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

The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 204 posts

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#191

Post by CivBase »

reaperducer wrote: post #168
CivBase wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what "small unknown" stores you might be referring to. Surely Amazon qualifies as a "big name" store same as Apple or Google, right? Clearly this event shows a big name is not an indication of consumer protection.

Surely Amazon qualifies as a "big name" store same as Apple or Google, right? Yes. That's why I listed it right next to Apple and Microsoft in my response. https://www.rif.org

Yeah I read that. Your comment about "small unknown stores" threw me off because none of the parties involved with this story are small so I'm not sure what it has to do with the discussion.

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#192

Post by genewitch »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #147
rerdavies wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about DVDs, but CDs weren't designed to last longer than 10 years. Most of my CD collection has physically rotted. Because I was using Windows Media Player and iTunes, I ripped most of collection in M4A format, which, at the time, was better than MP3. A couple of years ago, I decided that I wanted to re-rip my CD collection (some 200 odd CDs) in FLAC format instead of m4a format (don't ask). And some signifi…

My 80s CDs are fine. Just played my first CD, Bryan Adams and it sounds like the day I bought it. Maybe your environment or drive are factors? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reckless_(Bryan_Adams_album)

i think various pressing factories had different tolerances for oxygen ingress, which, iirc, the oxidization is what actually kills optical media.

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#193

Post by Larrikin »

bogwog wrote: post #123
makeitdouble wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you could live a week mostly the same way you do now without touching any service that pays Amazon.

Is that really so hard? I cancelled my Prime subscription years ago and haven't missed it. Walmart, Target, Costco, BestBuy, HomeDepot, etc haven't gone anywhere. Smaller specialty retailers usually sell on their own website with shipping too. Plus, one genuine advantage the other retailers have over Amazon is that you can (usually) trust you're getting something of reasonable quality, whereas Amazon feels like an AI…

I cancelled my subscription and found I didn't really miss it that much, but could not find a good replacement for semi bulk or bulk purchases. Usually one to one items are priced the same elsewhere. But if I want to buy in bulk I have to go to Costco, but they are only good if I'm fine with anything, but out of luck for specific brands or any item they deem seasonal. They stopped carrying the only lotion I like replacing it with a different brand, the lens cleaners are now terrible, and they haven't had grape seed oil for months.

There used to be a bulk site I was on before COVID, but they were bought and shut down.

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#194

Post by rerdavies »

genewitch wrote: post #183
rerdavies wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major barrier is that I have no idea who my paid purchasers are.

out of curiousity, how do you know that google is paying you the correct amount?

What I actually get: a list of completely anonymized per-transaction data that contains the country in which the purchase was made, the time and date, the currency in which the transaction was made, and the .. something to do with exchange rate, and... about 12 columns of data in total, none of which remotely resemble an email or a credit card number or a globally unique account ID. Actually, multiple records for each transaction -- there's a separate record for various stages of clearing of the payment (or failure to clear as the case may be).

I suppose I could analyze that data, although I can't think of an actual good reason to do so. I have no idea whether those records are real or fabricated. So no real way to verify that google is paying me the correct amount. Since you asked.

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#195

Post by matt_heimer »

mattmaroon wrote: post #11

All 6 people who used Amazon app store on a non-Fire tablet must be very upset!

It wasn't just devices running Android natively, if you wanted to run Android apps on Windows you might have used the Amazon Appstore with the Windows Subsystem for Android which Microsoft is discontinuing.

It is likely that Microsoft's decision lead to this.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/android/wsa/

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#196

Post by bdavbdav »

gruez wrote: post #186
bdavbdav wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all easy. It’s a PITA using all sorts of odd sources.

It's literally downloading a few apks and installing them. You don't even need to use adb. You can do it all within the preloaded browser that's on the tablet. https://www.howtogeek.com/232726/how-to-install-the-google-p...

I don’t remember it being that easy when I did it 3-4 years ago. I was also a bit uncomfortable downloading the google support libraries from APKmirror, as my life is on my google account. IIRC the APKs were unsigned.

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#197

Post by RobotToaster »

tsunamifury wrote: post #104
RobotToaster wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you can take them to the small claims court, of course if you do that Amazon ban you from ever using any of their services. Given how many people rely on Amazon prime these days that's not a pleasant prospect.

You’ve just described a nearly perfect cliche 80s dystopia.

We're already living in a cyberpunk dystopia, just without the cool toys.

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#198

Post by OJFord »

dowager_dan99 wrote: post #159
OJFord wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if I'd reach that conclusion because of Chime - there's also Blink & Ring, a lot of overlap and confusion in cameras & security.

Chime is their online meetings app, not their doorbell camera

Ah I was thinking of Ring Chime. (I'm sure there is a third overlapping with Ring & Blink though, can't recall name.)

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#199

Post by genewitch »

rerdavies wrote: post #194
genewitch wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

out of curiousity, how do you know that google is paying you the correct amount?

What I actually get: a list of completely anonymized per-transaction data that contains the country in which the purchase was made, the time and date, the currency in which the transaction was made, and the .. something to do with exchange rate, and... about 12 columns of data in total, none of which remotely resemble an email or a credit card number or a globally unique account ID. Actually, multiple records for eac…

Thanks for taking the time. I figure if you run a non-hosted app that costs money (i dunno, a flashlight or camera app for instance.) there's no way to know for sure if google is being honest. I guess if you run a hosted app they would almost certainly have to be honest otherwise a user that paid wouldn't have access to your service.

It was an idle curiosity. If i ever make an app, it'll have a trivial authenticated hosted back end, just to keep google honest!

Re: The Amazon Appstore for Android devices will be discontinued on August 20, 2025

#200

Post by genewitch »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #187
genewitch wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Deere and at least one of the major tool manufacturers is working very hard on legally disabling your equipment that you own. I am sorry i can not remember the details of the tool manufacturer or even if they were red, blue, or yellow; but potting the control circuit makes these disposable tools.

I think Ryobi and HDX tools sold at Home Depot need to be one-time unlocked at purchase[1], or they remain brightly-colored paperweights. 1: https://hackaday.com/2021/08/02/home-depot-is-selling-power-...

thanks for the heads up. I know theft is an issue, but cmon.

apparently they haven't seen proof that this is a thing inside the tools (per that article at least) but if i was tasked with this i'd use programmable fuses on the mCU. Battery pack in, hit the trigger twice or something, put it on the activation thing, the mCU nukes the "deactivated" fuses, and it will permanently be enabled.

what do you want to bet it isn't that? btw it could be, i just thought of the first thing that would guarantee the purchaser always had their tool that they had purchased. anything that requires some mechanical linkage to move (a relay was mentioned) will break the first time you drop the tool on its nuts.

Also if your phone breaks on a job you get to go home because "none of my tools work anymore, sorry"

edit: it took me a minute but the theft numbers are like 0.8% and i bet most places would love to have shrink that low.

as a comparison 17% of minimum wage earners have experienced losses averaging a quarter of their gross paychecks. All theft except wage theft in the US (larceny, grand, robbery, fraud) is ~35% of just the recovered wages (in 2012 i am looking at).

0.8% shrink, lol

[0] i got my data from https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-fo... for this post but i knew what to look for because there was a nice graphic showing the ratios of all theft and wage theft is easily 3x as large as the rest i saw a year or two ago.

Post reply on HN