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Android’s desktop interface leaks

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291–300 of 393 posts

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#291

Is it going to be the same future as Fuchsia OS? There were some good ideas in that one, but then one day it sort of disappeared. Not that that was surprising - Google is good at that.

It was an experiment to keep bright engineers busy with cool ideas to show off.Even back then they could have known that it is not a viable idea to make a tectonic platform switch with not much business arguments for it.

I would love for a microkernel, capabilities OS to become standard. Windows and Linux have been bolting on security layers for decades because the modern threat model was barely a concern when they were originally created.

Google actually has the sway that it could drag the industry in that direction.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Google reorganizes and gets more focused, I'd say they are highly likely to repeat their mistakes. IMHO both Apple and Google are missing a big opportunity here. Both are doing work to blur the lines between desktop and mobile. Both are targeting laptops, ar, phones, and tablets. These are multiple modalities. Or they should be. But because the way both are structured, these are isolated islands with some inte…

What is Apple doing to blur the line between desktop and mobile? Is it the abomination they call iPadOS? It's a joke, it's nothing more than iOS+. They've made it perfectly clear that they want to keep desktop and mobile separate in order to convince their customers to buy all their devices.

MacOS can now run a lot of IOS applications. They have icloud to sync a bunch of things. But only for their own applications. But maybe it's more clear if we limit the discussion to just phones. The key question, why do people only buy 1 iphone? Is it because it's perfect for every situation? Or because they can't play nice together?

Switching from one to the other is a PITA. What if that was seamless. You just pick one up and now everything is there. You might have a phone for work, going out, hiking, etc. You might have phones matching different iphones. Apple could be selling you many phones. Losing a phone would be a lot less dramatic because you'd have multiple spares. Do they all have to have the same screen size? Do all of them even need a screen?

Apple sells lots of phones. They could be selling 2-3x more. That's just phones. The way they positioned their VR device and watch is kind of telling. They are both kind of satellite devices. But apparently that requires special apps and a new OS (for both).

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I wonder how relevant Fitt's law is with bigger screens and the drastically changed ratio between mouse hand movement and cursor movement on screen. It used to be that you could reach a screen corner with a very simple flick of the mouse hand wrist. But that doesn't feel the same way anymore on modern hardware.

FWIW, Apple's known to have a slightly more aggressive mouse/trackpoint acceleration curve to account for this. (In retrospect it's probably why Apple went all out on luxuriously large trackpads.)

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#294
post #130

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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.

That's the same fallacy as seeing that no one dies of certain diseases, so the vaccines against them don't work.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#296

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>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…

The moto g100 is a good example of a midrange phone with decent specs, including video output. It launched at $400, and can be bought for around $200 these days. It has a Snapdragon 870, 8gb RAM, 128gb storage, a microSD slot, headphones jack, and a big enough battery to last 2 days. It's a little chunky, and it's not waterproof, but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone. Motorola, of course…

How did they abandon it? It release october last year according to google.

>but beyond that it's just about everything I ever wanted in a phone.

I get that, but none of this answers my question of why people should use that to a TV, instead of a PC, other than to flex? It really isn't more practical, nor saving you money and you're still limited to the apps of android ecosystem rather than the windows/linux one.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you understand how much are 50 bucks in a third world country? I mean, Android phone is not the cheapest solution for the poor (obviously) but it helps a lot having this kind of features for a family.

>Do you understand how much are 50 bucks in a third world country? Yes I do, no need to patronize us with that since even in 3rd world countries people have access to old computers from ewaste imports at a reasonable price, we don't all live in straw mudhuts wearing loincloths swinging from branch to branch. Now tell me which 50 euro phone ships with display output and is readily available. AFAIK Oneplus 7T I had is…

> people have access to old computers from ewaste imports at a reasonable price,

Are you joking?

One can get super good condition Dell latitudes with 8th gen Intel with 8GB RAM and 256GB NVMe with 1 year no-questions asked warranty (and original charger) for €100. Similar ones cost 2x or 3x in India. That is not reasonable.

> don't all live in straw mudhuts wearing loincloths

No. But not everyone is earning in Bengaluru campus. Look at the typical Rapido driver.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#298
ChromeOS is 14 years old, not really sure why they’re just now going this route.

Android laptops are nothing new, unless you don’t count the crappy low end ones that have no business running it.

I’m sure Google will make their flagship apps nicely tailored but regular phone centric apps has to be an awkward experience.

Re: Android’s desktop interface leaks

#299
post #260

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and you can't install apps as easy on iPhone than on mac right? That's 2 different world that Apple need to cross, and it's unlikely.

App instalation isn't really even the problem. It is just the capabilities you have that you do not have access to. a modern iPad can easily run macOS as an 'app', if you will. The kernel is there, the userland is there, just not the checkbox from up high. Even Xcode works well in macOS VMs nowadays.

IIRC someone managed to run WindowServer on jailbroken iOS – but had to patch out Metal with a stub to do so.

https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/1mn7mk1/your_jai...

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