Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

martinruenz.de

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 345 posts

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#121

Post by sevensor »

ethbro wrote: post #88
WorldMaker wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been joking lately that there is a new one syllable word for "personal computer": phone. At the current rate that's how the language will shift. I suppose we'll know if people start referring to things like "macOS deskphones" and think "laptop" always meant "laptop phone". :) It's like those futurist ads from the 50s (and 80s/90s) AT&T that soon there will be phones capable of amazing things everywhere in our li…

Before laptops became physically possible due to LCDs there were portable computers [1] (yes, I played with one my high school lab had). I suspect in the future we'll have curious historians trying to figure out how the phrase "personal computer" ended up being shortened to "phone". [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_computer

I like how minicomputer used to mean "computer that's only as big as a chest freezer." Every now and then I hear laypeople use the term "mini-computer" to mean a computer that's really small by their standards, like a raspberry Pi.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#122

Post by int_19h »

WorldMaker wrote: post #47
nkrisc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't carry a phone in my pocket, I carry a personal computer that also makes voices calls over cellular networks.

I've been joking lately that there is a new one syllable word for "personal computer": phone. At the current rate that's how the language will shift. I suppose we'll know if people start referring to things like "macOS deskphones" and think "laptop" always meant "laptop phone". :) It's like those futurist ads from the 50s (and 80s/90s) AT&T that soon there will be phones capable of amazing things everywhere in our li…

There's actually a wonderful and very generic word that was invented for these devices back in 1965 (!): "joymaker".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joymaker

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#123

Post by jamiethehutt »

freeone3000 wrote: post #38
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, out of curiosity, at this point what are his choices?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and... . This is the "Google Dialer". This is one example; there are dozens more.

>This app is incompatible with all of your devices.

My device is a Wiley Fox Swift.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#124

Post by wmeredith »

andybak wrote: post #11
mcherm wrote: post #8

I completely disagree with the title. The fact that "telephony" can be an app on the phone is a WONDERFUL thing. It means that the author of this article has a choice, as opposed to NOT having a choice.

I'll be Mr. Reasonable Compromise. It's both a wonderful thing and a risk. Which of those two it becomes depends on the entire ecosystem around installable apps, trust and verification. I've never had a problem with 3rd party dialers on Android. But I can smell a scam and I'm technically literate. To the best of my knowledge there's never been a major dialler related security mishap. In fact much of the panic about A…

> Nobody I know has ever had an issue to the best of my knowledge.

Well, pack it in, fellas. We're done here. :D

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#125

Post by Nullabillity »

muppetman wrote: post #71
wutbrodo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always found it weird how everyone I know seems much more cautious about phone usage than me: for example, I've never understood why people don't answer numbers they don't recognize. I'm slowly realizing that this is because apparently people are inundated with spam calls? I think I may have received one solitary spam call in my entire life. I can't really account for the discrepancy

Where do you live? I'm the same, 0 spam calls ever, but I live in NZ.

Swede here, and non-private number (indexed by hitta.se, etc). Getting roughly 1 spam call per year, and that's a high estimate.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#126

Post by krrrh »

ris wrote: post #84

So what makes you think Apple or Google aren't using your call information for advertising purposes in the default diallers?

Apple's record on privacy and business model give me pretty high confidence on this one.

Google may have an incentive to add call info to the profile they keep on you, but surely you're not thinking that they are as big of a privacy risk as some random third-party that puts a dialer up on the play store.

Edit: I couldn't get the article to load, so I'm going by the other comments to assume this was about scammy dialers tricking regular users on Android into installing them. Obviously a dialer on a custom ROM modified for extra privacy is a justifiable reason for making it replaceable on Android.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#127

Post by nostoc »

int_19h wrote: post #122
WorldMaker wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been joking lately that there is a new one syllable word for "personal computer": phone. At the current rate that's how the language will shift. I suppose we'll know if people start referring to things like "macOS deskphones" and think "laptop" always meant "laptop phone". :) It's like those futurist ads from the 50s (and 80s/90s) AT&T that soon there will be phones capable of amazing things everywhere in our li…

There's actually a wonderful and very generic word that was invented for these devices back in 1965 (!): "joymaker". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joymaker

That's surprisingly prescient!

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#128

Post by ceejayoz »

krrrh wrote: post #111
WorldMaker wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been joking lately that there is a new one syllable word for "personal computer": phone. At the current rate that's how the language will shift. I suppose we'll know if people start referring to things like "macOS deskphones" and think "laptop" always meant "laptop phone". :) It's like those futurist ads from the 50s (and 80s/90s) AT&T that soon there will be phones capable of amazing things everywhere in our li…

Mobile phones are called "Handys" in German. It's become such a satisfying and appropriate name for handheld computers, as distinct from traditional personal computers. In British English, they've always called cellphones "mobiles", which is also a nice short name for mobile computers.

In American English, a handy means... something else.

Mobile could work, though, and I've heard it used.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#129

Post by WorldMaker »

dwighttk wrote: post #108
WorldMaker wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been joking lately that there is a new one syllable word for "personal computer": phone. At the current rate that's how the language will shift. I suppose we'll know if people start referring to things like "macOS deskphones" and think "laptop" always meant "laptop phone". :) It's like those futurist ads from the 50s (and 80s/90s) AT&T that soon there will be phones capable of amazing things everywhere in our li…

"I'm also strongly for renaming 3D Printers to facsimile machines" Wouldn't you need a 3D Scanner/Printer to really be a facsimile machine?

It's not a strong requirement in my mind, but again I'm posturing that the original term fax was far too explicitly framed when it is more useful as a very generic term.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#130

Post by ksk »

nylonstrung wrote: post #49
wutbrodo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Manufacturers are under no obligation to provide you with a device to your particular specification I don't think wishing that a niche was filled constitutes assuming that manufacturers have any obligation.

A niche that appeals to almost no one and alienates the telcos that manufacturers partner with. So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

>So it looks like the free market is working in this case.

That is not necessarily a good thing.

Post reply on HN