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Your phone is about to stop being yours

keepandroidopen.org

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Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#321

Post by latexr »

rybosworld wrote: post #305
fainpul wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even after Google puts this crap in place, you can still uplodad your own apps to your own Android devices, using ADB. Doing the same for iOS, using Xcode, costs you USD 100 or more (depending on country) per year . I'm in no way defending Google here, just pointing out you're going from bad to worse and think it's a good thing.

While not equivalent to a true iOS app, PWA is a decent option that allows you to circumvent the app store restrictions. If you are trying to build apps primarily for yourself, it's a decent option.

Doesn’t that require you to host it and have it available on the open web, though? Is there a host that allows you to, for free, not only HTML/CSS/JS but also access to arbitrary tools and bespoke scripts on the backend?

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#322

Post by monooso »

TGower wrote: post #52

This is a wild misrepresentation of the situation. Saying there is no opt-out is just false, they even provide the information on how users can opt-out. The "mandatory 24 hour cooling-off period" is also misleading, it's easy to bypass the cooling-off period with ADB.

> Saying there is no opt-out is just false, they even provide the information on how users can opt-out.

The article states that you can't opt-out of the update, which AFAIK is correct.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#323

Post by NoImmatureAdHom »

bigyabai wrote: post #312
NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #298

WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY? This is the question this website should be answering. Signing petitions is all well and good, but I want to vote with my wallet. WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY??? One thing I will do in the future is buy a nifty Motorola / GrapheneOS collab phone, but I can't do that yet. So for now: WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY? It is literally amazing to me that people aren't giving this as an option on such social…

Money won't fix anything here: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments... The central control is the point.

I think this is a failure of imagination :-)

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#324

Post by a456463 »

pngwen wrote: post #68

This change has served me well! I have been a Mac OS X users for years who used an android phone. As soon as google announced their impending walled garden status, I went out and bought into the ios eco system. I have really been enjoying my iphone, ipad, and apple watch. You see, the only value that Android really offered me was the ability to run my own code on my own device. Since they are taking that away that ju…

This is literally the dumbest take I have seen!

iOS charges you and limits your custom app until a few days and you have to "renew" Even before this change, I have my custom apps running forever.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#325

Post by spurgu »

vfclists wrote: post #218
Cider9986 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should switch to GrapheneOS instead.

You mean buy a Google Pixel? How many people can afford one?

I get you. I used to buy Nexus devices as well as some of the first Pixels, until at some point the prices shot up to ridiculous levels for a phone and I went with other brands.

Last year though the Pixel 8a was selling for 350€ and I got one. Luckily, given the recent developments. Will be installing GrapheneOS.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#327

Post by kube-system »

monooso wrote: post #310
kube-system wrote: post #217

> Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID. This is false. Google will provide two other flows for app distribution that are different than this. > Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt-out. Again, false. There is an opt-out called th…

You deliberately took the second quote out of context, in order to (attempt to) refute it. Here's the quote, with context: > Starting September 2026, a silent update, nonconsensually pushed by Google, will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID. Every app and every device, worldwide, with no opt-out. That is not false, it's…

??? We literally quoted the exact same text.

The plan does not outline what that quote does. You only have to do all of the things the quote claims you do in one of the three possible deployment flows. In "advanced flow" you don't have to do any of them.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#328

Post by ok123456 »

fainpul wrote: post #136
pngwen wrote: post #68

This change has served me well! I have been a Mac OS X users for years who used an android phone. As soon as google announced their impending walled garden status, I went out and bought into the ios eco system. I have really been enjoying my iphone, ipad, and apple watch. You see, the only value that Android really offered me was the ability to run my own code on my own device. Since they are taking that away that ju…

Even after Google puts this crap in place, you can still uplodad your own apps to your own Android devices, using ADB. Doing the same for iOS, using Xcode, costs you USD 100 or more (depending on country) per year . I'm in no way defending Google here, just pointing out you're going from bad to worse and think it's a good thing.

Isn't keeping ADB enabled (most people who do this don't enable it and then promptly disable it) a huge security problem? ADB enabled means an adversary can completely own your device and "back it up" by simply plugging it in.

This is much worse than nagging about "untrusted sources".

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#329

Post by functionmouse »

kuhsaft wrote: post #262
NDlurker wrote: post #30

>Android's openness was never just a feature. It was the promise that distinguished it from iPhone. Millions chose Android for exactly that reason. Google is now revoking that promise unilaterally, on devices already in people's pockets, because they've decided they have enough market dominance and regulatory capture to get away with it. This is why I've stuck with Android for the past 15 years.

This is a very HN view of Android. The "openness" of Android was for mobile device manufacturers, not app developers and end-users. Android's prominence was driven by the myriad of low-cost Android devices by multiple device manufacturers, whereas iOS is only available via iPhones. The vast majority of users don't care about "openness" of the OS. They care about the utility of their phone in everyday life. Can I acce…

nah it was considered more open for users.

Re: Your phone is about to stop being yours

#330

Post by lucb1e »

raverbashing wrote: post #77
hungryhobbit wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly what this is: Google is trying to prevent tech illiterate users from installing malware. (Or at least, that's their take on this. You can choose to read between the lines, or not, as to whether they have other motivations also.)

Of course they have other motivations But for 1 person wanting to run their own software there are hundreds of people with the potential to install malware/crapware/etc

Had to read that sentence twice. You really think that there's more people getting scammed via "please tap the build number seven times and then go to extra settings and enable untrusted installs and then go to this website that I will dictate the URL of and you should ignore that install warning" etc etc etc. to install an apk to run software that can barely access more than a simple webpage could, than there are people (like HN'ers) who install apk files from github and f-droid?!

(Also note that "crapware" describes basically every app you find in google's store. I try on occasion, when nobody made an open source this-or-that, and it's such a minefield. If that's the thing you're trying to avoid, I don't know how you could possibly feel positive about a requirement to only use the Play Store for the tech-illiterate)

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