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Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

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Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#181

Post by Crito »

raverbashing wrote: post #179
Crito wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to sacrifice screen space for a physical keyboard... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/DROID_3.j... That form factor is fine, although not popular with consumers. I had a Droid 2 for a while, and found myself using the soft-keyboard more and more, particularly while not using connectbot.

Yes, the prototype I tested was similar But the keys are too small for the fingers (IMHO). And it's a fragile item in the hardware.

The problems I had with it were primarily related to build-quality I think. The 'i' key wore out after several months for example. I think these problems could likely be fixed by not skimping on the parts, but who knows.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#182

Post by mikecane »

throwwit wrote: post #83
mikecane wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>>Just recently I ran into problems with a TV station's app on iOS that refused to play video without Location Services Enabled. When it comes to things such as entertainment, regional rights restrictions probably have more to do with that than the app wanting to spy on you. I'm not saying this is right. Just saying how the lawyers have sliced things into pieces like that.

They could get that region-level information already from ISP routing info. This ratcheting up of info means: The household owner's name, their affluence, postal code, phone number, a cross match with google street view and all info that shows (new car?). The last thing I want is to watch a home reno show on a tablet and then be deluged with phone calls soliciting for new windows. This is definitly not 'right'. (edit…

>>>They could get that region-level information already from ISP routing info.

I think they want to know you are where you say you are. You'll find if you travel out of the area -- particularly out of the entire country -- you won't have access to entertainment you had while at home due to these regional restrictions. Just think of the times when you've gone to the BBC website to view a video only to be told you can't have it outside of the UK (the BBC license area). (Note that I'm assuming you're in the US although your use of "postal code" likely means you aren't.)

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#183

Post by saraid216 »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #102
CalRobert wrote: post #24

I'm probably going to turn in to that old guy with tin foil who can't play any games because nobody supports his choice of platform, but I really miss when computers were devices you could buy and then put your choice of OS on. Phones are pretty much just little ARM computers, why the hell don't I just install Ubuntu, Firefox OS, Android, WinPhone, Symbian, whatever? I could format a microSD card to boot from and go…

Re. proper keyboards - the market says otherwise. There have been plenty of Android phones with hard keyboards but they've not sold in sufficient quantities to make it attractive. If there was a market for it, people would be making them, if you disagree with that they what are you doing on here, your fortune awaits... Also worth seeing kids who've never used a physical keyboard to any great extent. I've seen them do…

Market realities are not really the substitute for thinking that you seem to think they are.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#184

Post by saraid216 »

mcguire wrote: post #139
chaz wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the more reason to pause before ascribing malice as the motive.

I don't know. Personally, I would rather be regarded as evil than stupid.

And now you've justified evil for every stupid person in the world.

Check it out: "Don't call me stupid; I'll punch you for that!"

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#185

Post by saraid216 »

nekopa wrote: post #85
Kequc wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whatever, fuck Google. Well this is going to be productive. I'm pretty sure Google isn't out to put all of its users through a meat grinder. For one thing people have been way off the handle about Google touching anything. At all. This article only mentions an accident that lasted one day. So it's "fuck Google" after everything, still, again I guess.

I don't know if you read the article properly (or maybe I didn't) but the 'accident' was improved privacy. Then they took the better privacy feature out. So that could qualify for a fuck Google comment.

See, if the accident was a button that fried your phone, your comment wouldn't actually lose any meaning.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#186

Post by tomkarlo »

DerpDerpDerp wrote: post #168
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an offhand line but the point stands - people who have the resources to overcome the barrier have tried and the phones don't sell in great numbers. Once they get used to a good soft key board like you get on the iPhone or most Android phones people either don't want (or don't feel they need I suspect) physical keyboards.

That a large company can make enough money by focusing on one type of phone, thus not splitting their engineering efforts doesn't mean that there wouldn't be a viable niche market, if not for barrier to entry. I often hear people lament the design of their phone, caused by the preferences of the majority.

It's hard enough to make a profit on popular phones, as evidenced by the woes of HTC, Blackberry and others... making a phone for a niche group, especially if you can't charge materially more (and I mean $1,000 or more, unlocked) just doesn't make any sense. Particularly when you consider that carrier and OEM marketing (large national campaigns, in-store placement, etc) doesn't scale down to small volume products.

Making niche products doesn't work well for consumer electronics in general, unless you can sell that product at a much higher margin. Having a keyboard on a phone just doesn't seem to result in being able to sell it for twice as much.

Another issue with keyboards is they don't internationalize well. So rather than having 1 hardware design worldwide, you now either need a TON of SKUs - one for each country (and you can't move inventory from one market to another) or you need to further limit your target market to just a few regions.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#187

Post by tomkarlo »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #164
tomrod wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

User preferences != the market. They are half the market. What this really says is that virtual keyboards have practically no cost, and so utilizing them instead of physical keyboards saves more in marginal (and perhaps per-unit) cost than the revenue from lost customers that require a physical keyboard.

All you're describing is an extension of the user preference - the willing to pay for their preference. Generally speaking if people aren't willing to make a sacrifice for the preference (in the form of money), how strong a preference is it? After all I can get a physical keyboard on the $5 electronic address book. Even understanding that that's a very cheap keyboard (though that also includes margins for retailer, m…

The real cost of a physical keyboard (at least a built-in one) isn't the cost of the hardware. It's also the cost of having to have a different hardware unit for each country you want to sell in (and often not just the labels, but the physical layout as well.) That's a massive increase in the inventory risk you're taking, because your inventory has suddenly become less flexible.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#188

Post by tomkarlo »

CalRobert wrote: post #35
StavrosK wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? I installed Ubuntu the other day, it was trivial. Plus, there's a multitude of custom ROMs.

Yeah, but what you would call trivial might be insurmountable for lots of people. Cyanogenmod already has a lot of the privacy features missing in Android, but dicking around with clockworkmod recovery, etc. is pretty daunting.

Swapping the OS on a desktop computer has never been particularly accessible to most people, either. What percentage of desktops ever get a different OS from what they came with? I'd guess less than 3% if you don't include upgrades from one version of Windows to another.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#189

Post by pmjordan »

eropple wrote: post #134
stanleydrew wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might work for contacts, but what does it mean to "return no data" for location services or bluetooth? In those cases isn't "no data" indistinguishable from "disallowed permission"?

"Couldn't get fix" and "no devices found", respectively?

Or the returned location could be user-specified. The UI for dropping a pin or entering a searchable location by name is well-understood by users.

Re: Google Removes Vital Privacy Feature From Android, Claims Release Was Accidental

#190

Post by chetanahuja »

eropple wrote: post #135
kiallmacinnes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried not opening it? Seriously, if you use any of facebooks stuff, you clearly value something they offer more than your privacy. Everybody, and I'm not just talking about the HN crowd, knows how bad Facebook is when it comes to privacy.

This is the sort of sad comment that continually amazes me. Facebook is am important part of the social life of millions (billions?) of people. It isn't feasible to go away from it. It's completely reasonable to have a requirement to use Facebook while not wanting it to be an ass about stuff like constant GPS fixes. Yeah, sure, don't use Facebook. You're the guy who butts into conversations to tell everyone how you d…

"It isn't feasible to go away from it."

Perhaps you could ask one of around 6 billion people in the world how they survive without this essential utility.

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