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There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
301–310 of 474 posts
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better have a bricked phone but secured phone? That is basically your argument? Security is used to euthanize perfectly working systems and harass users for money. Security has become dangerous for the user in that aspect.
That's one reason I'm still hoping for a Linux/Firefox phone.
You can already have a Linux phone.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#303I don't see how they're "outdated" if they still work and are being used. So to me, something that doesn't work/isn't or can be used = outdated. There.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#304That's why I only buy phones that are supported by LineageOS (usually second hand). Not ideal, but it's the best I've found so far. I guess paying $150 for a fully up-to-date phone that was worth $700 just two years ago isn't such a bad deal.
The last time I tried to install LineageOS on my phone I had to execute a non-reproducible binary of some anonymous haxxor to flash the OS. I remember I could have build my own image from source, but the only documentation was spread over a thread on a message board with a couple hundred pages... and if you screw your build you brick your device.
I remember that with a very very old HTC. The bloody thing only had 256mb of storage or something. Everyone around me was convinced it was better of in the trash.
Then i found some crazy Russian developer that managed to shrink Cyanogenmod 11 to something extremely small. It was functional once again, although very slow and a little useless because it can't work with the current size apps. I learned a lot that weekend, which is always one of the main goals.
Bricking it is near impossible once you get the Clockwork bootloader running.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#305Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#306For most users, the phone works and they don't care. For everyone in my family, iOS updates are just an annoyance.
People in your family don't care about security?
They care about security, but most have no clue what is happening, why it's happening and what they should do about it when normal channels fail to help them.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better have a bricked phone but secured phone? That is basically your argument? Security is used to euthanize perfectly working systems and harass users for money. Security has become dangerous for the user in that aspect.
That's one reason I'm still hoping for a Linux/Firefox phone.
> That's one reason I'm still hoping for a Linux/Firefox phone.
You should rather hope for GNU/Linux phones. Linux devices (without the GNU part) is most of the time, just another locked device (see your Android phone, router, TV, etc).
The presence of GNU software pieces (or any software licensed under GNU [LA]GPL v3+) ensures the device is free of locks (or with user breakable locks).
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people are willing to accept the risk that the NSA is listening in on them. Most people are not willing to accept the risk of an arbitrary person being able to steal their identity.
If one's "identity" is so bland that it can be trivially "stolen", then perhaps it's not much of an identity after all.
For people living in America an identity is a name, date of birth, mother's maiden name and SSN. If you lose these, you could be the victim of fraud.
But you already knew that didn't you? You deliberately misinterpreted what he meant by identity theft.
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#309The problem is not only with security, ok it's the first problem but there's plenty of device that can't do any job right now, event if I want use that mobile for a diy like camera, etc. most of the software no is no more compatible. I don't understand why we go so fast on the new device when the majority won't use that damn new API, and all these gadget UI are so damn useless. Like hearthstone, why didn't you optimize your game for less device do you really need to do a animation if my device don't support it? just don't display it!
Re: There are over a billion outdated Android devices in use
#310I often get sympathetic comments for being an Android developer because of this. It's honestly not that bad. Android provides backwards compatible support libraries for whatever SDK you're supporting, and was designed from the beginning to handle diverse screen sizes and hardware. By far a bigger problem is manufacturers shipping their own version of Android that is sometimes incompatible with the SDK. I've had to im…
The problem with outdated versions is not app compatibility, but security updates. If a zero-day were released, most of these devices would never receive an update fix the issue. Worst case scenario: An Android zero day that can be spread via WiFi or Bluetooth that infects devices in a cryptolocker style. The more versions it can affect, the better. Shoot. Probably shouldn’t give people ideas, especially when I have…
It's also a problem with compatibility. Just because they've found a reasonable way to mostly work around it (by basically bundling an up-to-date version of the framework into each app) doesn't mean it isn't an issue. Not everything is in the support library.
But I agree, at this point the security issues are a bigger concern.