191–200 of 255 posts
I hope they get enough traction so that it'll be a viable business and these won't be paperweights in 2-3 years time
Ok, a new phone made by the creator of Android which claims to be extremely well built. However, since most phones now tend to reach the "good enough" level, my main question is about software and left unanswered. What version/flavour of Android does it run? How will updates be planned? For how many years will updates be provided? What's the size of the security team at Essential? Providing an up-to-date Android with…
Software and hardware each built with the other in mind is how Apple is able to support updates for 4 years after you buy your iPhone. Manufacturers who use Android aren't able to do so because the two aren't coupled.
Hopefully Essential does it right and take full ownership of their OS. That would be a real game changer.
I like the idea of a titanium enclosure that is resistant to damage during falls -- but that force needs to be absorbed somewhere. It's nice to know that the outer enclosure of my phone is absorbing some of the impact of a fall. If the Essential phone's titanium is not doing this – are the internal components going to suffer more?
I'm interested in giving Android another shot but without the ability to go into a store and play around with one, it's hard to throw $700+ on blind faith. For example, the Pixel looks incredible in photos. It resembles the iPhone and offers an appearance of quality. Holding in your hand, however, it feels like a plastic piece of crap. If I'd have gone on photos/videos alone, I'd have been very disappointed.
Apple, for me, has been great due to the progressive enhancement and the ability to go into a store and play around. Each phone release is familiar, yet new and refreshing.
Every time the latest 'killer' Android device comes out, it will inevitably introduce a handful of paradigm shifts in both the hardware and software. I feel like you either need to be an early adopter willing to throw hundreds of dollars at devices more frequently, or settle for Samsung bloatware.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
NSA has been known to target sysadmins so I wouldn't call this a myth.
I already said it, social engineering will work regardless whether someone hides their identity. Government knows who works for who. IRS is a good source, so this is a myth that hiding photo can save someone's security. No it is a false sense of security. When I said it's a myth it's satirical
Nation states are like any organization. They are resource and time constrained. If you set the bar high you will eliminate the low hanging fruit adversaries. Force them to put the work in... Plus if you show them you are very careful and watching everything you will force them to be extra careful, as not to tip off any surveillance, which expends more resources.
Whether or not they can actually be anonymous is not the ultimate goal. That would require a lot of work and attention to detail. But you can still do some basic stuff to make the lives of hackers hard.
They seem to avoid mentioning the version of Android they are running - the specs only say "Android". I'd like to be exited about this, but this uncertainty combined with the fact that their security personnel is a team of dogs[1] makes it quite hard for me. [1] https://www.essential.com/about
Marketing person: "I think it'll be cute to add our pets to the about page!" Employees with dogs: "Aww! It'll be so cute to add our dogs! Let's give them fun titles!" Most people: "So cute! Look honey, they have a picture of a dog named 'Cosmo' that's their 'Head of Security'! Haha!" Hacker News: "This is an affront to the serious nature of computer security and an insult! I am shocked that a startup would make such…
HN: What's the big deal?
Most people: It's a little creepy that everyone knows everything about me, and the identity theft epidemic kinda sucks. Not much I can do other than keep an eye on the accounts, chase down fraud as it happens, self-censor, and pray I don't get hit with ransomeware. I have other battles to fight, so I hope the tech industry has my 6 on this one.
They seem to avoid mentioning the version of Android they are running - the specs only say "Android". I'd like to be exited about this, but this uncertainty combined with the fact that their security personnel is a team of dogs[1] makes it quite hard for me. [1] https://www.essential.com/about
and it seems to be buggy with no webgl? using chromium under linux I get "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'getExtension' of null"
They seem to avoid mentioning the version of Android they are running - the specs only say "Android". I'd like to be exited about this, but this uncertainty combined with the fact that their security personnel is a team of dogs[1] makes it quite hard for me. [1] https://www.essential.com/about
why the hell is the about page 1.8MB (when all the resources are loaded)? and it seems to be buggy with no webgl? using chromium under linux I get "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'getExtension' of null"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just want a phone that: - Lasts a full day - Looks nice That's all. Currently I can buy various 8mm phones with various bad-to-OK cases. Give me a beautiful 16mm phone and software updates and I'll give you my 700 bucks.
> - Lasts a full day Many phones do this. Both my iPhone 6 and my iPhone 6s do this and more (usually two days). The issue here is that your use case is likely different than mine. It isn't enough to just say, "full day" without specifying full day doing what.
Ok, a new phone made by the creator of Android which claims to be extremely well built. However, since most phones now tend to reach the "good enough" level, my main question is about software and left unanswered. What version/flavour of Android does it run? How will updates be planned? For how many years will updates be provided? What's the size of the security team at Essential? Providing an up-to-date Android with…
It's slowness is a little annoying, but definitely good enough.
This is the first paragraph that shows up when seeing the site in mobile safari: > I know people are going to ask me a lot of questions about why I started this company. Why didn’t I just travel the world, ride my motorcycle, tinker with my robots, hang out at my bakery with friends and family. And to be honest I still do ask myself that sometimes…but not too often. 1. Maybe I'm not geeky enough, but I don't know who…
> I don't know who you are You might not know that he created Android, but surely you must know that he created the sidekick?? Jokes aside, if you don't know who he is you probably don't need a smartphone.
Wow, how incredibly dismissive and insulting. There's estimated to be something like 2 billion smartphone users globally. Sorry that some of us aren't as cool/hip/in touch as you to know the name of one (admittedly important) person involved in their development.