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Keep Android Open

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51–60 of 764 posts

Re: Keep Android Open

#51
post #6
post #3

I would caution the decision makers on this. The line between a secure device and a useless toy is perforated and hard to see.

If I can't use banking or my NFC wallets on my phone, it has become 90% useless. The other 10% of usefulness is texting and calls, which every other phone can do. Unfortunately, this mostly means using the closed android ecosystem.

>this mostly means using the closed android ecosystem

Maybe, but there's no technical reason for this. As I've mentioned before, I can do banking just fine on my Gentoo machine where the entire corpus of software on it, is FOSS and compiled by myself.

Re: Keep Android Open

#52
post #25

This isnt going to be a popular post because the HN crowd is very much a "China bad" crowd but I hypothesize China will likely step in and offer a fork that's compatible with open ecosystems not under the direct control of the us state department. This might be in the form of commits and investment in fdroid and pinephone, or a tiktok like alternative to the wests walled garden. Edit: this will likely exist "uncensor…

Pinephone is tragic, bought a bunch of Pine64's devices (PP, PPP, PB, PBuds, arm tablet, eInk tablet) but old tech, missing drivers, can't blame em no money no drivers... Still the community on Discord is great/helpful people.

Re: Keep Android Open

#53
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would rather put my phone in the microwave than run Chinese Communist Party OS.

Meanwhile the NSA and Mossad can see you fapping on your phone and scan your face in real time and you're implicitly fine with it This is what lack of options does to a MF

This made me laugh cause of how true it is.

Re: Keep Android Open

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We heard from developers who were concerned about the barrier to entry when building apps intended only for a small group, like family or friends. We are using your input to shape a dedicated account type for students and hobbyists. This will allow you to distribute your creations to a limited number of devices without going through the full verification requirements. In classic Google fashion, they hear the compla…

I think you've omitted the next section, which seems more relevant. It seems like they will still allow installs, just hide it behind some scare text. Seems reasonable?

No, because it isn't something that should be up to google's control.

Re: Keep Android Open

#55
post #30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can't use banking or my NFC wallets on my phone, it has become 90% useless. The other 10% of usefulness is texting and calls, which every other phone can do. Unfortunately, this mostly means using the closed android ecosystem.

I run Graphene on my Pixel and banking apps just work. There is no Google Pay, obviously, since Google dependencies have been stripped out from the system. I just carry a credit card.

Even with the sandboxed Play Store, Google Pay disables NFC payments as it requires hardware attestation against Google's root keys.

Re: Keep Android Open

#56
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Temu iOS" Come on, that's absolutely laughable. There are several topics where Android is significantly ahead to the point that iOS is just a toy, and there are areas where the reverse is true. And I say that as a recent convert, so it's not like I have a decade out of date view of any of the OSs. In my experience I had more visual bugs in case of iOS than android (volume slider not displaying correctly in certain…

>Come on, that's absolutely laughable. It's not, though. Google phones are not going to suddenly become luxury devices. It's going to remain at the same level of polish (i.e. mediocre), except now without the major selling point of being able to run your own apps and have alternative app stores, etc. Back around Ice Cream Sandwich or thereabouts they got rid of "phone calls only mode" and forced us to rely on their h…

People buy high-end Android phones like crazy, I don't know what bubble you live in. Samsung Folds and Flips are the luxury phones, not the iPhone Pro Max S eXtreme Edition 32 GB that looks exactly like the base model but has a slightly better camera. People show off their S Pen and perfectly stabilised 100x zoom lens, not their liquid ass. Multi-window and DeX are features for professionals who need to Get Shit Done^TM, iPhones are the toys kids use to send memojis to each other.

And yes, I can also click one button and go into phone calls only mode. I can even set it on a schedule or based on my calendar. I don't know where you're getting your half-baked Android, mine Just Works.

You might not agree with every one of those points, but you can't seriously think everyone thinks like you. Go outside your bubble some time.

Re: Keep Android Open

#57
post #30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can't use banking or my NFC wallets on my phone, it has become 90% useless. The other 10% of usefulness is texting and calls, which every other phone can do. Unfortunately, this mostly means using the closed android ecosystem.

I run Graphene on my Pixel and banking apps just work. There is no Google Pay, obviously, since Google dependencies have been stripped out from the system. I just carry a credit card.

Curve pay works!

Re: Keep Android Open

#59
post #48
post #25

This isnt going to be a popular post because the HN crowd is very much a "China bad" crowd but I hypothesize China will likely step in and offer a fork that's compatible with open ecosystems not under the direct control of the us state department. This might be in the form of commits and investment in fdroid and pinephone, or a tiktok like alternative to the wests walled garden. Edit: this will likely exist "uncensor…

Not a chance. A fork that is under China's control, maybe, but not an "open" fork. They don't even pretend to have that as a value. You may theoretically find it advantageous to use such a system anyhow. To a first-order approximation, the danger a government poses to you is proportional to its proximity to you. (In the interests of fairness, I will point out, so are the benefits a government may offer to you. In thi…

Not sure if you have been following the LLM space or even the emulator handhelds space, but Chinese companies have been doing great with putting out open source software lately.

Re: Keep Android Open

#60
post #28
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I can't use banking or my NFC wallets on my phone, it has become 90% useless. The other 10% of usefulness is texting and calls, which every other phone can do. Unfortunately, this mostly means using the closed android ecosystem.

90% of your usage on your phone is banking apps or NFC payments? That seems hard to believe.

I don't know if it is generational or regional or what, but there is a solid segment of people that live in very close contact with their bank.
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