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Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

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Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#331

Post by eloisant »

rvba wrote: post #145
AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

People who are reaponsible for Android all use Google phones. They dont care about android. They dont use it. They dont understand their use cases. If you are hired by a manufacturer of say cola, you cannot drink the competition cola. Those in google laugh when asked to show their phones - and then show iphones. In any other business they would be terminated.

I don't know how it works at Google, but unless they're giving away Pixel phones for free to their employees (or at a very, very strong discount), they have no business forcing their employees to use their products.

Here is how a job works: worker works, company gives money. Workers do whatever the fuck they want with the money they earn.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#332

Post by acdha »

weazl wrote: post #297
AlexandrB wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying they were forced to implement USB-C is really overstating things. Apple loooved USB-C - so much so that their ill-fated butterfly switch laptops went all-in on it. They also helped design it. It's highly likely they were planning a move to USB-C anyway and the EU just pushed it forward a year.

This is untrue. Apple was fighting EU the entire time trying to avoid a switch to USB-C on iPhones. EU representatives were publicly critical of Apple, eventually Apple was forced to give in.

I realize a conspiracy narrative gets more clicks but … you know Apple started the development of USB-C and shipped some of the first devices in 2015, right? People whined about the MacBooks requiring new hubs, etc. for a couple of years and got over it. The same thing happened with the iPad in 2018, AirPods, etc.

When they introduced Lightning in 2012, they made a commitment to all of the third-party hardware developers that iPhones would support it for a decade. I’m sure the EU pressure helped but USB-C iPhones shipping in 2023 is right on that original timing.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#333

Post by eloisant »

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #103
AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

> Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Well no, Chinese phones are above Apple material-wise (better battery, better cameras, better cooling) and on par SoC-wise since last year. That's what makes Google's strategy so baffling. > Apple has better app selection (for most people). It's entirely the same. I have gone back and forth regularly for the past 10 years. Android is completely on par app-wise. Apple…

Chinese phones have great hardware at great prices, unfortunately they suck at software.

So unless you want to spend the time and effort to switch to and work with the quirks of LineageOS or similar, you get an overall worse experience.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#334

Post by alpinisme »

weazl wrote: post #297
AlexandrB wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying they were forced to implement USB-C is really overstating things. Apple loooved USB-C - so much so that their ill-fated butterfly switch laptops went all-in on it. They also helped design it. It's highly likely they were planning a move to USB-C anyway and the EU just pushed it forward a year.

This is untrue. Apple was fighting EU the entire time trying to avoid a switch to USB-C on iPhones. EU representatives were publicly critical of Apple, eventually Apple was forced to give in.

People can and do fight things they agree with on the principle of not wanting to do something because they were told to. You fight it just to say “you can’t tell me what to do” (for precedent) not just to actually defend a position you believe in. Even if the other side wins, they had to pay a cost that may discourage or at least raise the floor for future regulatory efforts.

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#335

Post by reddalo »

B1FIDO wrote: post #97
clhodapp wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that before walled-garden app stores, that was how pretty much every normal person installed software on their PC's. Using the term "sideloading" for that is a clever invention to try and retroactively rebrand what is actually super-normal as something scary.

It is not really though. "Sideloading" refers to data transfer between two local, peer devices. Really, that is it. It is not "something scary" or something forbidden. It is not even really installing. It's data transfer. So "before walled-gardens" people would install software in many many ways. I originally typed it in from scratch, or from a magazine. I loaded it from tape. Or diskette. That's not really "sideload…

>"Sideloading" refers to data transfer between two local, peer devices.

I don't agree with this definition. "Sideloading" sounds like loading something "on the side", as in secretly, like in the expression "side piece".

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#336

Post by firebot »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #12

Google's long term strategy with Android is baffling to me. Apple has had better mobile hardware for years. Apple has higher consumer trust. Apple has better app selection (for most people). Apple has been increasingly implementing the core features that differentiate Android devices, like USB-C and RCS. Every Android user lost to the increasing iOS market share is another customer Google has to pay exorbitant fees t…

Oh come on fanboy, Apple doesn't have meaningfully better hardware, consumer trust, or app selection (for most people the opposite is true!)

Oof, Apple adopting core 'Android' features... Yea, finally? Increasing iOS market share? Where? Not most places

I think it's weird you come at this from an antitrust angle when I would totally make the argument the other way.

If there's pressure to remove this feature, then it's from companies that make apps that anyone can pull up in Revanced and they can patch it and can be running a version of a piece of software that shouldn't exist with "premium" features enabled. I don't think there's an argument against it really besides that. At least not an honest, intelligent argument....

Ultimately, I doubt many would jump to Apple. Inertia would insist: People just won't upgrade. Which is already occurring, people are keeping their devices longer, especially Apple users. And they wonder why their battery stops working... Oy vey!

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#337

Post by akerl_ »

ben_w wrote: post #232
criddell wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The answer should not be negative, but the app says "-4". When I do those exact keypresses I get the correct answer.

Good for you? The fact this happens on my versions of both MacOS and iOS means they didn't have automated tests covering this from day one. Famously, "it works for me" is not how high quality software happens.

It seems basically impossible that math works differently on your calculator app than somebody else’s.

Can you post a recording of what you’re seeing?

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#338

Post by AshamedCaptain »

toxik wrote: post #285
ben_w wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iOS apps tend to be more stable, better polished It's been a while since I was last using Android, but first-party Apple apps no longer meet my standards for "polished". e.g. type this sequence into the calculator: [2] [-] [4] [=] [x²] [=] The answer should not be negative, but the app says "-4". The desktop Contacts app has been putting invisible LTR and RTL codes around phone numbers for years now, breaking web f…

-4 makes sense if you understand that the input -2 is a unary minus operation. So typing -2 then hitting square only squares 2, not (-2). This is the same in eg Python so I'm not sure it's very controversial. I agree it's unexpected, though.

At no point in the current expression you wrote "-", though. It may make sense that if you type [-] [2] [x^2] [=] then you get -(2²) = -4, but if your current answer is already -2, then tapping x² should result in (ans)^2 = (-2)^2 = 4. Splitting your current answer into a separate unary [-] as in - (2²) makes absolutely no sense.

Most calculators, even CAS ones, simply get this always right. But sadly this is not the first "desktop" calculator that I see getting this completely wrong. And it makes some results outright wrong!

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#339

Post by EvanAnderson »

MrDresden wrote: post #24

When this whole thing got announced, I purchased a new Pixel 9 and flashed it with GrapheneOS. I am hoping that in about 6-8 years (when I realistically need to update) the landscape might be a bit better. Or who knows, maybe I'll just continue using GrapheneOS. So far I have not had a single issues with it. Apps the rely on attestation do not work, but honestly it's only two applications out of hundreds so I can liv…

I would love to run GrapheneOS if it didn't involve giving any money to Google to get up-to-date hardware, brand new. (Yes, I know I can buy and run it on a used Pixel.)

Re: Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

#340

Post by _vqpz »

embedding-shape wrote: post #236
manuelabeledo wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iOS YouTube app is not worse than the one in Android. Texting in iOS is arguably better or, at the very least, there is one more app to choose (Messages). And I’m curious to know what makes Antenna Pod so much better than the thousands of other podcast apps out there. Social media apps have historically been worse in Android, because of lax app and privacy controls. > What else is there, where is the advantage? P…

> Texting in iOS is arguably better or, at the very least Since some updates ago, my keyboard is still broken if I type too fast, and autocorrect been essentially broken for the same amount of time. Must be happening for ~years now, still waiting for a new update to finally fix it. At least on Android you can change the keyboard to something else if you'd like, instead of being stuck with what your OS developer force…

I have been using SwiftKey keyboard on iOS exclusively since 2018 and have had very few issues compared to Android where it regularly crashed
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