Live data from Hacker News

Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

arstechnica.com

161–170 of 357 posts

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#161
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good to be able to disable this option: I use old Android phones as servers and don't want them to reboot every 3 days.

https://xkcd.com/1172/ Don't think old Androids will get this update.

I generally like XKCD but dislike the message in this comic. If that's that guy's workflow, they don't have to actively support it, but he should be given the option to disable updates so he can continue to use his tools in the way he sees fit.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#162
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is default on iOS and on many Android versions. It's often configurable, but e.g. carrier policy or local vendors can enforce it. To have updates automatically install overnight is the maximally desirable scenario - waiting for user approval usually result in open vulnerabilities, and if you interact with a prompt you are by definition using your device and it is therefore a much worse time than while you're asl…

I hate overnight updates because a dialed one means I have no alarm and will be hours late for work. And yes, this has actually happened to me at least twice.

I haven't had that happen on iOS, but I have woken up in the night needing my flashlight just to find my phone applying a lengthy update. I have it set to download automatically and install manually now, I believe.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#163
post #162
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate overnight updates because a dialed one means I have no alarm and will be hours late for work. And yes, this has actually happened to me at least twice.

I haven't had that happen on iOS, but I have woken up in the night needing my flashlight just to find my phone applying a lengthy update. I have it set to download automatically and install manually now, I believe.

I haven't had any problems in at least 7+ years, but I work in coffee and I can remember at least two instances where an Apple update made half the staff late by turning off their alarms, myself included.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#164

It's good to have an option like that, even being a default, but there definitively need a switch to disable that if it is your own will. It's not even necessarily that good enough against cops, because in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished. If I'm not wrong, there was a guy that had to stay years in…

I can only second this. I have an old iPhone with a second sim-card, because I need it from time to time. And Apple introduced this auto-reboot a bit earlier, iirc last year. The problem is that after rebooting it also disconnects from wifi, so e.g. SMS/handoff synchronization stops working until you enter a passcode. This is very annoying because it was very convenient for me to receive calls/SMS to my main iPhone.…

>It’s still questionable, because in some states you can indeed go to jail if you don’t unlock. Yet, I really want to be able to turn it off for use-cases like mine.

Even if the end result is the same, anything that forces authorities to use official power over informal power is a net win.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#165

It's good to have an option like that, even being a default, but there definitively need a switch to disable that if it is your own will. It's not even necessarily that good enough against cops, because in a lot of shitty countries, even some pretending to be democratics, not disclosing or at least inputting your password might be a crime severely punished. If I'm not wrong, there was a guy that had to stay years in…

Stories about airport security and officers demanding access your phone is one of the reasons I will never come to the US. An (Italian) friend of mine was stuck in Newark for 8 hours after he refused access to his phone, dragged in some room and questioned for hours along his wife while split from him own kids, even though he later gave them the password (he initially said no because he thought it was out of the line…

Ok, but try refusing the requests of border authorities in any country and see how far you get before you find yourself escorted to a back room.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#166

I just want software that will do nothing user-observable without me explicitly asking it to. No pop-ups, no suggestions, no automatic anything. I don't know if it'll take a fancy buzzword or what. Unobtrusive software? Silent Software?

I've mused about writing a distribution license where every type of notification and update can be disabled, and any modification must follow the same license.

STFU (BSD equivalent) and STFU-O (GPL equivalent)

No LGPL equivalent because I would want even software that uses STFU-* licensed code as a library to follow the STFU-* license.

Just have to explicitly define what counts as a notification lol

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stories about airport security and officers demanding access your phone is one of the reasons I will never come to the US. An (Italian) friend of mine was stuck in Newark for 8 hours after he refused access to his phone, dragged in some room and questioned for hours along his wife while split from him own kids, even though he later gave them the password (he initially said no because he thought it was out of the line…

Ok, but try refusing the requests of border authorities in any country and see how far you get before you find yourself escorted to a back room.

I've visited 45 countries in my life and I've never ever been even asked once to even show the contents of my bag, let alone access to my phone.

Re: Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days

#168
post #162
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate overnight updates because a dialed one means I have no alarm and will be hours late for work. And yes, this has actually happened to me at least twice.

I haven't had that happen on iOS, but I have woken up in the night needing my flashlight just to find my phone applying a lengthy update. I have it set to download automatically and install manually now, I believe.

You don't keep a real flashlight next to your bed?
Post reply on HN