31–40 of 178 posts
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BuzzFeed News is a trash rag, what are you expecting?
BuzzFeed yes. But this is BuzzFeed News, featuring their Pulitzer Prize winning editorial staff. Very different from BuzzFeed.com. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed_News
That's no longer a reliable way of trusting the credibility. There's been many Pulitzer Prize news reporting which have come out to be completely false.
the locked in store model has completely failed. both for ios and android it is a terrible experience compared to PC. you are stuck with only the search tools the hardware maker gives you, often designed in a user hostile way (ios brings up ads) and no way to bail out to a different store. as well the monoculture leads to a race to the bottom with garbage programs shoving their way to the top via misleading a dishone…
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> and yea i know you can sideload on android, but the unwashed masses don’t know that so it doesn’t matter. Then what is your solution? The unwashed masses tried the wild wild west of digital software delivery back in the 2000s. It ended with tears, viruses, UAC and SaaS. Even today, most sideloading, for general consumers, begins with trying to pirate apps and ends with even more invasive spyware. The locked in stor…
The solution is what has been suggested earlier: allow users to choose their own 'store', don't lock them to a single vendor. This is already possible with Android where F-Droid is a good example of a 'store' where the chance of being exposed to these shenanigans is close to zero. Currently iOS users lack this option so for them the only way out is to change platform.
It's amazing how poor the filtering is. There are plenty of developer horror stories of legitimate apps being taken down by some broken, automated process - sometimes taking peoples' entire Google accounts with them. Then you're stuck dealing with more automated systems for support. Of course these garbage apps make it through somehow. My favorite is an SNES emulator that's full of ROMs. Clearly a copyright violation…
I'd actually be fine with it letting stuff like that through, but filter out actual malicious to the user apps.
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> i want no part of it. when a phone maker comes to the market without this locked down model i will buy it, and if windows goes this route i will drop it for linux. > and yea i know you can sideload on android, but the unwashed masses don’t know that so it doesn’t matter. I don't totally understand what you want. You say you want a phone (presumably OS?) that does not require an app store then totally dismiss a very…
So if google's app store is so bad (and I tend to agree it isn't great) what is preventing the rise of a better alternative app store? They exist, but as far as I can tell none have gained any traction.
Installing f-droid and using more simple and open source apps is one of the best things I've done lately.
Good. This is what advertising agencies asked for and what they deserve. Implement a "click button to get money" system means of course people are going to try to beat that any way they can. I'm surprised any web advertising firm manages to stay afloat.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19278936
It might actually be beneficial for privacy, since trying to "poison the well" of tracking data gets detected by the adtech companies and they'll likely start ignoring you. In that sense, affecting their bottom line is the only way to make advertisers leave you alone...
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> i want no part of it. when a phone maker comes to the market without this locked down model i will buy it, and if windows goes this route i will drop it for linux. > and yea i know you can sideload on android, but the unwashed masses don’t know that so it doesn’t matter. I don't totally understand what you want. You say you want a phone (presumably OS?) that does not require an app store then totally dismiss a very…
>I've been using Android without Google Play services for a few months and everything works fine. What about maps? or Waze? Gmail?
The usability of OsmAnd~ will depend greatly on the area where it is to be used. It can use a host of map tile providers and/or vector maps, the detail level of these varies from very good to hardly any. I use it in Sweden where it generally works fine.
Waze -> ...
OsmAnd~ can be used for navigation but it does not offer live traffic updates.
Gmail -> my own mail server + K9 on Android
Gmail is more or less equivalent to a mail user agent, right? Mail is an internet standard which has been around for a while, long before Google was launched from a scruffy server under a desk. With a bit of luck mail - or some other open protocol like it - will be around when Google has gone the way of so many of its predecessors.
The list goes on:
Google Search -> a private Searx instance
Google Drive/Documents/etc -> Nextcloud on a private server
Google News (remember that?) -> News application on the above mentioned Nextcloud server, using either the web front or one of the Android apps available on F-Droid.
Youtube -> private Peertube instance on the already mentioned server
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram -> No need for such
Whatsapp -> private XMPP (ejabberd) server using Conversations Android client, using OMEMO encryption. Also using Telegram app from F-Droid.
Spotify et al -> Airsonic on that server I mentioned, feeding off my private collection and also serving internet radio stations (which it also sometimes uses to update the private collection). Using Dsub (from F-Droid) on Android, the web interface on PC's. The same collection can be reached through a host of MPD instances scattered about the place, these are controlled through MPDroid or M.A.L.P (both from F-Droid). There are also a few Kodi instances, controlled through Kore (from F-Droid).
The list goes on.
There is no Google-proprietary code on any of my Android devices yet they provide me with all these services.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
BuzzFeed yes. But this is BuzzFeed News, featuring their Pulitzer Prize winning editorial staff. Very different from BuzzFeed.com. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed_News
> Pulitzer Prize winning editorial staff That's no longer a reliable way of trusting the credibility. There's been many Pulitzer Prize news reporting which have come out to be completely false.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and yea i know you can sideload on android, but the unwashed masses don’t know that so it doesn’t matter. Then what is your solution? The unwashed masses tried the wild wild west of digital software delivery back in the 2000s. It ended with tears, viruses, UAC and SaaS. Even today, most sideloading, for general consumers, begins with trying to pirate apps and ends with even more invasive spyware. The locked in stor…
The solution is what has been suggested earlier: allow users to choose their own 'store', don't lock them to a single vendor. This is already possible with Android where F-Droid is a good example of a 'store' where the chance of being exposed to these shenanigans is close to zero. Currently iOS users lack this option so for them the only way out is to change platform.