens of _innocent_ bystanders were injured. > What do you know about Lebanon and Hezbollah? It's a conflict that's been going on for 30 years that I can remember and I don't think that more kinetic operations are going to accomplish anything other than fomenting an actual genocide. Did you…

>Four children were killed and dozens of _innocent_ bystanders were injured. Compared to thousands of Hezbollah members. Literally one of the most targeted large-scale attacks of all time. There are effectively zero other military means that would have been even close to as selective and discriminant. Would you prefer they drop a 500lb bomb on each of their houses instead?

The pagers killed a total of twelve people; which included four children.

That's a pretty awful ratio.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#122

Post by pmontra »

HeinzStuckeIt wrote: post #36
xethos wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, and that's the exact point I would make. The problem though, is I want a small phone with a headphone jack (and a physical keyboard, but that's orthogonal to the point). Many OEMs sell their flagship as a shiny glass slab with only BT or USB-C for audio, and ship 3.5mm jacks and other "antiquated niceties" like a uSD card reader, on their lower-end models. It's difficult to square the circle of "I want these…

I must admit, I don’t get the wish for 3.5mm headphone jacks in 2025. Already six years ago, with a phone that actually still had a headphone jack, I bought myself for just a few euro a Bluetooth DAC (a FiiO) that had superior sound quality to any phone’s audio-out that I had ever used. With a Bluetooth DAC (or with any USB-C to 3.5mm converter that costs pennies) you can still use whatever wired headphones you want…

I'm conflicted about this matter. I use a Bluetooth earpiece on my phone because it's more convenient: you can move around a room with the phone on a table, no pockets, and you can wear and unwear t-shirts and sweaters. When I can't find the x with the earpieces I plug in in a wired one.

On the other hand a wired headphone always work, had maybe better quality and almost surely a better latency. I use one of them when doing calls from my laptop.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#123

Post by MomsAVoxell »

dralley wrote: post #109
themafia wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You’re telling me pagers used by a terrorist organization ending up in the second-hand market. Four children were killed and dozens of _innocent_ bystanders were injured. > What do you know about Lebanon and Hezbollah? It's a conflict that's been going on for 30 years that I can remember and I don't think that more kinetic operations are going to accomplish anything other than fomenting an actual genocide. Did you…

>Four children were killed and dozens of _innocent_ bystanders were injured. Compared to thousands of Hezbollah members. Literally one of the most targeted large-scale attacks of all time. There are effectively zero other military means that would have been even close to as selective and discriminant. Would you prefer they drop a 500lb bomb on each of their houses instead?

The point is that such preposterously stupid military means are not preventing the continuation of blood-shed, and if you are saying that exploding pagers are a perfectly acceptable means of executing military goals, then .. whats next .. are Israeli citizens expected to live under the continuous threat of exploding vibrators and vaporizers, now, too?

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#124

Post by ebbi »

thenaturalist wrote: post #89
vladgur wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

When you increasingly lose the court of public opinion, you resort to this sort of gaslighting.

Because the Israeli Hasbara is now failing at this gaslighting strategy, you're leveling ad hominems towards people who see this as what it is - decades of war crimes and a humanitarian crisis.

So either come up with a proper argument, or stay quiet. Gaslighting us into thinking we're being biased, or that we're ill informed, just isn't going to work anymore.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#125

Post by dralley »

monocasa wrote: post #121
dralley wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Four children were killed and dozens of _innocent_ bystanders were injured. Compared to thousands of Hezbollah members. Literally one of the most targeted large-scale attacks of all time. There are effectively zero other military means that would have been even close to as selective and discriminant. Would you prefer they drop a 500lb bomb on each of their houses instead?

The pagers killed a total of twelve people; which included four children. That's a pretty awful ratio.

The pager detonations were weak enough to be effectively nonlethal unless you're especially vulnerable. That's how you end up with such a low death to injury ratio in the first place.

So per the KPI metric you've chosen, making it more lethal and more dangerous to bystanders would have been better.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#126

Post by baklavaEmperor »

What’s striking is how often these ‘small’ surveillance tech stories trace back to the same state-aligned ecosystem. When Israel does it, it’s treated as a complex security issue. When another ‘bad’ country does the same thing, we immediately call it espionage. And almost on cue, the discussion drifts anywhere except the uncomfortable fact that it’s the same ecosystem from the same country showing up again.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#127

Post by dralley »

MomsAVoxell wrote: post #123
dralley wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Four children were killed and dozens of _innocent_ bystanders were injured. Compared to thousands of Hezbollah members. Literally one of the most targeted large-scale attacks of all time. There are effectively zero other military means that would have been even close to as selective and discriminant. Would you prefer they drop a 500lb bomb on each of their houses instead?

The point is that such preposterously stupid military means are not preventing the continuation of blood-shed, and if you are saying that exploding pagers are a perfectly acceptable means of executing military goals, then .. whats next .. are Israeli citizens expected to live under the continuous threat of exploding vibrators and vaporizers, now, too?

Does the IDF issue vibrators to their soldiers?

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#128

Post by jacquesm »

jajuuka wrote: post #72
duxup wrote: post #2

I recently bought a cheap android device because I needed to test something on Android. The setup was about 3 hours of the device starting up, asking me questions, installing apps I explicitly told it not to, and then all sorts of other apps and OS updates trying to do their thing seemingly at once. I wasn't even transferring data, just a brand new phone, new google account. What a horrible experience you get with so…

Sounds like the average carrier locked Samsung device experience in the US. Oh you didn't want Clash of Clans installed? We'll reinstall that for you next OS update. Running updates through carriers was a serious mistake.

Running remote updates in general was a serious mistake. Other manufacturers are no better and give you all kinds of crap for their income streams at the expense of your convenience whilst claiming the opposite.

The last time I saw an update that just fixed security bugs and improved performance was... never.

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#129

Post by vladgur »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #90
vladgur wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Why are you obfuscating the concern? The issue is not that it is an app that is popularly found on devices! The issue is that it is an app which is forcibly installed without consent or disclosure, which has privileged access to the system and beyond the scope of the device vendor. To have no care for that reeks suspiciously of nationalistic bias. edit: Please answer: Which country has backdoor control of the phones…

[flagged]

Re: Israeli-founded app preloaded on Samsung phones is attracting controversy

#130

Post by avn2109 »

jacquesm wrote: post #128
jajuuka wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the average carrier locked Samsung device experience in the US. Oh you didn't want Clash of Clans installed? We'll reinstall that for you next OS update. Running updates through carriers was a serious mistake.

Running remote updates in general was a serious mistake. Other manufacturers are no better and give you all kinds of crap for their income streams at the expense of your convenience whilst claiming the opposite. The last time I saw an update that just fixed security bugs and improved performance was... never.

I took this seriously and thought back to the most recent actually-useful-bugfixes-and-security-improvements release that I can remember. OSX Snow Leopard perhaps?
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