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Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

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Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#261

Post by parl_match »

0xfaded wrote: post #258
ricardobeat wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waayy back in 2009 we had Bump [1], which allowed transfer between devices and later web apps as well – by banging your phone against the spacebar. It worked 98% of the time and was faster than AirDrop is today, even though we only had 3G. Google acquired it and immediately killed it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bump_(application)

Waaay back when in Japan, sekigaisen (infrared) was a verb meaning to transfer contact details or photos or whatever between phones via infrared. It was amazing how fast the iPhone took over Japan and killed off their quirky phone ecosystem. Edit: want to emphasize that it was totally ubiquitous. Every phone has it

yes, "beaming" in the us was also used for quite a while. as in IR beam

japanese phones were buggy, feature packed monstrosities. a bunch of companies fighting to check as many boxes as they could. it's not a surprise that they got wiped out by an attempt to make a holistic internet communicator.

but for a while, there was nothing like them and their ability to get information on the internet

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#262

Post by Narushia »

codethief wrote: post #241

Do we know yet whether this will require Google Play Services and the like on Android? Or, worse, SafetyNet? I dream of using this on GrapheneOS without any Google stuff.

I'd be surprised if it did, there's no technical reason to require those. Also, SafetyNet is deprecated in favor of Play Integrity, so you're not likely to see the former in any new apps/services.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#263

Post by Gigachad »

creaturemachine wrote: post #37
OptionOfT wrote: post #5

The fact that I get excited about this is actually a good representation much vendor lock there is. We used to be able to send files over Bluetooth before the iPhone came out.

Ever since the iphone apple has been trying to make you believe files aren't a thing.

They have rolled it back over the years. Theres a full files app now, USBs can be easily plugged in to the iPhone, every app that allows exporting allows saving to the files section, etc.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#265

Post by dataflow »

What I want to know is under what circumstances Quick Share will send the files over the internet, and how exactly I can prevent that and force it to go solely over the local network. Nearby Share had the ability to control this, and it seems they deliberately removed it from Quick Share.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#266

Post by Gigachad »

tuetuopay wrote: post #132
Angostura wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Apple realised that phone users are interested in photos, videos, contacts, documents, appointments etc. not files

Despite others thinking you’re crazy, I think you are right. I remember the start of the smartphone era where many of my relatives switched to iPhone because "you know where the pictures are going and where to find them". The worst offender was my dad that had a Samsung phone running windows phone 6 (with an actual start menu) where you had to dig through folders to find jpeg files.

Desktop OSs are the worst for mixing random system files with the users own documents. Theres a better balance now where the “Files” app has your documents, downloaded stuff and similar, while system and app data is hidden.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#267

Post by thewebguyd »

nicolaslem wrote: post #103
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #42

Long overdue, there should really be an open standard for wireless sharing of files. Windows? macOS? Linux? Android? iOS? Switch2? PS5? Doesn't matter, just open the wireless file transfer window and it should just work. Having to install third-party apps for such basic functionality is ridiculous. If we had a functional government every major tech CEO would get called by congress, grilled about this bullshit, and to…

I am with you. How is it that in the past we got major successes like TCP/IP, 802.3, HTTP and WiFi but somehow in the past decade big tech decided that was too much collaboration and it would be better for everyone to stop doing that?

> big tech

That's why.

TCP/IP was DARPA, so publicly (taxpayer) funded. The first HTTPd was public domain. WiFi was a bit of a combo of Vic Hayes & Bell Labs, IEEE and a research org so not exactly a public or public domain project.

Big tech and profit/rent seeking is literally the problem. Things don't interoperate because it's not profitable for them to interoperate.

We stopped undertaking large public works projects in tech and outsourced it all to private companies. Big tech is literally the problem.

This is why free and open source software is so important.

How different would things look if httpd wasn't public domain, and Tim instead started a tech company, made it proprietary, etc.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#268

Post by Gigachad »

rootusrootus wrote: post #81
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS hotspots are discoverable by non-Apple devices if you have "Allow Others to Join" enabled and have the Personal Hotspot settings panel open on the iOS device. Otherwise, it's hidden to help prevent unintended connection attempts.

I suspect they mean sharing the password for a regular wifi network, not running a hotspot.

That feature hardly works between iPhones anyway. It’s easier to just open the passwords app and show the QR code.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#269

Post by thewebguyd »

hackernewds wrote: post #137
marcodiego wrote: post #83

If you're using android, you can easily share files over local network (or using your phone as hotspot) with this app: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.MarcosDiez.shareviahttp/ If you're not close, telegram fork allow easy sharing of files too.

but I have to download and app which is the same as downloading Google drive

and more importantly, AirDrop works without network, it's P2P. There's situations where the devices you want to share to/from aren't on the same network or can't put them on the same network for various reasons.

Re: Android and iPhone users can now share files, starting with the Pixel 10

#270

Post by Gigachad »

_shantaram wrote: post #88
Gys wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We used to be able to send files over Bluetooth before the iPhone came out. Cross platforms, really? So for example between a Blackberry and a Windows CE phone?

> Cross platforms, really? So for example between a Blackberry and a Windows CE phone? Yes, it was part of the Bluetooth file transfer spec[0] and possible between any two devices that implemented it correctly. 0: https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specs/file-transfer...

It always kind of sucked though. You had to go through the pairing process, and then the transfer was incredibly slow since Bluetooth is very low bandwidth.

It’s still a classic Apple “the open standard sucks so build a proprietary one that’s great but only on iPhone”

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