21–30 of 194 posts
This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
You could claim that's not an android problem but if you do I don't think you've ever had to explain to people your phone doesn't have a Google Play store.
This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
Who wants a bootleg Android that sends all your call logs who knows where? xD
What a shame. How much time and €M spent just to deign allow you to do some very specific stuff on their devices (in 5 years at least once the trials and shenanigans settle) ? Obviously it doesn't include the "answering call screening" for example, which requires very privileged APIs accessible only by "system" apps, i.e. the ones preinstalled in the ROM. How about RCS ? Remember RCS the "open" standard replacing SMS…
This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
> it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction Pardon my ignorance; but why would Android need to be patched? Is it because it wouldn't run on the phone hardware otherwise?
Because those 11 features mentioned in the OP post need to be unlocked.
Funnily enough, I think it is in Google's best interest to comply and do the best work they can. Besides security that they might want to guarantee up to a limit, that would boost Android usage, also including their own hardware. The future lies in a large, local-friendly ecosystem and the hardware to support it. Gate keeping software makes even less sense nowadays. The competition is on compute offering. Cheaper, fa…
This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
What prevents this? I always assumed they could.
DMCA and other anti-circumvention regulations.
Now if only these rulings also covered attestation.
It is also pretty jarring to see the EU talk a lot about sovereignty, but then further entrenching the Android/iOS duopoly by baking remote attestation into the EUDI reference wallet (and copied into the national wallets), effectively shutting out alternative systems yet again.
Yes, I know that the EU consists of a lot of bodies and sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left hand does. But man, sometimes I wish there was a stronger single, long-term vision. Somehow they seem to have forgotten about January this year (Greenland threats) and that as long as we fully depend on Android/iOS, etc. the US could shut down pretty much all modern communication infra. But instead of solving these vulnerabilities now and pouring money into alternatives, we (as the EU) drag ourselves down into battles of just how much we can do on the terrain of some feudal overlords.
It seems like there is a short window where we still have AOSP systems that could be workable for the large population (outside remote attestation, pretty much all apps run on GrapheneOS, microG, etc.) and Google's strong arming through developer verification and remote attestation could still be put back in the box. But the EC does nada, nothing (presumably).
This is a fabulous ruling and the EU continues (for the moment at least) to be the biggest champion of holding corporations to account and pushing back on entrenched tech power. I know there are bunch of concerning things like chat control getting pushed through but at least there is a counterbalance in other areas as well.
This is all smoke and mirrors. The core issue is not "Google not allowing a feature", it's that small businesses cannot buy phones, install a patched version of Android without a restriction and sell them to make money. Until this problem is solved, everything else is palliative.
Who wants a bootleg Android that sends all your call logs who knows where? xD
Please stop parroting surveillance tech company's narratives.