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Why I'm Ditching Android

kevq.uk

191–200 of 258 posts

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#191
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not surprised. http://vbn.aau.dk/files/240065248/Mobile_Phone_Antenna_Perfo...

I find it surprising because iPhone SE SAR levels are higher than those of iPhone 6. Actually, at the time of the release, it was the model with the highest SAR levels ever released by Apple.

This quote made it more clear:

> This dramatic difference in head SAR levels is mainly because the transmitter is located at the bottom of Samsung phones rather than at the top, also they incorporate an innovative antenna that transmits the highest intensities of microwave radiation from the lower back of their smartphones.

http://weeksmd.com/2016/01/the-new-smart-phones-are-6x-more-...

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And OpenMoko before that. Turns out the number of people that actually want a phone with a terminal interface is in the dozens.

Don’t strawman. No-one wants a phone with a terminal interface, and linux phones did not have terminal interfaces.

I recognize that I'm in the minority, but I want a terminal interface on my phone. I have my qualms with Android, but one of my favorite things about it is that I can drop into a terminal and have what is essentially a full Linux distro at my disposal. I often leave my main laptop at the office instead of lugging it around, and it's great being able to use a bluetooth keyboard with my phone to get real work done sometimes.

I use termux [1] which allows me to install whatever software I want with APT. I can use vim, ssh into servers, and mostly do whatever else I would do on a computer. It's not a strawman, it's just a developer-centric niche.

1 - https://wiki.termux.com/wiki/Main_Page

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#193
post #68

A lot of people want to ditch both Android and Apple, so /e/ is kicking off as a purely Google-free FOSS OS the author might like more than Lineage, once it gets a little more developed: https://www.xda-developers.com/e-google-free-lineageos-fork-... We're overdue for some viable third option.

Isn't LineageOS microG already google free?

Yes, it is, and you can run microG on any Android version without OpenGApps. With microG you still rely on non-free services (Google Play Services, for example); just via open source frameworks. You also, possibly, breach Google's EULA.

I do use it. The notifications aren't flawless, since any application using firebase isn't going to work (the old GCM still works for now). Things may break any day. I suppose its akin to being on your own whilst running a Hackintosh except that the software is FOSS.

A reasonable alternative is a model where you pay for the software and get a license to run it. For that, you can opt for Sailfish which is almost completely FOSS. Heck, you can run community versions of Sailfish as well but without Alien Dalvik (Android compatibility layer). But I wouldn't depend on such too much.

Other alternatives are the Ubuntu Touch/Phone project by UBPorts, and the KDE people are also still alive and kicking. There's postmarketOS, based on Alpine, giving older smartphones a second life.

And you can also opt to use a dumbphone plus a mobile device. You don't need to have a smartphone.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#194
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t strawman. No-one wants a phone with a terminal interface, and linux phones did not have terminal interfaces.

I recognize that I'm in the minority, but I want a terminal interface on my phone. I have my qualms with Android, but one of my favorite things about it is that I can drop into a terminal and have what is essentially a full Linux distro at my disposal. I often leave my main laptop at the office instead of lugging it around, and it's great being able to use a bluetooth keyboard with my phone to get real work done some…

There’s a difference between a phone with a terminal and a phone with a terminal interface.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just ask around what great experience it is to use new os/apps on a 5 year old phone.

I think this issue is likely to be diminished as the performance difference's not been improving that much lately (X and XS having similar CPU performance) - we have come to a point of smartphone evolution where yearly additions to a performance will not be the reason to upgrade -> therefore I don't expect new iOS versions slowing devices significantly.

That's what I am thinking too.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#196
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple has a clear business model that involves selling high-end phones and other hardware and taking a percentage of app sales, not selling me to advertisers. I would just be a little cautious about this. Apple is currently sticking it to Google by making it easy to block ads and by offering appealing privacy features. But we don't know what Apple will do if everyone switches away from Android. I would guess that t…

It's also not going to happen. Normal people don't pay for high-end phones, and way outnumber the people who do in most of the world (those parts that are not California). Even the "cheap" iPhone models are outside the price range the average consumer pays.

I dunno what average consumer means. Here in Australia almost everybody on train have an iPhone not older that 1 gen back. Some minority has flagship Samsung’s. Some of the geeky people have top notch(no pun intended) pixels or one plus, all flagships, but this is really a minority from my anecdotal experience. Most of the regular people that I see use some version of an iPhone. Apple Stores are being packed compared to the Samsung store across the street. The price is not a problem I think. People just buy it on two year contracts or loans and being just fine with it.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#197
post #4

Notifications, as you rightly mentioned, are a huge problem with Android. Some manufacturers implement battery saving measures which force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications. I used to work at a team messaging startup Flock and we used to get a lot of complaints from users about missing notifications. We were able to detect impacted users and reduce complaints substantially using duplicate…

> force kill applications so they can no longer process notifications I saw your article about push notifications on certain android phone manufacturers and found it interesting -- something I hadn't seen before. Nice! But, if I'm not mistaken, the OP is focusing especially on android notifications raised by the app itself rather than push notifications. I'm not sure, but it seems like the problem he highlights invol…

From what I know, Android app has to run a background service to listen for GSM notifications so if you kill it - no notifications for you. Am I being wrong, has it changed? My last android dev experience is about 5 years old.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#198
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Is there a practical way to do windows development on Linux?

depends on what you're developing right? If the libraries are there, and you have a cross compiler, then it'd be fine.

Use a VM as a start.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#199
Google does let you turn off location tracking and web search history and I believe them. Apple has a much higher walled garden, do you have to trust them completely? I am on Android and have considered this.

Re: Why I'm Ditching Android

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not have any extra bloatware from any manufacturer, due to the fact that I run a Xiaomi Mi A1 as my daily driver, but I still would appreciate the choice to be able to manually install only the apps that I would use, e.g. Firefox instead of Chrome. I do have 64Gb of internal storage, but I obsess about every lost megabyte due to something I don't use( even when disabled or not used, Chrome still runs functions o…

When disabled, the operating system exposes none of the app's hooks to start any part of it, so it is not true that a disabled app still runs functions on the phone. It is even possible to swap out the WebView implementation for other apps. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47577525/get-webview-imp... iOS has just as much bloatware, and much of it can't even be disabled, let alone uninstalled. For privacy, consider…

You can absolutely uninstall default apps and you don’t have to use iMessage.
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