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Android’s desktop interface leaks

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Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#231

Post by heresie-dabord »

joe_mamba wrote: post #84
dfajgljsldkjag wrote: post #69

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.

>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…

> Except that android phones with display output are mostly flagships with flagship prices.

There are exceptions. For example, the Motorola Edge has DP Alt Mode.

https://uperfect.com/blogs/wikimonitor/list-of-smartphones-w...

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#232

Post by pluralmonad »

palata wrote: post #229
pluralmonad wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I do see the value in this and also note that this feature has largely been kept from users intentionally on most other platforms. Still, this offers very little protection for the vast majority of scams to which people fall victim.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#234

Post by Zak »

joe_mamba wrote: post #146
cogman10 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lineageOS kernel isn't guaranteed to be super up to date. It's often based on the manufacturer's kernel. There's also possibly binary blobs involved which can't be checked or updated.

If your device is on the official supported list then it will always be up to date to a point. You're not gonna get android 16 on 10+ year old phones.

Allow me to present LineageOS 23 for the Nexus 5: https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-unofficial-lineageos-23-0-for-ne...

That's Android 16 on a 13 year old phone. It looks to be a little glitchy and it takes some work to install, but it's possible.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#235

Post by gessha »

freedomben wrote: post #91
gessha wrote: post #86

It is interesting to consider the different developments happening with the big mobile orgs regarding the convergence computing paradigm: - Samsung’s Dex has been out for a while - independent devs have been working on Linux “as an app” for some time - Android desktop interface in this article - Apple developing video output on iPhones - Apple working on a Macbook with a mobile chip - another exciting thing is XR dev…

> my concern is convergence computing will reduce the importance of desktop interfaces and the freedom we have to install whatever applications we want Yep, it absolutely will I expect. All the pieces are being or have been laid to build the new world where only a "trusted" device will be able to use the internet. Us nerds can still have our Linux, but it won't work with much of the internet because we won't be able…

I used to look up to Google and Googlers but that was a big mistake on my part because that only made the following disappointment ever so hurtful. All of the product killing, services/APIs lockdown and disrepair that has been their modus operandi over the last decade made them into just another corporate software company.

> Google doing so has surprised me Google are absolutely interested in this because more and more people are installing ad blockers and since their main game is advertisement, they can't allow that. The older the retired Google elites become and the less filtered their language becomes, the more you can peer into their minds and decisions leading up to now. Just look at what Eric Schmidt has been doing and saying.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#236

Post by AuthAuth »

tty456 wrote: post #200
AuthAuth wrote: post #114

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?

I'm not a visual designer but heres what I think is making it look so bad. The task bar is way to thick. The flat design of the icons needs some shadows or something to make them pop a bit. The rounding on the corners is way to much and needes to be dialed back significantly. There is both a top bar and a bottom bar, pick one ffs dont waste screenspace with both. Also top bar is transparent while bottom is fat and grey. I'd keep the top bar and scrap the bottom.

As far as OS's that look good, #1 KDE Plasma with breeze, MacOS snow leopard, Windows xp and vista.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#237

Post by WhyNotHugo »

modeless wrote: post #179

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…

Elements on the top of the screen have virtually infinite height, and elements in the corners have infinite height and width. You can't aim "too high" for something at the top of the screen.

Status bars on top don't make sense if you have tabs on top. Now your tabs are infinitely smaller, and aiming at them requires a lot more effort.

Mac's original design had the menubar on top, and its windows didn't have tabs, so it all worked fine together. That's not the case for browsers with tabs on top.

Along the way, it seems most designers have forgotten about Fitt's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law#Implications_for_U...

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#238

Post by bsimpson »

evanjrowley wrote: post #135
SimianSci wrote: post #83

It really does look to be a rewrite of ChromeOS to make it a native Android experience with very few tweaks to the User experience that I can see. I think it's a good idea on Google's part. The trend of consumers using mobiles as their one and only computing experience is still strong. This will blend the experience consumers have between desktops and their primary computing platform.

It's a trend with Apple as well. It can be seen in iOS/macOS 26 Tahoe. There's lots of untapped potential in those iPads with M-series CPUs. We've also had rumors of a "MacBook Air Lite" sporting a cellphone A-series CPU. The convergence is happening. I would love to be able to do more with my Google Pixel phone. Right now, the MacBook is my primary workstation, but the possibility of an even more "mobile" productivi…

Apparently people play Fortnite on Mac by repackaging the iPhone app.

There's no official Mac app, but the Mac/iOS APIs that Unreal Engine needs are similar enough that you just need to change the packaging.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#239

Post by unixhero »

jeroenhd wrote: post #218
unixhero wrote: post #174

I already have Samsung Dex. Is that the same as this?

Samsung made DeX at some point for the exact same purpose, but that's a Samsung special. Google already has this in their Pixel phones (8+). Plug a Pixel into a standard laptop dock (may need to enter dev settings and tick the "force desktop mode" toggle) and you're welcomed by pretty much exactly this UI.

Yeah back in 2019
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