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Your phone is an entire computer

medhir.com

271–280 of 329 posts

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have a laptop or desktop for those things? Whilst I may not represent the average person, I have no need to check bank statements or manage insurance immediately, so I can wait until I'm at a 'real' computer to do it more conveniently and easily and with a bigger screen and keyboard and mouse. GPs point about the 'relationship with the smart phone' seems to be pertinent. "need to install an app" to do these…

My bank only has two options for authentication: Either you use their mobile app or buy an authentication device from them that's the size of a small phone. Either way I need a handheld device. I can't say I'm happy with the direction of things. They used to offer slips of paper with single-use codes that worked fine, but those are now deprecated in favor of the smartphone app.

Then your bank is garbage and you should switch to a better one. My main bank (USAA) lets me use a one time code sent to my email as a second factor (or SMS, or a code from their app). If they started requiring me to use the app I would drop them immediately. Why is "but my banking app" treated like a valid objection every time user freedom comes up?

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#272
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also bought a flagship iphone with the idea that maybe someday it could be used for work (S25+), first of all I was disappointed that the Snapdragon chips don't actually support the new Android Terminal feature. Anyways there is Tmux, but if I wanted to do actual work, like with my stack: nodejs, docker container (with a postgres, a redis)... I am not sure it would work. Haven't done it so far but I'd be curious of…

> I was disappointed that the Snapdragon chips don't actually support the new Android Terminal feature I’m out of the loop, why couldn’t a particular mobile CPU run a terminal?

The Linux Terminal feature on Android is a VM, and it requires the ability to run "non protected VMs" which it doesn't have: https://www.androidauthority.com/snapdragon-chips-android-li...

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#274
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hardware attestation in a lot of apps that the ecosystem forces us to use Only a tiny amount of apps force you into hardware attestation, and these are mostly around banking, mobile payments and the like. So just use a separate, locked down device for those (where the anti-fraud protection of a locked-down system can be a benefit) and your more open day-to-day device for mostly everything else. A hidden advantage i…

>Only a tiny amount of apps force you into hardware attestation Luckily this is still true, but I'm not confident that it will stay this way. For a few examples, I've been unable to use my phone as a metro card in my city because even though it goes through the metro's app, the app redirects back to google pay. Google's own Waymo app won't work without stock OS even though all it does is call robotaxis. >these are mo…

> carrying around a second phone that I use at most a couple of times a day is inconvenient

Guess it depends on the person. As somebody who carries around all sorts of shit all the time, a slim, extra phone is peanuts

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know any iPhone with USB C you can just plug into a monitor right?

Is that true?

It was since at least the iPhone 4. I still have the old digital AV connector from before they switched to lightning. It came with a hdmi port and a usb port. You could plug an SD card reader into the usb port and use it as an external HDD for transferring files.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#276
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>On the other hand, being cryptographically locked-down is an optional feature. If you don't like it, buy a computer without that feature. But that's the thing, where can I buy a phone without a locked-down operating system? GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel is basically the only option right now, and this still has problems thanks to hardware attestation in a lot of apps that the ecosystem forces us to use. This is large…

> hardware attestation in a lot of apps that the ecosystem forces us to use Only a tiny amount of apps force you into hardware attestation, and these are mostly around banking, mobile payments and the like. So just use a separate, locked down device for those (where the anti-fraud protection of a locked-down system can be a benefit) and your more open day-to-day device for mostly everything else. A hidden advantage i…

>Only a tiny amount of apps force you into hardware attestation

Or basically anything to do with work, even if it's just clocking in and out or 2-factor verifying for login purposes.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#277

I was talking with someone solidly in Gen X that described their desire to write out longer form documents by hand on paper rather than typing them up. The process of typing helped them work through the content better than typing. In an analogous way, I feel like I'm in that part of the millennial generation that is more comfortable doing things on a PC than on a phone. Sure I can informally browse airline tickets an…

My friend wrote her bachelor’s thesis on her iPhone. There’s an entire generation of ‘digital natives’ that are computer illiterate.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#278
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no good phone-slash-laptop There is: https://puri.sm/posts/my-first-year-of-librem-5-convergence/

Looking at the price vs what's inside - sorry but I'll pass.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47367379

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#279

> Now that I know my iPhone has the capacity to run MacOS, I would very much like to do so. I’d love to consider the possibility of switching to a less intrusive phone and repurposing this iPhone into a web server. Perhaps that seems silly, but it’s really not. I’ve already paid for the device, it's clearly a full blown computer, and why should I not be able to modify it as I see fit? I kinda do that with Samsung DeX…

Are you able to actually work with the VR glasses?

I bought a pair of viture pro glasses thinking I could use them with my (linux) laptop / (android) phone when travelling as a large external monitor.

But they were usable for coding, too difficult to read the text, too shakey. Would just give you a headache.

It's a cool idea but I decided the technology wasn't there yet and ended up returning them.

Re: Your phone is an entire computer

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have a laptop or desktop for those things? Whilst I may not represent the average person, I have no need to check bank statements or manage insurance immediately, so I can wait until I'm at a 'real' computer to do it more conveniently and easily and with a bigger screen and keyboard and mouse. GPs point about the 'relationship with the smart phone' seems to be pertinent. "need to install an app" to do these…

> You don't have a laptop or desktop for those things? > Whilst I may not represent the average person, I have no need to check bank statements or manage insurance immediately I think a lot of people check to make sure how much money they have before they make some purchases, especially big ones. Or, they check with this card declined (might need to move some money from one account to another or use a different card)…

I take your point, but I'll also make the point that I'm organised and relatively self disciplined when it comes to spending. If I have to check my back account before any big expenditures, whilst on the go and requiring a smart phone, then that represents some kind of failure of self discipline (outside of emergency health situations).

Having said that, I do have an app that tells me how much is left on my debit card, but I only recharge it from laptop / desktop at home - I tend to not let it get low enough that I can't get through a day.

Can't deny a certain level of privilege, but will say it's been earned through self discipline. Everyone's situations are different, however.

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