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Linux phones are more important now than ever

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Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#181

Post by tsimionescu »

dsp_person wrote: post #108
jeffparsons wrote: post #17

My Android phone prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to. My Android phone prevents me from recording phone calls at the request of my carrier, even though it's totally legal for me to do so in my jurisdiction. I'm not loving where this is all going.

I think this might be a longstanding "bug", but I have also not had any luck on my android using the screen recorder to record device audio from a browser (either chromium or firefox). It used to partially work using the mic to record the speakers, but currently it sounds like it does processing to subtract away the original signal; I hear mostly silence with occasional garbled artifacts resembling the original audio…

Maybe this depends on the site? I have definitely recorded video with audio off YouTube and other popular video sites, on a stock Samsung phone, even yesterday.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#182

Post by metabagel »

tsimionescu wrote: post #180
floren wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"nation state" has a particular meaning and it's not just "a smart-sounding way to say country" but it tends to get used that way.

It does have a particular meaning, but it is one that's not relevant in this context, and it's probably narrower than what the poster intended. For example, Belgium is not a nation state, but I'm sure the GGP would be surprised by an answer like "no, it wasn't a nation state, Belgium asked them to do it".

TIL

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#183

Post by tsimionescu »

salawat wrote: post #100
Telaneo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to focus on getting one easily available, affordable device working fully with pure Debian or PostmarketOS (no closed drivers or other modules, and preferably no blobs) and with Purism's Phosh. I'm not sure how viable this is. Linux phones already opt for hardware that's as open as possible, i.e. they use parts with the most open documentation and drives, but the trade-off to that is that those parts are functional…

Why is the baseband closed? That is the question we need to have answered.

Ultimately, it all stems from two things - for one, it's illegal to emit radio waves without a special permit. And secondly, it's also extremely hard to process radio signals at the kind of rates we expect today.

Together, these facts make it so that (competitive) wireless modems require organized businesses to create, and organized businesses don't want to share their code with competitors. A foundation dedicated to creating open hardware and software for a competitive wireless modem would face giant hurdles both in regulatory terms, and in hiring people who can actually work on this extremely difficult technical challenge.

Also, building an open source software for controlling wireless modems that complies with the law is probably not fully possible. Per law, to sell a wireless device, you as the manufacturer are responsible for taking reasonable precautions against users misusing it to emit in reserved bands, or to not respect military device priority in the allowed bands. If every user is extended the rights and documentation for modifying the software as they see fit, you're clearly not taking reasonable precautions to prevent them from breaking the law.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#184

Post by Nursie »

neilv wrote: post #136
pessimizer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would honestly just prefer that they use some semi-crap Chinese phone that is running on well-documented stuff a generation or four behind. If you could get Linux on a $50 phone, whoever was shipping them would sell 100K units. People would buy them just out of curiosity. I'm behind though: aren't the UIs for mobile Linux still bad? I still can't get the experience I got out of my N900 that had only 256M of RAM, ri…

In one of my Linux handheld attempts, I looked to evaluate Maemo for the vintage Nokia N810 and N900 as a starting point, but much of open source artifacts (code, docs, forums) had mostly disappeared, even from where there seemed an effort to preserve/migrate. (But someone's copy of some of it might have resurfaced now; I haven't looked recently.) Usually things like this disappear because whoever was paying for host…

Sailfish is the successor.

Their core is apparently based on Mer which was a reconstruction of Meego, which was what came after Maemo, merging it with Moblin, IIRC.

It's a bit tenuous, but you might want to look at Sailfish as carrying the torch in that area.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#185

Post by microtonal »

looofooo0 wrote: post #172
Foobar8568 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to send my new IBAN to my company, I can, no screenshot allowed on the screen with banking information. So I need to log on their website to do it. At least my new bank allows such screenshot and to copy account information directly from the app.

There is a special place in hell for people providing non copyable text information in the form of screenshots.

Perhaps true, but some modern OSes (like macOS and iOS) allow you to copy text from screenshots. And since the text quality of screenshots is typically good, it works well.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#187

Post by ponector »

looofooo0 wrote: post #172
Foobar8568 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to send my new IBAN to my company, I can, no screenshot allowed on the screen with banking information. So I need to log on their website to do it. At least my new bank allows such screenshot and to copy account information directly from the app.

There is a special place in hell for people providing non copyable text information in the form of screenshots.

Do you prefer a voice message instead? /s

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#188

Post by godelski »

hypeatei wrote: post #62
jeffparsons wrote: post #17

My Android phone prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to. My Android phone prevents me from recording phone calls at the request of my carrier, even though it's totally legal for me to do so in my jurisdiction. I'm not loving where this is all going.

> prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to The most frustrating part about this "feature" is that you don't know it's enabled until the screenshot is taken and you're left with a picture of nothing. That and some app authors thinking they're protecting you with this (referring to banking apps in particular)

In some sense they are. But being protected either from a consequence of my own stupidity or a consequence of their lack of security. I think the worst part of all is that these "bandaids" are being used in place of actual security. I don't need to be protected from my own stupidity nor do I need security theater.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#189

Post by microtonal »

nicman23 wrote: post #173
jeffparsons wrote: post #17

My Android phone prevents me from taking screenshots if an app author doesn't want me to. My Android phone prevents me from recording phone calls at the request of my carrier, even though it's totally legal for me to do so in my jurisdiction. I'm not loving where this is all going.

run a custom rom. Infinity X (the gsi one) does both

Custom ROMs do not work with remote attestation (typically), so that means saying bye bye to a lot of apps, including some banking apps.

Re: Linux phones are more important now than ever

#190

Post by deathanatos »

hecanjog wrote: post #14
akagusu wrote: post #5

Linux phones are useless for common people until they can run government and bank apps.

I've had the same (US) bank for 20 years, it's a small one, they have a nice web interface (and I can deposit checks through it on my laptop) but I've never run into a situation where I needed to have some smartphone app to do my banking. (I also don't have a smartphone.) Is this common with major banks? Do they not have web interfaces anymore?

At least with my CU, mobile check deposit is the only function I need a mobile phone for; everything else is equally available on the web interface. (I could go to a physical branch, in lieu of mobile, I suppose.)
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