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Keep Android Open

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191–200 of 764 posts

Re: Keep Android Open

#191

Post by Zak »

stackghost wrote: post #13
gf000 wrote: 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 And I say that as a recent convert, so it's not like I have a decade out of date view of any of the OSs.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…

You can definitely make a "phone calls only" mode: create a mode, allow certain apps to interrupt, and add only phone calls to the list.

I do think they should offer more pre-configured notification modes by default, if only to show people what they can do with the feature. Perhaps "phone calls only" should be one of those.

Re: Keep Android Open

#192

Post by malfist »

pluralmonad wrote: post #60
malfist wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

On average, people spend 4 hours and 37 minutes on their phone, per day [1].

I find it hard to believe someone would spend 4 hours and 9 minutes _per day_ looking at their banking app or using NFC payments.

[1] https://explodingtopics.com/blog/smartphone-usage-stats

Re: Keep Android Open

#193

Post by retired »

fermigier wrote: post #62

It is a disgrace how Google has managed this situation. To recap the storyline, as far as I understand it: last August, Google announced plans to heavily restrict sideloading. Following community pushback, they promised an "advanced flow" for power users. The media widely reported this as a walk-back, leading users to assume the open ecosystem was safe. But this promised feature hasn't appeared in any Android 16 or 1…

Good thing restricting side-loading isn't legal in the European Union! Not a problem here. Apple had to enable side-loading on their EU-based phones and so will Google if they restrict it.

Re: Keep Android Open

#195

Post by beeflet »

arcanemachiner wrote: post #148
fermigier wrote: post #62

It is a disgrace how Google has managed this situation. To recap the storyline, as far as I understand it: last August, Google announced plans to heavily restrict sideloading. Following community pushback, they promised an "advanced flow" for power users. The media widely reported this as a walk-back, leading users to assume the open ecosystem was safe. But this promised feature hasn't appeared in any Android 16 or 1…

If this finally pushes adoption of truly open Linux phones, then this will end up being a good thing, and the greatest favor that Google could do for the open source community. Tragically, Linux phones have languished and are in an absolute state these days, but a lot of the building blocks are in place if user adoption occurs en masse. (Shout out to the lunatics who have kept this dream alive during these dark years…

The limitation of linux phones is hardware. I have been watching the progress of postmarketOS on the fairphone 4, and looks promising.

Re: Keep Android Open

#196

Post by _factor »

bpye wrote: post #159
hbn wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who could Android be possibly recommended to at this point? I know iPhones aren't affordable for the layman in many countries. But for anyone with an option, why would you buy an Android? All the "customization" things I cared about when I was on Android are either doable on an iPhone now with better implementation, or something I don't care about. I was a die-hard until I went through enough cycles of Google depreca…

I switched back to Android in large part for KDE Connect. You can get continuity esque features that work with any desktop operating system. I also get to use real Firefox instead of a Safari wrapper. I still use as few Google services as possible, pretty much just Maps.

KDE Connect works just fine on iOS.

Re: Keep Android Open

#197

Post by Timwi »

dmitrygr wrote: post #105
ruuda wrote: post #8

I contacted the EU DMA team about my concerns and got a real reply within 24 hours. Not just an automated message, it looked like a real human read my message and wrote a reply. I'd urge other EU citizens to do the same.

[flagged]

Google is engaging in immoral business practices. Since they are immoral, it is morally justified to say they must be stopped.

> how would you feel if you were on the receiving end of such a dictum?

I continue to be astounded how people still just flat out assume that everyone must be a capitalist.

If I were on the receiving end of a dictum aimed at stopping immoral behavior, I would cease my immoral behavior. But I'm not going to be on the receiving end in the first place because I don't aim to do immoral things in the first place.

Re: Keep Android Open

#198

Post by zie »

iririririr wrote: post #182
hbn wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who could Android be possibly recommended to at this point? I know iPhones aren't affordable for the layman in many countries. But for anyone with an option, why would you buy an Android? All the "customization" things I cared about when I was on Android are either doable on an iPhone now with better implementation, or something I don't care about. I was a die-hard until I went through enough cycles of Google depreca…

you're a really vanilla user then. wake me up when there's an adblocker on an iphone.

Thankfully you don't really need an adblocker for apps on an iPhone. Your browser could use one, but thankfully those do exist :)

That said, I want off the iOS ecosystem, but Google has basically said guess what? We are going the way of Apple, so we don't care about you either.

So right now there isn't really anywhere else to go. I'm going to keep trucking in iOS for now, but I hope I find something better soon.

Re: Keep Android Open

#199

Post by hparadiz »

tadfisher wrote: post #174
hparadiz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No inherent reason all that stuff can't work on an open platform. It works just fine on my Linux box with yubikeys, fido2, and smart cards. Gcloud even let's you authenticate with them only to put a medium lived token in plaintext into a sqlite file on disk.

No inherent reason, just Visa/Mastercard requirements around host card emulation for payment cards.

Sounds like a duopoly that needs to be broken up.

Re: Keep Android Open

#200

Post by BadBadJellyBean »

idiotsecant wrote: post #39
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #15

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?

Why is it reasonable that installing software is behind an "advanced flow" what ever that means? I find it not very reasonable at all that the only way to install software on my phone is by jumping through hoops. I don't think it reasonable that the Play Store is the only portal. I don't even find it reasonable to call installing software "sideloading". Downloading and installing software from a vendor's page has been the norm for decades before smart phones came along but all of a sudden when it is on a small screen the user can not be trusted? That's ridiculous and not at all reasonable.
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