I'm still waiting to hear what the EU will have to say about all of this, it seems like a very clear violation of the Digital Markets Act to me.
WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
11–20 of 33 posts
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#12I'm still waiting to hear what the EU will have to say about all of this, it seems like a very clear violation of the Digital Markets Act to me.
They're clearly betting on Trump to strong-arm the EU into dropping the DMA, or not enforcing it on US tech giants. And sadly, it seems like that could work.
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#13I'm past the point where I care if my next device has "phone" features like calling and SMS. I'm fine with technical limitations, but I'm done with Apple and Google adding artificial ones. Maybe I'll get a used Librem5. I'd get a Jolla phone, but they don't ship to the US. But honestly in my research, there's been no blogs I can find that compare these 3rd party phones to each other that aren't like 4 years old and o…
The term of art here is “voice-centric”. Where “voice” refers not specifically to voice communications, but the first-class coupling between cellular modems and the IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) core that mobile network operators run to provide VoLTE and messaging services.
It’s a moat designed to protect the incumbents and raise the barrier to entry for any competitors in the mobile networking space.
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#14I'm past the point where I care if my next device has "phone" features like calling and SMS. I'm fine with technical limitations, but I'm done with Apple and Google adding artificial ones. Maybe I'll get a used Librem5. I'd get a Jolla phone, but they don't ship to the US. But honestly in my research, there's been no blogs I can find that compare these 3rd party phones to each other that aren't like 4 years old and o…
Take a look at FuriPhone. It runs Debian with an Android kernel and runs Android apps in a container. Out of all the Linux phones out there, this is the most interesting one to me. Though I'm still just a bystander. I haven't tried it yet.
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#15Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck Google. I bought my device and I want to do with it what I want!
And in this instance it makes sense, because the status has changed . Everyone is pissed at Apple for doing that sort of things, but personally I don’t blame them: they were clear on the restrictions from the start and there are literally no surprises when buying a device from them. If you don’t like that, just don’t buy from them…
>> If you don’t like that, just don’t buy from them…
That’s such a lazy argument. The restrictions shouldn’t exist in the first place. Or at the very least should exist in a way that can be disabled for those that actually want control over the stuff they own.
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#16Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck Google. I bought my device and I want to do with it what I want!
And in this instance it makes sense, because the status has changed . Everyone is pissed at Apple for doing that sort of things, but personally I don’t blame them: they were clear on the restrictions from the start and there are literally no surprises when buying a device from them. If you don’t like that, just don’t buy from them…
The problem with this line of reasoning is that it ignores the market consequences of Apple doing that sort of thing. Clearly, it is quite profitable — we can see the direct and indirect impacts to Apple's bottom line, and the other major phone company is trying to do the same thing. The result of this behavior being permitted at all, is that reasonable phones become unavailable. Even if some niche company makes such a phone, it will be very expensive and very poorly supported with interfacing with the rest of the world. This de-facto forces everyone into such a hobbled phone.
This would be understandable if there were real advantages to having phones hobbled in this way, but this is not the case. It's analogous to every car company putting spyware in. Most people don't know or care enough to care, but the spyware is still not meaningfully helping them. It's ubiquitous because it's profitable and you can't get a car that is not designed as profit seeking endeavor first and foremost.
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#17Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck Google. I bought my device and I want to do with it what I want!
And in this instance it makes sense, because the status has changed . Everyone is pissed at Apple for doing that sort of things, but personally I don’t blame them: they were clear on the restrictions from the start and there are literally no surprises when buying a device from them. If you don’t like that, just don’t buy from them…
So now that the status has changed and the change has been announced, it'll OK if it's forevermore impossible to buy a well-supported phone that lets you run whatever software you please?
On edit: By the way, that's the biggest reason I don't use Apple, and the biggest reason I haven't used Apple since "smart phones" became a thing. Otherwise Apple is superior in a lot of ways. I do realize that people who give a shit are a tiny sliver of the market...
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#18The same author also put identical wording on all of their actively maintained Android apps (SherpaTTS, Whisper IME, gptAssist, GPS Cockpit, etc.: https://github.com/woheller69)
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#19I'm past the point where I care if my next device has "phone" features like calling and SMS. I'm fine with technical limitations, but I'm done with Apple and Google adding artificial ones. Maybe I'll get a used Librem5. I'd get a Jolla phone, but they don't ship to the US. But honestly in my research, there's been no blogs I can find that compare these 3rd party phones to each other that aren't like 4 years old and o…
Graphene has been the best alternative I've found so far.
Re: WhoBIRD is now deprecated on certified Android devices
#20I'm still waiting to hear what the EU will have to say about all of this, it seems like a very clear violation of the Digital Markets Act to me.
They're clearly betting on Trump to strong-arm the EU into dropping the DMA, or not enforcing it on US tech giants. And sadly, it seems like that could work.
I hope so, I’d rather have th EU dependent on the US for tech than develop their own tech industry