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Android’s desktop interface leaks

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221–230 of 393 posts

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore. Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices. But 50 Euros on the used market got me a retired corporate HP/Dell laptop with 1080p screen, intel 8th gen i5 quad core, 8GB RAM and 256GB NVME on which…

I'm ignorant on this topic, can you not just plug a USB dock with HDMI out in any android phone and get a display out? I do it all the time on the previous three pixel phones I've had, but I didn't know that this was limited to those?

USB-C is only a connector/socket - a device having a USB-C socket does not guarantee much beyond being able to plug a USB-C connector into it.

Some USB-C devices only use the port for charging for example. Others might only support USB 2.0.

Getting a display out from something with USB-C socket needs the device to support something called DP Alt Mode.

Note that cables matter too - you can have a DP alt mode enabled monitor and phone, but if you have the wrong cable it won’t work. Welcome to the future.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#222
I wonder what does this mean for the attestation layer? If you can run banking apps on a desktop, this would be a massive game changer for many of us who only use normie OSes because of the need to use services that are mobile app only (or with functionally limited web apps). Means we would only need to keep a single phone rather than two

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's lineageOS for outdated pixel device, but I think you loose device attestation if you flash that, so your banking, payment and digital-ID apps won't work anymore which is kind of important features for a lot of people. I still think separating a phone for phone apps and a PC for productivity, is the best choice even if that PC is a 20 year old rustbucket from the dumpster, it will still do more tasks than a ph…

Your banking app might not work but your bank probably also offers a web page that you can just load up in your browser

There is a growing trend among banks to keep the web app usable only for emergency purposes (notify bank that your phone got stolen or lost and authorize the installation of the bank on a new phone) and only allow functionality on their mobile apps.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#225

This looks like it will help a lot of students and families who are on a budget. If you can just plug your phone into a screen you do not need to buy a separate laptop anymore. The browser extensions are the most important part because that is what makes a computer useful. I am glad to see they are thinking about this.

You can get a monstrously powerful MacBook almost new for under $500. And that includes display, keyboard, touchpad and speakers. And a whole lot more.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#226

They ought to put the status bar at the bottom. All the designers using Macs probably forgot, but Chrome's tab interface was designed for Windows where it could be all the way at the top of the screen. And in general it's more common for desktop apps designed for mouse and keyboard to have frequently accessed UI elements at the top of the window than the bottom. So desktop apps would benefit from being able to use th…

iOS did exactly this and it’s so much better for usage

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#227
post #200

The visual design is just so bad. Its so ugly and souless. I actually feel bad for the UI designer that had to put their name behind that.

What would you want to see different from this? is there an OS that actually looks good?

MacOS up until Catalina

Windows 7 with the Shine 2.0 theme

Gnome Adwaita

QNX Photon 6

BeOS R5

I'm sure there's more good examples. People here will say Windows 2000, but I don't think it has any grace.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Few issues with that. For one, PCs still make it there via ewaste shipments that then get repaired and sold for cheap, so you can have decent variety of old stuff. And secondly, even a "3rd gen in a poor condition at best (or some shit tier Celeron N-thousand something with a soldered 4GB RAM)" as you call it, is better for learning marketable skills and making stuff, than whatever you can do on your phone, since off…

> For one, PCs still make it there via ewaste shipments that then get repaired and sold for cheap, so you can have decent variety of old stuff. No you can't. Unlike you, I'm talking from experience when I'm telling what €50 gets you in used marked in a non-developed country.

Just today I got a 15 year used laptop in a "developed country" (Germany) for €30. Windows 10 works in a VM. It did come with Windows 11, but I wiped that. What are you all arguing about?

Btw, I also got a Celeron laptop you were talking about, I got it for free.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#229
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure what you are trying to say. Convincing a user to give their password will always be an issue, that's fundamental. But because phishing exists does not mean that security does not matter. Without security, there is no need to phish, because the system does not protect anything. Once you have a good security, then the best attack is phishing because it's easier to trick the human than the system. This mea…

I think one of the points is that all this attestation stuff does not protect against the majority of the ways users are compromised. Its just remote control with real security benefits, just those benefits largely accrue to companies and at the expense of the user.

If my system is signed and verified at every boot, doesn't that guarantee that my system hasn't been tampered with? Meaning that no malware has found a way to get root access and modify it. I find this valuable.
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